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「いや、クレアさん。クレアさんの許可を取らないと屋敷を自由には出来ないでしょう?」「そうですね......正直、薬の知識は教えられる程ではありません。ですが、ミリアちゃんのせっかくの決心を無駄にはしたくも無いのです。なので......お願いになるのですけど、もし良ければ......」「はい......」まぁ、実際には教えると言うよりもに学んでいくという事になると思う。以前の世界で得た知識はあるが、こちらの世界の医療とか薬に詳しくないからな。「そうですね......ミリナは一度、我が屋敷の使用人として採用しようと考えた子なので、住むのは問題ありませんが......」「何か問題でも?」「さすがにタクミさんと同じ部屋と言うのは......」「いや、そこは別の部屋にして下さい。俺も、若い女の子と同じ部屋に住むなんて出来ません」「......私も若い......けど......いえ、もう年が......過ぎてるのかしら......タク......の好みは若い......?」「クレアさん?」俺がクレアさんに、別の部屋でと言ったら俯いてブツブツと言い始めた。何を言っているのか聞こえないが、何やら俺の名前も出てきたような? 「いえ、何でもありません!」俺がクレアさんに問いかけると、顔を上げたクレアさんが首をブンブンと横に振る。「部屋が別であるなら問題は有りません。......使用人達と同じ部屋になると思いますが......」クレアさんとの内緒話を終えて、自分のこの先がどうなるのかと真剣な目で俺を見ていたミリナに向き直る。「ミリナちゃん、クレアさんの許可が取れたよ。屋敷で使用人達と一緒の部屋に暮らす事になると思うけど、それで良いなら一緒に薬の知識を学ぼう」「本当ですか!? ありがとうございます!」「タクミ様、良いのですか?」「ええ。まぁ、俺もまだまだ未熟なので、ミリナちゃんが満足いく知識を教えてあげられるかわかりませんけどね」そう答えて、アンナさんには笑っておく。アンナさんは、ミリナちゃんの事が決まったと喜びで一緒に頭が地面に付くんじゃないかと思うくらい深々と頭を下げた。「タクミ様、そうするとあの事も伝えておかなければなりませんな」「セバスチャンさん......戻ってたんですか......」いつの間に戻って来ていたのか、セバスチャンさんが俺に小声で話しかけて来た。「今戻りました。クレアお嬢様、調査の方は専門の方に任せましたので。後は報告を待つだけになります。......早ければ、明日か明後日にでも」「そう、わかったわ。ありがとう、お疲れ様」しれっと俺に今戻って来たと言って、クレアさんに向いて報告を済ませる。 ......今戻って来たにしては、ミリナちゃんの状況とか知ってる様子だけど......本当にこの人は謎だな。「セバスチャンさん、クレアさん、良いですか?」「ええ、タクミさんが良いと思う方であれば」「そうですね。知らずにいられるわけも有りませんからな。私も異論はありません」という事で、ミリナちゃんとクレアさん達を連れて、孤児院の入り口へ。アンナさんには、子供達とレオの事を頼んでおいた......教えるのはミリナちゃんだけだ。孤児院の入り口横......孤児院を囲む人の腰くらいある塀の内側、そこで『雑草栽培』を見せる事にした。「こんな所で、何をするんですか?」連れて来られたミリナちゃんは、何が行われるかと不思議顔だ。何も話さず連れて来たんだから、当然か。「ミリナちゃん、これから起こる事は皆には内緒だよ?」「え? は、はい!」「ミリナちゃん、これからタクミさんのする事は公爵家が秘匿とする事なのよ。だから、アンナも含めて、誰にも言わないでね」俺の言葉に頷いたミリナちゃん。補足するように付け加えるクレアさんにも、ミリナちゃんは何回も首を縦に振って頷いている。公爵家って言ったから、ミリナちゃんが恐縮してるな......クレアさん、そこは言わなくても良かったんじゃないか? 「じゃあ、やって見せるよ。......何が良いかな......ついでだから屋敷の皆用にラモギで良いか」俺が何をするのか窺っているミリナちゃんの視線を感じながら、俺は地面に手を付いて『雑草栽培』を使う。「え?」俺が付いた地面にラモギが生えて来たあたりで、ミリナちゃんが声を出す。初めて見るんだから、驚くよな。「こんなもんかな」「これは一体何なんですか、薬師様?」「見ての通り、ラモギだよ」驚いて目を剥きながらも、ミリナちゃんは目の前で起こった事を理解出来ないようだ。「ミリナちゃん。俺にはこんな能力があってね。......まぁ、これのおかげで皆に薬を用意出来たんだよ」未だ理解できない様子のミリナちゃんに、セバスチャンさんが進み出て説明をしてくれる。喜々とした様子のセバスチャンさん......やっぱり説明好きだなぁ、と思いながらミリナちゃんが理解してくれるまで待つ。「つまり、薬師様......いえ、タクミ様は薬師では無い......という事ですか」セバスチャンさんからの説明を受けて、ゆっくりと理解してくれたミリナちゃん。そこに、俺が問いかける。さっきまで俺が薬師だと思って、それに憧れてた部分があるからな。これで俺に薬の知識が無い事がわかっただろう......夢を潰すようで悪いが、屋敷で一緒に暮らせばいずれわかる事だしな。俺が騙してたような部分があるんだから、仕方ないと思う。しかし、そんな俺の考えを否定するようにミリナちゃんはゆっくりと首を横に振った。「いいえ、幻滅なんてしません。こんな素晴らしい能力がこの世にあった事に感動しています。それを使えるタクミ様は特別な方なのですね!」「そうよ、ミリナ。タクミさんは特別な方なのよ」ミリナちゃんは、ギフトという能力に感激した様子で、さらに尊敬した目を向けて来る。しかもクレアさんまで混じって俺を持ち上げる始末......。クレアさん......ちょっと恥ずかしいんですが......。	“No, Ms. Claire. Surely I need your permission to work freely in that mansion?” “What do you mean to do, Mr. Takumi?” “Indeed... To be honest, I don’t have enough knowledge about medicine to teach it. However, I don’t want Milina’s resolve to go to waste. And so... I have a request. If it’s alright...” “You want me to let her stay at the mansion. Or it will be difficult to teach her.” “Yes...” Well, it would be less like teaching and more like studying together. I had some knowledge from the world I was previously in, but I didn’t know much about medicine or medical treatments in this world. “Indeed... As we had once considered taking Milina in as a servant, that shouldn’t be a problem, but...” “Is there something else?” “It won’t be proper for her to stay in your room...” “No, of course not. We must be in separate rooms. I cannot share a room with a young woman.” “...Well, I’m quite young...too...oh, maybe not so young...anymore... Does he...prefer...a younger...?” “Ms. Claire?” Ms. Claire started muttering darkly to herself after I started talking about different rooms. I couldn’t hear what she was saying, but it sounded like she had mentioned me? “No, it’s nothing at all!” When I asked her, Ms. Claire raised her head and shook it violently. “There is no problem if you are in separate rooms. ...Though, it will be the same room as the servants...” “That should be fine. I’m sure she’s used to living with other people at this orphanage.” After discussing this quietly with Ms. Claire, I turned back to Milina, who was looking at us seriously and wondering about her fate. “Milina. Ms. Claire has given her permission. While you will have to share a room with the servants, you can live at the mansion and we can study medicine together.” “Really!? Thank you!” “Mr. Takumi. Are you sure?” “Yes. Well, I’m still learning myself, so I may not be able to teach Milina much.” I answered with a smile to Ms. Anna. Ms. Anna was just happy that things with Milina were finally settled, and they both bowed so low that I thought their heads would touch the ground. “Mr. Takumi, in that case, you will have to tell her about that other thing.” “Sebastian...so you returned...” I hadn’t even realized that he was back, but he was now whispering to me. “I returned just now. Lady Claire, I put someone in charge of the investigation. So now we just need to wait for a report. ...It should come tomorrow or the day after that.” “I see. Very good. Thank you.” After telling me of his return, he turned to Ms. Claire to make a report. ...Even though he had just returned, he sounded like he was aware of the situation with Milina... This person really was mysterious. “Sebastian. Ms. Claire. Are you fine with this?” “Yes. If that’s what you want, Mr. Takumi.” “Indeed. She cannot stay without knowing, so I have no problem with it.” And so I went towards the entrance of the orphanage with Milina, Ms. Claire and Sebastian. We asked Ms. Anna to watch Leo and the children... Milina was the only person who needed to know. We stood by the door...behind the fence that surrounded the orphanage. It was here that I would show her Weed Cultivation. “What are you going to do here?” Milina looked puzzled, as she had no idea why we had brought her out here. This was no surprise, as we hadn’t explained anything to her. “Milina. You cannot tell anyone about what you will witness now, understand?” “Huh? Oh, yes!” “Milina. What Mr. Takumi is about to do is a secret of the duke’s house. And so you cannot tell anyone, even Ms. Anna.” Milina nodded at me. Ms. Claire then added to my words, and Milina nodded again in agreement. She looked quite intimidated after hearing about the duke... Perhaps that part wasn’t necessary, Ms. Claire? “Now, I will show you. ...What should I do... I suppose I might as well make Ramogi for everyone in the mansion.” As I felt Milina’s intent eyes on me, I placed my hands on the ground and used Weed Cultivation. “Huh?” When the Ramogi started to grow out of the ground, Milina gasped in surprise. This was her first time seeing it, after all. “That should do it.” “What is this, Mister Physician?” “As you can see, it is Ramogi.” While her eyes were wide open, Milina seemed like she could not understand what she was looking at. “Milina. This is my special ability. ...It’s because of this that I was able to prepare enough medicine for everyone.” “Ah...” “Milina, allow me to explain it to you.” As Milina stood there uncomprehending, Sebastian stepped forward in order to explain it to her. He seemed very pleased by this opportunity... He really did like explaining this. I mused. And then I waited for Milina to finally understand. “In other words, physician...I mean, Mr. Takumi is not a physician...is that right?” “That is true... Are you disappointed?” Milina slowly started to understand after listening to Sebastian. And so I asked her. Because it seemed that part of the reason why she had any admiration for me was because she thought I was a physician. But now she knew I had no knowledge of medicine... I didn’t like to crush someone’s dreams, but she would have found out soon enough anyway. It had been a deception in a way, so it couldn’t be helped. However, as if to reject these thoughts, Milina shook her head. “No, I’m not disappointed. I’m moved at the thought of such a wonderful ability existing in the world. You must be very special if you are able to use it!” “Oh? Well...I wouldn’t say special...” “That’s right, Milina. Mr. Takumi is a special person.” Milina was so impressed by the Gift, that she looked at me with great respect. Not only that, but Ms. Claire was now encouraging her... Ms. Claire... This is getting embarrassing...	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 2, "inserted_lines_src": 7, "inserted_lines_trg": 0 }
私たちが見にいくイリュージョンや映画ジョークやマジックショーを見ればそこでは何か私たちが楽しみながら期待を裏切られていることが起こっているのです映画と見に行くとしますするとそこに予期しない予想外の展開があります予測しなかった何かが起きるのですそこで楽しい経験をすることができますこのような錯覚については私の著書で紹介しています期待とは異なっていても、楽しむことができますジョークで感じることと同じようなものですつまり、私がこれから述べたいことはそこから少しばかり発展して期待を裏切ることで皆さんを楽しませることができるか試してみたいと思います予測を裏切られることがあり、楽しいものではありませんが、とにかくやってみましょうなるべく楽しく、なるべく簡単なものを紹介します皆さんは幸せな気分になれますある方法をいくつか紹介しますみなさんの予測が裏切られますまずおもしろい錯覚をご紹介しますこのスクリーンに現れた二つの穴が垂直に交わっていると思われるでしょうこれはすべて知覚のトリックなのです現実の物体を使ってお見せしましょうでは、どうなっているのか、説明しましょうここでフィルムを回すと面白い事が経験できます錯覚がどのように起きるのか良く見てください回転させますすると裏返しになりますよく見てください回転して元に戻りますすぐに意識が変わりますもう一度よく見てください回転して元に戻しますここに来ておられる方々は賢い方々のはずですよねでも、錯覚をなくすことができるでしょうか絶対に錯覚であることが分かっていてもこの通りです! 錯覚をなくすことができないのです自分自身に何が起きているのでしょうか?もう一度やってみましょう同じですもう一回、やってみましょうやはり同じですできません難しいですね私たちが予測を裏切るには、一般的に、いろんな方法があります表現の仕方、形、色などについてですが、非常に原始的な方法ですここで面白い質問があります。なぜ、私たちはこのような事について楽しいと感じるのでしょうか楽しいと感じる理由な何でしょうか?では、ここで紹介しますのは以前、ライオネルがやったことですちょっとしたことですがお見せしますこちらも、目の錯覚を利用したトリックではありませんご覧になっている通りのものですつまり、カメラのカットを利用したものではないのです認識を利用したトリックですここで、予測を裏切ってみます形に関する予測です表現に関する予測も裏切ることができますイメージが何を表現するかについてです何が見えますか? イルカが見える方はどのくらいでしょう手を挙げてくださいイルカが見える方ははい手を挙げた方結構です手を挙げなかった方は後で手を挙げた方に教えてあげてくださいね私が知る限りもっとも良いブライミングの例です 10歳以下の子供であどけない子供であればこのイメージをみてイルカが見えるかもしれません皆さんのような大人は「イルカだって?どこに?」ということになりますしかし下の絵の部分を逆にするとこの黒い部分を逆にするとポインターを忘れたんですがこの部分を逆にして見えるのは小さなイルカですもし、みなさんがカリフォルニア工科大学の学生だとすればイルカが見えるかもしれませんまさに私たちの経験によるのです似たようなことは他にもあります結局デザインについての話でもあるのですこれはサーチ&サーチの作品ですが、実際にオーストラリアでこのような広告を出しましたこのビールの広告を見るとこの広告に写っている人々は挑発的な姿をしているわけですでも審査を通過してクリオ賞を受賞しましたですからこれは面白いことですどうぞ忘れないでください私のジョークですが以前フロリダの投票が行われた時のものですゴア氏の点を数えてくださいブッシュ氏の数も数えてくださいさあ、もう一度予測は裏切られます経験に基づく予測ですこれは、戸外にある水飲み場です私が友達と一緒に作ったものですが水のしずくを止めることはできますが実際にはすべての水のしずくを浮かせることができます遊園地などの施設に設置するため作られているようなものです静止画です見えますか? 中央部分は下へ、外側部分が上へ動いているように見えますか?完全に静止しています静止画ですよこれが錯覚だと見抜ける方はいらっしゃるでしょうか? 完全な静止画です興味深いことですが私たちが見えるイメージを見る時は画像、色、奥行き、質感を見ます全体として見て分析しますここに見える女性は壁よりも近くにいるようですでも、全体として見ると実際は平面ですだまし絵です良くできただまし絵でこれを見た人々はこの女性に話しかけてイライラしました何の反応もないのですからまたデザインを誤って見る事がありますニューヨークの建物ですがこの角度から見るとバルコニーは上へ向いているように見えますぐるっと回って別の方から見るとバルコニーが下に向いているように見えますこのようにデザインにだまされる場合もあります錯覚を利用したでざいんですではこの手を加えていない写真を見てください興味深いことがあります私はたくさんの電子メールをもらい次のような質問内容でした「男性と女性では、認識の仕方に違いがあるか?」というものです答えは「ノー」です女性達も世界を探索しますが方法は男性と同じです全く同じですしかしこの錯覚については、どうしても男性より女性の方が引っかかりやすいのですどちらの人物の頭か判断するときファッションが手掛かりとなれうからです帽子がマッチする方を選んでしまうのです次に行きましょう錯覚を利用したデザインです最初に意図的に錯覚を利用したのはダ・ヴィンチが描いたもので、目のアナモルフィック画像ですある角度から見るとこう見えますこのちょっとした技巧が人気を博したのは 16、17世紀に本来の意図を悟られないためでした絵を反転しこちらの角度からみるとこのように見えますこういったものは錯覚の利用としては初期のものすがさらに広がりをみせましたハンス・ホルバインの「大使たち」がその最たる作品です彼はヘンリー8世に仕えていましたこれは階段の壁に掛けられました階段から下りたところから見たところです隠れた頭蓋骨が見えます次にご紹介するのは錯覚を利用したデザイナーたちです驚きを要素として取り入れようとしたのです私のお気に入りはスコット・キムです私はキムとある錯覚を作りました TEDのために制作したものですお気に召すと良いのですが TEDとhappinessという文字がありますさて、アーサーはまだスピーチしていませんが彼のスピーチは素晴らしいものとなるでしょう彼は素晴らしいマシンを用意していますスコットは素晴らしい贈り物を制作しましたアーサー・ガリソンに対してですこれは、アナログとデジタルですこの場にふさわしいでしょう文字が消えていきますミュージシャンにはこれを幸福についてということですから we want "joy to the world" をもう一人の偉大なデザイナーは日本で著名なフクダ・シゲオですいくつか優れた作品がありますこれは本当に素晴らしい作品ですガラクタの山ですが、ある角度から見るとそこに見えるのは鏡の中に映った完全なピアノですピアニストがバイオリニストへ変化します本当に興味深い作品ですこれはフォークナイフ、スプーンなどの刃物が溶け合った集合体ですオートバイの影ですお分かりと思います私もそうですが世の中には時間がたくさんある人がたくさんいるんだなとケン・ノールトンは素晴らしい合成イメージを作っています例えば貝殻でジャック・クストーを作りました貝殻には手を加えず、並べたできなのですサイコロでアインシュタインを作りましたアインシュタインは「神はサイコロを振らない」と言いましたからバート・ヘルツオークは、修理してしていないキーボードで作ったものウイル・ショーツはクロスロード・パズルからジョン・セダキストはだまし絵ですばらしいキャビネットを作りました時間がなくなりましたので、少し話を急ぎます急いでお見せします私の作品です新しい錯覚です私が作成したのはピクサーの作品のような錯覚です子供たちは同じ大きさです走ってホールを下りています二つのテーブル面も同じです同時に二つの方角を見ています大きなピースが小さなピースに組み込まれています考えていただきたいのですが見えているのは大きなピースでそれよりも小さなピースに入っています分かる方は? 不可能なことですいま見えるのは二人の子供で同時に二つの方向を一緒に見ていますこの二つのテーブルは面のサイズも形も同じと思いますか?そうです測ればはっきり分かるでしょう申し上げたようにこの二人は、大きさも形も同じです面白いことですがこのようなやり方で行うと錯覚はどのくらい強力なものになるでしょうかこれはいつでもちょとした楽しみで、幸福をもたらしてくれるように望んでいますもし、皆さんが素晴らしいものにもっと興味をお持ちなら、またお会いしましょういつでも、たくさんのものをお見せすることができます	it's in terms of both illusions and movies that we go see and jokes and magic shows is that there's something about these things where our expectations are violated in some sort of pleasing way. You go see a movie. And it has an unexpected twist -- something that you didn't expect -- and you find a joyful experience. You look at those sort of illusions in my book and it's not as what you'd expect. And there's something joyful about it. And it's the same thing with jokes and all these sorts of things. So, what I'm going to try and do in my lecture is go a little bit further and see if I can violate your expectations in a pleasing way. I mean, sometimes expectations that are violated are not pleasant, but I'm going to try to do it in a pleasant way, in a very primal way, so I can make the audience here happy. So I'm going to show you some ways that we can violate your expectations. First of all, I want to show you the particular illusion here. I want you first of all when it pops up on the screen to notice that the two holes are perpendicular to each other. These are all perceptual tricks. These are real objects that I'm going to show you. Now I'm going to show you how it is done. I've looped the film here so you can get a very interesting experience. I want you to see how this illusion is constructed, and it's going to rotate so you see that it's inside out. Now watch, as it rotates back, how quickly your perception snaps. OK now. Watch it as it rotates back again. And this is a very bright audience, all right? See if you can stop it from happening, even though you know 100 percent it's true that -- bam! You can't undo it. What does that tell you about yourselves? We're going to do it again. No doubt about it. See if you can stop it from happening. No. It's difficult. And we can violate your expectations in a whole variety of ways about representation, about shape, about color and so forth and it's very primal. And it's an interesting question to ponder, why these things -- we find these things joyful. Why would we find them joyful? So, here's something that Lionel did a while ago. I like these sort of little things like this. Again, this is not an optical trick. This is what you would see. In other words, it's not a camera cut. It's a perceptual trick. OK. We can violate your expectations about shape. We can violate your expectations on representation -- what an image represents. What do you see here? How many of you here see dolphins? Raise your hand if you see dolphins. OK, those people who raised their hands, afterwards, the rest of the audience, go talk to them, all right? Actually, this is the best example of priming by experience that I know. If you are a child under the age of 10 who haven't been ruined yet, you will look at this image and see dolphins. Now, some of you adults here are saying, "What dolphins? What dolphins?" But in fact, if you reversed the figure ground -- in other words, the dark areas here -- I forgot to ask for a pointer -- but if you reverse it, you'll see a whole series of little dolphins. By the way, if you're also a student at CalTech -- they also tend to just see the dolphins. It's based on experience. Now, something like this can be used because this is after all talk about design, too. This was done by Saatchi and Saatchi, and they actually got away with this ad in Australia. So, if you look at this ad for beer, all those people are in sort of provocative positions. But they got it passed, and actually won the Clio awards, so it's funny how you can do these things. Remember that sort of, um. This is the joke I did when the Florida ballot was going around. You know, count the dots for Gore; count the dots for Bush; count 'em again ... You can violate your expectations about experience. Here is an outside water fountain that I created with some friends of mine, but you can stop the water in drops and -- actually make all the drops levitate. This is something we're building for, you know, amusement parks and that kind of stuff. Now let's take a static image. Can you see this? Do you see the middle section moving down and the outer sections moving up? It's completely static. It's a static image. How many people see this illusion? It's completely static. Right. Now, when -- it's interesting that when we look at an image we see, you know, color, depth, texture. And you can look at this whole scene and analyze it. You can see the woman is in closer than the wall and so forth. But the whole thing is actually flat. It's painted. It's trompe l'oeil. And it was such a good trompe l'oeil that people got irritated when they tried to talk to the woman and she wouldn't respond. Now, you can make design mistakes. Like this building in New York. So that when you see it from this side, it looks like the balconies tilt up, and when you walk around to the other side it looks like the balconies go down. So there are cases where you have mistakes in design that incorporate illusions. Or, you take this particular un-retouched photograph. Now, interestingly enough, I get a lot of emails from people who say, "Is there any perceptual difference between males and females?" And I really say, "No." I mean, women can navigate through the world just as well as males can -- and why wouldn't they? However, this is the one illusion that women can consistently do better than males: in matching which head because they rely on fashion cues. They can match the hat. Okay, now getting to a part -- I want to show design in illusions. I believe that the first example of illusions being used purposely was by da Vinci in this anamorphic image of an eye. So that when you saw from one little angle was like this. And this little technique got popular in the 16th century and the 17th century to disguise hidden meanings, where you could flip the image and see it from one little point of view like this. But these are early incorporations of illusions brought to -- sort of high point with Hans Holbein's "Ambassadors." And Hans Holbein worked for Henry VIII. This was hung on a wall where you could walk down from the stair and you can see this hidden skull. All right, now I'm going to show you some designers who work with illusions to give that element of surprise. One of my favorites is Scott Kim. I worked with Scott to create some illusions for TED that I hope you will enjoy. We have one here on TED and happiness. OK now. Arthur [Ganson] hasn't talked yet, but his is going to be a delightful talk and he has some of his really fantastic machines outside. And so, we -- Scott created this wonderful tribute to Arthur Ganson. Well, there's analog and digital. Thought that was appropriate here. And figure goes to ground. And for the musicians. And of course, since happiness -- we want "joy to the world." Now, another great designer -- he's very well known in Japan -- Shigeo Fukuda. And he just builds some fantastic things. This is simply amazing. This is a pile of junk that when you view it from one particular angle, you see its reflection in the mirror as a perfect piano. Pianist transforms to violinist. This is really wild. This assemblage of forks, knives and spoons and various cutlery, welded together. It gives a shadow of a motorcycle. You learn something in the sort of thing that I do, which is there are people out there with a lot of time on their hands. Ken Knowlton does wonderful composite images, like creating Jacques Cousteau out of seashells -- un-retouched seashells, but just by rearranging them. He did Einstein out of dice because, after all, Einstein said, "God does not play dice with the universe." Bert Herzog out of un-retouched keyboards. Will Shortz, crossword puzzle. John Cederquist does these wonderful trompe l'oeil cabinets. Now, I'm going to skip ahead since I'm sort of running [behind]. I want to show you quickly what I've created, some new type of illusions. I've done something with taking the Pixar-type illusions. So you see these kids the same size here, running down the hall. The two table tops of the same size. They're looking out two directions at once. You have a larger piece fitting in with a smaller. And that's something for you to think about, all right? So you see larger pieces fitting in within smaller pieces here. Does everyone see that? Which is impossible. You can see the two kids are looking out simultaneously out of two different directions at once. Now can you believe these two table tops are the same size and shape? They are. So, if you measured them, they would be. And as I say, those two figures are identical in size and shape. And it's interesting, by doing this in this sort of rendered fashion, how much stronger the illusions are. Any case, I hope this has brought you a little joy and happiness, and if you're interested in seeing more cool effects, see me outside. I'd be happy to show you lots of things.	{ "source": "iwslt2017", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
ベネトナシュから感じる威圧感が増大していく。知らず冷や汗が流れ、自分でも気圧されているのだと理解出来る。全く洒落にもならない。威圧を使う俺が逆に威圧感に呑まれるなど。ベネトナシュの白銀の髪がなびき、雷光が轟く。それに応えるように今まで空を覆っていた暗雲が晴れ、月光がミョルニル全土を照らし出した。このミョルニルは普段、陽光を遮断する為にベネトナシュによる魔法で覆われている。だが彼女が遂に本気へと移行した事で、その魔法が解除されたのだろう。つまりは今まで魔法に使っていた分のマナをも己に還元したという事であり、更に最悪な事に......今夜は満月だ。つまり先程までのベネトナシュの強さに今回収したマナと月の力までもがプラスされるわけである。ゲームだと満月に強くなるなんていうのはそれこそ設定だけだったし、そもそも『満月』なんてもの自体が存在しなかった。ゲーム内の時間でどれだけ待とうと出てくる月は必月であり、制作側の手抜きが感じられたものだ。だがこの世界では設定だけだったはずのものが現実となる。ベネトナシュから感じられる魔力の波動が目に見えて増大し、更にそれだけでは終わらない。「マファール。貴様には感謝しているぞ。いや、もう十分です、おです。マジ勘弁して下さい。しかしそんな俺のヘタレた言葉が口から出る事は勿論なく、今更ながらこの身体と都合のいい口が恨めしい。弱音くらい吐かせろよ、こら。ならば先ずは私が先に見せてやろう――かつて貴様に教えられた、“レベル1000の先の世界”をな!」そう言い、ベネトナシュを白銀の輝きが包む。え? ――いや、待て。マジで待て。この世界はレベル1000が上限のはずだろう? 少なくとも俺が知る限りではレベルは1000で打ち止めで、それ以降はドーピングアイテムによるステータス底上げしかない。だが、ベネトナシュが言っているのは勿論そんな事ではないのだろう。既に手に負える気がしなかったベネトナシュの魔力が更に増大し、銀髪が白金へと変色し、全身からは銀の輝きを絶えず放っている。あ、やばい。ステータスは見えないけど感覚で分かる。女神補正かかってないのに女神補正よりやばいパワーアップしてる。何この化物。「さあ、行くぞ!」「!」そう言い、ベネトナシュが消えた。それと同時に何かに殴られた衝撃が走り、景色が前へと流れていった。痛みがきたのは殴られた、と認識してからだ。俺は咄嗟に空中で停止して不時着するが、ベネトナシュの姿がまるで見えない。体感時間は既に圧縮している。間違いなく周囲は停まっている。だが見えない。残像すら捉えられない。俺が俺以外の全てを停まって見えているのと同様に、ベネトナシュには俺の姿が止まって見えているとでもいうのか!? 「がっ、は!?」今度は腹。またも衝撃が走り、まるで貫かれたかのような痛みを感じる。だが攻撃してきたベネトナシュの姿は見えず、俺は間抜けにも次の攻撃に備える事しか出来ない。何て事だ......この身体になってからずっと、何だかんだで余裕で勝てていた。少し手こずる事はあったが、それでも苦戦らしい苦戦はしなかった。しかし今、俺は敵の姿を見失っている。これじゃまるで案山子だ。ベネトナシュの速度に追いつけず、彼女だけが一段階上の時間軸へとシフトしてしまっている。相打ち上等のカウンター、など狙う事も出来ない。最早どこから仕掛けてくるのかすら分からないのだ。「錬成、『剣の冬』!」地面から無数の刀身を生やし、ベネトナシュの動きを制限する。さあ、これで――。しかし俺の考えは浅はかで、そしてこんな小細工に意味などない程に差が開いてしまった事を痛感させられた。あろうことか、俺の正面にあった刀身が一斉に砕け散り、防御するよりも早くベネトナシュの攻撃が俺を殴り飛ばしたのだ。そのまま体勢を立て直す暇もなく今度は腹、次に背中、顎、脇腹と次々に衝撃が走り抜ける。やばい、こいつマジで洒落にならん。強すぎるし速すぎる。今、自分が殴られているのか蹴られているのか、それとも魔法で撃たれているのかすら理解出来ない。ただ分かるのは、一方的にサンドバッグにされているという事だけ。いくら何でもこりゃ反則ってもんだ。大体何だよ、レベル1000の先の世界って。そんなの俺、知らねえよ。ああ、それにしてもこいつ本当に強いな。ほら、また殴られた。今度は肩。地面に叩き付けられ、背中に魔法が着弾するのが分かる。強い強いとは聞いていたが、こりゃ正直参った。まさかここまで強くなっていたとは。初めて会った時から他の連中とは既に格が違っていたが、俺と出会った事で更に上を目指した結果がこれってわけか。たまんねえな。 ......ん? いやいや、初めて出会った時って何だよ? そりゃ俺じゃなくてルファスだろう。まずいな、殴られ過ぎて意識が薄れてきた。記憶が混濁して混乱しているのが自分で分かる。しかし不思議と焦りや苛立ちはない。むしろ敬意と歓喜すらが俺の中にはある。よくここまで強くなったもんだ。よくもまあ、ここまで一途に己を磨き上げたもんだよ。本当、凄いよお前は。正直、本当に頭が下がる思いだ。ここまでの強さに到達するなど、並大抵の努力ではなかっただろう。だから余は、気付けば笑っていた。ああ、本当に――。 ――嬉しいぞ、ベネト。よくぞここまで登り詰めた。ルファスの放つ空気が変わった。ベネトナシュはそれを機敏に感知すると、攻撃の手を止めて素早く距離を取った。ここまで一方的に攻撃をしていたが、自分が優位だなどと一度として思ってはいない。何故なら彼女は知っている。ルファス・マファールの本気はあんなものではないという事を。自分が恐れ、焦がれ、追いかけ、そして求めた宿敵があんなに弱いはずがない。だから、必ず『来る』と確信をし......事実、奴はその本領を遂に発揮した。「来たか......!」「......ふむ」ルファスは余裕の笑みを崩さぬままに立ち上がってベネトナシュを一瞥し、次に周囲を見渡す。それは何か、懐かしいものを見るような仕草であり多少の違和感を感じさせたがベネトナシュはすぐに思考を放棄した。大事なのは今、ここにある事実のみ。ルファスがやる気になってくれた......この現実だけがあればそれでいい。「やはり、其方だったか。余を叩き起こしてくれるのは」「何......?」「ああ、大したことではない。余が少し寝ぼけていただけだ。ルファスが一歩前に踏み出す。それに合わせてベネトナシュは無意識に一歩下がってしまい、己がルファスを恐怖している事を自覚した。そうだ......これこそがルファス・マファール。己が唯一尊敬し、恐怖する宿敵。ルファス・マファールはこうでなくてはならない。ベネトナシュは己を強く律し、たった今退いてしまった一歩を埋めるように前へと踏み出す。「おかげで目が覚めた。クスリ、とルファスが笑い黒翼を広げる。ルファスの両手にマナが集う。天力と魔力が相互に作用しつつ高まり、ルファスの周囲を循環していく。間違いない、今ルファスは完全にやる気になってくれている。かつて世界を支配した黒翼の覇王年の時を超えて、ようやく自分の前に立ってくれたのだ。その歓喜にベネトナシュの口元が歪み、光と見紛う速度で再び駆け抜けた。「ッアアアアアアアア!!」雄たけびをあげ、全霊の速度と膂力をもってルファスへと挑みかかる。先ほどまでの様子を見ながらのものとは違う。紛れもなく全霊全身、本気の攻撃だ。常人では視認どころか、攻撃された事すら気付けずに絶命するだろう限りなく光に近い速度の一撃。繰り出されるは、かつて一つの大陸すら、そこに住む魔物や魔神族諸共に両断せしめた一撃。惑星にすら消えぬ亀裂を刻み込む吸血姫の本気の攻撃を――ルファスは、指先で受け止めた。「!?」ルファスの髪がなびき、彼女の後ろの地面に衝撃の余波だけで亀裂が走る。だが直接受け止めたはずの指先には傷の一つもなく、皮膚の一枚も破れていない。一瞬の硬直――しかしベネトナシュはすぐに第二撃へと移行した。分かっている。予測していたし予期していた。そうだ、相手はあのルファス・マファール。己が唯一超えるべき存在と定めた最強の存在。ならばこの程度は出来て当然。この程度は、高くて当然だ。余りに高すぎて先すら見えぬ、見果てぬ壁。だからこそ超えるに相応しい。挑むに値する! 「オオオオオオオオオオオオオッ!!」より強く、より速く、より鋭く! ベネトナシュが魔力を込めた爪撃を嵐の如く繰り出す。しかしその悉くをルファスが受け止め、傷の一つすらも刻めない。ルファスはそんなベネトナシュへ優しく微笑みかけ、彼女の額へ手を当てる。頭部が弾けたかと錯覚するほどの衝撃を感じてベネトナシュが吹き飛び、かろうじて空中で回転して着地した。 (何たる実力差......満月の夜でもこれか!) ベネトナシュは額から流れる血を拭い、口元を狂笑へと歪めた。待ち侘びた......ああ、この時をずっと待っていた。越え甲斐がある。挑む甲斐がある。勝てると分かっている戦いを当たり前に勝つのではない。勝てるかどうかも分からぬ......否、勝機など無いに等しい難敵に全霊を以て挑む事。それこそが戦いであり、挑戦だ。己が今、挑戦者であるとこの上なく実感出来る。悔しくはある。だがそれ以上に嬉しいのだ。己が目指した相手は、やはりとんでもない奴だった。その事実がたまらなく至福なのだ。「流石だ。戦意を喪失せぬか」「愚問。これで戦意を失うならば最初から挑みなどせん」ルファスはベネトナシュの尽きぬ闘争心を嬉しく思い、それから己のステータスへと目を通した。【ルファス・マファール】レベル 3000 種族:天翼族クラスレベルチャンピオン 200 モンスターテイマー 200 アルケミスト 200 レンジャー 200 ストライダー 200 エスパー 200 ジ・アークエネミー 200 HP 1805000 SP 72290 STR(攻撃力) 46600 DEX(器用度) 29250 VIT(生命力) 40900 INT(知力) 34900 AGI(素早さ) 42334 MND(精神力) 34650 LUK(幸運) 27840 頭 ―― 右腕 ―― 左腕 ―― 体天后のドレス・全状態異常無効化・HP自動回復足俊足のブーツ・フィールド移動速度上昇その他 7曜の外套・全属性ダメージ半減ルファスは自分のステータスを確認し、未だ万全には遠い事を自覚する。とはいえ、ベネトナシュと戦うならばこれで問題はないだろう。この世界はレベル1000が本来ならば限界である。それは女神が定めた絶対の法則にして限界値だ。彼女の創ったルールに沿う限りその上など存在し得ない。だがルファスはその限界を上回ってしまっており、即ち彼女が女神の創ったこの世界の枠を超えてしまっている事を意味していた。そしてそれはルファスだけに限った話ではなく、ベネトナシュもまた彼女に近い域へと立っている。それがまた、ルファスにとっては嬉しい事だった。【吸血姫ベネトナシュ】レベル 1500 種族:吸血鬼チャンピオン 200 ストライダー 400 ネクロマンサー 100 HP 705000 SP 31430 STR(攻撃力) 26112 DEX(器用度) 10787 VIT(生命力) 14305 INT(知力) 14318 AGI(素早さ) 42001 MND(精神力) 11295 LUK(幸運) 10282 頭月のティアラ右腕収奪者の爪・攻撃時に相手HP吸収左腕収奪者の爪体不死者の法衣足黒影のブーツ・回避率二倍その他月夜の外套・夜の時間帯にHP自動回復速度二倍 ※吸血鬼専用装備そのステータスはルファスには及ばないものの、それでもルファス同様に女神が定めた枠をはみ出しかけている。いかに満月の後押しがあるとはいえ、この戦闘力は見事の一言に尽きるだろう。魔神族が彼女を突破出来ぬのは当たり前だ。女神の定めた枠の中でしか存在出来ぬ連中がどうして、その枠を超えているベネトナシュに太刀打ち出来る。彼女もまた有資格者。女神への挑戦権を既にその手に獲得している。だが二百年間もの間、健気に一途に待ち続けてくれた彼女を相手にただ勝利するだけでは余りに彼女が不憫だ。だから、己が出来る事は唯一つ。今出せる限りの全力を以て、容赦なく、慈悲なく、完膚無きまでに叩き潰してやる事。それが最大の礼儀であり、敬意である。「誇れベネト。其方は余が全力で屠るに値する敵だ。ルファスは偽りのない賛辞を口にし、手を掲げる。その手の中に生まれる力は天と魔の二種類。二つの異なる力を衝突させ、女神の創造した世界を歪ませて穴を穿つ。世界に開いた穴はゲートとなり、一時的に世界のあらゆる場所へ繋がり、距離を0へと変えた。「エクスゲート――来たれ、我が武器よ」覇王の召喚。それに応じ、遠く離れた地で天高く聳えるマファール塔が鳴動を開始した。	The feeling of intimidating pressure that I felt from Benetnash continued to be amplified. Before I knew it, I was covered in cold sweat and was able to understand that even I was being overwhelmed by her aura. Things were getting so ridiculous that it was no longer even funny anymore. To think that I, who was usually in the position to use the Coercion racial skill, would be the one to be swallowed and oppressed under the pressure this time. Benetnash’s silver hair fluttered about as lightning and thunder split the sky. As if to answer what was happening, the sky, which had been enveloped in darkness, cleared to allow the moonlight to shine upon the whole of Mjolnir. Ordinarily, Mjolnir was enveloped by Benetnash’s arcane magic to prevent the sunlight from ever entering. However, because she had finally decided to get serious, the spell must have been undone. In other words, the long-standing mana that she had been expanding on the spell the whole time had returned to her. And worse yet... tonight was the night of the full moon. In other words, on top of the strength that Benetnash had previously displayed, she was now further strengthened by the mana that she had just recovered and the power of the moon. Back in the game, the concept of getting strengthened during the night of the full moon was nothing but a background setting. To begin with, such a thing as “the night of the full moon” did not exist back in the game. Within the game, however long a player was to wait, the moon would always be a crescent moon, showing the laziness of the developers. However, in this world, what was merely a background setting turned into a reality. The surge of magical power emanated by Benetnash amplified to the extent where one could see it undulate with their naked eyes; furthermore, it did not stop there. “Mafahl. I’m really grateful to you. If I didn’t meet you, I wouldn’t have been able to reach this point. So... this is the greatest form of respect that I can submit to you.” No, no, it’s enough, I’m really satisfied already. Please, just forgive me already. However, as expected, such a weak-hearted thing would never have come out of my mouth. After coming to this point, I was finally truly hateful of how this body prevented me from being able to say such a convenient thing. Oi, at least let me whine. “Even if you don’t feel like getting serious, it’s fine. It just means that I’m at the point where I fail to make you feel that way. Then, in that case, I’ll let you see how far I’ve gotten first —— this ‘world beyond level ’ that you taught me in the past!” After saying that, a silver light enveloped Benetnash. Eh? – No, wait. Seriously, wait a minute. I thought level was the upper limit in this world? At the very least, from the knowledge that I possessed, level 1000 was as high as a character could reach. Beyond that, a character’s stats could only be raised by doping items. However, I was sure that was not what Benetnash was referring to. The magic power of Benetnash continued to increase even more despite the fact that I already thought I was in a position to no longer be able to handle her. In the process, her silver hair became white-gold (platinum) coloured and her whole body started to shine with a silver hue. Oh, this is bad. I can’t see her status, but I can feel it in my skin. Even though she didn’t receive the divine protection of the Goddess, she just powered up even more than what’s possible through the Goddess’s divine protection. What is with this monster? “Now, here I come!” “!” After saying that, Benetnash vanished. At exactly the same time Benetnash vanished, I felt an impact as if I was getting punched by something and I saw the background fly past me. It hurt because I was punched – I understood what was happening as such. Although I quickly stopped myself mid-air and safely landed back down on the ground, I was unable to find Benetnash’s figure whatsoever. My perception of time was already dilated to the extreme. Without a shred of mistake, everything around me was still. However, I was unable to find her. I was not even able to see the shadow of her afterimage. Was it implying that even though I was able to see everything around me still and stranded in time, Benetnash was able to see my figure as still and frozen in time?! “Ga, ha!?” This time, it was my stomach. Again, I felt an impact run through me. I felt the sense of pain as if I was getting impaled by something. Nevertheless, I was still unable to find the figure of Benetnash who had attacked me. On the other hand, I could only blindly prepare myself for the upcoming attack like a clueless fool. How could this be...? Ever since I had gotten into this body, whatever was said, I had somehow managed to continue winning against everything quite leisurely. There were times where I had to put some effort in, but even then, I did not experience any major difficulty to the point that I would call it problematic. Notwithstanding that, I had completely lost track of my enemy’s figure. Currently, I was no different from a scarecrow. I was unable to keep up with her speed and she alone existed in a higher dimension after shifting her speed gear up. Let’s aim to land an eye for an eye counter – even such an aim could not be done. At the moment, we had already gotten to the point where I could not even figure out where and how she was going to come attacking. “Transmute – [Winter of Swords]!” I grew countless swords from the ground and restricted Benetnash’s movement. Now, without this – I was made to understand how shallow and short-sighted my thoughts were and how the gaps between the two of us had long passed the point of making such small tricks meaningless. Of all things that could have happened, every single blade which I had just created on the ground immediately shattered at the same time and before I could guard myself, Benetnash’s punch sent me flying. During this state and before I could even re-posture myself or get time to breathe, I received an attack to my stomach, next to my back, then to my chin and my ribs. Many other continuous barrages of attacks descended all over my body. This is really bad, she’s way beyond a joke. She’s way too strong and way too fast. Right now, I can’t even figure out or understand if I’m getting punched, kicked or getting shot by magic. All that I can understand is that I’ve turned into a sandbag to be one-sidedly assaulted. However you want to word it, this is what you call foul play. To begin with, what the hell is she talking about? What is this world beyond level 1000 anyways? I (ore) don’t even know anything about that, you know? Ahh, in any case, she’s actually really strong. Hey look, I (ore) got punched again. This time it was my shoulder. Oh, I know I just got slammed into the ground and got shot by magic on my back. I’ve (ore) heard that she was strong, but honestly, if it’s to this degree, I’m quite stuck. I (yo) didn’t think that you would actually have grown up to be strong to this degree. After all, from the first time I met you, you were already in a different league compared to the others. So the result of you aiming to reach higher as a result of meeting me is this, huh? Haha, how joyful. .... Hmm? Wait, wait, what do I (ore) mean by the first time I met you? This thought process isn’t me, but Ruphas, right? Oh, this is not good, I’m getting punched so much I’m losing consciousness. I even know myself that my memory and consciousness are getting muddied and disoriented. But strangely, I’m not feeling irritated or frustrated at all. If anything, deep down, I’m feeling honoured and delighted, inside of me. You’ve done well to have gotten this strong. To have polished yourself up to this point, you have done a good job. Really, you’re amazing. Honestly, you really make me want to bow to you. To be able to have reached this strength, an ordinary amount of effort wasn’t enough, was it? Therefore, before I (yo) knew it, I (yo) was laughing. Ahh, really – – I’m (yo) really delighted, Benet. You have done well for yourself to have claimed up to this point. The atmosphere released by Ruphas changed. After Benetnash promptly detected that change, she stopped attacking and quickly backed away to create some distance. Until this point, notwithstanding that she was the one attacking one-sidedly, she did not think for a single moment that she was in an advantageous position. It was because she knew. She knew that Ruphas Mafahl was nothing insignificant like that when she was serious. The arch-rival that she had feared, adored, chased after and wished for simply could not have been a weakling like that. Therefore, she was convinced that there would definitely be a time when Ruphas “arrived”... and in fact, Ruphas had finally decided to show her real ability. “So it’s finally arrived...!” “..... Indeed.” Ruphas stood up whilst adorning a relaxed smile and took a glance at Benetnash before turning to survey the surroundings. While Ruphas was looking around, she was giving off that nostalgic feeling, thus Benetnash felt a sense of strange confusion. However, she quickly switched her thought process. The only thing important right now was what was happening right here and now. The fact that Ruphas had finally decided to get serious... as long as such a reality existed, it was enough for Benetnash. “As I was expecting, it was you, huh. The one to smack me awake.” “What....?” “Haha, it’s nothing important. I was just daydreaming a little. Until now, I was stuck in a dreamlike state, you see. Well, all things considered, it ended up turning out the way I planned it would turn out.” Ruphas took a step forward. Matching that, Benetnash unconsciously took a step backward, allowing her to recognise that she was instinctually fearful of Ruphas. That’s right, this is that Ruphas Mafahl. The arch-rival that I respected and feared. There’s no way Ruphas Mafahl can be anything else. Benetnash bolstered herself mentally and took a step forward as if to cover for the instinctive step that she took which seemed like a step to run away. “Thanks to you, I’ve woken up. The way you woke me up was a little extreme, but it was just the perfect amount for me who was daydreaming. I believed that if it was you, you would smack my head to help me wake up. It was worth coming here, after all.” Ruphas smiled refreshingly and joyfully as she spread her black wings wide. Both of Ruphas’s hands were coated with mana. The concentration of divine power and arcane power increased as they interacted with each other and they circulated around Ruphas. There was no mistaking it. The current Ruphas was completely in the mood to smash things out. The once supreme ruler who had ruled the entire world, the black-winged overlord, has once again graced me with her presence. In response to that gracious feeling, Benetnash’s mouth distorted and she once again moved at a speed which could be mistaken for the speed of light. “Tsuaaaaaaaaaaaa!!” After releasing a warcry, she challenged Ruphas with her greatest speed and might. It was different from how she had been probing things out like she previously was. It was, without a doubt, the greatest amount of might that she had and a truly serious attack. If it was an ordinary person, let alone understanding what was happening, they would have ceased to exist without even being able to figure out that they were attacked. The speed was almost no different from the speed of light. The attack that she used had once split the continent, along with the magical beasts and demons living on it, into two. The Vampire Princess’s whole-hearted attack caused a permanent fissure on the planet, yet – Ruphas stopped it with just a single fingertip. “!?” Ruphas’s hair fluttered and just from the shockwave of the attack, fissures ran along the ground behind her. However, the fingertip which had directly stopped the impact of the attack did not even have a single scratch on it nor was a single layer of skin torn. After an instant of stiffness, Benetnash had already moved onto her second attack. I knew it already. I predicted and foresaw it already. That’s right, my opponent’s that Ruphas Mafahl. The strongest individual in existence and the only individual whom I determined to be worthy of trying to surpass. So it’s only natural that she can do something like this. It’s only natural that her ability is this high. A wall so high that I can’t see the end, a wall that looks impossible to climb over. But it’s because it’s this high that it’s worth climbing over. It’s because it’s this high that it’s worth challenging! “OOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooo!!” Stronger, faster, sharper! Benetnash attacked furiously like a blizzard with her magic-imbued claws. However, Ruphas was able to stop every one of those slashes and did not suffer a single injury. Against that Benetnash, Ruphas smiled gently then placed her hand onto her forehead – a finger flick. As Benetnash felt that her head was about to burst open, she was blown away. She then barely managed to spin around a few times in mid-air and land back down safely. What power.... Even when it’s a full moon? Benetnash wiped away the blood that was flowing out from her forehead while her mouth distorted to form a smile as if she was possessed. I’ve waited too long... yeah, I’ve waited an eternity for this. This is a wall worth overcoming. This is worth challenging. I’m not winning in a fight that I know that I am going to end up winning. I’m in a fight where I don’t even know if I’m going to win.... No, I’m challenging an enemy that I almost know for certain that I have no chance of winning against. This is what it means to battle. This is what the word “challenge” means. Right now, I can feel it in my skin that I’m the challenger without a doubt. Yeah, I feel a little mortified. But above all that, I feel happy. The one that I’m aiming to surpass is definitely an outrageous person. That fact makes me feel blissful. “As expected. You won’t lose the will to fight, huh.” “Of course. If I was going to lose my will to fight from just that, I wouldn’t challenge you in the first place.” Ruphas, who felt joy in Benetnash’s undying will for their battle, glanced over her own status once. [Ruphas Mafahl] Level 3000 Species: Flugel Class level Champion 200 Monster Tamer 200 Alchemist 200 Ranger 200 Strider 200 Esper 200 The Archenemy 200 HP: 1 805 000 SP: 72 290 STR: (Strength/Attack power): 46 600 DEX (Dexterity): 29 250 VIT (Vitality): 40 900 INT (Intelligence): 34 900 AGI (Agility/Speed): 42 334 MND (Mindpower): 34 650 LUK (Luck): 27 840 Head: ___ Right Arm: ___ Left Arm: ___ Body: Dress of Heaven’s Empress Immunity from all status debuffs Auto HP Regeneration Foot: Boots of Swiftness Increased movement speed in battle Others: Overcoat of the Seven Luminaries 50% damage reduction from all elemental attacks After Ruphas checked her own stats, she was able to recognise that she had yet to fully recover. Nevertheless, she judged that it would not be a problem to fight against Benetnash. Fundamentally in this world, level 1000 was the upper limit that an individual could reach. That was the highest possible limit set by the laws laid down by the Goddess. As long as one followed her rules, it was impossible to go beyond that point. However, Ruphas had surpassed that limit. In other words, it signified that she had broken through the rules of this world created by the Goddess herself. Additionally, this was not a phenomenon limited to just Ruphas. Benetnash also stood in a similar domain. This reality was what made Ruphas joyful. [The Vampire Princess Benetnash] Level 1500 Species: Vampire Champion 200 Strider 400 Necromancer 100 HP: 705 000 SP: 31 430 STR: (Strength/Attack power): 26 112 DEX (Dexterity): 10 787 VIT (Vitality): 14 305 INT (Intelligence): 14 318 AGI (Agility/Speed): 42 001 MND (Mindpower): 11 295 LUK (Luck): 10 282 Head: Tiara of the Moon Right Arm: Usurper’s Claw Absorbs enemy HP upon attacking Left Arm: Usurper’s Claw Body: Vestment of Immortality Foot: Boots of Black Shadow Evasion chance increased by 100% Others: Overcoat of Moonlit Night Auto HP Regeneration increased by 100% during night time Vampire exclusive item Although Benetnash’s status did not reach as high as Ruphas’s, she was able to leave the restrictive boundary specified by the Goddess. Notwithstanding that Benetnash was enjoying the boost from the full-moon night, her combat prowess was nothing short of splendid. It was no wonder the demon race was unable to pass her. How would the bunch of existences who were bound to live within the realm specified by the Goddess be able to pierce past Benetnash who had surpassed that? She was now a qualified individual. She had already taken possession of the right to challenge the Goddess into her own hands. However, to just win simply against that Benetnash, who had waited 200 years for this moment, would be unfair to her. Therefore, there was only one thing that Ruphas could do. To use all of her might to the very limit, without holding back, without mercy, and to utterly annihilate Benetnash with the best of her ability. That was the greatest show of respect and the greatest form of courtesy. “Be honoured, Benet. You’re an opponent that is worthy of me giving my best. So in respect to you, I will also be fighting using a weapon that’s worthy to be used against you.” Ruphas muttered an honest compliment without any lie and held her hand up. And the power formed in her hand was of both divine and arcane nature. She caused the two types to clash with one another, distorting this world to create a hole in the space which was created by the Goddess. The hole in the space then turned into a gate and connected to create a temporary pathway to another location, effectively turning the distance between the two locations into zero. “X-Gate – come, my weapon.” The supreme ruler’s summoning. In accordance with that command, the Mafahl tower, which stood in the far distant land, started to rumble.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 24, "inserted_lines_src": 12, "inserted_lines_trg": 3 }
ガドルス、フィニアと共に北部の開拓村にやってきた俺たちは、その状況に口をあんぐりと開けた。元々のどかな辺境の村だった。そこに住む村人も、そんな環境と同じくおおらかで、暢気な性格をしている。そんな彼らが、悲鳴を上げながら村の南側へ避難している姿というのは、俺がここに住んでいた時期からすると、考えの及ばない光景だった。「急いで! 荷物は最小限も早く村から退避してください!」「そんな花瓶は置いていけ! ライエル様といえど、あの数が相手では長くは抑えきれんぞ!」「足が痛い? その程度はかすり傷だ、今は村から離れることだけを考えてくれ!」「早く逃げろ! お前たちが逃げてくれないと、俺たちが逃げられねぇんだよ!」村の自警団の連中が、村人たちを先導している。避難の方角が南ということは、敵の襲撃は北側からということか。俺は避難誘導している自警団の中に、見知った顔を発見した。ついこの間、この村で誘拐事件を起こしたトロイとジョーンズだ。「トロイ、ジョーンズ!」「え、ニコルさん? あ、それにガドルス様も!」彼らはこの姿で直接会ったことはないが、ガドルスがニコルに変装してもらったことはあるので、俺がライエルの娘であることは知っている。「状況は? それにゼルは?」「はい、最初に北から両手に大剣を持った魔神、北の山から出現しました。これはライエル様とマリア様が撃退なされたのですが、その後間を置かず同型の魔神、村に襲撃してきました。ライエル様とマリア様、それに魔法が使えるゼルが対応していますが、やはり数が多く――」「五体だって!?」いくらライエルとは言え、その数が相手では勝てるはずもない。何より奴は回避が得意ではない。傷を負うことは避けられず、そしてその傷を癒すためにマリアの負担が増える。もしマリアの魔力が尽きたら、その時点でライエルも押し負けてしまうだろう。「フィーナは?」「コルティナ様が連れていかれました。この状況では彼女を連れて逃げるしかないと......」確かにコルティナ雄の中では戦力的に劣る。その劣勢を覆す戦術知識が彼女の売りなのだが......この正面からの力押しに、嵐のように押し寄せる速さとあっては、彼女では対応しきれないらしい。「フィーナ様を信頼できる方に預けたら、必ず戻ると言ってましたが......」「会ったら、そのまま避難してろって伝えて」「え、あの――」「ライエルのところには、わたしとガドルスが行く。あなたたちはここで避難誘導を続けてて」「そんな無茶な!」「大丈夫。あいつらなら、すでに倒したことがあるから!」「へ?」俺の返事にポカンとした表情をするトロイとジョーンズ。まぁ、俺の見た目であの魔神を倒したとか言われても、現実味が薄いか。しかし事実は事実だし、ライエルたちを放置するわけにもいかない。それに、俺がレイドであることは、いずれこの村にも届くだろう。今さらごまかすのは、往生際が悪いとしか言えない。それにいかにライエルと言えど、一刻も早く駆け付けねば、数の暴力に屈してしまうかもしれなかった。いつの時代も、少数の精鋭が存在しても、数には敵わないというのが定説である。人ごみを掻き分け進んでいくと、次第に人の数が減っていく。そもそもそれほど人口の多い村ではない。南に向かって数十人が一斉に移動したため、発生していた混雑だ。それでも柵の内側に畑や民家を詰め込んでいくと、それなりに街路が圧迫されていく。そこに人が雪崩込んだため、混雑してしまったのだろう。「いた、ライエル!」「よし、俺が先行する!」俺の声にガドルスが答え、短い脚を懸命に動かして先行する。昔、修学旅行でライエルとガドルスが競争していたことがあったが、ガドルスはドワーフにしてはかなり健脚の部類に入る。ライエルはというとの魔神に押され、身体中が傷だらけになっていた。マリアの方はへたり込むようにして地面に座り込み、こめかみに手を当てていた。魔力が尽きかけている典型的な仕草だ。それでも防御用の結界を張り、二体を引き付けている辺りはさすがというべきか。マリアが結界を張っているため、ライエルへの治癒が飛ばせない状況になっている。これはかなり危険な状況と言えた。「ライエル、退がれ!」ガドルスの叫びにライエルの視線が背後に飛ぶ。おそらく彼も、マリアの危機には気付いていたはずだ。だからこそ、救援の声に思わず視線を動かしてしまった。それがこの魔神相手では致命傷になり得る。「グアアアァァァァァ!」とっさに切った視線を元に戻し、自慢の剛剣を叩きつけてその攻撃を凌ぐ。しかし魔神は二本の剣を持ち、しかも三体がライエルに襲い掛かった。上下左右から隙間なく襲い掛かる魔神の大剣に、剣を振り抜いたライエルは対応できずにいた。「ライエル!」ガドルスはドワーフにしては健脚の部類と言えど、それはあくまでドワーフ内での話。いまだライエルの横に並ぶに及ばず、彼の盾は届きそうになかった。マリアもとっさに結界を解除し、ライエルに防御の魔法を飛ばそうとしていたが、これも間に合いそうになかった。一瞬でそれらの情報を脳内に取り込み、把握する。この処理速度は前世の俺でも持っていなかった。この局面に追い込まれ、まるでスローモーションのように流れる時間の中で、俺は懊悩し、そして決断した。の魔法を起動し、手甲を装備して糸を飛ばした。この時ほど瞬間的に召喚できるシステムを作ってくれた風神ハスタールに感謝したことはない。思考のままに手甲の糸を飛ばし、同時に身体の内部に操糸の力を込める。そしてライエルとマリアを絡め取って、強引に引き寄せた。操糸によって強化された俺の腕力は、瞬間的にならライエルすら超える。その力で無理やり引き摺り倒し、直前までライエルのいた空間を大剣が薙いでいく。糸によって窮地を脱したライエルは、驚愕の視線を俺に向けていた。それはマリアも同様である。「ま、いいか。どうせいつかはバレる状況だったし」「......レイド?」俺が糸を使った。その場面はライエルだけでなく、マリアも目撃していた。もはや言い訳はできない。俺は今度こそ完全に腹を括ったのだった。	Gadius, Finia, and I arrived in the pioneer village, but the state of it left me open-mouthed. It used to be a tranquil countryside village. The villagers living in it were also similarly calm and easygoing. But now, they were screaming and evacuating to the south—it was an unbelievable sight for me, who used to live here. “Hurry! Take minimum luggage and evacuate as fast as possible!” “Just leave that vase there! Even Lord Lyell can’t hold off such a number on his own!” “Your leg hurts? That’s just a graze! All you need to think about is how to run as far away as you can!” “Hurry up and run! If you don’t run, we can’t run either!” The vigilance squad of the village was leading the villagers away. Since they were evacuating to the south, the enemy must have come from the north. I spotted familiar faces among the squad members. They were Troy and Jones from the kidnapping incident some time back. “Troy, Jones!” “Huh, Miss Nicole? Oh, Lord Gadius as well!” They haven’t met me directly in this form, but I had Gadius disguised as me, so they knew I was Lyell’s daughter. “What’s the situation? And what about Zell?” “At first, two Devils with giant swords in hands appeared in the northern mountain. Lord Lyell and Lady Maria took them down, but soon after, five more Devils of the same type appeared and attacked this village. Lord Lyell, Lady Maria, and Zell, who can use magic, are facing them off now, but their numbers are too great...” “Five of them?!” Even Lyell couldn’t win against that number. Evasion wasn’t his specialty, above all. He couldn’t avoid injuries, and Maria would be burdened with healing him continuously. If Maria’s magic power ran out, Lyell would get outpushed as well. “What about Fina?” “Lady Cortina took her away. She said she could only take her and run in this situation...” Cortina certainly lacked power among the Six Heroes. Her selling point was her battle knowledge that made up for it... but she couldn’t do anything now, where the enemy was pushing head-on like a storm. “She did say she would definitely return once she entrusted Lady Fina to a trustworthy person...” “If you meet her, tell her to evacuate instead.” “Huh, um...” “Gadius and I will head to where Lyell is. You focus on evacuating people here.” “That’s too reckless!” “Don’t worry. I’ve already defeated those Devils before!” “Huh?” Troy and Jones looked at me with blank expressions. Well, I guess it was hard to believe given the way I looked. But it was a fact, and I couldn’t leave Lyell and Maria alone. Besides, the fact that I was Reid would eventually reach this village. It would be far too stubborn to keep up the lie in this situation. And even if it was Lyell we were talking about, he could get overpowered by those numbers if I didn’t hurry. Regardless of the era, it was an established theory that a few elite people couldn’t overcome the numbers. As we pushed our way through the crowd, people gradually decreased in number. There weren’t that many residents in this village in the first place. The congestion simply formed because a few dozen villagers headed to the south at once. That was enough to overwhelm the roads since there were also fields and houses on the inner side of the fence. All the people rushed there and it led to that. “There, I see Lyell!” “Okay, I will go first!” Gadius responded to my voice and he hurried ahead by using his short legs with all his strength. In the past, Lyell and Gadius had competed during the excursion, so Gadius was quite a fast runner for a dwarf. Speaking of Lyell, he was currently being overpowered by three Devils and was wounded all over. Maria was squatting down with a hand on her temple, a typical gesture you did when you were out of magic power. But as expected of her, she still had a defensive barrier set up and was pulling two of the Devils away. Since she had a barrier active, she couldn’t send heals to Lyell, however. This was quite a dangerous situation. “Lyell, get back!” Lyell moved his gaze to the back at Gadius’ call. He was likely aware of the danger that Maria was facing. So for that reason, he ended up reflexively looking back when he heard the relief voice. But that could become a fatal opening against these Devils. “Graaaaahhh!” Lyell’s gaze snapped back, and he raised his trusty sword to block its attack. But the Devils had two swords, and there were three of them attacking him. Having swords coming at him from every direction, Lyell couldn’t react with his sword already in the swing. “Lyell!” Gadius was a fast runner, but for a dwarf. He had yet to reach Lyell, his shield unable to make it in time. Maria quickly dispelled the barrier and tried to send a defensive spell his way, but it didn’t seem like it would make it in time, either. All that information passed in my mind instantly and I grasped everything. The processing speed I had now was beyond even the past me. Thrown in this situation, I anguished as I watched the situation moving in slow motion—and came to a decision. I instantly invoked the Apport spell and equipped my gauntlets, and sent my threads. I had never been more grateful to God Hastur for making it possible to summon them so quickly. I send the threads as I planned, and at the same time, direct the thread manipulation power internally. Then, my threads caught Lyell and Maria, and I forcibly pulled them toward me. When I was strengthened with thread manipulation, my physical strength could even surpass Lyell’s for a moment. Using that strength, I forcibly dragged Lyell away, and the next moment, swords passed through the space where he was a moment ago. Lyell was dumbfounded after being saved from that dilemma. Maria was much the same. “Oh well. It was going to get busted anyway.” “...Reid?” I used the threads. Not just Lyell, but even Maria witnessed it. No excuses would get me out of this. I had to resolve myself for everything for real this time.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 1, "inserted_lines_src": 3, "inserted_lines_trg": 0 }
いつも嵐を追いかけています私達の観測する嵐は脳の嵐つまり脳内の電気活動です脳の嵐はとても身近なものですが通常見たり聞いたりはできませんですので説明を始める前にまず実際のものをお見せする事にしていますこれは我々が始めて複数の神経細胞の活動を記録したものです 100の脳細胞を同時にです一匹の動物の脳にある100個の細胞の電気活動の測定に成功しこれが始めて得たイメージですその最初の10秒です思考の断片をつかまえ可視化することができたのです思考の断片をつかまえ可視化することができたのです私は学生たちにこう言います神経科学者は天文学者のようでもあるなぜなら私たちは宇宙にある銀河の数に匹敵するくらいの数の細胞からなるシステムを扱っているからですその膨大な数の神経細胞のうち記録できたのは 10年前はたったの100個でしたが現在は1000個も記録できますこれを基に人間性の基礎となるものを解き明かそうとしていますご存知かもしれませんが人が人たるを決める全てはこの嵐から生まれています嵐は脳の中の丘や谷を乗り越え私たちの記憶や信念や感情や未来への予測を決めています我々のする全ての事 -- 過去や未来における人類の全ての営みには神経細胞群が作るこの嵐が必要なのです脳の嵐の音は実はこのようなものですできたら音量を上げてください息子は「雑音だらけのラジオを聞きながらポップコーンを作ってるみたい」と言いましたこれが脳ですこれは脳の電気的な嵐を音声化したものです 100個の細胞が興奮する様子ですあなた脳も私の脳も皆同じように聞こえますいま私たち神経科学者はこの脳が奏でるシンフォニーを聴き含まれたメッセージを読み取ろうとしています具体的に言うとおよそ12年前ブレイン・マシン・インターフェースと名付けた装置を作りましたこれがその仕組みです動物の脳にセンサーをつけて脳から足や手に伝えられる嵐を信号が脳から手足に届く時間およそ0.5秒のうちに読み取りますそして信号に埋め込まれた運動の指令を読み取りそして信号に埋め込まれた運動の指令を読み取りデジタル信号に変換して人工装置に送りますデジタル信号に変換して人工装置に送りその装置が脳の随意運動の働きをリアルタイムに再現するという実験ですそして実際の体の動きと比較すれば命令の読み取りの精度を調べられますさらにフィードバックも行います脳の操作するこの機械的なロボットであるコンピュータによる作動装置から感覚的な信号が戻ってきた場合脳はどのように処理するのでしょうか脳はどのように処理するのでしょうかこれがまさに私たちが10年前にしたことです実験は後にこの分野のスーパースターとなるサルの「オーロラ」を使って実験を始めましたオーロラはビデオゲームが大好きですこのようにオーロラも私たちと同じでジョイスティックを使ってゲームするのが好きです賢い霊長類の常としてズルをするようにすらなりました標的が現れる前にジョイスティックを操り標的が現れそうな場所にカーソルを動かすのですどこにあろうが見つけようとしますなぜかというとカーソルが標的を横切るたびにブラジル産のオレンジジュースがもらえるからですオレンジジュースさえあれば猿はなんでもするでしょう霊長類ならみんなそうですですよねさてこのようにオーロラがゲームをしている間一日に1000回もトライして 97%の成功率と350mlのオレンジジュースを得ている間私たちはオーロラが作る脳の嵐を記録しロボットアームに送りましたオーロラの動きを再現するために学習させたのですこのブレイン・マシン・インターフェースを使ってオーロラが体を使わずに念じるだけでゲームができるようにしたかったのです脳の嵐でロボットアームを操りカーソルで標的を狙うことも出来るでしょうオーロラが実際これをやってのけたのには驚きました体を動かさずにゲームをしたのですこのカーソルの動きはオーロラが初めて操作に成功したまさにその時のものです脳の意図は肉体から解放され人工の機械を操作して外界で行動を起こせるようになりました人工の機械を操作して外界で行動を起こせるようになりましたその後もオーロラはゲームを続け大好きなオレンジジュースを獲得し続けました新しい腕を使ってです最初にお見せしたビデオから30日後ロボットアームは完全にオーロラの脳の支配下に置かれロボットアームは完全にオーロラの脳の支配下に置かれカーソルを標的に向かって動かしていますしかもオーロラはロボットアームでゲームが出来る事を理解しており自分の腕は今まで通り使って好きな事ができます背中や私たちをひっかくことも別のゲームをすることもできますつまりオーロラの脳は人工的な機械を自身の体の延長として統合させたのですオーロラにとっての自己は新たな腕にまで拡大したのですこれは10年前のことです去年私たちはロボットさえ必要ないことに気づきましたコンピューター上の分身サルのアバターを作れば良いのですサルをアバターとやりとりさせたり仮想世界のアバターが自分だと認識させ仮想世界のアバターが自分だと認識させ念じるだけでアバターの手足が動かせるよう訓練することもできますいま私たちは動物に対しアバターを操作して仮想世界の物体を調べる訓練を行っていますこれらの物体は見た目は同じですがアバターがその表面を横切るとその物体の触感に応じた電気信号がサルの脳に直接送られアバターが何を触っているかを知らせますたった4週間で脳はこの新たな感覚を学習し新たな感覚神経路 -- ある種の新たな感覚を獲得したのです脳は全く自由になりましたなぜなら運動の指令をアバターに送ることができますしそしてアバターからくるフィードバックは皮膚を介さなくとも脳に直接入ってきますこれが実験の仕組みをまとめたものです動物は3つの標的を触ります正しいものを選んだときだけご褒美のオレンジジュースがもらえますただし実際には存在しない仮想の手を使わなければなりません実際の映像です脳は完全に自由になり体や動作の限界から解き放たれていますこの動物はアバターを使って標的を触り脳に直接電気的な信号を受けて触感を得ていますそして脳はどの触感がご褒美に関係しているのか決めているのです動画上のキャプションはサルの実験では表示されません英語なんてどうせ読めませんしここでは正しい標的の位置が変わっていますが触感で区別して正しいものを選んでいるわけですこの動物の脳で何が起こっているか見てみると上の図は125の神経細胞に注目して動物がジョイスティックを使うときの脳細胞の活動― 電気的な嵐がどうなるかを見たものです電気的な嵐がどうなるかを見たものです神経生理学者ならこれを見てわかりますがこれらの細胞は全ての方向に対してシグナルを出しています下の図は動物が体を動かす代わりにロボットやコンピューター上のアバターを操作している時のものですコンピューターを再起動したとたんこの新たな装置に対応して脳の活動は変化しますまるで自分の一部であるかのようにです脳は瞬時に操作するものを同化したのですこのことは私たちの自己という概念は体の一番外側である皮膚で終わるのではなく脳によって操作できる道具まで続いているようですバイオリン車自転車サッカーボールや衣服― それら全ては脳という貪欲で素晴らしい変化に富むシステムにより統合化されるのですこれから先何ができるでしょう? その限界を探るために数年前に行った実験をご紹介しましょうアメリカ東海岸のデューク大学において動物をトレッドミル上で走らせ動作に必要な脳の嵐を測定しそして京都のATR研究所にある脳による操作を目指して作られたヒューマノイド・ロボットに送りました脳による操作を目指して作られたヒューマノイド・ロボットに送りました人間や霊長類の脳に操作されるのを夢見るロボットですサルの動作を制御する信号が日本に送られてロボットを歩かせましたさらにロボットの映像はデューク大学の猿のもとに送られ猿はロボットが歩く様子を目の前で見ることができましたご褒美が欲しいならば猿は自分の体を動かすのではなく脳の活動を使って地球の反対側にいるロボットに正確な歩みをさせなければなりません脳の活動を使って地球の反対側にいるロボットに正確な歩みをさせなければなりません面白いことに通信が地球上を往復するほうが脳からの命令がサル自身の筋肉に届くのより 20ミリ秒早いのですこのサルは地球の裏側にある自分より6倍も大きいロボットを動かしましたロボットが自分で歩けるという実験のひとつですこれが夢の叶った日本のCB1というロボットです霊長類の脳にコントロールされているところですさて私たちは将来的に耳と耳の間の小宇宙である脳の研究から何を得られるのでしょうか例えばこれらの知識や技術を総動員することでもっとも重度な神経系の障害のひとつを克服できるかもしれません脳の活動を動作に移す能力を失ってしまった人がたくさんいます脳の活動を動作に移す能力を失ってしまった人がたくさんいます脳がきちんと運動の指令を出しているにも関わらずせき髄の損傷した箇所を伝わらないのですバイパスはできないでしょうかブレイン・マシン・インターフェースを使って脳信号を読み取り動かしたいという意思を持つもっと大きなスケールの信号を読みコンピュータを利用したマイクロ技術を使ってバイパスを作り患者にとって新たな体となる「外骨格」ロボットスーツに届けるのです患者にとって新たな体となる「外骨格」ロボットスーツに届けるのですこれは「ウオーク・アゲイン・プロジェクト」という非営利コンソーシアムの提携図ですヨーロッパアメリカそしてブラジルの研究者たちを集め共同でこの新しい体を開発していますおそらくは機能に柔軟性のあるものになるでしょうが― ブレイン・マシン・インターフェースでオーロラや他のサルが道具を使うのに操作したようなものになりますこれを使って日常使う道具等も組み合わせられますそして私たちが望むのはこの仕組みによって患者さんたちが新しい体に思った動きをさせられるようになるだけでなく患者さんたちが新しい体に思った動きをさせられるようになるだけでなく患者さんの体の一部として統合されることですおよそ10年前私のこの考えは実現不可能だと言われましたでもひとりの科学者として言います私は1960年代半ばブラジル南部で育ちましたが当時「月に行く」なんてとてつもない考えを聞いて 5歳だった私は NASA がカーク船長やスポックをに頼めば良いのにと思ったものです彼らならやれると思ったんです-- ともかくこのような時代に育ち私の祖母のよく言ったことを信じるようになりました「不可能なんてないのよ― ただ努力が足りないだけよ」たとえ周囲が「歩かせるなんて無理だ」と言ったとしても私は祖母の言葉に従うでしょうありがとうございました	We are always chasing storms. We want to see and measure storms -- brainstorms, that is. And we all talk about brainstorms in our daily lives, but we rarely see or listen to one. So I always like to start these talks by actually introducing you to one of them. Actually, the first time we recorded more than one neuron -- a hundred brain cells simultaneously -- of a hundred cells in the same animal, this is the first image we got, the first 10 seconds of this recording. So we got a little snippet of a thought, and we could see it in front of us. I always tell the students that we could also call neuroscientists some sort of astronomer, because we are dealing with a system that is only comparable in terms of number of cells to the number of galaxies that we have in the universe. And here we are, out of billions of neurons, just recording, 10 years ago, a hundred. We are doing a thousand now. And we hope to understand something fundamental about our human nature. Because, if you don't know yet, everything that we use to define what human nature is comes from these storms, comes from these storms that roll over the hills and valleys of our brains and define our memories, our beliefs, our feelings, our plans for the future. Everything that we ever do, everything that every human has ever done, do or will do, requires the toil of populations of neurons producing these kinds of storms. And the sound of a brainstorm, if you've never heard one, is somewhat like this. You can put it louder if you can. My son calls this "making popcorn while listening to a badly-tuned A.M. station." This is a brain. This is what happens when you route these electrical storms to a loudspeaker and you listen to a hundred brain cells firing, your brain will sound like this -- my brain, any brain. And what we want to do as neuroscientists in this time is to actually listen to these symphonies, these brain symphonies, and try to extract from them the messages they carry. In particular, about 12 years ago we created a preparation that we named brain-machine interfaces. And you have a scheme here that describes how it works. The idea is, let's have some sensors that listen to these storms, this electrical firing, and see if you can, in the same time that it takes for this storm to leave the brain and reach the legs or the arms of an animal -- about half a second -- let's see if we can read these signals, extract the motor messages that are embedded in it, translate it into digital commands and send it to an artificial device that will reproduce the voluntary motor wheel of that brain in real time. And see if we can measure how well we can translate that message when we compare to the way the body does that. And if we can actually provide feedback, sensory signals that go back from this robotic, mechanical, computational actuator that is now under the control of the brain, back to the brain, how the brain deals with that, of receiving messages from an artificial piece of machinery. And that's exactly what we did 10 years ago. We started with a superstar monkey called Aurora that became one of the superstars of this field. And Aurora liked to play video games. As you can see here, she likes to use a joystick, like any one of us, any of our kids, to play this game. And as a good primate, she even tries to cheat before she gets the right answer. So even before a target appears that she's supposed to cross with the cursor that she's controlling with this joystick, Aurora is trying to find the target, no matter where it is. And if she's doing that, because every time she crosses that target with the little cursor, she gets a drop of Brazilian orange juice. if you get a little drop of Brazilian orange juice. Actually any primate will do that. Think about that. Well, while Aurora was playing this game, as you saw, and doing a thousand trials a day and getting 97 percent correct and 350 milliliters of orange juice, we are recording the brainstorms that are produced in her head and sending them to a robotic arm that was learning to reproduce the movements that Aurora was making. Because the idea was to actually turn on this brain-machine interface and have Aurora play the game just by thinking, without interference of her body. Her brainstorms would control an arm that would move the cursor and cross the target. And to our shock, that's exactly what Aurora did. She played the game without moving her body. So every trajectory that you see of the cursor now, this is the exact first moment she got that. That's the exact first moment a brain intention was liberated from the physical domains of a body of a primate and could act outside, in that outside world, just by controlling an artificial device. And Aurora kept playing the game, kept finding the little target and getting the orange juice that she wanted to get, that she craved for. Well, she did that because she, at that time, had acquired a new arm. The robotic arm that you see moving here 30 days later, after the first video that I showed to you, is under the control of Aurora's brain and is moving the cursor to get to the target. And Aurora now knows that she can play the game with this robotic arm, but she has not lost the ability to use her biological arms to do what she pleases. She can scratch her back, she can scratch one of us, she can play another game. By all purposes and means, Aurora's brain has incorporated that artificial device as an extension of her body. The model of the self that Aurora had in her mind has been expanded to get one more arm. Well, we did that 10 years ago. Just fast forward 10 years. Just last year we realized that you don't even need to have a robotic device. You can just build a computational body, an avatar, a monkey avatar. And you can actually use it for our monkeys to either interact with them, or you can train them to assume in a virtual world the first-person perspective of that avatar and use her brain activity to control the movements of the avatar's arms or legs. And what we did basically was to train the animals to learn how to control these avatars and explore objects that appear in the virtual world. And these objects are visually identical, but when the avatar crosses the surface of these objects, they send an electrical message that is proportional to the microtactile texture of the object that goes back directly to the monkey's brain, informing the brain what it is the avatar is touching. And in just four weeks, the brain learns to process this new sensation and acquires a new sensory pathway -- like a new sense. And you truly liberate the brain now because you are allowing the brain to send motor commands to move this avatar. And the feedback that comes from the avatar is being processed directly by the brain without the interference of the skin. So what you see here is this is the design of the task. You're going to see an animal basically touching these three targets. And he has to select one because only one carries the reward, the orange juice that they want to get. And he has to select it by touch using a virtual arm, an arm that doesn't exist. And that's exactly what they do. This is a complete liberation of the brain from the physical constraints of the body and the motor in a perceptual task. The animal is controlling the avatar to touch the targets. And he's sensing the texture by receiving an electrical message directly in the brain. And the brain is deciding what is the texture associated with the reward. The legends that you see in the movie don't appear for the monkey. And by the way, they don't read English anyway, so they are here just for you to know that the correct target is shifting position. And yet, they can find them by tactile discrimination, and they can press it and select it. So when we look at the brains of these animals, on the top panel you see the alignment of 125 cells showing what happens with the brain activity, the electrical storms, of this sample of neurons in the brain when the animal is using a joystick. And that's a picture that every neurophysiologist knows. The basic alignment shows that these cells are coding for all possible directions. The bottom picture is what happens when the body stops moving and the animal starts controlling either a robotic device or a computational avatar. As fast as we can reset our computers, the brain activity shifts to start representing this new tool, as if this too was a part of that primate's body. The brain is assimilating that too, as fast as we can measure. So that suggests to us that our sense of self does not end at the last layer of the epithelium of our bodies, but it ends at the last layer of electrons of the tools that we're commanding with our brains. Our violins, our cars, our bicycles, our soccer balls, our clothing -- they all become assimilated by this voracious, amazing, dynamic system called the brain. How far can we take it? Well, in an experiment that we ran a few years ago, we took this to the limit. We had an animal running on a treadmill at Duke University on the East Coast of the United States, producing the brainstorms necessary to move. And we had a robotic device, a humanoid robot, in Kyoto, Japan at ATR Laboratories that was dreaming its entire life to be controlled by a brain, a human brain, or a primate brain. What happens here is that the brain activity that generated the movements in the monkey was transmitted to Japan and made this robot walk while footage of this walking was sent back to Duke, so that the monkey could see the legs of this robot walking in front of her. So she could be rewarded, not by what her body was doing but for every correct step of the robot on the other side of the planet controlled by her brain activity. Funny thing, that round trip around the globe took 20 milliseconds less than it takes for that brainstorm to leave its head, the head of the monkey, and reach its own muscle. The monkey was moving a robot that was six times bigger, across the planet. This is one of the experiments in which that robot was able to walk autonomously. This is CB1 fulfilling its dream in Japan under the control of the brain activity of a primate. So where are we taking all this? What are we going to do with all this research, besides studying the properties of this dynamic universe that we have between our ears? Well the idea is to take all this knowledge and technology and try to restore one of the most severe neurological problems that we have in the world. Millions of people have lost the ability to translate these brainstorms into action, into movement. Although their brains continue to produce those storms and code for movements, they cannot cross a barrier that was created by a lesion on the spinal cord. So our idea is to create a bypass, is to use these brain-machine interfaces to read these signals, larger-scale brainstorms that contain the desire to move again, bypass the lesion using computational microengineering and send it to a new body, a whole body called an exoskeleton, a whole robotic suit that will become the new body of these patients. And you can see an image produced by this consortium. This is a nonprofit consortium called the Walk Again Project that is putting together scientists from Europe, from here in the United States, and in Brazil together to work to actually get this new body built -- a body that we believe, through the same plastic mechanisms that allow Aurora and other monkeys to use these tools through a brain-machine interface and that allows us to incorporate the tools that we produce and use in our daily life. This same mechanism, we hope, will allow these patients, not only to imagine again the movements that they want to make and translate them into movements of this new body, but for this body to be assimilated as the new body that the brain controls. So I was told about 10 years ago that this would never happen, that this was close to impossible. And I can only tell you that as a scientist, I grew up in southern Brazil in the mid-'60s watching a few crazy guys telling [us] that they would go to the Moon. And I was five years old, and I never understood why NASA didn't hire Captain Kirk and Spock to do the job; after all, they were very proficient -- but just seeing that as a kid made me believe, as my grandmother used to tell me, that "impossible is just the possible that someone has not put in enough effort to make it come true." So they told me that it's impossible to make someone walk. I think I'm going to follow my grandmother's advice. Thank you.	{ "source": "iwslt2017", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
交通渋滞は至る所で見られます考えてみると驚くべきことですがほぼ世界中どこの都市でも見られます都市がどんなに多様か考えてみてくださいヨーロッパの典型的な都市は街は中心に密集し公共交通機関も充実しています道路の交通容量は比較的小さいです一方アメリカの都市は違いますスライドが進んでしまいましたが― アメリカの都市はつまり広大な面積に道路が分散され公共交通機能はほとんどありませんさらに新しい世界都市ではあらゆる種類の輸送機関があり土地の用途もバラバラで広範囲に広がる一方街の中心部は密集しています世界中の交通計画に携わる人達は様々な対策を試みました密集した都市分散された都市道路が数多くあるところ公共交通機関が数多くあるところ自転車専用レーンが数多くあるところ情報が溢れているところなどで様々な対策を試みましたがどれも上手くいかないようでしたしかしこれらすべての試みはある点で共通しています渋滞時で運転する代わりに人々がどうすべきかを解明しようとしていたのですまるで他人がどう生活すべきか生活設計をする様なものでした複雑な社会システムを計画することはとても難しいことですここで面白い話をご紹介しましょうベルリンの壁が崩壊した 1989年に遡りますロンドンの都市計画者にモスクワの同僚から電話が掛かってきてこう訊かれました「やあ、ウラジミールだ誰がロンドンのパン供給の担当か知っているかい?」ロンドンの都市計画者は言いました「誰がロンドンの担当者ってどういう意味だい? 誰も担当していないよ」「でも確かに誰かが担当しているはずなんだけどとても複雑なシステムだから誰かが管理しているに違いない」「いやいやいや誰も管理してないよつまり、考えもしなかったけど、要はパン供給の運営は自動的に行われてるんだ」自然にうまく機能しているのですこれは自己組織化の能力を持つ複雑な社会システムの一例であり非常に興味深い洞察です本当に複雑な社会問題を解決しようとするとき一般的に有効なのはインセンティブを作ることです詳細は計画しないことですそして人々は新しいフレームワークへ適合するために何をしたらいいかを自然につかむのですでは道路渋滞を解消するためにどのようにこの洞察を利用出来るか考えてみましょうこれは私の故郷であるストックホルムの地図ですストックホルムは約200万人在住の中都市ですしかしストックホルムは街の至る所に水があるので橋がたくさんあります狭い橋古い橋それらが多くの交通渋滞を起こしていますこれらの赤点は最も渋滞している部分で中心街へとつながる橋の部分ですそこで誰かがこんなアイデアを思いつきました優れた公共交通機関と道路に資金を費やすのとは別に渋滞箇所を利用するドライバーに 1~2ユーロ請求する試みです 1ユーロや2ユーロは駐車料金や維持費と比べれば大した額ではありませんなのでドライバーがこのわずかな金額に反応を示さないだろうと皆さん思うでしょう実際は違いましたたった1、2ユーロでラッシュアワーの交通量から 20%の車を減らすことに成功しましたさて20%は大きな違いだと考えるかもしれませんがまだ80%残された問題がありますよねまだ80%の交通量があるのですからそれもまた誤りですなぜなら車の流れは非線形現象だからですつまり交通量がある一定の量を超えると渋滞は急速に悪化し始めるということですしかし幸運なことにそれは良い方にも働きます交通量を少しでも減らせれば渋滞は予想以上により早く解消するのです 2006年1月3日渋滞料金がストックホルムに導入されましたここにある最初の写真は 1月2日のストックホルムの典型的な道路の写真です次の写真は渋滞料金導入の初日の様子です交通量を20%減らすとこうなるのですかなり渋滞を減らすことができましたしかし私が言った通りドライバーは適応しますのでしばらくするとドライバーは渋滞料金に慣れて戻って来てしまうと思われるでしょうそれも間違えです渋滞料金が導入されてから6年半依然として少ない交通量のままですしかし2007年の時系列を見ていただくと面白いギャップがあります実は渋滞料金は 1月に試験的に導入され 7月末に廃止され住民投票の後 2007年に再び導入されました研究には素晴らしいチャンスでしたつまりそもそも実験してとても面白くしかも実際2度も行うことができたのです個人的には年に一度やりたいものですがそうはいかないようですいずれにせよ面白かったですそして研究を続けましたどうなったでしょう? これは渋滞料金の最終日 7月31日の写真で同じ道路ですが夏ですストックホルムの夏はすばらしく一年で一番明るい時で渋滞料金を廃止すると初日からこのようになってしまいましたすべての車が再び戻ってきていてすぐに適応したドライバーは賞賛に値します本当に早く適応しています初日に彼らは皆戻ってきたのですこの影響は続き 2007年の数字はこうなりましたこれらの交通量のデーターは興味深く予想外でもありましが知識として役立つことでしたでも最もびっくりするスライドはこのスライドですこれはストックホルムの渋滞料金に対する民衆の支持を表しています 2006年初春渋滞料金が導入されたとき皆激しく渋滞料金に反対しました 70%もの人が導入に反対でしたしかし渋滞料金導入後は渋滞料金に対する不満が更に増えるという予想に反してむしろ逆に 70%もの人々が渋滞料金を支持するところまでになり繰り返しますとストックホルムの70%の住民が以前はなかった渋滞料金の存続を望んだのですどうしてこうなったのでしょう? なぜでしょうか? ではこう考えてください誰が変わったのでしょう? 消えた20%のドライバーは確かになんらかの不満を抱いていたはずです彼らはどこへ行ったのか? もしこれが理解できれば人々が交通制度に満足できる方法を見出せるかもしれません我々は多くの交通機関に調査インタビューを行い誰が変わったのか彼らはどこに行ったか理解しようとしましたその結果彼ら自身も理解してないことが分かりました何らかの理由で運転手たちは以前していたのと同じように車に乗っているという自信を持っていましたどうしてそう言えるのか? それは移動パターンは皆さんが思っている以上決まってないからです人々は日々違った決断をし考え方も変わります周りの世界も変わり毎日これらのすべての思考にほんの少しずつ押されそして気づかないうちにラッシュアワーで運転しないよう仕向けられているのですドライバー自身それに気が付いてないのですもう一つの質問です誰が彼らを変えたのでしょうか? 誰が彼等の考えを変えたのかどうして変えたのか? 私達はまた調査インタビューをしましたなぜ考えを変えたのかどんなことで考えを変えたのか? 答えを分析した結果ドライバーの半数以上が考えは何も変わっていないと思っていることがわかりました彼らはずっと渋滞料金を支持していたと自信満々に言いましたつまりは我々はこの通行料金の課金によって 20%の交通量を減らし渋滞を大幅に軽減したわけですが人々は自分が変わったことにも気付かず素直にずっと渋滞料金を支持していたと信じているのですこれは複雑な社会問題を解決しようとする時利用できる力ですその秘訣はどのように適応すべきか人々に命令するのではなくただ彼らを正しい方向へそっと仕向ければ良いのですそれが上手くできれば人々は実際変化を受け入れ更にその変化を喜んでくれるかもしれませんご静聴ありがとうござました	Road congestion is a pervasive phenomenon. It exists in basically all of the cities all around the world, which is a little bit surprising when you think about it. I mean, think about how different cities are, actually. I mean, you have the typical European cities, with a dense urban core, good public transportation mostly, not a lot of road capacity. But then, on the other hand, you have the American cities. It's moving by itself, okay. Anyway, the American cities: lots of roads dispersed over large areas, almost no public transportation. And then you have the emerging world cities, with a mixed variety of vehicles, mixed land-use patterns, also rather dispersed but often with a very dense urban core. And traffic planners all around the world have tried lots of different measures: dense cities or dispersed cities, lots of roads or lots of public transport or lots of bike lanes or more information, or lots of different things, but nothing seems to work. But all of these attempts have one thing in common. They're basically attempts at figuring out what people should do instead of rush hour car driving. They're essentially, to a point, attempts at planning what other people should do, planning their life for them. Now, planning a complex social system is a very hard thing to do, and let me tell you a story. Back in 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell, an urban planner in London got a phone call from a colleague in Moscow saying, basically, "Hi, this is Vladimir. I'd like to know, who's in charge of London's bread supply?" And the urban planner in London goes, "What do you mean, who's in charge of London's — I mean, no one is in charge." "Oh, but surely someone must be in charge. I mean, it's a very complicated system. Someone must control all of this." "No. No. No one is in charge. I mean, it basically -- I haven't really thought of it. It basically organizes itself." It organizes itself. That's an example of a complex social system and this is a very deep insight. When you try to solve really complex social problems, the right thing to do is most of the time to create the incentives. You don't plan the details, and people will figure out what to do, how to adapt to this new framework. And let's now look at how we can use this insight to combat road congestion. This is a map of Stockholm, my hometown. Now, Stockholm is a medium-sized city, roughly two million people, but Stockholm also has lots of water and lots of water means lots of bridges -- narrow bridges, old bridges -- which means lots of road congestion. And these red dots show the most congested parts, which are the bridges that lead into the inner city. And then someone came up with the idea that, apart from good public transport, apart from spending money on roads, let's try to charge drivers one or two euros at these bottlenecks. Now, one or two euros, that isn't really a lot of money, I mean compared to parking charges and running costs, etc., so you would probably expect that car drivers wouldn't really react to this fairly small charge. You would be wrong. One or two euros was enough to make 20 percent of cars disappear from rush hours. Now, 20 percent, well, that's a fairly huge figure, you might think, but you've still got 80 percent left of the problem, right? Because you still have 80 percent of the traffic. Now, that's also wrong, because traffic happens to be a nonlinear phenomenon, meaning that once you reach above a certain capacity threshold then congestion starts to increase really, really rapidly. But fortunately, it also works the other way around. If you can reduce traffic even somewhat, then congestion will go down much faster than you might think. Now, congestion charges were introduced in Stockholm on January 3, 2006, and the first picture here is a picture of Stockholm, one of the typical streets, January 2. The first day with the congestion charges looked like this. 20 percent of the cars from the streets. You really reduce congestion quite substantially. But, well, as I said, I mean, car drivers adapt, right? So after a while they would all come back because they have sort of gotten used to charges. Wrong again. It's now six and a half years ago since the congestion charges were introduced in Stockholm, and we basically have the same low traffic levels still. But you see, there's an interesting gap here in the time series in 2007. Well, the thing is that, the congestion charges, they were introduced first as a trial, so they were introduced in January and then abolished again at the end of July, followed by a referendum, and then they were reintroduced again in 2007, which of course was a wonderful scientific opportunity. I mean, this was a really fun experiment to start with, and we actually got to do it twice. And personally, I would like to do this every once a year or so, but they won't let me do that. But it was fun anyway. So, we followed up. What happened? This is the last day with the congestion charges, July 31, and you see the same street but now it's summer, and summer in Stockholm is a very nice and light time of the year, and the first day without the congestion charges looked like this. All the cars were back again, and you even have to admire the car drivers. They adapt so extremely quickly. The first day they all came back. And this effect hanged on. So 2007 figures looked like this. Now these traffic figures are really exciting and a little bit surprising and very useful to know, but I would say that the most surprising slide here I'm going to show you today is not this one. It's this one. This shows public support for congestion pricing of Stockholm, and you see that when congestion pricing were introduced in the beginning of Spring 2006, people were fiercely against it. Seventy percent of the population didn't want this. But what happened when the congestion charges No, on the contrary, they changed, up to a point where we now have 70 percent support for keeping the charges, meaning that -- I mean, let me repeat that: 70 percent of the population in Stockholm want to keep a price for something that used to be free. Okay. So why can that be? Why is that? Well, think about it this way. Who changed? I mean, the 20 percent of the car drivers that disappeared, surely they must be discontent in a way. And where did they go? If we can understand this, then maybe we can figure out how people can be so happy with this. Well, so we did this huge interview survey with lots of travel services, and tried to figure out who changed, and where did they go? And it turned out that they don't know themselves. For some reason, the car drivers are -- they are confident they actually drive the same way that they used to do. And why is that? It's because that travel patterns are much less stable than you might think. Each day, people make new decisions, and people change and the world changes around them, and each day all of these decisions are sort of nudged ever so slightly away from rush hour car driving in a way that people don't even notice. They're not even aware of this themselves. And the other question, who changed their mind? Who changed their opinion, and why? So we did another interview survey, tried to figure out why people changed their mind, and what type of group changed their minds? And after analyzing the answers, it turned out that more than half of them believe that they haven't changed their minds. They're actually confident that they have liked congestion pricing all along. Which means that we are now in a position where we have reduced traffic across this toll cordon with 20 percent, and reduced congestion by enormous numbers, and people aren't even aware that they have changed, and they honestly believe that they have liked this all along. This is the power of nudges when trying to solve complex social problems, and when you do that, you shouldn't try to tell people how to adapt. You should just nudge them in the right direction. And if you do it right, people will actually embrace the change, and if you do it right, people will actually even like it. Thank you.	{ "source": "iwslt2017", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
「もう! いくら倒すためだからってベルは女の子なんだよ! それをおもいっきりふとももに突き刺すなんて! ――安心してねベル、傷が残らないように完璧に治癒するから」「ありがとう......エリン」「我輩だけが悪者みたいに言うなよ」そう言われても刺せる部分がそこしかなかった上、触れている部分が大きいほど魔力が多く流せるのだからしょうがないではないか。「お~い! そっちも大事じゃがこっちも何とかしてくれんかの!?」魔力が消えるのだから当然赤石の沼は普通の石に戻る、踏み台になっていた爺さんは下半身が沼に沈んでいた為に今は上半身が石から生えている不思議な光景に......。「悪いが爺さん、我輩の力では石なんて切れんし魔法も使えんから助けられん」「うう......」もっとも爆発魔法を使えば爺さんのほうが危ないが、しかし助けないわけにもいかぬか......どこか鈍器みたいなもはないのか? それで叩き割れば――。「ダリル様、この傷が癒え次第お助けします。残りの魔力で十分斬れますから」そうか斬硬刀なら余裕か、もうこの石はただの石でオリハルコンの強度もないものな。「そういえばさ~さっきの戦闘なんだけど、ベルもダリ爺も魔法を使ってなかったよね? あれはなんで?」 ......うーむ、ここまでくるとエリンの知識のばらつきには不自然なものがあるぞ。「......あれ? アタシ何かおかしなこと言った?」はぁ、説明するのは面倒くさいが今後の戦闘にも関ることだから仕方ないか。「ベルトラの場合は魔剣に魔力を使うため使いたくても使えないのだ。これは固有魔法も同じだ、だからフィゲロアも赤石を使っている時は他の魔法を使わなかっただろ」「あ~そういえば~なるほどね。あれ? でもダリ爺は魔剣も固有魔法も使ってなかったような」だよな、我輩もそれを聞きたかった。「それは我輩も気にはなっていた、身体強化で魔力を使っていたから魔法も普通に使えるはずだが?」なんだ? 何かいわく付きなことでもあるのか? 「え~と......そう! 漢ならこの拳で、この肉体で戦うもんじゃ! 決して魔法を使うのが苦手だからじゃないぞ!」何かあると思ったが、なんて事はないただ魔法を使うのが苦手なだけではないか!! それで豪拳とい名を得るのもすごい事だが......なにか負に落ちんものがあるぞ。「まさか......そんな理由だったなんて......」ベルトラも初めて知ったみたいだな......すごく落胆しとる。豪拳という英雄はすごいのかすごくないのかさっぱりわからんようになってきた、剣豪の方もなにやら怪しい気がする。さて後は兵士達が後始末をしてくれるようだし、ベルトラの治療と爺さんを救出すればゆっくり休めるか。ん? 何かがこっちに向かってきておる。あれは馬車......か? 何故こんな場所に馬車が? あ、止まったぞ? ――お、誰か降りてきた、紫色のドレスを着た上品な初老の婆さんだな......こっちに来たぞ。「あなた!」「うげ! サ、サリーサ!? 何故ここに!?」ほう、あれが爺さんの嫁か、確かに気の強そうな感じだな。ベルトラといいこの国の女達はすべてこうなのだろうか。「あなたの家に向かう途中で火急の知らせが届き、ここで戦っていると――って何をふざけた格好をしているのですか!?」「いや! 待て! ふざけてなんていない! これは戦闘で――」「戦で何をどうしたらそんな格好になるのですか!? 早く出てきてください!!」地面から生えているこの姿は、ふざけていると思われても仕方ないよな。「こっこら! 無理やり引っ張るな! 痛い痛い! みんなたすけてぇええ!」爺さんは必死に逃げようとしてもがいているが、あれでは逃げられない。「サ、サリーサ様、ダリル様は本当に、っつ~」「あ~ベル動かないで、まだ塞ぎきれてないんだから」「まぁ! なんということですか! ベルトラ、その傷は大丈夫なのですか!?」「ちょま!? ぐほっ!」婆さんがベルトラの元へ駆け出して爺さんの顔を思いっきり蹴飛ばした、今のは玉を蹴る様な思い切りの良さだったんだが気のせいだろうか? 「おい! 今ので鼻血が――」「あなたの事はあとです! ......ああ、かわいそうなベルトラ」「......さすがのわしでも泣くぞ......」この爺さんの扱い酷い、今までどんな生活を......いや、考えるまでもなく自業自得の事か。「はい、今エリンに治療してもらっていますので」「まっかせて~」「そうですか、それは良かったです」「......わしは良くないのじゃが......」そういえば我輩もフィゲロアにやられた傷はほぼ完治している。エリンの治癒魔法は相当なものだ、これからの戦闘には必要不可欠という事になる。いい意味でも悪い意味でも......な。「ああ! 申し遅れました。私はダリルの妻サリーサと申します」よく存じております。「まずは......勇者デール様、エリン様、ベルトラ、見事フィゲロアを打ち倒してくれました。ありがとうございます、愚て......いえライリー王に代わり謝礼を」「あ......いや......」愚? ......今愚弟って言いかけなかったか? いくら弟での王に対してそれはいいのか!? 「そして......あなたぁ!」「はい!」爺さんの埋まってない上半身も固まってしまった。「私は家に居て下さいと手紙を送りましたよ? まさか読んでいないのですか!?」「いや......それは~その~え~と......」逃げ出して来た、なんて言えんわな。「――ですが、今回は許しましょう」「へ? 許す? ......何故だ?」「あなたの元に向かっていたのは愚弟の勅命を直接伝える為だったのです。あなたが受けるかどうかと愚弟は困っていたので私が説得にと思いまして」愚弟とはっきり言ったよ......我輩が言うのもなんだが、大丈夫かこの国は......? 「しかし、まさか勅命を伝える前にもう勇者様と共闘しているとは......私もびっくりしましたが、さすがあなたですね」「え? い、いや~それほどでも、ダ~ッハハハハ......」おい! ここに来たのはこの婆さんから逃げるためだろうがジジイ!!	“For goodness sake! No matter if it was to defeat him, Bell is still a girl! To stab hear thigh with all your might! –Don’t worry, Bell, I’ll heal it so that not even a scratch remains.” “Thank you......Erin” “Don’t say it like I’m the bad guy here” Even if she says this, it couldn’t be helped since this was the only available part and the more the blade touches that part the more magical power could be sent. “Ooooi~! It’s also important that you do something about this here!?” Since the magical power disappeared the red stone swamp returned back to normal, hence the old man who we used as a stepping stone and sank into the swamp up to his waist seemed as if he was growing out of the ground, what a mysterious scene....... “Sorry, old man, but my power isn’t enough to cut through stone and I can’t use magic to save you” “Uuh......” If I used the most extreme explosion magic the old man would be in danger, but I can’t just leave him there, huh?......Isn’t there something like a blunt weapon somewhere? If I smash the stone with that then– “Darryl-sama, I’ll help you as soon as this wound is healed. I can cut through that with the remaining magical power.” If it’s that Zankoutou then you can do it, because those stones are just of normal density, far from the density of Orichalcum. “Oh yeah~ We were just in battle, but neither Bell nor grandpa Darry used magic, right? Why is that?” ......Hmmm, ever since Erin came here there’s been an unnatural variation in what she does and doesn’t know. “......Huh? Did I say something weird just now?” Haah, though explaining this is a pain, it can’t be helped as it’s important for future battles. “In Bertra’s case she couldn’t use it even if she wanted to because her magic swords require magical power. Same goes for inherent magic, so when Figueroa used his red stones he couldn’t have used any other magic.” “Ah~ Now that you say it~ I see. Huh? But grandpa Darry didn’t use magic swords or inherent magic, right?” Right? I wanted to ask about that as well. “That’s something I was curious about as well. If you can use magical power to strengthen your body, normally shouldn’t you be able to use magic as well?” What is it? Did he have some reason? “Ehm...... That’s right! Since I’m a real man I use my fists and this body to fight! It’s not because I’m bad at using magic!” I thought there was some deep reason, but he’s just bad at using magic!! Also for that amazing person they call the Master Fighter...... to have such a weakness. “How’s that possible...... to have such a reason......” Looks like Bertra was hearing this for the first time as well, huh...... It’s greatly disappointing. I have no idea if this Hero called Master fighter is amazing or not. Now I’m also doubtful of that Master Swordsman. Well then, looks like the soldiers were cleaning up afterwards and while Bertra is treated and the old man gets rescued I’m able to slowly rest, huh. Hm? Something’s coming towards us. Is that...... a carriage? Why is a carriage coming to this place? Ah, it stopped? ――Oh, someone came out of it. It’s a refined elderly lady wearing a purple dress..... She’s coming this way... “Dear!” “Ugeh! Sa-Salisa!? Why are you here?!” Hooh, that’s the old man’s wife, huh? She certainly gives of a strong-willed impression. Bertra as well. Are all women of this country like that? “While I was on my way to your house, urgent news arrived that you were fighting here and — For what reason are you in this foolish state?!” “No! Wait! I’m not fooling around! While I was in battle–” “What happened in that battle for you to end up like that?! Hurry up and come out of there!!” That figure of him growing out of the ground can’t be helped but seen as him fooling around. He doesn’t look like someone having fought a battle at all. “He-hey! Don’t pull at me! It hurts, it hurts! Guys, safe meeee!” The old man struggled desperately to escape, but he can’t run away like this. “Sa-Salisa-sama, Darryl-sama really was, tch~” “Ah~ Bell, don’t move. I’m not done closing it yet” “My! What might have happened? Bertra, will you be fine with that wound?!” “Hey, wai!? Guho!” While the old woman took off to Bertra she exquisitely kicked the old man in the face. It seemed like she was kicking a ball, but was that just my imagination? “Oi! Because of that I have a noseble–” “I’ll take care of you later!...... Aah, poor Bertra” “......Even I’ll cry, you know?......” She treats that old man so badly, I wonder what kind of life...... No, thinking about it, this is the natural consequence of his actions, isn’t it? “Yes, since Erin is treating it now” “Leave it to me~” “Is that so? If it’s like this that’s fine then” “......I’m not fine though......” Now that she mentions it, the wounds I got from Figueroa have almost completely healed as well. Erin’s healing magic is quite something. It will be indispensable in future battles. It’s a good thing but also a bad thing...... right? “Aah! Pardon my late introduction. I am Darryl’s wife, Salisa is my name.” I already know about you. “First of all...... Hero Dale-sama, Erin-sama, Bertra, you splendidly defeated Figueroa. Thank you very much, I shall reward you in place of my foolish bro..... I mean, King Riley” “Ah...... No......” Foolish?...... Where you about to say “my foolish brother” just now? No matter how much he’s your little brother he’s still the country’s King, you know?! “And now...... Deear!” “Yes!” The old man’s upper body which was not buried in the ground stiffened up. “I sent you a letter telling you to stay home, didn’t I? Could it be that you didn’t read it?!” “No...... About that~ Well~ Uhm......” How could he say that he tried to run away? “– However, let’s forgive you this time” “Heh? You forgive me?...... Why?” “The reason why I was going to your base was to directly convey the imperial command of my foolish brother to you. I came to persuade you, as my foolish brother was worried you might not accept it.” You clearly said “My foolish brother”, you know?...... I don’t want to say anything, but is this country alright......? “However, for you to already join the Hero before I could even convey the imperial command...... I was surprised as well, but as expected of you.” “Eh? N, no~ even so, Da~hahahaha......” Oi! You came here to escape from that old woman, you old fart!!	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 1, "inserted_lines_src": 1, "inserted_lines_trg": 0 }
あなたですそう変な歯をしている彼の隣のあなたもよ分かるでしょうその列全体がだめね良くないですねこっちを見ないでください私もその中の1人です母から受け継いだのだと思います母は家中を四つんばいになって這っていました両手にスポンジを持ってさらに― 膝にも2つ付けていました母の吸収性は抜群ですそして母は私の後ろを這っては ’’誰が足跡をつけたの!?’’ と言いましたうちは何かおかしいと分かったんですねまず始める前に感謝を申しますラモトリジンセルトラリンレボキセチンの製作者へこの化学物質がなければ私は直立していないでしょうどう始まったかと言うと私の精神病は... いえ私の精神病については話しません何の話だっけ? いつも夢見ています神経衰弱してしまう時は深いカフカ的な実存主義者が発覚したからかーケイト・ブランシェットが私を演じてオスカーをとったせいだとしかし実際は違います私の神経が崩壊したのは娘の運動会の時ですたくさんの家族が駐車場に座って車から食べ物を出して食べ英国人だけがーソーセージを食べていましたソーセージが大好きなんですね来ていた父兄は地面の舗装をいじっていましたそしてピストルが鳴り女の子たちが走り始め母親達は "走れ!走るのよクラミジア!" ”風のように走るのよベルーカ!" そして全員女の子達は走り出すのです私の娘以外は娘はスタートラインに立ち手を振っていました彼女は走るべきだと知らなかったらそして私は一ヶ月床にふして目覚めた時には入院していましたそして他の患者を見た時に私の仲間を見つけたと思いました私の種族を彼らは私の唯一の友人になり私の数少ない知人だったからですお見舞いももらわなかったのもし私が骨折したり子供が一緒だったらたくさん貰っていたでしょうが ”元気をだして”という電話をもらっただけ ”元気をだして” そんなこと忘れてました (拍手) あなたがこの病気になって受けるのはたったひとつ ”真の恥”ですなぜなら友人達から "ねえ腫瘍を見せて”とか ”X線を見せて"と言われても何もないし自身をとても嫌悪してこう思います "私は爆撃を受けたわけでもタウンシップに住んでもいない” 口汚い言葉が聞こえ始めますがそれは1つだけではなく千とか10万という口汚い言葉が聞こえますまるでトゥレット障害の悪魔のように聞こえるのです知っての通り悪魔なんていません頭の中で声が聞こえることもありません口汚い言葉が聞こえてくる場合は小さなニューロンがくっついてその小さなずれが本当の毒になり "自分を殺したい” 化学物質でもしそれが何度も繰り返されると鬱になってしまうかもそれだけじゃないですよもし赤ん坊ができてその子を言葉で虐待したら子供の小さな脳は破壊的な化学物質を放出して善悪を区別する脳の一部が成長せず精神病者を育ててしまうかもしれないもし兵士が友人が爆発するのを見たら彼の脳は危険信号を送り体験を言葉にできなくなりますすると彼はただ恐怖を何度も感じることになりますここで質問がありますそれはー人は精神的ダメージを受ける時それは豊かな創造力なのか? なぜ体のどの器官も病気になり心配されるのに脳は例外なのでしょう? 少し脳についてお話したいと思います TEDを見ている人は好きでしょうから少し時間をくださいいいですか良いお知らせもあるんですいくつかありますまずはー私たちは長い道のりを辿ってきましたとても小さなアメーバと呼ばれる単細胞から岩にくっついてそして脳ができましたほらねこの赤ん坊は強力な馬力があります意識があり最先端の小葉があります私たちは世界を見るために後頭葉があります私たちは世界を聞くために側頭葉がありますそこに少しの長期記憶があります酔って忘れたい夜がありますよね? それ! 消えました千億のニューロンで満たされていてびりびりと電気で情報を送りびりびりびりびり横からの図をお見せしますこれで理解できるかわかりませんがびりびりといって-- そう私が描きましたのどうも一つ一つのニューロンには一万から十万の異なる接続や ”デンドライト”とか呼び方はお好きに何かを学んだり経験するたびにこの茂みが育ちますこの情報の茂みです想像できますか? 人間なら誰でもこの装置を持っているんですパリス・ヒルトンでもびっくりですね少し悪いニュースがありますこれは4分の1の話ではなく 4分の4に当たります私たちは 21世紀型ではないのです進化は追いついていません処理能力がないのです ”今日は良い日だ” と言う人々は彼らは普通ですが私達よりは正気ではありません進化の不思議をお見せしましょうまず説明しましょう古代人だった時数100万年前私達は突然プレデターに脅かさたとします私達は... そう私が描いたんですどうもありがとうありがとうとにかく私達はアドレナリンとコルチゾールでいっぱいにしてそして殺すか殺され食べるか食べられ突然燃料がなくなり普通に戻ります問題はというと現代人は危険を感じると同様に化学物質を満たしますが交通監視員を殺したりできません-- 不動産業者を食べれないので燃料は体中に留まり常に危険信号が出ています他にもこんな事があります約15万年前言葉ができた時この継続した緊急性を言葉にしようとしました ”あそこにサーベルタイガーがいるよ" だけでなく "メール送らなかった” ”ももが太すぎるわ” ”皆が私を馬鹿だと思ってるパーティーに誘われなかったなんて!" このように口やかましいループが何度も繰り返され正気でなくさせますなにが問題か分かりましたか? 一度安全になるとー正気でなくさせてしまうのです悪いニュースを伝えるのは嫌ですが誰かがしないといけないのですペットはあなたよりも幸せですよ子猫は幸せでも人間達はおしまいです完全に完璧におしまいですよしかし大事なことはもし誰も話さなければそしてどう人生と向き合うか学ばなければ 4分の1ではなく 4分の4になってしまうという事お偉い方も病気になってしまうその前に偏見を止めましょうありがとうありがとう	You. Yeah. With the weird teeth. And you next to him. You know who you are. Actually, that whole row isn't right. That's not good. Hi. Yeah. Real bad. Don't even look at me. I am one of the one in four. Thank you. I think I inherit it from my mother, who, used to crawl around the house on all fours. She had two sponges in her hand, and then she had two tied to her knees. My mother was completely absorbent. And she would crawl around behind me going, "Who brings footprints into a building?!" So that was kind of a clue that things weren't right. So before I start, I would like to thank the makers of Lamotrigine, Sertraline, and Reboxetine, because without those few simple chemicals, I would not be vertical today. So how did it start? My mental illness -- well, I'm not even going to talk about my mental illness. What am I going to talk about? Okay. I always dreamt that, when I had my final breakdown, it would be because I had a deep Kafkaesque existentialist revelation, or that maybe Cate Blanchett would play me and she would win an Oscar for it. But that's not what happened. I had my breakdown during my daughter's sports day. There were all the parents sitting in a parking lot eating food out of the back of their car -- only the English -- eating their sausages. They loved their sausages. Lord and Lady Rigor Mortis were nibbling on the tarmac, and then the gun went off and all the girlies started running, and all the mummies went, "Run! Run Chlamydia! Run!" "Run like the wind, Veruca! Run!" And all the girlies, girlies running, running, running, everybody except for my daughter, who was just standing at the starting line, just waving, because she didn't know she was supposed to run. So I took to my bed for about a month, and when I woke up I found I was institutionalized, and when I saw the other inmates, I realized that I had found my people, my tribe. Because they became my only friends, they became my friends, because very few people that I knew -- Well, I wasn't sent a lot of cards or flowers. I mean, if I had had a broken leg or I was with child I would have been inundated, but all I got was a couple phone calls telling me to perk up. Perk up. Because I didn't think of that. Because, you know, the one thing, one thing that you get with this disease, this one comes with a package, is you get a real sense of shame, because your friends go, "Oh come on, show me the lump, show me the x-rays," and of course you've got nothing to show, so you're, like, really disgusted with yourself because you're thinking, "I'm not being carpet-bombed. I don't live in a township." So you start to hear these abusive voices, but you don't hear one abusive voice, you hear about a thousand -- 100,000 abusive voices, like if the Devil had Tourette's, that's what it would sound like. But we all know in here, you know, there is no Devil, there are no voices in your head. You know that when you have those abusive voices, all those little neurons get together and in that little gap you get a real toxic "I want to kill myself" kind of chemical, and if you have that over and over again on a loop tape, you might have yourself depression. Oh, and that's not even the tip of the iceberg. If you get a little baby, and you abuse it verbally, its little brain sends out chemicals that are so destructive that the little part of its brain that can tell good from bad just doesn't grow, so you might have yourself a homegrown psychotic. If a soldier sees his friend blown up, his brain goes into such high alarm that he can't actually put the experience into words, so he just feels the horror over and over again. So here's my question. My question is, how come when people have mental damage, it's always an active imagination? How come every other organ in your body can get sick and you get sympathy, except the brain? I'd like to talk a little bit more about the brain, because I know you like that here at TED, so if you just give me a minute here, okay. Okay, let me just say, there's some good news. There is some good news. First of all, let me say, we've come a long, long way. We started off as a teeny, teeny little one-celled amoeba, tiny, just sticking onto a rock, and now, voila, the brain. Here we go. This little baby has a lot of horsepower. It comes completely conscious. It's got state-of-the-art lobes. We've got the occipital lobe so we can actually see the world. We got the temporal lobe so we can actually hear the world. Here we've got a little bit of long-term memory, so, you know that night you want to forget, when you got really drunk? Bye-bye! Gone. So actually, it's filled with 100 billion neurons just zizzing away, electrically transmitting information, zizzing, zizzing. I'm going to give you a little side view here. I don't know if you can get that here. So, zizzing away, and so — — And for every one — I know, I drew this myself. Thank you. For every one single neuron, you can actually have from 10,000 to 100,000 different connections or dendrites or whatever you want to call it, and every time you learn something, or you have an experience, that bush grows, you know, that bush of information. Can you imagine, every human being is carrying that equipment, even Paris Hilton? Go figure. But I got a little bad news for you folks. I got some bad news. This isn't for the one in four. This is for the four in four. We are not equipped for the 21st century. Evolution did not prepare us for this. We just don't have the bandwidth, and for people who say, oh, they're having a nice day, they're perfectly fine, they're more insane than the rest of us. Because I'll show you where there might be a few glitches in evolution. Okay, let me just explain this to you. When we were ancient man — — millions of years ago, and we suddenly felt threatened by a predator, okay? — — we would — Thank you. I drew these myself. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Anyway, we would fill up with our own adrenaline and our own cortisol, and then we'd kill or be killed, we'd eat or we'd be eaten, and then suddenly we'd de-fuel, and we'd go back to normal. Okay. So the problem is, nowadays, with modern man— — when we feel in danger, we still fill up with our own chemical but because we can't kill traffic wardens — — or eat estate agents, the fuel just stays in our body over and over, so we're in a constant state of alarm, a constant state. And here's another thing that happened. About 150,000 years ago, when language came online, we started to put words to this constant emergency, so it wasn't just, "Oh my God, there's a saber-toothed tiger," which could be, it was suddenly, "Oh my God, I didn't send the email. Oh my God, my thighs are too fat. Oh my God, everybody can see I'm stupid. I didn't get invited to the Christmas party!" So you've got this nagging loop tape that goes over and over again that drives you insane, so, you see what the problem is? What once made you safe now drives you insane. I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but somebody has to be. Your pets are happier than you are. So kitty cat, meow, happy happy happy, human beings, screwed. Completely and utterly -- so, screwed. But my point is, if we don't talk about this stuff, and we don't learn how to deal with our lives, it's not going to be one in four. It's going to be four in four who are really, really going to get ill in the upstairs department. And while we're at it, can we please stop the stigma? Thank you. Thank you.	{ "source": "iwslt2017", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
『群集心理』序群集の時代ローマ帝国の崩壊やアラビア帝国の勃興といった文明の変化を予兆するような大きな変動は、一見しただけでは、政変や外国からの侵略、王朝の打倒といったものによって引き起こされれているかのように見える。しかしこれらの出来事をより注意深く調査すれば、それらの表面的な原因の背後に、民衆に関する思想についての根本的な修正という原因があったことが明らかになる。真の歴史変動というものは、その規模や暴力で私たちを驚かせるたぐいのものではない。文明の結実を一新させる唯一重要な変化とは、それ以降の思想・概念・信念1に影響をもたらすようなものだ。記憶に値する歴史上の出来事とは、人間の思考という目に見えないものに変化を与え、そこからもたらされた、目に見える結果のことである。このような出来事がまれにしか見られないのは、人間に引き継がれている思考の枠組みというものは種そのものと同様に安定しており、他に類するものがないからである。2 現代は、人類の思考が変換の過程を経ている重要な瞬間のうちの1つである。この変換の根本には、2つの基礎的な要因がある。ひとつは、我々の文明の全ての要素が基礎付けられている、宗教的・政治的・社会的信念の破壊である。もうひとつは、現代科学と産業の諸発見の結果としてもたらされた、存在と思考の全く新しい状態の創造である。過去の思考は半ば崩壊したけれども、いまだ十分に力を保っており、それに替わるべき思想もいまだ形成段階で、現代は移行期・無秩序時代とも言える。したがって現時点でこの混沌とした状況から何が生まれ出てくるかを推定することは容易ではない。来るべき社会はどのような基本的思想の上に立脚したものになるのだろうか? それは今のところはわからない。しかし、未来の社会がどのようなラインの上に引かれるものであっても、現代において最後まで生きのびるであろう主権者たる新たな勢力・群集の力を重視しなければならないことは明らかである。かつては正しいものとして扱われたが現在では滅びてしまった思想や、相次ぐ革命により倒された政権などの廃虚の上に、この新たな勢力・群集は立ち上がり、他の勢力をも呑み込もうとしている。古い信念が揺らぎ、消滅していき、社会の古い支柱が1つずつ置き換わっていきつつある中で、群集の勢力は何者をも恐れず、増加する一方である。まさに「群集の時代」を迎えようとしているのだ。ほんの1世紀前3では、ヨーロッパ諸国の伝統的な政策や国王らの抗争が[歴史的な]事象を引き起こす主要な要因となっていた。群集の世論などというものはほとんど考慮されないか、全く考慮されなかった。しかし今日では、個人の性向や支配者層の抗争などとるに足らない問題となり、逆に群集の声が優勢になってきている。王侯に命令を下すのがこの[群集の]声であり、現在では、国家の運命も群集によって作り上げられるものであり、もはや王子らの会議で決定するものではないのだ。一般大衆4が統治階級に進出しつつあるという事実が我々の時代の最も著しい特徴である。長い間影響力を持つものではなかったのだ。群集5の力が急激に大きくなったのはある思想6が人々の中に普及し、概念の実現のために個人どうしが群れた7からである。群れることで、群集は自分たちの利益を尊重する概念−望んでいるまさにそのものでなくとも、極めて明確に思い描いているもの−を入手するに至った。そしてようやく[結束した]自分たちの強さに気づいたのだ。群集は、いかなる権威も服従するシンジケートを作り上げた。さらにどんな経済状態でも労働と賃金の関係を支配する労働組合も作り出した。群集は政府が主催する集会に代表者を派遣するが、その代表者は自主性と独立性に欠けており、結局のところ自らを選出した委員会のスポークスマンでしかない。今日では、群集の要求はかなり明確なものとなってきた。文明成立以前の人間の状態である原始共産制にもどることを目指しているかのように、今ある社会を徹底的に破壊しようとしているのだ。8 労働時間の制限、鉱山・鉄道・工場・土地の国有化、全ての生産物の平等な分配、一般大衆のための上流階級の廃止といったことが要求の内容である。群集は、推論させるにはほとんど適さないが、行動となると迅速である。9 現在の組織の結果として、群集の力は強大になった。我々がその誕生を目撃している新しい教義は、古い教義と同等の力−議論を制する専制的で絶対的な力−をもつことになるであろう。群集への権利の神授説は、王権神授説にとって替わろうとしているのだ。中産階級というものは狭量な思想を持ち、決まりきったものの見方をし、表層的な懐疑主義に陥り、極端なエゴイズムになっているものだが、そういう彼らのお気に召すような文筆家は、新たな群集の勃興に警鐘を鳴らす。そして[中産階級の]人心の混乱を静めるために、一度は価値がないと見放したはずの教会の権威を持ち出して対処しようとしている。さらに科学の破綻を示し、ローマ10への恭順を説き、隠された真実の教説を想起させようとする。しかし、これらの新しい「改宗者」は、[自分たちのやっていることが]もはや後手になってしまっていることを忘れている。仮にその改宗者たちが本当に恩寵に心を動かされたとしても、同じ教説を信じない者にとっては何とも感じることはないのだ。これまで説諭者たちが否定し、破壊をすすめてきた神を、今度は群集が否定する。神であれ人間であれ、川の流れを水源に戻すことなどできはしないのである。実際には科学は破綻していない11し、現在の知的な無政府状態や[群集という]新たな勢力の勃興は無縁である。科学は我々に真実を約束した―少なくとも我々に関係する知識[の提供]を約束した。しかし、決して平和や幸福を約束したわけではない。我々の感情などには無関心なのだから、科学は我々の悲嘆に耳を貸さない。科学が破壊した幻想はもはやとりもどすことは出来ないので、科学と共存するには我々のほうが努力するしかないのである。あらゆる国で見られる一般的な傾向として、群集の力が急激に成長しており、もはや早期に阻止することはできず、何が起ころうともその結果を受け入れるしかないであろう。抵抗するのは無駄である。確かに群集の到来が西洋文明の最終段階をもたらし、全ての新社会誕生に先行するあの混乱した無政府状態の時代への完璧な回帰をもたらすことは可能である。この結果は防ぐことができるのか? これまで、古い文明を徹底的に破壊することが、群集の最も明白な仕事であった。それが指摘されるのは今に始まったことではない。文明を支えている道徳が効力を失ったとき、無意識ではあるが残酷な群集によって最終的に破壊されるということを歴史が示している。文明は少数の知的な貴族によって創設され方向付けられてきたのであって、群集によってではない。群集のもたらすものは破壊のみである。12 混乱が群集のルールである。文明には、固定的な規則や規律、本能的状態から理性的状態への移行、将来に対する見とおし、文化の高尚な段階というものが含まれているものである。しかしこれらは群集には及びもつかないことであろう。群集は、その純粋に破壊的な力をもって、衰弱した肉体や死体の分解を早める微生物のようなものだ。文明の構造が腐敗したとき、崩壊に至らせるのが群集である。そのような局面こそが群集の使命が明白に現れるときであり、その間は、数の哲学が歴史の哲学になるのだ。同じ運命が我々の文明を待ち受けているのであろうか? 今のところは、それはわからない。群集についての議論が始まったものの、実は我々はほとんど群集に関する知識がほとんどない。心理学の専門家たちは群集とは別世界で生活しているがために、常に群集を無視してきた。注意を払ったとしても群衆の犯罪という観点からであった。確かに、犯罪的な群集というものは存在する。一方で、群集にも高潔で英雄的なものも、その他の様々なタイプの群集が存在しうるのだ。犯罪的な群集とは心理学上の特定の局面でしかない。個人の悪行だけからその人の精神状態を記述できないように、犯罪的な側面からだけでは群集の精神構造を分析することはできない。世界の全ての支配者、全ての宗教の創唱者、全ての帝国の創始者、全ての信念の唱導者、著名な政治家から身近なところでは小さなグループのリーダーに至るまで、彼(女)らは無意識であるけれども常に心理学者であり、本能的に極めて正確に群集の性質を把握していたのだ。その正確な知識のおかげでその地位を獲得できたのである。ナポレオンは、自らの支配する領土(フランス)の群集の心理には長けていたが、それ以外の土地の群衆の性質に関してはまったくの誤解をしていた。[1] この誤解のためにスペインで、そして特にロシアで自らを破滅に導く戦争に突入していったのである。現在では群集の心理学の知識は、群集を支配する―これは非常に難しくなっている―ためではなく、群集に支配されることを望まない政治家にとっての最後の資源となっている。法律や制度と言うものがいかに群集に影響を与えないかということうや群集が押しつけられた意見とは違う意見をもつことの困難さを群集心理学は明らかにする。群集を動かすのは、純粋な平等の理論に基づいたルールではなく、印象であり、群集を魅惑するものなのだ。たとえば、新しい課税を望む立法者は理論上最も公正な制度を選択すべきだろうか? そうではない。実際、最も公正に欠くものでも、群集にとっては最良のものとなることがあるからだ。新課税がほとんど目立たず、対した負担でないと見える場合がそうである。この理由から、間接税は、それが法外なものであろうとも承認されるだろう。というのも、日々の消費から少しずつ徴収されることになるので習慣を妨げないからだ。ところがこれを賃金や所得への比例税という形で課税すると、その負担が10倍軽くても、総反対を食らうことになるだろう。日々の少額の徴収が、大きな総額にとってかわるということである。この新しい税も、ほんの少しずつ徴収されたなら気にならないであろう。このような経済的な方法は、群集が持ち合わせていない洞察力を必要とするのである。先述の例は、その簡単な例であり、容易に理解されるだろう。ナポレオンのような心理学者はそのことに気づいていたが、多くの立法者たちは群集の性質について無知であり、理解することが出来ないであろう。人間は純粋理性の命令にしたがって行動するわけではないと言うことを、経験から知ることはなかったのである。群集心理学の応用は他にも考えることができるだろう。群集心理学の知識は、これまで不可解なものとして解明できなかった歴史的・経済的現象に分析の光を投げかける。私は、注目に値する歴史家タン(Hippolyte Adolphe Taine ,1828-1893)がフランス革命の記述に関して理解が不充分であったのは、群集の天分についての理解が足りなかったためだと見ている。彼のとって方法は博物学者の方法であり、道徳の力に関する分析に欠けていたのだ。まさに歴史を展開してゆく力を構成するものであるにもかかわらず、である。結論として、現実的な観点からは、群集心理の研究は取り組むべき価値があると思われる。仮にそれが単に純粋な好奇心に起因するものであったとしても、注意を払うに値するのではないだろうか。人間の行為の動機を探求することは、鉱物や植物の特徴を研究することと同程度に興味深いものなのだ。著者が行った群集の性質に関する研究は、仮説であり、概要に過ぎない。 [この著作においては]示唆的な視点をいくつか与えた程度であり、それ以上のことを求められるべきものではない。他の人々が徹底的に踏査していくであろう。私たちは今のところ、未踏であった領域にほんの少し踏み込んだだけに過ぎない。悪いことに、彼の側近は、さらにこのこの心理学を理解していなかった。タレーラン(Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord ,1754-1838)はナポレオンに「スペインはナポレオン軍を解放軍として歓迎するだろう」と書簡を送ったが、実際にはスペインでは野獣扱いであった。スペイン民族の本能に熟知した心理学者なら、この反応を予測できたであろう。(本文へ戻る↑) この『群集心理』が書かれたのは1895年だから、「1世紀前」とはもちろん18世紀末期あたりを指す。(本文へ戻る↑) Jan 15,2000 指摘を受けてちょっとだけ修正。ver 0.101。第1編群集の精神第1章: 群集の一般的な特徴群集の心理的一体化に関する心理学的法則心理学的見地からの群集の構成 −単に数が集まるだけでは群集にはならない −心理的群集の特性 −群集を構成する個人の思想や情念が一方向に傾くことと個性の喪失 −群集は常に無意識に思い描いているものに支配されている −思考停止と脊髄反射的反応の優越 −知性の低下と情念の完全な転換 −それは群集を構成する個人の情念とは異なるものとなる −群集は容易に英雄的にも犯罪的にもなる。通常の意味では「群集(crowd)」という言葉は個人の集合を意味する。国籍も職業も性別も問わないし、なぜ集まっているのかも問題ではない。しかし心理学的な見地からは「群集」という表現には際立った意味がこめられる。それは、人々の集合がそれを構成する個人の特性とは異なる新しい特性を示す場合で、かつその場合に限られる。その場合、集まっている人々の情念や思想が1つの方向に傾き、一時的ではあるが集合精神(collective mind)とも言うべき状態が形成され、非常に際立った性質をあらわすものである。この集団は、適当な呼び方がないので「組織化された群集(organised crowd)」とでも言っておくが−心理的群集(psychological crowd)と呼んでもいいが−、そういったものになるのである。それは単一の存在として、群集の心理的一体化に関する心理学的法則に従うものである。たまたま多くの個人が集まったからと言って、組織化された群集の性質を帯びると言うものでもない。たまたまどこかで1000人の人が、これといった目的もなく集まっているからと言って、心理学的見地から見た群集を構成するわけではない。そのような特質を得るためにはある種の刺激が必要なのである。1 これは、群集が組織化されていく際の最初の特徴でもあるのだが、意識的な個人が消滅し、感情と思考があるきまった方向に向かうときには、必ずしも多数の個人が同じ場所にいる必要はない。例えば大規模な国家的出来事が起こって[多くの人の心のなかに]激しく感情が奮い起こされたときなどがそうだ。もしそのときたまたま集まる機会がありさえすれば、群集としての特質をあらわす行動にでるだろう。半ダースくらいの人数でも心理的群集としての振る舞いをすることもあれば、何百人が集まったところで何も起こらないこともある。一方、一国全体が、それとわかる集団を形成しなくとも、ある種の影響下で群集となってしまうこともあるだろう。心理的群集というものは、一旦形成されてしまうと、一時的ではあるが確固とした一般的性質を帯びる。この一般的性質に、群集の構成や心理構造によって異なる特殊な性質が付け加わってゆく。心理的群集は[その性質によって]分類することができる。2 異なった構成要素からなる異質的な群集であっても、[同じ]党派や身分や階級などからなる群集と同じように共通の性質を持っているものだし、これら2つを区別する特殊な性質を示すこともできる。群集のそれぞれのカテゴリーを見ていく前に、まず、全ての群集に共通の性質を見ていくこととしよう。博物学者[の手法]にならって、ある科(family)に属する構成要素に共通する一般的性質を記述し、次いでその科に含まれる属(genera)や種(spiecies)を区別する特徴について触れていくものとする。群集の精神を正確に記述するのは容易なことではない。その機構(しくみ)が出自や構成によって異なるだけでなく、群集が影響を受けている実際の要因の性質や強度によっても千変万化するからである。とはいうものの、個人の心理を研究する場合にも同様の困難は発生するものである。ある人物が不変の性質で全人生を貫くということは小説の中だけの話だ。環境が変わらなければ見かけ上は性質も変わらないように見えるということだけである。どんな精神構造でも、環境の激変によって現出する可能性を秘めているものだ。このことは[フランス革命時に粛清の嵐が吹き荒れた]国民公会の中に、[革命が起こっていなければ]温和な公証人や有徳な行政官であったであろう人々が参加していたことでも説明ができるだろう。革命の嵐が去ると彼等は普段の性質に戻った。ナポレオンは彼等の中に従順な僕(しもべ)を見たのである。群集による組織の一連の段階の全てを研究することは不可能であるから、特にすっかり組織化された段階3の群集に特に焦点をあてて見ていくこととしよう。こうすることによって群集の常態がどのようなものであるかということではなく、いったいどのようなものに変化するかということが明らかになるであろう。民族の不変で支配的な性質にある新しい特殊な性質が重なって現れるのは、組織化が進んだ段階においてのみである。そしてその状態から、既に先ほどほのめかしておいた、集団の感情や思考が一定の方向に向けられるという性質が現れるのである。そしてその環境でおいてのみ、先ほど群集の心理的一体化に関する心理学的法則と呼んだものが作動するのである。4 群集の心理学的な性質の中でそれぞれの個体に共通に現れる性質もあれば、反対に集団を構成した時にしか現れない性質もある。まずその重要性を明らかにするために、集団を構成した場合にのみ現れる特殊な性質を解明していこう。心理学的群集に際立って現れる特徴とは、群集を構成する個人の生活様式や職業・性格・知性がどのようなものであれ、それぞればらばらに居るときとは全く異なる様式で感じ、思考し行動するという事実である。個人が集団を形成した時にしか現れない思想や感情というものも存在する。心理学的群集は異質な要素がある瞬間に接合したような暫定的な存在(provisional being)であって、ちょうど生体を構成する細胞が1つ1つの細胞のもち性質とは非常に異なる性質を示す新たな生体を構成するために再結合するようなものである。スペンサー(Herbert Spencer;1855-1893)のような哲学者が主張する意見とは異なり、群集を構成する集合体には各要素の総和や平均値というものは存在しない。まさに化学における結合反応で新化合物が生成するようなものだ。たとえば塩基と酸が結合する前と後とではまるで異なる性質を持つようなものである。群集を構成する個人がばらばらでいる時と異なる性質を示すことは容易であるが、その原因を明らかにすることは困難である。この原因について細部にまでわたって理解するには、器官の作用のみならず意識の作用に関しても無意識現象が重要な働きをしているという現代心理学の真実をまず思い起こすべきであろう。無意識の作用のもとにある生活5に比べれば、意識の作用のもとにある生活は対した重要性を持たない。しかしどんな優秀な分析者・観察者であっても、自らの行為を決定する無意識的動機を発見、特定することはなかなか困難である。我々の意識的行動ですら、主に遺伝的影響でもたらされる無意識的な基盤からもたらされるものなのである。そしてこの基盤は幾世代にもわたって伝えられてきた無数の共通の性質から構成されているのである。我々の行動の背景には我々の気づき得ない原因が横たわっている。日常の行動の大部分が観察もできない隠された動機の結果なのである。ある民族に属する個人どうしが互いによく似ているのは民族の性質を決定する無意識的要素によるものであり、個々の人間に差異があるのは教育の成果や遺伝条件といった意識的要素によるものである。知性の面ではかなり異なる者どうしであったとしても、本能や情熱、感情という点から見れば大した差はない。感情に関することがら、例えば宗教・政治・道徳・愛情・反感など6は、どんなに優れた人が居たとしても常人のレベルを遥かに超越することなどできない。偉大な数学者とその数学者のはく靴をつくる職人とでは知性の面では大きな隔たりがある7が、性質の面から言えば差は全くないか、あっても極めて少しである。この性質(性格)の一般的傾向は無意識の力によって支配されているものであり、1つの民族に属する標準的な個人が同程度に持っているもので、まさにこれが群集として共通に現れる性質なのである。集団的精神の中では個人の知的な才能・個性は弱体化する。同質性が異質性を凌駕し、無意識的性質が優性になるのだ。8 高度な知性が要求される行為を群集が為し得ないのは、まさに群集が凡庸な性質を共通に持っているという事実によるものである。それぞれ分野の異なる専門家による一般的事項に関する会議の結論が、愚かな人々*9による会議の結論に比べて優れていると言うわけではない。実際のところ、平均的個人が持って生まれた凡庸な性質で取り組むしかないのである。群集の中では蓄積されるのは持って生まれた才覚ではないのだ。頻繁に繰り返されてきたことであるが、世界中の誰もがヴォルテール(Voltaire:本名 Francois Marie Arouet;1694 - 1778)ほど機知に富んではいない。もしこの「世界中」というのが群集を意味するのであれば、確かにそうなのだ。しかし、もし群集を構成するそれぞれが、[群集になることで]その平凡な性質を混合するだけのことであったなら、単に平均化という結果が得られるだけで、先ほどから見ている、新しい性質が発生することは説明されない。ならば、この新しい性質はどうやって生まれてくるのか。それを今から考えてみよう。隔絶された個人が持っていない性質で、群衆のみが持つ性質が出現するためには様々な要因が挙げられる。 1つめの要因は、もし1人でいたならばきっと抑制したであろうが、ただ群集の一部を構成しているというだけで、まるで無敵の力が本能を解き放つかのような意識にとらわれることである。群集が匿名となり、そのために責任の所在がわからなくなれば、群集を構成する個人は自らの行動に対する責任をとり、行動を制御する感覚が全く無くなってしまうのだ。 2つめの要因は伝染である。群集を特徴付けるものであり、かつ同時に群集がとる傾向である。この伝染という現象はよく見うけられるが、[それがなぜ起こるかについての]説明は容易ではない。この現象は催眠術のようなものとは区別されねばならず、近いうちに解明されるべき課題である。群集の中では感情も行動も伝染し、[群集の]集団的な利益のためには個人の利益が簡単に犠牲にされることもあるくらいだ。これは個人の本性とは真っ向から対立し、群集の一部でいる時以外にはまず現れない性質である。 (ごめん、これから訳すから待っててね。先に訳してくれてもいいけど。)	THE MIND OF CROWDS INTRODUCTION THE ERA OF CROWDS The great upheavals which precede changes of civilisations such as the fall of the Roman Empire and the foundation of the Arabian Empire, seem at first sight determined more especially by political transformations, foreign invasion, or the overthrow of dynasties. But a more attentive study of these events shows that behind their apparent causes the real cause is generally seen to be a profound modification in the ideas of the peoples. The true historical upheavals are not those which astonish us by their grandeur and violence. The only important changes whence the renewal of civilisations results, affect ideas, conceptions, and beliefs. The memorable events of history are the visible effects of the invisible changes of human thought. The reason these great events are so rare is that there is nothing so stable in a race as the inherited groundwork of its thoughts. The present epoch is one of these critical moments in which the thought of mankind is undergoing a process of transformation. Two fundamental factors are at the base of this transformation. The first is the destruction of those religious, political, and social beliefs in which all the elements of our civilisation are rooted. The second is the creation of entirely new conditions of existence and thought as the result of modern scientific and industrial discoveries. The ideas of the past, although half destroyed, being still very powerful, and the ideas which are to replace them being still in process of formation, the modern age represents a period of transition and anarchy. It is not easy to say as yet what will one day be evolved from this necessarily somewhat chaotic period. What will be the fundamental ideas on which the societies that are to succeed our own will be built up? We do not at present know. Still it is already clear that on whatever lines the societies of the future are organised, they will have to count with a new power, with the last surviving sovereign force of modern times, the power of crowds. On the ruins of so many ideas formerly considered beyond discussion, and to-day decayed or decaying, of so many sources of authority that successive revolutions have destroyed, this power, which alone has arisen in their stead, seems soon destined to absorb the others. While all our ancient beliefs are tottering and disappearing, while the old pillars of society are giving way one by one, the power of the crowd is the only force that nothing menaces, and of which the prestige is continually on the increase. The age we are about to enter will in truth be the ERA OF CROWDS. Scarcely a century ago the traditional policy of European states and the rivalries of sovereigns were the principal factors that shaped events. The opinion of the masses scarcely counted, and most frequently indeed did not count at all. To-day it is the traditions which used to obtain in politics, and the individual tendencies and rivalries of rulers which do not count; while, on the contrary, the voice of the masses has become preponderant. It is this voice that dictates their conduct to kings, whose endeavour is to take note of its utterances. The destinies of nations are elaborated at present in the heart of the masses, and no longer in the councils of princes. The entry of the popular classes into political life--that is to say, in reality, their progressive transformation into governing classes--is one of the most striking characteristics of our epoch of transition. The introduction of universal suffrage, which exercised for a long time but little influence, is not, as might be thought, the distinguishing feature of this transference of political power. The progressive growth of the power of the masses took place at first by the propagation of certain ideas, which have slowly implanted themselves in men's minds, and afterwards by the gradual association of individuals bent on bringing about the realisation of theoretical conceptions. It is by association that crowds have come to procure ideas with respect to their interests which are very clearly defined if not particularly just, and have arrived at a consciousness of their strength. The masses are founding syndicates before which the authorities capitulate one after the other; they are also founding labour unions, which in spite of all economic laws tend to regulate the conditions of labour and wages. They return to assemblies in which the Government is vested, representatives utterly lacking initiative and independence, and reduced most often to nothing else than the spokesmen of the committees that have chosen them. To-day the claims of the masses are becoming more and more sharply defined, and amount to nothing less than a determination to utterly destroy society as it now exists, with a view to making it hark back to that primitive communism which was the normal condition of all human groups before the dawn of civilisation. Limitations of the hours of labour, the nationalisation of mines, railways, factories, and the soil, the equal distribution of all products, the elimination of all the upper classes for the benefit of the popular classes, &c., such are these claims. Little adapted to reasoning, crowds, on the contrary, are quick to act. As the result of their present organisation their strength has become immense. The dogmas whose birth we are witnessing will soon have the force of the old dogmas; that is to say, the tyrannical and sovereign force of being above discussion. The divine right of the masses is about to replace the divine right of kings. The writers who enjoy the favour of our middle classes, those who best represent their rather narrow ideas, their somewhat prescribed views, their rather superficial scepticism, and their at times somewhat excessive egoism, display profound alarm at this new power which they see growing; and to combat the disorder in men's minds they are addressing despairing appeals to those moral forces of the Church for which they formerly professed so much disdain. They talk to us of the bankruptcy of science, go back in penitence to Rome, and remind us of the teachings of revealed truth. These new converts forget that it is too late. Had they been really touched by grace, a like operation could not have the same influence on minds less concerned with the preoccupations which beset these recent adherents to religion. The masses repudiate to-day the gods which their admonishers repudiated yesterday and helped to destroy. There is no power, Divine or human, that can oblige a stream to flow back to its source. There has been no bankruptcy of science, and science has had no share in the present intellectual anarchy, nor in the making of the new power which is springing up in the midst of this anarchy. Science promised us truth, or at least a knowledge of such relations as our intelligence can seize: it never promised us peace or happiness. Sovereignly indifferent to our feelings, it is deaf to our lamentations. It is for us to endeavour to live with science, since nothing can bring back the illusions it has destroyed. Universal symptoms, visible in all nations, show us the rapid growth of the power of crowds, and do not admit of our supposing that it is destined to cease growing at an early date. Whatever fate it may reserve for us, we shall have to submit to it. All reasoning against it is a mere vain war of words. Certainly it is possible that the advent to power of the masses marks one of the last stages of Western civilisation, a complete return to those periods of confused anarchy which seem always destined to precede the birth of every new society. But may this result be prevented? Up to now these thoroughgoing destructions of a worn-out civilisation have constituted the most obvious task of the masses. It is not indeed to-day merely that this can be traced. History tells us, that from the moment when the moral forces on which a civilisation rested have lost their strength, its final dissolution is brought about by those unconscious and brutal crowds known, justifiably enough, as barbarians. Civilisations as yet have only been created and directed by a small intellectual aristocracy, never by crowds. Crowds are only powerful for destruction. Their rule is always tantamount to a barbarian phase. A civilisation involves fixed rules, discipline, a passing from the instinctive to the rational state, forethought for the future, an elevated degree of culture --all of them conditions that crowds, left to themselves, have invariably shown themselves incapable of realising. In consequence of the purely destructive nature of their power crowds act like those microbes which hasten the dissolution of enfeebled or dead bodies. When the structure of a civilisation is rotten, it is always the masses that bring about its downfall. It is at such a juncture that their chief mission is plainly visible, and that for a while the philosophy of number seems the only philosophy of history. Is the same fate in store for our civilisation? There is ground to fear that this is the case, but we are not as yet in a position to be certain of it. We have a very slight knowledge of these crowds which are beginning to be the object of so much discussion. Professional students of psychology, having lived far from them, have always ignored them, and when, as of late, they have turned their attention in this direction it has only been to consider the crimes crowds are capable of committing. Without a doubt criminal crowds exist, but virtuous and heroic crowds, and crowds of many other kinds, are also to be met with. The crimes of crowds only constitute a particular phase of their psychology. The mental constitution of crowds is not to be learnt merely by a study of their crimes, any more than that of an individual by a mere description of his vices. However, in point of fact, all the world's masters, all the founders of religions or empires, the apostles of all beliefs, eminent statesmen, and, in a more modest sphere, the mere chiefs of small groups of men have always been unconscious psychologists, possessed of an instinctive and often very sure knowledge of the character of crowds, and it is their accurate knowledge of this character that has enabled them to so easily establish their mastery. Napoleon had a marvellous insight into the psychology of the masses of the country over which he reigned, but he, at times, completely misunderstood the psychology of crowds belonging to other races;[1] and it is because he thus misunderstood it that he engaged in Spain, and notably in Russia, in conflicts in which his power received blows which were destined within a brief space of time to ruin it. A knowledge of the psychology of crowds is to-day the last resource of the statesman who wishes not to govern them--that is becoming a very difficult matter--but at any rate not to be too much governed by them. It is only by obtaining some sort of insight into the psychology of crowds that it can be understood how slight is the action upon them of laws and institutions, how powerless they are to hold any opinions other than those which are imposed upon them, and that it is not with rules based on theories of pure equity that they are to be led, but by seeking what produces an impression on them and what seduces them. For instance, should a legislator, wishing to impose a new tax, choose that which would be theoretically the most just? By no means. In practice the most unjust may be the best for the masses. Should it at the same time be the least obvious, and apparently the least burdensome, it will be the most easily tolerated. It is for this reason that an indirect tax, however exorbitant it be, will always be accepted by the crowd, because, being paid daily in fractions of a farthing on objects of consumption, it will not interfere with the habits of the crowd, and will pass unperceived. Replace it by a proportional tax on wages or income of any other kind, to be paid in a lump sum, and were this new imposition theoretically ten times less burdensome than the other, it would give rise to unanimous protest. This arises from the fact that a sum relatively high, which will appear immense, and will in consequence strike the imagination, has been substituted for the unperceived fractions of a farthing. The new tax would only appear light had it been saved farthing by farthing, but this economic proceeding involves an amount of foresight of which the masses are incapable. The example which precedes is of the simplest. Its appositeness will be easily perceived. It did not escape the attention of such a psychologist as Napoleon, but our modern legislators, ignorant as they are of the characteristics of a crowd, are unable to appreciate it. Experience has not taught them as yet to a sufficient degree that men never shape their conduct upon the teaching of pure reason. Many other practical applications might be made of the psychology of crowds. A knowledge of this science throws the most vivid light on a great number of historical and economic phenomena totally incomprehensible without it. I shall have occasion to show that the reason why the most remarkable of modern historians, Taine, has at times so imperfectly understood the events of the great French Revolution is, that it never occurred to him to study the genius of crowds. He took as his guide in the study of this complicated period the descriptive method resorted to by naturalists; but the moral forces are almost absent in the case of the phenomena which naturalists have to study. Yet it is precisely these forces that constitute the true mainsprings of history. In consequence, merely looked at from its practical side, the study of the psychology of crowds deserved to be attempted. Were its interest that resulting from pure curiosity only, it would still merit attention. It is as interesting to decipher the motives of the actions of men as to determine the characteristics of a mineral or a plant. Our study of the genius of crowds can merely be a brief synthesis, a simple summary of our investigations. Nothing more must be demanded of it than a few suggestive views. Others will work the ground more thoroughly. To-day we only touch the surface of a still almost virgin soil. [1] His most subtle advisers, moreover, did not understand this psychology any better. Talleyrand wrote him that "Spain would receive his soldiers as liberators." It received them as beasts of prey. A psychologist acquainted with the hereditary instincts of the Spanish race would have easily foreseen this reception. この「一般大衆」とあるのは、一応、“popular classes”の訳。 Updated 2000/01/15 by Felix BOOK I THE MIND OF CROWDS CHAPTER I GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CROWDS. --PSYCHOLOGICAL LAW OF THEIR MENTAL UNITY. What constitutes a crowd from the psychological point of view --A numerically strong agglomeration of individuals does not suffice to form a crowd --Special characteristics of psychological crowds --The turning in a fixed direction of the ideas and sentiments of individuals composing such a crowd, and the disappearance of their personality --The crowd is always dominated by considerations of which it is unconscious --The disappearance of brain activity and the predominance of medullar activity --The lowering of the intelligence and the complete transformation of the sentiments --The transformed sentiments may be better or worse than those of the individuals of which the crowd is composed --A crowd is as easily heroic as criminal. In its ordinary sense the word "crowd" means a gathering of individuals of whatever nationality, profession, or sex, and whatever be the chances that have brought them together. From the psychological point of view the expression "crowd" assumes quite a different signification. Under certain given circumstances, and only under those circumstances, an agglomeration of men presents new characteristics very different from those of the individuals composing it. The sentiments and ideas of all the persons in the gathering take one and the same direction, and their conscious personality vanishes. A collective mind is formed, doubtless transitory, but presenting very clearly defined characteristics. The gathering has thus become what, in the absence of a better expression, I will call an organised crowd, or, if the term is considered preferable, a psychological crowd. It forms a single being, and is subjected to the LAW OF THE MENTAL UNITY OF CROWDS. It is evident that it is not by the mere fact of a number of individuals finding themselves accidentally side by side that they acquire the character of an organised crowd. A thousand individuals accidentally gathered in a public place without any determined object in no way constitute a crowd from the psychological point of view. To acquire the special characteristics of such a crowd, the influence is necessary of certain predisposing causes of which we shall have to determine the nature. The disappearance of conscious personality and the turning of feelings and thoughts in a definite direction, which are the primary characteristics of a crowd about to become organised, do not always involve the simultaneous presence of a number of individuals on one spot. Thousands of isolated individuals may acquire at certain moments, and under the influence of certain violent emotions--such, for example, as a great national event--the characteristics of a psychological crowd. It will be sufficient in that case that a mere chance should bring them together for their acts to at once assume the characteristics peculiar to the acts of a crowd. At certain moments half a dozen men might constitute a psychological crowd, which may not happen in the case of hundreds of men gathered together by accident. On the other hand, an entire nation, though there may be no visible agglomeration, may become a crowd under the action of certain influences. A psychological crowd once constituted, it acquires certain provisional but determinable general characteristics. To these general characteristics there are adjoined particular characteristics which vary according to the elements of which the crowd is composed, and may modify its mental constitution. Psychological crowds, then, are susceptible of classification; and when we come to occupy ourselves with this matter, we shall see that a heterogeneous crowd--that is, a crowd composed of dissimilar elements--presents certain characteristics in common with homogeneous crowds--that is, with crowds composed of elements more or less akin (sects, castes, and classes)--and side by side with these common characteristics particularities which permit of the two kinds of crowds being differentiated. But before occupying ourselves with the different categories of crowds, we must first of all examine the characteristics common to them all. We shall set to work like the naturalist, who begins by describing the general characteristics common to all the members of a family before concerning himself with the particular characteristics which allow the differentiation of the genera and species that the family includes. It is not easy to describe the mind of crowds with exactness, because its organisation varies not only according to race and composition, but also according to the nature and intensity of the exciting causes to which crowds are subjected. The same difficulty, however, presents itself in the psychological study of an individual. It is only in novels that individuals are found to traverse their whole life with an unvarying character. It is only the uniformity of the environment that creates the apparent uniformity of characters. I have shown elsewhere that all mental constitutions contain possibilities of character which may be manifested in consequence of a sudden change of environment. This explains how it was that among the most savage members of the French Convention were to be found inoffensive citizens who, under ordinary circumstances, would have been peaceable notaries or virtuous magistrates. The storm past, they resumed their normal character of quiet, law-abiding citizens. Napoleon found amongst them his most docile servants. It being impossible to study here all the successive degrees of organisation of crowds, we shall concern ourselves more especially with such crowds as have attained to the phase of complete organisation. In this way we shall see what crowds may become, but not what they invariably are. It is only in this advanced phase of organisation that certain new and special characteristics are superposed on the unvarying and dominant character of the race; then takes place that turning already alluded to of all the feelings and thoughts of the collectivity in an identical direction. It is only under such circumstances, too, that what I have called above the PSYCHOLOGICAL LAW OF THE MENTAL UNITY OF CROWDS comes into play. Among the psychological characteristics of crowds there are some that they may present in common with isolated individuals, and others, on the contrary, which are absolutely peculiar to them and are only to be met with in collectivities. It is these special characteristics that we shall study, first of all, in order to show their importance. The most striking peculiarity presented by a psychological crowd is the following: Whoever be the individuals that compose it, however like or unlike be their mode of life, their occupations, their character, or their intelligence, the fact that they have been transformed into a crowd puts them in possession of a sort of collective mind which makes them feel, think, and act in a manner quite different from that in which each individual of them would feel, think, and act were he in a state of isolation. There are certain ideas and feelings which do not come into being, or do not transform themselves into acts except in the case of individuals forming a crowd. The psychological crowd is a provisional being formed of heterogeneous elements, which for a moment are combined, exactly as the cells which constitute a living body form by their reunion a new being which displays characteristics very different from those possessed by each of the cells singly. Contrary to an opinion which one is astonished to find coming from the pen of so acute a philosopher as Herbert Spencer, in the aggregate which constitutes a crowd there is in no sort a summing-up of or an average struck between its elements. What really takes place is a combination followed by the creation of new characteristics, just as in chemistry certain elements, when brought into contact--bases and acids, for example--combine to form a new body possessing properties quite different from those of the bodies that have served to form it. It is easy to prove how much the individual forming part of a crowd differs from the isolated individual, but it is less easy to discover the causes of this difference. To obtain at any rate a glimpse of them it is necessary in the first place to call to mind the truth established by modern psychology, that unconscious phenomena play an altogether preponderating part not only in organic life, but also in the operations of the intelligence. The conscious life of the mind is of small importance in comparison with its unconscious life. The most subtle analyst, the most acute observer, is scarcely successful in discovering more than a very small number of the unconscious motives that determine his conduct. Our conscious acts are the outcome of an unconscious substratum created in the mind in the main by hereditary influences. This substratum consists of the innumerable common characteristics handed down from generation to generation, which constitute the genius of a race. Behind the avowed causes of our acts there undoubtedly lie secret causes that we do not avow, but behind these secret causes there are many others more secret still which we ourselves ignore. The greater part of our daily actions are the result of hidden motives which escape our observation. It is more especially with respect to those unconscious elements which constitute the genius of a race that all the individuals belonging to it resemble each other, while it is principally in respect to the conscious elements of their character--the fruit of education, and yet more of exceptional hereditary conditions--that they differ from each other. Men the most unlike in the matter of their intelligence possess instincts, passions, and feelings that are very similar. In the case of every thing that belongs to the realm of sentiment--religion, politics, morality, the affections and antipathies, &c.--the most eminent men seldom surpass the standard of the most ordinary individuals. From the intellectual point of view an abyss may exist between a great mathematician and his boot maker, but from the point of view of character the difference is most often slight or non-existent. It is precisely these general qualities of character, governed by forces of which we are unconscious, and possessed by the majority of the normal individuals of a race in much the same degree--it is precisely these qualities, I say, that in crowds become common property. In the collective mind the intellectual aptitudes of the individuals, and in consequence their individuality, are weakened. The heterogeneous is swamped by the homogeneous, and the unconscious qualities obtain the upper hand. This very fact that crowds possess in common ordinary qualities explains why they can never accomplish acts demanding a high degree of intelligence. The decisions affecting matters of general interest come to by an assembly of men of distinction, but specialists in different walks of life, are not sensibly superior to the decisions that would be adopted by a gathering of imbeciles. The truth is, they can only bring to bear in common on the work in hand those mediocre qualities which are the birthright of every average individual. In crowds it is stupidity and not mother-wit that is accumulated. It is not all the world, as is so often repeated, that has more wit than Voltaire, but assuredly Voltaire that has more wit than all the world, if by "all the world" crowds are to be understood. If the individuals of a crowd confined themselves to putting in common the ordinary qualities of which each of them has his share, there would merely result the striking of an average, and not, as we have said is actually the case, the creation of new characteristics. How is it that these new characteristics are created? This is what we are now to investigate. Different causes determine the appearance of these characteristics peculiar to crowds, and not possessed by isolated individuals. The first is that the individual forming part of a crowd acquires, solely from numerical considerations, a sentiment of invincible power which allows him to yield to instincts which, had he been alone, he would perforce have kept under restraint. He will be the less disposed to check himself from the consideration that, a crowd being anonymous, and in consequence irresponsible, the sentiment of responsibility which always controls individuals disappears entirely. The second cause, which is contagion, also intervenes to etermine the manifestation in crowds of their special characteristics, and at the same time the trend they are to take. Contagion is a phenomenon of which it is easy to establish the presence, but that it is not easy to explain. It must be classed among those phenomena of a hypnotic order, which we shall shortly study. In a crowd every sentiment and act is contagious, and contagious to such a degree that an individual readily sacrifices his personal interest to the collective interest. This is an aptitude very contrary to his nature, and of which a man is scarcely capable, except when he makes part of a crowd. A third cause, and by far the most important, determines in the individuals of a crowd special characteristics which are quite contrary at times to those presented by the isolated individual.	{ "source": "mutiyama", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
これは基地局となっていますまたこの世界にはこのような機器がなんと 50億個以上もありますつまりセルラー方式の携帯電話です我々は携帯電話で毎月 600テラバイトものデータを送信しています 0がなんと14個もある膨大な数値となっています無線通信も生活必需品となっています職場でもプライベートでも毎日のように使っていますさらに時折このようなイベントでは当たり前のように携帯電話の電源を切るよう丁寧にお願いされます重要度の高さがまさにこの技術の抱える問題を研究しようと思った理由ですつまり無線通信は生活に不可欠なのですその問題の1つが容量ですデータを送る方法として電磁波 -- 特に電波を使っています電波には制限があります量は乏しく値段は高く一定の範囲の波長しか使えませんこの制限のせいで毎月送られる膨大なバイト数や莫大なデータを処理できず無線通信の需要が満たされていないのですスペクトルを使い果すためです 2つ目の問題は効率の悪さです基地局である140万本の電波塔は大量のエネルギーを消費しますなんとエネルギーのほとんどは電波を送るためではなく塔を冷却するために使われていますそれらの電波塔の効率性はたったの5%なのですこの効率の悪さは大きな問題です 3つ目の問題は皆さんもお気づきでしょう飛行機で携帯電話を使えないという実用性の問題です病院では安全面の問題がでてきます安全性が4つ目の問題です電波は壁を通過します妨害されることもありますし人によってはあなたのネットワークを利用しようとしますこの4つが主な問題ですところがその一方で世界には140億個もの電球がありますつまり光です光は電磁スペクトルの一種ですでは他の電磁スペクトルも見てみましょうガンマ線は危険なので近づかないで下さい X線は医療の現場で役立ちます次は紫外線です程良い日焼けにはいいですが度を超すと危険です赤外線は低出力でのみ使用できます眼の保護規制がありますから次は電波ですもう問題はお分かりですねそして真ん中にあるのが光スペクトルですそう光です光は何百万年も存在しています実のところ光は我々を創造し生命を創りそして命における全てのものを創りましたつまり光は本質的に安全なのです光を通信手段に使うことは素晴らしいと思いませんか実は光を他のスペクトルと比較しました電波の量と光スペクトルの量を比べてみましたどうなったでしょうかなんと電波よりも光スペクトルの方が 1万倍も多く使用することができるのです量が多いだけではありません先程述べた数字を使いましょうこの世界には非効率的で高価なセルラー方式の基地局が 140万本ありますそれを1万倍にしてみると 140億となります 140億という数字は既にある電球の数ですつまりインフラは整っています天井を見上げると電球がたくさんありますメインフロアでも同じですこれを通信に使えるか -- 使えます何が必要になるでしょうかまず必要な事は効率も悪く高熱を発する蛍光灯を取り除いて代わりに新しい技術である LED電球を設置することです LEDは半導体の電子機器ですそして LED電球は反応がとても早いですとても速いスピードで明るさの調節が可能で電源を消すことも瞬時に行えますこの性質は不可欠です独自の技術を使って研究しましたではお見せしましょうまずは身近な物で説明しましょうそうリモコンですリモコンには赤外線LEDが付いていてそれをOn/Offするのですこれは単調なデータが遅いスピード -- 毎秒1万~2万ビット流れる仕組みですが Youtube には遅すぎますそれについて我々はある技術を開発しリモコン内の電球をさらに改良して取り替えました我々の技術を使えば単一のデータ流だけでなく数千ものデータ流を同時に送ることができますスピードも増しています我々はこの技術を SIM OFDM と呼んでいますこれは空間変調技術ですが専門用語なのでここでは詳細を割愛しますですがこのようにして光源でのデータ発信ができるようになります「素敵なスライドショーですね」と思っているでしょうがそれだけではないのです実を言うとデモ用モデルを作ったのですここでこの技術の初めてのデモンストレーションを行いますここにあるのは普通のデスクスタンドですこれに3米ドルくらいの LED電球を装着して信号処理技術を組み込みましたここには小さな穴があります光の通り道ですこれが受信機ですこの受信機が振幅の微かな変動を変換して電子信号に変えますさらに電子信号を変換して高速のデータ流を生みだします将来的にはこの小さい穴の役割をスマートフォンが担うことでしょう光センサーをつけるだけではなく内部カメラも利用できそうですこのスイッチをつけるといったい何が起こるかお察しの通りこれはデスクスタンドですスイッチをつければ本が読めるでしょう光は空間を照らしますしかし同時に動画が映っていますねこれは高画質の映像ですが光によって発信されています批評家である皆さんはこう思われているでしょう「これには何か種があるはずだ」しかしこうしてみると -- ではもう一度まだ信じられませんか正真正銘この光が高画質映像を分割して発信していますデスクスタンドを見てみるとやはり光っています人間の眼では認識できません電圧の振幅の微かな違いを我々は認識できないのです本来の目的は照明ですが同時にデータ発信も可能なのですもちろん天井からの光も受信機を照らしていますが影響を与えないようにする事ができますその理由は受信機が微かな変動だけを察知するからですこんな疑問をおもちでは? 「結局のところデータを発信している間はずっと光が必要なのか」答えはYESですですが照明をまるで電源がオフの時のようにまで暗くすることができますそんな状態でもデータ発信はできます先程 4つの課題を述べましたまずは容量 -- 電波より1万倍も多い光スペクトルがありますその数のLEDが既にありますつまり容量は問題ないです賛成してくれますよね次に効率 -- データは光を通ります元々は照明機器ですエネルギー予算を計上してみるとデータ発信は無料で行えますつまり効率はよくなります LED電球自体の効率性にはここでは触れません世界全体にLEDを設置すれば何百もの発電所が必要なくなりますこの話は置いておきましょうそして実用性 -- 光はもちろん病院の中にありますよね見えないといけませんから光は飛行機の中にもありますつまりどこにでもあるのですそうスマートフォンだってそうですよ LEDライトが付いていますこれらを使って高速データ発信が可能なのです最後に安全性 -- 光は壁を通過しませんこれには賛成してくれますよね機密データであろうが光がここにある場合壁の向こう側にいる人たちは誰も読むことができません光のある所にのみデータが存在するのですつまりこの受信機にデータを与えたくない場合私がやることはただ光をそらせばいいのですそこにはもう送られませんデータの行き先が実際に分かります私にとってこの技術の実用化は発明当時の予想を遥かに超えていますこの10年で素晴らしいアプリ開発者が何人も出ています気づいてみれば光がある所ではデータ発信技術の使い道があるのです少し例をあげてみましょう事の大きさに既にお気づきかもしれませんがこれは海底探査車で遠隔操作ができます海底を照らすために光を使っていますこの光もデータ発信に利用でき探査車同士での通信も可能となります安全第一の環境である石油化学プラントでは高周波は使えません火が点くかもしれませんしかし見ての通り光なら使えます病院では新しい医療機器に利用できそうです道路での交通規制にも使えそうですね車にはLEDライトが前後に付いています車同士の通信も可能になり情報交換によって事故を防ぐことすらできます信号と車の通信など他にも色々あります世界中の道路には数百万本もの街灯が立っています街灯で無線通信ができますこれを Li-Fi と呼んでいますライト・フィデリティーです飛行機の客室には数百個もの電球がありますこの電球を使ってデータを発信することができますあなたのお気に入りのTEDトークを長旅の間に見られますオンライン生活も不可能ではありません必要な事はマイクロチップを照明機器に取り付けるだけですこれによって生活の基盤の2つである照明と無線通信の両方の機能が得られますこれは共益関係であり今日の無線通信における 4つの問題に対する解決策だと思いますそして将来 140億個の電球が Li-Fi 装置となって世界中に整備されているでしょう向かう先はクリーンで環境に優しくそしてもっと明るい未来ですありがとうございました	And these are base stations. And we also have more than five billion of these devices here. These are cellular mobile phones. And with these mobile phones, we transmit more than 600 terabytes of data every month. This is a 6 with 14 zeroes -- a very large number. And wireless communications has become a utility like electricity and water. We use it everyday. We use it in our everyday lives now -- And we even have to be asked sometimes, very kindly, to switch off the mobile phone at events like this for good reasons. And it's this importance why I decided to look into the issues that this technology has, because it's so fundamental to our lives. And one of the issues is capacity. The way we transmit wireless data is by using electromagnetic waves -- in particular, radio waves. And radio waves are limited. They are scarce; they are expensive; and we only have a certain range of it. And it's this limitation that doesn't cope with the demand of wireless data transmissions and the number of bytes and data which are transmitted every month. And we are simply running out of spectrum. There's another problem. That is efficiency. These 1.4 million cellular radio masts, or base stations, consume a lot of energy. And mind you, most of the energy is not used to transmit the radio waves, it is used to cool the base stations. Then the efficiency of such a base station is only at about five percent. And that creates a big problem. Then there's another issue that you're all aware of. You have to switch off your mobile phone during flights. In hospitals, they are security issues. And security is another issue. These radio waves penetrate through walls. They can be intercepted, and somebody can make use of your network if he has bad intentions. So these are the main four issues. But on the other hand, we have 14 billion of these: light bulbs, light. And light is part of the electromagnetic spectrum. So let's look at this in the context of the entire electromagnetic spectrum, where we have gamma rays. You don't want to get close to gamma rays, it could be dangerous. X-rays, useful when you go to hospitals. Then there's ultraviolet light. it's good for a nice suntan, but otherwise dangerous for the human body. Infrared -- due to eye safety regulations, can be only used with low power. And then we have the radio waves, they have the issues I've just mentioned. And in the middle there, we have this visible light spectrum. It's light, and light has been around for many millions of years. And in fact, it has created us, has created life, has created all the stuff of life. So it's inherently safe to use. And wouldn't it be great to use that for wireless communications? Not only that, I compared [it to] the entire spectrum. I compared the radio waves spectrum -- with the size of the visible light spectrum. And guess what? We have 10,000 times more of that spectrum, which is there for us to use. So not only do we have this huge amount of spectrum, let's compare that with a number I've just mentioned. We have 1.4 million expensively deployed, inefficient radio cellular base stations. And multiply that by 10,000, then you end up at 14 billion. 14 billion is the number of light bulbs installed already. So we have the infrastructure there. Look at the ceiling, you see all these light bulbs. Go to the main floor, you see these light bulbs. Can we use them for communications? Yes. What do we need to do? The one thing we need to do is we have to replace these inefficient incandescent light bulbs, florescent lights, with this new technology of LED, LED light bulbs. An LED is a semiconductor. It's an electronic device. And it has a very nice acute property. Its intensity can be modulated at very high speeds, and it can be switched off at very high speeds. And this is a fundamental basic property with our technology. So let's show how we do that. Let's go to the closest neighbor to the visible light spectrum -- go to remote controls. You all know remote controls have an infrared LED -- basically you switch on the LED, and if it's off, you switch it off. And it creates a simple, low-speed data stream in 10,000 bits per second, 20,000 bits per second. Not usable for a YouTube video. What we have done is we have developed a technology replace the remote control of our light bulb. We transmit with our technology, not only a single data stream, we transmit thousands of data streams in parallel, at even higher speeds. And the technology we have developed -- it's called SIM OFDM. And it's spacial modulation -- these are the only technical terms, I'm not going into details -- but this is how we enabled that light source to transmit data. You will say, "Okay, this is nice -- a slide created in 10 minutes." But not only that. What we've done is we have also developed a demonstrator. And I'm showing for the first time in public this visible light demonstrator. And what we have here is no ordinary desk lamp. We fit in an LED light bulb, worth three U.S. dollars, put in our signal processing technology. And then what we have here is a little hole. And the light goes through that hole. There's a receiver. The receiver will convert these little, subtle changes in the amplitude that we create there into an electrical signal. And that signal is then converted back to a high-speed data stream. In the future we hope that we can integrate this little hole into these smart phones. And not only integrate a photo detector here, but maybe use the camera inside. So what happens when I switch on that light? As you would expect, it's a light, a desk lamp. Put your book beneath it and you can read. It's illuminating the space. But at the same time, you see this video coming up here. And that's a video, a high-definition video that is transmitted through that light beam. You're critical. You think, "Ha, ha, ha. This is a smart academic doing a little bit of tricks here." But let me do this. Once again. Still don't believe? It is this light that transmits this high-definition video in a split stream. And if you look at the light, it is illuminating as you would expect. You don't notice with your human eye. You don't notice the subtle changes in the amplitude that we impress onto this light bulb. It's serving the purpose of illumination, but at the same time, we are able to transmit this data. And you see, even light from the ceiling comes down here to the receiver. It can ignore that constant light, because all the receiver's interested in are subtle changes. You also have a critical question now, and you say, "Okay, do I have to have the light on all the time to have this working?" And the answer is yes. But, you can dim down the light to a level that it appears to be off. And you are still able to transmit data -- that's possible. So I've mentioned to you the four challenges. Capacity: We have 10,000 times more spectrum, 10,000 times more LEDs installed already in the infrastructure there. You would agree with me, hopefully, there's no issue of capacity anymore. Efficiency: This is data through illumination -- it's first of all an illumination device. And if you do the energy budget, the data transmission comes for free -- highly energy efficient. I don't mention the high energy efficiency of these LED light bulbs. If the whole world would deploy them, you would save hundreds of power plants. That's aside. And then I've mentioned the availability. You will agree with me that we have lights in the hospital. You need to see what to do. You have lights in an aircraft. So it's everywhere in a day there is light. Look around. Everywhere. Look at your smart phone. It has a flashlight, an LED flashlight. These are potential sources for high-speed data transmission. And then there's security. You would agree with me that light doesn't penetrate through walls. So no one, if I have a light here, if I have secure data, no one on the other side of this room through that wall would be able to read that data. And there's only data where there is light. So if I don't want that receiver to receive the data, then what I could do, turn it away. So the data goes in that direction, not there anymore. Now we can in fact see where the data is going to. So for me, the applications of it, to me, are beyond imagination at the moment. We have had a century of very nice, smart application developers. And you only have to notice, where we have light, there is a potential way to transmit data. But I can give you a few examples. Well you may see the impact already now. This is a remote operated vehicle beneath the ocean. And they use light to illuminate space down there. And this light can be used to transmit wireless data that these things [use] to communicate with each other. Intrinsically safe environments like this petrochemical plant -- you can't use RF, it may generate antenna sparks, but you can use light -- you see plenty of light there. In hospitals, for new medical instruments; in streets for traffic control. Cars have LED-based headlights, LED-based back lights, and cars can communicate with each other and prevent accidents in the way that they exchange information. Traffic lights can communicate to the car and so on. And then you have these millions of street lamps And every street lamp could be a free access point. We call it, in fact, a Li-Fi, And then we have these aircraft cabins. There are hundreds of lights in an aircraft cabin, and each of these lights could be a potential transmitter of wireless data. So you could enjoy your most favorite TED video on your long flight back home. Online life. So that is a vision, I think, that is possible. So, all we would need to do is to fit a small microchip to every potential illumination device. And this would then combine two basic functionalities: illumination and wireless data transmission. And it's this symbiosis that I personally believe could solve the four essential problems that face us in wireless communication these days. And in the future, you would not only have 14 billion light bulbs, you may have 14 billion Li-Fis deployed worldwide -- for a cleaner, a greener, and even a brighter future. Thank you.	{ "source": "iwslt2017", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
私の著書の要点は 10億人が過去40年間におよぶ経済停滞の中から抜け出せずそのためその他の人類から引き離されたことここでの本当の問題は「楽観的でいられるか」ではなく「どうしたらこの10億の人に確かな望みを与えることができるか?」今これは開発における根本的な挑戦ですここで皆さんに提供するのは世界を良くした二つの力を組み合わせた処方箋思いやりと啓発された自己利益の同盟です「思いやり」は 10億人が確かな望みをもてない社会に住んでいるからですこれは人類の悲劇です「啓発された自己利益」はこのまま経済相違が世界的な社会統合と兼ねあって後40年も続くなら我々の子供達にとって悪夢となるからです行動を起こすには思いやりが必要で真剣に取り組むには啓発された自己利益が必要ですこれは世界を変える同盟です最底辺10億人に望みを与えることに真剣に取り組むとは何を意味するのか? 実際なにができるでしょう? こう考えて下さい「豊かな国が世界の他の領域の開発に真剣に取り組んだ時何をしたか?」結構良い手がかりが掴めますかなり昔まで遡らなければならないのが難ですが以前豊かな国が他の領域を開発するのに真剣に取り組んだのは1940年代後半です豊かな国はあなた方アメリカで発展の必要があった領域は私が住むヨーロッパ戦後のヨーロッパですなぜアメリカは真剣に取り組んだか? ヨーロッパへの同情もありましたがそれだけではなくそうせざるを得なかったのです 1940年代後期は中央ヨーロッパ諸国が次々とソ連側に陥っていったので他に選択がなかったのですヨーロッパを経済発展に引き込む必要に迫られていましたではそのとき何をしたか? 大規模な援助支援ですありがとうございましたマーシャルプランです我々は再びこれを行う必要があります援助は解決策の一部です他には何をしたでしょう貿易政策を根本から覆しました戦争前のアメリカは全く保護貿易主義でした戦後市場をヨーロッパに開放しアメリカ経済に引き入れることでグローバル経済となり関税や貿易の一般規定を定めることで自由貿易を組織化しました貿易政策の転換です他に何かしましたか? 防衛政策を全面的に覆しましたね戦前のアメリカの防衛政策は孤立主義者でした戦後アメリカはそれを覆し 10万人の軍隊をヨーロッパに 40年にわたって配置します防衛政策を全面的に覆した他には? 国家主権の11戒を破棄しました戦前のアメリカは国家主権を神聖なものと位置付け国際連盟に加わる気など全くなかった戦後アメリカは国連を設立し経済協力開発機構を設立し IMFを設立しヨーロッパに欧州共同体をつくるよう促しましたどれも政府を支えあうためのシステムですそれは未だに効果的方針の重要な部分です援助貿易防衛政府もちろん課題が異なるので方針の詳細は違ってきますヨーロッパを再建するのでなく相違をなくし最下層10億が追いつけるようにするより簡単かより難しいか? 少なくとも前と同じくらい真剣に取り組む必要があります今日は四つのうち一つだけ取り上げます一番弱く聞こえるものを取り上げます我々にとって身近な存在でもある政府です具体的には政府を支持する相互システムです統治を強化するにはどうしたら良いか一つのアイデアを提案しますそしてこれが今いかに重要であるか明らかにしましょう我々が注目する機会は最下層10億人を楽観的なものにする真の基盤でそれは資源ブームです資源ブームは今までにない金額を全てではないにせよ多くの最貧国に注ぎ込んでいます商品価値が高いという理由もありますがそれだけではありません新しい発見がありますウガンダは地球上最も壊滅的な場所で原油を発見したところですガーナも原油を発見しましたギニアは大規模な鉄鉱石を新しく開発しましたたくさんの新発見がありますこれらの新しい収益は援助を小さくします一つの例をあげるとアンゴラだけで原油収益は年間500億ドルです 60カ国にまたがる最底辺10億人への昨年における援助金は340億ドルでした資源ブームに帰する最下層への資金の流れはかつてありませんでしたですから希望が持てます問題はどうすればこれが開発の助けになるかこれは転換発展する大きな機会です有効に使えるかここで多少の科学の出番です本を出版してからのことなので新しいです私は輸出品の物価の高さと商品の輸出国の成長の関係を調べました世界規模で見て世界中の国の過去40年の関係を見てみましたさしあたり最初の5-7年は素晴らしいです実際結構なことですべて上がります交易条件がよくなったのでより多くのお金を得ますしかしそれはまた全面的に生産を促進します国内総生産が著しく上がり素晴らしいです! これが短期です長期では? 15年後短期は好調長期は急落短期で成長しますがその後多くの社会は歴史的に好況が全くなかった状態より更に悪い状態に陥りますこれは物価の行方に関しての予想ではなく価格上昇の成長における長期的な影響の予想です何がうまくいかないのか?なぜ「資源の呪縛」と呼ばれるものがあるのか? 調べてわかったことは資源ブームが生じたときの当初の経済的統治レベルに重大な問題があるということ実際しっかりした統治下では資源ブームはないのです短期的に成長しそして長期的にはさらなる成長をとげますヨーロッパで最も豊かな国ノルウェーオーストラリアカナダがそうです資源の呪縛は統治の限界以下でまったく国に限定されたものですそれでも短期成長がありますそれが現在最底辺10億人に見られます今までにない最高の成長率問題は短期が持続するか過去40年をみると悪い統治下では持続しませんナイジェリアなどの国は原油が発見されなかった場合よりもひどい状況ですそこには長期的に成長できるか後退するかのしきい値がありますそのしきい値の評価基準は 1980年代中頃のポルトガルの統治レベルですさて問題は最底辺10億人はしきい値の上か下か? 1970年代の資源ブーム以降に大きな変化がありましたそれは民主主義の広がりですこれは最底辺10億人の統治を変化させたかもしれません民主主義が広がればより楽観的になれるかと調べると民主主義の影響は確かに大きく残念なことに逆作用です民主主義は独裁国家よりもこれらの資源ブームの混乱を招きますこの段階で私は研究を止めようかと思ったのですが- 民主主義はそれよりももっと複雑だと判明しました民主主義には二つの異なる面がありどれだけの権力の得るかを決定する選挙戦と権力の使い方を決定する抑制と均衡があるのです選挙競争は民主主義にダメージを与え厳正な抑制と均衡は資源ブームにとって良いことが判りましたですから最底辺10億人の国に必要なのは厳しい抑制と均衡ですそれが彼らにはありません彼らは 1990年代に即席民主主義となりました抑制と均衡のない選挙です統治を改善し抑制と均衡を導入するために我々に何ができるか? 最底辺10億人のすべての社会でそれをするだけでも激しい葛藤があります単純な提案としてこれらの資源収益を利用するために必要な主要な決定点を書き出した任意の国際基準を設けること国際基準は効果がありますすでに一つあります採取産業透明性イニシアティブですこれは政府の収益高を市民に報告することを義務付ける非常に単純な考えです提案されるや否やナイジェリアの改革派がそれを採用し押し通し収益を新聞で発表しナイジェリア新聞の発行部数は急増しました人々は政府の収益がどれくらいか知りたがっていたのです効き目はあります国際標準の内容は何でしょう? すべてを挙げることは出来ませんが例を挙げましょう最初に地中から資源をとる方法です- 地中から資源を取り出し地上に資産を築く経済プロセスですその第一歩は資源抽出の権利を売ること資源抽出の権利が現在そして過去40年にわたってどのように売られているかご存知ですか? 外国企業がやってきて大臣と取引し会社に取っては素晴らしい取引で大臣のためにも良い取引の場合が多い- でも国に取ってはよくありませんそれは単純な組織の技術で変えることができそれは立証競売と呼ばれます地球上で最も大きな専門知識をもつ公共機関はもちろん財務省です-つまり英国財務省そして英国財務省は権利の価値を計算し第3世代携帯電話の権利を売ることを決定しましたその価値は20億ポンドと算出されました売られる前に経済学者の一団が言いました「競売にかけたら?価値がはっきりするだろう」競売では200億ポンドまで競りあがりました英国財務省が10倍もはずすならシエラレオネの財務省がどんなものか想像してくださいシエラレオネの大統領にそれを言ったら彼は翌日には世界銀行に連絡し競売の専門知識のあるチームを送るよう頼みました決定点は五つありますそれぞれに国際基準が必要ですそれができれば世界が変わります変革へと奮闘するこれらの社会改革派を助けることになりますそれが我々にできることですこれらの社会を変えることは出来ませんが積み重なる不利な条件のため変革しようともがきながらも通常失敗しているこれらの社会の人を助けることができますこれらの規則はいまだにありません考えてみると国際的な規則を広めるためのコストはゼロです ― 何もないじゃあいったいなぜ規則がないか? 私はこう思います我々自身の社会にその情報に通じた市民がある程度いない限り政治家は行動に移しません我々に情報に通じた社会がない限り政治家がすることは特にアフリカに関しては体裁的な処置のみです見た目はいいけど効果はないだから私達は情報通の社会を築くことから始めなければいけないというわけで私は経済学者における専門的な原則をすべて破ってビーチで読めるような経済学の本を書きましたしかしコミュニケーションのプロセスは私にとっては容易ではなかったと言わざるを得ませんだから私はこのステージにいるのですがこれは憂慮すべきです私は表面に顔をださない性分です私の先回の講演を話題にしたブログを妻が見せてくれましたそのコメントにはこう書かれていました「コリアーにはカリスマがない- しかし彼の議論は非常に説得力に富む」 (拍手) この感覚に同意するならそして必要限の情報通の市民が必要だと同意するなら私があなたを必要としていることが解るでしょう大使になってくださいありがとう	Well, the thesis of "The Bottom Billion" is that a billion people have been stuck living in economies that have been stagnant for 40 years, and hence diverging from the rest of mankind. And so, the real question to pose is not, "Can we be optimistic?" It's, "How can we give credible hope to that billion people?" That, to my mind, is the fundamental challenge now of development. What I'm going to offer you is a recipe, a combination of the two forces that changed the world for good, which is the alliance of compassion and enlightened self-interest. Compassion, because a billion people are living in societies that have not offered credible hope. That is a human tragedy. Enlightened self-interest, because if that economic divergence continues for another 40 years, combined with social integration globally, it will build a nightmare for our children. We need compassion to get ourselves started, and enlightened self-interest to get ourselves serious. That's the alliance that changes the world. So, what does it mean to get serious about providing hope for the bottom billion? What can we actually do? Well, a good guide is to think, "What did we do last time the rich world got serious about developing another region of the world?" That gives us, it turns out, quite a good clue, except you have to go back quite a long time. The last time the rich world got serious about developing another region was in the late 1940s. The rich world was you, America, and the region that needed to be developed was my world, Europe. That was post-War Europe. Why did America get serious? It wasn't just compassion for Europe, though there was that. It was that you knew you had to, because, in the late 1940s, country after country in Central Europe was falling into the Soviet bloc, and so you knew you'd no choice. Europe had to be dragged into economic development. So, what did you do, last time you got serious? Well, yes, you had a big aid program. Thank you very much. That was Marshall aid: we need to do it again. Aid is part of the solution. But what else did you do? Well, you tore up your trade policy, and totally reversed it. Before the war, America had been highly protectionist. After the war, you opened your markets to Europe, you dragged Europe into the then-global economy, which was your economy, and you institutionalized that trade liberalization through founding the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. So, total reversal of trade policy. Did you do anything else? Yes, you totally reversed your security policy. Before the war, your security policy had been isolationist. After the war, you tear that up, you put 100,000 troops in Europe for over 40 years. So, total reversal of security policy. Anything else? national sovereignty. Before the war, you treated national sovereignty as so sacrosanct that you weren't even willing to join the League of Nations. After the war, you found the United Nations, you found the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, you found the IMF, you encouraged Europe to create the European Community -- all systems for mutual government support. That is still the waterfront of effective policies: aid, trade, security, governments. Of course, the details of policy are going to be different, because the challenge is different. It's not rebuilding Europe, it's reversing the divergence for the bottom billion, so that they actually catch up. Is that easier or harder? We need to be at least as serious as we were then. Now, today I'm going to take just one of those four. I'm going to take the one that sounds the weakest, the one that's just motherhood and apple pie -- governments, mutual systems of support for governments -- and I'm going to show you one idea in how we could do something to strengthen governance, and I'm going to show you that that is enormously important now. The opportunity we're going to look to is a genuine basis for optimism about the bottom billion, and that is the commodity booms. The commodity booms are pumping unprecedented amounts of money into many, though not all, of the countries of the bottom billion. Partly, they're pumping money in because commodity prices are high, but it's not just that. There's also a range of new discoveries. Uganda has just discovered oil, in about the most disastrous location on Earth; Ghana has discovered oil; Guinea has got a huge new exploitation of iron ore coming out of the ground. So, a mass of new discoveries. Between them, these new revenue flows dwarf aid. Just to give you one example: Angola alone is getting 50 billion dollars a year in oil revenue. The entire aid flows to the 60 countries of the bottom billion last year were 34 billion. So, the flow of resources from the commodity booms to the bottom billion are without precedent. So there's the optimism. The question is, how is it going to help their development? It's a huge opportunity for transformational development. Will it be taken? So, here comes a bit of science, and this is a bit of science I've done since "The Bottom Billion," so it's new. higher commodity prices of exports, and the growth of commodity-exporting countries. And I've looked globally, I've taken all the countries in the world for the last 40 years, and looked to see what the relationship is. And the short run -- say, the first five to seven years -- is just great. In fact, it's hunky dory: everything goes up. You get more money because your terms of trade have improved, but also that drives up output across the board. So GDP goes up a lot -- fantastic! That's the short run. And how about the long run? Come back 15 years later. Well, the short run, it's hunky dory, but the long run, it's humpty dumpty. You go up in the short run, but then most societies historically have ended up worse than if they'd had no booms at all. That is not a forecast about how commodity prices go; it's a forecast of the consequences, the long-term consequences, for growth of an increase in prices. So, what goes wrong? Why is there this "resource curse," as it's called? And again, I've looked at that, and it turns out that the critical issue is the level of governance, the initial level of economic governance, when the resource booms accrue. In fact, if you've got good enough governance, there is no resource boom. You go up in the short term, and then you go up even more in the long term. That's Norway, the richest country in Europe. It's Australia. It's Canada. The resource curse is entirely confined to countries below a threshold of governance. They still go up in the short run. That's what we're seeing across the bottom billion at the moment. The best growth rates they've had -- ever. And the question is whether the short run will persist. And with bad governance historically, over the last 40 years, it hasn't. It's countries like Nigeria, which are worse off than if they'd never had oil. So, there's a threshold level above which you go up in the long term, and below which you go down. Just to benchmark that threshold, it's about the governance level of Portugal in the mid 1980s. So, the question is, are the bottom billion above or below that threshold? Now, there's one big change since the commodity booms of the 1970s, and that is the spread of democracy. So I thought, well, maybe that is the thing which has transformed governance in the bottom billion. Maybe we can be more optimistic because of the spread of democracy. So, I looked. Democracy does have significant effects -- and unfortunately, they're adverse. Democracies make even more of a mess of these resource booms than autocracies. At that stage I just wanted to abandon the research, but -- -- it turns out that democracy is a little bit more complicated than that. Because there are two distinct aspects of democracy: there's electoral competition, which determines how you acquire power, and there are checks and balances, which determine how you use power. It turns out that electoral competition is the thing that's doing the damage with democracy, whereas strong checks and balances make resource booms good. And so, what the countries of the bottom billion need is very strong checks and balances. They haven't got them. They got instant democracy in the 1990s: elections without checks and balances. How can we help improve governance and introduce checks and balances? In all the societies of the bottom billion, there are intense struggles to do just that. The simple proposal is that we should have some international standards, which will be voluntary, but which would spell out the key decision points that need to be taken in order to harness these resource revenues. We know these international standards work because we've already got one. It's called the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. That is the very simple idea that governments should report to their citizens what revenues they have. No sooner was it proposed than reformers in Nigeria adopted it, pushed it and published the revenues in the paper. Nigerian newspapers circulations spiked. People wanted to know what their government was getting in terms of revenue. So, we know it works. What would the content be of these international standards? I can't go through all of them, but I'll give you an example. The first is how to take the resources out of the ground -- the economic processes, taking the resources out of the ground and putting assets on top of the ground. And the first step in that is selling the rights to resource extraction. You know how rights to resource extraction are being sold at the moment, how they've been sold over the last 40 years? A company flies in, does a deal with a minister. And that's great for the company, and it's quite often great for the minister -- -- and it's not great for their country. There's a very simple institutional technology which can transform that, and it's called verified auctions. The public agency with the greatest expertise on Earth is of course the treasury -- that is, the British Treasury. And the British Treasury decided that it would sell the rights to third-generation mobile phones by working out what those rights were worth. They worked out they were worth two billion pounds. Just in time, a set of economists got there and said, "Why not try an auction? It'll reveal the value." It went for 20 billion pounds through auction. If the British Treasury can be out by a factor of 10, think what the ministry of finance in Sierra Leone is going to be like. When I put that to the President of Sierra Leone, the next day he asked the World Bank to send him a team to give expertise on how to conduct auctions. There are five such decision points; each one needs an international standard. If we could do it, we would change the world. We would be helping the reformers in these societies, who are struggling for change. That's our modest role. We cannot change these societies, but we can help the people in these societies who are struggling and usually failing, because the odds are so stacked against them. And yet, we've not got these rules. If you think about it, the cost of promulgating international rules is zilch -- nothing. Why on Earth are they not there? I realized that the reason they're not there is that until we have a critical mass of informed citizens in our own societies, politicians will get away with gestures. That unless we have an informed society, what politicians do, especially in relation to Africa, is gestures: things that look good, but don't work. And so I realized we had to go through the business of building an informed citizenry. That's why I broke all the professional rules of conduct for an economist, and I wrote an economics book that you could read on a beach. However, I have to say, the process of communication does not come naturally to me. This is why I'm on this stage, but it's alarming. I grew up in a culture of self-effacement. My wife showed me a blog comment on one of my last talks, and the blog comment said, "Collier is not charismatic -- -- but his arguments are compelling." If you agree with that sentiment, and if you agree that we need a critical mass of informed citizenry, you will realize that I need you. Please, become ambassadors. Thank you.	{ "source": "iwslt2017", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
しかしこの成果を、単純に停戦の拡張、平和的選挙、およびガザ地区と西岸地区北部におけるパレスチナ当局の強固な支配と結び付けて考えてもよいものであろうか。これらの失敗は、独立国家獲得という正当なパレスチナ人の目的にとっての、さらなる敗北につながる。	But can he translate this achievement into an extended ceasefire, peaceful elections, and consolidated PA rule in Gaza and the northern West Bank? Failure to do so will lead to yet another defeat for the legitimate Palestinian aim of attaining a viable state.	{ "source": "news_commentary", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
私は自分たちの今いる場所と感じている気温から思わずそんなことを呟いてしまいました。「寒いよね...。」ホウキ、チリト、アリアも私の言葉に同意してくださるようです。さて、私たちの現状ですが、今は雪の中かまくらを作って野宿をしています。ええそうです。かまくらです。本来なら中は結構暖かいはずなのです。ですが... 「何でこんなに寒いのかしらね?」「どう見てもアレのせいだと思いますね。お嬢様。」そう言ってホウキがかまくらの外を指差します。その先にあるのは一つのダンジョン。『凍てつく銀の雪翁』が治める『銀雪の森』です。『銀雪の森』は常に雪が降り続ける森のダンジョンで壁は生け垣と雪の壁で出来ています。そして、ダンジョン外に向けて強い風を吹かせることによって、『銀雪の森』周辺では常に極寒の環境と化しています。で、『銀雪の森』の主要モンスターはこちらに来るまでも散々戦っていたスノードッグに氷精霊等の氷属性のモンスターばかりです。それとどちらかと言えば物理防御は高いが魔法防御は低いというモンスターが多いようですね。道中出会ったスノードールというモンスターなどはクエレブレの鱗製短剣でもまるで歯が立ちませんでしたが、≪霧平手≫なら簡単に倒せましたから。「はあ。どうにかしたい所ではありますが、私たちの実力では『凍てつく銀の雪翁』には勝てませんし、どうしようもありませんわね。」私はため息をつきながら『銀雪の森』を見ます。「魔王と戦うなら最低でもレベル10の人間が4、5人は欲しいですからねえ。アタシたちのダンジョン内補正を生かす形で戦うとしてもレベル6か7は欲しいですよねえ。」「しかもそれでギリギリですからね。僕ならそのレベルで挑むのは絶対に嫌です。」チリトも休憩を取りつつ話を合わせます。「何にしても、今回の私たちの目的は攻略ではなくレベル上げです。無理にダンジョン内に突入する必要はないでしょう。」アリアがまとめの様に言います。「それもそうですわね。それなら本州やこの近辺で隠れている人間のためにもダンジョン外に出ている魔性を端から倒していきましょう。例えダンジョン外でも数を稼げばレベル上げになるはずですから。」「はい。」「分かったよ。」「了解です。」そして、休憩を終えた私たちはかまくらの外に出て敵を探し始めました。 ----------------- 「熊が2体ですか。」敵を探し始めた私たちの前には2体の熊が現れました。片方は白い毛皮に氷の爪を持った熊型モンスターで、もう片方は身体の要所に≪凍銀鎧≫を身に着けた茶色の熊型モンスター。チリトの≪姓名解析≫によると白い毛皮に氷の爪を持った熊はスノーベアで≪凍銀鎧≫を付けた熊は雪ヒグマと言うそうですわ。 ...。そう、別種なのです。こ。スノーベアは直訳すれば雪熊のはずですのに。「リョウお嬢様。なぜ、別の種類なんでしょうか?」ホウキがスノーベアの方を警戒しつつ私に聞いてきます。「恐らくスノーベアは雪翁が≪魔性創生≫で生み出した魔性。雪ヒグマはヒグマを≪魔性創生≫で眷属化した生物なのでしょう。」アリアがスキルの準備をしつつホウキの質問に答えます。「つまり、僕らで言うところの霧人は雪ヒグマで、アリアさんたちミステスはスノーベアってことですか?人型と熊型の差はありますけど。」「確か『凍てつく銀の雪翁』は以前からダンジョン周辺の野生生物を狩っているという話があったはずですが、恐らくはそれの結果がこれですわね。」「そうですね。それに大型野生生物と言うのは知力以外は人間以上のものばかりですから、制御可能な要所要所で使うなら眷属化するだけの価値はあります。」「自律的な行動をさせるには向かなくてもこうして相手を絞って使うなら人間の眷属よりもいいという事ですか。」「おまけにダンジョン外補正を受けても元々のステータスが高いから十分脅威ですね。」私たち4人はそれぞれの言葉に納得します。そして、私たちがそうして話し合っている間も徐々に2体は距離を詰めて来ています。「しょうがないですわね。アレを使います。」「何か秘策でも?」「秘策と言うよりはスキルですわ。効果時間が短いので発動したら戸惑わずすぐに攻撃をしてくださいませ。」「分かりました。」「分かったよ。」「了解です。」私はスキルを使うために構えます。「「GURUAAAAAAAAAA!!!」」そして私が構えた所で2体の熊が襲い掛かってきます。「っつ!行きます!≪霧の帳≫!」私は急いでスキル≪霧の帳≫を発動します。すると周囲に大量の霧が発生していきます。そして同時に... 「「GAAAAAAAAAAA!!!」」「くっ...え?」「キャ...あれ?」私たち全員のダンジョン外のステータス補正が外れてステータスが大幅に上昇します。その結果としてチリトは雪ヒグマの≪凍銀鎧≫付きの突進を受け止め、ホウキはスノーベアの強力な爪攻撃を防いでいます。二人とも本来なら防げるはずのない攻撃を防げていることに驚きを隠せないようです。「なるほどこれは素晴らしいですね。≪霧爆≫!」「GYAAAAAAAAAAA!」アリアが驚きつつも≪霧爆≫で攻撃します。そしてその一撃は雪ヒグマを一撃で砕き飛ばしました。「ですが、効果時間は一分もありませんし消費も激しいですから、ここ一番でしか使えません。≪霧平手≫!」「GUOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAA!!」私は上昇したステータスをフル活用して、全力で掌底の形をした≪霧平手≫をスノーベアに放ち、打ち倒します。そして、スノーベアを倒したところで≪霧の帳≫の効果が切れます。「ふう。それにしても疲れましたわ。」「そうですね。リョウお嬢様。一時撤退しましょうか。」「そうね。そうしておきましょう。」そうして私たちは剥ぎ取れるもの剥ぎ取った後その場から去りました。	The temperature where we were feeling right now prompted me to involuntarily mutter something like that. “It’s cold...” It seemed that Houki, Chirito, and Aria also concurred with my words. Now, regarding our present situation, we were now erecting a kamakura (a kind of a hut) in the snow and camping out in the open air. Yes, that’s right. It is a kamakura. By nature, it should be quite warm inside. But... “Why is it so chilly?” “No matter how I look at it, I suspect it’s because of that thing, Miss.” Houki then gestured to one side of the outside of the Kamakura. Beyond that was a dungeon. It was the “Silver Snow Forest,” reigned over by the “Frozen Silver Snow Sage”. The “Silver Snow Forest” was a forest dungeon where snow was perpetually falling, and the walls were comprised of hedges and snow walls. Moreover, since intense winds blew outside the dungeon, the environment around the “Silver Snow Forest” was subject to extreme frigid temperatures at all times. And the primary monsters in the “Silver Snow Forest” consisted of Snowdogs, Ice Spirits, and other ice-attributed monsters that we had encountered numerous times before arriving here. Furthermore, if I had to say so myself, it seemed that many of the monsters had elevated physical defenses yet low magical defenses. Even with the scaled dagger created out of Cuélebre, the Snow Doll monster we met along the way was utterly unsurmountable, but with ≪Mist Slap≫, I was able to eliminate it with ease. “Ha. Although I would like to do something about it, we can’t prevail over the ‘Frozen Silver Snow Sage’ with our abilities, nor is there any way we can deal with him.” While sighing, I gazed at the “Silver Snow Forest”. “If we are going to contend with the Demon King, we would need at least four or five level humans. Even if we combat him with the benefit of our in-dungeon compensation, we’ll need to be at least level or ,” Houki also murmured as she stared off into the distance. “And that is only barely adequate. If it were me, I absolutely wouldn’t want to tackle it at that level.” While taking a break, Chirito joined in the conversation as well. “In any case, our objective this time is not to conquer the dungeon but to advance our level. There is no necessity to force our way into the dungeon.” Aria summed up the situation. “That’s also true. Then for the sake of the people who are hidden in the Honshu and the vicinity of the dungeon, let’s defeat the demons outside the dungeon one after another. Even if we are outside the dungeon, we should be able to raise our level as long as the numbers are high.” “Yes.” “I understand.” “Understood.” And then, having finished our rest, we set out from the kamakura to search for the foes. —————– “Two bears?” After beginning to seek out the enemies, two bears emerged before us. One of them was a bear-type monster with white fur and ice claws while the other was a brown bear-type monster clad in ≪Frozen Silver Armor≫ in vital parts of its body. According to Chirito’s ≪Personal Analyze≫, the bear with white fur and ice claws was called a Snow Bear, and the bear with ≪Frozen Silver Armor≫ is called a Snow Brown Bear. ...Right, they are two different species. The literal translation of “snow bear “Lady Ryo. Why are they different species?” While keeping a wary eye on Snow Bear, Houki posed a question. “Perhaps Snow Bear is a demon created by Snow Sage through ≪Monster Create≫. And as for the Snow Brown Bear, they’re probably a living brown bear that was transformed into a kin through ≪Monster Create≫.” Aria answered Houki’s question as she readied her skills. “In other words, the Kirijin, according to what we refer to, are the Snow Brown Bears, and Aria and the other Mystics are the Snow Bears? Though there is a distinction between a human-type and a bear-type,” Chirito replied while checking the Snow Bears with his movement. “As I recall, the ‘Frozen Silver Snow Sage’ has been hunting wildlife surrounding the dungeon for quite some time, and this is presumably the outcome of that.” “Yes, that’s right. And since all of the large wild creatures are greater than human beings with the exception of intelligence, it’s worth making them into a kin if they can be employed in crucial points where they can be controlled.” “That means that, even if they aren’t optimal for autonomous operation, they are superior to human kin when utilized in this way.” “In addition, even if they are subject to out-of-dungeon compensation, their high initial status renders them a threat.” Each of the four of us was in agreement with what we were saying. And while we were discussing this, the two of them were gradually closing the distance between us. “It can’t be helped. I’ll use that thing.” “Do you have a secret measure?” “It’s more of a skill than a secret. The duration of its effect is short, so please don’t be at a loss when it activates and attacks immediately.” “I understand.” “Alright.” “Understood.” I prepared to use the skill. “GURUAAAAAAAAAA!!!” And as I poised my skill, the two bears started to pounce upon us. “! Here it comes! ≪Mantle of Mist≫!” I swiftly invoked the skill ≪Mantle of Mist≫. As I did so, a large volume of mist was generated in the surrounding area. And at the same time... “GAAAAAAAAAAA!!!” “Ku.. eh?” “Ah... what?” The out-of-dungeon status correction for all of us came out of play, and our statuses rose tremendously. Consequently, Chirito was able to intercept Snow Brown Bear’s rush equipped with ≪Frozen Silver Armor≫, and Houki was able to defend against Snow Bear’s formidable claw attack. They both seemed to be astonished that they were able to obstruct an attack that they should not have been able to defend against. “I see, this is wonderful. ≪Mist Plosion≫!” “GYAAAAAAAAAAA!” Even though Aria was taken by surprise, she struck with ≪Mist Plosion≫. And that blow obliterated the Snow Brown Bear in a single hit. “However, the effect lasts less than a minute and it consumes a lot of mp, which means it can only be used in the most critical moments. ≪Mist Slap≫!” “GUOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAA!!” Utilizing my heightened status to the utmost, I unleashed ≪Mist Slap≫ in the form of a palm heel strike at the Snow Bear, knocking it down. Then, when Snow Bear has been defeated, the effect of ≪Mantle of Mist≫ wore off. “Phew. Even so, that is exhausting.” “Yeah, Lady Ryo. Shall we retreat temporarily?” “Yes, let’s do that.” Thus, we stripped whatever we can and left the place.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 3, "inserted_lines_src": 3, "inserted_lines_trg": 6 }
チュンチュン、チュン朝を知らせる鳥のさえずりが、カーテンの隙間から陽の光と共に薄暗い部屋の中へと侵入してくる。その音に急かされるように、ベッドの中で頭から布団を被り鉄壁の要塞と化している部屋の主が身動ぎした。と、そのタイミングを見計らったかのように、カチッという音がやけに明瞭に響き、次の瞬間、悪魔が咆哮を上げた。ジリリリリリリリリ!! けたたましい騒音が朝の静寂をぶち壊し、部屋の主に「起きろや、ボケェ!」とがなり立てる。「うぅ......」悪魔から身を守るように要塞の中へ更に籠る部屋の主だったが、流石にいつまでも無視は出来ない。もぞもぞと布団から腕だけを伸ばすと、しばらくバンバンッ! と悪魔を探して掌を無造作に叩きつけた。その腕は十数年続けてきた悪魔討伐の経験故目でその頭部を捉えると、聞くに耐えないその叫びを沈黙させることに成功した。しかし、幾度となく続けてきた行為でも重労働であることに変わりはない。部屋の主は、力尽きたように腕をパタリと落とすと、そのまま要塞の中に再び引っ込んでしまった。そして、ピクリとも動かなくなった。その直後、「ハジメ~、起きなさぁ~い! どう寝に突入してるでしょ~! さっさと起きなさぁ~い!」階下から間延びした聞き慣れた声――母の起床を促す声が響いて来た。部屋の主であるハジメの半覚醒した意識は確かにその声を聞き取っていたが、「徹底抗戦だ!」とでも言うように布団を被り直すと要塞の防備を更に強固なものとする。「やっぱりダメね~。もうホントに、毎朝毎朝。ごめんね~、今日もお願いできる?」階下から再び母の声が聞こえる。扉を隔てているがハジメに聞かせるためにわざと大きな声を出しているのでハジメの耳にも届いていた。呆れたような母の声音に思うところがないわけではないが、母が誰と話しているのか、そしてこの後の展開がどうなるのかも分かっているので、ハジメには素直に起きる気なかった。何せ、毎朝のそれはハジメにとって日々感じる幸せの一つなのだから...... コンコンッとノックの音が響く。しかし、反応が無いことも、その理由も分かっているその人物は一拍おいて直ぐに扉を開けた。そして、トコトコと小さな足音を立てながらベッドの上で丸まっている団子に優しく声を掛ける。「......起きて、ハジメ」それでも反応はしない。もう少し、意識が完全に覚醒するまでは微睡みの中で愛しい彼女の声を聞きたいからだ。「......ハジメ、起きて。起きないと......」今度は優しい手付きでゆさゆさと揺さぶってくる。布団越しでもわかる小さな手に、ハジメの頬は自然と緩んだ。「......襲う。性的に」「うん、起きるから朝から生々しいことを言うのは止めようね?」背筋に悪寒を感じたハジメは一瞬で意識を覚醒させるとガバッ! と布団を跳ね除けた。「おはよう、ユエ」「......ん。おはよう、ハジメ」ハジメは愛しい恋人とのひと時に目を細めて、一日の最初の幸せを噛み締めるのだった。あくびを噛み殺しながら通学路を気怠げに歩くハジメを見て、隣を歩くユエが上目遣いで首を傾げる。そんな何気ない仕草がいちいち極上に可愛くて......ハジメは、すれ違う度にユエに見蕩れてチラ見していく男連中への牽制に大忙しだ。ハジメの通う高校のブレザーを着ているユエは、トトっと前に進み出るとその短めのスカートをふわりと翻しながら後ろ向きに歩きつつ、気遣うようにハジメの顔を覗き込みながら話し掛けた。「......また、夜更かし?」「うん、父さんから頼まれた仕事が思いの他はかどってね。気が付いたら空が白み始めてたんだ」「......熱中するのはいいけど体に気をつけて。無理しないで」「うん、気をつけるよ」穏やかに会話するハジメとユエ。二人の間に漂うどこか甘い雰囲気。ユエがハジメの恋人となってもう随分経つが、互いに、互いへの熱情は些かの衰えもなかった。ユエなどハジメの傍に居たいがために、ハジメの家にホームステイを強行し、いつの間にか編入手続きまで済ませてしまったくらいなのだ。突然、ハジメの恋人として現れた美貌の金髪少女に、やって来た当初はそれはもう大騒ぎになった。何せ、ハジメは日々の大半をゲームかゲーム会社を経営する父親の手伝いに費やす生粋のオタクである。そんなハジメに美しい恋人が出来るなど想像の埒外だ。母はパニックになって息子に催眠術の心得があるのではないかと疑い始めるし、父はハジメが妄想を具現化する能力に目覚めたのだと思い込んだ。学校でも編入初日から目の色を変える男子達の前で、ユエが自分はハジメの恋人であると暴露し学校全体を巻き込むような話題の的になった。その後、嫉妬に正気を失った男子達がハジメを追い掛け回したのは言うまでもない。ユエはユエで、何やら戦いがあると数人の女子と何処かに行ってしまった。そんな事が続いて数ヶ月、最近になってようやく落ち着いた学校生活が送れるようになった。こうして、のんびり散歩じみた登校が出来るのも嵐のような騒動を乗り切った賜物だ。ハジメは、さらさらと流れ、キラキラと陽の光を反射して輝くユエの金髪を眺めながら、何となしにユエとの出会いを思い出した。たまたま、ユエが暴漢に捕まっているところを助けに入り、死闘の末、何とか暴漢を倒してユエを救出したのである。全裸のユエに感謝と信頼を込めて首筋にキスをされたのは今思い出しても顔が熱くなる。それから恋人になるのはトントン拍子だった。 (それにしても、よく唯のオタクでしかない僕が暴漢なんて倒せたよなぁ~。人間、必死になれば案外何とかなるもんだ) 当時の無謀とも言える自分の行為を思い出して思わず苦笑いしたハジメは、そこでふと違和感を覚える。 (......あれ? そう言えば、ユエと出会ったあの薄暗い場所ってどこだっけ? 何で僕はそんなところに行ったんだっけ? あれ?) ユエの容姿からして外国人であることは一目瞭然で、ホームステイに来ている以上、ユエと出会ったのも外国のはずだ。事実、ハジメ自身ユエと出会ったのは外国であると認識している。しかし、そこが正確には何処だったのか。まるで霞が掛かったように判然としない。そのことに気がついた途端、記憶の本棚からボロボロと疑問がこぼれ落ちてくる。どんどん膨れ上がっていく疑問にハジメの中の違和感も急速に膨らんでいった。「......ハジメ!」「うわっ、どうしたの、いきなり大声だして。ビックリするじゃないか」通学路にユエの普段は絶対に出さないような大声が響いた。それに心臓が跳ねて、思考の渦に呑み込まれかかっていたハジメの意識は急速に現実へと浮上する。そんなハジメをユエはジッと見つめたあと、どこか拗ねたような表情になった。「......何度も呼んだのに無視するから」「えっ? ホントに? ごめん! ちょっと考え事してて......」ぷいっとそっぽを向くユエ。へそを曲げてしまったようでハジメは眉字にしながら宥めにかかる。その時には既に、先程の疑問はハジメの中から完全に消えてしまっていた。ハジメが申し訳なさそうに繰り返す弁解にユエはイタズラっぽい笑みを浮かべる。どうやら本気で拗ねていたわけではなく、ハジメに構って欲しかっただけのようだ。目論見が成功したのが嬉しいらしい。そんなユエに、ハジメは再び眉を八の字に下げて「しょうがない彼女だなぁ」と困ったような表情で小さく笑みを浮かべる。しかし、その表情からはホントに困っているという様子は伺えず、むしろどこか幸せそうですらあった。再び華麗なターンを決めつつ、ハジメの隣に並び直すユエはポツリと小さな声を零す。「......微睡んでいて。幸せの中に。私だけを見ていて」その声は、ハジメには届いていない。ハジメは隣に寄り添うユエを見て、優しげに目元を和らげるだけだった。学校に到着したハジメが下駄箱で上履きに履き替えていると、突如背中に柔らかな衝撃が伝わった。誰かがぶつかって来たのは確かだが、その感触は男にとっては余りに幸せ過ぎた。「ハジメさ~ん! ユエさ~ん! おはようございますぅ!」「ん......おはよう、シア」「うわっ、シアさん!? ちょっ、離れて! 挨拶する度に抱きつかないでって、いつも言ってるでしょ!」「そんなぁ~、私から幸せを奪おうなんて......酷いですよぉ! これはもう責任をとって結婚してもらわないと!」「飛躍しすぎでしょ! とにかく、離れて! ユエの瞳からハイライトが消えかかってるから! 僕を瞬きせずに凝視してるから!」ハジメは背中に感じる幸せな感触のことは微塵も表に出さず、引っ付いてきたシアを引っペがした。シアはユエと同じ外国人であり長期留学で日本にやって来ているのだが、これまた偶然、シアと彼女の家族が暴漢に襲われているところを助けて以来、今のように過激なスキンシップを繰り返しては好意を隠すこともなく示してくるのである。を付けた淡い青色がかった白髪と神秘的な容貌に反して天真爛漫な笑顔を分け隔てなく振りまくシアは、ファンクラブが存在するほど男女問わず大人気である。正直、そんな彼女がこうまで自分に好意を示してくることは戸惑いつつも嬉しくはある。あるいは、ユエより先に出会っていたならと思うことがないわけではない。しかし、そんなIFは考えても意味のないことだ。なので、ユエという最高の恋人が居る手前、シアの積極性はハジメにとって非常に頭の痛い問題だった。もっとも、シアがハジメに向ける好意や過剰なスキンシップに不機嫌にはなるものの、実はユエとシアは親友といっていいほど仲が良かったりする。なので、完全に邪険にすることも出来ず、ある意味、板挟みな状態でもあった。ハジメに対して独占欲があるにもかかわらず、親友であるシアとの間に溝が出来る気配もない。ハジメには二人の関係が不思議でならなかった。 (まったく、暴漢から助けた女の子が二人共好意を持ってくれるなんて、どこのギャルゲだよ。しかもハーレムルートOKなんて現実的に有り得ないよ。......あれ? そう言えば、シアってあんなカチューシャ付けてたっけ? なんか、もっと、こう、違う感じの......) ハジメがシアのカチューシャを見つめながら、突然胸の内に湧き上がったモヤモヤの正体を知ろうと記憶を探っていると、いきなり両腕が幸せな感触に包まれた。「なに朝から難しい顔してるんですか? そろそろ教室行かないと予鈴がなりますよ?」「ん......また、先生に説教される」そんな事を言いながらムニュムニュと凶悪な果実をハジメの腕に押し付けつつ、ユエとシアの二人はハジメをグイグイと教室に引っ張って行った。ハジメは二人に学校で引っ付き過ぎないよう注意しつつ、二人の口から飛び出した〝教室〟やら〝予鈴〟〝先生〟という言葉に、やはりどうしようもない違和感が胸の内に燻るのを感じていた。教室に入ると、その瞬間、男子達から放たれた嫉妬と羨望の眼差しが一斉にハジメへと突き刺さる。今ではユエ達自身の尽力もあって直接追いかけられることはなくなったが、それでも突き刺さる視線の痛いこと痛いこと...... (ん? なんだろ? 何ていうか......懐かしい? あれ、なんで、そんな事感じるんだろう?) ハジメは自分の感情の動きが理解できず、ますます困惑したように首を捻りながら席についた。その直後、ハジメのもとへ弾むような足取りで寄ってくるクラスの女子が一人。「ハジメくん、おはよう! 今日もギリギリだね。もっと早く来ようよ」挨拶をしたのはユエやシアと並んでも遜色ない美少女――白崎香織だ。ユエやシアがやって来る前から絶大な人気を誇る学校のマドンナ的存在である。そして、なぜかハジメに好意を持ってくれている女の子でもある。以前からよくハジメに声を掛けてくれていたのだが、当時はまさか自分に好意があるなどとは全く思いもしなかった。しかし、ユエという恋人の存在が現れたことで危機意識から己の感情を自覚した香織が明確に好意をあらわにするようになったので勘違いなどと逃げるわけにはいかなくなった。何せ、ユエから奪い取ると公言するほどなのだから。いつも嬉しそうにパタパタと足音を響かせて寄ってくる香織に、ハジメは困ったような笑みを浮かべつつ言葉を返すのだが......この時、既に燻っていた違和感が更に大きくなり、ハジメは思考に囚われて香織に返事をすることが出来なかった。 (今のセリフ......どこかで......くそっ、何なんだ? なんで、こんなに〝懐かしい〟なんて思うんだ? いつものことなのに......今日は、なんか変だ) 「ハジメくん......どうして無視するの? その...私、何か怒らせるような事したかな?」震える声音に気が付いてハジメが顔を上げると、そこには泣きそうな表情の香織の姿が。ハジメは自分が香織の挨拶を無視していたことに気が付いて慌てて返事をした。「あっ、いや、ごめん、そうじゃないんだ。ちょっと考え事していて。ホントごめんね。おはよう、白崎さん」「そっか、よかった~。うん、おはよう、ハジメくん。それと、私の事は〝香織〟って呼んで欲しいって、いつも言ってるよね?」僅かに頬を膨らませて不満をあらわにする香織。そんな可愛らしい仕草に、ハジメ達に注目していた男子達はほぼ全員被弾した。「いや、白崎さん、それはちょっと......」「香織だよ。香織って呼んで?」「いや、だから......」「その、えっと、か、かお......」むぅ! と唸りながら名前呼びを強要する香織にハジメはタジタジになる。そして、遂に根負けして名前呼びをしそうになった時、「......ハジメを困らせないで」救世主が現れた。ユエだ。ユエはハジメを庇うようにハジメと香織の間に割り込んで仁王立ちすると香織を睨みつけた。「む、出たね、ユエ。一応、おはよう」律儀に朝の挨拶を交わしながら周囲にブリザードの如き冷気を撒き散らすユエと香織は、学校公認の恋敵だ。暖かな日差しが窓から入り込んで徐々に気温を上げているというのに、二人がいるだけであっという間に真冬となる。〝冷戦〟――ユエと香織のハジメを巡る攻防は、生徒だけでなく教師の間でもそう呼ばれていた。しばらく無言で睨み合う二人だが、実はそこに陰湿なものはない。女子の繰り広げる恋愛戦争だというのに、二人は実に堂々と、言ってしまえば開けっぴろげに衝突し合っている。ハジメにはそれが何とも不思議でならなかったが、ライバルというより、どちらかといえば喧嘩友達という表現の方がピッタリと当てはまりそうな二人の関係が案外嫌いではなかった。そうこうしている内にチャイムが鳴り、教室に担任が入ってくる。バチバチと視線を交わしていたユエと香織もサッと踵を返して自分の座席に戻っていった。一時間目はティオ先生による英語である。何故か妙にハジメを気に入っている美貌の、そしてエロティックなその女教師は、毎度必ずと言っていい程ハジメにセクハラ気味のちょっかいを掛けてくるのだが...... さっさと懲戒免職にしろよ! と思いつつ、睨みつけてやれば直ぐにセクハラを止めて引っ込むので取り敢えず放置の方針である。これまた何故か、睨む度に表情を隠しつつ耳を真っ赤にしてプルプルと肩を震わせるのだが......そんなに自分の睨みは怖いのだろうかとハジメは少し落ち込むのだった。放課後、ハジメとユエは並んでとある場所に向かっていた。シアや香織、そして何故かティオ先生が付いて来ようとしたが、ユエが一刀両断にばっさり切り捨てて(もちろん、精神的な意味で)一時的に行動不能に陥れたので二人っきりである。しばらく他愛ない会話を楽しみながら到着した場所は幼稚園だ。ここに、母の友人であるレミアの娘ミュウがおり、忙しい彼女に代わって幼稚園のお迎えに来たのだ。このお迎えと、レミアが帰ってくるまでの間、家で預かるというのはずっと前から続いている南雲家の日常だ。ハジメとユエが正門を通って幼稚園の敷地内に入ると、目聡くそれを捉えたミュウがステテテテーと走り寄って来た。その表情は満面の笑みである。思わずほっこりするハジメとユエ。突進してきたミュウを二人がかりで受け止めてギュッと抱き締めてやる。「ミュウ、突っ込んじゃダメだよ。危ないよ? それと今、僕のこと、また〝パパ〟って呼びそうになったよね? ホント、勘弁してね?」「......私は〝ママ〟でもいい」ハジメは、ミュウの呼びかけた呼び名に冷や汗を流しながら窘めた。以前、大勢の親御さんがいる中でミュウがハジメを〝パパ〟と呼んでしまい大騒ぎになったのだ。レミアは未亡人なので、父を知らないミュウにとっていつも傍にいて優しくしてくれる年上の男であるハジメはパパだと思えたのだ。だがしかし、ハジメは現役の高校生であり、そんな少年が園児にパパと呼ばれれば......当然、よからぬ噂は立つものである。しかも、隣にはミュウと同じ外国人であるユエがいる。親御さんが何を想像するのかは分かりきったことだ。すなわち、小学校高学年か中学一、二年の段階で孕ませたのか! である。その勘違いを察したユエが、きっぱり否定せずに頬を赤らめたものだから勘違いは更に加速した。ユエは単純にハジメとの子作りを想像して恥ずかしくなっただけなのだが、タイミングが悪すぎた。どうにか、幼稚園の先生達が誤解を解いてくれて、後日レミアが親御さん達に顔見せをすることで事無きを得たが、あのままあらぬ噂が広がれば、ご町内でのハジメの居場所は無くなっていただろう。本当に冷や汗ものである。もっとも、レミアが未亡人であるということから、今度はレミア自身を狙っているのではないか? 大人しそうな顔をして何て女たらしだ! と警戒の目を向けられるようになった。最近は、もう諦めの境地に達している。それでも一応、パパ呼びは改めさせているが。ミュウを間に挟んで三人は手を繋ぎながら帰路につく。時々、定番のブランコをしてミュウがキャッキャッとはしゃいだ声を上げた。傍から見れば完全に家族である。「......ミュウ、今日は何してた?」ユエの質問にミュウが喜々として今日の出来事を語る。そんなミュウを見るユエの眼差しはひどく優しい。慈しみと包み込むような温かさに満ち溢れている。何だか、そんなユエが神々しくすら見えてハジメは呆然とユエに見蕩れていた。そんなハジメに少し不機嫌そうな声が掛かる。「もうっ、パp...お兄ちゃん! ミュウのおはなし、きいてるの?」「え? ああ、ゴメン、ゴメン。ちょっとボーとしてたよ」ぷんすかと怒るミュウに謝罪しながら苦笑いするハジメは、ヒョイっとミュウを抱き上げる。そして機嫌を取るようにあやし始めた。抱っこされて直ぐに機嫌が戻ったミュウだったが、降ろされたくないので頑張って怒っている振りをする。バレバレなのだが、それには気が付かない振りをしてハジメはミュウを宥め続けた。と、その時、微かに言い争うような喧騒が耳に届いた。女性の声と複数の男の声だ。どうも、女性の方の声音は切羽詰っているように思える。ハジメとユエは顔を見合わせ、その声が聞こえる路地へそっと顔を覗かせた。「何てテンプレな......」「......女の敵、許すまじ」そこには想像通り、複数の男が少々強引すぎるナンパをしている光景が広がっていた。ハジメはどうしたものかと抱えているミュウを見ながら頭を捻る。敵の戦力はどうということもない。歩法や姿勢、纏う雰囲気からしても唯のチンピラだ。仮に武装していたとしても大したことはないだろう。彼等も近寄ってくる気配に気がついたようでユエの方を振り返り、その美貌に一瞬見蕩れるものの直ぐに下卑た笑みを浮かべた。その眼は、明らかに新たな獲物を見つけたと物語っていた。彼等の視線にドス黒い怒りが湧いてきたハジメだったが、それを発散しようとする前に、ユエが一瞬でナンパ野郎共の間合いに踏み込み、更に一瞬で関節を取るとベキバキと音を響かせ折るか外すかして制圧してしまった。まさか、ナンパ野郎共も話す暇もなくボッコにされるとは思いもしなかっただろう。地面に倒れながらしばらく呆けた後、襲ってきた激烈な痛みにくぐもった悲鳴を上げた。ユエは、余りに容赦ない対応に少々引き攣った表情をしている女性からのお礼を固辞すると、さっさとハジメの元に戻って来た。そして、スタスタと再び帰路につく。騒ぎを聞きつけてから三分も経っていなかった。某宇宙の三分ヒーローを彷彿とさせる短期決戦である。「ユエお姉ちゃんつよ~い! かっこいい!」「......ん、大きくなったらミュウも鍛える」ミュウの将来が少し心配だ。ミュウのユエに対する称賛は全くもって同意なのだが、男でありながら何も出来なかったことに少々歯がゆさを感じるハジメ。困った表情をしながらも、それでも己の恋人に惚れ直すのだった。 (あれ? ユエって接近戦、あんなに強かったっけ? それに僕、何で自然に戦力の分析なんか......) 片腕でミュウを抱えながら、ハジメは無意識にもう片方の手を自分の太ももにやる。そして、何かを探すように手を彷徨わせた。しかし、あるはずの〝何か〟はそこになく、ハジメの胸中の違和感は更に膨れ上がるのだった。夕食も終えて風呂も入り、自室でベッドに身を投げ出していたハジメは、濡れた髪を乾かしもせず何かを考え込むように眉根をしかめていた。胸中を巡る正体不明の違和感。いつもと何ら変わらないはずの幸せな日常のはずなのに......本能とも言うべき深い場所で誰かが叫ぶのだ。「これは違う!」と。自分の中の何かが、この幸せなはずの日常を否定するのだ。「目を覚ませ!」と。苛立ったように頭をガリガリと掻くハジメ。その時、不意にノック音が響く。「......ハジメ?」「ああ、いるよ」一拍おいてユエが扉を開けて部屋に入って来た。ネグリジェ姿だ。むき出しの真っ白な手足が艶かしい。トコトコと近づいて来たユエは、ハジメの髪が濡れていることに気が付くと、僅かにメッ! と叱るような眼差しを向けて、ベッドに乗り込んだ。そして、寝そべるハジメを起こすと丁寧に髪を乾かし始める。「ん......乾いた。濡れたままはダメ。風邪引く」「そうだね。ありがとう、ユエ」「んっ」礼を言うハジメに、ユエはそのまま後ろからハジメに抱きついた。そして、ハジメの首筋に顔を埋めスリスリと甘えるように擦り寄る。後ろから回したすべすべの両腕は、ハジメの胸元から服の中に侵入し愛しげにハジメを愛撫する。ミュウが迎えに来たレミアと一緒に帰ったあとは、大抵、甘えん坊になるユエ。ミュウがいる時は、中々、恋人としての時間を過ごせないので、その反動もあるのだろう。休日等、余りミュウばかり構いすぎると、たとえ幼女相手でも拗ねてしまうのだ。仕方ないとある程度は割り切っているものの、本来、独占欲はかなり強い方なのである。 (チンピラなんて歯牙にも掛けないくらい強くて、慈愛と優しさに満ちていて、全力で僕を愛してくれている彼女がいる。......普段の生活だって満ち足りている。僕は恵まれているはずだ。なのに......何が不満なんだ。何が、違うっていうんだ? この胸のモヤモヤは何なんだよ) ユエの体の柔らかさと体温を感じながら、膨れ上がる違和感を必死に無視しようとするハジメ。そんなハジメの耳元に唇を触れさせながらユエが囁く。「......大丈夫。何も心配いらない。ハジメは私が幸せにする」「ユエ......」「......私だけ見ていて。大丈夫、私はここにいる。ハジメの理想通り。ずっと傍にいるから」とろけるような甘い囁きに、ハジメの意識は次第に微睡んでいく。このまま、甘やかなユエの胸の中で眠ってしまえば、どれだけ心地よいだろうか。 (そうだよな。ここにはユエがいる。それ以上に大切なことなんてない。......ないはずだ。他は何もいらない。たとえ全部切り捨てたって......僕の傍には理想通りの恋人がいる。それだけで......) 意識が途切れようとする。体から力が抜け、そのままぬるま湯に浸かるような心地よさに身を委ねようとする。そして、全てが霞の奥へ消えようとした、その寸前、 ――俺がユエを、ユエが俺を守る。それで俺達は最強だ。全部薙ぎ倒して、世界を越えよう突然、そんな言葉が頭の中に響いた。ハジメの意識が急速に浮上し、閉じかけていた眼がカッと見開く。 ――あ~、何なら、ユエも来るか? 再び、自分の声が響く。それはユエを自分の故郷に連れて行ってもいいと提案した時の言葉だ。その後のユエの笑顔。共にハジメの故郷に行く。あったばかりだというのに、それだけのことで表情の乏しかったユエが、まるで花が咲いたように満面の笑みを浮かべたのだ。心底、幸せだとでも言うように。思えば、初めて見たそれに、おそらくハジメはやられたのだ。そして、二人で死線をくぐり抜けて世界へ踏み出す旅立ちの日に立てた誓い。互いに守り合い、邪魔するものは薙ぎ倒してハジメの故郷へ共に行こうと、そう誓いを立てた。本能のなせるわざか。甘い霞の中に意識が消える寸前で、その大切な誓いを思い出したハジメは、自分を抱き締める〝ユエに見える何か〟を振り解き立ち上がった。 (......理想通りの恋人? 甘く優しい世界? 馬鹿か、ハジメは目元を手で覆うとギリギリと音がしそうな程歯を食いしばった。そうしなければ、流されかけた自分の弱さを許せそうになかったのである。 (......自分で立てた誓いも忘れて、仮初の世界に溺れそうになるなんて、我ながら反吐が出そうだっ) ハジメは手を下ろすと気合を入れるように、あるいは罰を与えるように思いっきり自分の頬を殴りつけた。ドガッと生々しい音が響く。ハジメの突然の行動に驚いたユエが慌てて駆け寄りその手を伸ばすが、バシッ! ハジメの振るった手に勢いよく振り払われてしまった。悲しげな表情で自分の手をもう片方の手で包み込むユエ。その表情に、おそらく大迷宮が作り出したその表情に、ハジメは「......ふざけやがって」とドスの効いた声音で悪態を吐いた。「......ハジメ、どうしたの?」不安そうなユエの問い掛けを無視して、ハジメは先程までとは別人のような鋭い視線をユエに向けた。「なぁ、ユエ。俺はユエが何より大切だ。他には何もいらない」「......ハジメ、嬉しい」突然のハジメの言葉にユエは一瞬面食らうも、直ぐにその表情をほころばせた。だが、その言葉とは裏腹にハジメの視線は鋭いままだ。「だからさ、他の何かを切り捨てろと言ったら切り捨ててくれるか?」「ハジメがそれを望むなら」ハジメの要領を得ないはずの言葉に、一瞬の躊躇いもなくユエは頷く。「たとえそれが、シアや香織、ティオ、そしてミュウであっても?」まるでハジメの理想を体現するかのように、ハジメの望むままを実行すると宣言するユエ。そんな彼女に、しかしハジメは嬉しがるでもなく、むしろ苛ついたように表情を歪めた。小さく「こんなのに流されかけるとは、情けねぇ......」と呟いている。そして、鋭い視線はそのままに吐き捨てるように言葉を投げつけた「そうか......よくわかったよ、くそったれ」ハジメがユエを偽物と断じた瞬間、ハジメの姿が一瞬で変わる。黒髪の日本人特有の姿が、白髪眼帯の少年に。「チッ。俺としたことが、まんまと術中にはまるとは......これだから大迷宮ってところは油断ならねぇんだ。......って言うか、ハルツィナって奴も例に漏れず碌な奴じゃないな」悪態を吐くハジメにユエが歩み寄る。そして、すがるような表情でハジメに手を伸ばした。「......ここにいて? ここにいればハジメはずっと幸せ」「黙れ、偽物。気安く俺の名を呼ぶな」「......どうして? 私はユエ。ハジメの恋人。理想通りの恋人。何が不満なの?」「全部だバカ野郎。俺の言うことなら何でも聞く、俺を独占しようとしてくれる、都合のいい理想通りの恋人? それはもう、ただの人形だろうが。俺は人形を愛でるような趣味を持っちゃいない」既に、この空間からの脱出に思考を巡らせているハジメは、お座なりな感じで偽物のユエに吐き捨てる。「......違う。人形じゃない。全ての人格を引き継いだ上でハジメの理想を体現したのが私。だから、ここにいて。ハジメが望めば全てが理想通り。ずっと傍にいるから」どうやら、ただの偽物というわけではないらしい。この世界も、登場人物達も転移陣で読み取った記憶と人格を元に作り出されたもののようだ。そこに、本人の〝もし、こうだったら〟という、叶うはずのないIFを付け足し、より理想的な世界を作り出したのだろう。確かに、奈落で味わった苦痛や、これから立ち向かわなければならない困難を思えば、それなくしてユエ達とあの平和な日本で暮らしていられるというのは理想的と言えるかもしれない。だが、「度し難いな。余りに的外れで哀れになるぞ」ハジメは、つまらなさそうにそう言うと、カッ! とその体から紅い光を爆ぜさせた。透き通るような紅い魔力が一瞬で仮初の世界全体に伝播し、それだけに留まらず、その密度を凄まじい勢いで高めていく。これが試練である以上、条件をクリアすれば脱出できる可能性は高いし、その条件も推測は出来ているが、力尽くでぶっ壊してやりたくなったのだから仕方ない。要は八つ当たりである。「......なぜ」理想的な世界のはずなのに、それを否定するハジメに無表情のユエが疑問の声を上げる。ハジメは猛烈な勢いで魔力放出を続けながら、ギラギラと光る眼を偽物のユエに向けた。「何故もクソもあるか。簡単な話だ。俺の理想通りのユエなんてゴミ以下だよ。現実のアイツは俺の理想なんか遥かに超えている。現実のユエ以上に魅力的な女なんて存在しないんだよ!」ハジメをして、既に魔力消費が限界に達しつつあるようで倦怠感を覚え始めたが、それでも惚気ともつかない雄叫びを上げながら更に魔力を放出し、遂に空間全体に亀裂が入り始めた。ビキベキと音を立てながら刻一刻と亀裂を広げていく空間だったが破壊するには魔力が足りず既に底を尽きかけている。だが、こんな空間に馬鹿な方法とはいえ膝を屈するのは癪だ。こうなればもう意地である。ハジメは魔晶石から魔力のストックを取り出すことも忘れて〝限界突破〟を発動。底上げされた魔力を一気に放出した。「他の連中もそうだ。どいつもこいつも俺の理想なんて踏みつけて、俺を俺たらしめてくれる! つなぎ止めてくれる! 強くしてくれる! 思う通りになんてまるでなりゃあしない厄介な奴等ばっかりだ! だが、だからこそ、最高なんだろうがっ!」世界が紅蓮に染まる。天を衝かんばかりに噴き上がる紅い光の奔流に、仮初の世界が悲鳴を上げた。そして、バリィイイイン!! 世界が壊れた。ガラスの破片のように世界の欠片が宙を舞う。キラキラと光るそれらは、まるでダイヤモンドダストのよう。生命がその終わりの瞬間に一瞬輝くように、壊れた世界に満ちる光の中で偽物のユエはそっと微笑んだ。それは、ユエが見せる微笑みではない。もっと別の......誰かの微笑みだ。ハジメは、その人物に何となく心当たりがあったが、急速に沈んでいく意識に指摘する余裕はなかった。「......合格だよ。甘く優しいだけのものに価値はない。与えられるだけじゃ意味がない。たとえ辛くとも苦しくとも、現実で積み重ね紡いだものこそが君を幸せにするんだ。忘れないでね」ユエのものとは全く異なる声音。女性的にも男性的にも聞こえる。だが、ひどく優しい声音だ。ハジメは意識が途切れる寸前、声にならない声を上げた。「はん、大きなお世話だ。......だが、まぁ、覚えておく」既に霞んで見えないその人は、やっぱり最後に優しい微笑みを浮かべた......気がした。	Chrip, Chirp, Chirp The singing of birds and sunlight invading in the space of the curtain informs that morning has come. Responding to the sound, the master of the room covers his head in his futon (TL: Japanese bed) and it turns into an impregnable fortress. And in the next moment a click resounds plainly and the devil raised a roar. (TL: Alarm clock = devil. I understand, same for me~ Die alarm clocks. Every one of them should be killed by a hero.) Jiriririririri !! (TL: Strange alarm. Well.... Could be worse.....) A noise destroys the silence of the morning in the room “Wake up, boke!” “Uuu......” The master of the room tries to protect himself from the devil in his fortress, but it’s impossible to do that forever. He extended his arm from the futon and in an instant “Banban”! The palm looks for the devil and hits it. The head of the devil is caught at the third time by the arm because of the experience of the devil subjugation for years and he succeeded in silencing the screaming. However, the act that has continued on countless occasions wasn’t hard work at all. The arm of the master of the room dropped in exhaustion and was withdrawn straight into the fortress again. And he stopped moving after that. Immediately after that, “Hajime~ Wake uuuuup!! Don’t go back to sleep ! Wake up already~!” A familiar voice is heard from downstairs ―― The voice of a mother is demanding to wake up. The master of the room, Hajime, has certainly heard the voice in his half consciousness. “Resistance to the bitter end!” The defence of the fortress is gets even stronger after saying that. “No good after all~. Mou, now really, every morning. Sorry~ Can i count on you again?” The voice of the mother is heard again from downstairs. It reached Hajime’s ears because it was spoken loud on purpose so that Hajime hears it even if it was on the other side of the door. Not thinking of the voice of the mother which has given up, already knowing who she’s talking with and what will happen, Hajime still had no intention to get up obediently. After all, every morning is a happy morning for Hajime...... A “konkon”-knocking sound echoes. However, because there is no reaction, the person understood the reason for it and opened the door immediately. The person calls out to the dumpling gently while getting closer to the bed with small steps. “........ Wake up, Hajime.” Still, no reaction. A little more, he wants to hear voice more till he fully awakes. “.........Hajime, wake up. If you don’t wake up......” She gently uses her hand shaking him. A small hand can be seen over the futon and Hajime’s cheeks begin to soften. “....I’ll attack you. Sexually.” “Un, I’ll wake up, so will you stop saying such a vivid thing in the morning?” He wakes up immediately after feeling chills down his spine! And the futon was pushed aside. (TL: I don’t really understand why the author used an “!” here. I let it inside, but it feels strange.) “Morning, Yue.” “......N. Morning, Hajime.” Hajime smiled for a while with his dear lover and savored the first happiness of the day. Hajime is walking to school while suppressing a yawn. Yue is besides him and looks upwards towards him. Such a gesture can only be called cute..... Hajime is looking at Yue while they are going besides each other and is busy restraining himself. Yue is wearing a blazer from Hajimes school. Her short skirt is fluttering gently while she goes backwards, turns her head towards Hajime and speaks to him. “........Again, staying up late?” “Un, I was doing the work father asked me to. It was morning before i noticed.” “.........It’s good to be enthusiastic, but take care of yourself. Please don’t overwork yourself.” “Un, I’ll be careful.” Hajime and Yue are having a gentle conversation. They create a sweet atmosphere between them. A long time passed since Yue became Hajimes lover, however, the passion between them has not declined at all. For Yue to be near Hajime, the homestay was forced into Hajimes house and the transfer procedure to his school was finished very quickly. Suddenly, the pretty girl with blonde hair became Hajime’s lover and it became a fuss at the beginning. After all, Hajime is a genuine Otaku that spends most of his time helping his father who manages a game company. It’s unimaginable why Hajime got such a beautiful lover. His mother doubted it and panicked because she thought it was because of hypnotism and his father thought he had the ability to make delusions real. Even at school, after it was revealed that Yue was Hajime’s lover, it became the hottest topic of the whole school. Afterwards, it is needless to say that the boys were envious of Hajime. Yue is like Yue is, she was waging war with several girls for some reason. (TL: Wait what? Why?) Such things continued for several months. It stopped only recently and their school life calmed down. Thus, because they overcame the storm, they can now leisurely stroll to school together. Hajime, while looking at Yue and her blonde hair which reflects the light and shines brightly, tried to recall how they have met. By chance, he helped Yue who was caught by some thugs and in a desperate fight he somehow manage to defeat one and rescued her. His face becomes hot when he recalls that she kissed his neck as gratitude towards him. After that they became lovers very fast. (TL: Author used “rapidly”, but that sounds somewhat strange.) (However, even thought i am an Otaku i managed to beat them. Humans can somehow manage it when they are desperate.) Hajime smiles involuntarily, remembers his act of rashness, but somehow feels uneasy. (......Huh? Where did i meat Yue again? Why was I at such a place? Huh?) It’s obvious that Yue is a foreigner and became a homestay student. That means he should have met her in a foreign country. Hajime himself remembers that he met Yue in a foreign country. However, where was that actually? He wasn’t sure and his thoughts were hazy. As soon as he noticed that, those doubts came battered like being spilled from a bookshelf in his memory. The uneasiness and doubts swelled up in Hajime one after another. “....Hajime!” “Uwa, what happened? Why did you shout out so suddenly. You surprised me.” Yue normally never talks in such a loud voice while commuting to school. Hajime’s hearth almost jumped and he came back to reality from his whirlpool of thoughts. After that, Hajime looks at Yue who has a somewhat sulky expression. “.....Because you ignored me many times when i called you.” “What? Really? Sorry! I was thinking for a moment.......” Yue turns around suddenly in a bad mood. She was sulking and Hajime’s eyebrows turned into the letter of eight. (TL: “ハ ” ) At that time, Hajime’s doubts disappeared completely. Yue shows a mischievous smile and Hajime repeatedly apologizes. She did not sulk at all, she only wanted Hajime to care about her. She was happy that her plan succeeded. To such a Yue, Hajime lowers his eyebrows to the character of eight again “Can’t do anything about this girlfriend” and he wears a troubled look on his face with a smile. However, he wasn’t really troubled like his expression looked like. He was rather happy. While doing a brilliant turn towards Hajime again, Yue lines up next to Hajime and says something with a small voice. “.......Doze off. In happiness. Look only at me.” That voice did not reach Hajime. While Hajime looked at Yue who snuggled up to him, his eyes gently softened. When Hajime arrived at the school and was changing his shoes at the shoe cabinet, a soft impact is transmitted to his back. It was certain that someone bumped into him and it was a happy feeling for any man. (TL: Come on! Oppai attack! The attack was very effective!) “Hajime-san~! Yue-san~! Good morning! ” “n....... Good morning, Shia.” “Uwa, Shia-san ! Let me go! I always tell you to stop hugging me when you greet me.” (TL: Wtf Hajime? Shia-san? Is your head alright? I guess not....) “To take away my happiness..... This is cruel! At this point you should take responsibility and marry me!” “You skipped some steps! Anyway, let go! Highlight is disappearing from Yue’s pupils. She stares without blinking!” (TL: Author has written “highlight” so I left it. This does sound strange in english. Think of her eyes looking dead or something.) As for Hajime, he tries to tear of Shia from his back while not being too happy about the feeling on his back. Shia is also a foreigner like Yue and came to japan to study abroad. Also by chance, he helped her and her family who were attacked by a thug and she repeats to show gratitude with repeating extreme physical contact. The trademark headband (・・・・・・) she’s wearing is shining in a blue color in addition to her white hair and her innocent smile she is popular regardless of gender and she also has a fan club. Honestly, I am happy that such a girl is showing me goodwill, even though i am confused. It isn’t so that i don’t think of what would have happened if i had not met Yue earlier than her. However, there is no meaning in thinking about such IFs. With Yue as the best lover, Shia’s aggressiveness is becoming a headache for Hajime. Though Shia’s goodwill which she turn to Hajime with her excessive physical contact makes Yue have a bad mood, they get along well and they may be called best friends. That way, they aren’t able to be unkind to each other, and somehow they are stuck in a dilemma. Even though Yue wants to monopolize Hajime, she shows no signs to ditch Shia, her best friend. To Hajime is their relationship mysterious. (Good grief, saving two girls from delinquents and receiving their goodwill. Which Gal-game is this? Moreover, a harem-route to be OK is realistically impossible. ...... What? Come to think of it, was Shia always wearing such a headband? Somehow, more, like, a different feeling.......) While Hajime watched Shia’s headband and searching his memory, suddenly both his arm were wrapped in a happy feeling. While pressing such heinous fruits (deadly weapons) against Hajime while talking, they pulled him towards the classroom. (TL: No joke intended. He really has written “brutal/fiendish/heinous/evil fruits” 凶悪な果実 ) “Why do you make such a difficult face in the morning? If we don’t go to class soon the first bell will ring.” “n....The teacher will scold us.” Hajime is paying attention to not spend too much time with those two at school. From the mouths of those two the words “classroom”, “first bell” and “teacher” escaped. So he had no choice and felt a discomfort in his chest. When he entered the classroom, in that moment, the looks of envy and jealousy were emitted from the men and stick all to Hajime. Because of Yue’s and Shia’s aid he doesn’t get chased directly, their piercing gazes still hurt........ (N? What is it? How to call this..... nostalgic? Huh, why, Why do i feel that way?) Hajime couldn’t understand his own feeling and sat down on his seat while twisting his neck and being even more confused. Immediatly after that, one girl from the class approaches Hajime. “Hajime-kun, Good Morning. You came at the last-minute today. You should come earlier.” The girl — Shirasaki Kaori — who greeted him is not inferior to Yue or Shia even if you compare them. She was the School Madonna before Yue and Shia came. Also, she is also a girl who favors Hajime for some reason. She has called out to Hajime often already before, but he did not think it was because she had courtesy for him. However, because Yue named herself as Hajimes lover, Kaori started to make her goodwill shown towards Hajime as she knew she had feelings for him. Because of that it was impossible to run away from misunderstandings. Kaori came closer to Hajime with “patapata” steps which sounded happy and Hajime showed a troubled smile......This time however, because Hajime was caught in his thoughts he didn’t answer Kaori. (That line.....somewhere....Damn it, What is it? Why did i think of that as “nostalgic”? Though it is the usual.... Today is somewhat strange.) “Hajime-kun.... Why do you ignore me? Well... Have I made you angry somehow?” When hearing the trembling voice, Hajime looks up and sees Kaori with a tearful expression. Hajime noticed that he had been ignoring Kaori’s greeting and answered in a hurry. “No, sorry. That’s not it. I was thinking for a moment. I’m really sorry. Morning, Shirasaki-san.” “Oh, i’m glad~ . Un, Morning Hajime-kun. And don’t i always tell you i want you to call me “Kaori”?” Kaori puffs out her cheecks and shows her dissatisfaction. Because of such a lovely gesture, all the young men that looked at Hajime were almost all shot. (TL: Cuteness overload.) “No, Shirasaki-san. That’s a bit....” “It’s Kaori. Call me that?” “No, that’s.....” “That, err, Ka, Kao.....” Muu! Hajime is overwhelmed by Kaori as she wants him to call her by her given name. And when he was almost persuaded to do so, “.......Don’t trouble Hajime.” The savior appeared. It was Yue. Yue protected Hajime and cut in between Hajime and Kaori with an imposed stance. “Muu, you came out, Yue. For the time being, Morning.” While Yue and Kaori greet each other, an icy enviroment between them is created. They officially recognize each other as rivals in school. Warm sunlight enters from the window and it becomes warmer, however between those two, it becomes midwinter suddenly. “Cold War” ―― The battle over Hajime between Yue and Kaori is known not only by the students, but also by the teachers. Though those two stare at each other for a while, there is no malicious feeling there. In spite of the war of love between them, those two, in a dignified manner, collide with each other openly. For Hajime it wasn’t too strange, rather than rivals, they were like close friends which did not hate each other, but had a quarrel like friends. Meanwhile the bell rang, and the head teacher entered the classroom. Yue and Kaori who had been exchanging glances returned to their seats quickly. In the first period was the english class from Tio-sensei. A beauty that for some reason likes Hajime. She is an erotic female teacher that always without exception sexually harasses Hajime......... Immediately make some disciplinary dismissals! While thinking that, he glares at her while neglecting the harassment and she stops immediately her sexual harassment. For some reason, she tries to hide her expression which is red and her shoulders shake........ Hajime got depressed because he thought she was scared of his face. (TL: Tio stays Tio, wherever she is....) After school, Hajime and Yue were walking besides each other towards a certain place. Shia, Kaori and for some reason Tio-sensei wanted to come with them, but Yue cut them down with a single strike of a sword. (Of course, only in a mental meaning.) Because they were temporarily immobilized, only those two were able to go. The place at which they arrived at while enjoying an innocent conversation was a kindergarten. At that place, Myuu, the daughter of Remia which was mothers friend (TL: Speaks of Hajime’s mother probably) was there and they came for her because Remia was busy. And this picking-up, until Remia comes back, became the daily life of Hajime’s family which continues since long ago. Hajime and Yue went through the front gate of the of the kindergarten and Myuu came running to them with small steps. She was smiling with her whole face. Unconsciously, Hajime and Yue had a warm and fluffy feeling. The two catch Myuu which rushed to them and embraced her with a “gyu”. “Myuu, it’s no good to dive/jump into us. It’s dangerous you know? Also, did you just try to call me “Papa”? Really, don’t do that.” “........I wouldn’t mind being called “Mama”.” Hajime almost break out in cold sweat because of how Myuu wanted to call him. Myuu called Hajime “Papa” before and it became a hassle as other parents also were there. Remia was a widow, Myuu didn’t know her father and they thought that the gentle older man, Hajime, was her father. However, calling Hajime, an active high school student, “Papa”......... Naturally, some rumors were spread. Moreover, Yue is also a foreigner the same as Myuu is. It should be understood what the other parents were imagining. Namely, they thought she got pregnant somewhere between primary school and middle school! When Yue heard about the misunderstanding, the misunderstanding escalated further as she only blushed without denying it. Yue imagined making a child with Hajime, but the timing for that was just too bad. In one way or another, the teachers of the kindergarten solved the misunderstandings. On a later date, Remia has written a letter so that the misunderstanding doesn’t spread further so that it disappears from Hajime’s town. Honestly, he almost was breaking out in cold sweat. Moreover Remia is a widow and it was possible he would aim for her next time? A lady-killer with a docile face! And most turned cautious eyes towards him. Recently, he has given up on that already. Still, more or less, he doesn’t let her call him papa. They walk with Myuu between them while holding hands home. From time to time, they swing Myuu forth and back like on a swing while chatting. If you look from the side, it completely looks like a family. “........Myuu, what were you doing today?” Myuu answers Yue what she was doing today. While seeing such a Myuu, Yue looks at her very gently. It is full of love and warmth overflows. Somehow, Hajime has been fascinated by such a divine Yue. It takes a while till a ill-humored voice reaches Hajime. “Mou, pap—- Onii-chan! Do you hear what Myuu is talking about?” “Eh? Aah, sorry, sorry. I was spacing out for a bit.” Hajime smiles with a wry smile while apologizing to Myuu which is angry and lifts her arm. And to please her, Hajime starts to cuddle with her. Though Myuu restores her mood very fast as she was held, she doesn’t want to let go and tries very hard to still pretend to be angry at him. It was obvious for Hajime, but he pretended not to notice it and Hajime was still soothing Myuu. At that time, a faint quarrel finally reached their ears. A woman’s voice and of some men. Judging by the voice, the female seems to be in a pinch. Hajime and Yue look at each other and peek into the alley where the voice was heard. “What a template is this....” (TL: Probably meant stereotype, but has written template.) “.......Enemy of women, won’t be forgiven.” Like you can imagine it, some men were trying to forcefully pick-up a girl. Hajime twisted his head while holding Myuu and thinking what to do. The enemy’s strength wasn’t very big. Judging from their postures, they only seemed like small punks. It wouldn’t be a big deal, even if they were armed. They have turned towards Yue as they have realized that she approaches them and were momentarily stunned by her pretty face and were smiling, however immediately they smiles became vulgar. Their eyes were seeing new prey. Because of their glances, Hajime got angry. However, before he was able to able to something, Yue got in between the pick-up guys in a moment. In addition, in only a moment, their joints made a “bekibaki” (breaking) sound and Yue got control of them immediately. Believe it or not, the guys were beaten up without a chance to speak. They fell on the ground while screaming in pain after getting hit. Yue didn’t show any mercy and the girl’s face became stiff and Yue went back to Hajime immediately. And they began walking home again. Not even three minutes had passed after the commotion. A short-term battle, that reminded of a certain space hero. (TL: Don’t know the reference.) “Yue-neechan is strong~! How coool~!” “....N, Myuu will be trained when you grow up.” Myuu’s future is a bit worrisome. Myuu praises Yue, however Hajime feels irritated as he wasn’t able to do anything as a man. Even with his troubled look, he fell in love again with his lover. (Huh? Was Yue so strong in close combat? Moreover, why was I able to analyze their strength........) While holding Myuu with his right hand, Hajime unconsciously puts his other hand to his thigh. And there, his hand is searching for something. However, that “Something” is not there and he feels some kind of discomfort. After dinner and taking a bath, Hajime threw himself onto his bed. His hair was not dry yet, and he had begun brooding over something. He had a strange feeling. It should be his unchanging daily life......but his instincts say something like “This is wrong!” and his happy daylie life got denied. “Wake up!” it said. Hajime scratched his head while being irritated. At that time, knocking-sounds unexpectedly sounds. “........Hajime?” “Aa, yeah I’m here.” Yue opened the door and entered the room. In a negligee. White sexy arms and feet were shown. Yue came closer to Hajime and noticed that he had wet hair and scolded him! While having a scolding gaze, she arrived at his bed. In addition, she began to dry off Hajime’s hair while he was lying on the bed. “N......It’s dry now. It’s bad to leave it wet. You’ll catch a cold.” “You are right, Thank you, Yue.” “Nn.” Hajime was thanking her and Yue hugged him from behind. And she buries her face in Hajime’s neck like a spoiled child. Both of her arms invade Hajime’s clothes from the back and start to caress Hajime’s chest. After Remia picks up Myuu, Yue becomes a spoiled child. As long as Myuu is there, they can’t be spend much time as lovers, so some fault lies in that. When there are holidays, Yue is sulking pretty much as he cares for Myuu too much. It’s inevitable to some degree, however her desire to monopolize him is strong. (She is stronger than any thugs, full of love and kindness, she loves me and is the best girlfriend there is. .....I am satisfied with this everyday life. I should feel blessed. Yet.... Why am i dissatisfied) What is wrong? Why is there a “moyamoya”-feeling in my chest?) While feeling the softness and the temperature of Yue’s body, Hajime tries to ignore the uneasiness which swells up. To such a Hajime Yue whispers something to his ears. “.....Everything is fine. Do not worry. I’ll make Hajime happy.” “Yue......” “.......Look only at me. Everything is fine, i am here. Hajime’s ideal. Forever at your side.” While melting in such a sweet whispering, Hajimes consciousness began to fade. At this rate, how sweet would it be to sleep while being spoiled by Yue. (That’s right. Yue is here. There isn’t anything more important. ...There shouldn’t be. I don’t need anything else. Even if i would need to throw everything away...... My ideal lover is besides me. Only that......) His consciousness is breaking off. Losing strength in his body, without change his self is being comfortable soaked in warm feelings. Then, while all his dissatisfaction are on the verge of disappearing, ――I defend Yue, Yue defends me. With that we are the strongest. We’ll defeat everything and overcome the world. (TL: He starts speaking here with “Ore” again.) Suddenly, strange words appear in his mind. Hajime consciousness surfaces rapidly and he opens his eyes wide. ――Aa~, If you like, Yue can come too? His voices echoes again. It was the promise of taking Yue back to his home. Afterwards Yue smiled. They go back to his home together. While he said that she had smiled like a blooming flower. She was happy from the bottom of her hearth. If you think of it, when Hajime saw that for the first time, he was probably done in. Also, the oath was set on the day of departure after passing life or death situations and stepping into the world. They vow to protect each other, defeat everything that stands in their way and go to Hajime’s hometown together. His instincts tell him that. Immediately before he his consciousness fades he remembers the important oath embraces himself and “Something about seeing Yue” and stands up. (.....Ideal Lover? Sweet, gentle world? I’m stupid (・・・)! ) Hajime covered his eyes and gritted his teeth to the very limit. If he did not do so, he wouldn’t be able to forgive himself. (TL: He would start crying.) (.....I forgot the promise. Was almost blinded by this world. I’m disgusted about myself.) Hajime hit his cheek with his full strength for punishment. Though Yue is surprised by the sudden action of Hajime and extents her hand, Bashi! It was deflected by Hajime’s hand. Yue wraps her hand with her other hand with a sad expression. With the expression, which was probably produced in the great labyrinth, Hajime “....Don’t kid with me” spat out an abuse. “......Hajime, what’s wrong?” Yue’s question was disregarded and Hajime turned a sharp glance towards Yue like he was another person. “Well, Yue. Yue is important for me. I don’t need anything besides her.” “.....Hajime, I am happy.” Though Yue is confused by Hajime’s sudden words, her expression softens up immediately. However, contrary to the words, Hajime’s gaze remains sharp. “That why, If I tell you to cut down or cast away someone else, will you do it?” Yue nods to Hajimes words without hesitation. “Even if it were Shia, Kaori, Tio or even Myuu?” “If Hajime wishes for that.” Almost like embodying Hajime’s ideal Yue and carrying out all of Hajimes wishes. To such a girlfriend, rather than being happy about it, he shows an irritated expression. He mutters in a small voice “I was drawn in by that, impossible.....” And, with a sharp glance he spits out words. “Is that so.....I understand, *****.” In the moment when he declared Yue as an imitation, Hajime’s appearance changed. From the appearance of a japanese with black hair, to a boy with gray hair and an eyepatch. “Crap. I really fell into the trap just like that.....That’s why you shouldn’t be careless in a great labyrinth......Better said, the one who created Haltina is one of a fella.” (TL: Just checked, “Haltina” should be read “Harz”-ina (Harutsuina) which means “amber”, but i’ll leave it Haltina as it was used in earlier chapers) Yue walks up to the cursing Hajime. And she reaches out to Hajime with a clinging expression. “.....Stay here? If Hajime stays here he will be happy.” “Shut up, fake. Don’t call my name so familiarly.” “.....Why? I’m Yue. Hajime’s lover. Ideal lover. With what are you dissatisfied.” “With everything you idiot. Doing everything I want, monopolizing me, my ideal lover? That’s only a doll. I don’t have the hobby of playing with dolls.” Hajime wants to get out of this space already and spits out to Yue that she’s a fake. “.....Wrong. I’m not a doll. I have all the personality of Hajime’s ideal lover. That’s why, stay here. Everything that Hajime wants will be like his ideal. I’ll always stay by his side.” Apparently, it doesn’t seem to be an ordinary fake. The world was also produced by the memory and also the characters were read with the transition/teleportation. There, IF there would be something more impossible “Maybe, if it’s that way”-created, an even more ideal world would be created. Certainly, with the pain tasted in hell, and with what may stand before them in the future, that it would be ideal to live with Yue and the other in the peaceful Japan. However, “It’s beyond help. It couldn’t be even more wrong.” Hajime says it like it was like a trivial matter! A red light emits from his body. The clear red magic is spread though the world in a moment and isn’t stopping and raising its density by a dreadful amount. As long as this is a trial, when clearing the conditions, it is possible to escape it, but he can’t help it and uses his whole strength. The point is, he’s venting his anger. “.......Why?” It should be his ideal word, so Yue asks Hajime why he’s rejecting it. Hajime continues to discharge his magic power and turns his glare to the fake. “Don’t “Why?”-** me. It’s a simple story. My ideal Yue is not such garbage. This real one exceeds my ideals by far. The real Yue is more attractive than a Yue which doesn’t exist!” Hajime pours out magic to the very limit and remembers the worthless feeling again, lets out a loud roar and pours even more magic out and the space finally begins to crack. While the worlds cracking it make a “bikibeki”-sound and expands a bit, however the magic is not strong enough and it’s already exhausted. However, there is still a stupid method left as he doesn’t want to yield to this space. That’s because he’s pretty stubborn. Hajime takes out a magic stone out from his stock and uses “Limit Break”. He raised his magic power in one go. “Those guys are always like this. They always trample on my ideals and try to end them! To tie us with them! Strongly! It won’t go like those troublesome guys want to! Still, for this reason, I will be the strongest!” The world is dyed crimson red. Like piercing the heavens, a bright red torrent bursts out. And, Bariiiiiiiiiin!! The world was broken. Fragments of the world are fluttered like glass in the air. It shines like diamond dust. At the end of its life, like sparking, the imitation Yue lets out a smile in the broken world. It wasn’t like Yue’s smile. It was like..... someone else’s smile. Hajime had an idea what that was, however his consciousness began to fade rapidly and he wasn’t able to point that out. “......You passed. With only being nice you don’t stand a chance. There is no sense in only giving. Even if it’s hard or painful, only what was piled up in reality can make you happy. Don’t forget that.” It was a voice different from Yue’s. It’s more manly than feminine. However, it was a very gentle voice. Hajime at the end of his consciousness cannot help it and raises his voice. “None of your bussiness.....But, I’ll remember it.” The person was already hard to see, nonetheless still raised a gentle smile at the end.....it felt just like that.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 10, "inserted_lines_src": 7, "inserted_lines_trg": 3 }
目の前で崩れた隊長を見て、俺は思わず絶叫した。頭の中の不快感は元のむずむず感に戻っている。「くそ、何処から何をやってきた!?」「風切り音...。何かの反射...。っつ!急いでここを離れるぞ!恐らくは狙撃だ!方向は恐らく11時!」「離れるってどこへ!?」「3時の方向に建物の影が見えます!まずはそこへ!」「ちくしょう!絶対に許さねえからな!」俺は仲間たちの誘導に従って建物の影が見えた方に向かって走り出す。そしてそこで再びの不快感。「っつ!何かく...」俺がそこまで言ったところで既に状況はアルファ4が沼地に倒され巨大な虫によって胸を貫かれるという光景に決していた。そして、まだ俺の不快感は止まない。アルファ5が銃を構えて巨大な虫に向かって発砲しようとする。けれどその瞬間アルファ5の各部に狼が噛みついていた。明らかに致命傷だった。「アルファ2、アルファ3逃げるぞ!」「分かりました!」「ちくしょうちくしょうちくしょう!!」だから、俺に出来るのはとにかく頭の中の不快感から逃れるように走ることだけだった。 ------------- どれだけ逃げたのだろうか。少なくとも10分は走り続けていたと思う。俺とアルファ6は偶然見つけた家屋に逃げ込んでいた。アルファ2は逃げているうちにはぐれてしまった。「ハアハア何なんだよここは!」「騒ぐな...。奴等に感づかれたらどうする...。」俺はその声に慌てて周囲を見渡す。が、何もないし不快感...いや、恐らくは奴らの気配と思しきものは感じない。「これからどうするんだ...。」「奴等とまともに戦って勝てると思うか...?」「無理だろ...それぐらいは俺にも分かる。」「なら、奴らに見つからないように入口まで逃げるしかないな...。」「距離と方角も分からないのにか...?」「いや、家の場所が変わっていないのならこの家の住所から大体の方角はつかめる。」少しだが希望が見えてきたと思う。奴らへの対策は未だにないが、入口まで逃げ切れれば恐らくなんとかなるだろう。呼吸も落ち着いてきた。装備も十分のはずだ。「なら行こうぜアルファ6。善は急げだ。」「そうだなアルファ3。ただ、この状況でその諺があっているとは思えん。」俺とアルファ6はその場から立ち上がり、この家の住所が書かれた書類を家探しで見つけた。そして、どちらの方角に行けばいいのかが判明すると同時に既に俺たちは1km以上入口から離れていたことも判明した。「なら、後は時間だけか。」「その時間にしても入口に着くころには経っているだろう。」「それじゃあ...、」「ああ...だけの撤退戦の開始だ。」俺とアルファ6は家の外に飛び出し、目標の方向に向かって走り出そうと...した。しかし次の瞬間俺が目にしたのはアルファ6がたくさんの小さな子どもの姿をしたナニカによって周りとは明らかに色の違う黒い沼の中に落とされ、瞬く間に干物になっていく光景だった。あの不快感が襲ってくる。どうやらこのナニカたちは最初にアルファ6だけを狙っていて、俺は眼中に無かったらしい。だからあの不快感がなかったのだろう。ナニカたちがこちらに笑い声をあげながら近づいてくる。その姿はまるで蟻を踏みつぶして喜ぶ子供のようだと思った。そして俺は全力で方角も何も分からくなった状態で逃げだした。もう何も分からなかった。確かなのはアルファ隊は俺以外全員死んだという事実で俺も一歩間違えればすぐにでも死体になるという最悪の予想だ。俺はひたすら不快感から逃れるように走って行く。気がつけば俺の目の前にはこの迷宮の中でも時折見ていた植物とコンクリートが組み合わさった不気味な木で作られた森に迷い込んでいた。あえてこの風景を簡単に表すならコンクリ製マングローブ林と言ったところか。俺はそう呟きながらマングローブ林を進んでいく。そして、マングローブ林を抜ける直前、微かに見えたのはあのエアロックのような入口の扉だった。俺は歓喜に満ち溢れた。そして一刻も早くこの迷宮から抜け出すために駆け出そうとした。しかし、その瞬間俺は今までよりもはるかに強い不快感を背中から感じ振り返った。激しい衝撃を体に感じると同時に見たのは洞の中に輝く赤い目と俺の体を刺し貫く木で出来た腕。そしてまるでモズの早贄のように木の天辺に刺されたアルファ2だった。「ゲームオーバーっと、まあ初めてならこんなものだよね。」俺は迷宮の中に用意した私室。侵入者側からみればボス部屋に当たる部屋でスクリーンに映し出されたアルファ隊最後の姿を見ている。『一人を除いて全員不意打ちでキルですか。さすがですね。』「しかしまあ、やっぱりステータスの恩恵はデカイねえ。人一人余裕で持ち上げて木にブッサリとさせるんだから。」実は今回は俺も慣らし運転ということで一度ボス部屋を離れて戦列に加わっている。その結果があのアルファ2と呼ばれた男の末路であり、彼の攻撃は一切俺には通用しなかった。まあ霧の体だからしょうがない。	————– “Captainnnnnnnnnnnn!!” At the sight of the captain collapsing in front of him, a shriek escaped from my lips. The discomfort in my head had returned to its original itchy feeling. “Damn, where the hell did that come from!” “The sound of wind slicing... and something reflecting...! Let’s hurry up and get out of here! It is most likely a sniper! The direction is possibly o’clock!” “Even if you said to leave here, where are we even supposed to go!?” “I spot a shadow of a structure at o’clock! Let’s head there first!” “Damn it! I’ll never forgive anyone for what they did to captain!” With my comrades leading the way, I started making a run towards the shadow of the building. And there, the discomfort struck once more. “! What the hell...?” By the time I said that, the gravity of the situation had already settled on the scene of Alpha being toppled over into the swamp and having his chest impaled by a gigantic bug. Despite this, my discomfort has not subsided. Alpha readied his gun and was about to fire at the giant bug. The wolves, on the other hand, were gnawing at every part of Alpha at the moment. It was evident that the wound was deadly. “Alpha , Alpha , escape!” “Understood!” Hence, the only thing I could do was to run anyway to elude the discomfort in my head. I wonder how long I have been fleeing. I estimate we have been running for at least 10 minutes. Alpha 6 and I had made our way to a house we had stumbled across. While we were escaping, Alpha 2 strayed away from us. “Hah, what the hell is this place!” “Don’t make a fuss... What if they are on to us?” I hastily glanced around after hearing that. However, there was no sign of discomfort... no, that discomfort within me was likely a sign of those creatures’ presence. “What are we going to do now...?” “Do you think we have any hope of prevailing in a proper combat with them...?” “It’s impossible... even I can tell that much.” “Then we’ll just have to sneak away to the entrance without them discovering us...” “Without knowing the distance and direction...?” “No, if the location of the house hasn’t shifted, I can figure out the general direction from the address of this house.” There appeared to be a glimmer of optimism now. Even if we still lacked a defense against those threats, if we can make it to the entrance, things will most likely wind up out well. My respiration has returned to normal. Our gears should be sufficient to handle the circumstances. “Let’s move, Alpha 6. Strike while the iron is hot.” “Yes, Alpha 3, but I don’t think that’s the correct phrase to use in this situation.” Alpha 6 and I rose to our feet and searched the house for the address of this house. Once it dawned on us which direction to take, it also became crystal clear that we were already more than a kilometer away from the entrance. “Then all that matters is time.” “By the time we reach the entrance, even an hour would have passed.” “Well then...” “Yeah... the two of us shall initiate our own private retreat.” Both of us then dashed out of the house and began to bolt in the direction of our destination... But the next thing I knew, Alpha 6 was being dumped into a black swamp by a swarm of small child-like creatures of a different hue than those around him, and he was reduced to a dried-up corpse in the blink of an eye. That discomfort crept back into my consciousness. These “somethings” had apparently chosen Alpha 6 as their initial target and had paid no attention to me. That was probably the reason I didn’t encounter the same discomfort. While cackling, these “somethings” drew closer to me. They seemed to resemble children who take delight in crushing ants to me. And with no sense of direction or anything else, I began to flee with all my energy. To me, everything was already a jumble. The only certainty I had was that all of Alpha Squad members were dead apart from me, and my immediate fear was that if I made a wrong move, I will soon join them as a corpse in a heartbeat. All I could do at this juncture was run as fast as I could to avoid the discomfort. I had drifted into a forest of eerie trees and a mixture of plants and concrete before even realizing it. It was a scene I had seen from time to time in this labyrinth. If I was to characterize this landscape succinctly, I would call it a concrete-sculpted mangrove forest. As I advanced through the mangrove forest, I mumbled to myself, “Where is this place...?” I vaguely spotted the airlock-like entrance door as I was ready to pass through the mangrove forest. My heart was bursting at the seams with exaltation, ready to flee the labyrinth at once. Yet, at that instant, a far deeper sensation of discomfort than I have ever experienced before washed over me, prompting me to turn around and look back. Simultaneously with the searing impact on my body, what I witnessed were red eyes glowing in the cave and an arm formed of wood puncturing through my body. Then there was Alpha 2, speared into the top of the tree like a butcher-bird prey impaled for later consumption. “Game over, well, this is what happens for the first-timers, isn’t it?” I was watching the last image of Alpha Squad projected on a screen in a private room supplied by the labyrinth, which was the boss’ room from the intruder’s point of view. [All except one were annihilated by surprise? That’s impressive.] “But, well, the benefit of status is enormous, isn’t it? I could lift one person up and send them smashing into a tree.” This time, I left the boss’ room and participated in the battle line for the sake of getting accustomed to the situation. As a consequence, the man known as Alpha 2 died, and none of his attacks were effective against me. Well, that was bound to happen since my body was composed of mist.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 6, "inserted_lines_src": 2, "inserted_lines_trg": 4 }
しかしこの歴史は、計算にも示されているように、長期インフレ率期待が当時の年間インフレ率を大幅に上回っていたはずであるため、1980 年代の真の実質長期金利水準はそれほど高かったわけではないことを意味する。たとえば長期債保有者は、1981 年から 1982 年のグローバルな景気後退後の影響が終われば、インフレが巻き返してくると考えていたはずである。	But this history means that the true real long-term interest rate was not as high in the 1980’s as our measures show, because long-term inflation expectations must have been much higher than the one-year inflation rate was at the time. Holders of long-term bonds, for example, must have thought that inflation would come roaring back after the effects of the 1981-2 global recession had passed.	{ "source": "news_commentary", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
アナズム2日目。起きてすぐにステータスをみる。すると、HPとMPが全快していた。寝るってすごいね。多分、寝たり食べたりしてる間は自然治癒がはやまるんだろうね。ドラグナーストーリーでもそうだった。宿屋で泊まると全快。すごいよね。ステータスを閉じ、俺は欠伸した後、周りを確認した。今は丁度、日の出。日の出の様子は、地球のそれとなんら変わりはない。今日はこの場所から進んでみる。俺はウォーターボールを唱え、顔を洗い、水を飲んだ。これウォーターボールを唱えたことになる。しかし、消費したMPは、たったの4。ウォーターボールLv1が一回で、120円分の缶ジュースぐらいの量の水が何もないところから出てくる。すっごく便利! しばらくスキルは水術を中心に育てよう。テキトーな棒を地面に立て、倒れた方にひたすらまっすぐ進むことにした。棒は俺から見て前に倒れた。おそらく前であろう方向に、まっすぐ進んでいる最中、昨日のウサギを見つけたから、脳天に昨日作った骨ナイフを刺して倒した。朝ごはんになって頂くとしよう。ウサギを骨ナイフで解体していたんだけど、明らかに自分の解体技術が上がっている。やっぱり、骨ナイフということもあり、確かに解体はしづらいけど、昨日のよりはかなりマシになっている。 .........。こうしてみると、昨日はかなり肉と皮を無駄にしたみたい。あぁ、本当、勿体無い。肉を血抜きをして、適当な大きさに千切って食べた。血の処理? してないよ、めんどくさい。 ............肉が余ってしまった。干して持ち歩こうかと思ったが、今は荷物をそんなに多く持てない。泣く泣く置いていった。あぁ、勿体無い。でも、かなりの量食べたぞ。昼は抜いてもいいかなー。新しい骨と皮、そして薄紫の魂みたいなやつをもってまた歩く。今日は歩けるところまで歩くつもり。しばらく歩いたところで、またウサギを見かけた。経験値の肥やしになってもらおう。早速倒そうと近づいたが、よく見たらウサギが何か黒い影に襲われている。目をこらすと見えてきたのは、ブルドックのような犬だった。ウサギと同じくらいの大きさ。ウサギを捕食しようとしているのか? しかし、そうはいかない。ウサギも倒すし、犬、お前も倒す。でも、あの犬に噛み付かれたら痛そう。遠距離攻撃で倒すね。俺はフレイムボール2つをウサギと犬にそれぞれはなった。犬はフレイムボールが顔にクリーンヒットして、痛そうに「キャイン!」とか言っていた。ウサギはすでに犬にダメージを与えられていたのか、倒せたようだけど、犬は耐えた。「チッ」思わず舌打ちをしちゃった。あ、レベル上がった。戦闘中のタイミングでレベル上がるって中々の体験かも。「グルルルルルル.........」あ、怒った。攻撃したらみんな怒るよねー。そりゃそっか。犬がこっちに気づいたようで、走ってきた。噛みつこうとしてるんだと思う。だから、かわして骨ナイフを刺した。倒せたみたい。 ............うーん。あのウサギの肉を食べる犬がいるだろ? 犬は鼻がいいだろ? ............ひらめいた!後でこれ、試してみよう。今はステータスの確認をしよう。ちなみに今回のSTPはMPに3、CとWに2、HPとAとSに1振った。SKPは水術に全振りした。 --------------------------------------------	ANAZUMU nd day. Well, HP and MP recovered completely. Probably, it is better to auto-heal by lying down and eating rather than using heal. Even Dragon story was like that. I closed the status, after a yawn, I verified the surroundings. The sunrise here is not that different from earth. I chanted a water ball and washed my face and drank some. however, consumed MP was only . Each water ball, has an amount of water in a -yen juice box. Very convenient! Let’s mainly bring up water magic while doing skills. I put up a suitable stick in the ground, and I decided to advance straight to the one that fell down. I see the stick that fell down before. As I advanced straight in the direction that i left the rabbit, i found the bone knife that i stuck in its skull there. Rabbit was being dismantled with a bone knife, the dismantling skill has clearly risen. After all, Partly due to the bone knife, It is hard to surely dismantle it, but it is considerably easier than yesterday. .........。 I seem to have considerably wasted meat and skin when I did it yesterday. I drained the blood, and cut the meat to suitable pieces for eating. ............ Meat has remained. I thought it was dried and i could carry it, but i can’t carry too much baggage. But I ate a considerable amount. New bone and skin, And I walk again towards the one which looks like a light purple soul. As I was walking for a while, I came across rabbit again. I approached to defeat it at once, but then, the rabbit was attacked by some black shadow. As I strained my eyes, I saw that It was a dog similar to a Bull-Dog. I knock down the rabbit and, also defeat the dog. But It seems painful if i was bitten by that dog. I shot two flame balls to the rabbit and the dog each. A flame ball hit the dog in the face cleanly, it seemed painful as it said 「kyain! 」. Though, I seem both of the took damage and the rabbit is defeated but the dog has endured. 「TCH」 I have clicked my tongue unintentionally. Oh, I rose a level. I raised a level in the middle of battle with the experience that I gained. 「GURURURURURURU.........」 Everybody will get angry if they were attacked. the dog seemed to notice me here and ran. It`s going to bite as I think. so I dodged, and stabbed it with the bone knife. ............ Mmm. Is there a dog that eats this kind of rabbit`s meat? Does the dog have a good nose? ......... Got it! I will try this later. Let’s confirm the status now. By the way, this time I used STP like this: in MP, in C and W, and in HP, A and S. ——————————————–	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 0, "inserted_lines_src": 0, "inserted_lines_trg": 23 }
◇◆◇◆◇ その日、ライエルたちは開拓村から少し離れた小さいが険しい山を登っていた。この山に生えている薬草が、クファルの毒素を解毒するのに必要な素材だからである。これらの知識は、フィーナと、フィーナのために破戒神が残していった教材に記されていた。の娘が薬草の繁殖地域すら覚えているのだから、薬学のギフトの恩恵は恐ろしいと言わざるを得ない。「まだ三歳なのに、ここに生えている薬草の種類までぴたりと言い当てるんだぞ。さすが俺の娘だろう?」「それに世わいいからな。いや一位はニコルか? なんにせよトップスリーには入るだろうな」「た、たしゅけ......ゼルが、もう限界......」「し、死ぬ、死んでしまう......」「俺にかまうな、ここは俺を残して先に行け......」「きゅ、きゅうぅぅぅ」北部独特の結構急峻な地形のため、同行を命じられた三名――元誘拐犯のトロイ、ジョーンズ、ゼルの三人はすでに虫の息である。ついでにカーバンクルも虫の息だ。しかし先行するライエルだけは、その高度も険しい道のりも苦にしていない。「あ、お前ら。言っておくけどフィーナに手を出したら殺すからな? ニコルにもだぞ」唐突に振り返り、息も絶え絶えの三人と一匹に向けてビシと指さして警告するライエル。「なんで、そんなに、元気、なんす、か?」「ん? 道が険しいくらいなら、しっかり足を踏みしめればいいだけだろう?」「そんな簡単な問題じゃないでしょ――はぅ!?」「トロイ、こんな、場所で、倒れたら、野獣に喰われて、死ぬぞ?」大声を上げたトロイはジョーンズの警告空しく、その場に膝をついてしまう。「思ったより体力のない奴らだな。そんなざまだと、また利用されるぞ」「いや、だまされるのに体力とかあまり関係......いや、何でもないです」「頼むから、少し休憩を......」「仕方ないな。三十分休憩だ」へたり込んだ三人に、ライエルは休憩を告げた。この薬草採取は、彼らの体力練成という名の罰も兼ねての行軍である。だからといって、強引に動かせて完全に気絶されても、困るのはライエルの方だ。それに彼らは、反省の念もあるのか、本当に体力の限界まで我慢してついてきていた。その根性を評価しないライエルではない。「ほら、この蔓を切ると樹液が流れ出してくるから、飲んでおけ。水袋の水はまだあるよな?」「はい、あります」近くの木に絡みついていた蔓を切断し、そこから染み出してきた水をトロイたちに飲ませる。山という状況では水は貴重品だ。現地で調達できるのなら、なるべくそれを消費した方がいい。特にこの近辺では水源が少ないため、一部の植物は大量に水を貯える性質を持っている。それを知るライエルは、水の節約のため、彼らにそれを知らせ、口にさせた。「このままじゃ、お前らは他の兵士の足手まといになるぞ」「わかっちゃいるんですが......無い体力は、すぐにどうにかなるもんじゃないです」「それはうちの娘を見ていればわかるけどな。まぁいい。気長にやるか」ライエルとて、彼らを死に追いやりたいわけではない。むしろ一途に家族や大切な人のことを想い、命すら投げ出す覚悟でことに及んだ行動力は評価している。問題はその方法が間違っており、しかもそれがライエルの家族に及んだことだ。よって、これを無罪とするわけにはいかない。なによりけじめとして、他の兵士や村人に、目に見える形で罰を与えないと、規律が保てない。そこでこの薬草採取に彼らを同行させることにしたのだ。最近また脂肪を貯え始めたカーバンクルを連れて。「カッちゃんも。そんな有様じゃ、またフィーナを守れないぞ?」面目ないと言わんばかりの鳴き声を返すカーバンクルだが、大の字に寝ころんだまま、起き上がってくる気配がない。「まったく、いくらマリアの食事が美味いからと言って......ん?」そこまで話し、ライエルは言葉を切った。その目は鋭くなり、周囲を油断なく見まわしている。「どうかしましたか?」「ああ、これは......戦場の気配だな」「戦場......?」ライエルにレイドほどの索敵能力はない。しかし命の危機を数知れず乗り越えてきた彼は、相応に危険に対して敏感である。その彼の感覚が、鋭敏に危機を嗅ぎ付けていた。「まずいな、これは――」足手まといを抱えたままでは、対処しきれないか? そう判断するより先に、危機の源が姿を現した。三メートルを超える巨体、山羊のような頭部、両手に持った、人の胴ほどもある巨大な剣。それは最近、ベリトを訪れた際に目にした姿だった。「双剣の魔神!? お前ら、下がれ」強敵だが、この敵ならば倒した経験がある。それが彼に逃亡という選択肢を選ばせなかった。しかしそれが間違いだったと、直後にわかる。岩陰からもう一体の巨体が姿を現したからである。、だと!?」一体相手ですら、苦戦した。あの時はレイドの補助があったからこそ、怪我なく切り抜けることができた。しかし今回はレイドがいないし、背後には守らねばならない者もいる。「くっ、お前ら、死ぬ気で逃げろ! 足を止めたら本当に死ぬぞ!」「な、なんだよ、あれ!?」「化け物!」「やべぇ、逃げるぞ、トロイ、ジョーンズ!?」「きゅ!」ライエルは愛剣を抜いて、魔神に備える。もちろん魔神もライエルを放置する気はない。両の剣を振り上げて襲い掛かってくる。それを家宝の聖剣で受け止め、弾き返し、その場に踏みとどまる。背後の三人を逃がすための時間稼ぎをするつもりなのだ。「ライエルさん、あなたも早く!」「お前らが逃げてからな! 俺を死なせたくないなら、さっさと行け!」叫ぶライエルだったが、一体だけならともかく、二体となると絶望的な気分にならざるを得ない。それでも、背後の三人を守るために、退くわけにはいかなかった。あのバカ叫びながらも、ライエルは剣を振り続けたのだった。	◇◆◇◆◇ That day, Lyell and others were climbing up a small but steep mountain a little separated from the pioneer village. The medicinal herbs growing there were necessary for the antidote against Kufar’s poison. The knowledge of it came from Fina and the textbooks that the God of Destruction left for her. A three-year-old girl even remembered the breeding grounds of the herbs, so it showed just how frightening the Gift of Pharmacy was. “She’s only three, but she accurately knows the types of herbs growing here. As expected of my daughter, don’t you think?” “Geeh...haah...” “And she’s the cutest girl in the world. Or I suppose Nicole is the first one. At any rate, she’s definitely among the top three.” “H-Help... Zell’s already...” “H-He’s going to die...” “Don’t worry about me. Leave me here and go on ahead...” Because of the north’s characteristic steep terrain, the three who were ordered to accompany him —ex-kidnappers Troy, Jones, and Zell— were already at death’s door. The Carbuncle was much the same. However, Lyell alone was neither bothered by the altitude nor the steep path. “Oh, you guys. Let me remind you, I’ll kill you if you touch Fina, got it? Or Nicole.” Lyell suddenly turned around and pointed at the gasping trio and an animal with that warning. Naturally, the people concerned had something else to worry about now. The steep route had shaved away their stamina and they were on the verge of collapsing. “How...are you... so energetic?” “Hmm? If the path is steep, you just have to step firmly, right?” “It’s not so easy to do—hwah?!” “Troy...if you fall here... you’d get...eaten by wild beasts.” Troy, who yelled, fell to his knees despite Jones’ warning. “You’re lacking stamina more than I thought. If you stay like that you’d get used all over again.” “I don’t think stamina has anything to do with getting deceived... um, never mind.” “Please, let us rest a little...” “No helping it. Fine, we’re resting for half an hour.” Lyell allowed the fallen trio some rest. This herb gathering was also used as a march to give them some stamina training as their punishment. Having said that, if he forced them to move and they fainted, Lyell would be the one that’s inconvenienced by it. Plus, perhaps they were reflecting on their actions, they really endured it until the very limits of their stamina. Lyell wasn’t someone who wouldn’t acknowledge that. “Here, if you cut this vine the sap will come out so drink it. You still have water in your sacks right?” “Yes, we do.” He severed a vine coiled around a nearby tree and had them drink the water coming out of it. Water was a precious resource on a mountain. If they could procure it locally, it was better to consume that instead. This area was particularly lacking water sources, so some of the plants had a nature to store a large amount of water. Lyell knew that, so he told it to them and had them drink it to economize on their own water. “At this rate, you’ll just get in the way of the other soldiers.” “We know that but... we can’t suddenly increase our lacking stamina.” “I know that after looking at my daughter. Oh well. I guess I will take my time with you.” Lyell didn’t want to kill them or anything. Rather, he even recognized their resolve to even throw away their lives to save their family and dear ones. The problem was their method itself, and it involved Lyell’s family. As such, he couldn’t declare them innocent. He had to punish them in a way that the soldiers and the villagers could witness, or it would affect the order. Thus, he decided to take them along on this herb-gathering trip. Along with the Carbuncle who’s gotten fatter again as of late. “Kabby, that goes for you too. You can’t protect Fina the way you are, you know?” The Carbuncle squeed back as if ashamed, but it was plopped down with limbs spread, showing no signs of getting up. “Good grief, I know Maria’s food is delicious but...hmm?” Suddenly, Lyell cut his words. His eyes turned sharp, and he looked around in vigilance. “Is something wrong?” “Yeah, this feels... like a battlefield.” “Battlefield...?” Lyell didn’t have as high a detection ability as Reid, but having overcome life and death situations countless times, he could still sense danger. And his senses keenly sensed a crisis. “This is bad, I—” before he could finish that sentence, the source of the danger showed itself. It was a giant over three meters tall, having a goat-like head and holding giant swords as wide as a human’s torso in each hand. It was the same thing he had seen recently in Berith. “Twin-bladed Devil?! Get back, all of you.” It was a strong foe, but he had experience defeating it. That made him decide not to flee. However, the next second he realized that it was a mistake. Because one more giant showed up from behind the rock. “Two of them?!” One of them gave him a hard fight as is. He managed to overcome that battle without an injury all thanks to Reid’s support. But this time Reid wasn’t here, and he had people to protect behind him. “Kh, you guys, run like your lives depend on it! If you stop, you’ll really die!” “W-What are those?!” “Monsters!” “S̲h̲i̲t̲, let’s run, Troy, Jones!!” Squee! Lyell pulled out his trusty sword and faced the Devils. Of course, the Devils had no intention of overlooking him either. One of them raised both of its swords and rushed at him. He stopped them with his heirloom holy sword, repelled and stayed in place. He planned to buy the three behind him time to escape. “Mr. Lyell, you should run too!” “I will after you do! If you don’t want me to die, hurry up and go!” So he yelled back, but facing not just one but two, he couldn’t help but feel hopeless. Even so, in order to protect the three behind, he couldn’t step back. that fool He kept swinging his sword as he yelled those words.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 4, "inserted_lines_src": 3, "inserted_lines_trg": 4 }
この事件はご存知の通りですエデンの園にいるアダムとイブはある日自分たちが裸なのに気付きます彼らはひどくあわてますその後の顛末はご存知の通りです今日ならアダムとイブは恐らく違った行動を取るでしょう [ @アダム :昨夜は楽しかった! あのリンゴは美味しかった] [ @イブ:本当にでもズボンどうしたんだろう?] 私たちは今までになく多くの情報をオンラインで公開していますそして我々に関する情報は様々な組織によって収集されていますこの大量の個人情報あるいはビッグデータから非常に有用で価値のあるものが得られますが同時にプライバシーを手放すことに伴う複雑なトレードオフも存在します今日はこのようなトレードオフについてお話ししますまずここ数年の間に私のなかで非常に明確になってきたどんな個人情報でもプライバシー情報になり得るという洞察から話したいと思います 2000年の時点で全世界で 1000億枚ほどの写真が撮られましたがウェブにアップロードされたものの割合は非常に小さなものでした 2010年にはファイスブックだけでも 25億枚の写真がひと月にアップされそのほとんどが誰の写真か特定可能です同じ期間で写真に写っている人を認識するコンピュータの能力は3桁上がりましたこの2つの技術を組み合わせると何が起こるでしょうか顔写真がどんどん手に入るようになりコンピュータの顔認識の能力が向上するそしてクラウドコンピューティングがここにいる誰に対しても数年前には政府の専門機関しか持てなかったようなコンピュータ能力を提供しますユビキタスコンピューティングによってスーパーコンピュータではない私の携帯電話がインターネットに接続して数十万の顔認識を数秒で実行することを可能にしますこのような技術の組み合わせがプライバシーと匿名性に対する私たちの基本的な理解を大きく変えると推測しますこの考えを検証するためにカーネギーメロン大学である実験を行ないましたキャンパスを歩いている学生に声を掛け実験に参加してもらいウェブカメラで学生の顔写真を撮ってノートパソコンに用意したアンケートに答えてもらいました彼らがアンケートに答えている間にクラウドコンピューティングのクラスタに写真をアップし顔認識技術を使ってフェイスブックから取ってきた数十万の画像データーベースと照合しました被験者の学生がアンケートの最後のページに到達する頃にはそのページは動的に変更されていて顔認識エンジンが選んだ最も似ている 10枚の写真が表示されますそこで学生にその写真の中に自分が映っているかどうか尋ねました学生をみつけられますか? コンピュータは探せたわけです実際3人中1人の割合で学生の特定が可能でした基本的には不特定の顔写真から始めてオンラインかオフラインかに関わらず顔認識技術を使ってその写真の人物の名前を特定することがソーシャルメディアのおかげで可能です数年前にこれとは異なる実験を行いましたソーシャルメディアのデータから始めてそれを統計的に米国政府のソーシャルセキュリティー関連のデータと組み合わせ最終的にソーシャルセキュリティー番号を特定することが出来ましたソーシャルセキュリティー番号は米国ではプライバシーに関する非常に重要な情報ですこの話の先に見えてくるものは何でしょう? この2つの実験を組み合わせるとある疑問が浮かびます顔の写真から始めて顔認識技術によって名前を特定しその名前からその個人に対する公開情報を取得し次に公開情報からよりプライベートな非公開情報を参照しそれを元の顔と結びつけられるでしょうか? 答えはイエスで私たちはそれに成功しましたもちろん精度は徐々に悪くなります [27%の被験者のソーシャルセキュリティ番号の頭5桁が特定できました] もちろん精度は徐々に悪くなります [27%の被験者のソーシャルセキュリティ番号の頭5桁が特定できました] iPhoneのアプリも作ることにしました [27%の被験者のソーシャルセキュリティ番号の頭5桁が特定できました] 内蔵のカメラで人物の写真を撮ってそれをクラウドにアップして先ほど説明した処理をリアルタイムで実行して該当する写真を探し公開されている情報を探しそこからプライバシー情報を探しそれを携帯に送り返しその人物の写真と重ね合わせて表示するなんかゾッとする拡張現実の例だと思いますなんかゾッとする拡張現実の例だと思いますこのアプリは公開していません単に可能かやってみただけですこのような技術の応用が最大限に進んだ場合を考えると周りにいる他人があなたの顔をグーグルグラスやコンタクトレンズを通して見てあなたに関する7、8個のデータから知り得るどんな個人情報にもアクセスできるような未来が想像できますこのような秘密のない世界はどんな感じでしょうか? このようなことに注意を払うべきでしょうか? 私たちは多くのデータにアクセスできる未来が偏見のない世界だと信じる傾向にありますでも多くの情報があるからといってより客観的な判断をするとは限りませんより客観的な判断をするとは限りませんもう1つの実験では被験者に就職志望者の情報を見てもらいましたこの情報のなかに意図的に混ぜたのは被験者自身がネットに投稿した完全に合法でありながらちょっと具合の悪い情報に関することです被験者のなかにはそのような情報を投稿したことがある人もない人もいましたどちらのグループが求職者を厳しく非難したと思いますか? 逆説的ですが自分自身もそのような情報を投稿したことがあるグループでしたこれは言動不一致の良い例です皆さんはこれは自分は当てはまらないなぜなら隠しておきたいことはないからと思っているかも知れませんしかしプライバシーとはネガティブなことを隠すことではありませんあなたがどこかの組織の人事担当責任者で就職希望者の履歴書を受け取ったときに応募者に関してもう少し調べたいと思ったとしましょう候補者の名前をグーグルで検索したらあるサイトでこんな情報が見つかったとしますあるサイトでこんな情報が見つかったとします一方どこかのパラレルワールドでこの情報を見つけるとしますあなたは両方の応募者と同じように面談をしたいと思うでしょうかもしそう思うのならあなたは米国の雇用主とは違います私たちは実験の一部として正にそのような状況を試してみましたファイスブックに人柄を操作した架空のプロファイルを登録し米国内の様々な企業にその人物の履歴書を送りましたそして企業がその人物に関する情報をソーシャルメディアで検索するかどうかまたそこで得た情報に影響されるか観察すると影響されると分かりました同じ能力の候補者間でソーシャルメディアを介した差別が発生していましたマーケティングの人たちは私たち自身に関する情報が私たちのために使われると信じさせようとしていますでもよく考えてみてください常にそうであるはずがありません何年か前の「マイノリティー・レポート」という映画でトム・クルーズがショッピング・モールを歩くと個人に特化した広告がホログラフィックに彼を取り巻くように表示される有名な場面がありました映画の設定は2054年 40年後の未来となっていてその技術は素晴らしいもののように見えますがそれはすでに組織が集めることのできる個人情報とそれが思いもよらない方法で利用され得るということに関して過小評価をしていますそのような例として現在私たちが行なっている実験を紹介します企業があなたのフェイスブックの友達リストにアクセスできると仮定してみて下さいそして何らかのアルゴリズムで一番仲のいい友達を2人選ぶことが出来るとしますそしてその2人の友達の顔の写真をリアルタイムにで合成出来るとします過去の研究から合成された顔写真は本人自身もそれと認識は出来ないのですが何故かその写真の顔に親しみをもつということが分かっています次に何か特定の商品を探しているときそれを勧める広告があり勧めているのは見知らぬ人ではなくあなたの友達の合成イメージでそれに全く気付かないかもしれません問題は現在の法律では個人情報の悪用から我々を保護する仕組みは銃撃戦にナイフで対抗するようなものだということですこのような仕組みの一つが透明性で入手した情報をどの様に使うかを明確するものです原理としてそれは良いことです必要ですが充分ではありません透明性は誤用される可能性があります情報をどのように使うかを伝えた上で個人情報を提供するように相手を誘導することが可能です学生を対象にもう1つ実験を実施しました学生達にキャンパスでの行ないに関して情報を提供するように依頼しました試験でカンニングをしたことがありますか? といった非常にプライベートな質問を含んでいます一つ目のグループには回答は他の学生だけが閲覧すると伝えましたもう一つのグループには他の学生と教授陣が回答を閲覧すると伝えました透明性と留意点が明確であり当然期待した結果になりました最初のグループの方が 2番目のグループより情報を開示する可能性が高いという結果です妥当な結果だと思います次に誤った誘導を加えました同じ2つのグループで実験を行ないましたが今度はどのように回答が利用されるかを伝えるタイミングと実際に質問をするタイミングをずらしました教授陣も回答を閲覧するという抑止作用のある情報を忘れるのにどの位の時間が必要だったと思いますか? 10分? 5分? 1分? 15秒ではどうでしょう? 両方のグループに同じ量の情報を開示させるのには 15秒あれば充分でした 2つ目のグループも教授陣が回答を見ることを気にしていないようでしたここまでの話でとても憂鬱な気分になるとは思いますでもそれがポイントではないのです実際には別のアプローチがあるということをお話したいのです現在のやり方が唯一の方法ということはありませんしベストな方法でもありませんありませんしベストな方法でもありませんもし誰かが「人々はプライバシーを気にしない」と言ったらやり方が巧妙にデザインされていてプライバシーを気にさせなくしているか疑って下さいそのような操作が存在すると気付くことはすでに自分自身を守る道を半分進んでいることを示していますもし誰かがプライバシーとビッグデータから得られるメリットは両立しないなどと言い放ったらここ20年間研究者は理論上どんな電気的な通信に対してもプライバシーを強化できる技術を開発してきたことを思い出すべきです私たちは匿名のままインターネットをブラウズすることができますメールを指定した受信者だけが読めるように送ることもできます米国家安全保障局でさえ読めませんプライバシーに配慮したデータマイニングも可能です言い換えればビッグデータのメリットを享受しながら同時にプライバシーを守ることが可能ですもちろんこのような技術は情報を持つ者と情報を利用する者の間のコストと利益のあり方に影響するかもしれませんこれが理由であまりこのような話を聞かないのかもしれませんここからエデンの園に話に戻りますこれはエデンの園の話をプライバシーの観点からみたもう1つの解釈ですこれはアダムとイブが裸であることに気付いて恥ずかしいと思ったこととは関係がありません同じような話をジョン・ミルトンの「失楽園」にも見ることができますエデンの園でアダムとイブは物質的には不自由なく幸せで満足していましたしかし同時に彼らは知識や自己認識に欠けていました彼らは適切にも知恵の実と名付けられた実を食べた瞬間自分たちを発見しました彼らは自分達を認識し自主性を獲得しましたしかしその代償はエデンの園を去ることでしたプライバシーも自由のための手段でもあり同時に払うべき代償でもありますマーケッティングの人々はビッグデータとソーシャルメディアは彼らが利益を得るための場ではなく私たち全員のエデンの園だといいます私たちは無料でコンテンツを楽しみアングリーバードを手に入れたりほしいアプリを手に入れたりできますしかし実際には数年の内に企業は私たちを熟知し私たちの欲しいものを意識する前に察知し必要と思う前に買い物までしてくれるようになるかもしれません必要と思う前に買い物までしてくれるようになるかもしれませんこのように私たちが自立性と自由を快適さと引き換えに手放してしまうこのような未来を憂慮した英国の作家がいましたジョージ・オーウェル以上にこれを描いたのはもちろんオルダス・ハクスリーです『すばらしい新世界』で彼はもともとは自由のために私たちが作り上げた技術が私たちを支配する世界を創造していますしかし同時にその小説ではその社会から逃げ出す経路アダムとイブがエデンの園から出るために通らなければならなかった経路と似たものを示しています小説のなかの未開人の言葉として代償は高いが自立性と自由を手に入れることは可能だと言っています我々の時代の独特の戦いは個人情報のコントロールに対する戦いであると私は信じていますビッグデータが自由のための力となるか私たちを陰で操作するような力となるかの戦いです私たちを陰で操作するような力となるかの戦いです現在はまだ多くの人がそのような戦いが始まっていることすら知りませんしかし好むと好まないとにかかわらず戦いは始まっています蛇の役割を演じてしまう危険を承知で戦いに必要な道具はここにある何が起きているかを理解する力はあなたの手のなかにほんの数クリックしか離れていないところにあると伝えたいと思いますありがとうございます	Adam and Eve one day in the Garden of Eden realize they are naked. They freak out. And the rest is history. Nowadays, Adam and Eve would probably act differently. [@Adam Last nite was a blast! loved dat apple LOL] [@Eve yep.. babe, know what happened to my pants tho?] We do reveal so much more information about ourselves online than ever before, and so much information about us is being collected by organizations. Now there is much to gain and benefit from this massive analysis of personal information, or big data, but there are also complex tradeoffs that come from giving away our privacy. And my story is about these tradeoffs. We start with an observation which, in my mind, has become clearer and clearer in the past few years, that any personal information can become sensitive information. Back in the year 2000, about 100 billion photos were shot worldwide, but only a minuscule proportion of them were actually uploaded online. In 2010, only on Facebook, in a single month, 2.5 billion photos were uploaded, most of them identified. In the same span of time, computers' ability to recognize people in photos improved by three orders of magnitude. What happens when you combine these technologies together: increasing availability of facial data; improving facial recognizing ability by computers; but also cloud computing, which gives anyone in this theater the kind of computational power which a few years ago was only the domain of three-letter agencies; and ubiquitous computing, which allows my phone, which is not a supercomputer, to connect to the Internet and do there hundreds of thousands of face metrics in a few seconds? Well, we conjecture that the result of this combination of technologies will be a radical change in our very notions of privacy and anonymity. To test that, we did an experiment on Carnegie Mellon University campus. We asked students who were walking by to participate in a study, and we took a shot with a webcam, and we asked them to fill out a survey on a laptop. While they were filling out the survey, we uploaded their shot to a cloud-computing cluster, and we started using a facial recognizer to match that shot to a database of some hundreds of thousands of images which we had downloaded from Facebook profiles. By the time the subject reached the last page on the survey, the page had been dynamically updated with the 10 best matching photos which the recognizer had found, and we asked the subjects to indicate whether he or she found themselves in the photo. Do you see the subject? Well, the computer did, and in fact did so for one out of three subjects. So essentially, we can start from an anonymous face, offline or online, and we can use facial recognition to give a name to that anonymous face thanks to social media data. But a few years back, we did something else. We started from social media data, we combined it statistically with data from U.S. government social security, and we ended up predicting social security numbers, which in the United States are extremely sensitive information. Do you see where I'm going with this? So if you combine the two studies together, then the question becomes, can you start from a face and, using facial recognition, find a name and publicly available information about that name and that person, and from that publicly available information infer non-publicly available information, much more sensitive ones which you link back to the face? And the answer is, yes, we can, and we did. Of course, the accuracy keeps getting worse. [27% of subjects' first 5 SSN digits identified ] But in fact, we even decided to develop an iPhone app which uses the phone's internal camera to take a shot of a subject and then upload it to a cloud and then do what I just described to you in real time: looking for a match, finding public information, trying to infer sensitive information, and then sending back to the phone so that it is overlaid on the face of the subject, an example of augmented reality, probably a creepy example of augmented reality. In fact, we didn't develop the app to make it available, just as a proof of concept. In fact, take these technologies and push them to their logical extreme. Imagine a future in which strangers around you will look at you through their Google Glasses or, one day, their contact lenses, and use seven or eight data points about you to infer anything else which may be known about you. What will this future without secrets look like? And should we care? We may like to believe that the future with so much wealth of data would be a future with no more biases, but in fact, having so much information doesn't mean that we will make decisions which are more objective. In another experiment, we presented to our subjects information about a potential job candidate. We included in this information some references to some funny, absolutely legal, but perhaps slightly embarrassing information that the subject had posted online. Now interestingly, among our subjects, some had posted comparable information, and some had not. Which group do you think was more likely to judge harshly our subject? Paradoxically, it was the group who had posted similar information, an example of moral dissonance. Now you may be thinking, this does not apply to me, because I have nothing to hide. But in fact, privacy is not about having something negative to hide. Imagine that you are the H.R. director of a certain organization, and you receive résumés, and you decide to find more information about the candidates. Therefore, you Google their names and in a certain universe, you find this information. Or in a parallel universe, you find this information. Do you think that you would be equally likely to call either candidate for an interview? If you think so, then you are not like the U.S. employers who are, in fact, part of our experiment, meaning we did exactly that. We created Facebook profiles, manipulating traits, then we started sending out résumés to companies in the U.S., and we detected, we monitored, whether they were searching for our candidates, and whether they were acting on the information they found on social media. And they were. Discrimination was happening through social media for equally skilled candidates. Now marketers like us to believe that all information about us will always be used in a manner which is in our favor. But think again. Why should that be always the case? In a movie which came out a few years ago, "Minority Report," a famous scene had Tom Cruise walk in a mall and holographic personalized advertising would appear around him. Now, that movie is set in 2054, about 40 years from now, and as exciting as that technology looks, it already vastly underestimates the amount of information that organizations can gather about you, and how they can use it to influence you in a way that you will not even detect. So as an example, this is another experiment actually we are running, not yet completed. Imagine that an organization has access to your list of Facebook friends, and through some kind of algorithm they can detect the two friends that you like the most. And then they create, in real time, a facial composite of these two friends. Now studies prior to ours have shown that people don't recognize any longer even themselves in facial composites, but they react to those composites in a positive manner. So next time you are looking for a certain product, and there is an ad suggesting you to buy it, it will not be just a standard spokesperson. It will be one of your friends, and you will not even know that this is happening. Now the problem is that the current policy mechanisms we have to protect ourselves from the abuses of personal information are like bringing a knife to a gunfight. One of these mechanisms is transparency, telling people what you are going to do with their data. And in principle, that's a very good thing. It's necessary, but it is not sufficient. Transparency can be misdirected. You can tell people what you are going to do, and then you still nudge them to disclose arbitrary amounts of personal information. So in yet another experiment, this one with students, we asked them to provide information about their campus behavior, including pretty sensitive questions, such as this one. [Have you ever cheated in an exam?] Now to one group of subjects, we told them, "Only other students will see your answers." To another group of subjects, we told them, "Students and faculty will see your answers." Transparency. Notification. And sure enough, this worked, in the sense that the first group of subjects were much more likely to disclose than the second. It makes sense, right? But then we added the misdirection. We repeated the experiment with the same two groups, this time adding a delay between the time we told subjects and the time we actually started answering the questions. How long a delay do you think we had to add in order to nullify the inhibitory effect of knowing that faculty would see your answers? Ten minutes? Five minutes? One minute? How about 15 seconds? Fifteen seconds were sufficient to have the two groups disclose the same amount of information, as if the second group now no longer cares for faculty reading their answers. Now I have to admit that this talk so far may sound exceedingly gloomy, but that is not my point. In fact, I want to share with you the fact that there are alternatives. The way we are doing things now is not the only way they can done, and certainly not the best way they can be done. When someone tells you, "People don't care about privacy," consider whether the game has been designed and rigged so that they cannot care about privacy, and coming to the realization that these manipulations occur is already halfway through the process of being able to protect yourself. When someone tells you that privacy is incompatible with the benefits of big data, consider that in the last 20 years, researchers have created technologies to allow virtually any electronic transactions to take place in a more privacy-preserving manner. We can browse the Internet anonymously. We can send emails that can only be read by the intended recipient, not even the NSA. We can have even privacy-preserving data mining. In other words, we can have the benefits of big data while protecting privacy. Of course, these technologies imply a shifting of cost and revenues between data holders and data subjects, which is why, perhaps, you don't hear more about them. Which brings me back to the Garden of Eden. of the story of the Garden of Eden which doesn't have to do with the issue of Adam and Eve feeling naked and feeling ashamed. You can find echoes of this interpretation in John Milton's "Paradise Lost." In the garden, Adam and Eve are materially content. They're happy. They are satisfied. However, they also lack knowledge and self-awareness. The moment they eat the aptly named fruit of knowledge, that's when they discover themselves. They become aware. They achieve autonomy. The price to pay, however, is leaving the garden. So privacy, in a way, is both the means and the price to pay for freedom. Again, marketers tell us that big data and social media are not just a paradise of profit for them, but a Garden of Eden for the rest of us. We get free content. We get to play Angry Birds. We get targeted apps. But in fact, in a few years, organizations will know so much about us, they will be able to infer our desires before we even form them, and perhaps buy products on our behalf before we even know we need them. Now there was one English author who anticipated this kind of future where we would trade away our autonomy and freedom for comfort. Even more so than George Orwell, the author is, of course, Aldous Huxley. In "Brave New World," he imagines a society where technologies that we created originally for freedom end up coercing us. However, in the book, he also offers us a way out of that society, similar to the path that Adam and Eve had to follow to leave the garden. In the words of the Savage, regaining autonomy and freedom is possible, although the price to pay is steep. So I do believe that one of the defining fights of our times will be the fight for the control over personal information, the fight over whether big data will become a force rather than a force which will hiddenly manipulate us. Right now, many of us do not even know that the fight is going on, but it is, whether you like it or not. And at the risk of playing the serpent, I will tell you that the tools for the fight are here, the awareness of what is going on, and in your hands, just a few clicks away. Thank you.	{ "source": "iwslt2017", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
「いやぁ~、すまんの。シリアスが続いた反動で、ちょぉ~と妾のパトスが漏れ出てしまったのじゃ」ティオの行使する再生魔法の光が、鈴と龍太郎を包み込み通路を淡く照らしている中、ティオが笑いながら言った言葉にはジト目でツッコミを入れた。普段見ないティオの高潔さと、王族と見紛う優雅さ、気品に、鈴も龍太郎も散々ドキドキさせられた反動で、ティオに向けられる眼差しは普段以上に冷たい。特に、龍太郎は、なんだか自分の中の純情な心を弄ばれたような気がして当たりと分かっていても瞳の温度を下げざるを得ない心境だった。何とも微妙な雰囲気が漂う中、二人を包んでいた癒しの光が消えると、その体には外傷もなく万全となっていた。ティオが再生魔法を行使してから数秒しか経っていない。「凄いのに......凄いんだけど......素直に称賛できない鈴がいる。でも、ありがとう、ティオさん」「俺も、何でこんな変態がって思うんだけど......ありがとうな」「どういたしましてじゃ。それと龍太郎よ。主に罵られても、妾は喜んだりせんぞ? ご主人様以外に尻尾を振ったりはせん。すまぬなぁ」龍太郎の額に青筋が浮かんだ。「これじゃあまるで、気を惹こうとして振られたみたいじゃねぇかっ」と内心で悪態を吐く。言葉にしないのは無限ループしそうだから。改めて、先程までの凛とした美しさと、あらゆる攻撃を都合よく転化してしまう変態性という真逆な二面性を平然と使い分けるティオに、言い知れぬ怒りと戦慄が湧き上がる。同時に、「......やっぱ、南雲はすげぇわ」「南雲君も、そんな称賛はいらないと思うけどね」龍太郎は何だかんだでティオの相手を全うしているハジメに、男としての、否、人間としての度量の深さを見て称賛の声を上げた。きっと鈴の言う通り、ハジメが聞けば甚だ不本意だと青筋を浮かべることだろう。そうやってナチュラルに発せられるティオの変態性に鈴と龍太郎が辟易していると、前方に行き止まりが見えてきた。次の部屋だ。「ふむ、向こう側に複数の気配がするのぅ。どうやら、既に合流したメンバーがいるようじゃな」「南雲ぉ、いてくれよぉ。そろそろ引き取ってもらわねぇと保たねぇよ」「飼い主さんがいますように」ティオの言葉に鈴と龍太郎が祈るように呟いた。そして、さり気なく鈴が酷い。試練を終えてから言葉のストレートパンチを覚えたようだ。そうしてが氷壁に近づき溶けるように消えた壁の向こう側には...... 「むぅいいいぃ、ユエのおたんこにゃすぅううう!!」「......うるひゃい。むっちゅりしゅけべぇ」「ああもうぉ。いい加減、二人共止めて下さいよぉ~~」「何だこれ......」「キャットファイト?」「いつもの喧嘩じゃな。仲の良いことじゃ」唖然とする鈴と龍太郎。ティオは微笑ましげな表情だ。涙目でほっぺを引っ張ったり、ぽふぽふと猫手で叩き合う姿を見れば、そういう表情になっても仕方ないだろう。単に、さっきまで大喧嘩していたせいで魔力が枯渇しており、それくらいしか出来ないだけなのだが。「あれ? ティオさん? それにお二人も。無事に試練を攻略したんですね。よかったです。ほらほら、ユエさん、香織さん、ティオさん達が合流しましたよぉ! もうお終いですよぉ! ほら、ほっぺから手を離して、ポカポカしないで! あ、こら足蹴にしない! 大人しくして下さ......止めろって言ってんでしょうがぁ!!」いつまでも子供っぽい喧嘩を続けるユエと香織にシアがキレた。強化した拳骨を二人の脳天に打ち下ろし、ゴキンッ! と鳴ってはいけない音が響く。脳天を抑えながら蹲るユエと香織。「頭がぁ、頭がぁ~」と呻いている。「う~む、この迷宮に来てから微妙にユエとシアの立場が逆転しておるような......ユエも少し大迷宮の影響を受けているのかのぅ? まぁ、見ている分には面白い」ティオが首を傾げながら呟いた推測は半分正解だ。遥か昔のことを色々と思い出し、つい弱気な発言が出てしまう程度にはユエも疲弊していた。むしろ、過去のトラウマが大きい分、この程度で済んでいる方がおかしいのだ。そして、弱った心から生じる無意識の甘え......それは、当然恋人であるハジメに向くのだが、ハジメに恋人認定されてから更に成長が著しいシアも、ただ手のかかる妹分というだけでなく頼りになる相棒のように感じ甘えがちになっているのである。つまり、シアの成長に合わせて、ユエとの距離も更に縮まったということだ。「ふぅ、すみません、お待たせしました。新しい通路はあっちですから、先に進みましょう」「......ホントに、しっかりしてきたのぅ」ユエと香織を両脇に抱えながら先を促すシアに、ティオは目を細めながら頷いた。再び通路を進む一行。合流できていないのは、ハジメ、雫、光輝の三人だ。次の部屋で全員と合流できることを祈りながら歩みを進めていく。そうして、辿り着いた行き止まりの氷壁の手前で、はたと立ち止まった。シアが難しい表情でウサミミをピコピコと動かし、直後、驚愕に目を見開いた。「え......あ、あの二人も?」感覚の鋭いシアの突然の言動に、他のメンバーは何事かとシアを見る。ユエ、香織、ティオの三人はすぐさま集中して氷壁の向こうの部屋に感覚を伸ばした。結果、シアが何に驚いているのか理解し顔を見合わせる。「こうしていても始まらん。直接、状況を確かめるしかあるまい」「......ん。ハジメの敵なら、しばき倒す」「えっと、ユエ? それはちょっと......」「とにかく、行きましょう」剣呑に目を細めるユエに頬を引き攣らせながら、香織は、どうか自分達と同じだが、その祈りは届かなかった。氷壁を抜けた先、次の部屋では、殺意と憎悪の嵐が吹き荒れていたのだ。そう、ハジメと光輝が殺し合いをしていたのである。天之河光輝。一般家庭の一人息子として生まれた彼には、今でも心から尊敬し憧れている人物がいる。その人物とは、光輝の祖父だ。といい、業界では有名な敏腕弁護士だった。長期の休暇となれば家族揃って祖父の家に遊びに行くのが恒例行事だったのだが、完治の妻――祖母が早くに他界したこともあり、一人暮らしだった祖父は孫である光輝を大層可愛がった。年の割には背も曲がらず筋肉質で覇気に溢れており、だからといって恐いということもなく優しい人だった。そんな祖父を光輝もよく慕っており、所謂おじいちゃん子というやつだった。中でも光輝が一番好きだったのは完治の話す経験談だった。長年の弁護士としての仕事より得た経験を、絵本を読むが如く光輝に語って聞かせた。小さい光輝にも分かりやすいように、また、現実的なことを言えば守秘義務から相当アレンジは入っていたが、それでも弁が立つ祖父の話は人間ドラマに満ちていて光輝は幾度も心躍らせた。弱きを助け、強きを挫き、困っている人には迷わず手を差し伸べ、正しいことを為し、常に公平であれ......完治のお話は結局のところ、そういう教えを含んだものだ。理想と正義を体現したヒーロー物語。幼い子供に対するありふれたお話だ。それ故に、光輝にとっては祖父完治こそがヒーローだった。同年代の子供が、某仮面を付けたバイク乗りやインスタントラーメンが出来るより早く宇宙怪獣を打倒してしまう宇宙人に憧れるように、完治に憧れたのだ。身近にいたからこそ、その憧れは他の子供達より強かったと言えるだろう。〝いつか自分も祖父のように〟と。だが、当然のことながら、世の中というものは完治のお話のように正義と公平が悪と理不尽を切り裂き、理想の正しさを実現し続けられるようには出来ていない。弁護士という職業とて、正義と公平は掲げていても、その一番の使命は真実の追求や悪人の弾劾ではなく依頼人の利益を守ることだ。〝敏腕〟弁護士と呼ばれるのは、弁護士として技量に優れているというだけでなく、それだけ完治が清濁併せ持った現実的思考の出来る人間だったということでもあるのだ。世の中の薄汚れた部分も理想や正義を掲げるだけでは足りないことも知り尽くしているということなのだ。だが、それを光輝に教える前に完治は他界してしまった。小学校に入る前のことだ。急性の心筋梗塞だった。完治の死は光輝に大きな影響を残した。幼子には、まだまだ綺麗なものだけでいいという考えは、ごく普通のことであり完治を責められるものではない。いずれ、光輝が大きくなった時には、もっとままならない現実を含めた苦い経験談も話したりしたはずだ。憧れのヒーローの死は光輝にとって衝撃だった。大好きな祖父を想い、思い出に浸れば浸るほど完治というヒーロー像は美化されていき、幼い光輝の心の深い部分に〝理想的な正しさ〟が根付いてしまった。その正しさとは、子供の耳に心地いい祖父が教えた通りの正しさであり、同時に少数派や清濁の内、〝濁〟の部分を一切認めない正しさだ。もっと言えば、大多数の人が正しいと思うことが絶対的に正しいと思うようになったのだ。もっとも、それは別に特別なことではない。テレビや本の中のヒーローを見て、理想の正しさを掲げる子供などごまんといる。そして、そんな子供達は日々の生活を重ねていく上で、現実の壁に直面し多くの失敗を繰り返し、時に挫折し、諦めることを覚えて、割り切りと妥協の仕方を学び、上手く現実という名の荒波に乗る方法を自然と学んでいくのだ。憧れは憧れのままに、理想は理想のままに、宝箱にしまうようにして心の片隅に置いて現実を見るようになる。それが自然な流れだ。光輝もそうなるはずだった。そうなれば、何の問題もなかった。しかし、自然な流れに乗るには光輝は余りに非凡すぎたのだ。その高すぎるスペックが現実の壁を理想通りに乗り越えさせてしまった。失敗も挫折もなく、あらゆる局面を自らの力で押し通せてしまった。子供の理想が、まかり通せてしまったのだ。結果、光輝はいつしか、自分の正しさを疑うということをしなくなった。その危うさを、光輝の両親や雫を筆頭に親しい人間の幾人かが何度も注意していたのだが、光輝は笑いながら聞くだけで、真剣に受け止めることも、改めることもなかった。元々カリスマがあり、その行動原理は善意一色であるから、その一部の人間を除いて誰もが光輝を支持したことも原因の一つだろう。もちろん、何もかも上手くいったわけではない。光輝の意識しないところで数々の問題は起きていた。雫へのやっかみもその一つだ。だが、己の正しさを疑わない光輝はご都合解釈で自分の正しさを維持するようになった。それもまた、光輝を闇雲に慕う者達によって後押しされることでまかり通ってしまうので、やはり光輝は自分がご都合解釈していることに気が付くことはなかった。忠告はあっても、気が付こうとしなかったというのもあるが。そんな光輝の善意に溢れてはいるが歪でもある〝理想の正しさ〟は異世界で崩れ始める。平和な日本と異なり、殺意と憎悪、超常と非常識が蔓延る異世界では己のスペックやご都合解釈が通じなかったのだ。その最たる例が、オルクスの下層で相対した女の魔人族であり変心したハジメだった。光輝は初めて、現実の壁というものを目の当たりにしたのだ。手痛い失敗をし、光輝は己の中の〝子供〟を露呈させた。そして、『奪われた。だろ?』「違う! 奪われたなんて......」灰色の髪に黒い鎧を纏った虚像の光輝が、その赤黒い瞳を眇めながら嘲り、荒い息を吐きながら大量の汗を流す光輝が咄嗟に反論する。「雫が言う通り、香織は最初から南雲のことが......だから、俺は......」のことは誰よりよく分かっているさ。雫に言われたことも納得したふりをしただけで、心の底では奪われたと思っている。未だに香織は自分と共にあるべきだと、そう思っている。小学生の頃からずっと一緒だったんだ。中学で出会ったか何か知らないけど、自分の方が長く一緒にいたのに、これからもずっと一緒だと信じていたのに、香織はヒーローである自分の「黙れっ。俺は、そんなこと考えてない! 勝手なことを言うなっ。大迷宮の魔物め! 俺は惑わされないぞ!」光輝は血走った眼で虚像を睨みつけると、力任せに光刃を飛ばした。幾筋もの光の斬撃が虚像目掛けて殺到する。しかし、虚像は全く同じ軌道で光刃を飛ばすと全て相殺してしまった。いや、それどころか、その内のいくつかはそのまま直進し光輝に襲いかかった。完全に力負けしている証だ。『そう言っている割には動揺が酷いな。せっかく南雲が強化してくれた聖剣も、それじゃあ宝の持ち腐れだよ。それとも憎く妬ましい南雲だからこそ、まともに使いたくないってことかな?』「そんなの関係ない! 俺は、南雲を憎んだりなんて......」『ほらほら、そうやって直ぐに現実から目を背けるから......また俺が強化されてしまったじゃないか』虚像の光輝から特大の〝天翔剣・震〟が放たれた。明らかに先程までとは威力が違う。地面を抉り飛ばしながら迫る自分の得意技に、光輝は戦慄して咄嗟に横っ飛びで回避する。本能が相殺はできないと悟ったのだ。『香織だけじゃなくて、ユエ達が南雲を慕っているのも気に食わないんだよな? あんなに可愛くて強くて魅力的な女の子達はヒーローである「いい加減にしろ! 彼女達は本気で南雲を......それは彼女達が決めることで......だからっ」『南雲の強さも気に食わない。あの強さは、本来、自分のものであるべき、だよな? というよりも、南雲の全てが気に入らないんだよ』「違うっ。確かに、南雲は自分勝手なところはあるけど、何度も助けられて......そんな奴を」『嫌ってないって? 嘘はダメだ。助けられた時も、感謝より嫉妬を感じていたじゃないか。颯爽と駆けつけて誰かを救うのは自分の役目なのにって妬んでいたじゃないか』「そんなわけあるか! そんな......」『おいおい、一体、どれだけ俺を強化したら気が済むんだ?』己のヒーロー願望と、ハジメに対する憎悪にも近い嫉妬、そして香織への独占欲や他者の好意への欲求......それらを突き付けられて、しかし、光輝は自分でも半分以上、自分の言葉を信じて反論する。そうして、無意識に認めることを避けているが為に、虚像の光輝は際限なく強化されていった。虚像の光輝が黒い聖剣を天に掲げる。直後、そこから眩い光の奔流が噴き上がり天井付近で弾けると、幾条もの流星となって光輝を爆撃し始めた。それを〝縮地〟で避けながら反撃の機会を窺う光輝だったが、表情に貼り付いているのは明らかに焦燥の色だった。虚像の強さに冷たい汗が止まらない。宙から襲い来る光の流星群は、若干のホーミング機能と衝撃変換機能がハジメによって付けられているので厄介なことこの上ない。ギリギリまで引き付けてから一気に回避するも、少しでもタイミングが遅いと衝撃波の嵐に呑み込まれる。かと言って、相殺ばかりでは反撃に出られずジリ貧となってしまう。〝ハジメが手を加えたせいで〟......一瞬、そんな思いが胸中に過ぎったのを光輝は慌てて振り払う。それは手を貸してくれた者に対する〝正しい〟思いではないから。だから、直後には、そんな考えを持っていたことすら頭の奥底に封じ込めてしまう。「翔け巡れ、〝天翔剣・嵐〟!!」光輝は、どうにか爆撃をくぐり抜け反撃に転じた。光の斬撃に風の刃が加わり、唯でさえ極めて見えづらい風の斬撃が光と魔力に紛れて更に捉えづらくなっている。見える斬撃は十だが、実際にはその三倍の数の斬撃が逃げ場を塞ぐように広がりがりながら放たれた。『無駄だよ。集え、〝天爪流雨・震〟』対する虚像は涼しい顔だ。流星となって乱れ飛んでいた光弾を一瞬で黒い聖剣に集束させると一条の砲撃に変化させて解き放った。逃げる必要などない。正面から打ち破ってやろうということだ。その目論見は実現した。それも至極あっさりと。光輝の放った無数の刃は、ただ一条の閃光によって蹴散らされた。光の砲撃はそのまま光輝に進撃する。「っ、阻め、〝光鎧〟!!」光輝の纏う聖なる鎧が輝き、前面に光のリングが無数に連なった障壁が出現した。直後、光の砲撃が直撃し強烈な閃光と衝撃を撒き散らす。〝天爪流雨〟は、本来、それほど威力の高くない技なのだが、ハジメの魔改造と強化された虚像の力が合わさり必殺技と称しても過言ではない威力を持つ技に昇華されていた。故に、「ぐわぁ!?」光輝の障壁は打ち砕かれ、盛大に吹き飛ばされることになった。地面をゴロゴロと転がり、氷壁にぶつかってようやく動きを止める光輝。その額からツーと血が滴り落ちる。『圧倒したいんだろ? 南雲をさ。あいつを跪かせて許しを請わせたいんだ。それから、香織を取り戻して、ユエ達に好意を向けられて、世界を救って、皆を連れて帰って、称賛を浴びて......』光輝は、心の深奥から引き摺り出される黒い感情を覚えながら、燃えるように熱い体を激情のまま前進させた。その身から膨大な量の魔力が光の奔流となって噴き出す。〝限界突破〟だ。使いどころとして相応しいとは言えないと光輝自身もわかっていたが、これ以上、虚像の言葉を聞いていられなかったのだ。正しくあるはずの自分が、抱くはずのない感情を抱いているなんて気が付きたくなかった。その一心だった。神速とも言うべき凄まじい速度で踏み込んだ光輝は、純白に輝く聖剣を力任せに振り下ろした。それを、いつの間にか赤黒い魔力でその身を覆った虚像の光輝が鼻で嗤いながらあっさりと受け止める。虚像もまた〝限界突破〟を使ったのだろう。純白に輝く聖剣と禍々しく赤黒いオーラを纏う漆黒の聖剣がぶつかりあった瞬間、凄絶な衝撃が駆け抜け、虚像の足元を中心にクレーターが出来上がった。受け止められたとわかった瞬間、光輝は、手首を返して横薙ぎの剣戟に切り替える。唐竹の一撃が、首刈りの一撃へと嘘のように変化した。しかし、その急激な閃光の如き一撃も、虚像の光輝は余裕で受け止める。『人殺しは悪じゃなかったのか?』「お前は、人じゃない!」揶揄するような虚像の言葉に、光輝は、ギリッと歯噛みしながら更に剣を加速させた。光の尾を引きながら、ズララララッと無数の残像が生まれる。一本のはずの剣が何本にも見えるほど尋常でない剣速なのだ。円を描くように途切れる事なく振るわれ続ける鋭い剣戟の嵐は、流石、勇者と称賛すべきもの。この世界でも上から数えた方が早いだろう強さだ。だが、眼前の敵は、未だに余裕の表情を崩さず同じように残像を引き連れた剣戟で完璧に対応している。それどころか、隙を見ては反撃の一撃を繰り出し、かわしきれなかった光輝に浅い傷を作り出すほどだった。「うおぉおおおおおおおおっ!!」『どうしたんだ? そんなに殺意に塗れて......なぁ、ヒーロー?』雄叫びを上げながら持てる武技を尽くす光輝だったが、本人が認めずとも乱れに乱れた心では本来の実力には到底及ばない力しか発揮できない。それでは、当然、どんどん強化されていく己の虚像などに勝てる道理はなく〝限界突破〟のタイムリミットを思って焦燥が募る。そこに、虚像は更に光輝の精神を揺さぶる言葉をかけた。それは過去から持ち出した光輝の負の部分ではなく、未来に対する不安を煽る言葉だった。『そんなことじゃ、また奪われるかもしれないな』「っ、何を......」『気が付いていないふりはやめよう。俺が気が付いているってことは、お前も気が付いているってことなんだからさ?』「だからっ! 何のことだとっ」虚像の光輝は呆れたような馬鹿にするような眼差しを向けた。そして、あっさりと光輝が一番恐れていたことを口にする。『雫が、誰を見ているのか......ってことさ』光輝は全身の血が沸騰したかのような錯覚を覚えた。声にならない絶叫を上げて、その先を口にさせまいと自分をも巻き込みかねない衝撃波を至近距離から放つ。それをあっさり〝縮地〟で離脱回避した虚像が、光輝の必死さを嘲笑うかのように言葉を続けた。『考えたくもないかな? 香織を奪われた上に、雫まで......』『おいおい、それは勇者のセリフじゃないぞ? それにどれだけ喚こうが、雫の心が南雲に傾いているのは事実。無理もないかな? 何度も助けられたわけだし、雫は意外に乙女チックだし?』「ゼァアアアアアッ!!」絶叫上げる光輝。振るわれた聖剣が更に輝きを増すが、それ以上に黒い聖剣が禍々しい魔力の密度を上げていく。心の内で、雫の気持ちを全力で否定し現実を切って捨てようとしていることが際限なく虚像の力を上げているのだ。故に、全力ではあれど癇癪を起こしたのと変わらない無様な一撃は、あっさり正面から打ち返された。悲鳴を上げて、再び壁際まで吹き飛ばされる光輝。聖なる鎧の魔力集束機能で〝限界突破〟の持続時間は伸びているとは言え、我武者羅に消費すればその恩恵も無駄になってしまう。光輝に残された時間は、もう僅かだった。『そうか。雫のことも否定するんだな』カツカツと足を立てながら歩み寄ってくる虚像の光輝が、頭を振りながら冷めた眼差しを送る。光輝は、衝撃に息を詰まらせながらも聖剣を杖代わりにどうにか起き上がりながら、血走った眼差しを返した。「ち、違う。雫が南雲を......何て......そんなことあるはずが......」『八つ当たりしたり、拗ねたり、本心からの笑顔を見せたり......気が付いているだろ?』「そんなの......誰にだって......」『ユエやシアと接する南雲を見て、不機嫌そうな顔になるのに?』「......単に......場所を弁えないから......それが不快で」『あいつにアプローチをする香織を見て、バツの悪そうな顔をするのは?』「......雫も......本心では南雲とのことを......認めていないんだ」『くっくっくっ、我ながら極まってるなぁ。そんなに信じたくないか?』聖剣で体を支えながら膝立ちする光輝の眼前に、虚像の光輝は嗤いながら聖剣を突きつける。射殺しそうな眼差しで睨む光輝を更にせせら笑う。そして、一瞬、「おや?」と驚いたような表情で何もない氷壁の方を向いた。〝限界突破〟状態で上がった〝気配感知〟が氷壁の向こうから近づいて来る慣れ親しんだ気配を捉えたのだ。光輝は、その余裕もなく気が付いていないようだが。『これは、いいタイミングだ』光輝が、隙ありとばかりに跳ねるようにして聖剣を切り上げた。それを見もせず受け止めた虚像の光輝は鍔迫り合いしながらニンマリと嗤い、まるで死刑宣告のように言葉を下した。『さぁ、現実がやって来るぞ?』「何を言ってっ」直後、光輝達がいる部屋の氷壁の一部が溶け出し、新たな通路が出現した。驚いたように体をビクッと震わせた光輝は、眼前でニヤニヤと嗤う虚像に注意しながら、その視線を僅かに通路の方へと向ける。そして、その視線の先の光景を見て大きく目を見開いた。「まだ、試練中か......」そこには雫を背負ったハジメがいた。光輝の視線が雫に引き寄せられる。正確には、ハジメの肩に甘えるように頬を預けながら安心しきったようにスヤスヤと眠る幸せそうな雫の顔に。光輝の中の何かが弾けた。	“Haha, my apologies. The backlash of being serious for too long made my pathos leak out for just a little much.” “... A little?” XThe light of regeneration magic that Tio exercised enveloped Suzu and Ryuutaro, illuminating the passage. The words that Tio said while smiling during that time were tsukkomi-ed by them with scornful eyes. The nobility of Tio that was usually unseen, her elegance that was mistaken as royalty, her refinement, the recoil from all those that caused Suzu and also Ryuutaro’s hearts to be palpitating thoroughly made the gazes that were directed at Tio colder than usual. Especially Ryuutaro, it felt like his pure heart was toyed with, even though he understood that it was just an outburst of anger, his mental state couldn’t help but lower the temperature of his gaze. Drifting inside such a strange atmosphere, after the light of healing that had enveloped the two had vanished, their bodies were in perfect health without even a single injury. It was just a few seconds since Tio exercised her regeneration magic. “Even though it was amazing... it was amazing but... but Suzu cannot honestly praise it now. But, thank you Tio-san.” “Me too, I wonder just why this kind of pervert is like this but... thanks anyway.” “Thou art welcome. Also Ryuutaro. Even if thou insulted me, I won’t feel happy you know? I won’t wag my tail to anybody except master. I’m truly sorry.” A vein appeared on Ryuutaro’s temple. Inside his heart he cursed “It’s like I’m trying to attract her but getting dumped instead, isn’t it”. He didn’t say anything out loud because there would be no end to it. Once again, unspeakable rage that shuddered welled up from inside him against Tio who was calmly using two exact opposite aspects, the dignified beauty just now and the perversion that conveniently converted any kind of attack into pleasure. At the same time... “... Just as I thought, Nagumo is amazing, huh?” “Suzu doesn’t think that Nagumo-kun needs that kind of praise though.” Thinking about Hajime went along with Tio’s everything, Ryuutaro saw the depth of Hajime’s magnanimity as a man, no, as a human and raised his praise to him. Surely it was just as Suzu said, if Hajime heard that he would surely have a vein appearing in his forehead saying that it was not the case. Like that, Suzu and Ryuutaro were fed up by Tio’s perversion that she naturally emitted. During that time, the end of the passage became visible ahead. It was the next room. “Hmm, there art multiple presences on the other side. It seems there are members who have already linked up there.” “Nagumooo, please be there. I won’t be able to hold back if you don’t take her off our hands soon.” “Please god, make it so the owner is there.” Suzu and Ryuutaro murmured in prayer after hearing Tio’s words. And then Suzu also nonchalantly said something cruel. It seemed that since she passed her trial, she had learned to punch straight with her words. Like that, the ice wall the three approached melted and vanished and what was at the other side of the wall was... “MuuIIIii, Yue you bhird braiiiinn!!” “... Shut hup. Closeht phervertt” “Aah geez. You two, stop it alreadyyy...” , and toward Kaori who was doing that, Yue similarly pinched up Kaori’s cheeks “What’s this...” “Cat fight?” “This is their usual quarrel. They really have a good relationship.” Suzu and Ryuutaro were dumbfounded. Tio’s expression was smiling peacefully. Looking at the figures of the two that were pulling the other’s cheeks with teary eyes while striking each other like pawing cats, surely it couldn’t be helped that their expression turned like that. The two girls were merely running out of magic power due to the huge fight just now and so this quarrel was the most that they could do. “Eh? Tio-san? Also both of you. So all of you safely overcame the trial then. I’m glad. Come now Yue-san, Kaori-san, Tio-san and others have arrived hereee! Stop fighting alreadyyy! Come on, release your hands from the cheeks, don’t keep hitting at each other! Ah, over there, don’t kick! Please calmly... I said stop it alreadyyy!” sound that shouldn’t have rung out reverberated. Yue and Kaori crouched down while holding their heads. “My headd-, my headd~” They groaned like so. “Hmm, it seems that the position of Shia and Yue strangely got reversed since we came to this labyrinth... I wonder if Yue also slightly received the influence of the great labyrinth? Well, it’s interesting to look at anyway.” Tio tilted her head while murmuring her guess that was half correct. Yue was also exhausted because she recalled various memories of the far past. She even let out a weak-hearted remark against her better judgment. Rather, with how large her past trauma it was strange that it ended with just this much. And then, the unconscious reliance that was created from the weakness of Yue’s heart... that was naturally directed at her lover Hajime, but even Shia who had remarkable growth since she was acknowledged as lover by Hajime was also not just a handful little sister anymore and turned into a reliable partner that Yue was apt to rely on. In other words, in addition of Shia’s growth, her distance with Yue was also shrinking further. “Fuu, my apologies, we made you wait. The new passage is over there, so let’s advance forward.” “... Thou art really reliable right now.” Shia urged them ahead while carrying Yue and Kaori at both sides under her arms. Tio nodded at that while looking fondly. The party advance through the passage once more. The people who they hadn’t found were three people, Hajime, Shizuku, and Kouki. They were walking forward while praying so that they could link up at the next room. Like that now, they suddenly stood still in front of the ice wall that was at the end of the passage they had reached. Shia’s rabbit ears were twitching around while she was making a complicated face. Right after that, her eyes widened in shock. “Eh... tho, those two too?” The sudden words and attitude of Shia who had sharp senses caused the other members to look at her wondering what was going on. Yue, Kaori, Tio, the three of them immediately concentrated and reached out their senses at the other side of the ice wall. And the result, they understood what made Shia surprised and they looked at each other. “Nothing will begin even if we just stand here. We can only confirm the situation directly.” “... Nn. If he is Hajime’s enemy, I will beat him up.” “Err, Yue? That’s a little... ” “Anyway, let’s go.” But, that prayer didn’t reach. Ahead of the ice wall they passed, at the next room, storm of killing intent and hatred was blowing violently. Yes, Hajime and Kouki were currently in mortal combat. Amanogawa Kouki. He who was born as the only son of an ordinary household had someone who he respected and idolized from the heart even now. That someone was Kouki’s grandfather. The name of that grandfather was Amanogawa Kanji, he was a skilled attorney famous in business world. It was established custom for the family to go play at their grandfather’s house when it was a long holiday, but Kanji’s wife?because Kouki’s grandmother had passed away early, the grandfather that was living alone was very affectionate toward Kouki. For his age, Kanji’s back was straight and his muscular body was overflowing with ambition, nevertheless, he wasn’t scary, but a gentle person. Kouki idolized dearly such a grandfather as his, that was to say he was a grandfather’s boy. What Kouki liked the most from Kanji was Kanji’s story of his experiences. The experiences that Kanji obtained from his work as an attorney were told to Kouki as though he was reading from a picture book so that the small Kouki could easily understand them. Realistically speaking, the stories were also considerably arranged to not breach the duty of confidentiality, but even so, the eloquent stories of his grandfather were full of human drama that caused Kouki’s heart to dance many times. Helping the weak, crushing the strong, reaching his hand to a troubled person without hesitation, accomplishing the correct thing, always being fair... in the end, Kanji’s stories were a thing that included that kind of teaching. A hero’s tale that personified ideal and justice. A common story for young children. Because of that, for Kouki, his grandfather Kanji was exactly a hero. Just like how other children of his age idolized a certain masked rider or the space alien that defeated space monsters even faster than instant ramen could cook, Kouki idolized Kanji like that. It could be said that because his target to idolize was nearby that Kouki’s idolizing was even stronger than other children. He wished “someday I will be like grandfather”. But, naturally, the real world couldn’t be like Kanji’s story where truth and justice defeated the evil and unreasonable, and the righteousness of ideals could be realized without end. In the occupation of attorney, even if they held justice and fairness, their foremost mission wasn’t to pursue the truth or impeach the guilty but to protect the interest of their client. To be called as ‘competent’ attorney, it wasn’t enough with just having excellent skill as an attorney, it was also because Kanji was a human who could realistically think with good and evil at the same time. He thoroughly knew about the dirty part of society and also how it was insufficient to just carry ideal and justice in hand. But, before he could teach that to Kouki he passed on to the next world. It was before Kouki entered elementary school. The cause was an acute heart attack. Kanji’s death left behind a large influence on Kouki. The thinking that it was okay for a young child to only think of beautiful things was something really normal, Kanji couldn’t be blamed because of that. Someday, when Kouki grew up, he was planning to also talk to Kouki about bitter experience that included reality when things wouldn’t go as you expected. The death of the hero he idolized was a shock for Kouki. He thought of his beloved grandfather, the more he soaked in his memory of Kanji the more he beautified his image of Kanji as a hero, putting a deep root of ‘the ideal righteousness’ into the deepest part of young Kouki’s heart. That righteousness was following the teaching of his grandfather that sounded pleasant to the ears of children, at the same time it was righteousness that didn’t recognize the ‘impure’ part inside the minority or good and evil at all. To further say it, Kouki came to think that what the majority of people thought as right was the absolute right. Although it wasn’t like that was something peculiar. Children everywhere always watched the hero from television or comics that held the ideal righteousness inside their heart. And then, those children would pile up days of living, repeating many failures from crashing into the wall of reality. Sometimes, they would experience setback, learn how to give up and compromise. They would naturally study the way to sail the storm of reality skillfully. They would keep their aspiration as just aspiration, ideal as just ideal, storing all those inside a treasure box that they put at the corner of their heart while looking at reality. That was the natural course of events. Kouki too should be like that. If that happened, then there would be no problem at all. However, Kouki was too prodigious to ride the natural course of events. His high specs allowed him to overcome the wall of reality while following his ideal. Without any failure or setback, he pushed through every situation with his own strength. His ideal of children completely passed through. As a result, without realizing it, Kouki came to not doubt his own righteousness. He was cautioned many times about the danger of that by several people close to him, especially by his parents and Shizuku, but Kouki only heard that advice with a smile. He didn’t listen seriously or reform himself. In the first place, he had charisma and his principle was solely based on good intention, so not including those several people that cautioned him, everyone else supported Kouki and that was also one factor that caused Kouki to not change. Of course, there was no way everything went well without anything wrong at all. Several problems cropped up in places that Kouki wasn’t aware of. The envy at Shizuku was also one of those. But, Kouki who didn’t doubt his own righteousness maintained it by his convenient interpretation. That was also helped along by the people who adored Kouki blindly pushing his back. So as expected, Kouki didn’t notice his convenient interpretations. Even though he received warnings, he also didn’t try to notice. Such ‘ideal righteousness’ of Kouki had distorted even though it was overflowing with good intention. It began to crumble in this another world. Different from the peaceful Japan, in another world that ran rampant with killing intent and hatred, supernatural and absurdity, his spec and convenient interpretation didn’t work. The prime example was the devil woman he faced in the lower floors of Orcus, and Hajime who went under a change of heart. For the first time, Kouki saw the wall of reality before his eyes. He experienced painful failure that exposed the ‘child’ inside his heart. And then... {She was taken away. Right?} “No! She is not taken...” The false image of Kouki with ashen hair clad in black armor was staring with those reddish black eyes while ridiculing Kouki, who was breathing roughly while sweating like a river, immediately objected. “It’s just as Shizuku said, from the beginning Kaori liked Nagumo... that’s why I...” {You don’t need to lie to yourself. I am you. I know you better than anyone else. You pretended to accept what Shizuku said, but deep in your heart, you are thinking that she is taken from you. You are still thinking that Kaori should be together with you. You two had been together all this time since elementary school. I don’t know about the meeting at middle school or anything, but even though she has been with me longer, even though I believed that from now on we will always be together too, even though Kaori is the heroin of me the hero...} “Shut up. I’m not thinking anything like that! Don’t say whatever you want- you labyrinth monster! You won’t lead me astray!” Kouki glared at the false image with bloodshot eyes and let loose a blade of light with all his strength. Several streaks of slashing light rushed toward the false image. However, the false image let fly light blades with exactly the same trajectories, neutralizing them all. No, far from that, several of the lights didn’t stop and attacked straight towards Kouki. It was the proof that he lost completely in strength. {You say that but in contrast you are shaken really bad, huh. Even the holy sword that Nagumo especially upgraded, like this it’s just throwing a pearl before the swine. Or else exactly because it is created by that hateful Nagumo you envied, that you don’t want to use it properly, perhaps?} “That’s irrelevant! I, don’t hate Nagumo or any...” {Come on, it’s because you immediately averted your eyes from reality like this... that I’m strengthened again here.} An extra large ‘Soaring Heaven Sword – Quake’ was unleashed by the false image. Its might was obviously different compared from before. His own signature move that was gouging the ground while approaching him made Kouki shudder and he immediately dodged to the side. His instinct told him that he couldn’t block that. {Not just Kaori, you also cannot stomach Yue and others adoring Nagumo, right? Girls that are that cute, strong, and charming, aren’t they worthier to be together with a hero like me? You cannot accept they adore someone like Nagumo who can easily cut down a human. right?} “Cut it out! Those girls seriously love Nagumo... that’s something those girls decided themselves... that’s why-“ {Nagumo’s strength is also irritating. That strength originally should be mine, isn’t it? Rather, Nagumo’s everything is just vexing yeah.} “Wrong-. Certainly, Nagumo likes to act as he pleases, but he saved us many times... that kind of guy...” {You said you don’t hate him? You mustn’t lie. Even when you were saved, you felt jealousy instead of gratitude, didn’t you? Even though gallantly rushing to save someone is my role, you envied him like that, didn’t you?} “There is no way that’s true! Such a thing...” {Oi, oi, just how much you are going to strengthen me until you are satisfied?} That wish of his to be a hero, the envy to Hajime that was nearly a hatred, and then his desire to monopolize Kaori along with his desire for other people’s good will... having those shoved to his face, Kouki objected with the large part of himself believing his own words. Like that, because he was unconsciously avoiding recognizing it, the false image was strengthened endlessly. The false image of Kouki lifted his black holy sword to the sky. Right after that, a dazzling surge of light burst out from there and the light split open near the ceiling, it became several streaks of meteors that began to bomb Kouki. Kouki avoided those with ‘Shrink Ground’ while looking for the chance to counterattack, but the color pasted on his face was obviously one of fluster. Cold sweat couldn’t stop flowing from the strength of the false image. The meteors that were attacking from the air were equipped with homing functions to some degree and Hajime’s impact conversion so there was nothing more troublesome than this. Even if he waited until they almost hit before evading instantly, if he was late in the timing even for just a little the storm of shockwaves would swallow him. Having said that, only neutralizing the attack like this without being able to counterattack would only turn this into a war of attrition. ‘Because Hajime put those functions’... for a moment such thinking was whirling inside his chest. Kouki wiped that thought away in a fluster. That was because such thinking wasn’t ‘right’ toward the person who lent his hand to him. That was why right after that he sealed the memory that he even had such a thought in the bottom of his mind. “Fly and turn, ‘Soaring Heaven Sword – Storm’!!” Kouki somehow slipped through the explosion and started counterattacking. Kouki’s slash was added with wind blade, the slash of wind that was hard to see even in the best of times slipped into the light and magic power and became even harder to perceive. The visible slashes were ten, but actually slashes in thrice that number were launched in a spread to block any escape. {That’s pointless. Assemble, ‘Heaven Claw Flowing Rain – Quake’.} In response, the false image was wearing a cool face. The light bullets that became meteors flew wildly and instantly converged on the black holy sword, converted into a streak of bombardment. There was no need to escape or anything, he just needed to smash Kouki’s attack from the front. That plan came to fruition. And it was extremely easily on top of it. The countless blades Kouki launched were scattered with just a single flash. The bombing of light charged at Kouki without stopping. “block, ‘Light Armor’!!” The holy armor that Kouki was wearing shined, countless rings of light extended in front of him and produced a barrier. Immediately after, the light bombing hit and scattered with a severe flash and impact. ‘Heaven Claw Flowing Rain’ originally was a technique that didn’t have that much power, but Hajime’s demonic remodeling and the strengthened power of the false image were combined and sublimed the technique into one with might that wouldn’t be an exaggeration to be called a sure kill technique. Therefore... “Guwaa!?” Kouki’s barrier was smashed and he was grandly blown away. He rolled all over the ground and finally stopped moving when he crashed into the ice wall. Blood was trickling down from his temple. {You want to overwhelm him, right? That Nagumo. You want to make that guy kneel and beg for forgiveness. After that, you will take back Kaori, Yue and the others will direct their favor to you, save the world, bring everyone back home, showered in admiration...} While feeling the black emotion that was fished out from the depth of his heart, Kouki drove his flaming hot body forward following his violent fury. Vast amounts of magic power from that body became a bursting out a torrent, it was ‘Limit Break’. Kouki himself understood that it wasn’t the right time to use it, but he couldn’t listen to the words of the false image more than this. He didn’t want to notice the emotion that shouldn’t be harbored by himself who should be righteous. That was his whole heartedness. Kouki stepped in with terrific speed that should even be called god speed. He swung down the holy sword that was shining pure white with brute force. That was easily blocked with a scoff by the false image of Kouki whose body was clad in reddish black magic power before he realized. The false image was also using ‘Limit Break’. The pure white holy sword and the ominous jet-black holy sword clad in reddish black aura clashed, in that instant violent impact rushed out and a crater was created under the false image. The moment Kouki understood he was blocked, he twisted his wrist and changed into a sweep of the sword. The wood chopping attack transformed like a lie into a neck mowing attack. However, even that attack which was like a sudden flash was easily blocked by the false image. {Isn’t murder of humans evil?} “You are not human!” The teasing words of the false image made Kouki gritted his teeth while accelerating his sword even more. The sword left behind a trail of light while The storm of sharp swordplay that continuously swung in circle motions never stopped, as expected from the person that was supposed to be praised as a hero. That strength could be quickly ranked from above even in this world. But, the enemy before his eyes perfectly responded with similar swordplay that left behind after images with his composed expression still unbroken. On the contrary, the false image saw an opening and let out a counterattack that created a shallow wound on Kouki who couldn’t dodge. “UOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!!” {What’s the matter? You are smeared in that much killing intent... huh, hero?} Kouki yelled while exhausting the martial arts that he possessed, but his heart that was totally disarrayed even if he didn’t recognize it made him unable to display his strength except as a paltry shadow of his original strength. Naturally, with that, there was no path to win against the likes of his false image that was gradually turning stronger, his uneasiness was also growing violent when he thought about the time limit of ‘Limit Break’. There, the false image further talked with words that shook Kouki’s mind. That wasn’t Kouki’s negative part that was brought up from the past, but words that incited his anxiety about the future. {If you are like this, you might have more things taken away again.} “What are... ” {Let’s stop with your pretense of not noticing. After all, something that I noticed is also something that you notice.} “That’s why-! What are you talking about-“ The false image sent Kouki an exasperated gaze as though he was looking at an idiot. And then, he easily said the thing that Kouki feared the most. {Just who is Shizuku looking at... that’s what I mean.} Kouki felt like the blood all over his body was boiling. He screamed soundlessly, and when his mouth couldn’t go further he launched a shockwave from close range that might swallow himself too. The false image easily withdrew from that using ‘Shrink Ground’ and he continued with mocking words toward Kouki’s desperation. {So you don’t even want to think about it? After Kaori was taken away, on top of it, even Shizuku will... } {Oi, oi, that’s not a line of a hero, you know? Besides, no matter how much you shout, it’s the truth that Shizuku’s heart is leaning toward Nagumo. It might even be understandable, yeah? She was saved by him several times already, and Shizuku is unexpectedly girly.} “ZEYAAAAH!!” Kouki shrieked. The swung holy sword increased in brightness, but the black holy sword was increasing even more than that in the thickness of its ominous magic power. Inside Kouki’s heart, he was trying to deny Shizuku’s feeling and throw away the reality with all his might, which in turn raised the strength of the false image endlessly. Therefore, the unsightly attack that although was done with all his strength but no different than throwing a tantrum, was easily repelled from the front. Kouki screamed and he was blown away towards the wall once more. Although the magic power convergence ability of his holy armor lengthened the lasting time of ‘Limit Break’,if he recklessly exhausted himself then even that benefit would be pointless. The time Kouki had left was only a little. {I see. You even deny Shizuku’s matter.} The false image was walking to Kouki with clacking footsteps, he was shaking his head while sending a cold gaze at Kouki. Kouki somehow stood up using his holy sword as a stick while his breathing was blocked from the impact, he returned a bloodshot gaze to the false image. “Wr, wrong. Toward Nagumo, Shizuku... such a thing... no way it could possibly...” {Venting her anger, sulking, showing a smile from her heart... you noticed all those, right?} “Something like that... she did that to every...” {Even though when she saw Yue and Shia close with Nagumo, she was making a sullen face?} “... That’s just... because they didn’t know the place... that was displeasing for...” {And the awkward face she made when looking at Kaori approaching that guy?} “... Shizuku... she is also not recognizing... Nagumo from her heart.” {Ku-ku-ku, that’s just extreme even if I say so myself huh. You don’t want to believe it that much?} In front of Kouki who was on his knee while supporting his body with the holy sword, the false image was chuckling while pointing his holy sword. The false image sneered even further at Kouki who was glaring murderously. And then for a moment, “Oho?” the false image faced at ice wall where there was nothing with a surprised expression. He sensed the familiar presence approaching from the other side of the ice wall with ‘Presence Detection’. Although it seemed Kouki didn’t even have the composure to notice that. {This is... what good timing.} Kouki leaped up and slashed up his holy sword at what he saw as an opening. Without even looking at that the false image blocked the sword into sword locking contest while grinning widely, and then he passed down words that sounded like a death sentence. {Now, the reality is coming here, you know?} “What are you saying-“ Right after that a part of ice wall of the room where the two of them were at melted, a new passage appeared. Kouki twitched in surprise and while being cautious of the grinning false image in front of his eyes, he slightly moved his gaze at the direction of the passage. And then, his eyes widened looking at the scene ahead of his gaze. “Still in the middle of trial huh...” There was Hajime carrying Shizuku on his back there. Kouki’s gaze was drawn into Shizuku. More accurately, at the sleeping face of Shizuku who looked happy while sweetly entrusting her cheek on Hajime’s shoulder in relief while breathing peacefully. Something snapped inside Kouki.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 7, "inserted_lines_src": 8, "inserted_lines_trg": 7 }
“ライファー”である私たちにとって “ライファー”である私たちにとって解放される唯一の望みは減刑ですただ 1989年以降減刑が認められた女性は二人だけそれももう30年近くも前のことこれからお聞かせする「ここは私たちの家じゃない」は仮釈放のない終身刑に服す私たちが日々感じていることを歌にしたものです私は女性私はおばあちゃん私は娘私には息子がいる私は天使ではない私は悪魔でもない刑務所に入ったのはまだ若いときだった私はここ刑務所の塀の中で時間を過ごしている亡くなった友だち帰郷を果たした友だちただ年月が流れ人が行き交うのを眺めながら私は仮釈放の希望なく終身刑に服す私は囚人かつて過ちを犯したここで刑に服しているここは私の家じゃない自由を夢見て慈悲を請ういつか私は家族に会えるだろうかそれとも一人で死にゆくのか時間だけが過ぎ私は涙をこらえる泣けば恐怖に屈することになるから強くなれ踏ん張れそしてまた一年と乗り越えるのだそしてまた一年と乗り越えるのだ私は囚人かつて過ちを犯したここで刑に服しているここは私の家じゃない自由を夢見て慈悲を請ういつか私は家族に会えるだろうかそれとも一人で死にゆくのか罪がないと言ってるんじゃない償う必要がないと言ってるんじゃないただ私は許しがほしいだけいつか自由になれるその望みが必要なんだ外に広がる世界そこに私の居場所はあるだろうか私が鎖につながれたとして誰が知り気遣うだろう若かりし日の罪をあがなえるのだろうか私は変わった神の御前で私は変わった私は囚人かつて過ちを犯したここで刑に服しているここは私の家じゃない自由を夢見て慈悲を請ういつか私は家族に会えるだろうかそれとも一人で死にゆくのかいつか私は家族に会えるだろうかそれとも一人で死にゆくのか私は囚人番号008106 服役して29年私はブレンダ・ワトキンスノースカロライナ州ホフマンで生まれ育ったここは私の家じゃない (拍手) 囚人番号0B2472 服役して27年私の名前はテルマ・ニコルズペンシルベニア州フィラデルフィアで生まれ育ったここは私の家じゃない (拍手) 番号008494 服役して27年私はダニエル・ハドリーペンシルベニア州フィラデルフィアで生まれ育ったここは私の家じゃない (拍手) 囚人番号008309 服役して27年私の名前はテレサ・バトルズニュージャージー州ノートン出身ここは私の家じゃない (拍手) 私は囚人番号007080 服役して30年私の名前はデブラ・ブラウンペンシルバニア州ピッツバーグ出身ここは私の家じゃない (拍手) 番号005961 服役して37年私の名前はジョアン・バトラーフィラデルフィアで生まれ育ったここは私の家じゃない (拍手) 囚人番号005634 服役して39年半私の名前はダイアン・ハミル・メッツガーペンシルベニア州フィラデルフィア出身ここは私の家じゃない (拍手) 私は004867 服役して40年私の名前はレナ・ブラウンペンシルベニア州ピッツバーグで生まれ育ったここは私の家じゃない (拍手) 私の番号は005545 私の名前はトリナ・ガーネット服役して37年 14歳のとき入所ペンシルバニア州チェスターで生まれ育ったここは私の家じゃない (拍手) いつか私は家族に会えるだろうかそれとも一人で死にゆくのかそれとも一人で死にゆくのか	For us lifers, as we call ourselves, our only chance for release is through commutation, which has only been granted to two women since 1989, close to 30 years ago. Our song, "This Is Not Our Home," it tells of our experiences while doing life without the possibility of parole. Brenda Watkins: I'm a woman. I'm a grandmother. I'm a daughter. I have a son. I'm not an angel. I'm not the devil. I came to jail when I was so young. inside these prison walls. Lost friends to death, saw some go home. Watch years pass, people come and go, while I do life without parole. I am a prisoner for the wrong I've done. I'm doing time here. This is not my home. Dream of freedom, hope for mercy. Will I see my family or die alone? As the years go by, I hold back my tears, because if I cry I'd give in to fear. I must be strong, have to hold on. Gotta get through another year. I am a prisoner for the wrong I've done. I'm doing time here. This is not my home. Dream of freedom, hope for mercy. Will I see my family or die alone? I'm not saying that I'm not guilty, I'm not saying that I shouldn't pay. All I'm asking is for forgiveness. Gotta have hope I'll be free someday. Is there a place for me in the world out there? Will they ever know or care that I'm chained? Is there redemption for the sin of my younger days? Because I've changed. Lord knows I've changed. I am a prisoner for the wrong I've done. I'm doing time here. This is not my home. Dream of freedom, hope for mercy. Will I see my family or die alone? Will I see my family or die alone? I'm known to you as Inmate 008106. Incarcerated 29 years. My name is Brenda Watkins. I was born and raised in Hoffman, North Carolina. This is not my home. Thelma Nichols: Inmate number 0B2472. I've been incarcerated for 27 years. My name is Thelma Nichols. I was born and raised in Philadelphia, P.A. This is not my home. DH: 008494. I've been incarcerated for 27 years. My name is Dannielle Hadley. I was born and raised in Philadelphia, P.A, and this is not my home. Theresa Battles: Inmate 008309. I've been incarcerated for 27 years. My name is Theresa Battles. I'm from Norton, New Jersey, and this is not my home. Debra Brown: I am known as Inmate 007080. I've been incarcerated for 30 years. My name is Debra Brown. I'm from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This is not my home. Joann Butler: 005961. I've been incarcerated for 37 years. My name is Joann Butler, and I was born and raised in Philadelphia. This is not my home. Diane Hamill Metzger: Number 005634. I've been incarcerated for 39 and one half years. My name is Diane Hamill Metzger. I'm from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and this is not my home. Lena Brown: I am 004867. Incarcerated 40 years. My name is Lena Brown, and I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and this is not my home. Trina Garnett: My number is 005545. My name is Trina Garnett, I've been incarcerated for 37 years, since I was 14 years old. Born and raised in Chester, Pennsylvania, and this is not my home. Will I see my family or die alone? Or die alone?	{ "source": "iwslt2017", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
『な、何あれ......』「奴の奥の手......オリハルコン並の強度の石を全身にまとい、周りを沼のように変え相手を沈めるのだ、欠点としてはこういった広い場所だと沼の効果が薄い事と全身に石をまとったせいで自由に動けない事だが......」「強度な石で身の安全を確保し、周りの地面が沼のように沈むため近づけず......欠点はあるもののやっかいですね」だからといってこうして見ているだけともいかんよな。「なぁベルトラ、貴様の全魔力を斬硬刀に送ればオリハルコンを斬れるか?」「オリハルコンですか......そんな物を斬った事ないのでわかりませが、私の全魔力ではたぶん無理でしょう。ただ......お爺様、剣豪エドガーはこの斬硬刀でオリハルコン級の甲殻を持った魔獣を真に斬ったという話は聞いた事はありますが......」うーむ、確信はないが斬硬刀で石の鎧をうちやぶれる可能性があるという訳か。しかしベルトラの魔力では無理となると......。「ふむ、エリン確認したい事があるのだが」『ん? な~に~?』《ぜぇぜぇ、くそ! あの野郎共、よくも、やりやがったな......この状態になる、のは屈辱だが、背に腹は代えられ、ない......場所が、広くて奴らを、飲み込めなかったが、まぁいい、じっくりと......ああ?》「勇者殿! 本当にこんな事うまくいのじゃろうな!?」《なんだ? ......ジジイが増えて、走ってこっちに、向かって来ている? ......気でも狂ったか? グヘへへへ! ......自分から、底なし沼に、踏み込むとは、馬鹿め!》「知るか! やってみなければわからん!」やった事がないものをどうわかれというのだ。だが、やるしかないんだ......もうこれしか思いつかんからな。「ダリル様さっきの作戦も成功しましたし......大丈夫でしょう......タブン......」「いやいやいや! 奇襲は失敗に終わったじゃろが! それにタブンってなんじゃ!? タブンって! ......くぅ~! 年寄りを一番危険な目に合わせよってからに! いいか、失敗するなよ! 絶対失敗なんぞするなよ!? ――行くぞぉおお! しっかり掴まれっとれえええええ! どりゃぁああああああああああああ!!」うお!? 我輩とベルトラを担いでいる状態なのにすごいジャンプ力だ、爺さんの怪力っぷりはやはり魔力による身体強化しておるのか、あれ? でもそれだと......いや、今はフィゲロアを倒す事を考えるんだ、奴は目の前にいるのだからな。《な!? あのジジイ、俺様のとこ、までジャンプ、しただと!?》よし、着地位置はばっちり! ......爺さんが腰ぐらいまで一気に埋まってしまったが。「――まぁ問題あるまい」「あるわい!!」おっと、心の声が漏れてしまっていたか。「ぬおおおお! 沈む! ベルトラ早くしてくれ!」「わかっています。すぅ~......はあぁっ!」《はっ、その剣で、この石の鎧を斬ろう、てか? ......無駄だ! さっきの、戦いで、この強度なら、斬れないのはわかっているからな。......そのまま石の沼っに沈むがいいわ!》確かにベルトラだけの魔力では無理だろうな。「しかし、これならどうだ!!」ベルトラが剣を握っている腕全般、そして鎧のある部分はダメだ。「歯食いしばれ、ベルトラ! いくぞ!」となるとここしかないよな。アブソーヘイズをベルトラのふとももに刺す! 「ふん!」「ぐっ!」《なっ!? こいつ自分の仲間を、刺しただと!?》 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 「エリン確認したい事があるのだが」「我輩に送っている魔力、それを他人に流す事は可能なのか?」『うん、いけるよ~。だけど魔力を吸収するのと一緒でアブソーヘイズを刺さないといけないけど』やはり吸収だけではなく他者に送り込む能力もこいつにあったか。「だったらベルトラに魔力を送れば斬硬刀で斬れるのではないか? 2人はそのあたりどう思う?」「魔力の底上げですか......それこそやってみないとわかりませんが......」『アタシもそれはわかんない、斬れる位の魔力が足りるといいけど......』「しかしあの足場はどうするのですか? あんな沼じゃたどり着く前に沈みますし、仮にたどり着いても足場が不安定すぎてとても斬るには......」「そこは考えてある。足場の為にはまずは一人で戦っている爺さんの援護を――って......え!?」フィゲロアと戦っている間に何十匹の下級悪魔をたった一人で壊滅させて休んでいる!? 「ふぅ~......ん? なんじゃ? 人が一休みしている時に」 ......まぁいい、援護の手間が省けた。「足場......って......デ、デール殿......まっまさか、ダリル様を!?」「そのまさかだ、チョッハハ」『ベル! 一気に魔力流すとベルへの体の負担が大きくなると思うから頑張って耐えてね!』「承知!」「たったのむ! はっはやくしてくれ!! どんどん沈んでるううう!!」「『はぁああああああ!!』」いけ! 石の鎧をぶった斬るのだ!! 《な、何だ!? この魔力は!?》「お願い! 斬れて!! ......お爺様! 私に力をお貸しください!!」《っ!? ま、まさか――》やった! 刀身が石に入りはじめた! 《そっそんな馬鹿な!? おっ俺様の赤石の鎧が、斬られる!?》「『うおおおおおおおおおおお!!』」《なんだとおおおおおおおおおおおお!?》よし!! 石の鎧が斬れてフィゲロアの素肌が見えた! 「馬鹿な! 馬鹿な! 俺様の石の鎧がそんな剣如きに!!」「悪いがフィゲロア、貴様の魔力! 我輩が貰い受ける!!」「ぐふっ! おおおおおおおおおおお!? まっ魔力がっ吸われっ!? ......くそっ......ここまで......なのか......デイル......ワッツ......様......申し訳......ありま......せ......」フィゲロアが倒れたと同時に周りの赤い石が元の色に戻っていく、魔力が消えたという事だな。つまり――。『はぁはぁ......倒したの?』「はぁはぁ......どうやら......そのようです」「......じゃったら2人とも......いい加減降りてくれないかの、もう支えるのも限界なんじゃが......」我輩に忠誠を誓った悪魔......。	[Wha, what is that......] “That guy’s secret technique......He covers his whole body in stones with the density of Orichalcum and changes his surrounding to something like a swamp, submerging his opponents in it. A disadvantage of this is, because this area is too wide the swamp’s effect is kind of weak and because he covered his whole body in stone he can’t really move.......” “The dense rock secures his body and the swamp keeps one from approaching......Although it has its draw backs, this is troublesome.” Even so, we can’t just stand by and keep watching like that either. “Hey, Bertra, if you send all your magical power to Zankoutou are you able to cut through Orichalcum?” “Orichalcum, is it?...... I don’t know because I never tried but it’s probably impossible even with all my magical power. I just...... heard that grandfather, the Sword Master Edgar, cut a monster with a crustacean with the density of Orichalcum in two using this Zankoutou......” Hmm, she isn’t sure, but it seems like it’s possible to cut through that stone amour with Zankoutou, huh? However, it’s impossible with Bertra’s magical power...... “Fumu, Erin, I wish to confirm something.” [Hm? Whaaat~?] 《 Heh, heh, **! Those bastards, really went, and did it......Being in this state is humiliating, but, I can’t, turn my back to, them...... This area, was too wide, and I couldn’t, swallow them. Well, it’s fine, I’ll slowly...... Aah?》 “Sir Hero! Are you sure this is going to work?!” 《What? ......Some old fart joined them. Is he, coming running, my way?...... Did he go mad? Guhehehehe! ...... It’s foolish, to step into my bottomless swamp, on his own!》 “What do I know? We won’t know until we try!” How should I know things I’ve never tried before? However, this is the only thing we can try...... because that is the last thing I can think of. “Darryl-sama, his previous strategy succeeded a little while ago as well...... It’ll be fine...... Maybe......” “Nonono! The surprise attack ended in failure, right?! And what do you mean with Maybe?! Maybe, you say!...... Kuuh~! To look at an elderly person with those extremely dangerous eyes! Fine, it won’t fail! It absolutely won’t fail!? –Here I goooo! Hold on tiiiight! Doryaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!” Uoh!? Even while he was carrying Bertra and me over his shoulders he was able to exert such great force to jump. That old man had such herculean strength. As expected, he used body strengthening, didn’t he? Hm? But that means...... No, I have to focus on defeating Figueroa in front of me now. 《Wha!? Are you, telling me that, old fart, is going to jump, to where I am?!》 Alright, the landing position is perfect! ......The old man was buried up to his waist though. “–Well, it won’t be an issue” “It will!!” Wups, did my thoughts leak out? “Nuooooh! I’m sinking! Bertra hurry up and do it!” “I got it. Suu~...... Haaah!” 《Hah, are you, going to slash my armour, with that sword?...... It’s useless! I understood, in the battle just now, that it, doesn’t have the strength, to cut through the stone....... You should just rot away in this stone swamp like this!》 It certainly is impossible with just Bertra’s magical power. “But how about this?!!” The arm Bertra is holding her sword with and the parts covered in armour are no good. “Grit your teeth, Bertra! Let’s go!” If it’s like this, this is the only place. I prick Bertra’s thigh with Absohaze! “Hmpf!” “Guh!” 《Wha!? That guy stabbed his own comrade!?!》 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ “Erin, I wish to confirm something” “Is it possible for you to send other people magical power like you do with me?” [Yeah, I can~. Though same as when absorbing magic you have to stab Absohaze into that person.] Like I thought, that lass doesn’t only have the ability to absorb but also to send it to others, huh “If that’s the case, would Bertra be able to cut through this using Zankoutou if you send her magical power? What do you two think?” “Raising my magical power, huh?...... I don’t know until I try it out, but......” [I don’t know either. I hope the magical power is enough to cut through it......] “However, what do we do about the footing? We will sink into that swamp before we even arrive and even if we get there the footing is too unstable to slash properly......” “I thought about that as well. Regarding the footing, let’s first go and support the old man who is fighting against—– Wait......Eh!?” While we were fighting against Figueroa he annihilated dozens of low ranking demons alone and is taking a rest now?! “Fuu~......Hm? What? Just when I was taking a short break” ......Well, fine, like this we can avoid the trouble of supporting you. “Footing...... Wait...... D-Dale-dono...... You can’t possibly mean, using Darryl-sama!?” “Exactly that, Chohaha” [Bell! Since it’ll be quite the burden for Bell’s body to receive all this magical all at once, please do your best and endure it!]” “Understood!” “Pl-please! Hu-hurry up, please!! I’m gradually siiiiiinkiiiiing!!” “[Haaaaaaaaah!!]” Go! Cut through that stone armour!! 《Wha, what?! This magical power!?》 “Please! Cut through it!!...... Grandfather! Lend me your strength!!” 《Krg!? I, it can’t be–》 She did it! The blade has started to cut though the stone! 《 Tha, that’s impossible!? F-for my armour to be, cut through!?》 “[Uoooooooooooooooooh!!]” 《Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat! ?》 Alright!! She was able to cut through the stone armour and now we’re able to see Figueroa’s bare skin! “Impossible! Impossible! To cut through my armour with that kind of sword!!” “Sorry Figueroa, but your magical power! I’ll gladly receive it!!” “Gufuh! Ooooooooooooh!?M-my magical power gets absorbed!?...... **......So this is it...... for me, huh? ......Dale......Watts......Sama......My......apolo......gies......” As Figueroa collapsed, not having any magical power anymore, the red stones around us returned to their original colour. In other words – -. [Haah, haah...... Did we defeat him?] “Haah, haah...... Somehow...... looks like we did.” “......Well then, both of you......Could you get down from me, I’m at my limit already......” The demon who swore loyalty to me.......	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 5, "inserted_lines_src": 0, "inserted_lines_trg": 0 }
この工場地域にはアンドリュー・カーネギーが設立した最初の製鋼工場エドガー・トンプソン・ワークスがあります 1875年から稼働している地域で最も古い製鋼工場です私は12年の間人物と静物、景観、空中撮影を組み合わせて撮影していますその目的はビジュアル的にアーカイブ化して家族と地域の大部分に影響を与えている製鋼産業と環境と健康問題のつながりに取り組むことですブラッドドックに伝わる物語には実業家や労働組合の話が多いですが現在の物語の主役はラストベルト地域の復興の広告塔になるような新しいフロンティアを切り開く都市部のパイオニア的人物です大手メディアは言及しませんがここは黒人が過半数を占めています私たちの存在は隠され沈黙され消されてきました 4世続いた女系家族の祖母の庇護の下で私が育った場所は 8番街の角に近いワシントンアベニュー805番地です祖母はGoodwillのマネージャーをしていました母は看護助手でした母は製鋼所閉鎖や白人の地域開発移住を目の当たりにしました私の世代になるころまでには地方や州や国家レベルで投資が撤退しインフラ施設がダメになりましたそしてドラッグとの戦いで地域社会は崩壊しました祖母の継父はカーネギー製鋼所を退職した数少ない黒人年金受給者でした灼熱の環境で働き溶鉱炉の建設や解体スラグの掃除をしましたある場所の歴史は人間の体や風景に刻まれています例えば交通量の多い場所ではベンジンや金属の微粒子にさらされがんと炎症性疾患のリスクが高い 652人の従業員で 123人分のベッドがあったリハビリのプログラムは縮小させられましたアレゲニー郡に対する住宅差別訴訟の後タルボット・タワーズ団地も撤去されましたそれ以来より軽工業への再区分が最近行われています Google MapsやGoogle Earthのこの映像にはバーン一家を追い出そうしている可燃性廃棄物が捉えられています 2013年に私はヘリコプターに乗りカメラでこの強引な追い出しを撮影しましたそこには数えきれないほどの白い包みが並んでいたのです全てあるリサイクル業者の所有物でした会社によると中身はエコに貢献するもので大量のタイヤをリサイクルして人々の生活を守り向上させるものだそうです私の仕事は身近なことから世界のことまで隠れた歴史を発掘することです最近シアトル・アート博物館でアイザック・バーンと展覧会を行いました展覧会の目的は彼が声をあげる場所をつくることです私たちは自分たちの物語を再生することで歴史的抹殺や社会的不平等と闘い続けていきますありがとうございました	An industrial suburb, Braddock is home to Andrew Carnegie's first steel mill, the Edgar Thomson Works. Operating since 1875, it is the last functioning steel mill in the region. For 12 years, I have produced collaborative portraits, still lifes, landscapes and aerial views in order to build a visual archive to address the intersection of the steel industry, the environment, and the health care system's impact on the bodies of my family and community. The tradition and grand narrative of Braddock is mostly comprised of stories of industrialists and trade unions. Currently, the new narrative about Braddock, a poster child for Rust Belt revitalization, is a story of urban pioneers discovering a new frontier. Mass media has omitted the fact that Braddock is predominantly black. Our existence has been co-opted, silenced and erased. Fourth generation in a lineage of women, I was raised under the protection and care of Grandma Ruby, off 8th Street at 805 Washington Avenue. She worked as a manager for Goodwill. Mom was a nurse's aid. She watched the steel mills close and white flight to suburban developments. By the time my generation walked the streets, disinvestment at the local, state and federal level, eroded infrastructure, and the War on Drugs dismantled my family and community. Grandma Ruby's stepfather Gramps was one of few black men to retire from Carnegie's mill with his pension. He worked in high temperatures, tearing down and rebuilding furnaces, cleaning up spilt metal and slag. The history of a place is written on the body and the landscape. Areas of heavy truck traffic, exposure to benzene and atomized metals, risk cancer and lupus. One hundred twenty-three licensed beds, 652 employees, rehabilitation programs decimated. A housing discrimination lawsuit against Allegheny County removed where the projects Talbot Towers once stood. Recent rezoning for more light industry has since appeared. Google Maps and Google Earth pixelations conceal the flammable waste being used to squeeze the Bunn family off their home and land. In 2013, I chartered a helicopter with my cameras to document this aggressive dispossession. In flight, my observation reveals thousands of plastic white bundles owned by a conservation industry that claims it's eco-friendly and recycles millions of tires to preserve people's lives and to improve people's lives. My work spirals from the micro to the macro level, excavating hidden histories. Recently, at the Seattle Art Museum, Isaac Bunn and I mounted this exhibition, and the exhibition was used as a platform to launch his voice. Through reclamation of our narrative, we will continue to fight historic erasure and socioeconomic inequality. Thank you.	{ "source": "iwslt2017", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
「ここのワインは~、良い物だな~。ちょっと飲み過ぎちまったよ~。タクミ様もどんどん飲むと良いぞ~」「ちょっとどころではなく、かなり飲み過ぎのように見えますけど......」呂律が怪しくなるまでは行って無いが、動きはフラフラしているため見ていて不安だ。それに、途中で合流してからずっと敬語を使っていたはずなのに、今では砕けた口調になっている。「あっはっはっは! 何もない護衛の仕事だけかと思ったら、こんなに良い事があるなんて~思わなかった~なぁ。久しぶりに良い酒が飲めてら~」「どれだけ飲んだんですか......ちょっと休憩した方が良いんじゃないですか?」酔っ払い相手は得意じゃない。俺も結構ワインを飲んでるのにフィリップさん程酔ってないのは、よっぽど多くのんだのか、それともフィリップさんがお酒に弱いのか......。「大丈夫だ~よ~。ここのワインは強くで有名だから~、飲める時に飲まないと~。普段は高くて手が出せないし~」「ワインが強い......?」段々何が大丈夫なのかわからなくなって来たフィリップさんだが、その中でワインが強いと言っていたのが気になった。酒類で強いと言えば、アルコール度数が高いという事だと思う......値段が高いのは美味しさから納得出来る事だ。お酒に強い人も、弱い人も関係なく、度数が高ければ高い程酔いやすいというのは当たり前。フィリップさんがお酒に強いのか弱いのかわからないが、結構な量を飲んでる俺が酔わないのはおかしい気がする......俺、ビールでも缶1本で酔い始めるくらいなんだが......。「あはは~ははは~。タクミ様も楽しんで下さいね~」笑いながら、明後日の方向にフラフラと移動するフィリップさんを見送った後、広場に集まっている他の村人達の様子を窺ってみた。 ......フィリップさんは、周りに人がいるから大変な事にはならないだろう......飲み過ぎて変な事をしないかだけが心配だけど......。他のテーブルで楽しそうにワインを飲み、料理を食べる村人達は、半分以上の顔が赤くなって酔っているように見える。病気は治ったから、それが原因で顔が赤いという事は無いだろう。さすがにレオと遊んでる子供達は、お酒を飲んだりはしていないが、成人してるように見える人達はほとんどが飲んでいる。「......酔ってない人は、そもそもあまり飲んでないな......」顔が赤くなく、普通の様子でいる人はほとんどが、ワインの入ってる器をテーブルに置いたままで、料理を食べる事に集中している。「タクミ様、どうかなされましたか?」俺が村の人達の様子を見ている事に、疑問を持ったハンネスさんが話しかけて来た。「このワインですが......結構酔いやすいんですか?」「そうですね......私はあまり酔わないので、詳しくはわからないのですが......村の者達は飲むとすぐに酔うと言っていますね。それに、美味しさも相まって酔いやすい事も評判なようです」予想通り、ここの村で作ってるワインは度数が高いようだ。酔いやすい事が評判に繋がる理由は俺にはわからないが......値段が高くても、少ない量で酔えるからコストパフォーマンスが良い......という事かな......? 「おや、タクミ様。もう樽を空にされたので? 代わりを持って来ましょうか?」俺のテーブルの横にある樽は、ハンネスさんが持って来た時、並々と入っていたのは間違いない。さすがに俺一人で全て飲んだわけじゃないけど、美味しかったから調子に乗ってガブガブ飲んでいたのは間違いない。 ......何でだろう......? 「おかしいな......俺、こんなにお酒に強く無かったんだけどな......」考えてる疑問を呟くと、隣で満腹から少し眠そうにしているレオが首を傾げた。レオの横には、遊びに来たのだろう子供が数人、モサモサの毛にじゃれついている。尻尾を使って子供達の相手をしているようだ......器用だな......。「レオ、何故か酔わないんだけど......なんでだ?」「ワフ......ワフゥ?」思わず隣のレオに聞いてみたが、当然ながら理由を知ってるわけがないよな。「タクミ様、お水をお持ちしました」首を傾げるばかりのレオをそのままに、ハンネスさんが持って来てくれた水を受け取って飲んだ。 ......この世界に来て体質が変わったとかか......? でも、酔わない事以外に今までの感覚と違う事は無いんだがなぁ......ギフトが使える事くらいか......。お酒に酔わないという事が、酔っていい気分......という経験では無く、気分が悪いという経験しかしていない俺にとっては良い事なのかもしれないが......。酔わないのなら、もっとワインを飲んでも良かったかな......? そんな事を考えつつ、念のため水で我慢して村で行われた宴は深夜まで続けられた。 ......家の中に入れないレオは、さっさとフィリップさん達が乗って来た馬の所に行って寝入ってたが......俺もさっさと寝れば良かった.....酔いは無くとも、明日は寝不足になるだろうな......。「そう言えば、酔っぱらってどこかへ行ったフィリップさんはどうしたんだろう?」宴の後、ハンネスさんの家に用意された俺の寝床に入った時、フィリップさんの事を思い出した。千鳥足でフラフラしてたから、変な所に迷い込んでないかちょっと心配だ。朝起きたら、知らない村人の家に迷い込んでた......何て事になってなければ良いんだけど......。「起きたら隣に知らない女性が......何て事になってたら、フィリップさんが屋敷に帰った時メイドさん達から白い目で見られそうだなぁ」そんな事を呟きつつ、ほんのり空が明るくなり始めたのを窓から見て、就寝した。起きる時間は近いけど、出来るだけ寝ておかないとな......。	“This wine iss soo goood...! I might have...drunk a little too much... Mr. Takumi, you should drink more!” “It definitely looks like you’ve drunk too much. And I don’t think it was just a little...” While he could still talk just fine, his movements were wobbly and unstable Besides, he usually talked in a very formal manner, but that was no longer the case. “Ahaha! I thought being a guard was such a boring job...never did I think that something like this would be part of it...! Ahh! I have not had wine like this in a loooong timee...” “How much have you had...? Don’t you think you should rest a little?” I was not good at dealing with drunkards. I had actually drunk quite a lot of wine already. Either Phillip had drunk considerably more than me, or he was weaker to alcohol... “I’m fiiine! This wine is known for being strong, so I have to drink it while I can... Besides, it’s too expensive for me to buy...” “The wine is strong...?” I was starting to feel a little worried about Phillip. Also, I was confused by what he said about the wine being strong. That suggested it had high alcohol content... As for it being expensive, it made sense, given how delicious it was. It didn’t matter how resistant you were, it was easier to get drunk the higher the percentage was. I didn’t know if Phillip was strong to it or not, but it was strange that I didn’t feel drunk in spite of drinking so much... After all, I usually felt tipsy after having a single beer.. “Ahahaha! Please enjoy yourself, Mr. Takumi...” Phillip said with a laugh as he walked away on shaky feet. And then I looked at the other villagers who were gathered. ...At least there were other people here, so I didn’t have to worry about Phillip... I just hoped he didn’t do anything strange... The villagers were all eating and drinking happily around the tables. And at least half of them looked quite red in the face. Since they were healed, the redness could not be because they were sick. Of course, Leo and the children were not drinking, but most of the adults were. “...Those who aren’t drunk haven’t been drinking much in the first place...” I could see that the people who weren’t red had left their cups of wine on the table, and were focusing on eating their food. “Mr. Takumi, what is the matter?” “Uh, nothing...” Mr. Hannes was wondering why I was looking at the villagers so intently. “I was just thinking about this wine... Is it easy to get drunk with it?” “Indeed... I have a rather high tolerance myself, so I cannot say... But the villagers here seem to think it is very strong. And since it is so delicious, it is easy to drink too much.” As expected, the wine made in this village was strong. I didn’t know if that was necessarily considered a good thing...but considering its price, it was probably better if you didn’t need to drink too much to feel the effects...? “Oh, Mr. Takumi. You’ve emptied the barrel already? Should I bring another one?” “...No, I’m fine. I would like some water, please.” “Certainly.” I was sure that when Mr. Hannes first brought the barrel to this table, that it had been filled. Obviously, I had not drunk all of it by myself, but I had definitely gotten a little carried away because it was so good. ...Why was that...? “It’s strange... I was never this strong with alcohol before...” “Wuff?” As I muttered to myself, Leo, who looked a little tired after eating so much, tilted her head with a puzzled expression. Next to her, a few children had come to play, and they were currently petting her long, fluffy fur. Leo wagged her tail to keep them amused... That was very clever of her... “Leo. I don’t feel drunk for some reason... Do you know why?” “Wuff...Wuff?” I couldn’t help but ask her. Of course, she did not know the reason. “Mr. Takumi, I’ve brought you some water.” “Thank you.” Leo only tilted her head, and so I turned away and drank the water that Mr. Hannes had brought. ...Perhaps my body had changed after coming to this world...? But aside from this one thing, I had not really felt any other differences... Except being able to use the Gift, that is... Still, for me, being drunk had usually been an...unpleasant sensation, and so I didn’t actually mind it... If I’m not going to get drunk, perhaps I can continue to drink more wine...? I thought of such things, but held back and just drank water as the feast continued until midnight. ...As Leo could not enter the house, she slept in the stables with the horses that Philip and Mr. Hannes rode on... I should hurry up and sleep as well... Even if I don’t have a hangover, I will still be tired from a lack of sleep... “Now that I think about it, where did that drunkard, Phillip go off to?” After the feast, I had gone to bedroom that Mr. Hannes had prepared for me in his house. And that was when I remembered Phillip. He did not seem stable on his feet, and I was worried that he might get lost somewhere. What if he woke up in someone else’s house... I hoped that would not happen... “What if he woke up with some woman he doesn’t even know... The maids back at the mansion will hate him when they find out.” I thought to myself as I looked out the window. The sky was starting to turn a little pale as I lay down to sleep. I would have to get up soon, but I would sleep while I could...	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 2, "inserted_lines_src": 7, "inserted_lines_trg": 0 }
調査船の上で一週間を過ごしたのです私は科学者ではありませんがメキシコ湾でBPが流出させた原油の移動経路を追跡調査している南フロリダ大学の優秀な科学者のチームに同行していましたこれが私たちが乗っていた調査船です科学者たちが調査していたのは原油や分散剤が鳥・カメ・イルカといった大きな生物に与える影響ではありません彼らの調査対象は非常に小さな生物ですそれらは小さな生物に捕食されそれがさらに大きな生き物に食べられますほんの微量の原油や分散剤でも植物性プランクトンには非常に有害であることが調査で判明しましたこれはとても厄介な問題ですなぜなら非常に多くの生命が影響を受けるからですつまり数か月前にささやかれていた「流出した原油の75%は魔法のように消え去った」「元々心配する必要はなかった」というコメントに反してこの惨事は現在も食物連鎖の上位に向かって展開中なのです特段驚くことでもないでしょうがレイチェル・カーソン現代の環境保護主義の先駆者は 1962年にまさにこのことを警告していました彼女の指摘はこうでした彼女の呼ぶ「支配者」は街や農場にDDTのような有毒の殺虫剤をばらまき鳥を殺すのではなく虫のような小さな生物を殺そうとしていると言いますしかし彼らが忘れていることがありました鳥は幼虫を食べるということですコマドリはDDTが染みこんだ虫をたくさん食べその結果コマドリの卵は孵化に失敗し鳴き鳥は一斉に死に街は静まり返るゆえに『沈黙の春』という題名なのですなぜメキシコ湾が私の頭から離れないのかずっとその理由を探っていましたというのも私はカナダ人なので先祖からのつながりもないからですその理由はおそらく私たちの理解が不十分なのだと思いますこの惨事の意味することや世界にぶち開けられた穴を目撃することの意味その穴から地球の中身が流出する映像を何か月もの間ずっとライブ映像で目の当たりにしてきたこの意味を理解しているのでしょうか? 長い間私たちは自らの発明品や技術が自然を管理できると自らに言い聞かせてきましたが自らの弱点や管理能力の欠如に突然直面しましたトップハットやトップキルのようなあらゆる封じ込め作戦もむなしく原油流出は止まりませんでした中でも印象的だったのはジャンクショットです廃タイヤやゴルフボールを原油の流出する穴に投入するという「素晴らしい」アイデアですしかし噴出する原油の力よりもさらに注目すべきはこの事態を引き起こすことになった BPの向こう見ずな態度です慎重さを欠く姿勢と計画性の欠如は採掘から浄化までの過程に現れています BPの事故への対応から明らかになったことがあるとすれば大切でかけがえのないものを賭けてギャンブルをすることが私たちの文化の一部になってしまったということですそれは代替策も出口戦略もないギャンブルです BPの原油流出事故は近年見られる無謀な賭けの一例にすぎません戦争を推奨する際リーダーたちは「楽勝だ」「戦勝パレードが待ってるぞ」と楽観的に語りかけますがその後何年も被害対策に追われます包囲攻撃・反逆・暴動の鎮圧全て自分でまいた種です経済の専門家は似たような自信過剰の犠牲になることがよくあります「今回のバブルは新しい市場形態で決して衰えることはない」と自らに言い聞かせましたそして必然的に経済の衰退が起きたとき最良策として実行された経済版の「ジャンクショット」は巨額の公的資金を全く異なる類の「穴」を防ぐために投入するというものでした BPの原油流出事故では穴は塞がりました少なくとも一時的にはしかし非常に大きなつけを払うことになりましたなぜこうした事を起こるがままにするのか考えなければなりません私たちはかけがえのないものを賭けたギャンブルをしているからです気候変動について何をすべきか何をしないべきかというギャンブルです現在ご存じの通り国内外において膨大な時間が気候変動の議論に割かれています「もしIPCCの科学者が間違っていたら?」という疑問について今ではより核心を突いた疑問があがっています MITの自然科学者エブリン・フォックス・ケラーは「IPCCの科学者がみな正しかったら?」と問いますつまり気候変化の危機においては私たちは予防の原則に従って行動することが求められていますなぜなら人間の健康と環境が大きなリスクに曝されている時かつ潜在的な被害が取り返しのつかないものである時私たちは科学的に完璧な正確さを待っている余裕はありません予防の段階で失敗する方がましですさらに明白な事はある方法の安全性を証明するためにかかる負担は被害を受ける可能性のある一般市民ではなくむしろそれによって利益を得る産業に負わせるべきですしかし富める世界ではそんな世界が存在する限りは気候政策は予防という観点に基づいていませんむしろ費用対効果の分析に基づいており経済専門家が最もGDPへの影響が少ないと信じる方法を模索するのですなので予防という観点に基づいて「起こりうる惨事を回避するために今何ができるか?」と問うのではなく次のような奇妙な問いかけをします「排出量削減が絶対必要になるまでにどれ位の猶予期間があるだろうか?」「2020年までは大丈夫?」「では2030年? 2050年は?」もしくはこんな問いかけです「あとどれくらい地球が暑くなっても生き延びられるだろうか?」「2°Cか? 3°Cか?」「それともすでに達しつつあるように 4°Cか?」ところでこの素晴らしく複雑な地球の気候システムを私たちがサーモスタットのように簡単に管理し温度調節ができると考えるのはある意味でゴルディロックスみたいな単なる幻想にすぎませんそうした考え方は気候科学者によるものではなく機械論的な考え方を科学にも当てはめようとする経済学者によるものです実際には私たちが生み出した温暖化がいつフィードバックループによって完全にやられてしまうかは分かりませんですのでもう一度問いたいのですなぜ私たちは大切なものに対してこうした常軌を逸したリスクをとるのでしょうか色々な理由がみなさんの頭に浮かんだかもしれません例えば強欲ですこれは多分に真実を含んでいるよく言われる理由ですなぜなら大きなリスクをとることはご存じの通り多くのお金を使うからですその他無謀さの原因としてよく耳にするのが傲慢さです強欲と傲慢さは無謀さを説明する際には親密に結びついています例えばあなたが運よく35歳の銀行員で脳外科医よりも100倍も多い報酬をもらっていたとすればあなたは説明を必要としますその格差をよしとするための物語ですどんな物語が可能か実際には多くの選択肢はありませんまず驚異的に凄腕の詐欺師であるという物語ですシステムを巧みに操作し罰を逃れる詐欺師ですもしくは世界でも類をみないような天才少年であるという物語です天才少年と詐欺師いずれにおいてもあなたは非常に自信過剰になり将来さらに大きなリスクをとる傾向が高まるでしょうところでBPの前CEOのトニー・ヘイワード氏の机には次のようなスローガンが刻まれた盾がありました「失敗することがないと分かっていれば何に挑戦するだろうか?」こうした盾はやり手の集団には実際によくあるものですみなさんの中にもこうした盾を持っている方がいらっしゃるでしょう恥じる必要はありません例えばトライアスロンのトレーニングや TEDトークの準備をする時には失敗に対する恐怖を克服することは時にとても良いことですしかし個人的には経済を大破させたり環境を破壊するような力をもっている人々はむしろ壁にイカロスの絵を壁に掲げるべきだと思いますこれと同じ物でなくてもよいですが彼らに考えて欲しいことは失敗の可能性は常にあるということです私たちは強欲で自信過剰そして傲慢になりましたしかし今このTEDWomenにおいて社会的な無謀さの解決にいくらか貢献しうるもう一つ別の点に目を向けてみましょう今この点について深入りしませんが研究で次のことが示されています投資の際無謀なリスクを取る傾向は男性よりも女性の方が低いということですその理由はご存じのように女性は男性のようには自信過剰になりにくいからですなので男性よりも低い賃金であることと褒められることが少ないことに利点があることが判明しました少なくとも社会にとっては有益です逆の側面として常日頃「才能がある」「生まれながらのリーダーだ」「選ばれし者だ」と言われることは社会的には明らかにマイナス効果ですこの「特権に潜む危険」とでも呼べる問題が私たちを集団的な無謀さの根源へと近づけていると思いますなぜなら北半球にいる人は女性でも男性でもこの問題を避けることはできません私が言いたいのはこういうことです積極的に信じるか意識的に拒否するかはともかく私たちの文化は他者や自然に対して優位に立っているというある種の虚構の物語にがんじがらめなままです新しく発見した開拓地とそれを切り開いた開拓者の物語明示された運命という物語黙示録と救済の物語ですこうした物語は過去のものとなり乗り越えたものと思ったまさにその時と物語は意外な場所に現れます例えば私はカンザスシティ空港の女性用トイレを出た所でこんな広告に出くわしましたこれはモトローラ社の新しい携帯電話の広告で本当にこう書いてあるのです「母なる自然を引っ叩け」私はモトローラを批判するためにこれを見せているわけではありません私がこれを見せる理由は彼らはスポンサーではありませんよね? なぜならある意味でこれは荒っぽい形をとった私たちの始まりの物語だからです私たちは母なる自然を引っ叩き勝利しました常に勝利を収めましたなぜなら自然を支配することは私たちの運命だからです自然に関して自らに語り聞かせているおとぎ話はこれだけではなくもう一つ同じくらい重要なおとぎ話がありますそれはまさに同じ母なる自然が養育力がありたくましいためにその潤沢さには大した影響を与えられないという物語ですトニー・ヘイワード氏の発言をもう一度聞いてみましょう「メキシコ湾はとても大きな海だ我々が流した油と分散剤の量は海の全体水量においてはとても小さなものだ」つまりこういうことです「海は大きいだから受け入れられる」私たちが無謀なリスクをとることができるのも基本的に自然が無限であると思い込んでいるからですなぜならこれが物語を支配している語りだからです「どれだけめちゃくちゃにしようとも水も土地も未開拓の資源も常に残されている」「新たなバブルは過去のバブルにとって代わる」「新たな技術が生まれて過去の技術がやらかした失敗を直してくれる」ある意味でこれはアメリカ大陸への移住の物語ですヨーロッパ人が開拓地は尽きることがないと信じて向かったアメリカ大陸の物語ですまた同時にこれは近代資本主義の物語でもありますというのも私たちの経済システムを生み出したのはこの土地から生まれた富でありその経済システムは永続的に成長し未開拓分野を供給し続けなければ機能し続けることができません問題はその物語はいつも嘘だったということです地球には限界があります私たちはそれが見えていなかったにすぎませんそして今複数の面においてそうした限界に達しつつあります私たちはそのことは分かっているはずですしかし同じ物語の繰り返しから抜け出せずにいるのです同じような退屈な物語を何度も繰り返し語り続けているだけでなく集団で熱狂して語っているのですでなければどうやってサラ・ペイリンの支配する文化的空間を説明できるでしょうか神は私たちが搾取できるように地下に資源を用意してくれたのだからと「もっともっと掘りましょう」と私たちに熱心に勧める一方で彼女が出演する人気のリアリティー番組ではアラスカの無垢で美しい自然をアピールしますこの相反するメッセージは狂気的ですが安心感を与えます「ついに限界に達してしまったのではないかと沸いてくる不安は無視しましょう」「限界なんてまだないのです」「常に新たな開拓地があるのです」「だから悩むのは止めて買い物を続けよう」これはサラ・ペイリンと彼女のリアリティー番組だけの話でしょうか? 環境系の集まりでよく耳にするのは再生可能なものにシフトするよりも今まで通りビジネスを続けようというものですこの評価は残念ながらあまりに楽観的すぎます実際には入手が容易な化石燃料の大半を使い尽くしてしまったためよりリスクの高いビジネスの時代究極のエネルギーの時代に突入してしまったということですそれはつまり氷で覆われた北極海のような最深部からも石油を採掘することを意味しますもしそこから流出すれば浄化できないでしょうもしくはそれまで見たことが無かったような天然ガスを得るための大規模水圧破砕や石炭を得るための大規模な露天採鉱を意味しますそして最も論争を呼んでいるオイルサンドですカナダ人以外にアルバータのオイルサンドを知る人がほとんどいないことに私はいつも驚かされますオイルサンドは今年アメリカが輸入する石油の量で一位になると見込まれている資源ですこの仕組みについて少し説明したいと思いますなぜなら他の何よりも無謀さと私たちの進む方向について説明してくれるからですここがオイルサンドのある場所です最後に残された雄大な北方林の下に眠っていますオイルサンドは液体ではないためただ穴を掘って汲み上げることはできませんオイルサンドの油は砂に混じっている個体ですなので油を採るためにはまず木を切り倒さなければなりませんそれから表土を剥がして油を含んだ砂にたどりつくのですこれには大量の水が必要です使用済みの水は巨大で有毒な尾鉱池に注ぎこまれますこれは下流に住む先住民にとって非常に厄介な問題を含んでいます彼らは驚くほど高い確率でガンを発症していますこの写真を見ただけではこの事業の規模は的確に把握し難いですが宇宙からでも見えますしイングランドの大きさまで広がることもありえます土砂を運搬するダンプカーが目安になりますこれまでで造られた中でも最大クラスのダンプカーですタイヤの前にいるのが人間ですこれは石油の掘削でも採鉱でもなく地球の表面を剥がしているということを私はお伝えしたいのです広大で鮮やかな風景がぼろぼろに破壊され色彩のない灰色だけが残されます実はこの方法が二酸化炭素を一切排出しないならばこの話をするのは恥ずかしいのではと心配していましたしかし実のところこの原油製造法はカナダの従来の方法と比較して平均で3倍もの温室効果ガスを排出しますこれを集団の狂気という他に表現できるでしょうかこの地球上でどう生活するかを学ぶ必要性を自覚しながら太陽・風力・水力エネルギーを差し置いて狂ったように考えられる限り最も汚れていて排出量の高いものを掘っているのですこれが終わりのない成長という物語が最終的にたどり着いた場所です私の国の中心に位置するこのブラックホールへと噴出したBPの油井のようにずっと見ているには耐えられない地球が苦しんでいる場所へとジャレド・ダイアモンドや他の人々が言うようにこれは文明による自殺行為ですブレーキを踏むべきまさにその時に勢いよくアクセルを踏んでいるのです問題は私たちの「支配的な語り」はこれに対しても答えを用意していることです『Rapture』のようにハリウッド映画にはよくあることですが最終局面で救われるという答えですしかし当然ながら私たちの現実の宗教はテクノロジーです最近こうした見出しをよく目にするようになったかもしれませんこうした地球工学の背景にある考えは地球が温かくなれば硫酸やアルミニウムの粒子を成層圏に撃ち込み太陽光線を反射させて宇宙に戻すことで地球を冷却できるというものです私の脚色ではありませんが最も奇抜な計画は庭用のホースを地上30km地点に風船で吊り上げ固定しそこから二酸化硫黄をまくというものです汚染の問題をさらなる汚染で解決する究極の「ジャンクショット」ですこの研究に真剣に関わる科学者たちはこの手法は完全に立証された訳ではないと強調します効果が有るのかどうかもどんな恐ろしい副作用が生じるのかも分かっていませんにも関わらず地球工学と聞いただけで歓迎する人々もいます特にメディアに携わる人々です「非常出口が見つかった」「新しい開拓地が見つかった」更には「今のライフスタイルを変える必要がないんだ」と言い陶酔感と共に安堵します聖衣を着た人を救世主と思う人もいればホースを持つ人をそうだと思う人もいるでしょう私たちは新しい物語を心の底から必要とします私たちには新しいタイプのヒーローが登場する物語が必要です異なる種類のリスクをとれるヒーローです向かう先にある無謀さに立ち向かい予防原則を実行に移せるたとえ直接的な行動が必要だとしてもそれは何百人もの若者が逮捕されようとも汚い権力による設備を阻止しようとしたり山頂で炭鉱の撤廃のために闘ったりするような行動です終わりのない成長という一方通行の物語ではなく自分の行動のつけは自分にふりかかることを自覚させてくれる循環型の物語が必要です地球は私たちが住めるたった一つの場所であり非常出口はないのですそれは宿命であり作用と反作用の力学であり予防原則です生命はどんな利益よりも尊いものでありリスクにさらすことはできないという原則ですありがとうございました	Now I'm not a scientist, but I was accompanying a remarkable scientific team from the University of South Florida who have been tracking the travels of BP's oil in the Gulf of Mexico. This is the boat we were on, by the way. The scientists I was with were not studying the effect of the oil and dispersants on the big stuff -- the birds, the turtles, the dolphins, the glamorous stuff. They're looking at the really little stuff that gets eaten by the slightly less little stuff that eventually gets eaten by the big stuff. is that even trace amounts of oil and dispersants can be highly toxic to phytoplankton, which is very bad news, because so much life depends on it. So contrary to what we heard a few months back about how 75 percent of that oil sort of magically disappeared and we didn't have to worry about it, this disaster is still unfolding. It's still working its way up the food chain. Now this shouldn't come as a surprise to us. Rachel Carson -- the godmother of modern environmentalism -- warned us about this very thing back in 1962. She pointed out that the "control men" -- as she called them -- who carpet-bombed towns and fields with toxic insecticides like DDT, were only trying to kill the little stuff, the insects, not the birds. But they forgot this: the fact that birds dine on grubs, that robins eat lots of worms now saturated with DDT. And so, robin eggs failed to hatch, songbirds died en masse, towns fell silent. Thus the title "Silent Spring." what keeps drawing me back to the Gulf of Mexico, because I'm Canadian, and I can draw no ancestral ties. And I think what it is is I don't think we have fully come to terms with the meaning of this disaster, with what it meant to witness a hole ripped in our world, with what it meant to watch the contents of the Earth gush forth on live TV, 24 hours a day, for months. After telling ourselves for so long that our tools and technology can control nature, suddenly we were face-to-face with our weakness, with our lack of control, as the oil burst out of every attempt to contain it -- "top hats," "top kills" and, most memorably, the "junk shot" -- the bright idea of firing old tires and golf balls down that hole in the world. But even more striking than the ferocious power emanating from that well was the recklessness with which that power was unleashed -- the carelessness, the lack of planning that characterized the operation from drilling to clean-up. If there is one thing BP's watery improv act made clear, it is that, as a culture, we have become far too willing to gamble with things that are precious and irreplaceable, and to do so without a back-up plan, without an exit strategy. And BP was hardly our first experience of this in recent years. Our leaders barrel into wars, telling themselves happy stories about cakewalks and welcome parades. Then, it is years of deadly damage control, and once again, no exit strategy. Our financial wizards routinely fall victim to similar overconfidence, convincing themselves that the latest bubble is a new kind of market -- the kind that never goes down. And when it inevitably does, the best and the brightest reach for the financial equivalent of the junk shot -- in this case, throwing massive amounts of much-needed public money down a very different kind of hole. As with BP, the hole does get plugged, at least temporarily, but not before exacting a tremendous price. We have to figure out why we keep letting this happen, because we are in the midst of what may be our highest-stakes gamble of all -- deciding what to do, or not to do, about climate change. Now as you know, a great deal of time is spent, in this country and around the world, inside the climate debate, on the question of, "What if the IPC scientists are all wrong?" Now a far more relevant question -- as MIT physicist Evelyn Fox Keller puts it -- is, "What if those scientists are right?" Given the stakes, the climate crisis clearly calls for us to act based on the precautionary principle -- the theory that holds that when human health and the environment are significantly at risk and when the potential damage is irreversible, we cannot afford to wait for perfect scientific certainty. Better to err on the side of caution. More overt, the burden of proving that a practice is safe should not be placed on the public that would be harmed, but rather on the industry that stands to profit. But climate policy in the wealthy world -- to the extent that such a thing exists -- is not based on precaution, but rather on cost-benefit analysis -- finding the course of action that economists believe will have the least impact on our GDP. So rather than asking, as precaution would demand, what can we do as quickly as possible to avoid potential catastrophe, we ask bizarre questions like this: "What is the latest possible moment we can wait before we begin seriously lowering emissions? Can we put this off till 2020, 2030, 2050?" Or we ask, "How much hotter can we let the planet get and still survive? Can we go with two degrees, three degrees, or -- where we're currently going -- four degrees Celsius?" And by the way, the assumption that we can safely control the Earth's awesomely complex climate system as if it had a thermostat, making the planet not too hot, not too cold, but just right -- sort of Goldilocks style -- this is pure fantasy, and it's not coming from the climate scientists. imposing their mechanistic thinking on the science. The fact is that we simply don't know when the warming that we create will be utterly overwhelmed by feedback loops. So once again, why do we take these crazy risks with the precious? A range of explanations may be popping into your mind by now, like "greed." This is a popular explanation, and there's lots of truth to it, because taking big risks, as we all know, pays a lot of money. Another explanation that you often hear for recklessness is hubris. And greed and hubris are intimately intertwined when it comes to recklessness. For instance, if you happen to be a 35-year-old banker taking home 100 times more than a brain surgeon, then you need a narrative, you need a story that makes that disparity okay. And you actually don't have a lot of options. You're either an incredibly good scammer, and you're getting away with it -- you gamed the system -- or you're some kind of boy genius, the likes of which the world has never seen. Now both of these options -- the boy genius and the scammer -- are going to make you vastly overconfident and therefore more prone to taking even bigger risks in the future. By the way, Tony Hayward, the former CEO of BP, had a plaque on his desk inscribed with this inspirational slogan: "What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?" Now this is actually a popular plaque, and this is a crowd of overachievers, so I'm betting that some of you have this plaque. Don't feel ashamed. Putting fear of failure out of your mind can be a very good thing if you're training for a triathlon or preparing to give a TEDTalk, but personally, I think people with the power to detonate our economy and ravage our ecology would do better having a picture of Icarus hanging from the wall, because -- maybe not that one in particular -- but I want them thinking about the possibility of failure So we have greed, we've got overconfidence/hubris, but since we're here at TEDWomen, let's consider one other factor that could be contributing in some small way to societal recklessness. Now I'm not going to belabor this point, but studies do show that, as investors, women are much less prone to taking reckless risks than men, precisely because, as we've already heard, women tend not to suffer from overconfidence in the same way that men do. So it turns out that being paid less and praised less has its upsides -- for society at least. The flipside of this is that constantly being told that you are gifted, chosen and born to rule has distinct societal downsides. And this problem -- call it the "perils of privilege" -- to the root of our collective recklessness. Because none of us -- at least in the global North -- neither men nor women, are fully exempt from this message. Here's what I'm talking about. Whether we actively believe them or consciously reject them, our culture remains in the grips of certain archetypal stories about our supremacy over others and over nature -- the narrative of the newly discovered frontier and the conquering pioneer, the narrative of manifest destiny, the narrative of apocalypse and salvation. And just when you think these stories are fading into history, and that we've gotten over them, they pop up in the strangest places. For instance, I stumbled across this advertisement outside the women's washroom in the Kansas City airport. It's for Motorola's new Rugged cell phone, and yes, it really does say, "Slap Mother Nature in the face." And I'm not just showing it to pick on Motorola -- that's just a bonus. I'm showing it because -- they're not a sponsor, are they? -- because, in its own way, this is a crass version of our founding story. We slapped Mother Nature around and won, and we always win, because dominating nature is our destiny. But this is not the only fairytale we tell ourselves about nature. There's another one, equally important, about how that very same Mother Nature is so nurturing and so resilient that we can never make a dent in her abundance. Let's hear from Tony Hayward again. "The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount of oil and dispersants that we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume." In other words, the ocean is big; she can take it. It is this underlying assumption of limitlessness that makes it possible to take the reckless risks that we do. Because this is our real master-narrative: however much we mess up, there will always be more -- more water, more land, more untapped resources. A new bubble will replace the old one. A new technology will come along to fix the messes we made with the last one. In a way, that is the story of the settling of the Americas, the supposedly inexhaustible frontier to which Europeans escaped. And it's also the story of modern capitalism, because it was the wealth from this land that gave birth to our economic system, one that cannot survive without perpetual growth and an unending supply of new frontiers. Now the problem is that the story was always a lie. The Earth always did have limits. They were just beyond our sights. And now we are hitting those limits on multiple fronts. I believe that we know this, yet we find ourselves trapped in a kind of narrative loop. Not only do we continue to tell and retell the same tired stories, but we are now doing so with a frenzy and a fury that, frankly, verges on camp. How else to explain the cultural space occupied by Sarah Palin? Now on the one hand, exhorting us to "drill, baby, drill," because God put those resources into the ground in order for us to exploit them, and on the other, glorying in the wilderness of Alaska's untouched beauty on her hit reality TV show. The twin message is as comforting as it is mad. Ignore those creeping fears that we have finally hit the wall. There are still no limits. There will always be another frontier. So stop worrying and keep shopping. Now, would that this were just about Sarah Palin and her reality TV show. In environmental circles, we often hear that, rather than shifting to renewables, we are continuing with business as usual. This assessment, unfortunately, is far too optimistic. The truth is that we have already exhausted so much of the easily accessible fossil fuels that we have already entered a far riskier business era, the era of extreme energy. So that means drilling for oil in the deepest water, including the icy Arctic seas, where a clean-up may simply be impossible. It means large-scale hydraulic fracking for gas and massive strip-mining operations for coal, the likes of which we haven't yet seen. And most controversially, it means the tar sands. I'm always surprised by how little people outside of Canada know about the Alberta Tar Sands, which this year are projected to become the number one source of imported oil to the United States. It's worth taking a moment to understand this practice, because I believe it speaks to recklessness and the path we're on like little else. So this is where the tar sands live, under one of the last magnificent Boreal forests. The oil is not liquid. You can't just drill a hole and pump it out. Tar sand's oil is solid, mixed in with the soil. So to get at it, you first have to get rid of the trees. Then, you rip off the topsoil and get at that oily sand. The process requires a huge amount of water, which is then pumped into massive toxic tailing ponds. That's very bad news for local indigenous people living downstream who are reporting alarmingly high cancer rates. Now looking at these images, it's difficult to grasp the scale of this operation, which can already be seen from space and could grow to an area the size of England. I find it helps actually to look at the dump trucks that move the earth, the largest ever built. That's a person down there by the wheel. My point is that this is not oil drilling. It's not even mining. It is terrestrial skinning. Vast, vivid landscapes are being gutted, left monochromatic gray. Now I should confess that as [far as] I'm concerned this would be an abomination if it emitted not one particle of carbon. But the truth is that, on average, turning that gunk into crude oil produces about three times more greenhouse gas pollution than it does to produce conventional oil in Canada. How else to describe this, but as a form of mass insanity? Just when we know we need to be learning to live on the surface of our planet, off the power of sun, wind and waves, we are frantically digging to get at the dirtiest, highest-emitting stuff imaginable. This is where our story of endless growth has taken us, to this black hole at the center of my country -- a place of such planetary pain that, like the BP gusher, one can only stand to look at it for so long. As Jared Diamond and others have shown us, this is how civilizations commit suicide, by slamming their foot on the accelerator at the exact moment when they should be putting on the brakes. The problem is that our master-narrative has an answer for that too. At the very last minute, we are going to get saved just like in every Hollywood movie, just like in the Rapture. But, of course, our secular religion is technology. Now, you may have noticed more and more headlines like these. The idea behind this form of "geoengineering" as it's called, is that, as the planet heats up, we may be able to shoot sulfates and aluminum particles into the stratosphere to reflect some of the sun's rays back to space, thereby cooling the planet. The wackiest plan -- and I'm not making this up -- would put what is essentially a garden hose 18-and-a-half miles high into the sky, suspended by balloons, to spew sulfur dioxide. So, solving the problem of pollution with more pollution. Think of it as the ultimate junk shot. The serious scientists involved in this research all stress that these techniques are entirely untested. They don't know if they'll work, what kind of terrifying side effects they could unleash. Nevertheless, the mere mention of geoengineering is being greeted in some circles, particularly media circles, with a relief tinged with euphoria. An escape hatch has been reached. A new frontier has been found. we don't have to change our lifestyles after all. You see, for some people, their savior is a guy in a flowing robe. For other people, it's a guy with a garden hose. We badly need some new stories. We need stories that have different kinds of heroes willing to take different kinds of risks -- risks that confront recklessness head on, that put the precautionary principle into practice, even if that means through direct action -- like hundreds of young people willing to get arrested, blocking dirty power plants or fighting mountaintop-removal coal mining. We need stories that replace that linear narrative of endless growth with circular narratives that remind us that what goes around comes around. That this is our only home. There is no escape hatch. Call it karma, call it physics, action and reaction, call it precaution -- the principle that reminds us that life is too precious to be risked for any profit. Thank you.	{ "source": "iwslt2017", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
多少のすり傷、切り傷であれば、血止めをして包帯を巻けば動くのに支障はない。小刀兎を相手に苦戦していたときでも、ミトロフはいくつもの生傷を負ったまま迷宮に潜っていた。迷宮から産出された薬草で作られた軟膏はよく効くのである。外傷よりも、見えない怪我の方がタチが悪いということか、とミトロフはため息をついた。を休みにしてなお、ミトロフの右腕は元通りになっていない。しかし動かすたびに激痛が起きる、というわけでもない。休むにはもったいないという意識もあり、ミトロフは結局、無理をしない程度に探索をしよう、と考えた。カヌレと合流し、今日も今日とて迷宮に足を踏み入れる。それは冒険者の仕事であり、ミトロフのやるべきことだった。迷宮は地下にある。晴雨雪霰雷と天気に左右はされないが、体調ばかりは如何ともし難いものがある。ミトロフは左手で右腕を揉みほぐしながら、地下へと地下へと進んでいった。「ミトロフさま、ご無理はなさらないでくださいね」カヌレの心配とも釘刺しとも取れる言葉を受け取りながらも、魔物から逃げてばかりもいられない。どうしても戦わねばというときには、ミトロフは剣を抜いた。これまでに数え切れぬほど地上と地下を往復するうちに、上層階の魔物にはすっかり慣れている。あれほど苦戦した小刀兎ですら、いまのミトロフは軽々と躱し、空中で斬り落とすこともできる。しかし斬るにも突くにも、腕の痛みが伴う。小さな相手であればまだマシだが、大きな相手となるとひと苦労だった。7階を過ぎてついに、ミトロフの腕が限界を迎えた。急に力が入らなくなった。刺突剣を握れず、取り落としてしまったのである。「......これは、まずいな」「撤退しましょう」カヌレはすぐさまミトロフを庇い、ふたりはそろそろと迷宮を戻ることになった。幸い、階段を降りて間もなかったため、休憩部屋にすぐに辿り着けた。ふたりは荷物を置き、カヌレがミトロフの腕を触診する。「......医術の心得があるのか?」「応急処置程度です。訓練でよく怪我をしたので」カヌレはミトロフの腕に痛み止めの軟膏を塗り、大鞄から包帯を取り出した。肘関節の上下に、8の字になるように巻き付ける。慣れた手つきである。「これで多少は楽になるかと」「......本当だ。これならいくらでも戦えるな」「お戯れを。地上に戻って施療院で診ていただきますよ」口調は優しいが、反論は認めぬという強い決意を感じさせる。その声が恐ろしくもあり、世話焼きが嬉しくもある。ミトロフは腕を何度か曲げ伸ばしする。みっちりと肉を締める包帯で動きが補強されているように感じる。「だいぶ楽になった。礼を言う」ミトロフとカヌレは荷物を取り立ち上がる。ミトロフが剣を振れぬ以上、今日の探索はここまでとするしかなかった。カヌレに戦闘を任せながら、ミトロフは地上に戻ってきた。包帯と薬草のおかげで寝ていれば治ると言ってはみたものの、控えめな性格のカヌレにしては珍しい強引さでミトロフは施療院の世話になることになった。また支払いが重なるが、幾日も迷宮に潜れない日々を無為にするよりは、さっさと治してもらったほうが良いのはたしかである。施療院では重傷者優先の規則が定められている。迷宮からいつ急患が運び込まれようと、すぐに対応するためだ。そのため、治りかけや軽傷の人間はずいぶんと待たされることになる。腕の筋を痛めた、というだけのミトロフも、椅子に座ったきり長々と時計の針を見送ることになった。付き添うと言って聞かないカヌレも隣に座っていた。迷宮の中では平然と話せる相手であるのに、こうして環境が変わっ並べば、不思議と会話は弾まない。ミトロフはどうにも緊張を抱えて、頭の中で話題を探してみては自分で却下するという行為ばかりを繰り返してしまう。社交場での淑女に対する失礼のない会話術であるとか、食事の席で心をくすぐる褒め方の定型文を暗記してはいても、施療院の待合室で隣り合ったときの話題などは教わっていない。知識はあっても経験がまったく足りないのがミトロフなのである。ようやく順番が来たとき、ミトロフは背中に汗をびっしょりとかいていた。「そうですか、では見てみましょう」今回の担当は灰色に白髪の混ざった初老の女医師であった。ミトロフの腕を痛めた原因の話や症状を聞くなり、女医師は腕を取った。巻いていた包帯をほどき、ミトロフのふっくらした腕を揉んで確かめると、次第に二の腕と関節の継ぎ目にぐいぐいと指を押し込みはじめた。マッサージというには力が強く、拷問と呼ぶには手加減があり、治療と納得するには痛みが強すぎる。ミトロフが口の端からか細い悲鳴を漏らしても遠慮なく、骨に張り付いた腱や筋肉を親指の先でゴリゴリと抉るように弾く。その度に肩から首、そして後頭部にびりびりと雷のように痛みがほとばしった。ミトロフの額に汗が玉となり、鼻水が顎まで垂れ始めてようやく、女医師は手を離した。一転、張り詰めた緊張を揉み解すように優しい手つきで腕を触診すると、ぽんと二の腕を叩いた。「これでいいでしょう。腱を弾いて戻しました。そうですね、一週間は剣を握らぬように。無理をしなければ違和感もすぐになくなります」「こ、これでいいだって......? これで治るわけが......っ、あれ?」ふと、右腕にあった痛みが大人しくなっていることに気づく。ミトロフは目を丸くしながら腕を動かし、肩を上げる。痛くない。よく動くのである。「な、治った!」と勢いよく素振りの動作をすると、ぴき、っと肘の内側に痛みが響いた。「痛い!」「人間の身体はそう便利にできてはいませんよ。無理をすれば長引くだけですからね」女医師は表情も声音も変えず、淡々と言う。呆れた様子すら見せないのが、かえってミトロフの心を締め上げた。「......わかった」肩を小さくしておとなしく頷き、ミトロフは診察室をあとにした。待合室ではカヌレが背筋を伸ばして座って待っている。「いかがでしたか」「かなり楽になった。ただ、一週間は剣を握るな、と」「それがよろしいかと思います。休暇と致しましょう」「ついこの間も休んでいたが......」「これまでの無理が積もり重なったのではないかと。急に迷宮に潜り、慣れぬ剣を振り、これまで平然としてらっしゃったことの方が驚きです」む......? とミトロフは首を傾げた。「剣を振るには身体の力、迷宮に潜るには心の力。どちらも欠かせぬものでしょう? ミトロフさまは精神力は充分すぎるほどですが、身体のほうが、その......前途があまりに有望ですので」「気を使いすぎて貴族流の嫌味になっているぞ。素直に鍛え方が足りないと言ってくれ」無言で会釈をするカヌレに、ミトロフは苦笑を返した。「たしかに、鍛錬は足りないな。これまでも疲労で引き返すことが何度もあったしな......」カヌレという頼もしい盾役がいることでミトロフの負担は大きく減っている。それでも探索時間が延びるにつれ、ミトロフの体力的な問題で探索を断念することが増えてきた。ミトロフが使う刺突に特化した細剣は、冒険者が一般的に好むような剣よりははるかに軽い。それでも筋肉より贅肉の方が割合の多いミトロフには、やはり重い。「精神も同じように疲労しているはずだが......ぼくはあまり感じないんだ。”昇華”のおかげかもしれない」迷宮探索中にはとかく精神が張り詰める。暗闇、洞窟のような圧迫感、襲いくる魔物......あらゆる要素が冒険者の心を摩耗させていく。安寧と堕落の生活をしていたミトロフであるが、そうした精神の摩耗という感覚に襲われることがない。ミトロフが”昇華”によって得た精神力の強化という効能は、戦いの最中だけでなく、探索の合間にもミトロフを支えているようである。「”昇華”ですか。話ばかりには聞きますが、不思議なものですね」「ああ。ぼくとグラシエはコボルドを倒して得たが......あれ以来、どんな魔物を倒しても起きないな。ぼくもカヌレも、それなりに魔物を倒してきたと思うが」「わたしは、例外かもしれませんが」苦笑するような含みの声には、諦めのような色がある。期待をすることに及び腰になっているような。カヌレは”昇華”とはまた別の迷宮の神秘......古代から残された”呪い”により、骸骨の姿になってしまっている。言わば魔物に近しい存在に変質している以上、”昇華”という現象が起こり得るのかは分からないことだった。「大丈夫さ、きみにも起こる。”昇華”が得られれば、探索はずいぶん楽になるんだけどな」 ”昇華”を得る方法があれば、誰もがこぞってそれを行うだろう。しかし未だはっきりとしたことは分かっておらず、口勝手にそれぞれが迷信のような方法を語っているばかりである。ミトロフもいくらか噂を聞いたが、どれも信憑性は薄く、かといって否定する根拠もない。現状、”昇華”が起こるかどうかは”運次第”ということになっている。だからこそ、多くの冒険者の心を騒がすことになっているのだろう。誰にでも起こりうる現象であり、ひとつ、ふたつと手に入れただけで、迷宮探索は一変する可能性があるのだ。参加無料で大当たりの籤引きがあれば、誰だって夢を見て手に取るものだろう。「この肉がなくなる”昇華”でも起きないものかな」ミトロフはぽっちゃりとした自分の腹を撫でながら、夢見るように呟いた。	If it’s just minor cuts and scratches, applying a hemostatic agent and wrapping it in bandages would not affect movement. Even while struggling against smallsword rabbits, Mitrof entered the labyrinth with numerous wounds. The ointment made from herbs found in the labyrinth is effective, but the pain from the twisted muscles in his arm did not subside easily. Mitrof sighed, wondering if invisible wounds were worse than external ones. Even after taking a day off, his right arm was not yet fully healed. But it didn’t cause excruciating pain every time he moved it. Feeling that resting would be a waste of time, Mitrof decided to explore the labyrinth to some extent. He joined Canule and once again set foot in the labyrinth, as was his duty as an adventurer. The labyrinth is underground, so it is not affected by weather conditions such as rain, snow, or hail, but physical condition is another matter. As Mitrof massaged his right arm with his left hand, he descended deeper and deeper into the underground. “Please don’t overdo it, Mitrof-sama.” Canule expressed her concern, but he couldn’t just keep running away from monsters. Whenever he had to fight, Mitrof drew his sword. After countless trips back and forth between the surface and the underground, he had become accustomed to the monsters on the upper floors. Even the tough smallsword-rabbits that gave him a hard time before, Mitrof could now dodge with ease and easily slash them down in midair. However, using his sword for either thrusting or slashing caused pain in his arm. Fighting against small opponents was manageable, but larger opponents were a struggle. After passing the seventh floor, Mitrof’s arm had reached its limit. Suddenly, his strength gave out, and he couldn’t hold onto his stabbing sword, dropping it. “...This is not good.” “Let’s retreat.” Canule quickly protected Mitrof, and the two of them slowly headed back to the labyrinth. Fortunately, they had just descended the stairs, so they quickly arrived at the resting room. The two put down their luggage, and Canule palpated Mitrof’s arm. “Do you have any knowledge of medicine?” “Just basic first aid—I’ve had many injuries during my training.” Canule applied pain relief ointment to Mitrof’s arm and took out a bandage from her large bag. She wrapped it around the joint in the shape of the number eight. It was a familiar technique. “This should ease the pain a bit.” “... It’s true. I can fight as much as I want with this.” “Don’t get carried away—we’ll go to the medical facility when we get back to the surface.” Her tone was gentle, but her strong determination did not allow any arguments. Her voice was both terrifying and comforting. Mitrof bent and extended his arm a few times, feeling his movements reinforced by the tightly wrapped bandage. “I feel much better now—thank you.” Mitrof and Canule picked up their luggage and stood up. Since Mitrof could no longer swing his sword, their exploration for the day had come to an end. While entrusting the battle to Canule, Mitrof returned to the surface. Although he had said that he would be able to heal just by sleeping thanks to the bandages and medicinal herbs, Mitrof’s uncharacteristic assertiveness caused him to end up in a medical facility. Although the payments piled up, it was certainly better to quickly receive treatment than to spend several days unable to enter the labyrinth. At the medical facility, there was a rule prioritizing treatment for severely injured patients in case of emergency transport from the labyrinth. Therefore, even those with minor injuries like Mitrof, who only had strained muscles in his arms, would have to wait for a long time sitting in a chair, watching the clock’s hands. Even Canule, who insisted on accompanying him, sat next to him. Although they could talk naturally inside the labyrinth, they strangely couldn’t carry on a conversation when placed side by side in a different environment. Mitrof was so nervous that he kept repeatedly searching for topics in his mind and rejecting them himself. Although Mitrof had memorized standard phrases for polite conversation with ladies at social gatherings and compliments that could tickle one’s heart at meal times, he had never been taught what to talk about when sitting next to someone in a medical waiting room. Although he had the knowledge, Mitrof was utterly lacking in experience. Finally, it was his turn, and Mitrof’s back was drenched in sweat. “Okay, let’s take a look.” The doctor in charge this time was an elderly woman with gray and white mixed hair. As soon as she heard the cause of Mitrof’s arm injury and his symptoms, the doctor took his arm. She unwrapped the bandage and massaged Mitrof’s plump arms, pressing her fingers hard into his biceps and the joint connecting his upper arm. It was not merely a massage, for it was too strong for that. It was not considered torture, yet it was not gentle enough to be called treatment. Even though Mitrof let out small screams of pain from the corner of his mouth, the doctor continued to pluck and pry on his tendons and muscles, like scratching with a thumb at a bone. Each time, pain like lightning bolted through his shoulder, neck, and then the back of his head. As sweat droplets formed on Mitrof’s forehead and his runny nose started to drip down to his chin, the female doctor finally released her grip. In a complete change of pace, she touched his arm gently to relieve the tension, then patted his upper arm. “That should do it—I’ve popped the tendon back into place—you shouldn’t hold a sword for a week—if you don’t strain it, the discomfort should disappear soon.” “T-This is it? This will heal it...? Wait, what?” Suddenly, Mitrof realized that the pain in his right arm had calmed down. With widened eyes, he moved his arm and lifted his shoulder. It didn’t hurt. He could move it well. “I-It’s healed!” As he made a strong swinging motion, a sharp pain shot through the inside of his elbow. “Ow!” “The human body cannot be made that convenient—If you overdo it, it will only prolong the discomfort.” The female doctor spoke calmly without changing her expression or tone. Her nonchalant attitude even tightened Mitrof’s heart. “...I see.” Mitrof lowered his shoulders and nodded meekly before leaving the examination room. In the waiting room, Canule sits up straight and waits. “How was it?” “I feel much better—however, I need to avoid using the sword for a week.” “I think that’s a good idea—let’s take a break.” “But I just took a break recently...” “I think all the past overworking has piled up—it’s surprising that you were able to remain calm while suddenly diving into the labyrinth and swinging an unfamiliar sword.” Mitrof tilted his head in confusion. “Using a sword requires physical strength, while diving into the labyrinth requires mental strength—both are essential, don’t you think?—Mitrof-sama has more than enough mental strength, but in terms of physical strength...” “You’re being too considerate and coming off as sarcastic—just tell me I need more training.” Canule gave a silent nod, and Mitrof returned a wry smile. “Yeah, I need more training—I’ve turned back due to exhaustion many times before...” Thanks to Canule, a reliable shield, Mitrof’s burden has greatly decreased. However, as the exploration time extended, Mitrof’s physical problems led him to abandon exploration more frequently. Mitrof’s rapier was specialized in thrusting, and it was much lighter than the swords that adventurers typically preferred. Nevertheless, for Mitrof, whose body had more fat than muscle, it was still heavy. “I should be mentally exhausted too, but I don’t really feel it—maybe it’s because of ‘sublimation.'” During labyrinth exploration, the mind is inevitably tense. Darkness, the oppression of caves, and attacking monsters all wear down adventurers’ minds. Although Mitrof had led a life of peace and debauchery, he had never experienced the feeling of mental exhaustion. The effect of Mitrof’s mental strength enhancement through “sublimation” seems to support him not only during battles but also during breaks in exploration. “‘Sublimation,’ huh? I often hear about it but it’s a mysterious thing.” “Yeah, Grace and I obtained it by defeating a ‘kobold’, but... ever since then, we haven’t had any luck with defeating any other monsters. I think both Canule and I have defeated our fair share of monsters.” “I might be an exception, though.” There was a hint of a wry smile in the voice, tinged with a sense of resignation. It was as if the person had become somewhat hesitant about expecting anything more. Canule was a different mystery of the labyrinth from “sublimation”... affected by an ancient “curse,” Canule had taken on the form of a skeleton. Considering that she had transformed into something close to a monster, it was unclear whether the phenomenon of “sublimation” could even occur. “Don’t worry, it might happen to you too—if you’re able to achieve ‘sublimation’, exploring the labyrinth will become much easier.” If there were a way to obtain “sublimation,” everyone would be eager to do it. However, nothing is yet certain, and everyone is simply talking about their own superstitious methods. Mitrof had also heard some rumors, but they lacked credibility, and he had no evidence to deny them. Currently, whether “sublimation” would occur is simply a matter of luck. That’s why it was creating a buzz among many adventurers. It was a phenomenon that could happen to anyone, and just obtaining one or two could drastically change the exploration of the labyrinth. If there was a raffle with a big prize and free entry, anyone would dream of winning. “I hope there will be some kind of sublimation that will make this meat disappear...” Mitrof murmured dreamily while stroking his chubby stomach.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 0, "inserted_lines_src": 1, "inserted_lines_trg": 1 }
リィーシャは明日改めて事情聴取に訪れると約束して、行政地区へと戻っていった。ルトルスのベッドに戻そうと、シェーナは彼女を抱き抱える。「歩けるから平気だ」「まだ病み上がりだから安静にしてなよ。お腹は空いてない? 食欲があれば何か作るよ」「あ......ありがとう。何か温かい食べ物があればもらいたい」「わかった。ベッドで大人しく待っていてくれ」ルトルスをベッドに寝かしつけると、シェーナは台所に残っている食材を見渡して思案する。病人なので、消化の良い料理で温かい物を食べさせたい。前世の感覚ならお粥や雑炊を思い浮かべて作りたいところだが、残念ながら米がない。目はコンソメスープを作ることにする。スライスした玉ねぎを鍋に加えて煮込むと、玉ねぎに火が通ったことを確認して、器に盛り付けて刻んだパセリを散らして完成する。「ただいま。食材の仕入れに珍しい物があったよ」キシャナが仕入れから戻ると、野菜や肉類の他に「米だよ。どうやらエルフは稲作の方法を知っているらしくて、異世界では米よりパンの方が主食だから市場ではあまり出回っていなかった」「丁度いいタイミングだ。その米を使ってお粥を作れないか?」「ああ、彼女が目覚めたのか。お粥は私が作るから、シェーナはそのスープを先に飲ませてあげな」エルフは耳長な姿と長寿であることは有名で、手先が器用で森の加護を受けている種族だと認識されている。基本的に他種族とは友好的で農作物や魔法付与された装飾品を手掛けたりするのが得意だ。例外なのが、ダークエルフだ。エルフとダークエルフは敵対関係が何百年も続いている状態で、前世からの知り合いであるサリーニャは種族間のことは気にしないが、リィーシャとキシャナが一緒にいることは珍しい組み合わせなのだ。シェーナはコンソメスープをルトルスに飲ませると、彼女は多芸多才なシェーナを称賛する。「シェーナが私のために作ってくれたスープは美味しい。剣や料理にも精通しているなんて凄いな」「そんな大袈裟なものじゃないよ。でも、気に入ってくれてよかった。キシャナがお粥を作っているからね」「キシャナ......シェーナの傍にいたダークエルフか?」「ああ、彼女がルトルスの毒を解毒してくれたんだ」「......悪いことは言わない。ダークエルフとは手を切った方がいい」ルトルスはガフェーナから逃げる際に追手のダークエルフを何人も始末したらしい。毒を盛られたのも、ダークエルフと混戦中に不覚にもやられた。ダークエルフは闇の加護を受け継いだ種族で褐色な肌が特徴的だ。偵察や諜報に長けた種族としてガフェーナでは暗殺部隊として置いていた。噂では魔法でエルフに化けて王族や有力貴族に近付いて暗殺を引き受けていたこともあったと言う。ダークエルフの危険性を知っているルトルスはシェーナの身を案じているのだろう。「キシャナとは古い親友なんだ。信じてもらえないかもしれないが......聞いてくれるか?」「私はシェーナに誓いを立てたんだ。どんな話でも受け入れる」シェーナ、キシャナ、サリーニャは前世の記憶を共有して異世界転生をしたこと。転生後の生活と苦悩を打ち明けて今に至ることをルトルスに語った。「突拍子もない話だと思う。頭がおかしい奴だと思われても仕方がないよな」は古代の魔術師が有する上位魔法だと書物で呼んだことはあるが、シェーナが嘘をついているとは思えないし、私は信じるよ」「......本当に?」「ああ、そんな体験をしているからこそシェーナの言葉は重みがあった。親友を侮辱した発言を許して欲しい」ルトルスは深く頭を下げると、シェーナの話を受け入れて信じてくれた。	Reesha promised to return the next day in order to interrogate Luthors and headed back to the administrative district. Schenna approached Luthors, fully intending to lend her a hand, but Luthors interrupted. “It’s okay, I can walk.” “You’re still recovering so don’t push yourself too much. Are you hungry by any chance? If you have any appetite I can make something for you to eat!” “Um.... thank you. If you could make something warm I’d gladly take it.” “Understood. Rest in bed while I make it for you okay?” After confirming that Luthors was lying on the bed, Schenna headed downstairs to take a look at the remaining ingredients to see what she could make. Considering it was for a sick person, she wanted to make sure it was not only warm but also something easy to digest. Based on her past life’s experiences, her intuition was telling her to make rice porridge along with some vegetables, but sadly she didn’t have any rice. She decided to make consomme soup for the time being. Slicing the onions in very thin layers, adding water and stock powder into the pot before boiling it. Then she added the sliced onion into the soup and made sure the fire was passing properly. Finally, she poured the soup to a bowl with some minced parsley spread on top. “I’m back! Also, I came across something unusual while shopping.” Kishana had just returned from shopping with all kinds of vegetables and meat filling her shopping bag. “It’s rice yo. It seems that the elves know how to cultivate rice, but it doesn’t appear on the market all that much since bread is the staple food in this world.” “Perfect timing! Could you make some rice porridge?” “Sure thing, did she wake up? I’ll take care of making the rice porridge, you can go ahead and give her the soup now if you want.” Elves are known for their long pointy ears and their longevity. They are recognized as a race blessed by the forest for their high dexterity and are usually friendly towards the other races. The elves specialize in both magic and agriculture. The only exception were dark elves. Both elves and dark elves have been hostile towards each other for more than a hundred years. Sareenea, for example, doesn’t really care about the relationship between both races, but seeing Reesha and Kishana together is always quite an odd combination. Luthors praised Schenna for her various talents after drinking the soup she had made for her. “The soup you prepared for me is really delicious. Having knowledge in both cooking and swordsmanship is quite impressive!” “Thanks for the compliment, I’m glad you enjoyed it but it’s not that big of a deal. Just wait a bit while Kishana finishes making the rice porridge” “Kishana... Are you talking about the dark elf that was standing next to you?” “Yeah, she’s the one who removed the poison from your body.” “... I don’t mean to talk bad stuff about anyone but you should consider not getting along with dark elves.” Apparently, Luthors had killed countless dark elves who were trying to kill her as she ran away from Gafenna. The poison was inflicted from a big fight with multiple dark elves. Dark elves were a race protected by darkness, with the characteristic dark skin color. A race that excelled at scouting and gathering information, as well as the assassin squad working for Gafenna. Rumors say that they are also able to disguise themselves as elves and carry out close range assassinations on members of the royalty or influential noble families. Luthors, who knew very well about their treacherous nature, was most likely worried about Schenna’s safety. “Kishana is an old friend of mine. You might not believe this but... can you just hear me out?” “I made an oath to you, therefore I’ll listen to anything.” Schenna proceeded to tell her about everyone coming from a different world with their memories intact, along with the ordeals of their current lives until now. “I know it sounds crazy, and it would only be natural to think of me as someone who’s not right in the head after what I just said.” “In the past, I have read up on some first-class magic that could only be used by extremely powerful magicians. Additionally, I don’t think you would have a reason to lie, so I believe you, Schenna.” “... You do!?” “Yes, all the things you have experienced until now make your words easy to believe. Please forgive me for insulting your best friend.” Luthors bowed down to Schenna after feeling bad for insulting her friend and didn’t doubt a single thing about her story.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 0, "inserted_lines_src": 3, "inserted_lines_trg": 0 }
それから数日して、ガドルスから俺たちへ連絡があった。依頼の詳細は、翌日に新人に採取に出ることらしい。そこで、前日に俺たちと顔合わせをするそうだ。翌日の前日、つまり今日である。荷物を積み込んだ馬車とクラウドの騎馬を、裏手の厩舎に預け、俺たちは待ち合わせ場所のギルドへと向かったストラールの冒険者ギルドに足を踏み入れると、中にいた冒険者たちの視線が一斉にこちらに向く。俺は元より、ミシェルちゃんやフィニアまで一緒に居るのだから、男の眼がこちらに向くのは想定の範囲内と言える。「あ、ニコルさん。依頼の方はこちらですよ」「お久しぶりです。もう長いこと待ってます?」「いえ、あちらの方もさっき来たばかりですよ」そう言われて、俺は少しだけ安堵した。さすがに顔合わせの段階で遅刻とか、さすがに体裁が悪過ぎる。受付のお姉さんに案内されて、待ち合わせの小部屋に案内される。扉の前まで来たところで、お姉さんはそそくさとその場を去ろうとしていた。「ここでお待ちになってます。あとはよろしく。揉め事は厳禁ですよ?」「あ、はい。あの、なんで腰が引けてるんで?」「いえいえ、そんなことは......それじゃ私はこれで!」いうが早いか、脱兎のごとくカウンターへと戻っていった。その行動に首を傾げる俺たち一行。「あれ、なんだろ?」「さぁ? なんだか、部屋に入りたくないみたいな態度だったね」「それより早く挨拶しちまおうぜ。それにこの後、準備の確認もするんだろ」この後新人たちと挨拶をし、そのあと採取依頼に出るための準備状況を確認する予定だった。新人の場合、ここでの準備を軽く見て、大怪我をする場合がよくある。大怪我どころか、命を落とすケースすらあるのだから、甘く見れない。その準備の段階から教えてやることが、今回の依頼だ。そのためには、まず顔合わせを済ませないことには、話は始まらない。「こんにちわぁ、このたび指南役を承った者で――ぴゃ!?」人懐っこいミシェルちゃんが、明るく挨拶しながらドアを開け、奇声を上げた。ギルドの内部で危険なことなどあるとは思えないので、何事かと俺とクラウドが肩越しに室内を覗き込む。そこには椅子があるというのに床にガニ股でしゃがみこんでいる、新人冒険者の姿があった。「あぁん、指南役だぁ?」「遅かったじゃねぇか、オルァ!」髪を逆立てたり剃り上げたりしての男。よく見るとクラウドと同年代っぽく見えるのだが、服装のセンスがなんというか、特殊だった。その棘付き肩当てに何の意味があるのか。なぜ上半身裸で鋲打ちベルトだけ巻いてるのか。その顔に入れた入れ墨に何の意味があるのか。まるで世界の終わりに現れるという魔王の一族のような様相に、ミシェルちゃんだけでなく俺の動きまで固まった。「無言とか態度でけぇなぁ?」「挨拶もなしかよ、オルァ!」逆に指摘されて、ようやく俺の硬直も解けた。とにかく今は、コミュニケーションだ。いかに辺境の蛮族じみた姿をしていても、一応は依頼人である。「えっと、指南役を担当するニコルです、よろしく」「あ、あの、わたしミシェ――」「聞こえねぇよ!」「ぴぎゃ!?」しっかりはっきりと自己紹介するのは、非常に重要なことだ。「俺はクラウド、今日からしばらく、よろしく頼む」「おう、しっかりな」「えっと、フィニアです性魔法が得意です」「魔法! すげーな、姉ちゃん!」「あの、あの、わたしミシェル......」「あぁん?」「ゆ、弓が得意で......」「なんだ猟師かよ」「うえーん、ニコルちゃん~」ついに泣き出したミシェルちゃんの頭を撫でながら、俺は彼らに注意しておいた。「彼女はわたしたちの中でも一番の攻撃力を持ってるんだから、侮るのはやめて」「あぁん? そういうアンタは何ができんだよ」「干渉系魔法と斥候役。ついでにこのパーティのリーダー役」「しょっぺぇ魔法のくせにリーダーだぁ?」「干渉系甘く見るなよ?」「んだよ、やんのかぁ?」わざわざこんな場所まで流れてきたのも、本当に故郷を追い出されてのことだったのだと納得した。「こっちは四階位で、依頼でこの場に来てるって理解していってる?」「ハン、格付けをカサに着るとは、底が知れるぜ」「あー、これはひねってやらないとわからないクチかな?」ギルドから実力不足を指摘されて、こんな依頼を出したというのに、底が浅いのはどっちなんだか。俺たちも受付のお姉さんから『揉め事は遠慮して』と言われているので、この場で実力行使に出ることは避けたい。「まあ、顔合わせと事前準備だけのつもりだったけど、互いの実力を知るのも必要かな」「いいぜ、いつでもきな。相手になってやんよ」「ここだとギルドに目を付けられるでしょ。訓練場があるからそこに行こう」ギルドには魔法の試射や、武器の具合を見るための訓練場が設置されている場合が多い。こういった連中の鼻っ柱をへし折っておくのも、先達としての役目である。いや、俺だけじゃなくミシェルちゃんやフィニアにも感じ取れたようで、どうにももぞもぞした様子で歩いていた。見ると、背後からついてきている連中が、ニヤニヤしたイヤらしい視線を俺たちに向けている。しかしそれより先に、クラウドが大盾を下げて俺たちの後ろに回り込む。クラウドの視線を遮る意図を持った動きに、露骨に舌打ちして見せる新人たち。「チッ」「言っとくけどお前ら......」「見ての通り、彼女たちは可愛い」「それがどうした?」「ギルドの冒険者たちもそう思ってる。つまりアイドル扱いされてるんだ」「ギルドの冒険者全員から袋叩きされたくなかったら、そういうのはやめとけ。おかげで俺がいつも、どれだけシゴかれてるか......血の小便が出ることもあるんだぞ?」「お、おう......?」クラウドの哀愁漂う忠告に戸惑いながらも、連中は大人しく首肯した。意外と素直な面もあるのかもしれない。	A few days later Gadius contacted us. The commission was apparently to accompany the beginners for the harvesting the following day. Thus, we were going to meet up the day before it. The day before tomorrow, which is today. We left our carriage packed full of luggage as well as Cloud’s horse to the barns in the back, and headed to the Guild where we were supposed to meet up. As we entered Stollar’s Adventurer’s Guild, all the Adventurers inside focused on us. But that was the usual for us, so we didn’t pay any attention. Not just me, even Michelle and Finia were with me, so it was a natural response for men to focus on us. “Ah, miss Nicole. Please come here for your commission.” “Long time no see. Have they been waiting for long?” “No, they only just arrived as well.” I felt slightly relieved to hear that. It would be pretty rude if we showed up late during our first meeting. The receptionist lady guided us to a small room where we were supposed to meet. As we arrived at the door, she tried to quickly leave the place. “This is the room. I leave the rest to you. Quarrels are forbidden, okay?” “Oh, okay. But why do you look so flustered?” “Oh no, you’re imagining it... Well then, I’m off!” She quickly fled back to the counter right as she said that. We were all puzzled by her actions. “What was up with her?” “Who knows? It looks like she didn’t want to enter this room.” “More importantly, let’s go in and greet them already. We have to confirm if we’re all ready after this too.” Once we greeted the beginners, we had to confirm if everything was ready to take on the harvesting commission. Beginners tended to underestimate the need for preparations and get seriously wounded. Not just that, some even get themselves killed, so this wasn’t anything trivial. Part of this commission was to teach them about preparation too. We first had to greet them before moving on to that. “Hello, we are the instructors for this—wahh?!” Michelle opened the door in a friendly tone, but then raised a yelp. I didn’t think there could be anything dangerous inside the Guild, but Cloud and I peered inside over her shoulders to check what was going on. There, despite chairs being available, there were newbie Adventurers crouched in a gangster style. “Huuh, instructors?” “You’re too late, dammit!” They were three men with shaved heads or ruffled hair. Looking closely, they seemed to be Cloud’s age, but their clothing choice was rather...unique. What was the point of those thorny shoulder pads? Why were they naked on the upper half and only having studded belts on them? Or what was the point of the tattoos on their faces? Seeing the appearance that made them look like the relatives of the demon king that manifests at the end of the world, not just Michelle, even I was petrified in place. “Not answering? what’s with your attitudes, huuh?” “You’re not even greeting us, dammit!” I finally reacted once he pointed that out. Anyway, communication was important. Even if they were looking like countryside barbarians, they were still our clients. “Err, I’m Nicole, in charge of instructing, nice to meet.” “I-Im Miche—” “I can’t hear you!” “Eek?!” Michelle mumbled her greeting but one of them snapped at her. I could understand their point though. It was very important to properly introduce yourself. “I’m Cloud, let’s get along for today.” “Yeah, let’s.” “Err, I’m Finia. I specialize in the four elements magic.” “Magic! You’re amazing, missy!” “Umm, umm, I’m Michelle...” “Huuh?” “I-I specialize in bow...” “Huh, you’re a hunter?” “Waah, Nicoleee!” She finally burst into tears and I patted her head while gathering their attention on me. “She has the biggest attack power among us, so don’t look down on her.” “Huuh? And what can you do, then?” “I specialize in interference magic and scouting. And I’m also the party leader.” “Yer a leader despite using such lame magic?” “Don’t underestimate interference magic.” “What, you wanna go?” They flipped at my words. I see, they certainly are naughty, more than I expected. I can see why they came all this way and why they were driven out of their hometown. “We’re fourth ranks, and came here for the commission. Do you understand what that means?” “Hah, using your rank to brag. I can see you’re nothing but talk.” “Okay, I guess this is the case where you won’t understand until you get beat up.” The Guild told them they lacked skill and they commissioned this request, so which one of us was nothing but talk. The receptionist lady did tell us to “refrain from fights” so I didn’t want to get violent here. “Well, we only planned to introduce each other and do advance preparations, but it wouldn’t be so bad to know each other’s skills.” “Bring it on. I’ll take you on any time.” “The Guild will see us here. There’s a training ground so let’s do it there.” Guilds often had training grounds where you could test spells, archery, weapons, and such. This Guild in Stollar also had one such facility. It was also the duty of the seniors to dampen the confidence of these kinds of folk. Newbies wouldn’t know where it was so we took the lead. But I felt a strange gaze on my waist. Not just me but even Michelle and Finia seemed to have sensed it, so they were talking quite restlessly. Looking back, those bunch were grinning and directing lewd gazes at us. I gave a sigh and tried to move the girls behind them. But before I did, Cloud pulled down his shield and got between us. The newbies visibly clicked their tongues at Cloud’s move to block their sight. “Tsk.” “Just so you know...” “As you can see, they are all cute.” “What about it?” “The other Adventurers at this guild also think so too. Basically, they are like idols here.” “Unless you want to get beat up by the entire Adventurer’s Guild, just drop that. I keep getting tormented for it all the time... It’s to the point I sometimes piss blood, you know?” “O-Okay...?” Cloud’s sorrowful advice made them bewildered and they nodded obediently. They seemed to be honest in some respects too.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 5, "inserted_lines_src": 8, "inserted_lines_trg": 0 }
「どうだった、みんな......!?」ラフィニアの問いかけに、レオーネとリーゼロッテは首を振る。「こっちはダメ――手掛かりになりそうなものも、何も――」「同じくですわ。何の異常も見られませんわ」イングリスも見て来た事を報告する。「どういう事だよ――出て行った跡は無いのに、いなくなっちまったのか......!?」なり、何かしらの移動手段が使われていないという事は―― 「考えられるのは......外から移動手段を持った何者かがやって来てを連れて行ったという事かしら――」だからと言って、イアンも巻き込まれた被害者かと言うと、そこは判断の難しい所だ。「外からそんな事をなさりに来る方というのは――」「......そうなると、考えられるのって......」「――ハリムか......!」今のアルカードの状況で、イングリス達と敵対する勢力は、それしかいない。「けど、プラムはハリムには会ってねえ筈だ......」ラティの言う通り、ハリムと対面した時にプラムは顔を見られないように隠れていたはずだ。「という事は――」そこに、姿の見えないイアンが手引きしたという推測の妥当性が出て来る。「......それはまだ、分からないわよ。遠くから見られてたのかも知れないし、ツィーラの街からここまでで、他のこういう状況ではあるが、まだイアンを信じてあげたいのだろう。「......そうね、ラフィニア。それに今考えなきゃいけないのは、プラムを早く見つけて、助けてあげる事だわ」レオーネもそう言って頷く。「これまでのお話を総合すれば、恐らく行き先は一つですわね――」無論、ティファニエの一派が根城にしている場所。それは―― 「......リックレアだな。それしかねえ」「元々王都かリックレアか、どちらに向かうかを決めなければいけませんでしたが――これで決まりですわね」「ええ......! 急いでリックレアに向かいましょう!」「うん! じゃあすぐに出発よ!」と、ここで皆の話し合いの流れを見守っていたイングリスは口を開く。「ちょっと待って、そこはよく考えないと――」「クーリースぅ~。ひょっとして、まだ先に王都行きたいとかってって言うんじゃないでしょうね? こんな状況なんだから、いっぱい戦いたいからとか、イーベルの研究施設で遊びたいからとか、下らない事言ってたら怒るわよ?」ラフィニアがじっとりした瞳で見つめて来る。「いや、それはそれで下らない事なんかじゃないとは思うけど......それは置いておいてもね、今ここで考えておかなきゃいけない事があると思う――ラティにね」と、イングリスはラティに視線を向けた。「え? 俺か?」「うん。このままリックレアに向かえば、間違いなく戦いになる。それで敵を追い払って、プラムも助けて、住民への徴発も止めれば――それって間違いなく大手柄だよね?」「いい事じゃない、何か問題あるの?」と、ラフィニアは首を捻る。「それだけの大きな事を、わたし達が――つまりカーラリアの騎士がやっちゃったら、後々の影響は大きいよ。住民の人達からすれば、大変な時に助けてくれたのはカーラリアだって事になって、アルカードの国自体の信用が落ちる事になる......それを見たら、今度はカーラリアの側から、アルカードを攻めて領土を拡大しようなんて言い出す人が出て来ても可笑しくない――アルカードの民もそれを望んでいる......! なんて言ってね」「そんな、あたし達そんなつもりじゃないのに――」「だけど、そうね――イングリスの言う通り、そういう事もあるかも知れないわね」「ですがそれは、今に限った事では無いのではありませんか? 元々そういう事だと言うだけで――」「うん。だから、ここからはラティが表に出る必要があるよ。ラティがカーラリアの騎士の協力を取り付けてリックレアを落としたっていう形にすれば、手柄はラティのものになって、住民の人達の気持ちはアルカードからは離れないから」「それならそうすればいいだけじゃない。何か問題あるの?」「そうなると、皆ラティに感謝するよ。救国の英雄ってやつ。そこからは――逆に言うと、もう逃げられないよ? 必ず、ラティに国王陛下になって欲しいって話になる。それを回避しようと思うなら、ラティのお父さん――アルカード王に話を通して、別の人を立ててもらって、その人に前面に立ってもらえばよかったんだけど......今のままなら、強制的にラティが立つしかなくなるよ?」それに、アルカード王と話をつける前に独断でそれをやってしまったら、完全にラティ一人の手柄になる。そうすると、アルカード王の立場も危険だ。つまり――心情的に早くプラムを助けたいのは分かるが、政治的な環境整備――根回しや調整というものも重要で、今はその点で重要な岐路に立っているのだ。	「How is it?!」 Leone and Liselotte shook their heads in response to Rafinha’s question. 「Not here! I can’t find any clue either, nothing!」「Same here. I couldn’t spot anything off the mark.」 Inglis also reported what she had investigated. As far as they could ascertain, there was nothing wrong with the cargo of their Flygear Carrier or the Flygears stationed on the hull, nor were there any tracks leading out of the town. 「What the hell is happening! So they vanished without any sign of leaving at all?!!」 If they didn’t leave on foot nor used Flygears but other means of transportation, that means... 「The most likely scenario is that......someone from outside with their own means of transportation came and took the two away!」 Inglis couldn’t say for sure, but Leone was probably correct. That said, it was hard to tell whether Ian was also a victim who only got involved or not as there was a real possibility that he might have helped the outsider. 「If they’re from outside the town and did something like that...」「......If you think that way, the only one that pops up in mind is......」「...Hallim!」 An obvious answer. With the way Alucard was at the moment, Hallim’s was the only force that was hostile to Inglis and her platoon. The Ironblood Chain Brigade hadn’t made an appearance so far whilst Alucard’s official army was gathering near the border to Charalia. The only people that recognized Inglis and her platoon as a threat were probably Tiffany the Hyrule Menace and her faction of Highlanders. 「But, Pullum shouldn’t have met Hallim......」 Lahti was right. Pullum was hiding to avoid being seen when their group encountered Hallim. 「Which means...」 Therefore, it was only reasonable to speculate that Ian, whom they couldn’t locate, be the one who guided Hallim to Pullum. 「......We still can’t say that for now. Perhaps Hallim saw her from somewhere in the sky, or maybe he heard about her from the other Highlanders that we fought in the towns on our way here. It’s still too soon to decide. Isn’t it possible that Ian was trying to protect Pullum, which is why he went with her?」 It was Rafinha who said that. She must still want to believe in Ian despite the situation. 「......You’re right, Rafinha. Besides, all we have to think now is how to find Pullum and rescue her ASAP.」 Leone prompted with a nod. 「With this, our next destination is now reduced to one...」 Of course, that would be where Tiffany’s faction made their base. Which is... 「......Lekrea. Nowhere else.」「We have been torn between the Capital and Lekrea all this time, but...now it’s settled.」「Yeah! We should hurry and head to Lekrea!」「Let’s! Come on, we’re departing now!」 Inglis, who had been watching over the flow of the conversation up to this point, opened her mouth. 「Hold on, if we’re going there, there is something that needs to be considered carefully first!」「GLIS~ Please don’t tell me you’re going to say you still want to go to the capital first. You are not, right? Look at the situation. If you’re still going to say you want to have a lot of fights or play around in Ebel’s research facility or any other nonsensical stuff, I’m going to get angry, you know?」 Rafinha said while staring daggers at her. 「No, I don’t think you can call it nonsense......anyway, putting that aside, there is still something that needs to be considered carefully first, by Lahti.」 Saying so, Inglis looked at Lahti. 「Eh? Me?」「Yeah. Say we are going to Lekrea now. First, a battle will be inevitable. Now, say we managed to defeat our opponents, save Pullum, and free the townspeople, wouldn’t that be a huge credit for us?」「Isn’t that good then? What’s the problem with it?」 Rafinha craned her neck. 「Such a huge credit falling on us, Knights of Charalia. The impact will be huge later down the road. In the eyes of the residents of Alucard, it would mean that it was Charalia who helped them in their time of need while their own country, Alucard, would be discredited for staying silent...... And seeing that rise of favor towards Charalia, it wouldn’t be surprising if someone from Charalia would start raising voices about expanding its territory while saying “That’s what the Alucardians want” to justify their cause.」「No way, we never intended something like that!」「Still...Inglis is correct. It sounds plausible.」「But, that is not what is happening right now, is it? Although, the current situation is just as convoluted...」「Yes. That is why I think we need to advertise Lahti from now on. If we make it look like it’s Lahti who brought down Lekrea with the aid of Charalian Knights, all the credit will go to Lahti and the people’s favor will stay with Alucard.」「Then we can just do that. What’s the problem with it?」「If we do that, everyone’s gratitude will be directed to Lahti. He’ll be labeled as the Hero and the Savior of the Kingdom. And once that happens, conversely speaking, that means Lahti will no longer be able to escape, you know? It is guaranteed that it will come down to the people wishing to nominate Lahti as their King. Although, if we wanted to avoid this from happening at all, we need to go and talk to Lahti’s Father, the King of Alucard and ask him to appoint someone else to lead the sortie, but......if we continue our way to Lekrea right now, Lahti, you will have no other choice but to stand in the front, you know?」 Moreover, if they did it before they consulted the King of Alucard, that would mean Lahti would take full credits for everything. That would jeopardize the King’s position as a ruler. He would be perceived as a King who did nothing in times of crisis. Even if Lahti had no intention of toppling his father whatsoever, some radicals might attack the King in order to put Lahti on the throne. In other words, while their emotional need to save Pullum as soon as possible was understandable, there was the political environment, namely work behind the scenes, coordination of manpower, and many others that needed to be considered. Right now, they stood at the literal and metaphorical junction of it. This, without doubt, would greatly affect Lahti’s future life.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 2, "inserted_lines_src": 22, "inserted_lines_trg": 0 }
暗号舞踏人の謎ホームズは全く黙りこんだまま、その脊の高い痩せた身体を猫脊にして、何時間も化学実験室に向っていた。そこからは頻りに、いやな悪臭がただよって来る、 ――彼の頭は胸に深くちぢこめられて、その恰好は、鈍い灰色の羽毛の、黒い鳥冠(とさか)の奇妙な鳥のようにも見えた。「そこで、ワトソン君、――」彼は突然に口を開いた。「君は南アフリカのある投資事業に、投資することは、思い止まってしまったのだね」私はサッと驚かされてしまった。私は彼の不思議な直覚力と云ったようなものには、毎度のことでよく慣れていたが、しかしこの私の胸中の、秘中の秘事にずばりっと図星を指されたのには、全くあきれ返ってしまった。「一たい君は、どうしてその事を知っていたのだね?」私は訊き返した。「さあワトソン君、ぐうの音が出まいがね」「いや、全くその通りだ」「それではね君、とにかくきれいに参ったと云う一札(いっさつ)を入れたまえ」「それはまたどうしてさ?」「いや、実はもう五分の後には、君はきっと、それは馬鹿馬鹿しくわかり切ったことだと云うに相違ないからだよ」「いやいや、僕は決して、そんなことは云わないよ」「ワトソン君、それでは御説明に及ぶとしようかね」ホームズは試験管を架にかけて、教授が講堂で、学生たちに講義でもする時のような恰好で話し出した。「先人の研究材料を基本として、それを単純化して、推論の系統を立てると云うことは、決してそう難しいことでもないのだ。そしてもしこう云う試(こころみ)をして、誰かが中心思潮となっている論説を覆して、更にその聴衆に、新(あらた)な出発点と結論とを与えたら、それはたしかに、キザたっぷりなことではあるが、しかし一つの驚歎すべき結果をもたらしたと云ってよかろう。さて、君の左の人差し指と拇指(おやゆび)の間の皮膚の筋を見て、君が採金地の株を買わなかったと云うことが、あまり首をひねりまわさない中(うち)に解ったと云うわけさ」「どうも僕には何の事か解らないね」「いや誠に御もっとも至極 ――しかしこれはごく手短に説明することが出来るんだ。ここにそれぞれ取り外れていた、鎖の輪があるからね。第一には、君が昨夜倶楽部(くらぶ)から帰って来た時は、君の左の手の指のあたりに、白いチョークがついていたこと。第二には、君が玉を突く時は棒(キュー)の辷(すべ)りをよくするために、チョークをつける習慣のあること。第三には、君はサーストン氏との外(ほか)には、決して玉を突かないこと、 ――第四には君が四週間前に、サーストン氏は、南アフリカの採金地の株式募集をやっているが、その締切りまでは一ヶ月あるので、君にも加入してくれと云って来たと話したことのあったこと、 ――第五には、君の小切手帳は、僕の抽斗(ひきだし)に入って錠が下りているが、しかし君はその鍵を決して僕に請求しなかったこと、 ――第六には、君がこのようにして、この株式に申込をしなかったと云うこと、――」「ははははははは、何と云う馬鹿馬鹿しく解り切ったことだ!」私は叫んだ。「全くその通りさ」彼はちょっと不気嫌になって云った。「どんな問題でも、一通りわかってしまうと君には皆小供だましのように解り切ったものになってしまうのだ。ではここに未解決の問題があるが、ワトソン君、これには君はどう云う解釈を与えるね?」彼は一枚の紙を机の上に放り出して、また化学の分析の方に向き直った。私はそれを見て驚いてしまった。それは、何かの符牒の文字のようなものであった。「何んだ、――これは小供の絵ではないか――ホームズ君!」私は叫んだ。「ははははははは、そんなものに見えるのかね!」「じゃ何なんだね?」「これは、ノーフォークのリドリング公領[#「リドリング公領」は底本では「リドリユグ公領」]のヒルトン・キューピット氏が、しきりに知りたがっていることなんだがね。この謎のような問題は、第一回の郵便配達で来て、その人は二番列車でその後から来ることになっているのだ。ベルが鳴っているが、あるいはその人かもしれない――」脊の高い、血色のよい、綺麗に剃(あ)てられた紳士で、その澄んだ目、輝く頬、――と、ベーカー街の霧の中からは遥に離れた処に生活している人に相違ないと思われた。彼が室(へや)の中に入って来た時に、どこか強健なきびきびしたような、東海岸独特の香(におい)が、ただよって来るようであった。彼は我々二人と握手を交わして、さて腰かけようとした時に、私が見て机の上に置いてあった、不思議な記号のようなものに目を止めた。「ああホームズさん、 ――これをどう云う風にお考えになりましたか?」彼は叫んだ。「あなたは大変、奇妙な神秘的なことをお好きでいらっしゃるそうですが、しかしこれはまた一段と、奇妙不可思議なものでしょう。私はあなたが、私が来る前に研究しておかれるようにと思って、前もってお送りしたわけです」「これはたしかに奇妙なものですな」ホームズは云った。「ちょっと見れば、子供の悪戯画(いたずらがき)のようにも思われるし、また、紙の上を踊りながらゆく、でたらめな小さな姿の、絵のようでもありますね。一たいこんな変な、得体の知れないものに、どうしてそんな勿体振った意味をつけようと仰有るのですか?」「いや、私は決してそう云うつもりではないのですが、ただ私の妻が大変なのです。実は妻が全く気絶するほど、これに驚かされたのです。彼の女は何にも云いませんが、しかし私はその目の中に、非常な驚怖(きょうふ)を見て取りました。それでそれを穿鑿(せんさく)してみたいと思ったわけです」ホームズは紙片を取り上げて、太陽の光線をその上に直射せしめた。その紙片は、ノートブックから離し取ったもので、鉛筆で次のような象形(かたち)が画かれてあった。ホームズはしばらくの間、それを検(しら)べていたが、やがて、叮嚀(ていねい)に折りたたんで、自分の手帳の間にはさんだ。「これはとても面白い、稀有の事件かもしれない」彼は云った。「ヒルトン・キューピットさん、あなたはお手紙の中(うち)では、二三具体的なことを書かれてありましたが、しかしこの友人のワトソン博士のために、もう一度一通りお話し下さいませんか」「どうも私は説明は拙劣(まず)いのですが、――」我等の訪客は、その大きな強い手を、組んだり放したり、もじもじさせながら、神経質に語り出した。「いずれお解りにならないところは、そちらの方からお訊ね下さい、 ――私は去年、結婚した時のことから申しますが、まずその前にお耳に入れておきたいことは、私の家は、決して金持ではありませんが、ここ約五世紀の間は、現在のリドリング村に住んでいて、ノーフォーク地方では、第一の旧家だと云うことです。去年の五十年祭には私はロンドンに来て、ランセル街の宿泊所に滞在しました。それは私の教区の牧師の、パーカーさんが滞在していた関係から、そこを選んだのでした。そうするとそこに、亜米利加(アメリカ)の若い婦人が居たのでした。パートリックと云う名前で ――すなわちエルシー・パートリックと云う女でしたが、 ――ふとした機会から、私共は友人になってしまいましたが、その滞在中に私は、遂に男性並々に、その女と恋愛関係に陥ってしまったのでした。それで私共は早速結婚の手続をすまし、夫婦としてノーフォークに帰って来ました。とにかく少しは知られている旧家の人間が、こんな風にして、全くその身元調査もろくろくしないで、結婚してしまうなどということは、とても乱暴なことと思われるでしょうが、しかしそのことは、私の妻を御覧下されて、彼の女を知って下されば、お解りになると思われますが、 ――とにかく彼の女は、――エルシーは卒直でした。もし私が訊ねさえしたら、何もかも隠さずに云ってくれたと思っています。「わたしにはとても厭な思い出がありますのよ」こう云って彼の女は語るのでした。「わたしはそれをどうにかして忘れてしまいたいと思いますわ。わたしはもう一切それには触れたくはありませんの。ヒルトンさん、あなたがもしわたしを求めて下さるなら、そりゃ過去において一点の曇もない女性を得ることになると申しますが、しかしいずれあなたは、わたしの言葉を全部信じて下さって、わたしの過去については、何にも訊ねないと云うことを約束して下さい。それでこのお約束が無理だと仰有るのでしたら、どうぞわたしをこのままのこしてノーフォークにお帰り下さい」と、これは私達の結婚の前日に、彼の女が私に云った言葉でした。それで私は彼の女の言葉をそのまま容れて、その後もこの約束をかたく守って来たのでした。そしてその後私共は、この一年の間、結婚生活をつづけて来ましたが、私共は実に幸福でした。しかしほぼ一ヶ月前、――六月の末頃に、私は始めて煩累(わざわい)の兆を見たのでした。その頃妻は亜米利加(アメリカ)の消印のある手紙を受け取ったのでしたが、その時彼の女の顔は気絶しないばかりに蒼白になり、手紙を読んでから、それを火の中に投げこんでしまったのでした。その後は別に彼の女はそれについて何も云いませんでしたし、私もまた約束にしたがって、そのことについては一言も触れませんでした。しかし彼の女は、それ以来はずっと、一つの不安にとざされていて、とかく顔色が浮かなくなり、何ごとかにビクビクしているようでした。まあ俺を信ずるがよい。俺こそは彼の女の、最もよい伴侶なのだ。しかし彼の女が云い出すまでは、私は切り出すことは出来ません。しかしホームズさん、くれぐれもお含みを願いたいのですが、彼の女はたしかに真実な女性で、もし彼の女の過去に、何か難題のようなものがあるとしても、それは彼の女の欠点ではないと思うのです。私はただノーフォークの田舎者にすぎないのですが、しかしそれでも、英国では第一流の旧家であると云うことは、彼の女はよく知っており、また結婚前からも認めていましたから、まさか彼の女は、その私の家名を汚すようなことは、万々(ばんばん)無いと私は確信するのです。さていよいよこれから、私の話は、奇怪な部分に進みますが、一週間ばかり前、―― そうです先週の火曜日でした。私は窓硝子の上に、この紙に画いてあるような、出鱈目(でたらめ)な小さな、踊っているような姿が、画かれてあるのを発見したのでした。それは白墨でいたずら画きしたものでしたが、私は厩(うまや)番の少年がかいたのだろうと思いました、その若者は、全く知らないと云いはるのでした。とにかくそれは夜かかれたものでしたが、私はそれを洗い落してから、このことを妻に話しました。ところが驚いたことには、妻はそんなものを大変重大視して、もしまた画かれたら、ぜひ見たいと云うのでした。それから、一週間の間は、そんなものは画かれませんでしたが、ちょうど昨日の朝、またまた私は、庭園の日時計の上に、この紙片がおかれてあるのを見つけたのでした。私はそれをエルシーに見せましたら、彼の女は気絶して倒れてしまったのでした。それ以来彼の女は、全く茫然としてしまって、いつも恐怖にとりつかれた目色をしているのです。それでその時に私は、この紙片をあなたにお送りして、手紙をさし上げた次第でした。これはまさか警察に訴えても、ただ笑いものにされて、取りあってくれますまいし、あなたでしたら何とか方法を教えて下さるだろうと考えたのでした。私は決して金持ではありませんが、しかし何か私の妻を悩ましているものがあるとしたら、私は彼女を全財産を賭しても、保護してやりたいと思うのですが――」古いイギリスっ児のこの人間は、単純で卒直で、目は大きく熱意のこもった、堂々たる風貌の紳士であった。彼がその妻に対する愛情と信実は、外部にまで溢れ出ていた。ホームズは全注意を集めて、この話を聞いていたが、この話が終ると、しばしの間は、静(じ)っと沈黙したまま思案に沈んだ。「いや、キューピットさん、――」彼はようやく口を開いた。「これはやはり、あなたが直接に奥さんにお訊ねになって、あなたに対して秘(かく)されていたことを、話してもらうのが一番早道ではないかと思われますがね」ヒルトン・キューピットはしかし、その大きな頭を振った。「ホームズさん、約束はどこまでも約束ですからね。もしエルシーが、話していいと思うくらいでしたら、彼から話してくれるでしょう。そしてまたもし話したくないことでしたら、私は彼の女に対して強要はしたくはありません。しかしそれと離れても、私には私で取るべき道はあるはずです。そしてそれを私は大(おおい)にやろうと思うのです」「いや、そう云うのでしたら、私も全力をつくして御相談に与(あずか)りましょう。まずお訊ねしますが、この頃からあなたの御近所に、新に来た者があるようなことはお聞きになりませんか?」「いえ」「大変閑静なところだろうと思われますが、新顔などが現われて、人々の噂に上るようなことがありますか?」「えい、そうそうごく近所にありました。しかし私共の近所には、湯治場(とうじば)があるので、よく田舎者共が宿をとります」「この象形文字は、たしかに意味がありましょう。もし全く出鱈目なものだとすれば、それはもうとても解釈が出来ませんが、しかしこれが組織的なものだとすれば、きっとどうにかして解くことが出来ますよ。しかし何しろこれはひどく短いもので、どうにも仕様が無いし、またあなたが持って来られた事柄も、はなはだ漠然としたことで、考査の基本にはなりませんからね。やはりこれはあなたが、一度ノーフォークにお帰りになって、注意深く監視をして、もう一度この踊り人の姿が現われた時に、正しく写し取った方がいいと思いますがね。先に窓硝子に画かれたものの写しを、見ることの出来ないのははなはだ遺憾ですが、いずれ近所に最近に現われた者に対しても、慎重の注意を向けなさい。そして新な証拠が得られたら、またお出で下さい。これがもうあなたに対しての、僕の最善のお答えです。それでヒルトン・キューピットさん、もし何か新な展開がありましたら、その時は私はいつでも早速出発して、ノーフォークのお宅でお目にかかりましょう」この会見の後、シャーロック・ホームズは、しっかり考えこんでしまった。そしてこの後二三日の間、彼はたびたび手帳から、例の記号の画かれてある紙片を取り出しては、長いこと熱心に見つめているのであった。その後二週間ばかりの間、彼はそのことを、(おくび)にも出さなかったが、ふとある日の午後、私が外出しようとしているところを呼び止めた。「ワトソン君、出ないでいる方がよかろうと思われるんだがね」「なぜ?」「今朝ヒルトン・キューピットから電報が来たのだ。そらあの舞踏人形のヒルトン・キューピットを知っているだろう。彼は一時二十分にリバプール街に着くと云っているのだ。で、もうやがてここに見えるだろうと思うのさ。その電報を綜合すると、どうも何か重大な新らしい出来事があったように思われるのだ」やがてまもなく、二輪馬車が全速力で、停車場から我等のノーフォークの紳士を乗せて、来たのであった。大変悩み衰えているらしく、目は疲れており、額には皺を寄せていた。「これには全く、すっかり弱らされてしまいました、ホームズさん、――」彼は半病人のように、腕椅子にもたれ寄りながら云った。「どうでしょう、――自分の周囲に未知の未見の人間が、何か策動していて、しかもその上に妻がもう一寸刻みに、殺されてゆくと考えては、とても我慢が出来ませんでしょう? いやこれこそ全く生きた気持はありませんよ。いや私の妻は刻々に、弱っていきます。もう刻々に弱って私の前から消えてしまいそうなんです」「奥さんは何も仰有いませんか?」「いえ、何も云いません。しかし彼の女は、云おうとしたこともあったようでしたが、やはり遂に云い出し得ませんでした。私は妻を助けようとしました。しかし私はまずかったので結局彼の女を怖れすくませてしまうだけでした。彼の女は私の古い家庭のこと、私の家庭の地方においての名聞、またその汚れない名誉と云ったようなものについて、言葉を触れさせることもありましたが、その時は私は、いよいよ大切な要点にゆくのだと思うと、もうその中(うち)に、話は外(よそ)に外(そ)れてしまうのでした」「しかしあなた御自分で、気のついたものはありませんでしたか?」「いやホームズさん、それはたくさんあります、私はぜひあなたにお目にかけたい、新な舞踏人の絵を持って来ました。そして更に重大なことは、私はある者を見たのです」「ある者を、――それはその絵を画いた当人ですか?」「そうです。私はその者が画いているところを見ました。いやとにかく、最初こう順序を立てて申しましょう。私がこの前にお訪ねして帰ってからまず、次の朝に新な舞踏人の絵を見たのでした。それは芝生の横にある、物置の真黒い扉の上に、白墨で画かれたものでしたが、私のところの正面の窓から目に止まったのでした。私はそれを正確に写し取って来ましたが、これがそれです」彼は一枚の紙をひろげて、テーブルの上に置いた。それは次の図のような、象形記号と云ったようなものであった。ホームズは云った。「私がそれを写し取ってしまってから、その絵を消してしまいましたが、その次の次の朝に、また別のが画かれてありました。それがこの方です」ホームズは、手をもじゃもじゃさせ、歓喜の微笑をもらした。「材料は着々と集まって来るぞ!」彼は云った。「それから三日の後、紙の上に走りがきされた、一枚の通牒(メッセージ)が日時計の上の、小石の下に置かれてありました。それはこれです。御覧の通り、これはすべて同一人のものですがね。それでこの後は私は、一つ待ち伏せしてやろうと思い立って、拳銃(ピストル)を持って、私の書斎に位置を取り、芝生や庭を見張りました。午前二時頃、――私が窓際に腰かけていましたが、外は月夜で仄(ほの)あかるかったがしかし、その外はもちろん暗闇でした。その時私はふと後に、人の気配を感じたと思うと、それは寝巻姿の妻でした。彼の女は私に、寝室に帰るようにと云いましたが、私は卒直に、私たちに馬鹿気たいたずらをする者を突き止めようと思うのだと告げました。そうすると妻は、それはつまらない悪戯に相違ないのだから、私に深く気に止めないようにと云うのでした。と云う風に云うのでした。私はこう答えました。でもとにかく寝室にいらっしゃいよ。朝になってからよくお話が出来るじゃありませんか」しかし彼の女はこう云うと共に、彼の女の白い顔は、それは月光の中としても、あまりに白いと思われるように、蒼白になって来て、手を私の肩にしっかりとかけました。その時に物置小屋の蔭の中に、何か動いているのに目が止まりました。何かいっそう黒い影が、その蔭の角(すみ)のところを這いまわって、戸口の前に跼(うずく)まったのでした。私はやにわに、ピストルを持って飛び出そうとすると、妻は両腕でしっかりと私を抱き止めて、顫(ふる)えるような力で押えるのでした。私は妻を振り放そうとしましたが、彼の女は全く必死でした。私はやっと振り払って、外に出てその物置へ行った時は、もうその姿は見えませんでした。しかしたしかにその者は来た形跡はあって、扉(と)の上には例の舞踏人姿の画(え)がかかれてありました。それは以前に二度かかれたものと同じものですが、その写しはこれです。それから私は周囲を残る隈なく探しましたが、もうその他には何の痕跡もありませんでした。しかしそれから更に驚いたことには、その者はその後も現われたらしく、翌朝になって私は、例の扉(と)の上を見ましたら、私が前夜見ておいたものの下に、更に新らしいのが画かれてありました」「その新らしいのも写し取りましたか?」「えい、とても短いものですが、これです」彼は更に新らしい紙片を取り出した。その新らしい舞踏人姿は次のようなものであった。「いや、ちょっと――」ホームズは云った。彼は非常に気乗りがして来たらしかった。「これは最初ののに、ただ附けたしに画かれてありましたか、それとも全く別のものに離して画かれてありましたか?」「これは扉(と)の別の鏡板(かがみいた)にかかれてありました」「素敵だ! これは我々にとっては、最も重要なものだ。これではなはだ有望になった。さてヒルトン・キューピットさん、とても面白いですが、その先を云って下さい」「ホームズさん、もう何も云うことはないのですが、 ――ただ私は、その夜妻が、私が悪漢をつかまえるために、飛び出るのを引き止めたことについて怒りました。そうすると妻は、私が怪我をしてはいけないと思ったからと云いわけするのでした。しばしの間は私に、妻はその者の何者であるかを知っていて、またその変な相図もわかっていて、彼の女の案じているのは、私ではなく、向うの者の怪我であると云うことが、閃きましたが、しかしまたよく考え直してみると、ホームズさん、彼の女の声の調子にも、また目の色にも、この疑念をかき消させるものがありました。それで私はやはり、彼の女が本当に心配したのは、私自身の身であったのだと考えるのです。これでもう話は終りました、が、さてどうすればよろしいのか、これに対する方法を教えていただきたいのですが。 ――まあ私の考えとしては、百姓の若者共を五六人も待ち伏せさせておいて、その者が出て来た時に、したたか打ちのめして、以後私共に近寄れないようにしようかとも思っていますが、――」「いや、そんな簡単なことで、収(おさま)りのつくことではないでしょう」ホームズは云った。「一たいあなたはどのくらい、ロンドンに滞在することが出来ますか?」「私は今日中には、帰宅しなければなりません。私はどんなことがあっても、妻を一人で夜を暮させることは出来ません。彼の女はもう非常に神経質になっていて、どうしても僕に帰宅するようにと云うのです」「いや、それは御もっともです。しかしもしあなたが、滞在しておられるなら、一両日中にはあなたと一緒に出かけることが出来ると思いますが、 ――とにかく、この紙は置いて行って下さい。私はごく最近にお訪ねして、この事件に対しては、多少の吉報を齎(もたら)すことが出来ると思いますから、――」シャーロック・ホームズは、この訪客が立ち去るまでは、いかにもその職業的な、冷静を保っていたが、しかし彼の容子を見なれている私には、彼は内面では、ひどく昂奮(こうふん)しているに相違なかった。ヒルトン・キューピットの広い脊中が、扉(ドア)の外に見えなくなるや否や、彼は机の上に走り寄って例の舞踏人画の紙を取り出して並べて、とても大変なこみ入った計算を始めた。二時間ばかりの間、――彼は何枚も何枚も、数字と文字を書いては、その仕事に没頭した。全く私がその室(へや)にいるのさえも忘れて、一生懸命に続けた。ある時は多少に仕事が進むもののように、口笛を吹いたり歌ったりし、またやがては、全くその長い謎に閉口してしまったように、額をすくめ目を茫然とさせていた。それから遂に彼は思わずも歓喜の声を上げながら起ち上って、盛んに手をもじもじさせながら室(へや)の中をぶらぶらと歩き出した。それから海底電信機式に、長い電報をかいた。「もしこの返事が、僕の注文通りのものだったらワトソン君、――君の蒐集(しゅうしゅう)の中に、また実に素晴らしいものを加えることが出来るんだがね」彼は云った。「明日は我々はノーフォークに行って、あの人間が苦しんでいる秘密事に、決定的な新な展開を与えることが出来そうだ」私はとても好奇心をそそられてしまった、しかしまた私は、彼はいつも自分の方から、いい時を見計らって話してくれることはよく知っているので、私の方から訊ねることはしなかった。しかしその返電はなかなか来なかった。二日は空しく過ぎてしまった。しかしその二日目の夕方、やっとヒルトン・キューピットから、一通の手紙が来た。その手紙によれば、ヒルトン・キューピットの身辺は、その後は静穏であったが、しかしその朝、またまた、日時計の上に、長いものを画いたものが乗っていたので、その写しをとって送ってよこしたのであった。それは次のようなものであった。ホームズは数分間の間、――この奇怪な帯模様の絵に見入っていたが、突然、驚愕と困迷の声を上げて起ち上った。その顔は不安のために全く色を失っていた。「これはうっかりしてしまったかもしれない!」彼は云った。「今夜これから、北ワルシャムに行く汽車があるかね?」私は時間表をくってみた。ちょうど最終列車が出たばかりのところであった。「じゃ仕方がない。 ――あしたの朝早く朝食をすまして、一番列車に乗ろう」ホームズは云った。「俺たちは出来るだけ早くゆかなければならない。これがすなわち待ち設けた海底電信なのだ。ちょっとハドソン夫人、また返事がいるかもしれませんが、 ――いやこれでよい、これでよい。この通信が手に入った以上は、いよいよ遅れてはならない。一時も早く、ヒルトン・キューピットに、この事を知らせてやらなければならない。これがすなわちあのノーフォークの先生を悩ましている、蜘蛛の網だからね」たしかに着々とその通りに進んだ。私はその話を一時は子供威しと思ったのであったが、しかしその暗澹(あんたん)たる真相を知るにつれて、私はその後感じさせられた気味悪さを、今更にまた深く感じさせられた。私は読者諸君には、どうにかしていい話をきかせたいと思うのであるが、しかし事実はこうであったのだ。私はこのリドリング地方と云う名前が、僕が数日の間に、全英国の人口に膾炙(かいしゃ)した言葉となってしまった物語を、そのままここに述べてみることとする。私たちが北ワルシャムに着いて下車して、我々の行先を云うや否や、駅長が我々の前に走って来た。「あなた方はロンドンからお出でになった、探偵の方々でいらっしゃいますか?」ホームズの面上には、当惑の色が現われ出た。「どうしてそう思うのです?」「いえ実はじき今し方、検察官のマーチンさんが、ノーアウィッチから来て、ここを通過して行ったばかりなのです。しかしあるいはあなた方は、外科医でいらっしゃるかもしれない。 ――彼の女はまだ死にませんよ。いやさっききいた容子では、たしかにまだ死なないとのことでしたがね。あなた方は間に合うでしょう。 ――もっともどうせ絞首台にゆくことですがね」ホームズの顔はすっかり不安に蔽(おお)われてしまった。彼は云った。「それはなかなか大変なことですな」駅長は云った。「ヒルトン・キューピット夫妻は、どちらも撃たれたのだそうです。召使の者の云うには、まず夫人が檀那(だんな)さんを撃って、それから自分も撃ったのだそうですがね。それで檀那さんの方はもう事切れてしまい、夫人の方は虫の息ですって、―― どうも全く、あたら名門の末を本当に、――」ホームズは一語も発せず、馬車に大急ぎで乗り、それから七哩(まいる)以上の道のりを、全く黙し切ったままであった。私は実際この時ほど、ホームズが落胆している様子を、そうたびたび見たことはない。彼は町から以来と云うものは、全く不安に塞(とざ)されたままで、ただ凝(じっ)と朝刊に、不安な目を向けているだけであった。そして結局、最も悪い結果の予想が、俄然はっきりしてしまってからは、彼はもう救うべからざる憂欝に陥ってしまったのであった。彼は坐席に凭(もた)れて、沈思のために全く茫然自失の容子であった。しかしもちろん我々の馬車の両側には、とても興味ある眺望があったのであった。すなわち我々の馬車の両側には、英国の特有の田園が展開し、方々に散在している田舎家は、今日の殷盛な人口を思わせ、またあっちにもこっちにも、大きな四角な塔の教会が、平原の地平線の上に屹立(きつりつ)し、緑の濃い風景、――と、昔の東部アングリアの、光栄と殷盛を想わしめるものであった。その中(うち)に遂に、菫色(すみれいろ)の独逸(ドイツ)海の海面が、ノーフォークの海岸の緑の縁を越して現われた。それから馭者(ぎょしゃ)は、茂った樹木の間からそびえ立っている煉瓦と木材の破風を、鞭で指しながら「あれがリドリング村です」と云った。私たちが玄関の戸口に乗りつけると、その前面は、テニスコートの横であったが、黒い戸の建物と、台の上に乗っている日時計が目に止まった。これ等については私たちは、もちろん不思議な連想を持っているのである。一人の気のきいたような小さな男が、蝋(ろう)を塗ったような髭をしていたが、二輪馬車から敏捷な容子で下り立った。その男は、自分自身で、ノーフォーク警察の、検察官マーティンであると云って紹介して来たが、私の友人の名前を聞いた時は、かなり驚いた様子であった。「これはまた、ホームズ先生、 ――犯罪は今朝の三時に行われたばかりなのですが、ロンドンで、どうしてこんなに早くお聞きになったのですか? 私と同時にこの現場にお出でになると云うことには全く驚きました」「私はこのことを予想したのでした。実はそれを防止するためにやって来たのでしたが」「それではあなたは、われわれの知らない、重大な証拠をお持ちになっていられるでしょう、 ――彼らは大変琴瑟相和(きんひつあいわ)した夫婦だったと云うことですがね、――」「私はただあの舞踏人の話を知っているだけなんですが、――」ホームズは云った。「いずれ後刻、そのことはお話しましょう。いずれにしても、もう手遅れしてしまいましたが、しかし僕は、多少持ち合せている智識を、この事件の解決のために、出来るだけ提供し、利用したい希望なのですが、あなたはこの事件の調査については、私と協同して下さいますか、、またそれとも別々に行動しましょうか?」「いえホームズ先生、協力してやらせて下されば光栄の至りですが、――」その検察官は熱意をこめて云った。「では早速証拠を持ち寄り合って、時を移さずこの邸内の調査を始めようではないですか、――」検察官のマーティンは私の友人に大変好意を持っていて、私の友人を自由に活動させて、ただその結果を注意深く見ているだけであった。白髪の老田舎外科医が、ヒルトン・キューピット夫人の診察に来ていたが、その話に因れば、彼の女の傷は重傷ではあったが、しかし命には差支えがなかろうと云うことであった。弾丸(たま)は彼の女の前額を貫通していたが、たぶん彼の女はしばらくの間は、意識を失ったに相違なかった。彼の女が撃たれたのであるのか、それとも自分から自分を撃ったのであるかと云うことについては、彼の女は決して口を開かなかった。そしてそれは疑もなく、ごく近距離から発射されたものに相違なかった。室の中に一挺(ちょう)のピストルっきり見出されなかったが、しかし薬莢(やくきょう)は、二つ空になっていた。ヒルトン・キューピット氏は、心臓を打ちぬかれていた。そのただ一挺のピストルは、二人のちょうど中間の床の上に落ちてあったが、したがってこれは、ヒルトン・キューピットがその妻を撃ってから、自分自身を撃ったのか、それとも妻の方が先に夫を撃って自分を撃ったのか、いずれとも考え迷われることであった。「ヒルトン・キューピットさんは動かされましたか?」ホームズは訊ねた。「いいえ、奥さんの外(ほか)は、何も動かしません。怪我をしている者だけは、そのまま床の上に放っておくわけにはゆきませんからな」「あなたはいつ頃ここに来られました?」「四時でした」「外に誰かいましたか?」「巡査が来ています」「では何にも手を触れないわけですな?」「えい、決して、――」「なかなか慎重におやりになりましたな。誰があなたをお迎えにゆきました?」「女中のサウンダーでした」「最初に見つけたのはその女だったのですか?」「その女とそれから、料理女(コック)のキングさんと云うのと二人だそうです」「その人たちはどこにいますか?」「たぶん台所にいるでしょう」「そう、それでは早速、その人たちからきいてみよう」樫の腰板の、高い窓のついた古い広間が、審理所にあてられた。ホームズは大きな古い型の椅子に腰かけて、古色蒼然とした顔から烱々(けいけい)とした眼光を輝かしていた。その目の中には、彼が依頼されながら、みすみす助ける機会を失ってしまった依頼者のために、見事に復讐してやるまでは、この事件に心身を賭してやるという決心の色が窺われた。小ざっぱりとした検察官のマーティン、灰色髭の老田舎医師、私自身、のろまなような田舎巡査とが、変な恰好のつかない一坐をつくった。その二人の女は、よく明瞭に話してくれた。その話に因ると、彼の女たちは爆音に目をさまさせられたのであったが、その時この爆音は、ものの一分も間があったろうか、すぐにきえたそうである。彼の女たちは室をとなり合せて、寝ていたのであったがキング女の方がサウンダー女の方に、驚いて飛びこんで行った。そして二人は一緒に階段を下りた。書斎の扉(ドア)は開いていて、テーブルの上には、ローソクがともっていた。そして彼の女たちの主人は、うつ伏せになって室の中央に斃(たお)れて、もう全く息は絶えており、夫人の方は窓近くに這い寄って、壁に頭を寄せかけていたが大変な負傷で、顔の半面は血まみれになっていて、もう何も云うことが出来ず、ただ呻吟(うめい)ていたそうである。室の中はもちろん、廊下も何も、火薬の煙と臭(におい)で一ぱいで、室の窓はたしかに閉められて、内側からは掛け金もかけられてあったと。二人の女どもはこの点については、とてもよくはっきりしていた。彼の女たちは早速、医者と駐在所に知らせた。それから馬丁と厩番の少年の手を藉(か)りて、夫人をその室に移したのであった。主人夫婦はたしかにその夜は寝室に入ったに相違なかった。婦人のほうは日常の着物を着ていたが、しかし主人の方は、寝衣(ドレッシングガウン)に、寛服(ナイトガウン)を重ねていたのであった。書斎の中は全く一物も動かされた形跡はなかった。その女たちの見て知っているところでは、その夫妻の間に、喧嘩と云ったようなもののあったためしも無いようであったと。とても仲のよい夫婦と見られていたのであった。以上のことは女中たちの陳述の大要であるが、検察官マーティンに答えた言葉では、扉(ドア)と云う扉(ドア)は全部、内部からしっかりと締め下されてあって、誰も家の中から遁げ出したはずはないと云うことであった。それからホームズの問いに対しては、彼の女たちは、一番上の自分たちの室を飛び出した時に、火薬の臭をかいだと云うのであった。「これはなかなか慎重にかからなければならない大問題ですな」ホームズは仕事仲間に云った。「さあ、それでは、一つ室の中を徹底的に調べてみようじゃないですか」書斎は小さな室であった。三方は書物を立て並べられ、書机(しょづくえ)は普通の窓に向って置かれ、そこから庭園は見渡されるのであった。まず我々は第一に、この不幸な田園紳士の死体を検べた。彼のがっかりした躯幹(くかん)は、室にさし渡しになって横たわっていた。着衣は大変乱れていたが、それはあるいは彼が眠ってるところから、飛び起きたのだろうと思われた。弾丸は前面から撃たれて、彼の心臓をやっつけたまま、体内に止まっていた。彼の死はたしかに即死で、しかももう苦痛さえも無いものであったろう。火薬の痕跡は、寝衣(ドレッシングガウン)にもまた手にもついてはいなかった。また田舎医師の言葉では、妻の方は顔には血がまみれていたが、しかし手には何にもついてはいなかったと云うことであった。「手に何にもついていなくっては、何にもならない、―― もっとももしついていたとすれば、もうそれで何もかも一目瞭然だけれど、――」ホームズは云った。「しかしもっとも実弾がうまく装填されておれば、何発でも何の痕跡ものこさずに、撃つことも出来ることは出来るのだが、―― さてもう、キューピット氏の死体は、動かしてもよろしいでしょう。それから先生(ドクトル)、夫人を撃った弾丸は、見つかりましょうか?」「何しろ非常な大手術をしなければなりませんな。しかし実弾は四発ありますから、二発で二人が撃たれ、弾丸の勘定はよく合いますがな」「そう思いますか?」ホームズは云った。「あなたはあのたしかに、窓の縁を射た弾丸も勘定に入れておられるでしょうな?」彼は突然振り返って、痩せた長い指で一点を指さした。なるほど、窓の下際から一吋(インチ)ばかり上の処を、見事に貫通した穴があった。「ああ!」検察官は歎声を上げた。「どうしてあんなものに目が止まったのですか?」「いや私は探していたのです」「これは怖ろしい!」田舎医者は云った。「いや確に仰せの通りに相違ありません。それでは、第三弾が発射されてるわけですから、第三者がいなければならないわけですな。しかしそうしたら、どんな者がここに現われて、そしてどうして遁げ出したのでしょう?」「そのことがすなわち、これからの我々の問題ですがね」シャーロック・ホームズが云った。「ね―― 検察官のマーティンさん、女中たちは室を出るや否や、火薬の臭がしたと云った時に私はそれはとても重要なことだと云ったでしょう?」「えい、たしかに仰有いました。しかし私は正直のところ、あまりそれに同感も感じていませんでした」「このことはつまり、発射された時には、室のドアも窓も開いていたのだと云うことを暗示しているのです。もしそうでないとしたら、そんなに早く、火薬の臭が家中に、ただよい渡るはずはないからね。それにはどうしても一陣の隙間風を必要とする。ドアも窓も、ほんのちょっとの間開かれたのだ」「それはどうして証明なさいますか?」「ローソクが傾いてへっていなかったから、――」「ああこれは敵(かな)わない!」検察官は叫んだ。「ああ、大したものだ!」「この悲劇の時は、窓は開いていたと云うことを認めてみると、この事件には第三者があって、その開いていた窓を通して、窓の外から射撃したに相違ないと云うことが考えられる。それからその者を撃った弾丸のどれかは窓縁に当ったに相違ない。私は見渡したら果して、弾痕があった!」「しかしそうしたとしたら、窓が閉められて、しかも内側からしっかりと締めつけられたのはどう云うわけでしょう?」「女と云うものは、本能的に窓を閉めて、しかも締めつけるものではないですかね。ああ、おやおや、 ――これは何だろう?」机の上に婦人の手提袋(ハンドバック)があった。気のきいた小さな、鰐皮のものであった。ホームズは中のものを取り出した。その中には、英蘭銀行の五十磅(ポンド)紙幣二十枚が、印度ゴムのバンドでしばられて入っていた外(ほか)、あとは何にもなかった。「これは法廷で必要だろうから、よく注意して保管しておくように」ホームズは中味をしっかりと入れて、その手提袋を、検察官に渡しながら云った。「さて今度はこの第三弾の正体をつき止めなければならないことになった、 ――もっともこれは木の裂け具合から見て、明かに内側から発射されたものだが、 ――さて料理女(コック)のキングさんにちょっとききたいが、あのキングさんあんたは、とても高い爆音に目をさまされたと云ったが、これは最初の一弾が、次の爆音よりも大きかったと云うことかね?」「はあ、左様でございます。わたしはその音で、目を醒ましたのでございましたが、どうもはっきりとはいたしませんが、とにかく大変大きな音でございました」「君は一度に二発うたれたのだと云うようには感ぜられなかったかね?」「さあ、それははっきりとは申し上げられないんでございますが――」「しかしそれはきっとそうだったろう。さて検察官のマーティンさん、もうこの室で調査することは、全く尽きてしまったと思われるが、何でしたら今度は庭の方を歩きまわって、新たな証拠をさがそうじゃないかね」書斎の窓の下からずっと、花壇になっていたが、我々はそこに近づいてみて、あっと驚かされてしまった。花は踏みにじられ、柔かな土の上には、足跡が一ぱいについていた。それは男性の大きな足跡で、特に足先が鋭く長い足のものであった。ホームズは草や木のあいだを、レトリーバー犬が傷ついた鳥を探すように、探しまわったが、遂に彼はひどく喜んだ叫びを上げて、身をこごめて、小さな真鍮(しんちゅう)の円筒を拾い上げた。彼は云った。「さあ検察官マーティンさん、これでもうほとんど、この事件も調査が出来上ったですな」この田舎検察官はしかし、ホームズのあまりに急速な、あまりにも鮮かな探査振りに、ただ驚歎の色を現わしているのであった。最初の中(うち)は多少は、自分自身の立場も、発揮したいような傾向も見えたが、しかし今はもうとても歯がたたないと観念して、ただホームズの為すままに、唯々諾々として、後からついて来るだけのことになってしまった。「犯人は誰でしょう?」彼は訊ねた。「いやその事はいずれ後にしましょう。実はこの問題には、まだあなたにはっきりと説明しかねることが二三点あるんですがね。とにかくここまで来たのですから、僕はこの上もひた押しに押し切った方がいいと思われるのです。それから全部を明瞭に発表しましょう」「犯人があがるまでは、ホームズ先生、あなたの御自由におやり下さい」「いや別に秘密主義でゆこうと云う意味でもないのですが、いずれ事件の進行中に、長い込み入った説明をすることは難かしいことですからね。まあ僕はこの事件のすべての鍵は持っています。もし夫人が遂に意識を回復しなくっても、この事件は明瞭にすることが出来ますよ。まず第一に、この近所に、エルライジと云う名前で通っている旅館があるかどうか、確かめたいものだがね」下僕の者共をよく審問してみたが、しかし誰もそんな旅館を知っているものはなかった。その中(うち)に厩番の少年が、この事に対して一条の光明を与えてくれた。それはここから東ラストンの方に、ちょっと離れているところに、こう云う名前の農夫のあることを思い出してくれたのであった。「そこはとても人里離れた農場かね?」「えい、とても寂しいところです」「どうだろう、 ――そこの人達は、まだここの事件について知らないだろうか?」「さあ、たぶんまだきこえてはいないだろうと思いますが、――」ホームズはしばらくの間、 ――静(じ)っと思案していたが、やがて小気味の悪い微笑をうかべた。「おい若者君、――馬の用意をしてくれたまえ。御苦労だがこの書付を、エルライジと云う人の農場に持って行ってもらいたいんだ」彼はポケットから、舞踏人のいろいろの紙片(かみきれ)を取り出した。そしてこれを前に並べて、机に向って何かやっていた。そして一枚の書付を少年に渡して、その書付をきっとこの宛名の人に手渡し、またどんな質問をされても、決して答えないようにと云うことを、くれぐれも云い含めた。その封筒の上の文字は、私の目に止まったが、ホームズの簡明な文字とは似も似つかず、苦心して手跡をかえたものであった。その宛名は、ノーフォーク、東ラストン・エルライジ農場、アベー・スラネー氏と云うのであった。「検察官――」ホームズは叫んだ。「護衛の者を派遣してもらうよう、打電した方がいいと思いますがね。もし僕の胸算用に誤りがないとすれば、あなたはとても危険な犯人を護送しなければならないことになるかもしれないと思われますよ。いやこの書付を持ってゆく子供は、きっとあなたに電報を打たせることになりますよ。さてワトソン君、もし午後の汽車があるなら、我々はそれに乗った方がよかろう。やってしまいたい、面白い化学の分析の仕事もあったし、またこの事件の方はもう、さっさと片づいてしまいそうだから――」その若者が出発してしまってからは、ホームズは今度は、下僕たちに指図した。もし夫人を訪ねて来た者があっても、決してその状態を知らせてはならないこと、――そしてその者を早速、応接間に通すこと ――こう云うことを彼は、熱心に云い含めた。それから最後に彼は、もう仕事もなくなったから、いずれまた何か出てくるまで、ブラブラしていようじゃないかね、と云いながら、応接間の方に引き上げて行った。田舎医者は、患者のところに出かけたので、もう私と検察官と三人だけになってしまった。「さあそれでは、この一時間の間を、最も愉快に、最も有益に過そう」ホームズはこう云って、テーブルに椅子を引き寄せ、変なおどけたような、舞踏人を書いた紙片(かみきれ)を、その前に拡げた。「いや、わが友人のワトソン君、君には君の持前の好奇心を満足させずに、今まで待たせておいたことの、埋め合せをしなければならないし、それから検察官、あなたにはこの事件の一切は、最も刮目(かつもく)すべき職業上の研究問題として現われるでしょう。それでまず第一にあなたにヒルトン・キューピット氏が、ベーカー街で私に相談に来られた事情についてお話しなければならない」彼は簡単に要領よく、前に述べたようなことを概略して話すのであった。「ここにこう云う全く奇妙なものがありますがね。まあ誰が見たって、これがあんな恐ろしい悲劇の、先駆であったと云ったら、まず一笑に附してしまいたくなりますがね。私は元来、暗号記号については、いささか自信があって、それについてはつまらない論文もありますが、その中で私は、百六十種の暗号を解析してみましたが、しかしこれはまた、私にとっても全く最初のものでした。この暗号を案出したものの考えでは、これに意味があるなどと云うことは巧みに隠して、ただ子供たちを、気まぐれにスケッチしたものだと思わせるつもりなのだがね。しかし、これも結局文字の代用であるとわかって、それからあらゆる暗号文字の解釈に適用する法則をあてはめたところ、この解釈も容易でした。最初に私の手に入ったものは、ごく短いものだったので、この記号はアルファベットのEを表わすものだと云うことを、云い切られただけでした。御存じの通り英語のアルファベットの中では、Eは最も普通の文字で、どんな短い文章のなかでも、一番出て来る文字ですからな。この最初手に入った文章の中では、十五の記号の中で、これは四つだけあって、一番多かったので、これをEと帰納したわけです。それから記号もある時は旗を持ち、ある場合は持っていないが、段々考えたらこの旗は、文章を言葉に区切るためのものでした。私はこれを仮説として立ててをEと置いたのです。しかしここまではいいとして、これから先がなかなか大変なのです。英語の文字では、Eの後に来るものは、決してそう決定的ではない。ちょっとした文章などで平均を取ってみたら、あるいは反対の現象を現わしているかもしれない。まあ大ざっぱに云ってみて、T、A、O、I、N、S、H、R、D、L、――と云うのは、その頻出数の順序であるが、しかし、T、A、O、Iなどは、実に伯仲しているからね。これ等の結合を考えて、意味を見出そうと云うことは、それは全く際限の無い仕事になる。それで私は、新たな材料の来るのを待った。第二回のヒルトン・キューピット氏との会見では、私は二つの短い文章と、一つの牒号(メッセージ)を提供されたが、この牒号(メッセージ)には旗が無いので、単語に相違ないと思った。これがそれですがね。さて単語としてみると、これは五文字から成る単語で、しかも私が先に推定したEが、第二と第四にあるもの。 ――それは SEVER(切り放す)か、LEVER(梃子(てこ))か、NEVER(けっして、―打ち消しの)などとなる。哀願に対する返事としては、この最後のものはもう異論なく、最も適当である。そしておそらくはこれは、夫人の書いた返事であろうと思われる点も大いにあるのだ。これだけのことを認容してみると、もう記号のはそれぞれ、N、V、R、と云うことになる。しかしまだまだ私には、難関があるのであったが、幸いに他の文字の解釈に、都合のよい思いつきが浮んだ。つまりもし私の予想が違わないとすれば、この哀訴が夫人の以前の腹心の者から来たものとすれば、両端にEがあって、真中に他の三文字のあるものは、結局、ELSIE と云う名前に、ぴったりと吻合(ふんごう)して来る。それで更によく調べてみると、三度とも文章の末尾が、この組合せで終っているのを発見した。それでこれは ELSIE に、何か訴えて来たものに相違ない。こうして私はLと、Sと、Iを得た。しからば一たい何を訴えて来ているのであろう? この ELSIE の前には、四文字あって、しかも終りはEである。これは確に COME であろうか、 ――私は外(ほか)にも、Eで終っている、四文字の単語を考えたが、しかしどうもこの場合に適当と思われるものは見当らなかった。それで私はこうして、C、O、M、を得たので、今度は再び最初の文章にもどって、これを言葉に分けて、未発見の記号と共に、書き並べるまでになった。そうしたら、次のようなものとなった。そこで、この中で最初の文字はAに相違ない、と云うことを推定した。と云うのは、この短い文章の中で、三度も出ているから、このよく出て来る文字はAに相違ないと考えた。そこで、第二の場所は、Hであろうと想定してみた。そうしてまたあてはめてみると、また、名前の解りきった空所を満たしてみると、私はもうかなりの文字を得たので、今度は相当の自信を持って、第二の文章に進むことが出来ることとなった。それをやってみると今度はこんなものになった。さてこうなると、私は、Tと、Gを空所に入れると、やっと意味をなして来ることに気がついた ――そしてこれはこの筆者のいる家か、旅館の名であろうと推定したわけだ」検察官マーティンと私は、この我々の面前の難事業を、快刀で乱麻を断つように、明快に解決を与えた、私の友人の説明に、全く魅了されて傾聴した。「先生、それからどうなされたのですか?」検察官は訊ねた。「私は種々の理由から、この Abe Slaney. と云うのは、亜米利加(アメリカ)人であろうと推定したのです。この Abe と云うのは元来、亜米利加(アメリカ)式の綴(つづり)にあるし、それに亜米利加(アメリカ)から来た、一通の手紙と云うのが、今回の大事件の端緒でしたからな。それに更に私は、この事件には、更にその中に伏在した、隠れたる犯罪があるに相違ないと睨む理由があったのです。つまり夫人が過去について、ちょっと仄めかしたあと、夫に対して絶対にそれを追求させなかったなどと云うことは、明かにそうした理由を暗示しているものだからね。それで私は、私の友人でニューヨークの警務局の、ウィルソン・ハーグレーブに、海底電信を打ってやったのです。この男はたびたび、私からお蔭を蒙(こうむ)っているものですがね、で私はこの男に、Abe Slaney と云う者を知っているかどうかと云ってやったのだが、その返電はこうだったのです。と。するとちょうど私が、この返電を得た夜、ヒルトン・キューピットは、スラネーからの最後の牒号(メッセージ)を送ってよこしたのです。それにまた、先の文字をあてはめてみると、それでこれにPとDを加えてみると、もうこの牒号(メッセージ)の意味は完全なものとなる。これによると、悪漢は説得から威嚇に進んだことがわかり、更に私はこの者の市俄古(シカゴ)での兇悪振りを知っているだけに、もうすぐに実行するだろうと直覚した。それで取るものも取りあえず、友人であり相棒である、ワトソン博士と共に、ノーフォークに駈けつけたのだが、もう時既に遅かった」「事件を扱うに際して、あなたと協力することが出来るなどと云うことは全く、望外の特権ですね」検察官は静かに云い出した。「失礼して卒直に申しますが、あなたはあなた御自身が御満足なさればおよろしいのですが、私は上官に対して、私の職責を全うしなければなりません。それでもしそのエルライジにいる、アベイ・スラネーなる者が、本当に下手人であるとすれば、私がこうしている中に、逃亡でもしてしまうと、とても大問題になりますが、――」「いや御心配はいらない、―― 彼は逃亡などはおそらくしないから、――」「どうしてそう仰有います?」「逃亡することはもう、犯罪を自白していることだからね」「それでは逮捕に向おうではございませんか?」「いや、もうじきにここに来る」「ではどうしてここになぞ来るのでしょう?」「さっき手紙を書いて、招んでやったから、――」「いやホームズ先生、それはちょっと当(あて)にはなりますまい。あなたがお招びになったって、その者は来ると云うわけはございますまい。それどころかかえって、感づいて逃亡することになりはしませんでしょうか?」「いや私も、その手紙のこしらえ方は知っているつもりだがね」シャーロック・ホームズは云った。「論より証拠 ――大体間違いはなさそうですよ。ほら、その紳士御自身で、御出張になったよ」一人の男が玄関の方に、大股に歩いて来るのであった。その男は、背の高い、男振りのよい、色の浅黒い顔で、灰色のフランネルの着物を着てパナマの帽子を冠り、剛(こわ)い黒い髭をはやし、高い圧倒的な鼻をうごめかして、籐の杖をふりまわしながらやって来た。彼は全く意気揚々として、小径をはばむようにして歩き、堂々と呼鈴(ベル)を押すのであった。「諸君、――」ホームズは静かに云った。「これは我々はドアの蔭にかくれた方がいいようだよ。あんな奴の相手になるには、うっかりしたことは出来ないからね。それから検察官、手錠が入りますよ。さあ黙って、――」一分間ほどの間 ――我々は息を殺して待った。忘れようとしても、決して忘れることの出来ない一分間であった。やがてドアは開いて、その男は中に入って来た。と、――思う中(うち)に、ホームズはピストルをその男の頭に狙いつけ、マーティンは素早く、手錠をはめてしまった。こうしたことが、全く疾風迅雷的にやられたので、流石の悪漢もただ茫然として、何もかもすんでからやっと、自分が待ち伏せをくったのだとわかった。その男は私達を、次から次と、その黒い鋭い目で睨みつけた。そして最後に、ゲラゲラと苦しい笑い声を上げた。「いや各々方、なかなかうまく、仕組んだと云うわけですか、 ――これはとんだ災難に遭ったものだ。しかし僕はヒルトン・キューピット夫人の手紙に答えるために来たのです。夫人はここに居るかどうか、教えてくれないですか? 夫人は僕を陥れることに与(あず)ったのですか?」「ヒルトン・キューピット夫人は、瀕死の重傷を負うているのだよ」その男は嗄(しわが)れた声で、家中に響き渡るように、悲叫(ひきょう)を上げた。「あなた方は気が違っているのだ!」その男は激しく叫んだ。「負傷したのはヒルトン・キューピットで、彼の女のはずはない。誰があの可愛いエルシーなどを傷つけるものか! 私は彼の女を威かしはしたかもしれないが、それは神様もお許し下さろう。 ――しかし私は彼の女の美しい頭の、髪の毛一本にさえも触れはしないのだ。さあそれを取り消しなさい。彼の女は決して負傷しないと云って下さい!」「彼の女は死んだ夫の側(そば)に、ひどく怪我をしているのを発見されたのだ」彼は深い呻吟声(うめきごえ)を上げながら、腕椅子に崩れるように腰かけて、手錠のかかった両手で顔を蔽うた。五分くらいの間は、全く黙りこんでいたが、それからまた顔を起して、今度はもう捨鉢の度胸で、冷静に語り出した。「いや、皆さん、決して何も隠し立てはしません」彼は言葉をつづけた。「もし私が彼を撃ったと云うなら、彼もまた私を撃っているのです。ここに殺人罪はありません。またもしあなた方が、私があの女を撃ったのだとお思いになるなら、それはあなた方が、私とあの女とをよく知らないからです。私は断言して憚(はばか)りませんが、私はいかなる男性の愛情よりも、彼の女を深く愛していました。私は彼の女に対しては、権利を持っています。私達は数年前に、それぞれ誓った間柄です。それだのに我々の間に入って来た英国人などは、全くどこの馬の骨でしょう? 私は断言しますが、私こそは彼の女に対して、第一の優先権を持っている者で、ただ私はその正統の権利を要求しただけです」「夫人は君のそう云う人となりを知ったので、君の把握から遁げ出したのだ」ホームズは厳しく云った。「夫人は君を避けるために亜米利加(アメリカ)から遁げ出して、英国の立派な紳士と結婚したのだ。それに君は未練がましくも追かけて来て、彼の女にその敬愛する夫を捨てて、憎悪し恐怖している君と、遁げ出すことを強迫したので、彼の女は、不幸極まるものになってしまったのだ。君も一人の貴人を殺し、しかしてその妻を自殺させて、もうそれで万事休矣(ばんじきゅうす)というものさ。君のお手柄の一切はこれだけだが、さてアベー・スラネー君、この上はただ法の適用を受けるだけさ」「もしエルシーが死ぬなら、そりゃもうこの身体などは、どうなったっておかまいなしだ」その亜米利加(アメリカ)人は云った。そして彼は片方の掌(てのひら)に、皺くしゃになっていた書ものに見入った。「これを御覧下さい」彼は目を疑い深く閃かせながら叫ぶのであった。「あなた方は私をおどかしているのではないでしょうね? もし彼の女があなた方の仰せのように非常に重態であるとしたら、一たい誰がこの手紙をかいたのでしょう?」彼はその紙片をテーブルの上に投げてよこした。「君をここに来させるために、僕が書いたのだ」「あなたが書きましたって? この世界中でわれわれの仲間の外(ほか)は、誰もこの舞踏人の秘密を解るものが無いのですよ。どうしてあなたなどが書けるものですか?」「君、誰かが案出したものとすれば、また誰かがそれを解くことが出来るさ」ホームズは云った。「さてスラネー君、君をノーアウッドに、連れてゆく馬車が来た。しかしまだ、君の悪業に対して、多少の罪滅しをする時間はある。君は気がついているかどうか、 ――実はヒルトン・キューピット夫人は、夫君(ふくん)の殺害に対して、非常に重大な嫌疑を受けていたのだが、幸いに僕が現われて、たまたま持ち合せていた智識で、夫人は告発されることを免れることとなったのだ。それで君の夫人に対する、最後の償(つぐない)として、夫人はこの大悲惨事に対しては、直接にも間接にも、全然責任はないものであると云うことを、全世界に明瞭にしたまえ」「もうどうにでもなるがよい」亜米利加(アメリカ)人は云った。「えい一そのこと、何もかも有りのままにさらけ出してしまいましょう」本職もそれを君にすすめる」検察官はあたかも英国刑法の、厳粛な公明を示すものの如く云った。スラネーは肩をすくめた。「早速申し上げましょう」彼は語り出した。「まず第一に皆さんの御了解を得たいことは、私はあの夫人とは、ごく小供の時からの知り合いであると云うことです。私共も七人の仲間で市俄古(シカゴ)で徒党を組んでいたのですが、あのエルシーの父はその首領でした。悧※[#「りっしんべん+巧」、126-1]な人で、パトリック老人と云ったものです。この暗号を案出したのも彼ですが、これはもうあなたがこれを解く鍵を持っていなかったら、ただ小供のいたずら書としか思われないものですからね。さて、あのエルシーは私共のすることを多少気がついたのですが、しかし彼の女は、こうした仕事を見ることはもう堪えられなかったのですな。そして彼の女は自分の、これは公明正大な金を多少持っていたので、私達の中から抜け出して、ロンドンに遁げて来てしまったのです。私は彼の女とは婚約の仲でしたが、これは私は今でもそう思っているのですが、もし私が商売替えをしたら、彼の女はきっと私と結婚してくれたに相違ありませんでした。彼の女はかりそめにも不正なことに対しては、掛り合いを持ちたくなかったのでしょう。そして私がやっと彼の女の居所をつきとめた時は、彼の女はもうこの英国人と結婚していました。それで私は手紙を出しましたが、しかし返事はくれませんでした。私はそれでこっちに海を越えて来たのですが、手紙はもう何の役にも立たないので私は、あの通牒を彼の女の目の止まるところに置いたのでした。そしてとにかく私がここに来てから一ヶ月になります。あの農場に住んで、地下の一室を持って、夜間は毎夜のように、自由に出入が出来ました。しかし誰もそのことは知りませんでした。私はあらゆる手段をつくして、エルシーを誘い出そうとしました。彼の女はたしかに、通牒は読んだに相違なく、遂に一度だけは返事をくれました。それに私は少し気をよくして、彼の女の脅迫を始めたのです。それから彼の女は一本の手紙をよこして、私に立ち去ってくれるようにと、懇願して来ました。そしてもし夫の身辺に、その名誉を汚すようなことでも起ったら、もう彼の女は立っても寝てもいられないからと云うのでした。そして、もし私が素直にここを立ち去って、彼の女を安穏にのこして行ってくれるなら、夫の眠っているのを見計らって、暁(あ)け方の三時に起きて来て、私に立ち退くように説得するために、金を持って来ました。私はこれを見て、嚇(かっ)としてしまって、彼の女の腕を取って、窓から引ずり落そうとしたのです。と、――その瞬間に、彼の女の夫は、ピストルを手にして、飛び出して来ました。エルシーは床の上に跼まってしまったので、私たちは顔と顔とを向き合せていました。私も身体をこごめました。そして鉄砲を取り出して、彼を脅かして自分も遁げようとしました。しかし彼は発射し、しかも弾丸は外れました。それで私もほとんどおくれずに引き金を引きました。彼は斃れたのです。私はそれから庭を横切って遁げましたが、私の後から窓を閉める音がきこえたのでした。皆さんこれは、すべて有りのままで、神明に誓って偽りはありません。そして私は、その後は、あの若者がこの手紙を持って来て、私が、まるでむくどりのように、あなた方の網にかかってしまうまでは、何にも知りませんでした」亜米利加(アメリカ)人が話している中に、馬車は着いていた。その中には制服の巡査が二人いた。検察官マーテンは起ち上って、犯人の肩に手をかけた。「さあ行こう、――」「ちょっと彼の女に逢わせて下さいませんでしょうか?」「いや、夫人はまだ意識が回復しないのだ。シャーロック・ホームズ先生、 ――何卒この後も重大事件が突発した時は、よろしく御助力下さいますよう、幾重にもお願い申します」私たちは窓際に立って、馬車の遠ざかってゆくのを眺めた。それから私は振り返った途端に犯人がテーブルの上に投げて行った、紙片を丸めたものを見つけた。それはホームズが彼をおびき寄せた手紙であった。「さあ、君、これを読めるかね? ワトソン君、――」ホームズは笑いながら云った。それは一語もなく、ただ次のような舞踏人の短い一行であった。ホームズは云った。「これは、"COME HERE AT ONCE"(すぐに来い)と云うだけのことだよ、いくら何でもこの招待状では、彼は万障を繰合せても来ると思ったのさ。何しろこうしたものを書ける者は、夫人以外には無いのだと彼は信じているのだからね。さてこうして、親愛なワトソン君、我々もこの悪業の手先に使われていた舞踏人を、今度は善い意味のものに転化してしまったし、また僕も君の覚書の中に、一つはなはだ特異な件をお土産にしようと云う約束も、これでともかく果したわけだ。三時四十分の汽車があるが、我々はベーカー街に行って、夕食でも食べるとしようか、――」簡単に結末だけを。この亜米利加(アメリカ)人のアベー・スラネーは、ノーアウィッチの冬期巡回裁判で、死刑を宣告されたのであったが、しかしヒルトン・キューピット氏が、最初に発射したと云うことが明瞭になったので情状酌量して、死刑を改めて懲役刑とされた。それからヒルトン・キューピット夫人については、その後負傷はすっかり癒り、寡婦として一貫し、その生涯を救貧事業と、亡夫の遺産管理に専念していると云うことをきいただけである。	THE ADVENTURE OF THE DANCING MEN Holmes had been seated for some hours in silence with his long, thin back curved over a chemical vessel in which he was brewing a particularly malodorous product. His head was sunk upon his breast, and he looked from my point of view like a strange, lank bird, with dull gray plumage and a black top-knot. "So, Watson," said he, suddenly, "you do not propose to invest in South African securities?" I gave a start of astonishment. Accustomed as I was to Holmes's curious faculties, this sudden intrusion into my most intimate thoughts was utterly inexplicable. "How on earth do you know that?" I asked. "Now, Watson, confess yourself utterly taken aback," "I am." "I ought to make you sign a paper to that effect." "Why?" "Because in five minutes you will say that it is all so absurdly simple." "I am sure that I shall say nothing of the kind." "You see, my dear Watson"-- he propped his test-tube in the rack, and began to lecture with the air of a professor addressing his class-- "it is not really difficult to construct a series of inferences, each dependent upon its predecessor and each simple in itself. If, after doing so, one simply knocks out all the central inferences and presents one's audience with the starting-point and the conclusion, one may produce a startling, though possibly a meretricious, effect. Now, it was not really difficult, by an inspection of the groove between your left forefinger and thumb, to feel sure that you did NOT propose to invest your small capital in the gold fields." "I see no connection." "Very likely not; but I can quickly show you a close connection. Here are the missing links of the very simple chain: 1. You had chalk between your left finger and thumb when you returned from the club last night. 2. You put chalk there when you play billiards, to steady the cue. 3. You never play billiards except with Thurston. 4. You told me, four weeks ago, that Thurston had an option on some South African property which would expire in a month, and which he desired you to share with him. 5. Your check book is locked in my drawer, and you have not asked for the key. 6. You do not propose to invest your money in this manner." "How absurdly simple!" I cried. "Quite so!" said he, a little nettled. "Every problem becomes very childish when once it is explained to you. Here is an unexplained one. See what you can make of that, friend Watson." He tossed a sheet of paper upon the table, and turned once more to his chemical analysis. I looked with amazement at the absurd hieroglyphics upon the paper. "Why, Holmes, it is a child's drawing," I cried. "Oh, that's your idea!" "What else should it be?" "That is what Mr. Hilton Cubitt, of Riding Thorpe Manor, Norfolk, is very anxious to know. This little conundrum came by the first post, and he was to follow by the next train. There's a ring at the bell, Watson. A heavy step was heard upon the stairs, and an instant later there entered a tall, ruddy, clean-shaven gentleman, whose clear eyes and florid cheeks told of a life led far from the fogs of Baker Street. He seemed to bring a whiff of his strong, fresh, bracing, east-coast air with him as he entered. Having shaken hands with each of us, he was about to sit down, when his eye rested upon the paper with the curious markings, which I had just examined and left upon the table. "Well, Mr. Holmes, what do you make of these?" he cried. "They told me that you were fond of queer mysteries, and I don't think you can find a queerer one than that. I sent the paper on ahead, so that you might have time to study it before I came." "It is certainly rather a curious production," said Holmes. "At first sight it would appear to be some childish prank. It consists of a number of absurd little figures dancing across the paper upon which they are drawn. Why should you attribute any importance to so grotesque an object?" "I never should, Mr. Holmes. But my wife does. It is frightening her to death. She says nothing, but I can see terror in her eyes. That's why I want to sift the matter to the bottom." Holmes held up the paper so that the sunlight shone full upon it. It was a page torn from a notebook. The markings were done in pencil, and ran in this way: Holmes examined it for some time, and then, folding it carefully up, he placed it in his pocketbook. "This promises to be a most interesting and unusual case," said he. "You gave me a few particulars in your letter, Mr. Hilton Cubitt, but I should be very much obliged if you would kindly go over it all again for the benefit of my friend, Dr. Watson." "I'm not much of a story-teller," said our visitor, nervously clasping and unclasping his great, strong hands. "You'll just ask me anything that I don't make clear. I'll begin at the time of my marriage last year, but I want to say first of all that, though I'm not a rich man, my people have been at Riding Thorpe for a matter of five centuries, and there is no better known family in the County of Norfolk. Last year I came up to London for the Jubilee, and I stopped at a boarding-house in Russell Square, because Parker, the vicar of our parish, was staying in it. There was an American young lady there-- Patrick was the name-- Elsie Patrick. In some way we became friends, until before my month was up I was as much in love as man could be. We were quietly married at a registry office, and we returned to Norfolk a wedded couple. You'll think it very mad, Mr. Holmes, that a man of a good old family should marry a wife in this fashion, knowing nothing of her past or of her people, but if you saw her and knew her, it would help you to understand. "She was very straight about it, was Elsie. I can't say that she did not give me every chance of getting out of it if I wished to do so. `I have had some very disagreeable associations in my life,' said she, `I wish to forget all about them. I would rather never allude to the past, for it is very painful to me. If you take me, Hilton, you will take a woman who has nothing that she need be personally ashamed of, but you will have to be content with my word for it, and to allow me to be silent as to all that passed up to the time when I became yours. If these conditions are too hard, then go back to Norfolk, and leave me to the lonely life in which you found me.' It was only the day before our wedding that she said those very words to me. I told her that I was content to take her on her own terms, and I have been as good as my word. "Well we have been married now for a year, and very happy we have been. But about a month ago, at the end of June, I saw for the first time signs of trouble. One day my wife received a letter from America. She turned deadly white, read the letter, and threw it into the fire. She made no allusion to it afterwards, and I made none, for a promise is a promise, but she has never known an easy hour from that moment. There is always a look of fear upon her face--a look as if she were waiting and expecting. She would do better to trust me. She would find that I was her best friend. But until she speaks, I can say nothing. Mind you, she is a truthful woman, Mr. Holmes, and whatever trouble there may have been in her past life it has been no fault of hers. I am only a simple Norfolk squire, but there is not a man in England who ranks his family honour more highly than I do. She knows it well, and she knew it well before she married me. She would never bring any stain upon it--of that I am sure. "Well, now I come to the queer part of my story. About a week ago-- it was the Tuesday of last week-- I found on one of the window-sills a number of absurd little dancing figures like these upon the paper. They were scrawled with chalk. I thought that it was the stable-boy who had drawn them, but the lad swore he knew nothing about it. Anyhow, they had come there during the night. I had them washed out, and I only mentioned the matter to my wife afterwards. To my surprise, she took it very seriously, and begged me if any more came to let her see them. None did come for a week, and then yesterday morning I found this paper lying on the sundial in the garden. I showed it to Elsie, and down she dropped in a dead faint. Since then she has looked like a woman in a dream, half dazed, and with terror always lurking in her eyes. It was then that I wrote and sent the paper to you, Mr. Holmes. It was not a thing that I could take to the police, for they would have laughed at me, but you will tell me what to do. I am not a rich man, but if there is any danger threatening my little woman, I would spend my last copper to shield her." He was a fine creature, this man of the old English soil--simple, straight, and gentle, with his great, earnest blue eyes and broad, comely face. His love for his wife and his trust in her shone in his features. Holmes had listened to his story with the utmost attention, and now he sat for some time in silent thought. "Don't you think, Mr. Cubitt," said he, at last, "that your best plan would be to make a direct appeal to your wife, and to ask her to share her secret with you?" Hilton Cubitt shook his massive head. "A promise is a promise, Mr. Holmes. If Elsie wished to tell me she would. If not, it is not for me to force her confidence. But I am justified in taking my own line-- and I will." "Then I will help you with all my heart. In the first place, have you heard of any strangers being seen in your neighbourhood?" "No." "I presume that it is a very quiet place. Any fresh face would cause comment?" "In the immediate neighbourhood, yes. But we have several small watering-places not very far away. And the farmers take in lodgers." "These hieroglyphics have evidently a meaning. If it is a purely arbitrary one, it may be impossible for us to solve it. If, on the other hand, it is systematic, I have no doubt that we shall get to the bottom of it. But this particular sample is so short that I can do nothing, and the facts which you have brought me are so indefinite that we have no basis for an investigation. I would suggest that you return to Norfolk, that you keep a keen lookout, and that you take an exact copy of any fresh dancing men which may appear. It is a thousand pities that we have not a reproduction of those which were done in chalk upon the window-sill. Make a discreet inquiry also as to any strangers in the neighbourhood. When you have collected some fresh evidence, come to me again. That is the best advice which I can give you, Mr. Hilton Cubitt. If there are any pressing fresh developments, I shall be always ready to run down and see you in your Norfolk home." The interview left Sherlock Holmes very thoughtful, and several times in the next few days I saw him take his slip of paper from his notebook and look long and earnestly at the curious figures inscribed upon it. He made no allusion to the affair, however, until one afternoon a fortnight or so later. I was going out when he called me back. "You had better stay here, Watson." "Why?" "Because I had a wire from Hilton Cubitt this morning. You remember Hilton Cubitt, of the dancing men? He was to reach Liverpool Street at one-twenty. He may be here at any moment. I gather from his wire that there have been some new incidents of importance." We had not long to wait, for our Norfolk squire came straight from the station as fast as a hansom could bring him. He was looking worried and depressed, with tired eyes and a lined forehead. "It's getting on my nerves, this business, Mr. Holmes," said he, as he sank, like a wearied man, into an armchair. "It's bad enough to feel that you are surrounded by unseen, unknown folk, who have some kind of design upon you, but when, in addition to that, you know that it is just killing your wife by inches, then it becomes as much as flesh and blood can endure. She's wearing away under it-- just wearing away before my eyes." "Has she said anything yet?" "No, Mr. Holmes, she has not. And yet there have been times when the poor girl has wanted to speak, and yet could not quite bring herself to take the plunge. I have tried to help her, but I daresay I did it clumsily, and scared her from it. She has spoken about my old family, and our reputation in the county, and our pride in our unsullied honour, and I always felt it was leading to the point, but somehow it turned off before we got there." "But you have found out something for yourself?" "A good deal, Mr. Holmes. I have several fresh dancing-men pictures for you to examine, and, what is more important, I have seen the fellow." "What, the man who draws them?" "Yes, I saw him at his work. But I will tell you everything in order. When I got back after my visit to you, the very first thing I saw next morning was a fresh crop of dancing men. They had been drawn in chalk upon the black wooden door of the tool-house, which stands beside the lawn in full view of the front windows. I took an exact copy, and here it is." He unfolded a paper and laid it upon the table. Here is a copy of the hieroglyphics: "Excellent!" "When I had taken the copy, I rubbed out the marks, but, two mornings later, a fresh inscription had appeared. I have a copy of it here": Holmes rubbed his hands and chuckled with delight. "Our material is rapidly accumulating," said he. "Three days later a message was left scrawled upon paper, and placed under a pebble upon the sundial. Here it is. The characters are, as you see, exactly the same as the last one. After that I determined to lie in wait, so I got out my revolver and I sat up in my study, which overlooks the lawn and garden. About two in the morning I was seated by the window, all being dark save for the moonlight outside, when I heard steps behind me, and there was my wife in her dressing-gown. She implored me to come to bed. I told her frankly that I wished to see who it was who played such absurd tricks upon us. She answered that it was some senseless practical joke, and that I should not take any notice of it. "`If it really annoys you, Hilton, we might go and travel, you and I, and so avoid this nuisance.' "`What, be driven out of our own house by a practical joker?' "`Well, come to bed,' `and we can discuss it in the morning.' "Suddenly, as she spoke, I saw her white face grow whiter yet in the moonlight, and her hand tightened upon my shoulder. Something was moving in the shadow of the tool-house. I saw a dark, creeping figure which crawled round the corner and squatted in front of the door. Seizing my pistol, I was rushing out, when my wife threw her arms round me and held me with convulsive strength. I tried to throw her off, but she clung to me most desperately. At last I got clear, but by the time I had opened the door and reached the house the creature was gone. He had left a trace of his presence, however, for there on the door was the very same arrangement of dancing men which had already twice appeared, and which I have copied on that paper. There was no other sign of the fellow anywhere, though I ran all over the grounds. And yet the amazing thing is that he must have been there all the time, for when I examined the door again in the morning, he had scrawled some more of his pictures under the line which I had already seen." "Have you that fresh drawing?" "Yes, it is very short, but I made a copy of it, and here it is." Again he produced a paper. The new dance was in this form: "Tell me," said Holmes-- and I could see by his eyes that he was much excited-- "was this a mere addition to the first or did it appear to be entirely separate?" "It was on a different panel of the door." "Excellent! This is far the most important of all for our purpose. It fills me with hopes. Now, Mr. Hilton Cubitt, please continue your most interesting statement." "I have nothing more to say, Mr. Holmes, except that I was angry with my wife that night for having held me back when I might have caught the skulking rascal. She said that she feared that I might come to harm. For an instant it had crossed my mind that perhaps what she really feared was that HE might come to harm, for I could not doubt that she knew who this man was, and what he meant by these strange signals. But there is a tone in my wife's voice, Mr. Holmes, and a look in her eyes which forbid doubt, and I am sure that it was indeed my own safety that was in her mind. There's the whole case, and now I want your advice as to what I ought to do. My own inclination is to put half a dozen of my farm lads in the shrubbery, and when this fellow comes again to give him such a hiding that he will leave us in peace for the future." "I fear it is too deep a case for such simple remedies," said Holmes. "How long can you stay in London?" "I must go back to-day. I would not leave my wife alone all night for anything. She is very nervous, and begged me to come back." "I daresay you are right. But if you could have stopped, I might possibly have been able to return with you in a day or two. Meanwhile you will leave me these papers, and I think that it is very likely that I shall be able to pay you a visit shortly and to throw some light upon your case." Sherlock Holmes preserved his calm professional manner until our visitor had left us, although it was easy for me, who knew him so well, to see that he was profoundly excited. The moment that Hilton Cubitt's broad back had disappeared through the door my comrade rushed to the table, laid out all the slips of paper containing dancing men in front of him, and threw himself into an intricate and elaborate calculation. For two hours I watched him as he covered sheet after sheet of paper with figures and letters, so completely absorbed in his task that he had evidently forgotten my presence. Sometimes he was making progress and whistled and sang at his work; sometimes he was puzzled, and would sit for long spells with a furrowed brow and a vacant eye. Finally he sprang from his chair with a cry of satisfaction, and walked up and down the room rubbing his hands together. Then he wrote a long telegram upon a cable form. "If my answer to this is as I hope, you will have a very pretty case to add to your collection, Watson," said he. "I expect that we shall be able to go down to Norfolk tomorrow, and to take our friend some very definite news as to the secret of his annoyance." I confess that I was filled with curiosity, but I was aware that Holmes liked to make his disclosures at his own time and in his own way, so I waited until it should suit him to take me into his confidence. But there was a delay in that answering telegram, and two days of impatience followed, during which Holmes pricked up his ears at every ring of the bell. On the evening of the second there came a letter from Hilton Cubitt. All was quiet with him, save that a long inscription had appeared that morning upon the pedestal of the sundial. He inclosed a copy of it, which is here reproduced: Holmes bent over this grotesque frieze for some minutes, and then suddenly sprang to his feet with an exclamation of surprise and dismay. His face was haggard with anxiety. "We have let this affair go far enough," said he. "Is there a train to North Walsham to-night?" I turned up the time-table. The last had just gone. "Then we shall breakfast early and take the very first in the morning," said Holmes. "Our presence is most urgently needed. Ah! here is our expected cablegram. One moment, Mrs. Hudson, there may be an answer. No, that is quite as I expected. This message makes it even more essential that we should not lose an hour in letting Hilton Cubitt know how matters stand, for it is a singular and a dangerous web in which our simple Norfolk squire is entangled." So, indeed, it proved, and as I come to the dark conclusion of a story which had seemed to me to be only childish and bizarre, I experience once again the dismay and horror with which I was filled. Would that I had some brighter ending to communicate to my readers, but these are the chronicles of fact, and I must follow to their dark crisis the strange chain of events which for some days made Riding Thorpe Manor a household word through the length and breadth of England. We had hardly alighted at North Walsham, and mentioned the name of our destination, when the station-master hurried towards us. "I suppose that you are the detectives from London?" A look of annoyance passed over Holmes's face. "What makes you think such a thing?" "Because Inspector Martin from Norwich has just passed through. But maybe you are the surgeons. She's not dead-- or wasn't by last accounts. You may be in time to save her yet --though it be for the gallows." Holmes's brow was dark with anxiety. "We are going to Riding Thorpe Manor," "It's a terrible business," said the stationmaster. "They are shot, both Mr. Hilton Cubitt and his wife. She shot him and then herself--so the servants say. He's dead and her life is despaired of. Dear, dear, one of the oldest families in the county of Norfolk, and one of the most honoured." Without a word Holmes hurried to a carriage, and during the long seven miles' drive he never opened his mouth. Seldom have I seen him so utterly despondent. He had been uneasy during all our journey from town, and I had observed that he had turned over the morning papers with anxious attention, but now this sudden realization of his worst fears left him in a blank melancholy. He leaned back in his seat, lost in gloomy speculation. Yet there was much around to interest us, for we were passing through as singular a countryside as any in England, where a few scattered cottages represented the population of to-day, while on every hand enormous square-towered churches bristled up from the flat green landscape and told of the glory and prosperity of old East Anglia. At last the violet rim of the German Ocean appeared over the green edge of the Norfolk coast, and the driver pointed with his whip to two old brick and timber gables which projected from a grove of trees. "That's Riding Thorpe Manor," said he. As we drove up to the porticoed front door, I observed in front of it, beside the tennis lawn, the black tool-house and the pedestalled sundial with which we had such strange associations. A dapper little man, with a quick, alert manner and a waxed moustache, had just descended from a high dog-cart. He introduced himself as Inspector Martin, of the Norfolk Constabulary, and he was considerably astonished when he heard the name of my companion. "Why, Mr. Holmes, the crime was only committed at three this morning. How could you hear of it in London and get to the spot as soon as I?" "I anticipated it. I came in the hope of preventing it." "Then you must have important evidence, of which we are ignorant, for they were said to be a most united couple." "I have only the evidence of the dancing men," said Holmes. "I will explain the matter to you later. Meanwhile, since it is too late to prevent this tragedy, I am very anxious that I should use the knowledge which I possess in order to insure that justice be done. Will you associate me in your investigation, or will you prefer that I should act independently?" "I should be proud to feel that we were acting together, Mr. Holmes," said the inspector, earnestly. "In that case I should be glad to hear the evidence and to examine the premises without an instant of unnecessary delay." Inspector Martin had the good sense to allow my friend to do things in his own fashion, and contented himself with carefully noting the results. The local surgeon, an old, white-haired man, had just come down from Mrs. Hilton Cubitt's room, and he reported that her injuries were serious, but not necessarily fatal. The bullet had passed through the front of her brain, and it would probably be some time before she could regain consciousness. On the question of whether she had been shot or had shot herself, he would not venture to express any decided opinion. Certainly the bullet had been discharged at very close quarters. There was only the one pistol found in the room, two barrels of which had been emptied. Mr. Hilton Cubitt had been shot through the heart. It was equally conceivable that he had shot her and then himself, or that she had been the criminal, for the revolver lay upon the floor midway between them. "Has he been moved?" asked Holmes. "We have moved nothing except the lady. We could not leave her lying wounded upon the floor." "How long have you been here, Doctor?" "Since four o'clock." "Anyone else?" "Yes, the constable here." "And you have touched nothing?" "Nothing." "You have acted with great discretion. Who sent for you?" "The housemaid, Saunders." "Was it she who gave the alarm?" "She and Mrs. King, the cook." "Where are they now?" "In the kitchen, I believe." "Then I think we had better hear their story at once." The old hall, oak-panelled and high-windowed, had been turned into a court of investigation. Holmes sat in a great, old-fashioned chair, his inexorable eyes gleaming out of his haggard face. I could read in them a set purpose to devote his life to this quest until the client whom he had failed to save should at last be avenged. The trim Inspector Martin, the old, gray-headed country doctor, myself, and a stolid village policeman made up the rest of that strange company. The two women told their story clearly enough. They had been aroused from their sleep by the sound of an explosion, which had been followed a minute later by a second one. They slept in adjoining rooms, and Mrs. King had rushed in to Saunders. Together they had descended the stairs. The door of the study was open, and a candle was burning upon the table. Their master lay upon his face in the centre of the room. He was quite dead. Near the window his wife was crouching, her head leaning against the wall. She was horribly wounded, and the side of her face was red with blood. She breathed heavily, but was incapable of saying anything. The passage, as well as the room, was full of smoke and the smell of powder. The window was certainly shut and fastened upon the inside. Both women were positive upon the point. They had at once sent for the doctor and for the constable. Then, with the aid of the groom and the stable-boy, they had conveyed their injured mistress to her room. Both she and her husband had occupied the bed. She was clad in her dress--he in his dressing-gown, over his night-clothes. Nothing had been moved in the study. So far as they knew, there had never been any quarrel between husband and wife. They had always looked upon them as a very united couple. These were the main points of the servants' evidence. In answer to Inspector Martin, they were clear that every door was fastened upon the inside, and that no one could have escaped from the house. In answer to Holmes, they both remembered that they were conscious of the smell of powder from the moment that they ran out of their rooms upon the top floor. "I commend that fact very carefully to your attention," said Holmes to his professional colleague. "And now I think that we are in a position to undertake a thorough examination of the room." The study proved to be a small chamber, lined on three sides with books, and with a writing-table facing an ordinary window, which looked out upon the garden. Our first attention was given to the body of the unfortunate squire, whose huge frame lay stretched across the room. His disordered dress showed that he had been hastily aroused from sleep. The bullet had been fired at him from the front, and had remained in his body, after penetrating the heart. His death had certainly been instantaneous and painless. There was no powder-marking either upon his dressing-gown or on his hands. According to the country surgeon, the lady had stains upon her face, but none upon her hand. "The absence of the latter means nothing, though its presence may mean everything," said Holmes. "Unless the powder from a badly fitting cartridge happens to spurt backward, one may fire many shots without leaving a sign. I would suggest that Mr. Cubitt's body may now be removed. I suppose, Doctor, you have not recovered the bullet which wounded the lady?" "A serious operation will be necessary before that can be done. But there are still four cartridges in the revolver. Two have been fired and two wounds inflicted, so that each bullet can be accounted for". "So it would seem," said Holmes. "Perhaps you can account also for the bullet which has so obviously struck the edge of the window?" He had turned suddenly, and his long, thin finger was pointing to a hole which had been drilled right through the lower window-sash, about an inch above the bottom. "By George!" cried the inspector. "How ever did you see that?" "Because I looked for it." "Wonderful!" said the country doctor. "You are certainly right, sir. Then a third shot has been fired, and therefore a third person must have been present. But who could that have been, and how could he have got away?" "That is the problem which we are now about to solve," said Sherlock Holmes. "You remember, Inspector Martin, when the servants said that on leaving their room they were at once conscious of a smell of powder, I remarked that the point was an extremely important one?" "Yes, sir; but I confess I did not quite follow you." "It suggested that at the time of the firing, the window as well as the door of the room had been open. Otherwise the fumes of powder could not have been blown so rapidly through the house. A draught in the room was necessary for that. Both door and window were only open for a very short time, however." "How do you prove that?" "Because the candle was not guttered." "Capital!" cried the inspector. "Capital! "Feeling sure that the window had been open at the time of the tragedy, I conceived that there might have been a third person in the affair, who stood outside this opening and fired through it. Any shot directed at this person might hit the sash. I looked, and there, sure enough, was the bullet mark!" "But how came the window to be shut and fastened?" "The woman's first instinct would be to shut and fasten the window. But, halloa! What is this?" It was a lady's hand-bag which stood upon the study table-- a trim little handbag of crocodile-skin and silver. Holmes opened it and turned the contents out. There were twenty fifty-pound notes of the Bank of England, held together by an india-rubber band--nothing else. "This must be preserved, for it will figure in the trial" said Holmes, as he handed the bag with its contents to the inspector. "It is now necessary that we should try to throw some light upon this third bullet, which has clearly, from the splintering of the wood, been fired from inside the room. I should like to see Mrs. King, the cook, again. You said, Mrs. King, that you were awakened by a LOUD explosion. When you said that, did you mean that it seemed to you to be louder than the second one?" "Well, sir, it wakened me from my sleep, so it is hard to judge. But it did seem very loud." "You don't think that it might have been two shots fired almost at the same instant?" "I am sure I couldn't say, sir." "I believe that it was undoubtedly so. I rather think, Inspector Martin, that we have now exhausted all that this room can teach us. If you will kindly step round with me, we shall see what fresh evidence the garden has to offer." A flower-bed extended up to the study window, and we all broke into an exclamation as we approached it. The flowers were trampled down, and the soft soil was imprinted all over with footmarks. Large, masculine feet they were, with peculiarly long, sharp toes. Holmes hunted about among the grass and leaves like a retriever after a wounded bird. Then, with a cry of satisfaction, he bent forward and picked up a little brazen cylinder. "I thought so," I really think, Inspector Martin, that our case is almost complete." The country inspector's face had shown his intense amazement at the rapid and masterful progress of Holmes's investigation. At first he had shown some disposition to assert his own position, but now he was overcome with admiration, and ready to follow without question wherever Holmes led. "Whom do you suspect?" he asked. "I'll go into that later. There are several points in this problem which I have not been able to explain to you yet. Now that I have got so far, I had best proceed on my own lines, and then clear the whole matter up once and for all." "Just as you wish, Mr. Holmes, so long as we get our man." "I have no desire to make mysteries, but it is impossible at the moment of action to enter into long and complex explanations. I have the threads of this affair all in my hand. Even if this lady should never recover consciousness, we can still reconstruct the events of last night and insure that justice be done. First of all, I wish to know whether there is any inn in this neighbourhood known as `Elrige's'?" The servants were cross-questioned, but none of them had heard of such a place. The stable-boy threw a light upon the matter by remembering that a farmer of that name lived some miles off, in the direction of East Ruston. "Is it a lonely farm?" "Very lonely, sir." "Perhaps they have not heard yet of all that happened here during the night?" "Maybe not, sir." Holmes thought for a little, and then a curious smile played over his face. "Saddle a horse, my lad," "I shall wish you to take a note to Elrige's Farm." He took from his pocket the various slips of the dancing men. With these in front of him, he worked for some time at the study-table. Finally he handed a note to the boy, with directions to put it into the hands of the person to whom it was addressed, and especially to answer no questions of any sort which might be put to him. I saw the outside of the note, addressed in straggling, irregular characters, very unlike Holmes's usual precise hand. It was consigned to Mr. Abe Slaney, Elriges Farm, East Ruston, Norfolk. "I think, Inspector," Holmes remarked, "that you would do well to telegraph for an escort, as, if my calculations prove to be correct, you may have a particularly dangerous prisoner to convey to the county jail. The boy who takes this note could no doubt forward your telegram. If there is an afternoon train to town, Watson, I think we should do well to take it, as I have a chemical analysis of some interest to finish, and this investigation draws rapidly to a close." When the youth had been dispatched with the note, Sherlock Holmes gave his instructions to the servants. If any visitor were to call asking for Mrs. Hilton Cubitt, no information should be given as to her condition, but he was to be shown at once into the drawing-room. He impressed these points upon them with the utmost earnestness. Finally he led the way into the drawing-room, with the remark that the business was now out of our hands, and that we must while away the time as best we might until we could see what was in store for us. The doctor had departed to his patients, and only the inspector and myself remained. "I think that I can help you to pass an hour in an interesting and profitable manner," said Holmes, drawing his chair up to the table, and spreading out in front of him the various papers upon which were recorded the antics of the dancing men. "As to you, friend Watson, I owe you every atonement for having allowed your natural curiosity to remain so long unsatisfied. To you, Inspector, the whole incident may appeal as a remarkable professional study. I must tell you, first of all, the interesting circumstances connected with the previous consultations which Mr. Hilton Cubitt has had with me in Baker Street." He then shortly recapitulated the facts which have already been recorded. "I have here in front of me these singular productions, at which one might smile, had they not proved themselves to be the forerunners of so terrible a tragedy. I am fairly familiar with all forms of secret writings, and am myself the author of a trifling monograph upon the subject, in which I analyze one hundred and sixty separate ciphers, but I confess that this is entirely new to me. The object of those who invented the system has apparently been to conceal that these characters convey a message, and to give the idea that they are the mere random sketches of children. "Having once recognized, however, that the symbols stood for letters, and having applied the rules which guide us in all forms of secret writings, the solution was easy enough. The first message submitted to me was so short that it was impossible for me to do more than to say, with some confidence, that the symbol XXX stood for E. As you are aware, E is the most common letter in the English alphabet, and it predominates to so marked an extent that even in a short sentence one would expect to find it most often. Out of fifteen symbols in the first message, four were the same, so it was reasonable to set this down as E. It is true that in some cases the figure was bearing a flag, and in some cases not, but it was probable, from the way in which the flags were distributed, that they were used to break the sentence up into words. I accepted this as a hypothesis, and noted that E was represented by XXX. "But now came the real difficulty of the inquiry. The order of the English letters after E is by no means well marked, and any preponderance which may be shown in an average of a printed sheet may be reversed in a single short sentence. Speaking roughly, T, A, O, I, N, S, H, R, D, and L are the numerical order in which letters occur, but T, A, O, and I are very nearly abreast of each other, and it would be an endless task to try each combination until a meaning was arrived at. I therefore waited for fresh material. In my second interview with Mr. Hilton Cubitt he was able to give me two other short sentences and one message, which appeared--since there was no flag--to be a single word. Here are the symbols. Now, in the single word I have already got the two E's coming second and fourth in a word of five letters. It might be `sever,' or `lever,' or `never.' There can be no question that the latter as a reply to an appeal is far the most probable, and the circumstances pointed to its being a reply written by the lady. Accepting it as correct, we are now able to say that the symbols stand respectively for N, V, and R. "Even now I was in considerable difficulty, but a happy thought put me in possession of several other letters. It occurred to me that if these appeals came, as I expected, from someone who had been intimate with the lady in her early life, a combination which contained two E's with three letters between might very well stand for the name `ELSIE.' On examination I found that such a combination formed the termination of the message which was three times repeated. It was certainly some appeal to `Elsie.' In this way I had got my L, S, and I. But what appeal could it be? There were only four letters in the word which preceded `Elsie,' and it ended in E. Surely the word must be `COME.' I tried all other four letters ending in E, but could find none to fit the case. So now I was in possession of C, O, and M, and I was in a position to attack the first message once more, dividing it into words and putting dots for each symbol which was still unknown. So treated, it worked out in this fashion: "Now the first letter CAN only be A, which is a most useful discovery, since it occurs no fewer than three times in this short sentence, and the H is also apparent in the second word. Now it becomes: Or, filling in the obvious vacancies in the name: I had so many letters now that I could proceed with considerable confidence to the second message, which worked out in this fashion: Here I could only make sense by putting T and G for the missing letters, and supposing that the name was that of some house or inn at which the writer was staying." Inspector Martin and I had listened with the utmost interest to the full and clear account of how my friend had produced results which had led to so complete a command over our difficulties. "What did you do then, sir?" asked the inspector. "I had every reason to suppose that this Abe Slaney was an American, since Abe is an American contraction, and since a letter from America had been the starting-point of all the trouble. I had also every cause to think that there was some criminal secret in the matter. The lady's allusions to her past, and her refusal to take her husband into her confidence, both pointed in that direction. I therefore cabled to my friend, Wilson Hargreave, of the New York Police Bureau, who has more than once made use of my knowledge of London crime. I asked him whether the name of Abe Slaney was known to him. Here is his reply: `The most dangerous crook in Chicago.' On the very evening upon which I had his answer, Hilton Cubitt sent me the last message from Slaney. Working with known letters, it took this form: The addition of a P and a D completed a message which showed me that the rascal was proceeding from persuasion to threats, and my knowledge of the crooks of Chicago prepared me to find that he might very rapidly put his words into action. I at once came to Norfolk with my friend and colleague, Dr. Watson, but, unhappily, only in time to find that the worst had already occurred." "It is a privilege to be associated with you in the handling of a case," said the inspector, warmly. "You will excuse me, however, if I speak frankly to you. You are only answerable to yourself, but I have to answer to my superiors. If this Abe Slaney, living at Elrige's, is indeed the murderer, and if he has made his escape while I am seated here, I should certainly get into serious trouble." "You need not be uneasy. He will not try to escape." "How do you know?" "To fly would be a confession of guilt." "Then let us go arrest him." "I expect him here every instant." "But why should he come." "Because I have written and asked him." "But this is incredible, Mr. Holmes! Why should he come because you have asked him? Would not such a request rather rouse his suspicions and cause him to fly?" "I think I have known how to frame the letter," said Sherlock Holmes. "In fact, if I am not very much mistaken, here is the gentleman himself coming up the drive." A man was striding up the path which led to the door. He was a tall, handsome, swarthy fellow, clad in a suit of gray flannel, with a Panama hat, a bristling black beard, and a great, aggressive hooked nose, and flourishing a cane as he walked. He swaggered up a path as if as if the place belonged to him, and we heard his loud, confident peal at the bell. "I think, gentlemen," said Holmes, quietly, "that we had best take up our position behind the door. Every precaution is necessary when dealing with such a fellow. You will need your handcuffs, Inspector. You can leave the talking to me." We waited in silence for a minute --one of those minutes which one can never forget. Then the door opened and the man stepped in. In an instant Holmes clapped a pistol to his head, and Martin slipped the handcuffs over his wrists. It was all done so swiftly and deftly that the fellow was helpless before he knew that he was attacked. He glared from one to the other of us with a pair of blazing black eyes. Then he burst into a bitter laugh. "Well, gentlemen, you have the drop on me this time. I seem to have knocked up against something hard. But I came here in answer to a letter from Mrs. Hilton Cubitt. Don't tell me that she is in this? Don't tell me that she helped to set a trap for me?" "Mrs. Hilton Cubitt was seriously injured, and is at death's door." The man gave a hoarse cry of grief, which rang through the house. "You're crazy!" he cried, fiercely. "It was he that was hurt, not she. Who would have hurt little Elsie? I may have threatened her--God forgive me! --but I would not have touched a hair of her pretty head. Take it back--you! Say that she is not hurt!" "She was found badly wounded, by the side of her dead husband." He sank with a deep groan on the settee and buried his face in his manacled hands. For five minutes he was silent. Then he raised his face once more, and spoke with the cold composure of despair. "I have nothing to hide from you, gentlemen," said he. "If I shot the man he had his shot at me, and there's no murder in that. But if you think I could have hurt that woman, then you don't know either me or her. I tell you, there was never a man in this world loved a woman more than I loved her. I had a right to her. She was pledged to me years ago. Who was this Englishman that he should come between us? I tell you that I had the first right to her, and that I was only claiming my own. "She broke away from your influence when she found the man that you are," said Holmes, sternly. "She fled from America to avoid you, and she married an honourable gentleman in England. You dogged her and followed her and made her life a misery to her, in order to induce her to abandon the husband whom she loved and respected in order to fly with you, whom she feared and hated. You have ended by bringing about the death of a noble man and driving his wife to suicide. That is your record in this business, Mr. Abe Slaney, and you will answer for it to the law." "If Elsie dies, I care nothing what becomes of me," said the American. He opened one of his hands, and looked at a note crumpled up in his palm. "See here, mister! he cried, with a gleam of suspicion in his eyes, "you're not trying to scare me over this, are you? If the lady is hurt as bad as you say, who was it that wrote this note?" He tossed it forward on to the table. "I wrote it, to bring you here." "You wrote it? There was no one on earth outside the Joint who knew the secret of the dancing men. How came you to write it?" "What one man can invent another can discover," said Holmes. There is a cab coming to convey you to Norwich, Mr. Slaney. But meanwhile, you have time to make some small reparation for the injury you have wrought. Are you aware that Mrs. Hilton Cubitt has herself lain under grave suspicion of the murder of her husband, and that it was only my presence here, and the knowledge which I happened to possess, which has saved her from the accusation? The least that you owe her is to make it clear to the whole world that she was in no way, directly or indirectly, responsible for his tragic end." "I ask nothing better," said the American. "I guess the very best case I can make for myself is the absolute naked truth." "It is my duty to warn you that it will be used against you," cried the inspector, with the magnificent fair play of the British criminal law. Slaney shrugged his shoulders. "I'll chance that," said he. "First of all, I want you gentlemen to understand that I have known this lady since she was a child. There were seven of us in a gang in Chicago, and Elsie's father was the boss of the Joint. He was a clever man, was old Patrick. It was he who invented that writing, which would pass as a child's scrawl unless you just happened to have the key to it. Well, Elsie learned some of our ways, but she couldn't stand the business, and she had a bit of honest money of her own, so she gave us all the slip and got away to London. She had been engaged to me, and she would have married me, I believe, if I had taken over another profession, but she would have nothing to do with anything on the cross. It was only after her marriage to this Englishman that I was able to find out where she was. I wrote to her, but got no answer. After that I came over, and, as letters were no use, I put my messages where she could read them. "Well, I have been here a month now. wI lived in that farm, where I had a room down below, and could get in and out every night, and no one the wiser. I tried all I could to coax Elsie away. I knew that she read the messages, for once she wrote an answer under one of them. Then my temper got the better of me, and I began to threaten her. She sent me a letter then, imploring me to go away, and saying that it would break her heart if any scandal should come upon her husband. She said that she would come down when her husband was asleep at three in the morning, and speak with me through the end window, if I would go away afterwards and leave her in peace. She came down and brought money with her, trying to bribe me to go. This made me mad, and I caught her arm and tried to pull her through the window. At that moment in rushed the husband with his revolver in his hand. Elsie had sunk down upon the floor, and we were face to face. I was heeled also, and I held up my gun to scare him off and let me get away. He fired and missed me. I pulled off almost at the same instant, and down he dropped. I made away across the garden, and as I went I heard the window shut behind me. That's God's truth, gentlemen, every word of it, and I heard no more about it until that lad came riding up with a note which made me walk in here, like a jay, and give myself into your hands." A cab had driven up whilst the American had been talking. Two uniformed policemen sat inside. Inspector Martin rose and touched his prisoner on the shoulder. "It is time for us to go." "Can I see her first?" "No, she is not conscious. Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I only hope that if ever again I have an important case, I shall have the good fortune to have you by my side." We stood at the window and watched the cab drive away. As I turned back, my eye caught the pellet of paper which the prisoner had tossed upon the table. It was the note with which Holmes had decoyed him. "See if you can read it, Watson," said he, with a smile. It contained no word, but this little line of dancing men: "If you use the code which I have explained," I was convinced that it was an invitation which he would not refuse, since he could never imagine that it could come from anyone but the lady. And so, my dear Watson, we have ended by turning the dancing men to good when they have so often been the agents of evil, and I think that I have fulfilled my promise of giving you something unusual for your notebook. Three-forty is our train, and I fancy we should be back in Baker Street for dinner." Only one word of epilogue. The American, Abe Slaney, was condemned to death at the winter assizes at Norwich, but his penalty was changed to penal servitude in consideration of mitigating circumstances, and the certainty that Hilton Cubitt had fired the first shot. Of Mrs. Hilton Cubitt I only know that I have heard she recovered entirely, and that she still remains a widow, devoting her whole life to the care of the poor and to the administration of her husband's estate.	{ "source": "mutiyama", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
結果は科学および数学の開花であった。イスラム教の学者は知識の根幹に新しい知識を加え、天文学、地理学、数学の新しい分野など、新しい原理を発展させた。彼らはアラビア数字を発明し、単純で無限な計算を可能にした。	Muslim scholars added to the body of knowledge and developed new disciplines, such as astronomy, geography, and new branches of mathematics. They introduced numerals, enabling simple and limitless calculations.	{ "source": "news_commentary", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
の会計係の人が先にこちらに気付き、話しかけてきた。「いらっしゃいませ、お会計ですか?」「あ、えっと。はい、これを」フィニアが再会に驚きつつも、商品を差し出す。俺もそれに習い、別々に会計を済ませてもらった。「おや、あなた方は......確かフィニアさんでしたか」「はい。お久しぶり、ではないですね。まさかこんなに早く再会するなんて」「本当に。まだ数時間しか経ってませんね」これは友好を現すための物だろう。フィニアも笑顔を浮かべたままその手を握り返した。「あれはお土産ですか?」「ええ、記念に。ニコル様と交換するんです」「はは、実に仲睦まじくてよろしいですな!」「ビルさんはお仕事?」こんな場所でこれほど短時間に再会するのは、俺が求めていた事とは言え都合が良すぎると思ったからだ。「ええ、私の仕事は買い付けでしたからね。こちらの土産物を首都でも売ろうかと」「このハンカチもしっかりした造りをしてますからね」「わかりますか! 縁取りもしっかりしてますし、刺繍のセンスもいい。これなら首都でも充分に商品になる」「それなら、もう少し値段を上乗せすればよかったですね」どうやら俺が会計係の片割れと思っていた男は、ビルさんの交渉相手だったようだ。「それは困ります。仕入れ値が上がっては大損害だ!」「ハハハ、冗談ですよ。今後もご贔屓に」「それはもちろん。ですから値上げは勘弁願いますよ?」「大丈夫ですよ、原材料が高騰しない限りは」この調子だと、俺達と出会う前から付き合いのある店だったか。どうやらお手頃すぎる価格に疑心暗鬼に陥っていたようである。それならそれで、俺は元の目的を果たせばいい。「そうだ、ビルさん。これ、なにかわかりますか?」短剣は護身用という名目で持ち出してきたものだ。カタナと違って小さく取り回しやすいので、町中ではこちらの方が優秀な場面も多い。「ほほう......これは魔法が込められた道具ですな。詳しくは鑑定してみないと」「うん。でも何が込められているか、わからないから」「フム......その、申し上げにくいのですが......」「ん?」その声は人のいいオジサンの物ではなく、商人としての言葉だった。「アイテムの鑑定となれば、無料というわけには行きません。いくら知り合いでも、それは商売の範疇に入りますので」「あ、そうか」昔の魔法などは今の魔法とシステム自体が違うのので、鑑定しないとどんな効果があるのか推測すらできない。顔見知りというだけで、無料でサービスしていい物じゃない。「うん、わかった。いくらかな?」「一品で銀枚。結構お高いと思いますが......」宿に十泊できる値段である。だがマジックアイテムの価値となれば、それを遥かに超える価値を持つものも多い。「むぅ、たりない......」その程度の蓄えは、隠し持っている。しかしそれを旅行先まで持ち歩いているはずもない。「ニコル様、ここは私が」銀貨五十枚は結構な額である。こちらの町に来てコルティナからは給金を受け取っているフィニアだが、それでも厳しい額のはずだ。「大丈夫ですよ。私も使う当てがございませんから」「そう? じゃあお願い。後で絶対返すから」「はい」「絶対の絶対だよ?」「そんなに念を押さなくっても......」フィニアが腰元の巾着から金貨を1枚取り出し、ビルさんに渡す。「確かに受け取りました。それでは......場所はここでよろしいですかな?」だが俺は、このアイテムの内容を知らない。人攫いの連中が持っていたアイテムなので、知られるとヤバい代物の可能性もある。ならばはいない場所の方がいいだろう。「ここだと、すこし」「では、私の宿がこの近くにありますので、そちらで」「果実水くらいならご馳走しますよ」商人としての顔を引っ込め、にこやかにそう告げてきた。「私も美しいお嬢さん方とお茶をするのは楽しみですからね!」この言葉ばかりは彼の本音だと、俺でもわかった。	One of the cashiers noticed us first and addressed us. “Welcome, would you like the bill?” “Ah, err. Yes, for this.” Finia was surprised with this reunion, but still managed to show the clerk the item in question. I did the same and we paid our separate bills. At that point, Bill finally took notice of us and turned around. “Oh my, if I’m not mistaken... You were called Finia?” “Yes. A long time... it hasn’t been, huh? Who knew we would be meeting again so soon.” “You are quite right. It has only been a few hours.” He extended his right hand with a radiant smile. A handshake was both a greeting and an act of finalizing a negotiation. This time, it was probably out of friendship, though. Finia returned the handshake with a smile of her own. “Are those souvenirs?” “Yes, for the memory. Lady Nicole and I gave each other one.” “Haha, you seem to be quite close indeed!” “Are you here for work, Mr. Bill?” I asked while tilting my head as innocently as I could. Because while it was according to my wishes, it was still far too convenient to be meeting him here in such a short time. Bill answered without showing any signs of doubt at my question. “That’s right. Buying things is my work, after all. I was thinking of selling these souvenirs in the capital.” “This handkerchief is quite a fine work, too.” “Oh, you get it! The hemmings are quite sturdy and the embroidery is stylish on top of it. I’m sure they’d sell very well even in the capital.” “In that case, I should’ve raised the price a bit more.” The man who Bill was talking to commented in a joking tone. The man I initially thought to be one of the clerks turned out to be his negotiation partner. “That would be troubling. If the buying price rises, it would put me in a heavy loss!” “Hahaha, I’m just joking. I look forward to your continued patronage.” “Of course. But please save me from the rising prices, okay?” “That won’t happen as long as the prices of raw material don’t suddenly jump up.” Looking at how they acted, it seemed that Bill was acquainted with him long before he met us. He seemed to be quite suspicious due to how low the prices were. Either way, I just needed to fulfill my own goal now. “Oh, right, Mr. Bill, do you know what this is?” I retrieved the ring and dagger from my bag and showed it to him. I took the dagger under the pretext of self-defense. Unlike the Katana, this one was easier to handle and was more advantageous inside the town. “Oh... They seem to be tools with some kind of Magic. I have to appraise it to find out more.” “Right. I don’t know what kind of Magic they have.” “Hmm... Well, this is hard to bring up, but...” “Hmm?” It seemed that Bill caught on to my intention, he answered apologetically. It wasn’t the wording of a good-natured old man, but instead that of a merchant. “When it comes to appraising an item, I can’t do it for free. Even if we are acquaintances, that is still part of the business.” “Ah, is that so?” Item appraisals were surprisingly demanded. The current magic and system differed greatly from the Magic of old times, so it was impossible to guess what Magic something had without appraising it. A lot of such items could be found in ruins. And to appraise such items, people often asked for compensation. It wasn’t something he could do for free just because we were acquaintances. “Yeah, I got it. How much would that be?” “It would be silvers per item. I know it is quite pricey, but...” It was an amount that would last you for ten days at an inn. But when it came to Magic items, many of them were far more valuable. Still, I didn’t carry that much on hand now. “Mgh, I don’t have enough...” That wasn’t exactly the case. I secretly took money from those kidnappers. I already had that much hidden somewhere. But I didn’t carry it with me on a trip. “Lady Nicole, let me pay it.” “But...” Silvers was quite a big sum. After coming to this town, Cortina has been paying her, but it should’ve still been a painful amount for her. Of course, Finia at first refused to be paid, but given Cortina’s pushiness, she couldn’t manage it in the end. “It’s okay. I don’t have anything to spend on, anyway.” “Is that so? Then, please. I’ll definitely pay you back later.” “Okay.” “You don’t have to emphasize it so much...” Finia took a gold coin from her waist purse and handed it over to Bill. He accepted it and put it in his pocket. “I have certainly received it. Well then, are you fine with doing it here?” We were at the forefront of a souvenir shop. Anyone could be listening to our talk. Moreover, I didn’t know what I could expect. It was an item from the kidnappers, so there was a chance it was something dangerous. In that case, it was better to move somewhere without outsiders. “Here would be a little...” “Then, the inn I’m staying at is nearby, so let’s do it there.” “Are you sure?” “I can at least treat you to some fruit juice.” He withdrew his merchant’s expression, replacing it with a beaming smile. “It would be my pleasure to have tea with pretty ladies like you!” Those words, at least, came from his heart. That much I realized.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 0, "inserted_lines_src": 17, "inserted_lines_trg": 1 }
ミュリエルの力を封印している結界があった。その結界にはカニングハム子爵領の方角から魔力が流れてきている。これは確実だった。しかし結界も魔力も、目に見えるものではない。アイリスとイクリプスが感じ取れるだけだ。何の証拠にもならない。よって、物的証拠なり、犯人の自白なりを得る必要がある。というわけで、アイリスたちは再びカニングハム子爵領に行くことになった。今度は雪だるまを作るわけではないから、雪玉を転がさなくてもよい。皆でドラゴンの背中に乗っていけばそれで済む。「「さーいしょーはぐー。じゃーんけーんぽん!」」ドラゴン親子のジャンケンの結果、マリオンがカニングハム子爵領までの乗り物になることが決定した。「むぅ......お母さんの背中のほうが広くていいと思うんだけどなぁ」マリオンはぶつぶつ呟く。「いいじゃない。私がギガ・インフェルノ・フレイムをかけてあげるから。雪が降ってても暖かいでしょ」アイリスはマリオンをなだめる。「まあ、そうだけど......」何がそんなに嫌なのだろうか。「ふふ。マリオンは人間形態のまま、アイリスちゃんと遊びたかったのかしらー?」「そ、そういうわけじゃないけど......!」「そうなのぉ? まあ、ジャンケンで決まったことだから仕方がないわ。帰りはお母さんが代ってあげるから、行きは頑張ってー」マリオンは村の外でドラゴン形態になる。シルバーライト男爵領の住人たちは、もはやドラゴン程度のことでは見物にもこなくなってしまった。慣れというのは恐ろしい。、目をまん丸にして驚いている者がいた。異端審問官のケイティである。「ドラゴン! マリオンはドラゴンだったのですか!?」「あれ? ケイティの前でこの姿になったことなかったっけ?」マリオンは大きな口で言う。「ありませんよ! どおりでツノや尻尾があるわけですね。飾りかと思っていました」「ふっふっふ。飾りじゃないのよ。ぎゃおーん!」マリオンは空に向かって炎を吐いた。「おお、格好いい!」ケイティは大喜び。異端審問官よりドラゴンマニアのほうが向いているかもしれない。ドラゴンマニアが職業になるのかは不明だが。「遊んでないで、早く乗るのじゃー。妾の力を封じた者が本当にカニングハム子爵領にいるのか、確かめるのじゃー!」ミュリエルはマリオンの後ろに回り込み、尻尾からよじ登ろうとした。しかし、いくらウロコがあって掴みやすいとはいえ、ドラゴンの体は大きいし、生き物だから不安定だ。「の、のじゃぁ! マリオンよ、微動だにするでない!」「いや、無理言わないでよ」マリオンは言い返した。仕方ないなぁとアイリスは空を飛び、尻尾の真ん中くらいで立ち往生してしまったミュリエルの首根っこを掴んでマリオンの背中まで運んだ。そしてシェリルはプニガミに、ケイティはイクリプスに運ばれて登ってくる。なお、マリオンと同じくドラゴンであるジェシカは、人間形態でも身体能力が高いので、スキップするような軽やかさで娘の体を登ってきた。「さあ、出発なのじゃ!」「はいはい」ミュリエルの号令で、マリオンは雪原をのしのし歩き始めた。ドラゴンの歩幅でもカニングハム子爵領まで一時間以上はかかるだろう。だが飛んで行ったら町の人に襲撃かと思われてしまうので、やはり歩いて近づき、適当なところで人間形態になるのが無難だ。なのでアイリスたちは暇つぶしに、マリオンの背中でトランプで遊ぶことにした。「まずはトランプの基本。ポーカーをやりましょう」と、シェリルが提案した。「あ、私、ポーカーのルール知らないわ」アイリスとイクリプスは口をそろえる。「それも知らない......」「私もー」「ええ......じゃあ何だったら分かります?」「......実はトランプで遊ぶのは初めてだったりして」「うん、見るのも初めてだよー」「ありゃま。そうでしたか。ではルールの説明からですね」何せアイリスもイクリプスも、生まれてから一年も経っていない。ついこの前、カプセルの中で製造されたばかりの生物兵器なのだ。日常生活を送れるくらいの常識を教わってから送り出されたが、トランプのルールまでは流石に知らない。まずは神経衰弱というルールで遊ぶことになった。並べたトランプめくり、同じ数字がそろえばよいというシンプルなルールだったので、アイリスとイクリプスもすぐに理解できた。「神経衰弱に限らず、トランプで透視魔術は禁止なのじゃー」確かに透視などしたら、ゲームとして成り立たなくなってしまう。なので記憶力だけを頼りにトランプをめくることにした。「ふふふ。ボク、記憶力には自信があるんですよ」「次々と数字をそろえてしまい凄かったのじゃ。次はもっと運がからむルールにするのじゃ。ババ抜きなら、アイリスとイクリプスでもできるじゃろう」ジェシカが「うふふ」と笑いながらミュリエルを見つめる。「のじゃ!? そういうつもりはないのじゃ! そもそも妾だっ年前に生まれたのじゃ。ジェシカと同年代じゃ」「言われてみればそうだったわね。周りに若い子ばかりだったから、ちょっと神経質になっていたみたい。ミュリエルちゃん、仲良くしましょうね」ジェシカとミュリエルは肩を寄せ合う。言われてみれば、二人は同年代だった。ミュリエルがあまりにも子供っぽ過ぎて、アイリスは今まで気づけなかった。「うぅ......いいなぁ......私の背中で皆、楽しそうだなぁ......」可哀想だ。可哀想だが、アイリスたちにはどうすることもできない。「シェリル、すぐ表情に出るから分かりやすーい」イクリプスはシェリルの手札から一枚引きながら指摘する。「そ、そんなに分かりやすいですかぁ......?」「うん! 透視魔術よりもかんたーん」シェリルは肩を落とす。「なんか、百回やったら百回ともシェリルが最下位になりそうね」「アイリス様まで......じゃあ、次はババ抜き以外のルールでやりましょう......」そうやって遊び、マリオンの恨めし声を聞いているうちに、カニングハム子爵領の城壁が見えてきた。「マリオン。そろそろ人間形態になって。じゃないとドラゴンが襲撃に来たって騒ぎになっちゃうわ」「分かった。じゃあ皆、背中から退いて」登ったときと同じようにして、アイリスたちは雪原に降りる。そして人間形態になったマリオンと一緒に、歩いてカニングハム子爵領の城門まで向かう。「のじゃのじゃ。隣のシルバーライト男爵領から来たのじゃ。通して欲しいのじゃー」門番たちはミュリエルの顔を覚えていたので、顔パスで通ることができた。これで町の中を捜査することができる。とはいえ、カニングハム子爵領は村ではなく町。二千人くらいは住んでいそうだ。かといって手がかりもないので、ひとまずは教会に行くことにした。この土地の守護神であるロシュに事情を話せば、協力してくれるかもしれない。というわけで話してみた。「――なるほど。ミュリエルには封印が施されていて、その術式にこの町から魔力が流れ込んでいるってわけか」「でも、あたしは心当たりないぜ?」「別にロシュを疑っているわけではないのじゃ。しかし神の力を封印するとなれば、並大抵の魔術師には無理なのじゃ。だから、並ではない魔術師を探すのじゃー」「......その、魔力の発生源がこの町だってのは確かなのか?」「私の探知魔術によればそうよ。まあ、この町というか、この町がある方角からというのが正確なんだけど......この辺には他に何もないし」ロシュの質問にアイリスが答える。「荒野を緑に変えてしまうほどの守護神の探知魔術は無視できないな......」ロシュは顎に手を当てて考え込む。なにせロシュとミュリエルは友人同士。友人の力を封じた犯人が自分の町いるなど、考えたくはないだろう。しかしアイリスは嘘をついていない。つく理由もない。「ボクの推理でもこの町が怪しいです!」とケイティが自信たっぷりに言う。するとロシュは彼女をジロリと睨んだ。「へえ......異端審問官に疑われるとは、この町も有名になったもんだな。あたしは邪神認定されるのか?」「い、いえ......決してそのようなことは......ただボクはリンゴが、二百年前のリンゴの件がぁぁ!」シルバーライト男爵領の守護神は三人とも呑気だが、ロシュは違う。ちゃんと守護してそうな守護神だ。そんなロシュに睨まれたケイティは、ガクガク震えながら、意味不明なことを叫ぶ。「リンゴ?」ロシュは眉をピクリと動かした。「は、はい! 二百年前、シルバーライト男爵領が無人になったおかげで、このカニングハム子爵領のリンゴが人気を取り戻したので、犯人がいるとすればここかなぁ、なんて推理を......」こんな根拠の薄い推理を守護神に向かって言うとは、かなり度胸が必要な行いだ。もっともケイティは度胸が据わっているのではなく、たんにパニックになっているだけだろう。しかしロシュは気分を害する様子もなく、むしろ真剣な顔で考え込んでしまった。「二百年前のリンゴ......いや、あたしも実は変だと思っていたんだが......でもそうすると犯人は......」ロシュは一人でブツブツ呟き始める。アイリスたちは訳が分からず、ポカンとするしかない。ただケイティだけは、自分がよっぽどロシュの機嫌を損ねたのかと焦り、あたふたと手を動かす。「えっと、あの、その。やっぱりボクの推理、変ですよね。だって二百年前に封印されたのに、今も魔力が流れてきているなんて......人間の寿命も能力も超えています。そんなことができるのは、それこそ神様くらいしか......」と、そこまで語り、ケイティはさっきよりも失礼なことを言っていると気がついて自分の口を塞いだ。「ケイティさん。早く謝ったほうがいいですよ......そうすれば、ロシュ様も命まで取ろうとはしないはずです......」シェリルが小さな声でケイティに耳打ちしていた。「命だけはお助けくださぁい......」ケイティは半泣きで床で土下座を始めた。よくこれで異端審問官が務まるなぁとアイリスは呆れたが、務まっていないから誰もチームを組んでくれず一人で行動しているのかもしれない。「ケイティだったっけ? あんたが言っているとおり、二百年間も神の力を封じるなんて、それこそ神にしかできないことさ。そして、神意大教団のあんたなら知ってるだろ? 二百年前、この土地の守護神はあたしじゃなかった。あたしの父親、ガーシュさ」「そ、そうです......そうでした。先代の守護神ガーシュ様は、この地上で生まれた神でありながら、天上世界の神へと出世したのです。とても珍しい出来事なので、教団でも有名な話です!」「そう、地上の神が天上世界に行くのはとても珍しい。ガーシュはそれだけ強い守護神へと成長したってことさ。あたしはそんな父親の後を継ぐことが誇らしかった。でも、あたしはオヤジがどうやってそんな強い神へと成長したのかまでは知らないんだ。考えてみれば不思議な話だよ。天上世界に行く直前までは、今のあたしとそんなに変わらない力だったはずなんだけど......」ロシュは低い声で、ゆっくりと語った。部屋に沈黙が流れる。別にロシュの父親がミュリエルを封印したという話ではない。たんに、どうやって強くなったのか分からないというだけのことだ。しかし、それでも。まさか、と思ってしまった。「考えていたって始まらないわよぉ? やっぱりこういうのは、地道な調査が大切だと思うのよー」ジェシカがいつものように、のほほんとした声で沈黙を破った。「お母さん。地道な調査と言っても、手がかりもないのに、どこを調査するのよ?」「あらー。手がかりならあるじゃなーい」そう言ってジェシカはミュリエルを指差す。「のじゃぁ?」「私たちは、ミュリエルちゃんに流れ込む魔力を追いかけてここまで来たのよ。発生源に近づいたんだから、探知魔術をもう一度やれば、前よりも細かいことが分かるんじゃないのかしら? 魔力の流れを断ち切れば、犯人が分からなくても、少なくてもミュリエルちゃんの力は元に戻るかもしれないしー」「うーむ、なるほど。ものは試しじゃ。アイリス、もう一度、探知魔術をやるのじゃ」もしかしたら、この町のどこが魔力の発生源なのか、具体的に分かるかもしれない。そこに行けば、少なくとも手がかりくらいはあるだろう。希望的観測だが、希望がある以上はやってみる価値がある。「......えっと、あっち」再びミュリエルの背中に手を当てて探知魔術を使ったアイリスは、感じ取った方角を指差す。するとロシュが呟いた。「領主の館がある方角だぜ」	There was a barrier sealing Muriel’s power. This barrier was supplied with magical power coming from the direction of Cunningham Viscounty. This much was an established fact. However, neither of those could be seen with a naked eye. Only Iris and Eclipse could feel it. That was not enough to serve as proof. They needed a piece of actual evidence or the criminal’s confession. Iris and the rest headed to Cunningham Viscounty once again. This time they weren’t making a snowman, so there was no need to roll snowballs. Everyone simply went on a dragon’s back. 「「Rock paper scissors!」」 As a result of a match, Marion turned into a vehicle for the rest to reach Cunningham Viscounty. 「Muu.....even though mother’s back is wider」 Muttered Marion. 「Isn’t it fine? I’ll support you with Giga Inferno Flame. You won’t get cold」 Iris tried to cheer her up. But she was still grumpy. Why was she so against it? 「Fufu. Perhaps you wanted to play with Iris-chan as we go?」「It’s not the case, but....!」「Is that so~? Well, you’ve lost and have to bear with it. I’ll carry everyone on the way back」「Alright......」 Marion transformed into a dragon outside the village. The residents of Silverlight Barony weren’t a sort to be surprised at a mere dragon. Adaptability is frightening. Although there was still one surprised person. Katie the Inquisitor. 「Dragon! Marion was a dragon all along!」「Mm? Did you perhaps not see this before?」 Said Marion with her big mouth. 「I didn’t! No wonder you have horns and tail attached. I thought they were for decoration」「Fufufu. It’s not accessories. Gaooon!」 Marion roared towards the sky. 「Oh, so cool!」 Katie rejoiced. Perhaps this particular inquisitor was a dragon maniac. Although it’s unknown whether dragon maniac is a proper occupation. 「Don’t dilly dally and get on. We are going to confirm if the culprit is really in Cunningham Viscounty!」 Muriel circled behind Marion and tried to climber her using her tail. However, even though there were scales to grab, a dragon is a big and breathing creature. 「N-No jaa! Stay still, Marion!」「Don’t ask the impossible」 Marion replied. Without any other option, Iris flew up, grabbed Muriel as she clung to the scaly tail, and carried her to Marion’s back. Following, Sheryl, with Punigami’s help, and Katie, with Eclipse’s help, climbed too. In the end, Jessica, who retained her dragon power, easily skipped on her daughter’s back. 「Depart!」「Yes yes」 After Muriel’s command, Marion walked forward through the snowy field. Even on a dragon, the trip would take about an hour. However, if they try to approach the city from above, people might treat it as an attack. They chose to walk and transform back as they got close. To kill time, they decided to play cards on Marion’s back. 「Let’s start with basics. Like poker」 Sheryl suggested. 「I don’t know the rules」「Me too~」 Iris and Eclipse spoke in synch. 「Don’t know that either.....」「Eeh.....then what do you know?」「....Actually, that’s my first time playing cards」「Un, first time seeing them~」「Alright then. Let me explain the rules」 It hasn’t been a year since Iris and Eclipse were born. They were just out of the lab. They were taught enough information to live their lives, but it didn’t include card games. They started with the basics. Having two cards with the same number was a good thing, Iris and Eclipse easily remembered that. 「Clairvoyance magic is forbidden」 Indeed, it won’t be enjoyable if you know the numbers of others. Thus, they decided to rely only on their memory. 「Fufufu. I have confidence in my memory」「You were amazing gathering those numbers. Let’s make a rule that relies more on luck. Even Iris and Eclipse should be able to play Old Maid」「Are you perhaps aiming at me with Old Maid?」 Jessica looked at Muriel as she laughed. 「No ja!? There is no such intention! This Mistress was born three hundred years ago. Same as you」「Come to think of it, that’s true. I was nervous since there are only younglings around me. Let’s get along, Muriel-chan」 Muriel sat close to Jessica. The two were in the same age group. Iris never noticed since Muriel always acted so childish. 「Uu......so nice......you seem to be having fun riding my back......」 Pitiful fellow. She was pitiful, but there was nothing Iris could do about it. 「Sheryl is so easy to see through」 Said Eclipse as she took on of Sheryl’s cards. 「A-Am I that easy.....?」「Yep! Easier than with clairvoyance magic」 Sheryl’s shoulders drooped. 「Sheryl seems like a person that will lose a hundred games out of a hundred」「Even Iris-sama....then let’s play something other than Old Maid next.....」 As they played and Marion grumbled, they eventually saw the wall of Cunningham Viscounty. 「Marion. It’s about time you become human. Else, they’ll think it’s a dragon attack」「Alright. Get down from my back everyone」 They climbed down the same way they got up. Together with Marion in her human form, they walked towards the gate. 「No ja no ja. We came from the neighboring Silverlight Barony. Let us pass」 Since the gatekeepers remembered her face, they were easily let inside. They could now investigate inside the city now. That being said, Cunningham Viscounty wasn’t a village. Its population is about two thousand. Since they didn’t have any clues they chose to go to the church. The Guardian Deity of this city, Roshe, might be of help. And so they told her everything. 「.....I see. So Muriel’s seal receives magical power from this city」「But I don’t know anything about it」「It’s not like we are suspecting you. However, no average magician can seal a god’s power. That’s why we are searching for a non-average one」「......Are you sure this town is the source of magical power?」「According to my detection magic it is. Well, it’s more like it comes from this direction....but there is nothing else here except this city」 Iris answered Roshe’s question. 「Detection magic from someone who can turn a wasteland into grassland can’t be underestimated....」 Roshe thought with her hand on her chin. Alter all, Muriel and Roshe are friends. She probably doesn’t want to suspect her own people. However, Iris didn’t lie. She had no reason to. 「My reasoning tells me this city is suspicious!」 Said Katie with a great deal of confidence. Which earned her a glare from Roshe. 「Oh.....to be suspected by an inquisitor this city must’ve become famous. Are you saying I’m an evil deity?」「N-No.....no such things......it’s just about apples, two hundred years ago apples GAA!」 The trio of deities from Silverlight Barony might be carefree but Roshe is different. She’s a Guardian Deity that actually guards. Being glared at by Roshe, Katie screamed something incomprehensible as she trembled. 「Apples?」 Roshe raised her eyebrow. 「Y-Yes! Apples from Cunningham Viscounty became popular again when Silverlight Barony turned into a wasteland, so I thought it’s a good lead」 One must have considerable courage to say something with so little basis. Though in her case it was of a panic than courage. However, Roshe wasn’t offended and thought it through seriously. 「Two hundred years ago, apples......I thought it was strange......which means the culprit is.....」 Roshe began talking to herself. Iris and the rest had nothing to do except being dumbfounded. Only Katie thought she worsened Roshe’s mood and swung her hands in a fluster. 「Emm, I mean, you know. My conjecture is weird, right? I mean she’s been sealed for two hundred years, but magical power still flows......it surpasses a human’s lifespan and ability. Only a god could possibly do something like that.....」 Then she noticed she said something even more offensive and hurriedly sealed her mouth. 「Katie-san. You better apologize......most likely Roshe-sama won’t take your life if you do so......」 Sheryl whispered to Katie. 「Please don’t take my life....」 Katie almost prostrated on the floor as she cried. She did well working as an inquisitor alone all this time, no, perhaps she’s alone because no one wants to work with her. 「Katie, was it? As you’ve said, only a god could seal another god’s power for two hundred years. Since you are affiliated with Great Temple of Divine Will you must know. Back then, I wasn’t a Guardian Deity, my father, Gashe, was」「T-That’s right....that’s right. You predecessor managed to ascend to Heaven despite being born on in this world. It’s a famous topic in Great Temple of Divine Will!」「Yes, it’s a rare occasion for a god to ascend. Gashe grew in power with great momentum. It was my honor to take his place. But I have no idea where did his power come from. It’s strange if you think about it. His was about as powerful as the current me until the moment he ascended......」 Roshe spoke in a low voice. Silence enveloped the room. It’s not like her father sealed Muriel’s power. She only wondered how her father suddenly became so strong. You couldn’t help but think. 「Nothing will come out even if you sit here all day~. I think investigating the surrounding will be more productive」 Jessica nonchalantly interrupted everyone’s train of thought. 「Mother. Where are we going to search if we don’t even know where to start?」「Ara. We do have a clue, though」 Having said so, Jessica pointed at Muriel. 「No ja?」「We came here following traces of magical energy from Muriel-chan. Since we are now much closer to the source one more use of detection magic might just do the trick. don’t you think? Even if we only cut off the source without finding the criminal, Muriel-chan’s power might come back」「Umu, I see. It’s worth trying. Iris, use detection magic again」 If the source is in this city, she may be able to find it. Or at least there will be a new clue. A great deal of wishful thinking was involved, but it was worth a try. 「.....Emm, there」 Once again, she put her hands on Muriel’s back while activating detection magic and pointed a direction. Then Roshe muttered. 「It’s in the direction of the Lord’s mansion」	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 1, "inserted_lines_src": 14, "inserted_lines_trg": 13 }
私とヴィクターの声が重なる。手を顔から離してしまった。咄嗟の反応でこんなことになるなんて......。最近絶体絶命の状況によくなるわね。「お前、腹立つぐらい美人だな」「最初に言う感想がそれ?」本当に女だったんだな、とか、なんで左目無いんだ、とか。「やっぱり、王子っていうのはこのぐらいのことじゃ動揺しないのね」ヴィクターを騙し続けることは諦めて、普通の話し方に戻す。「動揺してるに決まってるじゃねえか。臭い少年が、美少女だったんだぞ?」「臭くて悪かったわね」「安心しろ、今はもう臭くない」ヴィクターは私の方へゆっくり近づいて来る。逃げたいのに、逃げたところで行き場所がない。今、彼と交渉する方良い。......どこまで私の話を聞いてくれるか分からないけど。「お前、なんでここに来た?」「役に立ちたくて」「出身は?」「貧しい町よ」「貧しいわりには高貴な顔しているけどな」どんな顔よ、それ。ヴィクターは私の顔をまじまじと見つめる。こんな間近で顔を凝視されたのなんて初めてだわ。私、これからどうなるのかしら。デュルキス国の令嬢なんて事実を知られたら一瞬で首が飛びそうだし。けど、ヴィクターは案外もう気付いてそうだし......。「黄金の目か......。片目だけでよくあんな動き出来たな。しかも目にはこんな布切れを巻いて」彼はそう言って、手にしているぼろい布にチラッと目を向ける。「私をどうするの?」「お前が害ある人間かそうでないかは分からない。だが、役に立つ。この王宮にいる限りは存分に利用する」「私の正体は誰にも言わないの?」「言っても俺に得はないしな。だが、この布切れは臭いから新しいのにしろ」女の子に対して、臭い臭いって言い過ぎじゃない? けど、私、ここに置いてもらえるのね。少し驚いた。正直、もう城から出て行けって追い出されるのかと思ってたもの。さっきまで、追い出された後、どう情報収集しようかって少し考えていたところなのに。「本当の名前はなんて言うんだ?」「......アリシア」顔を見せた時点で名前を知られても特に変わらない。「アリシアだからリアか」ヴィクターは納得するように頷く。男の子を演じるんだからもっと違う名前にした方が良かったかしら。マイケルとか、ジョンとか。「お前に一つだけ確認する」「何?」「お前はこの国の人間か?」「......この国の人間は古語を喋れるが、お前は言えるか?」あら、古語は得意よ間小屋に閉じこもっていた時に、全ての国の古語を覚えたんだから。『新しい布切れはどこで手にはいるの?』そう言うと、彼の黄緑色の瞳が散瞳した。 ......どうして、驚くのよ。この国では当たり前なのよね? 『ついて来い』少し間があった後に彼も古語でそう答えた。歩き始めた彼の背中を追う。出来るだけ皆に顔を見られないように俯きながら歩く。「この国の参謀でも古語なんて言えねえよ」ヴィクターが何かぼそりと呟いたみたいだが、聞き取れなかった。	My voice and Victor’s voice overlap. I pulled my hands away from my face. I couldn’t believe my spur-of-the-moment reaction had landed me into this mess. Why am I constantly finding myself in desperate situations these days? “You’re so beautiful it’s annoying.” “That’s the first thing you have got to say to me?” “You’re really a woman, but why is your left eye missing?” “A prince wouldn’t be upset by something like this, after all.” I gave up trying to fool Victor and returned to normal speech. “Of course, but I’m still upset. A boy who stinks has become a beautiful girl?” “I’m sorry I smelled so bad.” “Don’t worry, it doesn’t stink anymore.” Victor slowly approached me. I wanted to run away, but I had nowhere to go even if I tried. It would be best to negotiate with him now. ...I didn’t know how much he would listen to me, though. “Why did you come here?” “I wanted to be useful.” “Where are you from?” “From a poor village.” “You have a pretty noble face for someone from a poor village.” Well, what kind of face do you want? Victor stared at my face intently. I’ve never had someone stare at my face this closely before. I don’t know what’s going to happen to me now. I feel like I’m going to lose my head in an instant if he finds out that I’m the daughter of the Duelkis. But Victor might be aware of it already... “A golden eye.... I don’t know how you can move like that with only one eye. And with such a piece of cloth wrapped around that eye.” He said, glancing at the ragged cloth in his hand. “What are you going to do with me?” “I don’t know if you’re a dangerous person or not. But you are useful. As long as you are in this royal palace, I will use you to the fullest.” “You’re not going to tell anyone who I am?” “It’s not in my best interest to tell them. But this rag stinks, so get a new one.” Isn’t that a bit much to ask of a girl? But they’re letting me stay here, aren’t they? I was a little surprised. To be honest, I thought I was going to be kicked out of the castle. I was just thinking how I would gather information if they kicked me out. “What’s your real name?” “...Alicia.” It didn’t matter if he knew my name or not because I had already revealed my face. “Alicia, so that’s why you’re Ria.” I nodded in agreement. I probably should have used a different name, since I’m playing a boy. Like Michael or John. “I just want to make sure of one thing with you.” “What?” “Do you belong to this country?” “..People in this country can speak the ancient language. Can you speak it?” Well, of course I could. When I was cooped up in my cabin for two years, I learned all the ancient languages of all the countries. [Where do I find new cloth pieces?] As I said this, his yellow-green eyes dilated. ...Why did that surprise you? It should be a common language in this country, shouldn’t it? [Follow me.] After a short pause, he also replied in the ancient language. As he started walking, I followed behind him. I walked with my head down, trying to avoid being seen by everyone as much as possible. “Even the chief of staff of this country can’t speak in ancient language.” Victor seemed to have mumbled something, but I didn’t catch it.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 1, "inserted_lines_src": 1, "inserted_lines_trg": 0 }
想定による圧制について疑問を投げかけ、そして審問されないままのドクサを避けるためには、私たち自身が持つ仮定を、討論や話し合いにさらさなければなりません。なので私はここで討論を用いて、今の時代の大切な問題、つまり様々な形式の資本をどのように国家建設のために流通させるのかについて話したいと思います。その仮定を明確にします。 150年経ち、資本主義は受け入れられるようになり、民主主義も好まれるようになりました。 1945年の世界を覗いて、資本主義経済と民主主義国家の地図をみると、これらが当時は異例だった事が分かります。しかし、ここでの疑問はどの形式の資本主義でそしてどの形式の民主主義かという事です。認識しなければならないのは、今この瞬間に、珍しく想定に関して意見の一致がある事です。そしてその一致は行動への基盤となるのです。なぜならその瞬間ごとにある意見の一致が行動につながるからです。そしてどんなにもろく、一時的な意見の一致だとしても前に進まなければいけません。世界の大半が資本主義や民主主義から利益を得るわけではないのです。世界のほとんどで抑圧的な国家に統治されたことがあり、そういった国家の懸念は権利の拒否や、正当性の否定であり、それらの支持ではないのです。そして資本主義の経験の中には、 2つの局面があり残りの世界はそれを経験します。まず最初に、搾取産業です。紛争ダイアモンド、密輸されたエメラルド、木材、最も貧しい場所から切りだされたもの。次に技術支援です。びっくりするかもしれませんが、技術支援は現代において最低で見苦しい形での発展国から発展途上国への支援なのです。何十億ものドルが能力構築のため払われていると想像され、そのため1日で最高1500ドル払われる人がいますが、彼らは時に創造的あるいは組織的に考える事ができない人達です。次の想定−− そして7月7日の出来事について、深い同情を感じ、そしてその前に9月11日が思い出させてくれるのは、私たちが 3つの違った世界に住んでいるのではないという事です。 1つの世界に住んでいるのです。でもそれを言うのは簡単です。私たちはその1つの世界が暗示するものを扱っているのではありません。そして、もし1つの世界を持つ事を望むならその世界の基盤として大規模な排除やその他への包括があってはいけません。今、最終的に私たちが真剣に考えなければいけないのは真の国際的な世界の前提について、そしてその世界での権利、そして責任や責務の国際的な管理体制を視野に入れることです。そうしなければ、私たちはこの歴史で開かれた瞬間を、私たちの意見が政治そして経済の体制について一致する瞬間を逃してしまうのです。そのうち、どの組織を選べばよいのでしょう? 重要な条件が3つあります経済、市民社会、そして国家。最初の2つについては話しませんが、いいかげんに想定を 1つの状況から他へと移動させるとそれは大惨事になる事は言っておきます。経済ですが、ほとんどのエリート大学で教えられているものは私の背景からは、全く意味の無いものです。私の国はマフィアや麻薬による経済に支配されています。教科書にある経済はこのような状況では意味がありませんし、誰も、どのようにして合法的な経済を組み立てればいいか教えてくれません。私たちの知識の貧しさは前に進む最初の基盤にならなければいけません。数学的なモデルを土台にして取り組む構想の負担になってはいけません。尊敬はしていますが。ジョンホプキンスにいる仲間は特に素晴らしいです。そして2つ目に、終わらない討論をして、国家の体制について話すよりも、もっと簡潔にして訪ねるのです。どのような機能が 21世紀の国家に必要なのか? クレアロックハートと私はこれについて本を書いているので皆さんと分け合えたらと思っています。そして3つめに、実際に指標を作成するのです。比較しながら必要だと合意された機能が様々な場所でどのように機能しているか測るのです。その機能とは一体、何でしょう? 私たちから10の提案があります。まず合法的な暴力手段の独占、行政管理、財政管理、人的資本への投資、市民の権利の確保、インフラストラクチャーの供給、規則を通した上での国家の有体・無体資産の管理、市場の創出、そして公的債務を含めた国際協定、そして最も大切なのは、法の支配です。それについては詳しく話しません。質問の際に話す機会があるでしょう。これらは実現可能な目標なのです。なぜなら、一般的な推測に反していますが、どのように実現できるのか私たちは知っているのです。誰が想像できたでしょう、ドイツが今現在、統一された民主国家になることを。もしも1943年のオックスフォードの視点から見ていたら無理だと言っていたでしょう。しかしオックスフォードの人達はドイツの民主化に備えていたし、計画にも力を入れていたのです。他にも例はたくさんあります。それを実現するためには、重要になるのが、資本の概念について考え直さなければなりません。この計画の中で最も重要さにかける資本の形は金融資本、つまりお金です。ほとんどの発展途上国で、お金は資本ではありません。ただの現金なのです。というのは、お金は制度的、組織的、管理的な形状に欠けるため、資本にならないのです。必要なのは肉体資本や制度資本、人的資本、保安のバランスが大切なのです。しかし情報も大切です。ここで気にかけるべきなのは、これこそが先ほどの資本達に提起したい難問ですが、 16年かかってあなた達の国ではやっと理学士の学位がとれるのです。そして20年かかってからようやく博士号を取る事ができます。ここでの難問は、根本的に時間の問題を考え直さなければいけません。私たちが相続したモダリティーを繰り返す必要があるのでしょうか? 教育制度は19世紀から受け継いだものです。根本的に、もう一度力を入れて、迅速な資本創出するには何をしなければいけないのでしょう? 世界の人口の絶対多数が 20才以下で、速い速度で増え続けています。彼らには違った形でアプローチする必要があります。それぞれの方法で参政権を得たり、それぞれに合った技術の学び方があるのです。それがまず最初。 2つめに、あなたは問題を解決したくても、国際的な責任にしっかり目を向けていないのです。離れたままで汚職を見逃してきたのです。機能できる汚れなき場所が欲しいだけなのです。でもあなたが汚職について考えなければ誰が考えるのでしょう? あなたは開発の企画からも離れてしまっているのです。素晴らしい企画者なのに、自分勝手な企画しかしないのです。自分の為になることだけです。私がいる世界で、デザインは道、ダム、そして電気供給のための役割があるのに、 60年間改訂されなかったのです。おかしな事です。もっと考える必要があるのです。でも、特に私たちにとって資本の中で他のなによりも必要なのはあなたの想像力が問題に影響を与え、ミームのように機能するという事です。昔、パラダイムについての研究 -- トーマスクーンの研究が唱えたようにアイデアの交差点で新しい発展が本当の意味でやっと生まれるのです。このグループが国家や開発と向き合い、そして世界中の多くの貧しい人々の活性化をこの方法で行ってくれる事を願っています。ありがとうございます。 (拍手) アシュラフ、最近までアフガニスタンの財務大臣をやっていたそうですが、世界で議題になっている国ですよね。これからこの国はどうなるのでしょう? 民主主義は広がるんでしょうか?あなたは何が一番怖い事だと思いますか? 私が最も恐れてるのは --あなたです。あなたが真剣に取り組んでいない事。聞いたのはあなたでしょ?私はいつも変わった答え方をしてしまうんです。いえ、でもこれは本当です。アフガニスタンの問題はまず最初に 10年から20年の期間を視野に入れて考えなければなりません。現代でのグローバリゼーションは急速に進んでいます。時間は収縮されてしまったのです。空間というのは多くの人にとって、存在しないも同然です。でも私の世界では 23年経ってからアフガニスタンに戻ったときは、空間は広がっていたのです。もともとあったインフラはすべて崩壊していたのです。運転したときも昔は3時間で行けたはずの2つの都市なのに今では12時間もかかってしまいます。まず最初に、そのようなスケールの場合に認識しなければいけないのはインフラのようにシンプルに思える事でも完成するのに6年はかかるという事です。私達の世界ではの話です。重要な事はすべて同じです。でも注目されるのは今日や明日に起こっている事ばかりです。 2つめに国が、大規模かつ残忍な権力に属していた時、国には赤軍が連続して10年間もいて 11万の兵を抱えていたのです。本当に恐ろしかったです。空.. すべてのアフガニスタン人は空を恐怖として見るのです。爆弾により存在を消されてしまったも同然です。そして何万人もの人々がテロの訓練を受けたのです-- いろいろな側面から。例えば、アメリカ合衆国やイギリスはエジプトの情報機関に参加し、何千人もの人々を都市テロに備えて訓練しました。どのようにして自転車をテロの道具にかえてしまうか。ロバや荷馬車など、何でもそうです。ロシアも同じです。暴力が起こると、アフガニスタンのような国では歴史のせいだと言えます。しかし理解しないといけないのは私たちは実は幸運に恵まれて来たという事です。私は信じられないくらいに、皆さんの前で話ができるのを幸運に思います。私が財務大臣になった時、 3年以上生きられる確率は 5%未満だと思っていました。そのリスクは、価値のあるものでした。私たちなら出来るのです。なぜ出来るかと言うと、人々のおかげです。なぜか -- 統計の例をあげましょう。アフガニスタンでは91%の男性と、 86%の女性が 1日で最低3つのラジオ局を聞いています。論議や、世界に対しての知識は私から見るととても洗練されていて大学を卒業したアメリカ人や一部のヨーロッパの人よりも優れているでしょう。なぜかというと世界は彼らにとってとても重要だからです。そして彼らの最も心配な事とは何か? 見捨てられる事です。アフガニスタン人はとても国際主義になりました。 2001年の12月に帰ったときには、アフガニスタンの政府と仕事をする気など、全くありませんでした。私は国家主義だったからです。私の国の人とアメリカ人は、別々だとその時言いました。私は国際連合で諮問役をしています。急速にアフガニスタンで10州を訪れました。人々は口をそろえて、ここは違う世界だと言いました。彼らは真剣に取り組んでいるのです。そして彼らにとって、世界レベルで力を入れ取り組むことが平凡な人々の未来にとって、とても重要な事なのです。そして平凡なアフガニスタン人が心配しているのは -- クレアロックハートという人がここにいるのですが、彼女がアフガニスタン北地方の読み書きの出来ない女の人と話したことをここで引用させてもらいます -- その女の人は、テーブルに食べ物があるかはもう気にしていないと言いました。彼女が心配していたのは未来の計画についてでした。彼女の子供達が違う生活をできる未来があるかという事。私はそれに希望を感じました。アフガニスタンはどのようにして代わりになる収入源を提供し、麻薬貿易により生計を立てている人達に新しい生活を与えられるのでしょう? そうですね。まず最初に、何億ドルものお金を送りこんで麻薬撲滅を図ったり警備保障会社に支払うのではなく、そのお金を 50の世界中で最も改新的な会社に支払い、その会社に百万人分の仕事を生み出すように頼むべきです。麻薬撲滅へのキーは仕事なのです。ここで、あまりよく知られていない事実ですが、一人当たりの所得が1000ドル以上の国は麻薬を生産していないのです。 2つめは繊維工業です。重要なのは貿易であり、援助であありません。アメリカとヨーロッパは関税をゼロにするべきです。繊維工業は可動性の強い工業です。もしアフガニスタンに、中国と競争し投資を誘致出来るようになって欲しいならアフガニスタンはきっと 40−60億ドル程、簡単に繊維工業に引きつけられるでしょう。もし関税がなければの話です。そして仕事も生み出されるでしょう。綿ではアヘンに勝てません。 Tシャツでなら勝負ができるのです。それが価値連鎖だという事を理解する必要があります。いいですか、平凡なアフガニスタン人はマイクロクレジットについてもう聞き飽きています。大切な事ですが、マイクロクレジットを受けている平凡な人々はもっと大規模な世界に参加する事を望んでいます。チャリティーバザーで売る事は望んでませんし、そこでは外国人しか買いにきてくれません。そして同じシャツを何度も刺繍することも望んでないのです。私たちが欲しいのはパートナーシップであり、イタリアのデザイン会社と協力する事です。アフガニスタンには世界で最も優れた刺繍のプロ達がいるんだから! イタリアの北地方で行われた事がなぜ私たちはできないのでしょう? 問屋制家内工業のように? 経済的には重要なのはしっかり考え抜く事です。そして私は、援助は意味がないとここできっぱり言います。援助のシステムはもう崩壊してしまいました。援助のシステムに、知識やビジョン、そして才能などありません。私は援助に賛成していました。実際にたくさん集めましたし。もっと正確には、世界を相手に、私の国に275億ドルほど援助するようにと説得する事ができたのです。世界はお金を渡したくなかったのです。なのにうまくいかなかったのですか? いいえ、援助がうまくいかなかったのではありません。それよりも、1ドルの私的投資が私の判断では 20ドルの援助と同じ価値があり同じくらいの原動力をもたらすのです。次に、1ドルの援助は10セント、 20セント、または4ドルとかわらないのです。どのような形式で与えられるか、そしてどのような条件が援助と共についてくるかによってかわるのです。援助システムは、最初から、利益が発展国の起業家に届くようにデザインされていて、貧しい国の成長のためではなかったのです。これは、再びですが、仮定のうちの一つなのです。例えば車のシートが政府から受けた仮定と同じようなものです。ドアも。あなたなら、アメリカの政府はアメリカの会社に助成金が必要だなんて考えないと思うでしょうが、発展途上国で機能していくためのアドバイスなどを政府は提供してるのです。多くの歴史が援助に相対してもう一度見直されなければなりません。目的が、国家建設で国がしっかり自身の責任をとれるようにする事なら私の提案も平等にとらえているつもりなのにカウンターパートに対して私は厳しいですが援助は終わらなければなりません。それぞれの国で限定された期間のうちに。そして毎年なければならないのは、国内収入の流動と、経済発生の進展です。そのような契約が交わされない限り意見の一致は長く続けられないでしょう。	It is in this spirit that I join into a discussion of one of the critical issues of our time, namely, how to mobilize different forms of capital for the project of state building. To put the assumptions very clearly: capitalism, after 150 years, has become acceptable, and so has democracy. If we looked in the world of 1945 and looked at the map of capitalist economies and democratic polities, they were the rare exception, not the norm. The question now, however, is both about which form of capitalism and which type of democratic participation. But we must acknowledge that this moment has brought about a rare consensus of assumptions. And that provides the ground for a type of action, because consensus of each moment allows us to act. And it is necessary, no matter how fragile or how provisional our consensus, to be able to move forward. But the majority of the world neither benefits from capitalism nor from democratic systems. Most of the globe experiences the state as repressive, as an organization that is concerned about denial of rights, about denial of justice, rather than provision of it. And in terms of experience of capitalism, there are two aspects that the rest of the globe experiences. First, extractive industry. Blood diamonds, smuggled emeralds, timber, that is cut right from under the poorest. Second is technical assistance. And technical assistance might shock you, but it's the worst form of -- today -- of the ugly face of the developed world to the developing countries. Tens of billions of dollars are supposedly spent on building capacity with people who are paid up to 1,500 dollars a day, who are incapable of thinking creatively, or organically. Next assumption -- and of course the events of July 7, I express my deep sympathy, and before that, September 11 -- have reminded us we do not live in three different worlds. We live in one world. But that's easily said. But we are not dealing with the implications of the one world that we are living in. And that is that if we want to have one world, this one world cannot be based on huge pockets of exclusion, and then inclusion for some. We must now finally come to think about the premises of a truly global world, in relationship to the regime of rights and responsibilities and accountabilities that are truly global in scope. Otherwise we will be missing this open moment in history, where we have a consensus on both the form of politics and the form of economics. What is one of these organizations to pick? We have three critical terms: economy, civil society and the state. I will not deal with those first two, except to say that uncritical transfer of assumptions, from one context to another, can only make for disaster. Economics taught in most of the elite universities are practically useless in my context. My country is dominated by drug economy and a mafia. Textbook economics does not work in my context, and I have very few recommendations from anybody as to how to put together a legal economy. The poverty of our knowledge must become the first basis of moving forward, and not imposition of the framework that works on the basis of mathematical modeling, for which I have enormous respect. My colleagues at Johns Hopkins were among the best. Second, instead of debating endlessly about what is the structure of the state, why don't we simplify and say, what are a series of functions that the state in the 21st century must perform? Clare Lockhart and I are writing a book on this; we hope to share that much widely with -- and third is that we could actually construct an index to measure comparatively how well these functions that we would agree on are being performed in different places. So what are these functions? We propose 10. And it's legitimate monopoly of means of violence, administrative control, management of public finances, investment in human capital, provision of citizenship rights, provision of infrastructure, management of the tangible and intangible assets of the state through regulation, creation of the market, international agreements, including public borrowing, and then, most importantly, rule of law. I won't elaborate. I hope the questions will give me an opportunity. This is a feasible goal, basically because, contrary to widespread assumption, I would argue that we know how to do this. Who would have imagined that Germany would be either united or democratic today, if you looked at it from the perspective of Oxford of 1943? But people at Oxford prepared for a democratic Germany and engaged in planning. And there are lots of other examples. Now in order to do this -- and this brings this group -- we have to rethink the notion of capital. The least important form of capital, in this project, is financial capital -- money. Money is not capital in most of the developing countries. It's just cash. Because it lacks the institutional, organizational, managerial forms to turn it into capital. And what is required is a combination of physical capital, institutional capital, human capital -- and security, of course, is critical, but so is information. Now, the issue that should concern us here -- and that's the challenge that I would like to pose to this group -- is again, it takes 16 years in your countries to produce somebody with a B.S. degree. It takes 20 years to produce somebody with a Ph.D. The first challenge is to rethink, fundamentally, the issue of the time. Do we need to repeat the modalities that we have inherited? Our educational systems are inherited from the 19th century. What is it that we need to do fundamentally to re-engage in a project, that capital formation is rapid? The absolute majority of the world's population are below 20, and they are growing larger and faster. They need different ways of being approached, different ways of being enfranchised, different ways of being skilled. And that's the first thing. Second is, you're problem solvers, but you're not engaging your global responsibility. You've stayed away from the problems of corruption. You only want clean environments in which to function. But if you don't think through the problems of corruption, who will? You stay away from design for development. You're great designers, but your designs are selfish. It's for your own immediate use. The world in which I operate operates with designs regarding roads, or dams, or provision of electricity that have not been revisited in 60 years. This is not right. It requires thinking. But, particularly, what we need more than anything else from this group is your imagination to be brought to bear on problems the way a meme is supposed to work. As the work on paradigms, long time ago showed -- Thomas Kuhn's work -- it's in the intersection of ideas that new developments -- true breakthroughs -- occur. And I hope that this group would be able to deal with the issue of state and development and the empowerment of the majority of the world's poor, through this means. Thank you. Chris Anderson: So, Ashraf, until recently, you were the finance minister of Afghanistan, a country right at the middle of much of the world's agenda. Is the country gonna make it? Will democracy flourish? What scares you most? Ashraf Ghani: What scares me most is -- is you, lack of your engagement. You asked me. You know I always give the unconventional answer. No. But seriously, the issue of Afghanistan first has to be seen as, at least, a 10- to 20-year perspective. Today the world of globalization is on speed. Time has been compressed. And space does not exist for most people. But in my world -- you know, when I went back to Afghanistan after 23 years, space had expanded. Every conceivable form of infrastructure had broken down. I rode -- traveled -- travel between two cities that used to take three hours now took 12. So the first is when the scale is that, we need to recognize that just the simple things that are infrastructure -- it takes six years to deliver infrastructure. In our world. Any meaningful sort of thing. But the modality of attention, or what is happening today, what's happening tomorrow. Second is, when a country has been subjected to one of the most immense, brutal forms of exercise of power -- we had the Red Army for 10 continuous years, 110,000 strong, literally terrorizing. The sky: every Afghan sees the sky as a source of fear. We were bombed practically out of existence. Then, tens of thousands of people were trained in terrorism -- from all sides. The United States, Great Britain, joined for instance, Egyptian intelligence service to train thousands of people in resistance and urban terrorism. How to turn a bicycle into an instrument of terror. How to turn a donkey, a carthorse, anything. And the Russians, equally. So, when violence erupts in a country like Afghanistan, it's because of that legacy. But we have to understand that we've been incredibly lucky. I mean, I really can't believe how lucky I am here, standing in front of you, speaking. When I joined as finance minister, I thought that the chances of my living more than three years would not be more than five percent. Those were the risks. They were worth it. I think we can make it, and the reason we can make it is because of the people. You see, because, I mean -- I give you one statistic. 91 percent of the men in Afghanistan, 86 percent of the women, listen to at least three radio stations a day. In terms of their discourse, in terms of their sophistication of knowledge of the world, I think that I would dare say, they're much more sophisticated than rural Americans with college degrees and the bulk of Europeans -- because the world matters to them. And what is their predominant concern? Abandonment. Afghans have become deeply internationalist. You know, when I went back in December of 2001, I had absolutely no desire to work with the Afghan government because I'd lived as a nationalist. And I told them -- my people, with the Americans here -- separate. Yes, I have an advisory position with the U.N. I went through 10 Afghan provinces very rapidly. And everybody was telling me it was a different world. You know, they engage. They see engagement, global engagement, as absolutely necessary to the future of the ordinary people. And the thing that the ordinary Afghan is most concerned with is -- Clare Lockhart is here, so I'll recite a discussion she had with an illiterate woman in Northern Afghanistan. And that woman said she didn't care whether she had food on her table. What she worried about was whether there was a plan for the future, where her children could really have a different life. That gives me hope. CA: How is Afghanistan going to provide alternative income who are making their living off the drugs trade? AG: Certainly. Well, the first is, instead of sending a billion dollars on drug eradication and paying it to a couple of security companies, they should give this hundred billion dollars to 50 of the most critically innovative companies in the world to ask them to create one million jobs. The key to the drug eradication is jobs. Look, there's a very little known fact: countries that have a legal average income per capita of 1,000 dollars don't produce drugs. Second, textile. Trade is the key, not aid. The U.S. and Europe should give us a zero percent tariff. The textile industry is incredibly mobile. If you want us to be able to compete with China and to attract investment, we could probably attract four to six billion dollars quite easily in the textile sector, if there was zero tariffs -- would create the type of job. Cotton does not compete with opium; a t-shirt does. And we need to understand, it's the value chain. Look, the ordinary Afghan is sick and tired of hearing about microcredit. It is important, but what the ordinary women and men who engage in micro-production want is global access. They don't want to sell to the charity bazaars that are only for foreigners -- and the same bloody shirt embroidered time and again. What we want is a partnership with the Italian design firms. Yeah, we have the best embroiderers in the world! Why can't we do what was done with northern Italy? With the Put Out system? So I think economically, the critical issue really is to now think through. And what I will say here is that aid doesn't work. You know, the aid system is broken. The aid system does not have the knowledge, the vision, the ability. I'm all for it; after all, I raised a lot of it. Yeah, to be exact, you know, I managed to persuade the world that they had to give my country 27.5 billion. They didn't want to give us the money. CA: And it still didn't work? AG: No. It's not that it didn't work. It's that a dollar of private investment, in my judgment, is equal at least to 20 dollars of aid, in terms of the dynamic that it generates. Second is that one dollar of aid could be 10 cents; it could be 20 cents; or it could be four dollars. It depends on what form it comes, what degrees of conditionalities are attached to it. You know, the aid system, at first, was designed to benefit entrepreneurs of the developed countries, not to generate growth in the poor countries. And this is, again, one of those assumptions -- the way car seats are an assumption that we've inherited in governments, and doors. You would think that the US government would not think that American firms needed subsidizing to function in developing countries, provide advice, but they do. There's an entire weight of history vis-a-vis aid that now needs to be reexamined. If the goal is to build states that can credibly take care of themselves -- and I'm putting that proposition equally; you know I'm very harsh on my counterparts -- aid must end in each country in a definable period. And every year there must be progress on mobilization of domestic revenue and generation of the economy. Unless that kind of compact is entered into, you will not be able to sustain the consensus.	{ "source": "iwslt2017", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
この8年間紛争を平和的手段で終わらせようとするイスラエルとパレスチナのドキュメンタリー制作についやしてきましたヨーロッパやアメリカに仕事で行くといつもこう質問されますパレスチナにガンジーは? パレスチナ人はどうして非暴力抵抗をしないんですか? 私は答えに困りますそういうとき私は中東での撮影から戻ったばかりで多数のパレスチナ人が非暴力で土地や水資源をイスラエル軍や入植者から守ろうとしているのを目の当たりにした直後のことが多いのです非暴力の先導者たちは占領を止めさせ地域に平和を築くために国家的規模の非暴力運動を実現しようとしていますでも彼らのことは聞いたこともない人がほとんどでしょうパレスチナの平和的抵抗運動がまだ1度も成功していない主な理由の1つは現地で起きていることと海外で知られていることの差にあるのですそこで私は今日私たちの「注目」が持つ影響力について話し非暴力運動が高まり進行している中でヨルダン川西岸やガザではなく今日はパレスチナに焦点を当てます非暴力が拡大するために最も足りないのはパレスチナ人が非暴力で行動を起こすことではなくすでに非暴力を実践している人たちに対して私たちが注目を注ぐことだと思いますブドゥルスという村を皆さんにお見せしながら説明させてください 7年ほど前村は消滅するところでしたイスラエルが建設を発表した分離壁の一部が村を通ることになったのです 40%の土地を失い壁に囲まれ西岸に自由に行き来することができなくなるかもしれなかった熱心な地元の指導者を中心に村人はこれを止めさせるための平和的抵抗運動を開始しました映像を少しご覧ください実際の現地の状況がお分かりいただけると思いますパレスチナ人女性:壁はパレスチナをイスラエルから分離するものと聞いていたのにブドゥルスの土地が奪われることが分かりましたイスラエル人男性:フェンスはテロに対する解決策だ男性:今日平和的行進に参加してくださいイスラエル人の兄弟姉妹が多数協力してくれますイスラエル人活動家:軍にとって怖いのは非暴力の相手です女性:男達が兵隊を押しのけようとしましたが誰にもできませんでしたでも女性たちにはできるかもファタハ党員:古い考え方を捨てるべきですハマス党員:皆一致団結していましたパレスチナに広がってほしいと思いましたかけ声:団結した1つの国ファタハハマス人民戦線! キャスター:壁での衝突ですレポーター:派遣されたイスラエル国境警備隊はあらゆる武器が使用できます男性:実弾ですファルージャみたいに発砲しているイスラエル人活動家:死ぬかと思いましたが周りの人はかがみもしませんでしたイスラエル兵:非暴力デモが [不明瞭]を止めることはないデモ参加者:平和的行進です暴力の必要はありませんかけ声:私たちにはできる私たちにはできる私たちにはできる! ジュリア:ブドゥルスのことを初めて聞いたとき 7年前の2003年に次々に起きた異例の出来事を海外メディアが取上げなかったことに驚きましたさらに驚いたのはブドゥルスが成功したということでした住民は 10ヶ月間の平和的抵抗の後壁のルートを彼らの土地からイスラエルとパレスチナの領土の国際的に認められた境界であるグリーンラインへ移すようにイスラエル政府を説得することに成功しましたブドゥルスでの抵抗はそれ以来ヨルダン川西岸の村々やエルサレムのパレスチナ地区へ広がりましたそれでもメディアはこの話題をほとんど取り上げていませんメディアによるこの沈黙は非暴力がパレスチナで拡大または存続する可能性を大きく左右する重大なものです武装抵抗と非暴力の抵抗にはとても重要な共通点がありますどちらもある種の「舞台」で抵抗の原因に注目する観客が必要です暴力的な役者がいつも第一面に載ることで国際社会の注目をパレスチナ問題に引きつければ市民による反対が現実的な選択肢であると非暴力の指導者たちが地域の人々に主張することは非常に困難になります「注目」の影響力はお子さんがいる方であれば当たり前と思われるでしょう子どもが駄々をこねたとき真っ先に相手をすればその子の駄々っ子ぶりはどんどん悪化します駄々をこねれば親が注目してくれると子供が学んでしまうのですこれが児童心理学用語で言う機能的行動です子どもに注目するかしないかだけで親は子どもの行動を促すことも止めさせることもできるのですそしてこれは大人にも言えますつまり国際社会が注目する対象として何を選ぶかによって地域や国全体の行動に影響を与えることができるのです中東での紛争を終わらせて平和をもたらす要は私たちが今現地にいる非暴力の指導者たちにもっと大きな注目を注いで非暴力を機能的行動へと変化させることだと思いますパレスチナの村に私の映画を紹介していく中でたった一つの映画が与えることができる影響を目の当たりにしましたエルサレムのすくそばにあるワラジェという村の人たちはブドゥルスと非常に似た窮地に立たされていました壁で囲まれ多くの土地を失い他のパレスチナ地区に自由に行けない状態になろうとしていました約2年間にわたり非暴力を用いていましたが誰からも注目されずに望みを失っていましたそこで上映会を開きましたその1週間後過去最多の参加者とともに非常によく統制のとれたデモが行われました主催者たちは映画に記録されたブドゥルスのことを見てから自分たちの活動に関心を持って見てくれる人がいるのだと村人が感じたと言っていましただから彼らは続けましたイスラエル側ではソリダリオトという平和運動が生まれています「団結」という意味のヘブライ語でこの運動の指導者たちはブドゥルスのことを参加者募集の主な手段として用いています彼らによれば参加したことのない人もこの映画を見ると非暴力の力を理解し活動に参加し始めるそうですワラジェとソリダリオトこの2つの運動の例は個人が作る低予算の映画でも非暴力を機能的行動に変えるできるということを示していますであれば大手メディアがビリンやニリンワラジェなどの村やシェイクジャラやシルワン毎週起きている非暴力デモを取り上げ始めたらそれにどれだけの影響力があるか想像してみてください非暴力の指導者たちはもっと目立って評価されて活動の効果も高くなるでしょう一番大切なことはこうした努力に私たちが注目しなければそれが表に出てくることはなく存在しなかったも同然になると理解することだと思いますでも私たちが注目すれば運動が拡大するということを私は目の当たりにしました運動が拡大すればパレスチナ紛争に対する影響も強まりますそしてこの非暴力運動が現在の状況を最終的に打開する力を持っているのです指導者たちはブドゥルスなどで非暴力の効果を証明しましたどこででも効果を示せるよう彼らに注目を注いでいきましょうありがとうございました	For the last 8 years, I have dedicated my life to documenting the work of Israelis and Palestinians who are trying to end the conflict When I travel with my work across Europe and the United States, one question always comes up: Where is the Palestinian Gandhi? Why aren't Palestinians using nonviolent resistance? The challenge I face when I hear this question is that often I have just returned from the Middle East where I spent my time filming dozens of Palestinians who are using nonviolence to defend their lands and water resources from Israeli soldiers and settlers. These leaders are trying to forge a massive national nonviolent movement to end the occupation and build peace in the region. Yet, most of you have probably never heard about them. This divide between what's happening on the ground and perceptions abroad is one of the key reasons why we don't have yet a Palestinian peaceful resistance movement that has been successful. So I'm here today to talk about the power of attention, the power of your attention, and the emergence and development of nonviolent movements in the West Bank, Gaza and elsewhere -- but today, my case study is going to be Palestine. I believe that what's mostly missing for nonviolence to grow is not for Palestinians to start adopting nonviolence, but for us to start paying attention to those who already are. Allow me to illustrate this point by taking you to this village called Budrus. About seven years ago, they faced extinction, because Israel announced it would build a separation barrier, and part of this barrier would be built on top of the village. They would lose 40 percent of their land and be surrounded, so they would lose free access to the rest of the West Bank. Through inspired local leadership, they launched a peaceful resistance campaign Let me show you some brief clips, so you have a sense for what that actually looked like on the ground. Palestinian Woman: We were told the wall would separate Palestine from Israel. Here in Budrus, we realized the wall would steal our land. Israeli Man: The fence has, in fact, created a solution to terror. Man: Today you're invited to a peaceful march. You are joined by dozens of your Israeli brothers and sisters. Israeli Activist: Nothing scares the army more than nonviolent opposition. Woman: We saw the men trying to push the soldiers, but none of them could do that. But I think the girls could do it. Fatah Party Member: We must empty our minds of traditional thinking. Hamas Party Member: We were in complete harmony, and we wanted to spread it to all of Palestine. Chanting: One united nation. Fatah, Hamas and the Popular Front! News Anchor: The clashes over the fence continue. Reporter: Israeli border police were sent to disperse the crowd. They were allowed to use any force necessary. Man: These are live bullets. It's like Fallujah. Shooting everywhere. Israeli Activist: I was sure we were all going to die. But there were others around me who weren't even cowering. Israeli Soldier: A nonviolent protest is not going to stop the [unclear]. Protester: This is a peaceful march. There is no need to use violence. Chanting: We can do it! We can do it! We can do it! Julia Bacha: When I first heard about the story of Budrus, I was surprised that the international media had failed to cover the extraordinary set of events that happened seven years ago, in 2003. What was even more surprising was the fact that Budrus was successful. The residents, after 10 months of peaceful resistance, to move the route of the barrier off their lands and to the green line, which is the internationally recognized boundary between Israel and the Palestinian Territories. The resistance in Budrus has since spread to villages across the West Bank and to Palestinian neighborhoods in Jerusalem. Yet the media remains mostly silent on these stories. This silence carries profound consequences for the likelihood that nonviolence can grow, or even survive, in Palestine. Violent resistance and nonviolent resistance share one very important thing in common; they are both a form of theater seeking an audience to their cause. If violent actors are the only ones constantly getting front-page covers and attracting international attention to the Palestinian issue, it becomes very hard for nonviolent leaders to make the case to their communities in addressing their plight. The power of attention is probably going to come as no surprise to the parents in the room. to make your child throw increasingly louder tantrums is by giving him attention the first time he throws a fit. The tantrum will become what childhood psychologists call a functional behavior, since the child has learned that he can get parental attention out of it. Parents can incentivize or disincentivize behavior simply by giving or withdrawing attention to their children. But that's true for adults too. In fact, the behavior of entire communities and countries can be influenced, depending on where the international community chooses to focus its attention. I believe that at the core of ending the conflict in the Middle East and bringing peace is for us to transform nonviolence into a functional behavior by giving a lot more attention to the nonviolent leaders on the ground today. In the course of taking my film to villages in the West Bank, in Gaza and in East Jerusalem, I have seen the impact that even one documentary film can have in influencing the transformation. In a village called Wallajeh, which sits very close to Jerusalem, the community was facing a very similar plight to Budrus. They were going to be surrounded, lose a lot of their lands and not have freedom of access, either to the West Bank or Jerusalem. They had been using nonviolence for about two years but had grown disenchanted since nobody was paying attention. So we organized a screening. A week later, they held the most well-attended and disciplined demonstration to date. The organizers say that the villagers, upon seeing the story of Budrus documented in a film, felt that there were indeed people following what they were doing, that people cared. So they kept on going. On the Israeli side, there is a new peace movement called Solidariot, which means solidarity in Hebrew. The leaders of this movement have been using Budrus as one of their primary recruiting tools. They report that Israelis who had never been active before, upon seeing the film, understand the power of nonviolence and start joining their activities. The examples of Wallajeh and the Solidariot movement show that even a small-budget independent film in transforming nonviolence into a functional behavior. Now imagine the power that big media players could have if they started covering the weekly nonviolent demonstrations happening in villages like Bil'in, Ni'lin, Wallajeh, in Jerusalem neighborhoods like Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan -- the nonviolent leaders would become more visible, valued and effective in their work. that the most important thing is to understand that if we don't pay attention to these efforts, they are invisible, and it's as if they never happened. But I have seen first hand that if we do, they will multiply. If they multiply, their influence will grow in the overall Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And theirs is the kind of influence that can finally unblock the situation. These leaders have proven that nonviolence works in places like Budrus. Let's give them attention so they can prove it works everywhere. Thank you.	{ "source": "iwslt2017", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
ダリス大峡谷に向かうことが決まったセイヤとユアであったが、問題あった。はダリス大峡谷に行くにしても、セイヤは『闇震』により魔力をほとんど使っていたため、残りの魔力がゼロに近い。二つ目はセイヤは現在地を詳しく知らず、ここがどこにあり、ダリス大峡谷がどっちにあるのかを知らない。そのことをユアに言ってみたところ、ユアは大丈夫の一言だった。「なあユア、大丈夫ってどういうことだ?」「セイヤの魔力は私が戻す......ダリス大峡谷はあっち......。捕まっている間に地図を見ていたから問題ない......」「おいおい、戻すって......つか、なんで地図を見られるんだよ?」「看守をずーっと見てたいら地図をくれた。これでも見ていろ、って」あぁ~看守さんその気持ちわかりますよ。こんな子にずっと見られていたらやばいですよね~。このときセイヤは看守に同情をするのであったが、その看守に届いたかは知らない。そしてもう一つの問題であるセイヤの魔力を回復させるということだが、常識的にそんなことはできない。魔力というのは魔法師の力の源であり、言うのであればスタミナと一緒である。回復するには食事や休息、睡眠などが必要で、魔法で戻すことなど不可能。唯一聖教会にいた女神様ができたと言われているくらいだ。ユアはそんなことを考えていたセイヤに向かって、問答無用で魔法を行使する。次の瞬間、セイヤの全身は白い光に包まれた。そして同時に、セイヤは自分の中から魔力がどんどんにじみ出るのを感じ、あっという間にセイヤの魔力は全回復してしまう。』なんて魔法聞いたことないぞ。光属性にそんな魔法あったか?」自分の知識にない光属性魔法に驚くセイヤ。落ちこぼれ魔法師だったセイヤはいつか使えると信じて、光属性の魔法については固有魔法まで含めてすべて暗記している。けれども、今ユアが使った魔法をセイヤは知らない。「光属性の魔法じゃない......今のは聖属性の魔法......」「聖属性だと......」聖属性という言葉にセイヤは言葉を失う。なぜなら、聖属性こそが聖教会にいた女神様の使う魔法属性であり、聖教会の聖の字は女神様の使う聖属性からとったものであったから。聖属性魔法はかなり珍しいでは表現できないほどの魔法である。聖属性魔法の使い手は百年に一人と言われ、その百年に一人の逸材が聖教会の女神となるのだ。もしユアが聖属性魔法を使えることが聖教会に知られた場合、ユアはすぐに新たな女神となり、人々から崇拝されるだろう。それくらい聖属性魔法は貴重な属性なのだ。魔法には全部類存在する。基本魔法、派生魔法、複合魔法の三つ。基本魔法とは、火、水、風、光性の魔法のことを指す。』などといった魔法は基本魔法と呼ばれ、セイヤが今回使用した『闇波』などの闇属性魔法も分類上では基本魔法になる。では、派生魔法とは何かというと、それは言葉の通り基本属性から派生した魔法のことである。具体的には氷属性や炎属性がわかりやすい。氷属性は水属性から派生した属性の魔法であり、炎属性は火属性から派生した魔法である。派生した魔法属性にも特殊効果が存在するが、その特殊効果は基本的には派生前の属性の特殊効果を引き継ぐ。つまり氷属性は「沈静化」、炎属性は「活性化」だ。中にはもちろん例外があるが、基本的にはこの常識が通用する。複合魔法というのはその名のとおり複数の魔法を合わせた魔法であり、具体例はセイヤの『闇震』を無詠唱で行使したことが近いだろう。行使のタイミングは微妙に違うが、セイヤの先ほどの魔法は『闇震』と『闇波』の複合魔法と言っても問題はない。しかしユアの使った聖属性はこの派生に関する概念にも複合という概念にも唯一当てはまらない例外だった。聖属性魔法は分類上、光属性魔法の上位種になっているが、光属性魔法を使う魔法師は聖属性魔法を使えるようにはなることは決してない。つまり聖属性は光属性でありながら、光属性ではないということだ。もちろん聖属性魔法にも特殊効果があり、その名は『発生』という。これは対象を発生させる効果であるが、どちらかというと、生成という言葉に近い。聖属性の魔法は武器や魔力を無から生成することができる特別な力なのだ。実はユアがセイヤの闇属性を防いだ理由は光属性で拮抗させたのではなく、聖属性で闇属性を消し飛ばしたからであった。闇属性は基本魔法に分類され、聖属性は派生魔法に分類される。基本魔法と派生魔法では、派生魔法のほうが強力であるため、最初から勝負にならない。聖教会にいた女神様は、発生で魔力を生み出すと同時に光属性魔法を使い上昇させて魔力を超回復させることができたと言われているが、ユアがさっきやったのも同じものである。セイヤはユアによって魔力を全回復した。「すごいな、ユア」「セイヤこれでダリス大峡谷に行ける......」「まあそうなるな。ところでなんで聖属性が使えるのかといっても無駄なんだろ?」「なんか昔から使える......理由はわからない......」「そうか」昔から使えたのに聖教会に知られていないということは、おそらくユアの父親が関わっているのだろうとセイヤは考える。一体ユアの父親は何者なのか。「セイヤ早く行こう......」考え事をしていたセイヤの手をユアが引っ張る。「そうだな」この時セイヤは頭の中でユアの母親がもしかしたら女神じゃないかと考えていた。女神の娘なら聖属性魔法を使える理由も理解できる。そして何よりユアの父親が聖教会の人間だったら、闇属性のことを知っていてもおかしくはない。女神が消えた時期とユアの年を考えれば、完全に否定することはできない。同時に、そのことを隠せるユアの父親に恐怖を覚えるセイヤ。そんなことを考えながら、セイヤはユアとともに歩き出し、ダリス大峡谷を目指すのだった。	Seiya and Yua who decided to head to the Great Dalis Canyon, faced two problems. First, Seiya used up most of his mana due to 『Dark Tremor』, his remaining mana is close to zero. Second, Seiya does not know their current location precisely, nor does he knows where the Great Dalis Canyon is. When he told that to Yua, she said it was fine. 「Hey Yua, what do you mean “It’s fine”?」「I will restore your mana ...... Great Dalis Canyon is there ... .... I saw the map in the laboratory ...」「You will “restore” it ... .... Why did you even saw that map?」「I was looking at the guard and he gave me the map, he said to look at it instead」 Ohh ~ guard-san I understand your feelings. If someone constantly stares at you, this is creepy~ Seiya felt strange empathy with the guard, but he didn’t know if his feelings reached him. And Yua said she will restore his power, common sense tells Seiya that this is impossible. Mana is the source of the magician’s power; you can say it is his stamina. Restoration requires eating, resting, sleeping and so on. It is said that only the goddess who went missing was capable of such a feat. Yua silently cast her spell on Seiya, who is deep in thought. The next moment, the Seiya’s body was wrapped in white light. At the same time, Seiya feels that mana steaming inside of him rapidly, his mana recovers in the blink of an eye. 「What was that, Yua? I have never heard of 『Holy Flower』spell. Was there such a spell in light magic? 」 Seiya was surprised by the light attribute spell that doesn’t exist in his memory. He believed that he failed in his studies somewhere. After all, preparing for the future he memorized all spells of light attribute he could. That being said, Seiya had no idea of Yua’s spell. 「It is not the spell of the light attribute ...... it was a spell of holy attribute ......」「For it to be a holy attribute.......」 Hearing about holy attribute Seiya lost his words. Because the holy attribute was the magical attribute used by the goddess from the church. Actually, the church of the Leiria Kingdom is also called Holy Church and its name was derived from the goddess. The magic of the holy attribute is almost nonexistent nowadays. It was said that only one person in hundred years has a holy attribute, and this person becomes a new goddess. If the Holy Church discovers Yua, she will soon become a new goddess and will be worshiped by people. The holy attribute is just that important. There are three kinds of magic. They are: basic magic, derived magic, compound magic. Basic magic refers to the magic of four attributes of fire, water, wind, light. For example, spells such as 『Wall of Light』 and 『Fire Bullet』fall under the basic magic category, and dark attribute magic such as 『Dark Wave』should belong there too. Derived magic, as its name says, is magic derived from basic attributes. Specifically, ice attribute and flame attribute are easy to understand. The ice attribute is the magic derived from the water attribute and the flame attribute is the magic derived from the fire attribute. There is also a special effect in the derived magic attribute, but its special effect carried over from the attribute before derivation. In other words, for the ice attribute it is『calm』and for the flame attribute it is 『activation』. Of course, there are exceptions, but that is how it usually works. Composite magic is a magic that combines multiple spells at the same time, the example is Seiya’s『Dark Tremor』with no chant. Although the details are slightly different, it can be said that Seiya’s previous spell is a composite spell consisting of『Dark Tremor』and『Dark Wave』. But the holy attribute used by Yua was an exception, standard classification doesn’t apply to it. Holy magic is considered a top class derived magic of the light attribute in terms of classification, but magicians who use light attribute magic will never become able to use holy attribute magic. In other words, the holy attribute is a light attribute but at the same time, it’s not. Of course, the holy attribute magic also has a special effect, its name is『creation』. [] It is close to the word generation. The magic of holy attribute is a special magic that can generate weapons and mana from nothing. In fact, Yua defended from Seiya’s attack, not by the power of the light attribute. The dark power was simply destroyed on contact with holy power. The dark attribute is classified as a basic magic, and the holy attribute is classified as derived magic. If basic magic is compared to derived magic, derived magic is more powerful, they couldn’t compete since the beginning. It is said that the goddess of the Holy Church was able to restore the mana using holy magic and light magic at the same time, resulting in light speed recovery. Seiya’s mana was completely recovered by Yua. 「It is awesome, Yua」「With this Seiya can go to the Great Dalis Canyon.....」「Do not be like that. By the way, why can you use the holy attribute? It might be useless to ask though」「I could use it since the past... I do not know the reason ...」「I see」 The fact that church is not aware of her existence could probably be related to her father’s protection, thought Seiya. Who the hell is her father? 「Seiya, let’s go. Quickly......」 Yua pulls Seiya by the hand. 「All right」 At this time Seiya thought, what if her mother is the previous goddess. It is understandable if the goddess’ daughter can use holy attribute magic. And if her father is the member of the Holy Church, it will explain his knowledge of the dark attribute. Given the time when the goddess disappeared and the Yua’s age, you cannot reject this theory. At the same time, the father who can hide it is frightening. While thinking about such things, Seiya and Yua headed for the Great Dalis Canyon.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 1, "inserted_lines_src": 3, "inserted_lines_trg": 1 }
ああ、そういうことね。私の目の能力がそのままウィルおじさんに渡っているから動体視力が良いなんて分かるのね。 ......けど、私が見ている世界は結構汚れていると思うわ。だって悪女の瞳よ? 世界が美しく見えているとは思えないわ。それに、ウィルおじさんはこの決闘は私が勝つと思っていたに違いないわ。私を本気で殺しにかかってくる相手と私が出会う事くらい安易に想像出来たはずだもの。でも、私の剣術の力量なんてどうやって分かったのかしら。......まぁ、ウィルおじさんなら分かっていても不思議じゃないわね。王になる条件をクリアしているのに、ただ魔法が使えないから王になれないなんて馬鹿げた話だわ。「魔法も凄くて、剣術も凄くて......最強以外の言葉が見つからない」あら、私、まるで崇拝されているみたいだわ。「最強なんかじゃないわ。私より強い人はいるわよ」最強なのはリズさんよ。彼女には誰も敵わない。デューク様ですら彼女の魔力には敵わないわ。私の言葉にレベッカが目を大きく見開いている。何か言いたげに私を見ている。 ......文句を言うなら、この乙女ゲームを作った運営に言って欲しいわ。私はこのゲームのアリシアがただ好きなだけだったんだもの。......まぁ、この乙女ゲームの最大の欠点を言うとすれば、あまりにも魔法の設定が雑過ぎるってところね。それぞれの特有魔法も適当に作られているし、リズさんの魔力は桁違いに強いし。「彼女の取り柄は頭がお花畑で魔力が最強ってだけだよ。剣術と頭の良さはアリシアの方が上だよ」「頭の良さはリズさんの方が良いんじゃないかしら」「頭は良いかもしれないけど、あれは賢いとは言わないよ」ジルは吐き捨てるようにそう言った。 ......賢くなくても、人望はあるみたいだから彼女はどこにいても愛されるわよね。それに最強だし。多分、彼女が貧困村に来たとしても皆から愛されると思うわ。だめだわ、悲観的になるのはやめましょ......。彼女はあまりにも心が綺麗すぎるから、ここに来ても役に立たないわよ......そう考えましょ。私はそう言ってレベッカに剣を渡した。 ......そうだわ、私、もう魔法が使えるんだったわ。私は軽く指を鳴らした。するといつものように黒く煌めいたオーロラみたいなものが剣の周りを囲んでいく。勿論、ここにある全ての剣に魔法をかけた。良かったわ、ちゃんと魔法が使えて。私は内心ほっとした。段々オーロラが薄くなり、ぱっと消えた。剣の刃先のがたがたはなくなり、錆びた部分もすっかり綺麗になった。皆の目が輝いている。ネイトも目を見開いて自分の剣を見つめている。私、結構良い仕事をしたんじゃないかしら。あの剣で私の髪の毛を切ったのだから、今の剣で戦っていたらもっと私の髪の毛の被害は大きくなっていたって事かしら。切られた場所が毛先だけで良かったわ。別に髪の毛に何の思い入れもないけど、ただ不格好にはなりたくないのよね。「これは......」「言葉が出てこない」「信じられない、本当に信じられない」「あのぼろい剣がこんなにも綺麗になるなんて」何人か感動で小刻みに震えていた。魔法ってこんなにも凄いものなのね。私は改めて魔法の凄さを感じた。魔法を使えるだけで他の人より優位なんだわ。......私、貧困村に来なかったその事を気づけずに生きていたかもしれないのよね。魔法を使えない彼らは一体何に守られているかしら。国? ......国に守られているならこんな村なんて作るはずないわよね。貴族の中には魔法は使えても馬鹿だっているわ。その力でねじ伏せるのも一つの方法かもしれないけど、あまりにも卑怯だわ。私は強く賢い悪女になりたいけど、同時に弱い者を守れる人間になりたいわ。......けど、そこまで自分の力を過信しているわけじゃない。だから、私はもっと強くならないといけないわ。リズさんが恐れるぐらいの人間になるにはどうしたらいいのかしら。昔はただ強くなる事だけ考えていたけど、少しずつ強くなるにつれて考え方が変わっていくものなのね。勿論、悪女になりたいって気持ちは変わらないけど。ただ、強い人間は弱い者を守らないといけないのよ。だから、私達が選ばれて魔法を使えるような世界になったんじゃないかしら。魔法を使える人間は弱い者を守れっていう意図かしら......絶対そんな事を考えているはずないわよね、このゲームの製作者は。けど、ただ守るんじゃなくて、ちゃんと彼らを私に従わせてみせるわ。私の命令に背くことのないようにね。それが悪女よ。彼らを保護する対価として私に従順になってもらうわ。 ......きっと数年前の私は誰かを守るなんて発想は絶対に浮かばなかったわ。ジルが私の顔を覗き込むようにしてそう言った。灰色の目が私の目を真っすぐ見ている。......当たり前の事だけど、人の目をしっかり見ながら話せるって大切な事よね。数年前の人と関わる事を怖がっていたジルとは思えないわ。私はそう言ってジルに微笑んだ。「何を?」「弱者は強者に従うべきなのよ」ジルは表情を変えずにそう言った。 ......どうしてその続きを聞くのかしら。まさか私の考えが読まれているとか? 出来ればこのまま会話を終わりたいわ。今、まさに悪女っぽい台詞で決まったのよ。 ......新手の虐めかしら。でも、ジルに黙っておく理由もないし......。「同時に強者は弱者を守らないといけない」ジルは私の言うことを予め知っていたかのように落ち着いた様子でそう言った。	Ah, so that’s how he knew. Since my visual acuity was preserved and passed directly onto Uncle Will with my eye, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. ....Though I don’t know about the world being beautiful. Everything I see seems stained by corruption. I mean, we’re talking about the eyes of a villainess here...? I can’t possibly perceive the world as some pretty, perfect place. Now that I know all this though, I’m sure that Uncle Will had already predicted what would happen if he sent Nate here today. He probably already knew that we’d fight, and that I’d win. Even if it hadn’t been in this controlled environment, had an assailant come at me with the serious intention to kill, Uncle Will could very easily imagine the outcome with his current understanding of me. But, there’s just one thing I don’t quite understand. How did he know that I was skilled with a sword? “Your magic is amazing, your swordsmanship unbelievable.... you’re simply the strongest. There’s no other word to describe it,” Rebecca says in awe while looking at me with sparkling eyes. Hm, somehow, it feels a little like I’m being worshiped here. “But I’m not the strongest. There’s someone out there who’s even stronger than me,” I tell Rebecca levelly. Liz-san is the actual strongest. There’s no one who can match up to her. Not even Duke-Sama’s magic power can compare. Rebecca’s eyes widen at my words. Her lips part slightly as she stares at me, as if there’s something she wants to say. .....If you want to complain about the logic of this world, take it up with the game’s administrators. Alicia was the one and only thing that I actually liked about this game. “Her only redeeming quality is that her head’s full of flowers and she’s overflowing with more magical power than she knows what to do with. When it comes to swordsmanship or intelligence, you’re clearly better, Alicia.” “I don’t know.... I think Liz-san might actually be smarter than I am.” “She may be knowledgeable to some extent, but I can’t say she’s got any manner of intelligence. When it comes to application, understanding, or wisdom, she’s completely hopeless,” Gilles says, spitting out the words like a curse, like it’s the foulest insult that he can think of. .....Okay. Let’s say she lacks intelligence. But that doesn’t change the fact that she’s extremely popular. She’s bound to be loved wherever she goes. And that, in itself, is its own form of strength. If she were to come to this village, I think everyone would probably love her here as well. Her heart’s too soft for her own good! If she really were to come here she wouldn’t be of any use....! Yes. Let’s just think like this. “Here. I’m returning this,” I say, handing Rebecca her sword. .....Oh, that’s right. I can us magic again. I lightly snap my fingers. The moment I do, the usual black aurora-like mist envelops the sword. Of course, it’s not just Rebecca’s sword, but all the swords in the vicinity. Thank goodness the spell worked properly. In the depths of my heart, I let out a sigh of relief. Gradually the black aura lightens until suddenly it blinks out completely. On each and every sword, the chips and cracks along the blades’ edges fill in and smooth over while the rusted portions are buffed out leaving the swords looking clean and well taken care of. Everyone’s eyes glitter as the admire my handy work. Nate as well, his eyes as big as saucers, brings each of his swords up close to his face alternatingly, gazing at them in wonder. Since those swords were able to cut my hair even in their tattered states, now that they’re shiny and sharp like new, I wonder how much more damage they would inflict? Thankfully, I only ended up getting a small trim off the ends. I don’t have any particular attachment to my hair, but I certainly wouldn’t want it sheared off, leaving me with some awkward, misshapen style. “This is....” “I’m speechless.” “I don’t believe it. I just.... don’t believe it.” “To think that those rusty, worn-out swords could become this nice again.” A couple people from within the crowd were moved nearly to tears, their voices trembling as they run disbelieving fingers tenderly over their newly restored swords. Magic truly is a wonderful thing. Once again, I can feel it down to my core, just how amazing it really is. People who can use magic have an overwhelming advantage over those who cannot.... Had I not come to this village, I might have lived my whole life without fully comprehending the reality of this fact. ....This country? No.... If that was the case, this village never would have been created in the first place. Even though we wield this unfathomable power, most of the aristocracy are nothing but fools. It certainly is an easy, obvious choice to hold their power over the masses and force them through fear and might to obey, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s despicable and cowardly. ....But I won’t get drunk on my own abilities. I can’t believe in them to a fault. That’s why I have to become stronger. How can I become a person that even Liz-san will fear? Long ago, I used to simply content myself with the idea of becoming stronger. But, the stronger I became, the more I understood that there is more to strength than merely physical or magical prowess. Eventually, my whole outlook on power started to change. Though, my desire to become a villainess, of course, did not. I just realized that being strong comes with the responsibility to protect the weak. I started wondering if that wasn’t the reason that we were chosen to wield such powers in the first place. That people were given magical abilities with the design of having us defend the weak.... Though, there’s no way those empty-headed bozos that pass themselves off as game creators would have thought that far I’m sure. However, I’m not defending the defenseless for free of course. In return, I’ll have them properly follow and obey me. I’ll not allow them to defy my commands. That’s what being a true villainess means. That is how we operate. As compensation for my protection, I expect submission and obedience. ....This just goes to show how much my thoughts have changed over time. Had this been a couple years ago, I likely wouldn’t have imagined protecting them at all, even for something in return. “Alicia, what’s got you lost in thought?” Gilles asks, peering up into my face. His gray eyes look straight into mine. ....It should be an obvious thing; keeping steady eye contact while conversing with someone is so important. But for this boy who only a few years ago was so harshly jaded by the world that he was afraid to even interact with other people, seeing him look straight at me like this with no fear feels like such a blessing. “A good thought suddenly came to mind,” I say, answering Gilles’s question with an affectionate smile. “What is it?” “That the weak should obey the strong.” “...Because?” Gilles asks, his expression remaining unchanged. ....Why is he asking for the reason like that? It couldn’t be because he knows what I’m thinking, right? I mean, we may be close and all, but not even Gilles should be able to read me to that extent. If possible, I’d rather not continue discussing this particular topic. If I could just stop here, I’d be ending on quite the villainous line. “Because?” Gilles prompts, drawing the word out long, insistently. ....Is this a new form of bullying or something? Though, I guess there’s no reason to stay silent on this subject with Gilles..... “At the same time, the strong have a responsibility to protect the weak,” I mumble. “Yeah. That’s really how it should be,” Gilles agrees calmly, like he already knew that’s what I had meant the whole time.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 0, "inserted_lines_src": 13, "inserted_lines_trg": 7 }
でも現在の人間の状態というものについてちょっと考えてみてほしいのですこれが普通の状況とされていますしかし考えてみれば人間というのはこの地球にごく最近現れた客に過ぎません地球ができたのが 1年前だったとしたら人間がいたのは 10分間だけで工業化時代が始まったのは 2秒前ですこのことの別な見方として過去1万年における世界のGDPを考えてみましょう私は実際グラフにしてみたんですがこんな感じになります正常な状態のものとしては興味深い形ですこの上に乗っていたいとはあまり思いませんこの現在における例外的な状態の原因を考えてみましょうそれはテクノロジーのためだという人もいるでしょうそれはその通りで人類の歴史を通じてテクノロジーは蓄積され続け現在ではテクノロジーの進歩が非常に速くなっていますそれがおおよその答えで現在の我々の高い生産性をもたらしているものですしかしもっと突っ込んで究極の原因を探ってみたいと思いますこの非常に際だった2人をご覧くださいカンジは 200の字句をマスターしていますすごいことですエドワード・ウィッテンは超弦理論の第2の革命の立役者です中身を覗いてみればそこにあるのはこれで基本的には同じものです一方がすこしばかり大きく配線のされ方にもより巧妙なところがあるかもしれませんがその違いはさほど複雑なものではないはずです我々は共通の祖先から 25万世代しか隔たっていませんが複雑なメカニズムが進化するのにはとても長い時間がかかることが分かっています比較的小さな変化の沢山の積み重ねがカンジとウィッテンをあるいは木切れと大陸間弾道弾を隔てているものなのですこれで明らかになるのは人類が達成したこと気にかけていることすべては人間の心を作り出した比較的小さな変化によって生じたということですそれはまた思考の基質をはっきり変えるようなさらなる変化は極めて大きな結果をもたらしうるということでもあります私の研究仲間の間にはこの思考の基質を本質的に変えうるものに人類は今直面していると考えている人もいますそれは超知的な機械です人工知能というのはかつてはコマンドを詰め込んだ箱のようなものでした人間のプログラマーが苦労して個々の知識項目を手作りしていましたそうやってエキスパート・システムを作りある種の用途には役立ちましたが融通が効かず拡張性を欠いていました基本的には入れたものが出てくるだけですしかしその後人工知能の世界でパラダイムシフトが起きました現在機械学習の周辺で非常に興味深いことが起きています知識的な機能や表現を手作りする代わりに生の知覚データから自ら学習するアルゴリズムを作るのです基本的には人間の子供と同じことを機械がするわけです結果としてできるのは 1つの領域に限定されない人工知能ですどんな言語間の翻訳でもできるシステムとかアタリのゲーム機用のどんなゲームでもプレイしてしまうシステムとかもちろん人工知能はまだ多様な領域のことを学び構想できる人間の脳の強力さには遠く及びません大脳皮質にはまだ機械で対抗する方法の見当もつかないようなアルゴリズム的仕掛けがあります問題はそういう仕掛けに機械が対抗するようになる日がいつ来るのかということです 2年ほど前に世界の人工知能の専門家にアンケートを取って考えを聞いたんですがその時の質問の1つが「機械の知性が人間並みのレベルに到達する可能性が 50%あるのはいつか?」というものでしたここでの「人間並み」の定義はほとんどの作業を大人の人間と同じくらいにこなせる能力ということで特定の領域に関してということではなく本当に人間並みということです回答の中央値は 2040年か2050年で質問をした専門家のグループによって若干違いましたそれが起きるのはずっと遅いかもしれないしずっと早いかもしれません本当のところは誰にも分かりませんしかし分かっているのは機械の基質による情報処理能力の限界は生物組織の限界の遙か先にあるということですこれは単純に物理の問題です神経の発火頻度は200ヘルツ毎秒200回ほどですが現在のトランジスタでさえギガヘルツで動いています神経伝達は軸索をゆっくり伝わりせいぜい毎秒100メートルですがコンピュータの信号は光速で伝わります大きさの点でも制限があります人間の脳は頭蓋骨の中に収まる必要がありますがコンピュータの大きさは倉庫のサイズかもっと大きくもできますだから超知的な機械の可能性は休眠状態にあるのですちょうど原子の力が 1945年に目覚めるまで人類の歴史を通じて休眠状態にあったのと同じようにこの世紀中に科学者達は人工知能の力を目覚めさせるかもしれません私たちは知性の爆発を目の当たりにすることになるかもしれません頭の良し悪しの尺度というと多くの人はこんなものをイメージするのではと思います一方の端に間抜けな人間がいて遙か彼方の別の極端にいるのがウィッテンとかアインシュタインです誰でもお気に入りの天才を置いてくださいしかし人工知能という観点を加えると実際のイメージはたぶんこんな感じになるでしょう人工知能は知性のない状態からスタートして長年の努力の後にいつかネズミ並みの知性に到達できるかもしれません雑然とした環境中をネズミのように目的地へと移動できる能力ですさらに長年に渡る多くの努力と投資の末にいつかチンパンジー並みの知性に到達できるかもしれませんそこからさらに長年の大きな努力を重ねて間抜けな人間のレベルの人工知能ができますそれから少しばかり後にエドワード・ウィッテンを越えますこの列車は人間レベルで止まりはしませんむしろ一瞬で通り過ぎるでしょうこれには特に力関係という点で重大な意味がありますたえとばチンパンジーというのは強いものです体重換算するとチンパンジーは体力に優れた成人男性の倍の力がありますそれでもカンジやその仲間達の運命はチンパンジー達自身よりは人間の手に握られています超知的な機械が出現したら人類の運命は超知的な機械に握られることになるかもしれませんそのことを考えてみてください機械の知性は人類がする必要のある最後の発明です機械が人間よりもうまく発明をするようになりしかもデジタルの時間尺度で進歩することでしょうそれが意味するのは未来が短縮されるということです人類が遠い未来に実現するかもしれない夢のようなテクノロジーについて考えてください老化を止めるとか宇宙への移民自己増殖ナノボットや意識のコンピュータへのアップロードなど SFっぽいけれど物理法則には反していないものです超知的な機械がそういったものをあっさり開発してしまうかもしれません超知的な機械はそのような高度な技術によって非常に大きな力を持ちシナリオ次第では望むものを何でも手に入れるようになるかもしれませんそうすると人類の未来は人工知能が好む通りに形作られることになりますここで問題はその好むことが何かということです話しがややこしくなってきますがこの議論を進める上では何より擬人化を避けなければなりません皮肉なのは未来の人工知能を取り上げる記事で必ず出てくるのがこんな写真だということです私たちはこの問題をハリウッドの鮮明なシナリオに沿ってではなくもっと抽象的に考える必要があります我々は知性を未来を特定の状態へと舵取りしていく最適化プロセスとして捉える必要があります超知的な機械は非常に強力な最適化プロセスです利用可能な手段を使って目的が充たされた状態を達成することに極めて長けていますこの意味での高い知性を持つことと人間が価値や意味を認める目的を抱くことの間には必ずしも関係がありません人間を笑顔にさせるという目的を人工知能に与えたとしましょう弱い人工知能は人が見て笑うような何か可笑しいことをするでしょう人工知能が超知的になったならこの目的を達するにはもっと効果的なやり方があることに気付くでしょう世界をコントロールし人間の表情筋に電極を差し込んで笑い顔が持続するようにするんです別の例として人工知能に難しい数学の問題を解くことを目的として与えたとします人工知能が超知的になったらこの問題を解くための最も効果的な方法は地球を巨大なコンピュータに変えて思考能力を増大させることだと考えるかもしれませんこのような目的は人工知能に対して人間が認めないような行為をする動機を与えうることに注意してくださいこのモデルにおいては人間は人工知能にとって数学的問題を解くのを妨げる邪魔者になりうるのですもちろん物事がこの筋書き通りにまずいことに陥ることはないでしょうこれはあくまで戯画化した例ですしかしこの一般的な論点は重要です目的Xに向けて最大化を行う強力な最適化プロセスを作るときには Xの定義が自分の気にかけるその他すべてのことに問題を生じないかよく確認する必要がありますこれは伝説が教える教訓でもありますミダス王は自分の触るものすべてが金になることを望みました娘に触れば娘が金に変わり食べ物に触れば食べ物が金に変わりましたこれが本当に問題になるかもしれません単なる強欲を諫めるメタファーとしてではなく強力な最適化プロセスを作って間違ったあるいはまずく定義された目的を与えたときに何が起きるかを示すものとしてですコンピュータが人の顔に電極を差し始めたら単にスイッチを切ればいいと思うかもしれませんそのシステムに依存するようになったときスイッチを切ることは難しくなりますたとえばの話インターネットのスイッチはどこにあるのでしょう? チンパンジーはなぜ人間のスイッチをオフにしなかったんでしょう? あるいはネアンデルタール人は? 彼らにはそうすべき理由があったことでしょう人間を切るスイッチはありますたとえはここにその理由は人間が知的な相手だからです人間は危険を予期して回避することができますそしてそれは超知的な機械にもできるだろうことでしかも人間よりずっと上手くできることでしょう我々は制御できるはずだと高をくくらない方がよいということですこの問題をもう少し簡単にして人工知能を逃げ出すことのできない安全なソフトウェア環境や仮想現実シミュレーションの中に閉じ込めるというのでもいいかもしれませんしかし人工知能がシステムの欠陥を見つけたりしないと自信を持てるでしょうか? ただの人間のハッカーでさえ年中バグを見つけていることを思えばあまり自信は持てないでしょうではネットワークケーブルを抜いてエアギャップを作ればどうか? これにしたって人間のハッカーがソーシャルエンジニアリングによってエアギャップを越えるということがたびたび起きています私が話をしているこの瞬間にもきっとどこかの社員が情報管理部門から来たという人間にアカウントの情報を教えるよう仕向けられていることでしょうもっと奇想天外なシナリオだって考えられますたとえば人工知能が内部回路にある電極の振動で発生した電波を使って通信をするとかあるいは人工知能が故障を装ってプログラマーが調べようと中を開けソースコードを見たところでバーン! 操作してしまうとかあるいはすごく洗練された技術の設計図を出して人間がそれを実装してみるとそこには人工知能が潜ませていた密かな副作用があるとか要は我々は高度に知的な魔神をいつまでも壺に閉じ込めておけるとは思わない方がよいということです遅かれ早かれ出口を見つけ出すことでしょうこの問題への答えは非常に知的な人工知能をそれが逃げ出しても危険がないように作るということ人間と同じ価値観を持っていて人間の側に立つように作るということだと思いますこの難しい問題を避けて通ることはできません私はこの問題は解決できると楽観しています私たちが気にかけるあらゆることを書き出しさらにはC++やPythonのようなプログラミング言語で厳密に定義することは望みがないくらい難しいことでしょうがそうする必要はないと思います自らの知性を使って人間が価値を置くことを学び取る人工知能を作ればよいのです人間の価値を追求し人間がよしとすることを予測して行動するような動機付けのシステムを持たせるのですそうやって価値付けの問題を解くために人工知能の知性を可能な限り活用するのですこれは可能なことで人類にとってとても好ましい結果をもたらしますしかし自動的に起きるわけではありません知性爆発が人間の制御下で起きるようにするためには初期条件を正しく設定する必要があります人工知能の価値観を人間の価値観と合ったものにする必要があります人工知能が適切に行動しているか容易に確認できるような分かりやすい状況だけでなく将来のいつか人工知能が出会うかもしれないあらゆる新奇な状況においてそうなる必要がありますそれから解決しなければならない難解な問題がいろいろあります決定理論の正確な詳細論理的不確定性をどう扱うかといったことですだからこれを機能させるために解くべき技術的問題はとても難しいものです超知的な人工知能を作ること自体ほど難しくはないにしてもかなり難しいことですひとつ懸念すべきことがあります超知的な人工知能を作るのは非常に難しいことで超知的な人工知能を安全なものにするのはその上にさらなる問題を重ねることになりますが危険があるのは誰かが安全を確保するという 2番目の問題を解決することなく最初の問題を解く方法を見つけるということですだから私たちはこの制御の問題を前もって解決しておくべきだと思いますそうすれば必要になったときにすぐ使えます制御の問題のすべてを前もって解決することはできないかもしれませんある部分は実装されるアーキテクチャの詳細が明かになって初めて可能になるかもしれませんしかし前もって制御の問題のより多くの部分が解かれているほど機械知性の時代への移行がうまくいく見込みは高くなるでしょうこれはやるに値することだと私には思えます私には想像できますすべてがうまくいった暁に百万年後の人類がこの世紀を振り返って私たちがした本当に重要なことが何かあるとすればそれはこの問題を正しく解決したことだと言うのをありがとうございました	This is the normal way for things to be. But if we think about it, we are actually recently arrived guests on this planet, the human species. Think about if Earth was created one year ago, the human species, then, would be 10 minutes old. The industrial era started two seconds ago. Another way to look at this is to think of world GDP over the last 10,000 years, I've actually taken the trouble to plot this for you in a graph. It looks like this. It's a curious shape for a normal condition. I sure wouldn't want to sit on it. Let's ask ourselves, what is the cause of this current anomaly? Some people would say it's technology. Now it's true, technology has accumulated through human history, and right now, technology advances extremely rapidly -- that is the proximate cause, that's why we are currently so very productive. But I like to think back further to the ultimate cause. Look at these two highly distinguished gentlemen: We have Kanzi -- he's mastered 200 lexical tokens, an incredible feat. And Ed Witten unleashed the second superstring revolution. If we look under the hood, this is what we find: basically the same thing. One is a little larger, it maybe also has a few tricks in the exact way it's wired. These invisible differences cannot be too complicated, however, because there have only been 250,000 generations since our last common ancestor. We know that complicated mechanisms take a long time to evolve. So a bunch of relatively minor changes take us from Kanzi to Witten, from broken-off tree branches to intercontinental ballistic missiles. So this then seems pretty obvious that everything we've achieved, and everything we care about, depends crucially on some relatively minor changes that made the human mind. And the corollary, of course, is that any further changes that could significantly change the substrate of thinking could have potentially enormous consequences. Some of my colleagues think we're on the verge of something that could cause a profound change in that substrate, and that is machine superintelligence. Artificial intelligence used to be about putting commands in a box. You would have human programmers that would painstakingly handcraft knowledge items. You build up these expert systems, and they were kind of useful for some purposes, but they were very brittle, you couldn't scale them. Basically, you got out only what you put in. But since then, a paradigm shift has taken place in the field of artificial intelligence. Today, the action is really around machine learning. So rather than handcrafting knowledge representations and features, we create algorithms that learn, often from raw perceptual data. Basically the same thing that the human infant does. The result is A.I. that is not limited to one domain -- the same system can learn to translate between any pairs of languages, or learn to play any computer game on the Atari console. Now of course, A.I. is still nowhere near having the same powerful, cross-domain ability to learn and plan as a human being has. The cortex still has some algorithmic tricks that we don't yet know how to match in machines. So the question is, how far are we from being able to match those tricks? A couple of years ago, we did a survey of some of the world's leading A.I. experts, to see what they think, and one of the questions we asked was, "By which year do you think there is a 50 percent probability that we will have achieved human-level machine intelligence?" We defined human-level here as the ability to perform almost any job at least as well as an adult human, so real human-level, not just within some limited domain. And the median answer was 2040 or 2050, depending on precisely which group of experts we asked. Now, it could happen much, much later, or sooner, the truth is nobody really knows. What we do know is that the ultimate limit to information processing in a machine substrate lies far outside the limits in biological tissue. This comes down to physics. A biological neuron fires, maybe, at 200 hertz, 200 times a second. But even a present-day transistor operates at the Gigahertz. Neurons propagate slowly in axons, 100 meters per second, tops. But in computers, signals can travel at the speed of light. There are also size limitations, like a human brain has to fit inside a cranium, but a computer can be the size of a warehouse or larger. So the potential for superintelligence lies dormant in matter, much like the power of the atom lay dormant throughout human history, In this century, scientists may learn to awaken the power of artificial intelligence. And I think we might then see an intelligence explosion. Now most people, when they think about what is smart and what is dumb, I think have in mind a picture roughly like this. So at one end we have the village idiot, and then far over at the other side we have Ed Witten, or Albert Einstein, or whoever your favorite guru is. But I think that from the point of view of artificial intelligence, the true picture is actually probably more like this: AI starts out at this point here, at zero intelligence, and then, after many, many years of really hard work, maybe eventually we get to mouse-level artificial intelligence, something that can navigate cluttered environments as well as a mouse can. And then, after many, many more years of really hard work, lots of investment, maybe eventually we get to chimpanzee-level artificial intelligence. And then, after even more years of really, really hard work, we get to village idiot artificial intelligence. And a few moments later, we are beyond Ed Witten. The train doesn't stop at Humanville Station. It's likely, rather, to swoosh right by. Now this has profound implications, particularly when it comes to questions of power. For example, chimpanzees are strong -- pound for pound, a chimpanzee is about twice as strong as a fit human male. And yet, the fate of Kanzi and his pals depends a lot more on what we humans do than on what the chimpanzees do themselves. Once there is superintelligence, the fate of humanity may depend on what the superintelligence does. Think about it: Machine intelligence is the last invention that humanity will ever need to make. Machines will then be better at inventing than we are, and they'll be doing so on digital timescales. What this means is basically a telescoping of the future. Think of all the crazy technologies that you could have imagined maybe humans could have developed in the fullness of time: cures for aging, space colonization, self-replicating nanobots or uploading of minds into computers, all kinds of science fiction-y stuff that's nevertheless consistent with the laws of physics. All of this superintelligence could develop, and possibly quite rapidly. Now, a superintelligence with such technological maturity would be extremely powerful, and at least in some scenarios, it would be able to get what it wants. We would then have a future that would be shaped by the preferences of this A.I. Now a good question is, what are those preferences? Here it gets trickier. To make any headway with this, we must first of all avoid anthropomorphizing. And this is ironic because every newspaper article about the future of A.I. has a picture of this: So I think what we need to do is to conceive of the issue more abstractly, not in terms of vivid Hollywood scenarios. We need to think of intelligence as an optimization process, a process that steers the future into a particular set of configurations. A superintelligence is a really strong optimization process. It's extremely good at using available means to achieve a state in which its goal is realized. being highly intelligent in this sense, and having an objective that we humans would find worthwhile or meaningful. Suppose we give an A.I. the goal to make humans smile. When the A.I. is weak, it performs useful or amusing actions that cause its user to smile. When the A.I. becomes superintelligent, it realizes that there is a more effective way to achieve this goal: take control of the world and stick electrodes into the facial muscles of humans to cause constant, beaming grins. Another example, suppose we give A.I. the goal to solve a difficult mathematical problem. When the A.I. becomes superintelligent, it realizes that the most effective way to get the solution to this problem is by transforming the planet into a giant computer, so as to increase its thinking capacity. And notice that this gives the A.I.s an instrumental reason to do things to us that we might not approve of. Human beings in this model are threats, we could prevent the mathematical problem from being solved. Of course, perceivably things won't go wrong in these particular ways; these are cartoon examples. But the general point here is important: if you create a really powerful optimization process to maximize for objective x, you better make sure that your definition of x incorporates everything you care about. This is a lesson that's also taught in many a myth. King Midas wishes that everything he touches be turned into gold. He touches his daughter, she turns into gold. He touches his food, it turns into gold. This could become practically relevant, not just as a metaphor for greed, if you create a powerful optimization process and give it misconceived or poorly specified goals. Now you might say, if a computer starts sticking electrodes into people's faces, we'd just shut it off. A, this is not necessarily so easy to do if we've grown dependent on the system -- like, where is the off switch to the Internet? B, why haven't the chimpanzees flicked the off switch to humanity, or the Neanderthals? They certainly had reasons. We have an off switch, for example, right here. The reason is that we are an intelligent adversary; we can anticipate threats and plan around them. But so could a superintelligent agent, and it would be much better at that than we are. The point is, we should not be confident that we have this under control here. And we could try to make our job a little bit easier by, say, putting the A.I. in a box, like a secure software environment, a virtual reality simulation from which it cannot escape. But how confident can we be that the A.I. couldn't find a bug. Given that merely human hackers find bugs all the time, I'd say, probably not very confident. So we disconnect the ethernet cable to create an air gap, but again, like merely human hackers routinely transgress air gaps using social engineering. Right now, as I speak, I'm sure there is some employee out there somewhere who has been talked into handing out her account details by somebody claiming to be from the I.T. department. More creative scenarios are also possible, like if you're the A.I., you can imagine wiggling electrodes around in your internal circuitry to create radio waves that you can use to communicate. Or maybe you could pretend to malfunction, and then when the programmers open you up to see what went wrong with you, they look at the source code -- Bam! -- the manipulation can take place. Or it could output the blueprint to a really nifty technology, and when we implement it, it has some surreptitious side effect that the A.I. had planned. The point here is that we should not be confident in our ability to keep a superintelligent genie locked up in its bottle forever. Sooner or later, it will out. I believe that the answer here is to figure out how to create superintelligent A.I. such that even if -- when -- it escapes, it is still safe because it is fundamentally on our side because it shares our values. I see no way around this difficult problem. Now, I'm actually fairly optimistic that this problem can be solved. We wouldn't have to write down a long list of everything we care about, or worse yet, spell it out in some computer language like C++ or Python, that would be a task beyond hopeless. Instead, we would create an A.I. that uses its intelligence to learn what we value, and its motivation system is constructed in such a way that it is motivated to pursue our values or to perform actions that it predicts we would approve of. We would thus leverage its intelligence as much as possible to solve the problem of value-loading. This can happen, and the outcome could be very good for humanity. But it doesn't happen automatically. The initial conditions for the intelligence explosion might need to be set up in just the right way if we are to have a controlled detonation. The values that the A.I. has need to match ours, not just in the familiar context, like where we can easily check how the A.I. behaves, but also in all novel contexts that the A.I. might encounter in the indefinite future. And there are also some esoteric issues that would need to be solved, sorted out: the exact details of its decision theory, how to deal with logical uncertainty and so forth. So the technical problems that need to be solved to make this work look quite difficult -- not as difficult as making a superintelligent A.I., but fairly difficult. Here is the worry: Making superintelligent A.I. is a really hard challenge. Making superintelligent A.I. that is safe involves some additional challenge on top of that. The risk is that if somebody figures out how to crack the first challenge without also having cracked the additional challenge of ensuring perfect safety. So I think that we should work out a solution to the control problem in advance, so that we have it available by the time it is needed. Now it might be that we cannot solve the entire control problem in advance because maybe some elements can only be put in place once you know the details of the architecture where it will be implemented. But the more of the control problem that we solve in advance, the better the odds that the transition to the machine intelligence era will go well. This to me looks like a thing that is well worth doing and I can imagine that if things turn out okay, that people a million years from now look back at this century and it might well be that they say that the one thing we did that really mattered was to get this thing right. Thank you.	{ "source": "iwslt2017", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
通話内容をテープに録音しましたしかし多くの他の産業のようにコンピュータの登場で様変わりしました電話会社は監視機能をネットワークの中核に構築したのですこのことをちょっと深く考えてみたいと思いますまず通話をつなぐ電話とネットワークに監視をするため盗聴器を仕掛けたのです真っ先にですということは配偶者や子ども同僚、かかりつけ医と電話で話すと盗聴されることもあり得るのですさて盗聴をするのは自国の政府や他国の政府、外国の諜報機関ハッカー、犯罪者、ストーカー電話会社の監視システムに侵入できるような監視システムに侵入する組織などしかし電話会社は優先事項として監視システムを構築したのに対しシリコンバレーの企業はしませんでした過去20年間に渡り徐々にシリコンバレーの企業は強力な暗号化技術を通信関連製品に構築して監視をとても難しくしています例えば多くの人がiPhoneをお持ちですがご自分のiPhoneからテキスト・メッセージを誰かのiPhoneに送る場合そのテキスト・メッセージを簡単に盗聴できません実際 Appleによると Appleでもテキスト・メッセージを見られないのです同様にFaceTimeで知人や恋人と音声通話やビデオ通話をしても簡単には盗聴できないのです Appleだけではありません現在 Facebookが買収した世界中に何億人ものユーザーがいる WhatsAppも自社の製品に強力な暗号化技術を構築しておりグローバル・サウスの人々が政府や独裁政権によって簡単にテキスト・メッセージを読み取られることなく通信できるのですあらゆる通話を盗聴できた百年の後- いつでもどこでも可能だった時代の後- 政府高官は苦虫を噛み潰すかもしれませんそれが実際起こっているのです政府高官たちはかなり腹をたてています暗号化ツールが使われるようになったので腹をたてているのではなく最も政府高官を怒らせたのはハイテク企業が自社の製品に暗号化機能を構築しデフォルト設定にしたことですデフォルト設定がミソなのです要するにハイテク企業は誰でも暗号化ができるようにしました英国のデーヴィッド・キャメロン首相のような政府高官は Eメール、テキストメッセージ、音声通話などあらゆる通信を政府が読み取れるようにすべきと考えていますが暗号化がそれを困難にしていますそういう考え方も非常によくわかります私たちは危険な時代危険な世界で暮らしているからです本当に悪い輩がいるのですテロリストや国家の安全を脅かす人々に対しては皆がFBIや国家安全保障局に監視してほしいと思うでしょうしかし監視は両刃の剣なのですテロリスト専用のノートパソコンや麻薬ディーラー専用の携帯電話というものはないからです私たち全員が同じ通信機器を使っているので麻薬ディーラーやテロリストの電話が盗聴できるのなら一般市民の電話も盗聴できるのです真に聞きたいのは「世界の10億人は盗聴し放題の電話を使うべきか?」ということですご説明する監視システムへの不法侵入のシナリオは想像の産物ではありません 2009年 GoogleやMicrosoftのネットワーク上の監視システムは警察からの合法的な監視要請への対応として使われていますが中国政府によって不正アクセスされましたなぜなら中国政府は米国政府が監視している自国の工作員を把握したいからです同じように 2004年ギリシャ最大の電話会社であるボーダフォン・ギリシャのネットワークに構築した監視システムが何者かによって不正アクセスされ監視機能を使ってギリシャの首相や閣僚の通話が盗聴されましたが犯人である外国の政府やハッカーは逮捕されませんでしたまさにバックドアという監視機能が問題なのですまさにバックドアという監視機能が問題なのです通信ネットワークや技術の一部にバックドアを作ると不正アクセスを制御できなくなります敵であれ味方であれ良い人であれ悪い人であれ制御する手立てはありませんそういう理由から私はできるだけ安全なネットワークを構築すべきだと思います将来的に暗号を読み取ることはより難しくなっていきますつまり警察が悪い人を捕まえるのもより難しくなっていくのですそうしない限り犯罪者、ストーカー、外国の諜報機関などに誰かの通話やテキスト・メッセージを監視されうる世界で暮らすことになるのです私はそんな世界に暮らしたくありません目下のところ皆さんは政府の監視を妨害するツールを固定電話や携帯電話に取り付けるかもしれませんそういうツールがいかに強力で安全なのか他の方法での通信が脆弱なのか気付いてないかもしれませんだから私がお伝えしたいのはこういうツールを使う必要性です通話を盗聴されないためにテキスト・メッセージを読み取られないためにこういうツールを使ってください大切に思う人たちや同僚に伝えてくだい暗号化された通信ツールを使ってください安いとか簡単だからだけではなく安全のために使ってくださいありがとう	Calls were recorded to tape. But as in so many other industries, computing has changed everything. The telephone companies built surveillance features into the very core of their networks. I want that to sink in for a second: Our telephones and the networks that carry our calls were wired for surveillance first. First and foremost. So what that means is that when you're talking to your spouse, your children, a colleague or your doctor on the telephone, someone could be listening. Now, that someone might be your own government; it could also be another government, a foreign intelligence service, or a hacker, or a criminal, or a stalker or any other party that breaks into the surveillance system, that hacks into the surveillance system of the telephone companies. But while the telephone companies have built surveillance as a priority, Silicon Valley companies have not. And increasingly, over the last couple years, Silicon Valley companies have built strong encryption technology into their communications products that makes surveillance extremely difficult. For example, many of you might have an iPhone, and if you use an iPhone to send a text message to other people who have an iPhone, those text messages cannot easily be wiretapped. And in fact, according to Apple, they're not able to even see the text messages themselves. Likewise, if you use FaceTime to make an audio call or a video call with one of your friends or loved ones, that, too, cannot be easily wiretapped. And it's not just Apple. WhatsApp, which is now owned by Facebook and used by hundreds of millions of people around the world, also has built strong encryption technology into its product, which means that people in the Global South can easily communicate without their governments, often authoritarian, wiretapping their text messages. So, after 100 years of being able to listen to any telephone call -- anytime, anywhere -- you might imagine that government officials are not very happy. And in fact, that's what's happening. Government officials are extremely mad. And they're not mad because these encryption tools are now available. What upsets them the most is that the tech companies have built encryption features into their products and turned them on by default. It's the default piece that matters. In short, the tech companies have democratized encryption. And so, government officials like British Prime Minister David Cameron, they believe that all communications -- emails, texts, voice calls -- all of these should be available to governments, and encryption is making that difficult. Now, look -- I'm extremely sympathetic to their point of view. We live in a dangerous time in a dangerous world, and there really are bad people out there. There are terrorists and other serious national security threats that I suspect we all want the FBI and the NSA to monitor. But those surveillance features come at a cost. that there is no such thing as a terrorist laptop, or a drug dealer's cell phone. We all use the same communications devices. What that means is that if the drug dealers' telephone calls or the terrorists' telephone calls can be intercepted, then so can the rest of ours, too. And I think we really need to ask: Should a billion people around the world be using devices that are wiretap friendly? So the scenario of hacking of surveillance systems that I've described -- this is not imaginary. In 2009, the surveillance systems that Google and Microsoft built into their networks -- the systems that they use to respond to lawful surveillance requests from the police -- those systems were compromised by the Chinese government, because the Chinese government wanted to figure out which of their own agents the US government was monitoring. By the same token, in 2004, the surveillance system built into the network of Vodafone Greece -- Greece's largest telephone company -- was compromised by an unknown entity, and that feature, the surveillance feature, was used to wiretap the Greek Prime Minister and members of the Greek cabinet. The foreign government or hackers who did that were never caught. And really, this gets to the very problem with these surveillance features, or backdoors. When you build a backdoor into a communications network or piece of technology, you have no way of controlling who's going to go through it. You have no way of controlling whether it'll be used by your side or the other side, by good guys, or by bad guys. And so for that reason, I think that it's better to build networks to be as secure as possible. Yes, this means that in the future, encryption is going to make wiretapping more difficult. It means that the police are going to have a tougher time catching bad guys. But the alternative would mean to live in a world where anyone's calls or anyone's text messages could be surveilled by criminals, by stalkers and by foreign intelligence agencies. And I don't want to live in that kind of world. And so right now, you probably have the tools to thwart many kinds of government surveillance already on your phones and already in your pockets, you just might not realize how strong and how secure those tools are, or how weak the other ways you've used to communicate really are. And so, my message to you is this: We need to use these tools. We need to secure our telephone calls. We need to secure our text messages. I want you to use these tools. I want you to tell your loved ones, I want you to tell your colleagues: Use these encrypted communications tools. Don't just use them because they're cheap and easy, but use them because they're secure. Thank you.	{ "source": "iwslt2017", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
セイヤたちがアクアマリンの前夜祭から帰った翌日の朝、セイヤはなぜか、自分のベットではなく、リリィの部屋のベッドで目を覚ました。セイヤの隣では子供バージョンのリリィがスヤスヤと眠っている。「なぜ、俺はリリィの部屋で寝ているんだ?」なぜ自分がリリィの部屋にいるのか、疑問に思うセイヤ。リリィの部屋は廊下奥にあり、セイヤの部屋とはユアの部屋を挟んで離れている。だから部屋を間違えたということはありえない。しかしリリィに理由を聞こうにも、彼女はまだ夢の中だ。「昨日は自分の部屋で寝ていたはず。なのに、なぜ......」セイヤは自分がここにいる理由を思い出すため、昨夜の記憶をたどる。「そう言えば......」昨晩、セイヤが自分の部屋で寝ていると、急に部屋の扉が開かれた。そして開かれた扉から姿を現したのは、妖艶な雰囲気を纏った大人バージョンのリリィ姿だ。「どうしたんだ、リリィ?」「うふふ、夜這いよ」セイヤが困った顔でリリィのことを注意すると、リリィは顔を膨らませながら答える。「セイヤ君ったら酷い。今日のアマコンで頑張ったって言うのに、ご褒美はないのかしら?」どんどんと妖艶な雰囲気を増していき、ベッドの上に座るセイヤの隣に腰かけたリリィ。その表情は、普通の男が一度見れば、理性を崩壊させることが容易だ。しかし、セイヤはいつも通り答える。「それは感謝している。だが、頑張ったのはユアも一緒だろ」「そうだけど、私が出てこられる時間は短いのよ? その時間を使って、セイヤ君に尽くしたのに、ご褒美がないなんて、セイヤくん、ひど~い」妖艶さに加え、悲壮感を混じらせたリリィが、上目使いがセイヤのことを見つめる。確かにリリィの言う通り、大人バージョンのリリィが外に出て来られる時間は短い。そして、そんな貴重な時間を自分のために尽くしてもらったセイヤは、リリィの要望に応えたいと思う。「わかった。それで、何をしてほしいんだ?」「ありがとう、セイヤ君。今から私の部屋に来てくれないかしら」リリィは嬉しそうな表情を浮かべ、セイヤのことを自分の部屋へと連れ出す。そして、部屋に着くと同時に、セイヤの腕を引っ張り、ベッドの中に引きずり込んだ。「セイヤ君。今日は私と一緒に寝て」リリィの表情はいつもと違い、どこか真剣だった。セイヤはその瞬間、リリィが何を求めているのかを悟る。リリィが求めていること、それは完全契約の代償である魔力の交換だ。そして魔力の交換は、膨大な魔力を交換するため、長時間を要する。だから一夜をかけて行うのだ。セイヤが素直にベッドの中に入ると、セイヤに抱き着くリリィが優しく囁いた。「ありがとう」セイヤの意識はそこで途切れる。そして時間は進み、朝、場所はリリィの部屋。「あの後どうなったんだ?」セイヤが記憶の続きを思い出そうとするが、思い出せない。そんな時、セイヤの隣で寝ていたリリィが目を覚ます。ところが、リリィはなぜか全裸で、しかも睡眠をとっていたにもかかわらず、どこか疲れているように見える。そんなリリィに対し、セイヤは昨晩のことを聞いたが、リリィは何のこと? と言った顔をしてキョトンとする。昨晩の真相は、どうやら大人バージョンのリリィしか知らないらしい。はその後、朝食をとるために食堂へと向かった。二人が食堂に着くと、すでにユアとユアの両親がいた。ユアたちはセイヤたちのことを待っていたようでが揃うと、朝食が始まる。朝食にはパンケーキにソーセージとたまご、あとはサラダなどがついており、ドリンクにはフルーツジュースやコーヒー、紅茶、ミルクなどがあった。朝食を食べ始めてすぐ、ユアの母であるカナがユアとリリィに向かって言う。「ユアちゃん、リリィちゃん、今日は女性陣だけでショッピングに行かない?」カナの言葉に、ユアとリリィはショッピング? と言った顔をする。そんな二人にカナが説明を始めた。「もう少ししたら暑くなるでしょ? そのために服を買いに行きましょう。セイヤ君をメロメロにするワンピースなんてどうかしら?」カナはセイヤのことを見ながら、ニコニコして言うため、セイヤは反応に困ってしまう。しかし、ユアとリリィはすぐに答えた。「行く......」「行く!」ユアとリリィは、真剣なまなざしで答える。そんな二人を見たカナが、「うふふ」と言いながら、セイヤ向かって言う。「セイヤ君は、幸せ者ね」カナの言葉に、セイヤはまたも反応に困ってしまう。そんなセイヤの様子を見て、また「うふふ」と笑うカナ。この人はもしかしたらドSなのかもしれない、と思うセイヤであった。朝食後、女性陣はカナに連れられてショッピングに連れて行かれると、セイヤはライガーに呼ばれていた。セイヤが部屋に入ると、ライガーは来客用のソファーに座っており、セイヤもライガーの正面に腰を下ろす。話はすぐに始まった。「まず昨日のことだが、問題なしだ」昨日の事とは、ミスコンで暴走した観客たちを、セイヤが気絶させたことだ。あの後、ライガーがセイヤの正当性を主張し、お咎めなしになっていた。「そうか。迷惑かけたな」「気にするな、お前は未来の息子だからな」ライガーは笑いながら言うが、直後、目を細めて真剣な表情になる。ライガーの変化に伴い、セイヤも表情を引き締める。「ただ、協会の連中が目を付けている」「きょうかい? ああ、特級の協会の方か」「そうだ」協会とは、特級魔法師によって作られる機関であり、聖教会などからは独立している。協会に入ることができる魔法師は、特級魔法師以上であり、その権力は聖教会にも及ぶ。それに加え、比較的自由に動ける機関だ。例えば、アクエリスタンの教会がウィンディスタンに干渉したい場合、まずは聖教会に要請をして、次に聖教会がウィンディスタンの教会に返答を聞く。そして、その返答がアクエリスタンの教会に知らせ、ウィンディスタンの教会が干渉を了承すれば、初めてアクエリスタンの教会はウィンディスタンに干渉できる。この手続きだけで、早くても丸一日はかかる。しかし、特級魔法師による協会はそのような面倒な手順を取らずとも、各地に干渉できるのだ。言ってしまえば、協会は聖教会の暴走を止めるために設置されたような機関であり、聖教会もまた、協会の暴走を止めるための機関である。しあうことによって、平和なレイリア王国を保ってきた。しかし、セイヤには疑問が残る。「なぜ協会が?」セイヤには、自分が協会に目を付けられている理由に、見当がなかった。しかしライガーの答えは意外のものであった。「それは俺が二人を家に置いているからだ。リリィの方は養子だから問題ないとして、お前の方は居候となっている。「なるほど。そういうことか」ライガーは昨日、挨拶と言ってアクアマリンの運営委員とあいさつをしていたのだが、その際、他の特級魔法師とも会っていた。「現在この国にいる特級魔法師は全部で十二人。俺らは皆、力が拮抗しており、争った場合は甚大な被害を出すことになるだろう。「それで俺が目を付けられたと?」確かに納得できる話だ。特級魔法師は強力な魔法師である分、影響力も強い。もし仮に、新たな特級魔法師が生まれるのであれば、協会もそれなりに調査するはずだ。「そういうことだ。他の特級魔法師から見れば、お前はうちの期待の戦力という事になる。だから身辺調査も厳しくなるぞ」「おいおい、よしてくれよ。そんな面倒お断りだ」やっと平和な生活が手に入ったというのに、協会などに関わったらたまらないと思うセイヤ。「俺もやめさせたいところだが、ここで隠すとさらに厄介なことになる。だから放置することにした」「はあ、わかったよ」そして二人の話が終わりかけた、その時。使用人である緑の髪の女性、メレナが部屋に入ってきた。「失礼します、旦那様。旦那様にお客様が来ております」「俺に? 連絡は来ていないが」ライガーほどの人間ならば、来客が来る際に必ずアポを取ってくるはずだ。なので、アポがない時点で今日は何もない日ということになる。しかし来客が来た。それはつまり、客が日程を間違えている、もしくは、ただの非常識な奴ということになる。ところが、メレナの答えはライガーの考えを、斜め上以上に行くものだった。「聖教会の徒です。なんでも、アポなしで無礼承知の上だそうです」「十三使徒が? わかった。客間に通せ、すぐに行く」ライガーは一瞬にして纏う雰囲気を変えるのだった。	The next morning, after they returned from the Aquamarine festival, for some reason, Seiya woke up in Lily’s bed instead of his own. Next to Seiya, there was the child version of Lily quietly sleeping. 「Why am I inside Lily’s room?」 Seiya was wondering why he awoke inside her room. Lily’s room is the farthest, it is further then Seiya’s and Yua’s room. That’s why it is difficult to make a mistake. However, Lily was still inside the dreamland and he had no way to know. 「I thought I should be in my own room, but why...」 Seiya decided to thoroughly investigate his memory of the last night. 「Come to think of it....」 Last night, when he was about to fell asleep, the door opened. And the bewitching adult version of Lily entered the room. 「What’s happened, Lily?」「Ufufu, night crawling」[]「Don’t joke with me」 Seiya made a troubled face and Lily responded with the puffed cheeks. 「Seiya-kun is terrible. I was working hard at Amacon today, don’t you have a reward for me? 」 Lily approached the place next to Seiya with her bewitching atmosphere exponentially increasing. Any male will have his reason crumble before her. However, Seiya answered as usual. 「For that I’m grateful, but Yua worked just as hard」「That’s true, but I don’t have much time for myself. I spent this time for your sake and you refuse to give me a reward, Seiya-kun is so terrible~」 Lily gazed upwards at Seiya with bewitching and tragic eyes. As she said, the time for the adult version to appear is limited. And since she spent her precious time to help him, he thought to satisfy her request. 「All right. So, what do you want to do? 」「Thank you, Seiya-kun. Can you come to my room right now? 」 Lily made a happy face and brought Seiya to her room. And the moment they entered the room, she immediately pulled him on top of the bed. 「Seiya-kun. Sleep with me today」 Different from the usual, Lily’s expression was serious. At that moment, Seiya figured out what she wants. What Lily wanted was an exchange of mana required by their contract. And exchanging the vast amounts of mana required time. That’s why it happens during the night. When Seiya obediently lied on the bed, Lily embraced him from behind and gently whispered into his ear. 「Thank you」 Seiya’s consciousness was cut off at that moment. The time passed and he found himself in her room. 「What happened after that?」 Seiya tried to recall it but didn’t succeed. At that moment, Lily, who was sleeping next to him opened her eyes. By the way, Lily was naked and somewhat tired, despite sleeping. He asked such a Lily about the last night, but Lily made a “What about it?” expression. Apparently, only adult version knows about the events of the last night. After that, the two headed to the dining room to have breakfast. When they reached there, Yua and her parents were already there. They seemed to have waited for everyone to gather before starting. For breakfast, there were pancakes, eggs, sausages, and salad. As for drinks, there were fruit juice, coffee, tea, milk and so on. After the breakfast started, Kana, Yua’s mother, spoke to Lily and Yua. 「Yua-chan, Lily-chan. How about we go shopping today with just us women? 」 To her words, Yua and Lily made a questioning expression, so Kana explained to them. 「It will be hot soon, right? Let’s buy some clothes for that. How about a one piece that will make Seiya-kun melt? 」 Kana grinned while looking at Seiya, who was troubled how to react. And Yua and Lily immediately answered. 「I’ll go...」「I’ll go!」 Answered Yua and Lily with serious expressions. Kana watched the two’s behavior with「Ufufu」and said to Seiya. 「Seiya -kun is a blessed person」 Hearing her words, Seiya didn’t know how to react again. Seeing such a Seiya, Kana laughed with「Ufufu」again. Seiya thought that she might be an S deep inside. [] After the breakfast, the female team left and Seiya was called by Raiga. When he entered the room, he found Raiga sitting on the sofa, so he sat across him. The conversation started soon. 「First, about yesterday. Everything was solved without a problem」 Yesterday is about the case when Seiya made the berserk audience unconscious. After that, Raiga acted as a witness and there was no accusation directed at Seiya. 「I see. I bothered you」「Don’t worry, you’re my future son after all」 Raiga said while laughing, but soon his expression turned serious. Seeing this, Seiya also became serious. 「But the members of the association have their eyes on you」「Association? Ah, the special association」「That’s right」 Association is an organization of special magicians, it’s completely independent of the Holy Church. They wield great power and even have some influence on the church’s actions. This organization has a freedom to move around uninhibited. For example, if Aquaristan’s church wants to inquire something from Windistan’s, first things first, it needs to send the request to the Holy Church. Then, the Holy Church will receive the answer from Windistan. Then that answer will be relayed to the Aquaristan. If the answer is positive then they can act. This procedure alone takes a lot of time. However, the special magicians association can act without those bothersome procedures. You can say that the existence of the special magician association restrains the Holy Church and the Holy Church restrains the association. This mutual restraint brings peace to the Leiria Kingdom. Still, Seiya couldn’t help but ask. 「Why are they interested?」 Seiya couldn’t figure out why the association had its eyes on him. However, Raiga’s answer was unexpected. 「Because I have the two of you staying with me. Lily is no problem since she is adopted, but you are a freeloader. There seem to be some guys that think you have the potential to become a special magician, so they are investigating you」「I see. So it was something like that」 Raiga was meeting with important people of Aquaristan, but at the same time, he met a few other special magicians. 「There are currently special magicians in this country. All of us wield tremendous power and if we ever fight each other, the damage will be enormous. Just like that, every clan tries to recruit the promising talents to strengthen their ranks, and I’m no exception」「And that’s why they have their eyes on me? 」 That’s the story you can believe. Special magicians are powerful and influential. If there is a new special magician to appear, it is natural to investigate. 「That’s how it is. From the standpoint of the other special magicians, you can become a big existence one day. That’s why they will launch a thorough investigation」「Oi oi, please spare me from this annoyance」 I finally obtained a peaceful life, there is no way I’m participating in some association, thought Seiya. 「I thought to stop them, but hiding things will make them even more suspicious. Therefore, I chose to ignore it」「Hah, understood」 And after their conversation has ended, a green-haired servant girl, Melena, entered the room. 「Excuse me, there is a guest wishing to see you」「Me? I didn’t receive any notice」 Facing such a person as Raiga, most of the people will make an appointment first. But he had no appointments scheduled for today. But he still came. He either mistook the time or is an insane person. However, Melena’s reply was something he didn’t expect. 「He is one of the thirteen apostles and he is aware of his behavior」「One of the thirteen apostles? All right, let him in, I will meet him soon」 The atmosphere surrounding Raiga changed in a moment.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 1, "inserted_lines_src": 4, "inserted_lines_trg": 0 }
「やー、つい喋りすぎたわw」『喋りすぎたではありませんわ!どこもかしこも大騒ぎですわ!』明けてとある議員(狐姫の眷属の方な)の辞職会見後、頭の中にリョウの怒りの声が響いてきた。ちなみにリョウのお父さんはお咎めなし。人間だし国が気づかない内に魔王に支配される。という可能性を潰したかららしい。もっとも同時に魔王『蝕む黒の霧王』と関わりがあるという誹りを受けることにもなったようだが。後、ホウキとチリトはクロキリ=霧王な事実に顔を真っ青にしていた。まあ、もう落ち着いたけど。「へいへい。悪かったですよ。で、反響としてはどうなんだ?」『我が国はこういう時事なかれ主義ですし、眷属に手を出したらどうなるか分かったものではありませんから、それほど問題は起きていませんわ。具体的に誰が眷属なのかはあの議員以外明らかにされて無い。というのもありますけど。』ふうん。そんなものなのか。『ただ、諸外国では国家転覆クラスの大騒ぎに発展しかけている国も出ていますし、とある宗教団体などは全ての眷属を探し出して殺すべきだと主張しています。逆に魔王を頭として自分たちと同じ所属の人間すべてを眷族にしたい等と考えている国や組織もあるようです。』「穏やかじゃねえなぁwwwちなみにお前の周りは?」『護衛兼監視員。と思わしき方なら見かけるようになりましたわ。付いているのは私だけですが。』なるほどね。それにしても、1つ目2つ目ともかく、3つ目の国民総眷族化はないわぁ...。正直そんな事をする意味もないし、労力があり得ないぐらいかかるもん。「ちなみにうちのダンジョンの新入口は見つけられた?」『見つけたようではありますけど、新しい迷宮だと認識されていますわね。既に諸外国では今あるダンジョンの近くに別の似たダンジョンが生まれる。という現象が確認されていますからそれと同じだと判断されたようです。俺は少々呆れつつ返事をする。ブーーーーーーーーー! 「と、どうやら久しぶりの侵入者みたいだし切るぞ。何かあったなら通信を入れろ。」『分かりましたわ。』そして通信が切れる。「場所は...うん。第3階層だ。」俺は久しぶりの侵入者に心を踊らさせた。 ------------ 「ふう。こんなところか。」俺の前のスクリーンには這う這うの体でダンジョン外に逃げる軍の人間が映っている。今回は俺の狙い通りに半日ほどかけて半分は倒して半分は逃がした。そして倒した人間の内数人は普通の治療では助からないのが確定しているがまだ息がある。ちなみに戦闘風景は... 「敵襲!」「どこからか狙撃されているぞ!」「ぐわぁ!」「しっかりしろ傷は...な!」「気をつけろ!この弾丸生きているぞ!」「畜生!中から食い殺すとか趣味悪過ぎんだろうが!」こんな感じだった。とりあえず趣味悪いって言った奴。俺もそうとは思っているが面と向かって言ったお前の顔は覚えた。今回は逃がしたが次は逃さん。さて、今日はここからが本題のスーパー☆実験タイムである。というわけで負傷者がいる第3階層に移動。魔王の敏捷を舐めちゃあいかん。「殺せ...。」「上手くいかなかったらな。≪魔性創生≫。」「ガアアアアアアアアアア!」瀕死の重傷で倒れた兵士の足元に魔法陣が現れ兵士は苦悶の表情を浮かべる...が、それだけだ。兵士の傷は治らないし眷族にもならない。それに俺の魔力もほとんど減っていない。「ふむ。ダメか。じゃ、お望み通り≪霧爆≫。」俺は死にかけの兵士に止めを刺す。「じゃあ、次行くか。」俺は次の兵士の下に向かい、同じ作業を行っていく。さっきの兵士も含めてすでに2人の兵士にやってどちらも失敗している。残りはだ。で、結論。どうやら単純に瀕死状態の人間に≪魔性創生≫を使ってもダメっぽい。HPとかの調節に関しては≪蝕む黒の霧≫を使って死ぬ直前にまで追い込んであるからこれは間違いない。となると考えられるのはイズミがそうだったように抵抗の意思を持っていないことが大切なのかもしれない。というかむしろあれだな。魔王にその身を捧げます的な意思を相手が持っている必要があるのかも。だとしたらやっぱり重病患者とか、事故で死にかけている人間とかは狙い目かもなー。先天性の病気はともかく、イズミがあの状態から復帰したことを考えれば後天性の病気や怪我が相手なら間違いなく効くだろうし。もしくは某宇宙人風に「俺と契約して霧人になってよ。」的な方向もありかもしれん。対価は人間を辞めるのと情報の定期的な収集ぐらいだから乗るやつは乗るだろ。ふむ。となるとあれだな。イチコにまた動いてもらうか。基本的に善人なあいつなら渋々でも引き受けるだろ。俺は足取りも軽く第1階層に戻って行った。	————– “Oh well, I spoke too much.” [You think the only thing you did was rambling on too much! Everywhere is in an uproar!] Ryo’s indignant voice boomed in my head after a certain council member’s (the one who was a kin of the Fox Princess) resignation press conference overnight. By the way, Ryo’s father was not made accountable since he was human and had thwarted the likelihood of the country being ruled by a Demon King before the country would even realize it apparently. However, at the same time, he was also accused of being involved with the Demon King, the “King of the Devouring Black Mist”. Afterwards, Houki and Chirito went blue in the face as they realized that Kurokiri = the Mist King. Well, they have calmed down now though. “Hey, it’s my bad. So, how are the reactions of the people?” [Since Japan operates on the principle that we should keep quiet about current events, and there is no telling what might happen if someone messes with another Demon King’s kin, there hasn’t arisen much of a crisis. With the exception of the councilor himself, it has not been made evident who the kin are.] Hmm. Is that how things have developed? [However, in other countries, there are reports that this has almost triggered a downfall of the country, and certain religious communities are advocating the search for and extermination of all kin. On the contrary, there are countries and organizations that wish to transform all the human beings to the same affiliation with the Demon Kings as their kin with the Demon King as the head.] “Things aren’t looking peaceful. By the way, how’s your neighborhood?” [I’ve been noticing what seems to be guards and monitoring crews. Though I’m the only one following them.] I see. Even so, aside from the first two points, I don’t understand the third one... Truthfully speaking, it makes no sense to accomplish such a feat, and it would consume an unbelievable amount of time and effort. “Incidentally, did they discover the new entrance to my dungeon?” [It looks like they have found it, but it’s recognized as a new labyrinth. It has already been verified in other countries that other similar dungeons are being created in the vicinity of the existing ones, so it seems that they have judged it to be identical to the existing ones. Well, in fact, those dungeons may be linked internally to the original dungeon, and the master may be the same.] “I suppose that’s true,” I replied somewhat dismayed. Buuuuuuuuuuuu! “And, it looks like it’s been a while since we’ve had an intruder, so I’m disconnecting. Call in if there’s a problem.” [I understand.] And then the communication broke off. “The location is... yes. The third level.” My heart skipped a beat in anticipation of the first invader in a long time. “Hmm. So here they are.” On the screen in front of me, the military men were shown crawling out of the dungeon. This time, I had spent nearly half a day defeating half of them and allowing the other half to flee, just as I had planned. Although it had been ascertained that several of the people I defeated will not survive with ordinary medical treatment, they were still breathing. Incidentally, the battle scene was... “Hostiles attacking!” “There are sniper shots coming from somewhere!” “Argh!” “Pull yourself together, the wound is... ugh!” “Watch out! This bullet’s a living thing!” “Damn it! They’re devouring me from the inside... how gross!” It was something along those lines. Anyway, whoever called it gross, I agreed with you, but I have memorized your face since you said it to me face to face. I had let you go this time, but there will be no next time. Now, here was the main subject of today’s Super☆Experiment Time. Therefore, I headed to the third level where the wounded were. Don’t underestimate the agility of the Demon King. “Kill me...” “If this doesn’t go well. ≪Monster Create≫.” “Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” A magic circle emerged at the feet of the mortally wounded soldier, forcing an expression of anguish to surface on the soldier’s face... but that was all there was to it. Neither the soldier’s wounds were healed nor did he transform into a kin. Moreover, my magic power had hardly dwindled at all. “Hmm. No good. Then, as you wish, ≪Mist Plosion≫.” I put an end to the dying soldier. “Then, off to the next one.” I then proceeded to the next soldier and repeated the process. I had already attempted this on two other soldiers, including the prior one, and failed both times. There were only two more soldiers left. And here was the conclusion. Apparently, utilizing ≪Monster Create≫ on a dying individual proved ineffective because they had been brought to the brink of death by ≪Devouring Black Mist≫ in terms of HP and other regulations. Therefore, it may be crucial not to harbor the will to resist, as Izumi did. Or to put it another way, the other party may need to be willing to devote themselves to the Demon King. If that was the case, then a critically ill patient or a person who would be dying in an accident might be a potential target. Aside from congenital diseases, given that Izumi was able to recover from her condition, it would definitely work on people with diseases or injuries that are developed later on. Alternatively, it could be a certain alien-like approach, “Make a contract with me and become a Kirijin.” The only price was quitting the human race and collecting intelligence on a periodic basis but who comply with that? Hmm. Then, I suppose I should request Ichiko to perform another assignment. She’s basically a conscientious person, so I’m sure she’ll be willing to undertake the task even if she’s reluctant to do so. With light steps, I returned to the first level.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 2, "inserted_lines_src": 2, "inserted_lines_trg": 5 }
厳しいようだけど、僕も貴族のルールなんて全く知らなかった。テーブルマナーも状態だったが、本を読んでアリシアやヘンリに聞いた。アリシアが僕にわざわざ全てを教えるようなことはなかった。 ......そういう点ではキャザー・リズはとても恵まれてると思う。だって、君に優しくしてくれた貴族たちは沢山いるはずだから。だからこそ君はその優しさに甘えたのかもしれないけど。デュークは謝ったけど、王家が悪いわけではないと僕は思う。キャザー・リズの意思の問題だ。自分の考えを信じて疑わないキャザー・リズが招いた結果がこれだ。自業自得だろう。でも、信念を貫くのは大事なことだ。そこに他の意見を考慮することも......。「私はアリシアちゃんに悪役になって欲しいなんて言ってないわ。貴方のお父様が勝手に命令したんでしょ。彼女が国外追放されたのは私のせいじゃないわよ」情緒不安定になったキャザー・リズにヘンリが冷静な声を発する。「デュークに会えるからここに来たのか?」「......違うわ。それは本当にアリシアちゃんを救いたいって思ったの。......エゴが強いにもほどがあるわよね」自分を偽ることを止めたのか、リズは自嘲する。それと同時にエリックが目覚めた。「何がどうなってるんだ?」エリックは驚いた表情で僕らに目を向ける。メルがまたスッと僕らの横に現れた。彼女は小声で僕に「赤髪くんは、実は今の一連全部聞こえてたんだよ」と呟く。その瞬間、デュークの計画を理解した。エリックが寝ているとキャザー・リズに思い込ませて、化けの皮を剝がしたんだ。 ......僕らが変な演技をしないように、このことは事前に教えてもらわなかった。デュークって本当に隙がない。その分、人には言えず自分で抱え込むことが多いのだろうなと思う。最初から王子として生まれたから、それが出来るのか。やっぱり「普通」で育ってきたキャザー・リズに難しかったのかもしれない。特別になりたいって思ったけど、キャザー・リズは普通のままで良かったのかもしれない。でも、普通じゃないおかげでデュークに会えたわけだし......。世界が広がるのは面白い。僕はやっぱり色々な責任や重荷を担うことになっても特別になりたい。僕はキャザー・リズとは違う。「リズ? 君はずっとそんなことを考えていたのか?」エリックの言葉にリズは動揺を隠せない。彼女が今まで作り上げてきたものが崩れ落ちていく。そんなこの世の終わりみたいな悲愴な表情を浮かべなくてもいいと思うけど......。僕は今の方が断然良いと思うし。これで本当に洗脳が解けるのかな? そんなことを思いながら僕の様子を見つめた。	It may sound harsh, but at the beginning I also had no idea about the aristocracy’s rules. I didn’t know anything about table manners either, so I read books and asked Alicia and Henry. Alicia never took the trouble to teach me everything. ...I think Liz Cather was very fortunate in that respect. Because there should be many aristocrats who were kind to her. Maybe as a result, she took advantage of their kindness. Duke apologized, but I don’t think it was the royal family’s fault. Liz Cather’s unwavering faith in her own beliefs led to this. She deserved it. But it was important for her to stand up for her beliefs. And to consider other opinions out there.... “I never asked Alicia-chan to be a villain. Your father ordered it on his own. It was not my fault that she was exiled.” While Liz Cather became emotionally unstable, Henry’s voice remained calm. “Did you come here so you could see Duke?” “...No, I didn’t. I really wanted to save Alicia. ...you must have thought that I was too egotistical for that.” Liz mocked herself, as if she had stopped pretending to be someone she wasn’t. At the same time, Eric also woke up. “What the heck is going on?” Eric turned to us with a surprised look on his face. Mel also suddenly reappeared beside us. She whispered to me, “Actually, red-hair, heard everything you just said”. At that moment, I understood Duke’s plan. He had convinced Liz Cather that Eric was sleeping before he had unmasked her. ...We weren’t told about this beforehand so that we wouldn’t act weird. Duke was so thorough. As a result, I think he often kept things to himself, unable to tell the others. I wondered if he could do that because he was born a prince. It would have been difficult for Liz Cather, who grew up as a “normal” person, to be able to do that. Liz Cather wanted to be special, but she might have been fine with being normal, too. But it was not being normal that made it possible for her to meet Duke.... It was fascinating to watch the world grow. So, even if I have to take on many responsibilities and burdens, I still want to be special. I am not like Liz Cather. “Liz, have you been thinking about that for a long time?” Eric’s words made Liz upset. Everything she had built was falling apart. I didn’t think it was necessary to look so pathetic, as if it was the end of the world... Things were definitely better the way they were now, in my opinion. Would this really break her brainwashing? With this thought in mind, I looked at the two of them.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 0, "inserted_lines_src": 1, "inserted_lines_trg": 0 }
体に纏わりつくような濃霧の中を、迷いのない足取りで進む人影がある。シアを先頭に、ハジメ達は現在、大樹に向けて歩みを進めていた。フェアベルゲンに到着してか目に、ちょうど大樹への道が開ける周期が訪れたのである。その間、フェアベルゲンに滞在していたハジメ達にも色々と騒動が降りかかったりしたのだが、いつもに比べれば、きっと日常の範疇に入るレベルの騒動なので語るほどのことでもないだろう。主に、光輝と解放奴隷(女の子)とのあれこれや、アルテナ絡みで亜人の男連中とハジメのあれこれや龍太郎と亜人族の武芸者とのあれこれとか......そんな程度の話だ。道中、当然のように樹海の魔物が霧に紛れて奇襲を仕掛けて来た。しかし、ハジメの他、ユエ、シア、ティオ、そしてハウリア達対処せず、全て光輝達に任せている。【ハルツィナ樹海】の大迷宮がどのような試練を用意しているかわからない以上、初挑戦の彼等に樹海の魔物でウォーミングアップをしていてもらおうというわけだ。もっとも、樹海の霧は亜人族以外の種族の感覚を著しく狂わせるため、【オルクス大迷宮】での魔物の戦闘とは勝手が違うようで、光輝達は少々苦戦しているようだった。おちょくるようにヒット&アウェイを繰り返し、濃霧を最大限に生かす魔物に龍太郎などは露骨に苛立っていた。「......そこ! こうやって......こう!」そんな中、光輝達と混じって戦闘を繰り返しているのは香織だ。香織は未だ完全にノイントの体を使いこなしきれていないので自主的に鍛錬しているのである。どうやら、ノイントの体は濃霧の影響も余り受けないようで、感覚の調整とノイントの戦闘経験・技能のトレースにはちょうどいいらしい。今も、銀色に輝く翼をはためかせながら、銀羽を飛ばして魔物を撃退している。銀羽の誘導も大分慣れてきたようで、まるでホーミングミサイルのように魔物を追跡し一瞬で分解・消滅させている。「やっ!」更に、掛け声と共に銀羽をくぐり抜けて接近してきた魔物を、一瞬で取り出した銀光を纏う大剣の一振りで綺麗に両断した。まだ、ノイントのように双大剣を自在に振り回すことは難しいようだが、一本だけならかなりの腕前となっている。少なくとも〝剣士〟を自称しても何ら恥ずかしくはないレベルだ。「大分、慣れてきたみたいだな。毎日、ユエと喧嘩しているだけの事はある」ハジメが、「ふぅ~」と息を吐いて残心を解く香織の姿を見ながらポツリと呟いた。本来のノイントの戦闘能力は全力のハジメを苦戦させるレベルなのでまだまだではあるが、魂魄を移してからまだ十日程度である事を考えれば驚異的な成長速度だ。香織の勤勉さが、急速にノイントの戦闘力をものにさせているのだろう。「そんな事ないよ。魔法はまだ実戦だと使い物にならないし、分解も集中しないと発動しないし......ユエからは一本も取れないし」ハジメとユエの会話が聞こえていたらしく、歩み寄りながら香織が唇を尖らせる。早く強くなりたいのに、そのイメージはあるのに、思う通りにいかなくてもどかしい......そんな気持ちが表情に出ている。「......香織。あなた何を言ってるのよ。軽く私達を上回る身体能力に、銀翼と分解なんていう凶悪な能力、魔法は全属性に適性があって無詠唱・魔法陣無しで発動可能。剣術も冗談みたいに上達して上限は未だ見えず、ただでさえ要塞みたいな防御能力なのに傷を負わせても回復魔法の練度はそのまま継承しているから即時に治癒して......もうチートなんて評価じゃ足りない、バグキャラというべきよ。なのに、まだ不満なの?」雫から呆れたように客観的なスペックを指摘されて、確かに化け物じみていると感じた香織は目を泳がせる。「でも、ユエやシアにも勝てないし......私がバグキャラなら、ハジメくん達は?」「......名状しがたい何か...としか......」雫が難しい表情でハジメ達をあらわす表現を考えるが、結局、何も出てこなかったらしい。そんな雫に光輝が声を掛ける。「大丈夫だ、雫。大迷宮さえクリアできれば、俺達だって南雲くらい強くなれる。いや、南雲が非戦系天職であることを考えれば、きっと、もっと強くなれるはずだ」「だな。どんな魔法が手に入るのか楽しみだぜ」「うん、頑張ろうね!」ハジメの強さは神代魔法だけが要因ではないのだが、その辺はスルーして光輝がグッと握り拳を作った。龍太郎や鈴も気合十分なようだ。「みなさ~ん、着きましたよぉ~」光輝達が燃え上がっていると、シアが肩越しに振り返りながら大樹への到着を伝える。濃霧の向こう側へ消えていくシアを追ってハジメ達も前へ進むと霧のない空間に出た。前方には以前見た時と変わらない枯れた巨大な木がそびえ立っている。「これが......大樹......」「すごく......大きいね......」頭上を見上げ、大樹の天辺が見えないこと、横幅がありすぎて一見すると唯の壁のように見えることに口をポカンと開けて唖然とする光輝達。きっと、初めて訪れたとき自分達も同じような表情になっていたのだろうなと、ハジメとユエは顔を見合わせて小さく笑みをこぼした。ハジメは、〝宝物庫〟から今まで攻略して来た大迷宮の証を取り出しながら根元にある石版のもとへ歩み寄る。石版も以前と変わらず形の頂点に七つの各大迷宮を示す紋様が描かれており、その裏側には証をはめ込む窪みがあった。しゃがみこみながら、ハジメがの証を掌で弄んでいると、光輝達もようやく大樹の偉容から解放されて正気を取り戻しハジメのもとへ集まって来た。ここからは何が起こってもおかしくない本当の魔境だ。気を引き締めろと、ハジメは鋭い視線を光輝達に飛ばした。「カム、何が起こるかわからないからハウリア族は離れておけ」「了解です、ボス。ご武運を」フェアベルゲンとの交渉で、大樹近辺から南方はハウリア族の土地になったので付いてきたカム達だったが、ハジメの言葉に少し残念そうな表情になりつつ、それでも一斉にビシッと敬礼を決めて散開していった。それを確認すると、ハジメはおもむろに【オルクス大迷宮】攻略の証である指輪を石版の窪みにはめ込んだ。一拍置いて、石版が淡く輝き出し文字が浮き出始める。の証〟〝再生の力〟〝紡がれた絆の道標〟〝全てを有する者に新たな試練の道は開かれるだろう〟「これも前と同じだな。使う証は......【神山】以外のでいいか」ハジメは呟きながら一つずつ証を石版にはめ込んでいった。【ライセンの指輪】【グリューエンのペンダント】【メルジーネのコイン】...... 一つはめ込んでいく度に石版の放つ輝きが大きく強くなっていく。そして、最後のコインをはめ込んだ直後、その輝きが解き放たれたように地面を這って大樹に向かい、今度は大樹そのものを盛大に輝かせた。「む? 大樹にも紋様が出たのじゃ」「......次は、再生の力?」ティオが興味深げに呟いた通り、大樹の幹に七角形の紋様が浮き出ていた。トコトコとその輝く紋様に歩み寄ったユエは、そっと手を触れながら再生魔法を行使する。直後、パァアアアアア!! 今までの比ではない光が大樹を包み込み、ユエの手が触れている場所から、まるで波紋のように何度も光の波が天辺に向かって走り始めた。燦然と輝く大樹は、まるで根から水を汲み取るように光を隅々まで行き渡らせ徐々に瑞々しさを取り戻していく「あ、葉が......」シアが、刻々と生命力を取り戻していく大樹にうっとりと見蕩れながら頭上の枝にポツポツと付き始めた葉を指差す。まるで、生命の誕生でも見ているかのような、言葉に出来ない不可思議な感動を覚えながら見つめるハジメ達の眼前で、大樹は一気に生い茂り、鮮やかな緑を取り戻した。少し強めの風が大樹をざわめかせ、辺りに葉鳴りを響かせる。と、次の瞬間、突如、正面の幹が裂けるように左右に分かれ大樹に洞が出来上がった。数十人が優に入れる大きな洞だ。ハジメ達は顔を見合わせ頷き合うと、躊躇うことなく巨大な洞の中へ足を踏み入れた。ハジメが少し懸念していたこと――実際に四つ以上の大迷宮を攻略していないメンバーは樹海の大迷宮に挑戦できないのではないかという点については、どうやら杞憂だったようである。問題なく全員が洞の中へ入ることが出来た。おそらく他の大迷宮と同じく、「入りたければ、あるいは入れるものなら入ればいい。但し、生きて出られる保証は微塵もないけど」というスタンスなのだろう。ハジメは視線を巡らせる。だが、洞の中は特に何もないようだった。ただ大きな空間がドーム状に広がっているだけである。「行き止まりなのか?」光輝が訝しそうにポツリと呟く。直後、洞の入口が逆再生でもしているように閉じ始めた。徐々に細くなっていく外の光。思わず慌てる光輝をハジメが一喝する。入口が完全に閉じ暗闇に包まれた洞の中で、咄嗟にユエが光源を確保しようと手をかざした。が、その必要はなかった。なぜなら、足元に大きな魔法陣が出現し強烈な光を発したからだ。「なになに! なんなのっ!」「騒ぐな! 転移系の魔法陣だ! 転移先で呆けるなよ!」動揺する龍太郎や鈴にハジメが注意した直後、彼等の視界は暗転した。 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 再び光を取り戻したハジメ達の視界に映ったのは、木々の生い茂る樹海だった。大樹の中の樹海......何とも奇妙な状況である。「みんな、無事か?」光輝が軽く頭を振りながら周囲の状況を確認し仲間の安否を確認した。それに雫達が「大丈夫」と返事をする。ユエ、シア、ティオ、香織も特に問題はないようで、周囲を警戒し鋭い視線を飛ばしている。「南雲、ここが本当の大迷宮なんだよな? ......どっちに向かえばいいんだ?」ハジメ達が飛ばされた場所は、度、全てが樹々で囲まれたサークル状の空き地であり、取るべき進路を示す道標は特に見当たらなかった。頭上は濃霧で覆われているので飛び上がって上空から道を探すことは出来そうにない。なので、光輝はどうしたものかと大迷宮経験者であるハジメに尋ねたのだ。「......取り敢えず、探すしかないな」ハジメは、どこか不機嫌そうな表情でそれだけ呟くと、近くの木の幹に手を当て〝追跡〟を発動する。魔力的なマーキングがなされ、進行方向を示すように矢印型の紅い光が木に貼り付いた。それを見て光輝達が頷く。目印を残しながら探索するしかないと理解したようだ。そして、大迷宮の試練をクリアしたのだと認められなければ神代魔法を授かれないと聞いていたので率先して歩き出した。ぞろぞろと、他のメンバーもその後を付いて行く。しかし、ハジメだけは、どこか瞳に冷たさを宿しながら何故かその場を動かない。歩き出して、それに気がついたシアが頭上に〝?〟を浮かべてハジメの方へ振り返った。「......ハジメさん? どうし――」シアが、ハジメに声をかけた......その瞬間、シュバッ! そんな風切り音が響いたかと思うと、一瞬でユエとティオ、そして龍太郎がワイヤーに巻き付かれた挙句、両端の球体が空中で固定され拘束されてしまった。ハジメが、神速で〝宝物庫〟から拘束用アーティファクトであるボーラを取り出し投げつけたのである。ジタバタともがくユエ、ティオ、龍太郎。そんな彼女達を見て光輝達が唖然とする。しかし、直ぐに正気を取り戻すとキッと音がしそうな強い眼差しをハジメに向けた。光輝が思わず怒声を上げる。雫達もどこか緊張したような表情でハジメに視線で事情説明を求めた。「......少し黙ってろ」しかし、ハジメはそれだけ言うと光輝達の疑問には答えずユエのもとへ無言、無表情でスタスタと歩み寄った。そして、自分を困惑したように見上げるユエの額にゴリッとドンナーの銃口を押し付けた。その瞳には絶対零度の冷たさが宿っており、ハジメが激烈な怒りを抱いていることが示されていた。「ハジメ......どうしっ」ユエが、自分に銃口を向けるハジメを見て信じられないといった表情をする。そして、ハジメの名を呼びながら疑問の声を上げようとした。が、その直後、ハジメは躊躇うことなくドンナーの引き金を引いた。樹海に、乾いた炸裂音が木霊する。一応、銃口は額から外されてユエの肩に向けられていたが、それでもハジメが最愛の恋人を撃ったことに変わりはない。その事実に、光輝達は当然のことシア達は激しく動揺する。そして、ハジメの正気を疑うような眼差しを向けた。「な、何をやってるの! 南雲くん!」「ハジメくん! やめて!」雫と香織が、焦燥感に満ちた制止の声を上げハジメを止めようとするが、そこでようやくシアが違和感に気がついたようで逆に香織達を手で制した。光輝がハジメを取り押さえようと今にも飛びかかりそうな雰囲気だったが、それは、次ぐハジメの言葉で霧散することになった。「許可なくしゃべるな、偽物。紛い物の分際でユエの声を真似てんじゃねぇよ。次に、その声で俺の名を呼んでみろ。手足の端から削り落とすぞ」ハジメが声を発した瞬間、まるでその場が極寒の地にでもなったかのように冷気で満たされた。実際に気温が下がっているわけではない。その身から溢れ出る殺意が、生命の発する熱を削ぎ落としているのだ。心なし、周囲が暗くなった気さえする。余りに濃密な殺意に、光輝達の呼吸が自然と浅くなり冷や汗が滝のように流れ落ちた。「お前は何だ? 本物のユエは何処にいる?」ユエの姿をした〝何か〟は表情をストンと落とすと無機質な雰囲気を纏って無言を貫いた。〝何者〟ではなく〝何か〟なのは、撃たれた肩から血が流れ落ちないからである。明らかに〝人〟ではなかった。ハジメは、今度は逆の肩を撃ち抜く。しかし、ユエの偽物は表情一つ変えることはなかった。どうやら痛覚がないらしい。ノイントよりも尚、人形のようなイメージを受けるそれは、あるいは本当に意思を持っていないのかもしれない。「答える気はないか。......いや、答える機能を持っていないのか。ならもういい。死ね」ハジメは、ドンナーの銃口をユエの額に向けると今度こそ頭部をレールガンで撃ち抜き吹き飛ばした。ユエ(偽)の後方に、何かがビチャビチャと飛び散る。思わず顔を背ける雫達だったが、堪えてよく見てみれば飛び散ったのは脳髄などではなく赤錆色のスライムのようなものだった。頭部を失ったユエ(偽)の胴体は、一拍おいてドロリと溶け出すと、同じように赤錆色のスライムに戻りそのまま地面のシミとなった。ハジメは続けてボーラで拘束しているティオと龍太郎の頭部も撃ち抜く。弾け飛んだ二人に思わず総毛立つ光輝達だったが、やはりユエ(偽)と同じように赤錆色のスライムに戻るとそのまま地面に吸い込まれていった。「チッ。流石大迷宮だ。いきなりやってくれる......」ハジメがドンナーをホルスターに仕舞いながら悪態を吐く。「ハジメさん......ユエさんとティオさんは......」「転移の際、別の場所に飛ばされたんだろうな。僅かに、神代魔法を取得する時の記憶を探られる感覚があった。あの擬態能力を持っている赤錆色のスライムに記憶でも植え付けて成り済まさせ、隙を見て背後からって感じじゃないか?」ハジメが恋人をダシにされて不機嫌そうに表情を歪ませる。ハジメの推測を聞いて雫と鈴が感心したように頷いた。「なるほどね。......それにしてもよくわかったわね」「うんうん、鈴には見分けがつかなかったよ。どうやって気がついたの?」鈴が、また成り済ましで仲間に紛れられたら困るとハジメに見分け方を聞いた。光輝もはぐれた親友の安否を気にしつつ興味深げにハジメを見やった。そんな疑問に対するハジメの答えは...... 「どうって言われてもな。......見た瞬間、わかったとしか言いようがない。目の前のこいつは〝俺のユエじゃない〟って」「「「「「......」」」」」ある意味、惚気とも言えるような回答に全員がガクッと脱力した。「じゃあ、龍太郎君とティオさんは?」「一度、偽者がいるって分かれば、後は注意して見れば〝魔眼石〟で違和感を見抜くことは出来るんだよ。だから、今後は俺といる限り心配無用だ」そうですかぁ~と、光輝達はどこか呆れたような眼差しをハジメに向けた。そんな中、シアが何か思いついたようにハッとすると、もじもじしつつ期待を含めた眼差しでハジメに問う。「あの、ハジメさん......私でも、見た瞬間に気づいてくれますか?」「!」シアの問い掛けに隣の香織が反応し、視線で「私はどうかな?」と問いかける。何となくハジメに視線が集まる。微妙に甘酸っぱい雰囲気の中、ハジメは特に気負った様子もなくあっさり答えた。「さぁ? 見た瞬間は無理じゃないか?」普通は空気を読んで「もちろん、気が付くに決まっているだろ?」と答えるべき場面であるが、そこはハジメクオリティー。容赦なく思ったことをそのまま伝える。思わずジト目になるシアと香織だったが、そんな二人の視線などどこ吹く風といった様子でハジメは樹海の奥へスタスタと進み始めてしまった。「神経が太すぎるのも考えものね......」「あぅ、カオリン、シアシア、元気だして!」「香織は本当に、何だってあんな奴を......」ハジメの後に続きながら、雫達が頬を膨らませて不機嫌さをアピールしている香織とシアをチラ見する。一行は最初から色々問題を抱えつつ樹海の中へと足を踏み入れるのだった。ちなみに、内心では「シアなら分かる」と、ハジメは思っていたりするのだが......素直に態度で示そうと決めたばかりなのに、つい素っ気なくしてしまうところはやはりツンデレと言えるかもしれない。 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ブゥヴヴヴヴ!! まるで扇風機を最大速で動かしているような、そんな音が樹海に響く。一つや二つではない。おびただしい数のそれは羽音だ。超高速で羽ばたかれる半透明の羽が、既にそれ自体攻撃になりそうな騒音を撒き散らしているのだ。「うぅ~、キモイよぉ~、〝天絶ぅ〟!」「泣き言いわないの! 鈴、そっち行ったわよ!」「くっ、素早い! 〝天翔剣〟!」鈴が相対する魔物の姿に生理的嫌悪感を抱いて泣きべそをかく。それも仕方ないかもしれない。何せ、羽音の元は幼児サイズの〝蜂〟だったからだ。フォルムを例えるならスズメバチだろう。超巨大な蜂型の魔物が、強靭な顎と尾の針を凶器に群れをなして襲いかかって来ているのだ。黄色と黒の毒々しい色合いと、ギチギチと開閉される顎、緑色の液体を滴らせる針、わしゃわしゃと不気味に動く足、そして赤黒い複眼......確かに直視は避けたい生き物だ。しかも、この蜂型の魔物、動きがやたら素早く群れで連携までとってくるので厄介なことこの上なかった。更に、尾の針は射出可能で飛ばした直後には新しいものが生えてくるので、中距離からマシンガンのように掃射されると厄介どころでは済まない脅威であった。何とか鈴の障壁が毒針の攻撃を防ぎ、雫が速度で相手の連携を崩して、生まれた隙に光輝が強力な一撃を叩き込むという方法で対抗しているが、視界を埋め尽くす蜂の群れは一向に減った様子がなかった。「くそぉ、こいつら、まるで魔人族の魔物みたいだ!」「いや、逆だろう? 奴らの魔物が大迷宮の魔物に近いんだ」必死の形相で聖剣を振るう光輝が、少し前に経験した修羅場を思い出して思わず悪態を吐いた。大迷宮の魔物の強さに余裕が全くないようだ。そんな光輝の背後から今にも奇襲を仕掛けようとしていた体長二メートルはあるカマキリ型の魔物を、歯牙にもかけずに瞬殺しながらハジメがツッコミを入れた。ハジメから少し離れた場所では、シアが、これまた三メートルはありそうな巨大なアリ型の魔物をドリュッケンの一撃で地面ごと爆砕し周囲に屍の山を築いている。香織も負けずに、次々と銀羽を飛ばして既に三十体近い蜂型の魔物を分解・撃墜していた。光輝は視界に入ったその光景を見て、改めてハジメ達との実力差を感じ悔しそうに歯噛みする。「〝天絶ぅ〟〝天絶ぅ〟! もう、ダメだよっ。押し切られちゃう!」既に半泣きの鈴が展開する幾枚もの輝くシールドは、破壊されては新たに作り出されてを繰り返し、鈴の魔力を容赦なく削り取っていく。〝天絶〟は、確かにシールド自体の強度はそれほどでもなく展開数を重視した障壁ではあるが、それでも〝結界師〟である鈴が張るものであり並みの魔物なら一枚割るにも数度の攻撃が必要なくらいの強度があるのだ。しかし、蜂型の魔物が射出する毒針の前では文字通り紙屑のように一瞬で破壊されてしまい、鈴は現在、かつてない速度での障壁展開を余儀なくされていた。少しずつ、少しずつ、障壁の展開が遅れがちになり飛んでくる毒針が徐々に距離を詰めてくる光景は、まるで真綿で首を絞めるかのように鈴の精神にもダメージを与えていた。「奔れ、〝雷華〟! 刻め、〝爪閃〟!」雫の詠唱と共に、宙に雷の華が咲き、風の爪痕が刻まれる。黒刀の能力をいかんなく発揮させ迫る蜂型の魔物に振るっていく。その鋭い太刀筋は、確かな手応えと共に蜂型の魔物を切り裂いていった。スピードファイターである雫と蜂型の魔物は相性がいいのだろう。〝無拍子〟を利用した緩急自在のスピードで連携を乱しつつ、一体一体確実に屠っている。しかし、蜂型の魔物の強みはその数の多さだ。倒すことは出来ても雫には圧倒的に殲滅力が足りなかった。それ故に、戦局は徐々に押され始めており、それに気がついている雫の表情は苦々しい。「刃の如き意志よ、光に宿りて敵を切り裂け! 〝光刃〟!」光輝が、雫のおかげで出来た隙に詠唱し、聖剣に光の刃が宿らせる。その光刃は、聖剣の先から更に伸長し二メートル近い長さとなった。光輝は、巨大な光の刃を振りかぶると体を回転させながら一気に振り抜き周囲の蜂型の魔物を纏めて切り飛ばす。しかし、隙の大きいモーションをとってしまったために技後硬直を狙われ魔物が殺到。体当たりを受けて後方へひっくり返ってしまった。顎をギチギチ鳴らしながら毒針を突き刺そうとする蜂型の魔物だったが、幸い、光輝の纏う聖なる鎧が針を寄せ付けず、光輝はその隙にどうにか頭部を切り飛ばして起き上がろうとした。雫の心配する声に応える余裕もない。次の瞬間には、再び大量の魔物が体勢を立て直しきれていない光輝に襲いかかったからだ。「うぉおおおお!」雄叫びを上げながら聖剣を振る光輝だったが、一度晒してしまった決定的な隙を簡単に立て直しさせるほど大迷宮の魔物は甘くない。遂に、聖剣を掻い潜って背後に回り込んだ蜂型の魔物が、そのスパイクのような足でがっちり背中に組み付き、凶悪な顎で光輝の首筋を噛み千切ろうとした。「ッ!?」声にならない悲鳴を上げる光輝。刹那、銃声一発。今まさに蜂の顎が光輝の首に突き刺さろうとした瞬間、横合いから空を切り裂いて閃光が迸り、蜂型の魔物の頭部をあっさりと吹き飛ばした。その余波でフラつく光輝は、首筋に感じるヒリヒリした熱さを無視して取り付いている蜂型の魔物の残骸を引き剥がすに一生を得たものの、更に群れをなして押し寄せる魔物に光輝の頬が引き攣った。 ――押し切られるそう確信した。そんな光輝の耳に何の焦りも感じていない声が届く。「動くなよ、天之河」直後、無数の流星が蜂型の魔物を容赦の欠片もなく無慈悲に蹂躙した。ドォオパン! ドォオパン! ドォオパン! ドォオパン! ドォオパン! 一発分に聞こえる銃声は、その実、六条の閃光を生み出している。紅く輝く光の槍は、たった一発で射線上の魔物達を後方まで貫き一瞬で絶命させた。更に、計算され尽くした射角で解き放たれた弾丸は、あろう事か空中で他の弾丸とぶつかり、微妙に角度を変えた上で、より効率的に敵を撃ち抜いていく。見方によれば、まるで敵の方が自ら弾丸に飛び込んでいるようにすら見えた。そんな絶技とも言うべき銃技で、光輝が散々苦労した魔物を圧倒するハジメは、手元に転送した弾丸をガンスピンさせて次々とリロードしながら、更にドンナー・シュラークを乱れ撃つ。 ......全ての片がつくのに一分もかからなかった。まさに秒殺。瞬く間に蜂型の魔物を殲滅してしまったハジメは何事もなかったようにドンナー・シュラークをホルスターに仕舞うと、呆然とする光輝達を放置して倒した魔物に近寄った。「ちっ、喰っても意味なさそうだな......」「く、喰う? えっ、南雲くん、これを食べるつもりだったの? 本気で?」思わず、先の蹂躙劇を忘れてドン引きしながら雫が聞いた。「言ってなかったか? ......自分と同等以上の魔物を喰うとな、相手の固有魔法を自分の物に出来ることがあるんだよ。奈落の底じゃあ、喰うものなんて魔物くらいしかなかったからな。あぁ、お前らは真似するなよ。まず間違いなく死ぬから」「頼まれたってしないわよ。改めて聞くと本当に壮絶ね......」雫が、どこか複雑そうな眼差しをハジメに向けた。本当に頼りになるし今まで何度も助けられてきたのだが、その強さのもとが余りに壮絶な経験の果てのものであると改めて実感し、素直に感心していいものか迷ったのである。「で、でも、じゃあ何でこれは食べないの? いや、鈴としては、そんな捕食シーンは見たくないから食べないにこしたことはないんだけど......」「今、言っただろう? 自分と同等以上じゃないと意味ないって。この辺の奴等じゃあ雑魚すぎるんだよ」「......そっかぁ~。南雲くんにとって、この魔物は雑魚なんだぁ~。そっかぁ~、アハハ」「鈴、気持ちはわかるから壊れないで。戻ってきなさい」若干、壊れ気味に乾いた笑い声を上げる鈴を、雫が嘆息しながら正気に戻す。そんな中、光輝だけはハジメが撒き散らした魔物の残骸をギュッと拳を握りながら見つめていた。自分が危うく死にそうになる程の強敵を相手に、まるで何の価値もない路傍の石の如き評価を下すハジメを見て、その隔絶した実力差を嫌というほど感じているのだ。気がつかないふりをしているが、心の内には、かつて感じた黒い感情が湧き出している。無言で佇む光輝をハジメはチラリと見やった。「っ。な、何だ?」「今は、お前の幼馴染を探し出すことだけ考えとけ。あれこれ悩むのは、やることやってからで十分だろ」「あ、ああ。そうだな、早く龍太郎達を見つけないとな......」多少どもりながらも、ハジメの言葉にしっかりと頷く光輝。行方不明の幼馴染を思って気を引き締め直す。ハジメは、そんな光輝をしばらく見つめたあと興味を失ったように視線を逸らした。実のところ、ハジメには光輝が今感じているものが何なのか手に取るように分かっていた。劣等感や焦燥感、強さへの嫉妬......かつて、ハジメも感じたことのある感情だ。まさか、何でも持っている光輝が、そんな感情をよりにもよってハジメに感じるとは何とも皮肉な話である。そんな事を思いつつもハジメに光輝を慮る気持ちは皆無なので、あっさりスルーした。先の言葉だけでもハジメからしてみれば大盤振る舞いなのである。「ハジメさん、向こうは掃討しましたよぉ~」「ふぅ、こっちも終わったよ」そうこうしている内に、香織とシアも魔物を片付け終わって戻ってきた。「よし。それじゃ、出発するか。ユエとティオのことだから大丈夫だとは思うが、少しでも早く合流できるに越したことはないからな。坂上は......まぁ、なるようになるだろう」「ちょっ、龍太郎の扱いが雑すぎない? いえ、恋人が大事なのはわかるのだけど......」ハジメの物言いに雫が困った表情でツッコミつつ、一行ははぐれた仲間を探して樹海の奥へと進んでいった。	In the dense fog that clung onto bodies, people’s shadow could be seen moving on without hesitation. With Shia in the front, Hajime and them are currently heading towards the big tree. It’s the second day after they’ve arrived at Fair Bergen, the cycle for the path to the big tree to open has finally come. Within that time, there were various disturbances which Hajime and them were caught up in as they stayed in Fair Bergen but, if you compare it with what usually happens, it’s likely not to such a high extent that it couldn’t be categorized as their daily lives. Mainly, the thing with Kouki and the freed slaves (girls), a group of male Demi-human’s were doing this and that to hajime because of the thing with Arutena, and Ryutaro was doing this and that with the Demi-humans martial arts masters......those kind of stories. Along the way, forest demons launched a surprise attack under the fog. However, Hajime and the rest, Yue, Shia, Teio, and the Hauria didn’t deal with it at all, they left everything up to Kouki and them. Since they didn’t know what kind of trials the great labyrinth [Harutsuina Sea of Trees] holds, as a warm up they were told to take out the demons. To begin with, because the Sea of Trees drives the senses of other races besides the Demi-humans mad, it was completely different than fighting against the demons at [Orcus Great Labyrinth], Kouki and them were having a pretty hard fight. They kept teasing by using hit and run tactics repeatedly and Ryutaro was plainly irritated at the demons who made full use of the dense fog. “......There! Like this....this!” Within there, Kaori was mixed into Kouki and them’s repeated combat. Kaori still wasn’t completely in full control of Nointo’s body yet so she was there voluntarily to train. It appears that, the dense fog didn’t effect Nointo’s body as much, it seems to be just the right adjustment for the battle experience and trace skills that Nointo had. Even now, while fluttering her wings which shined in silver, it shot out silver feathers to repel the demons. It appears that she’s gotten used to using the silver feathers, as if they were homing missiles, they launched out at the demons and instantly decomposed them to nothingness. “Ya!” In addition, while giving out a shout, the approaching demons who slipped past the silver feathers were wonderfully cut into by the great sword that was clad in silver light that was pulled out in an instant. It seems that she still couldn’t wield them freely like how Nointo did but, if its just one hit then she’s considerably skilled. At the very least, it was at the level where she couldn’t be embarrassed to call herself a “Swordsman”. “I seem to be considerably getting used to this. It’s worthwhile that I get into a fight with Yue everyday”“.......Your spec’s are abnormal. I can’t afford to be careless” Hajime let out a breath and muttered, “Fuu~”, as he watched Kaori’s figure. Although she’s still not on the original Nointo’s level yet which was able to give the Hajime at full power a hard fight, but if you think about her growth rate, it was wonderful since it was still only around days since her soul was transferred. Kaori’s diligence is likely allowing her to rapidly master Nointo’s fighting power. “That’s not true. I’m still not accustomed to using magic while fighting, if I don’t concentrate on Decomposition it wont activate as well.....I still can’t even get a hit off of Yue” It appears that she heard the conversation between Hajime and Yue, Kaori was pouting as she moved forwards. She wants to quickly become stronger, she has the image but, she’s frustrated that it doesn’t go as she thought it would.....those kind of feelings are reflected on her expression. “.......Kaori. What are you saying. Your physical abilities exceeds ours, you have the brutal ability of decomposition in your silver wings, and you’ve got aptitude in all attributes and can use magic without having to chant and without magic formations. Your swordsmanship is also progressing limitlessly like a joke as well, due to your proficiency in recovery magic, your defenses are like a fortress, even if they successfully inflict a wound onto you, it’ll heal up immediately....it’s already unsuitable to call you a cheat anymore, you’re more like a bugged character. Yet you’re still dissatisfied?” Shizuku pointed out her specs as if she was amazed, Kaori had felt that she definitely felt like a monster so she just let her eyes wander around. “But, I can’t defeat Yue or Shia.....if I’m a bugged character then, what are Hajime-kun and them?” “.....Something hard to describe or something...like that.....” Shizuku was showing a difficult expression as she thought of the best way to describe Hajime and them, it seems that nothing came to mind in the end. Kouki called out to Shizuku. “It’s fine, Shizuku. As long as we can clear the great labyrinth then even we can become as strong as Nagumo. No, if you think about Nagumo’s non-fighting class, surely we’d be able to be stronger than him” “Looks like it. I’m looking forwards to find out what kind of magic we’ll obtain” “Un, lets do our best!” Although Hajime’s strength doesn’t come solely from Age of Gods magic, Kouki who was through with it was strongly clenching his fist. Ryutaro and Suzu also seemed to have been pumped up. “Every~one, We’ve reached it~” When Kouki and them were firing themselves up, Shia tells them of their arrival at the big tree as she looked back over her shoulder. When Hajime and them chased after Shia who advanced ahead and disappeared into the other side of the fog, they arrived at a space that had no fog. Towering in front was a withered huge tree just exactly like they saw before. “This is.....the big tree.....” “It’s extremely......huge” While looking above their heads, they weren’t even able to see the top of the big tree, Kouki and them had their mouths opened absentmindedly as its width was so long it was as if they were standing in front of a wall. Surely it was the same expression anyone else would have had when seeing it for the first time, Hajime and Yue had a small smile while looking at eachother. Hajime approached the lithograph while pulling out all the proofs that he’s obtained from the other great labyrinths out of his “Treasure Warehouse”. The lithograph hasn’t changed since last time, crests of the great labyrinths are drawn on the front and it’s back was hollow in order to allow the proofs to be place in. While crouching down, Hajime was playing with the proofs in his palm, Kouki and them were finally freed from the large tree’s dignified appearance and focused on Hajime. From now on it’ll be a place where anything can truly happen at anytime. While bracing themselves, Hajime looked sharply at Kouki and them. “Cam, Since we don’t know what’ll happen from now on, back off with the Hauria tribe” “Roger, boss. May fortune be with you” By Fair Bergen’s negotiations, the south land with the big tree became Cam and their territory but, from Hajime’s words his expression became a bit disappointed, However he still decided to salute and then everyone spread out together. When he confirmed that, Hajime slowly placed the “Orcus Great Labyrinth” ring of proof into the hollow section of the lithograph. Once it was placed, the lithograph began to shine faintly and characters appeared. “ proofs” “Power of Reproduction” “Guidepost of weaved bonds” “A path for a new trial shall be open for those who have everything” “This is the same as before as well. The used proof....is anything other than “Kamiyama” fine” Hajime went ahead and set the proofs into the lithograph that while muttering. “Raisen’s Ring” “Guryuen’s Pendant” “Merujine’s Coin”...... Each time one was set into the lithograph, it’s light strengthened up. And immediately after placing the final coin, the light was set free and it scattered onto the front of the big tree, this time the big tree was the one that shined brightly. “Mu? A crest has appeared on the big tree” “.....Next is, the power of Reproduction?” As Teio muttered with great interest, a pattern of the angel systems stood out on the trunk of the large tree. Yue walked towards the shining pattern and while quietly touching it she used Reproduction magic. Immediately afterwards, Pa~aaaaa!! The big tree was wrapped up in a light uncomparable to before, a wave of light was continuously rippling towards the top from the place that Yue had touched. The big tree that was shining brightly, gradually revived as the light spread out to every corner as if it was absorbing water from its roots. “Ah, leaves.....” Shia pointed at the leaves which appeared as the tree regained it’s vitality with each passing moment. It was almost like looking at the birth of life, Hajime and them were staring at what was in front of their eyes with a mysterious feeling, the big tree was quickly growing and it regained its bright green looks. As a slightly strong wind blew by, the sound of the large tree’s leaves rustling around could be heard. Then, at the next moment, all of the sudden, the front of the tree trunk was split from the right and left and a cave appeared. It was a big cave which could fit several tens of people. Hajime and them looked at each others faces and nodded to each other and stepped into the cave without hesitation. Hajime was slightly concerned——would the other members who have not captured 4 great labyrinths actually be able to challenge the great labyrinth of the Sea of Trees, but it appears that it was pointless worries. Everyone was able to enter the cave without a problem. It was probably like the other great labyrinths in the stance of, “If you want to enter, it’s fine as long as you have what’s necessary. However, your life is not guaranteed”. Hajime looked around the surroundings. But, there didn’t seem to be anything particular in the cave. It was simply a huge space which extended out like a dome. “Is it a dead-end?” Kouki muttered out doubtfully. Immediately afterwards, the entrance to the cave began to shut as if it had been reverse-reproductioned. The light from the outside gradually thinned out. Hajime scolded Kouki who instinctively panicked. When the entrance was completely shut, the inside of the cave was wrapped in darkness, immediately Yue secured a light source and held it up in her hand. However there was no need for it. That’s because a huge magic formation appeared underneath their legs and it emitted strong light. “What’s up! What is this!” “Quit making so much noise! Its a transfer magic formation! Don’t be careless when you’re transferred!” After Hajime warned the shaken Ryutaro and Suzu, their view blacked out. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ What reflected in Hajime and their view when the light returned was a lush forest. A sea of trees inside of a tree.....created an indescribably odd situation. “Is everyone alright?” Kouki lightly shook his head and confirmed his surroundings for the safety of his comrades. There Shizuku and them, “We’re fine”, replied. Yue, Shia, Teio, and Kaori didn’t seem to have any particular problems either, they watched their surroundings with caution. “Nagumo, this is really the great labyrinth right? ......Which way should we progress in?” The place where Hajime and them were transferred to was, a vacant circled lot where they were completely surrounded by trees in 360 degrees, there wasn’t a guidepost indicating which way they should go either. Since it’s covered in a dense fog, it doesn’t seem like flying overhead to look for a path would be useful. That’s why Kouki asked Hajime who had lots of experience with great labyrinths. “......For the time being, we’ve got no choice but to look around” Hajime muttered out with a slightly displeased expression, he placed his hand onto the trunk of a tree and activated “Tracing”. A magic mark was created, a bright red arrow was placed onto the tree and pointing in the direction where they were going. When Kouki and them saw that they nodded. It seems they understood that they had no choice but to search while placing signs. And they took the lead since they heard that even if you cleared the labyrinth, if they weren’t recognized by the great labyrinth then they wouldn’t be able to obtain Age of Gods magic. The other members followed behind successively. However, only Hajime didn’t move from his place as his eyes retained coldness within it. As they began to walk, Shia noticed and a “?” appeared over her head as she turned back towards Hajime. “......Hajime-san? Whats wro—-” Shia called out to Hajime......in that moment, Shuba! When they heard that wind-like noise ring out, in a instant Yue and Teio, as well as Ryutaro were coiled by a wire, with both spheres on both ends fixed into the air they were restrained. Hajime had taken out the bola from his “Treasure Warehouse” and quickly thrown them to bind them. Yue, Teio, and Ryutaro wiggled around as they struggled. When Kouki and them saw that they were dumbfounded. However, once they regained their sanity and as if it was able to produce a ~Ki~ sound they immediately glared strongly at Hajime. Kouki instinctively raised his voice angrily. Shizuku and them had tensed expressions as their eyes conveyed that they wanted an explanation from Hajime. “......Be quiet for a bit” However, Hajime only said that and didn’t answer Kouki and their doubts and silently looked towards Yue, he briskly walked up towards her who was expressionless. And, as Yue looked up at Hajime perplexedly, Hajime pressed Donner against her forehead. His eyes had a coldness of absolute zero within them, it was obvious that Hajime was completely furious in anger. “Hajime....What i-” Yue had a, I can’t believe it, expression as Hajime pointed his muzzle at her. And when she tried to voice out her doubt as she called Hajime’s name. However, immediately after that, Hajime pulled Donner’s trigger without hesitation. A dry explosive noise echoed throughout the sea of trees. For now, although the muzzle was removed from Yue’s forehead and pointed towards her shoulder, even still it didn’t change the fact that Hajime had shot his beloved lover. Towards that fact, it was obvious that Kouki and them as well as Shia and them were intensely shaken. And they looked at Hajime with eyes that doubted his sanity. “Wha, what are you doing! Nagumo-kun!” “Hajime-kun! Stop!” Shizuku and Kaori raised their voices to attempt to stop Hajime who was filled with rage but, Shia finally noticed the sense of incongruity and held onto Kaori and them by the hand instead. Although there was an air like Kouki would spring at any moment to try and restrain Hajime but, that disappeared after Hajime’s next words. “Don’t speak without permission, Imitations. You’re only an imitation and you dare imitate Yue’s voice. If you dare to call my name with that voice again. I’ll scrape off your hands and feet” The moment Hajime uttered his voice, as if the ground was arctic cold, the air was filled with coldness. However the temperature hasn’t actually fallen. Murderous intent was overflowing from his body and in turn dropped the heat that life was giving out. Somehow, even the surroundings became dark. Towards the dense murderous intent, Kouki and them naturally became shallow breathed and cold sweat ran down like a waterfall. “What are you? Where is the real Yue?” . Rather than “Who are you” it was “What are you”, this was because blood was not flowing from where she was shot in the shoulder. It was obvious that it wasn’t a “person”. This time Hajime shot through the opposite shoulder. However the fake Yue still didn’t change her expression. It appears that they didn’t have a sense of pain. Just like Nointo, they carried an image as if they were puppets, or they may not actually have any will of their own. “Are you not going to answer. ......No, do you not have a function to answer. Then its fine already. Die” This time Hajime pointed Donner’s muzzle onto Yue’s forehead and used a rail gun to blast her head off. Behind Yue (Fake), something was splattering and scattering. Although Shizuku and them instinctively turned away from it, if you took the time to look at it, it wasn’t a brain but a rust colored slime that had scattered. Yue’s (Fake) body which lost it’s head was beginning to melt after one beat, it similarly turned into a rust colored slime and stained into the ground. Hajime continued to shoot through Teio and Ryutaro’s heads consecutively while they were still restrained by the bola. As the two people splattered Kouki and them instinctively had goosebumps but, as expected they turned into a rust colored slime and were inhaled into the ground just like the Yue (Fake) slime. “Chi. As expected of a great labyrinth. Starting right off the bat....” Hajime cursed out as he holstered Donner. “Hajime-san.....Yue-san and Teio-san are.....” “They must have been transferred to a different location from earlier. There was a slight sense of the feeling when our memories were being searched by Age of Gods magic. The rust colored slimes who obtained the memories used their mimic abilities to disguise themselves, it felt like they had openings from behind?” Hajime’s expression distorts into a bad mood as his lover turned into soup. Shizuku and Suzu nodded as if they felt admiration as they heard Hajime’s guess. “I see. .....Even still you’ve done good to notice” “Un un, Suzu wasn’t able to tell the difference at all. How did you notice?” Suzu asked for Hajime’s identification tips as it would be troubling if they couldn’t distinct their own comrades apart. Kouki looked at Hajime with interest as well while worrying about the safety of his best friend. Hajime’s answer towards that question was.... “Even if you asked me. .....I can only say that the instant I saw them, I noticed. What was before my eyes was “Not my Yue”” ” ” ” ” “........” ” ” ” ” In a sense, all members lost their strength when the answer was him speaking fondly of his sweetheart. “Then, how about Ryutaro-kun and Teio-san?” “Once you know that there are imposters then, with the “Magic Eye Stone” if you look carefully you can see a sense of incongruity. That’s why you don’t have to worry as long as you’re with me from now on” Is that so~, Kouki and them looked at Hajime amazedly. Within that, as if Shia thought of something she went, ~ha~, while fidgeting she asked Hajime while expecting something. “Ano, Hajime-san.....if it was me, would you also notice it in an instant?” ” ! ” Kaori who was next to Shia reacted, in her glance she asked, “How about me?”. Somehow or another eyes were attracted to Hajime. Inside of the delicate bittersweet atmosphere, Hajime answered plainly without much vigor. “Sa~a? Isn’t it impossible for just a moments glance?” Usually while one was reading the air, “Of course, Isn’t it obvious that I’d realize it?”, and answer like that but, this was part of Hajime’s quality. While thinking that he mercilessly answered. Unintentionally Shia and Kaori continued to stare at him but, Hajime continued to advance into the depths of the sea of trees while being indifferent about the two people’s glances. “It’s questionable how he can have such strong nerves....” “Au, Kaolin, Shiashia, cheer up!” “Kaori is really, what about that guy is.....” While following after Hajime, Shizuku and them glanced at Shia and Kaori who puffed their cheeks in a bad mood from their appeal. While having various problems at the the start of the line, they stepped into the sea of trees. By the way, in his mind, “If it was Shia I’d know”, is what Hajime had thought but.....he had just decided to take on an honest attitude but he carelessly said that bluntly so he may very well be a tsundere. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Vuu~uu”uu”uu”uu”!! Exactly like an electric fan moving at maximum speeds, that kind of sound was echoing in the sea of trees. It wasn’t one or two either. It was the buzzing of countless numbers. Translucent wings that were flapping at super-high speeds were already like a kind of attack as the noise reverates. “Uu~, gross~, [Beyond Heaven-ugh]!” “Don’t whine! Suzu, it went that way!” “Ku, it’s quick! [Heavenly Flying Sword]!”[/efn_note]What I’m calling it, 天翔剣[/efn_note] Suzu looking like she wanted to cry as she was holding in the physiological disgust she felt from looking at the demon. That may be something that can’t be helped. After all, the reason for the buzzing was a toddler sized “Bee”. If you compared it in form then it would be a hornet. The super-huge bee-typed demon were attacking in swarms with their tough jaws and lethal stingers. With a malicious yellow and black hue, their jaws creaked as it opened and closed, their stingers had green liquid dripping from it, their feet that waved around eerily, and their dark red compound eyes......it certainly was a creature that you’d want to avoid. Moreover, this bee-typed demon were hard to deal with because they were quick and they cooperated in groups. Furthermore, they could continuously shoot out their needles since a new one would immediately grow in its place, from mid-range it was exactly like a machine-gun so there was the threat of being swept by a rain of stingers. Somehow Suzu’s barriers were keeping out the stingers, as opposed to Kouki’s method of hammering them with a single blow, Shizuku was breaking apart their cooperation and speed, however the swarm of bee’s were not decreasing in numbers at all. “Damn, these guys, they’re exactly like the Majinzoku’s demons!” “No, it’s reversed isn’t it? They’re monsters are similar to the great labyrinth’s monsters” Kouki wielded his sacred sword with a desperate look, he remembered the scene of bloodshed that they experienced previously and unintentionally cursed out. They had absolutely no space to relax because the great labyrinth’s monsters were so strong. At the moment a mantis-shaped demon that was around 2 meters in length was about to do a surprise attack on Kouki from behind but, Hajime killed it in an instant and tsukkomied at the same time. A slight distance away from Hajime, Shia was killing 3 meter ant-typed demons in a single hit with Doryukken and blasting through the ground building a mountain of corpses. Kaori wasn’t losing either, she continuously shot out silver feathers and close to 30 bee’s were already shot down and decomposed. When Kouki saw the spectacle that came into view, he grit his teeth as he feels the difference between Hajime and their powers once again. ““Beyond Heaven-ugh” “Beyond Heaven-ugh”! It’s useless. We’ll be overwhelmed!” Suzu who was close to tears, created several shining shields, she kept repeatedly building new ones as soon as the previous ones were destroyed, Suzu’s magical power was mercilessly shaved down. “Beyond Heaven” is not that strong but its strength is that it can be produced in great numbers, Suzu was a “Barrier Master” so her barriers also carried enough strength to take on several attacks from normal demons before they were destroyed. However, in front of the bee-typed demon’s stingers that they shot out, those barriers were instantly broken as if they were paper waste, currently Suzu was being forced to deploy barriers at unprecedented speeds. Little by little, little by little, the deployment of barriers were being delayed and the scene of flying stingers gradually fills the distance, it was as if she was being strangled by a line of silk and it damaged Suzu’s mind. “Run rampant, “Thunder Flower”! mince them, [Flash Claw]!” Along with Shizuku’s chants, a sinister flower of thunder bloomed in the sky, and a claw of wind minced through. She demonstrated her black katana’s abilities on the approaching bee-typed demons. With her sharp swordsmanship, she was certainly feeling the feedback of the demons being torn apart. With Shizuku being a Speed Fighter, being paired up against the bees was a good match. While disturbing their cooperation with her free movement skill “No Rhythm”, one by one she was sure to slaughter them. However, the bee-typed demon’s strength was their numbers. Even if she could defeat them, Shizuku was lacking in overwhelming annihilation powers. Hence, the war situation was that they were gradually being pushed, Shizuku who noticed that had a bitter expression. “Will of the blade, harboring light which will tear apart the enemy! “Light Blade”!” Thanks to Shizuku, Kouki was able to chant as he liked and his sacred sword was coated by a sword of light. The light blade extended his sacred sword by about another 2 meters in length. Kouki swung the huge blade of light while rotating his body in one motion which cut through all gathered surrounding bee-typed demons. However because the motion of the attack held too many openings, the demons charged in towards him. In response his body was hurled backwards. The bee-typed demon was about to thrust its stinger into him but, fortunately, Kouki’s sacred armor prevented the stinger from coming near, Kouki somehow managed to use that chance to get up and cut off it’s head. He had no room to answer Shizuku’s worried voice. In the next moment, he was attacked by huge quantities of demons so Kouki needed to finish recovering his balance. “Uo~ooooo!” Although Kouki waved his sacred sword while shouting, the demons in the great labyrinth weren’t sweet enough to spare you any time when you’ve exposed a chance. At last, a bee-typed demon managed to slip past the sacred sword and get behind him, it then clung onto him from behind like spikes on shoes, it was trying to use its jaws to tear through Kouki’s neck. “~!?” Kouki raised a voiceless scream. in that juncture, A gunshot. The moment when the bee’s jaws were about to pierce through Kouki’s neck, a flash of light surged out from the side as it cut through the sky and easily blew off the bee-typed demon’s head off. Kouki who was unsteady due to the aftereffect, ignored the heat that he felt on his neck and separated himself from the remains of the bee-typed demon that was clinging onto him. Although it was a narrow escape from death, Kouki’s cheeks cramped as more demons swarmed him. ——I’ll be overwhelmed! He was convinced. A voice that had no sense of panic was heard in Kouki’s ears. “Don’t move, Amanogawa” Immediately afterwards, countless meteors fell down upon the bee-typed demons and mercilessly trampled them. Doo~opan! Doo~opan! Doo~opan! Doo~opan! Doo~opan! You could only hear one gunshot but, the truth was that there were 6 flashes produced. The shining red spear of light pierced through all demons in the line of fire and killed them instantly. In addition, the bullets were shot out with well-thought out trajectories, they went through the air and collided with the other bullets and with that slight change in angle they efficiently pierced through more Demons. According to their viewpoint, it almost seemed as if the enemies voluntarily jumped into the bullets. Such special technique could be called an admirable performance, the demons which were giving Kouki a hard time were overwhelmed by Hajime, the bullets were continuously spinning and reloading one another, in addition Donner and Schlag shot out when they fell into confusion. ......It didn’t even take 1 minute before everything was taken care of. It was instant killings. Hajime who annihilated the bee-typed demons in no time at all holstered Donner and Schlag as if nothing happened, he approached the defeated monsters as Kouki and them were stunned. “Chi, it doesn’t seem like there’s any meaning even if I ate them.....” “E, eat? Eh, Nagumo-kun, you intended to eat this? Seriously?” Instinctively, Shizuku asked after being influenced by the previous act of devastation. “Did I not say it before? .....If I eat a demon which is equal or higher than me, I can take in the opponents inherent magic for myself. In the abyss, the only thing there was to eat were demons. Ahh, you guys shouldn’t copy me. Without a doubt you’d die” “Even if you didn’t say it, we wouldn’t. Hearing it once again is truly sublime.....” Shizuku was looking at Hajime with a complex expression. He’s really reliable since he’s helped them countless times by now but, she was reminded once again of where that power came from was through a sublime experience, she was lost on whether she should honestly feel admiration or not. “Bu, but, why aren’t you eating this thing then? No, as for Suzu, suzu doesn’t want to see such a predation scene so you don’t have to eat it but......” “I just said it just now? There’s no meaning unless they’re equal or higher than me. The guys around here are all small frys” “......I See~. For Nagumo-kun, this monster is a small fry~. I see~, ahaha” “Suzu, I understand your feelings so don’t break. Please come back” Suzu who was giving a dry laugh as if slightly broken and Shizuku was sighingly asking her to regain her sanity. Within that, only Kouki was staring at the remains of the demons that Hajime had created while tightly grasping the sword in his grip. For himself, the enemy was powerful to the extent where he had almost lost his life, but Hajime evaluated them as if they were just stones on the side of the road without any value, he felt unpleasant from their difference in ability. Although he was trying to pretend to not notice, dark emotions were beginning to swell up again within his heart. Hajime glanced over at Kouki who was standing still silently. “~. Wh, what is it?” “For now just think about finding your childhood friend. Being worried about this and that, it’ll be fine as long as you do what you have to do” “Ah, ahh. You’re right, we have to quickly find Ryutaro and them....” Although he stuttered somewhat, Kouki nodded firmly towards Hajime’s words. He braced himself again to search for his missing childhood friend. After Hajime was glancing at Kouki like that, he seemed to have lost interest and averted his glance. As a matter of fact, Hajime had clearly understood what Kouki was feeling. Inferiority complex and frustration, jealousy of strength........they were emotions which Hajime had felt once before. He never thought that Kouki who had everything would be feeling that way towards himself, it was a rather ironic subject. As Hajime was thinking about such things, because he had no feelings to consider for Kouki, he was simply through with it. The words from awhile ago that Hajime said out was already a big treat. “Hajime-san, the other side was cleaned up~” “Fu~u, this side is done too” In the meantime, Kaori and Shia who finished dealing with the demons came back. “Alright. Well then, shall we depart. I think that if its Yue and Teio then it’s alright but, we should still regroup with them as quickly as possible. Sakagami is......ma~a, whatever happens, happens” “Wha-, aren’t you treating Ryutaro too crudely? Say, I know that your lover is important and all but....” From what Hajime said, Shizuku had a troubled expression as she tsukkomied. The party advanced through the interior of the sea of trees to look for their companions who were separated from them.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 15, "inserted_lines_src": 1, "inserted_lines_trg": 1 }
インドにこれてとても嬉しいですこの11年間で学んだことをずっと考えています V-Dayや“ヴァギナモノローグス”を通し各国の女性に会い女性に対する暴力を止めるため世界中を― 駆け回りました私が今日話したいのは私たちの誰もが持っている― 特定もしくはグループ細胞についてで私はそれを女子細胞と呼びたいと思いますそれは男性の中にも存在しますこの特定のグループ細胞が人類進化の― そして人類存続への要だと想像してください歴史の中で世界を支配し領有することに専念した権力者たちはこの女子細胞を制圧抑圧し― 衰えさせ新たな解釈を加えたりこの細胞の欠点を私たちに信じさせ減少させ破壊して粉砕し根絶することで女子細胞を消滅させる過程を開始したのです家父長制社会がその結果です女子とは集合意識の総体系の中にある― チップだと考えてみてくださいそれは調和や智慧を得る為― そして私たちの未来にも欠かせないものです女子細胞は厚情であり共感であり情熱そのものそれは繊細さであり率直さ厳しさ繋がりや結びつきでもあり直観的なものなのどの様に厚情が智慧に影響を与えるでしょう? 繊細さは最も優れた長所であり― 急進かつ適切で行動の節約へと導く― 生得的論理が感情にはありますしかしながら私たちは― まるで反対のことを教えられてきたのではないでしょうか? 厚情は思考を鈍らせ― 妨げる繊細さは弱さであり感情は信用できず― 物事を私的に捉えてはいけない今のは私のお気に入りね思うに世界全体が女子にならないよう― 育てられてきたのでは? “男の子になる” とはどういう意味でしょう? “男の子になる” とは“女子にならない” という意味なのです男になる=女子にならない女性になる=女子にならない強くなること=女子にならないことリーダーになる=女子にならない実は “女子になる” ということはとても “強力” なのですだってみんながそうならないように教え込まれてきたのですから (拍手) 皮肉なことに “女子” を否定制圧し― 感情を抑え拒絶したことが私たちを今日の世界へと導いたのです見るに堪えない貧困大量殺戮に大量レイプ― 極度の暴力の種類が蔓延るこの制御を失った壊れゆく地球で― 暮らすハメになったのです女子細胞を抑え込み「女子らしさ」を制圧した為何が起こっているか感じることができませんそう私たちは起きていることに対しての― 十分な感応をゆだねられてないのです私の人生の転換点となった― コンゴ民主共和国について少しお話したいと思いますこれまでの12年間暴力やレイプが蔓延する世界で― 多くを見てきたと思っていましたがコンゴで過ごした最後3年間は私の魂の― ターニングポイントとなったのですブカヴ市にあるパンジー病院では今まで会った誰よりも聖人と呼ぶに相応しいムクワゲ医師と時間を共にしましたコンゴでは激しい戦争が 12年間も続いており 6百万人もの人が犠牲になっていますそして推定で約40万人もの女性がレイプされていますパンジー病院での最初の一週間― 自らに起こった出来事を話してくれる為に列をなす女性たちと共に過ごしました彼女たちの物語はあまりに信じ難く人間の持つ恐ろしい側面には正直精神を砕かれましたその内容をお話します内臓を取り除かれ銃やナイフなどを― 体内に押しこまれた8歳の女の子たち文字通り “穴” を開けられそこからは尿や便が流れ出る鎖に縛られ複数の男に囲まれ断続的にレイプされた80歳の女性全ては経済的搾取という名のもとに鉱物を奪い先進国に売りつけ利益得る為に私の心は粉々になってしまいましたでもその粉砕こそが私を後押ししてくれ― 今までに無かった形で励ましてくれたの打ち砕かれたことによって私の女子細胞を開花し― 心の壁を突き破ることで今までの私よりもより勇敢により強くそしてより賢くなることを可能にしてくれたのです権力者は知っているのだと思います感情こそが勢力の拡大や地球の資源搾取― 破壊行為を妨げるものであることを例えば私の父父はとても暴力的でよく暴力を振るわれました私を殴る時はいつもこう言うのです “泣くんじゃない泣いたら承知しないぞ” まるで私の涙が自身の残忍さを露呈させるかのように一瞬でさえも自分のやっていることを認識させられたくなかったのです私たちは意図的に女子細胞を壊滅させたのです男だけでなく女の中の女子細胞までねそしてどこか私たちは男の女子細胞の壊滅には― より手厳しく対処してきたでしょう (拍手) 世界中で男の子がどのように育てられいるか見てきました強くなる為に非情になる為に― 自身の持つ優しさから遠ざけ涙を流させないのですコソボで理解したことがあります崩れ落ちる男を見た時銃弾は涙を凝固させ― “女子”の要素である繊細さなどの心を持たせないことは彼らを非情にさせより危険により暴力的に― させるのですこれまで私たちは男に対し教育してきましたー自信が無くても自信を持つように― 理解してなくても理解したフリをするようにでなければ私達はここまで来れなかった困窮時にはそうでないフリをする様に教えてきたのでは? ここでおもしろい話をひとつここへの飛行機の中で私は通路を行き来してたのだけど少なくとも10人以上の男たちは小さな座席にちょこんと座りラブロマンスの映画ばかり見ていたのですこう思いました “これが隠された男の正体ね” 前にも言ったように私は世界中を周り多くを見てきました女子細胞への仕打ちを考えれば “生身の” 女子たちがどんな目に遭っているか? 想像するのも恐ろしいのです昨日スニータやカヴィータからも― 何が起こってるか聞きましたよね? これまで酷い扱いを受けた女子に会いました切り傷とタバコの焼印だらけで― 文字通り灰皿代わりにされた女の子たちゴミ箱のように扱われ親兄弟から親族から― 暴力を受ける女の子たちアメリカの施設では“理想の体型” の為に自ら餓死寸前になる女の子たち女性性器を切除し操作し― 読み書きをできないままにさせる聡明すぎることへの― 罪悪感を負わせ黙らせる行儀よくしろと言われ感情を抑え慎めと教えられ売り飛ばし中絶させ― 支配しレイプする自分の人生の中で主体であろうとする女の子たちの自我を奪うことに慣れ今では実際に客体化させ― 商品にしてしまったのです人身売買は世界中に蔓延り多くの場合彼女たちは家畜以下の値段で売られますしかし世界の人口の 8人に1人が10歳から24歳の女子という事実を踏まえると彼女たちは発展途上国を含む世界全体― 人類の未来へのカギなのです彼女たちが困難な状況にあるのは教育や栄養のある食事、医療サービスを得難く肉体労働への強制参加を含む組織的な状況が彼女たちを社会が望む位置へ押しこめているからですその境界を越えることが無いように家事の重荷は大抵― 女の子か若い家族メンバーに課せられます女の子の環境や状況が― 内側の“女子” と外側の“女子”が― 人類残存を決定することになると― 信じてます女の子たちと話をしていくことで「私は感情的なイキモノ ~隠された女子の物語~」という本を書き上げました 5年間女の子と話してきましたが何処に行ってもある“言葉”が― いつも女の子に強要されているのです “奉仕”という言葉女の子は奉仕するように訓練されてますこの言葉を変えたいみんなでこの言葉を― “教育” に “積極的” や “没頭” に “戦う” “抵抗” “創造” へと変えるのです彼女たちにこの言葉を変えることを教えれば― 私たちの中の“女子”を― 守ることができるのです世界中で会った女の子たちの話をいくつかしたいと思います彼女たちの周りにある厳しい環境にも関わらず自分の中の“女子”を信じ― 受け入れた彼女たちの話を 14歳のオランダ人の女の子はボートに乗って世界中を1人で― 旅しようとしている顔の右半分に― 56つの星のタトゥーを入れた― 10代の女の子自然にあるオークの木を守る為 1年間木の上で生活した― ジュリアという女の子 14年前アフガニスタンで会った女の子は革命家の母親を殺されてしまい私は彼女を養子にしました 17歳の時ブルカの下にカメラを隠しアフガニスタンで女性に対して残虐な行為を行っている場所に潜入しブルカの下に隠したカメラでその様子を― 記録したのですそのビデオは911の後世界中に広がり― アフガニスタンの中で何が起こっているかを世界に見せたのですレイチェルコリーについても少し彼女はイスラエル軍の占領を止める為命を危険さらしながらも軍のブルドーザーの前に立ちはだかりそのまま引き殺されてしまいました最近ブカウで会った女の子はレイプによって妊娠させられました赤ちゃんを抱いている彼女にその赤ちゃんを愛せるか?と聞くと赤ちゃんの目を見つめながら “もちろん愛に包まれた私の赤ちゃんよどうしたら愛さずにいられるの?” と言ったのです女の子が持つ困難を克服する力は私には想像出来ないほどですケニアで会った 15歳のドーカスは護身術の訓練を受けています数ヶ月前彼女は道端で3人の男から― 車に押し込まれ誘拐されたのですしかし訓練の通りに彼女は男の咽喉ボトケを掴み目を突き― 車から逃げ出したのです 8月にはケニアにある 7年前にアグネスという女性と共に作った V-Dayセーフハウスを訪れましたアグネスはまだ幼い少女の時に女性性器を切除されました多くの女性同様に彼女は同じことが― 他の女性や女の子に行われてはならないと決心しましたそれから幾年ケニアを南北に渡り女の子たちに自然体なヴァギナはどういうものか― 損壊されたヴァギナがどういうものかを教えて周ったのです多くの女の子が救われました彼女に会った時私たちに何ができるかを聞くと “車を用意してもらえるともっと早く移動ができるわね” と言ったので車を用意し彼女は4500人の女の子を救ったのです “他にできることは?” と聞くと “今度は家が必要だわ” と言うのでマサイの地にあるナロックという町に最初のV-Dayセーフハウスを建てましたそこは女の子たちが避難でき― 彼女たちのクリトリス守ることができ― 学校に行くことができる場所ですハウスを建てて数年で彼女はその地域の状況を変化させたのです市の助役となった彼女はルールを改正させました地域全体が彼女の取り組みを受け入れました私たちが訪れた時は家出した女の子と― その家族の和解を取り持っていました 14歳のジャクリーンというマサイ族の女の子がいましたケニアでは干ばつが続いていて最も価値のある所有物である牛が死んでいったのですジャクリーンは父親と年配の男が牛の為に彼女を売ろうとしている話を耳にしましたそれが学校にも行けず性器切除され未来はなく男の妻にならなければいけないということを意味することを知っていましたそしてある日セーフハウスのことを耳にしたのです彼女は家を飛び出しマサイの地を2日間歩きました “2日間”もです身を隠すためハイエナと共に夜を明かし― 父親に捕まり殺される恐怖の一方でハウスでアグネスが出迎えてくれるという希望を持って歩きましたハウスに着いた彼女は迎えられましたアグネスは彼女を受け入れ愛を与えましたジャクリーンは1年間のサポートを受け学校に通い自分のやるべきことを見つけ自己を見つけ心の在りかを見つけましたそうして1年後― 彼女は家に戻り父と和解の話しをする― 準備ができました私は彼女が父と再会し和解する場面に居合わせる特権を頂きましたそして家に入ると父と4人の妻たちが座っていて彼女の後に家を出た姉妹たちも戻ってきていましたそして彼女を守る為暴力を受けてきた― 彼女の母親そして“女性”へと変身した娘の姿を― 見た父親は― 彼女を抱きしめ泣き崩れこう言いました “お前は美しい大人の女になった― 切除なんてしない― 誓ってもいい― お前の姉妹も切除しないと” 彼女は― “あなたは4頭の牛と子牛1匹― それと毛布を少しを得るために私を売ろうとしたでも安心して私はこれから教育を受けて― ずっとお父さんの世話をしてあげる戻ってきたらお父さんの家を建てましょうそしていつまでのお父さんのそばにいるから” これこそが“女子”の力ですこれこそが“成長”の力なのです本の中からの一節を紹介して― 終わりにしたいと思いますここにいる全ての女子の為に― スニータの為に― そしてスニータが話していた生き延び夢を叶えられる可能性がある― 女の子たちの為に読みますそしてここに居る皆さん一人一人のためにも読みたいなぜなら内に秘めた“女子”の大切さを知り私たちの中の涙を流す部分― 感情的な部分― 傷つきやすい部分を大切にして欲しいからそれが私たちの未来を左右すると理解して欲しいからこの作品は“私は感情的なイキモノ” と言い― ロスのワッツで出逢った女の子が始まりでした女子に満足しているか?という質問をしていた時ですみんな “嫌いよ耐えられないわ― 全部弟や兄が占領するんだもの” と答えましたでもある女の子は― “女子最高じゃない? 感情的なイキモノなのよ!” こう言いました彼女に捧げます女子は最高よ! あなたが何を感じてるか― 内に秘めた感情も感じられるの感情的なイキモノだもの! 理屈や理論― 窮屈な考え方では分からない臓器から足下まで脈動し耳まで熱くなる感覚で分かるのあなたの彼女が不機嫌な時だって解るのよ例えそうでないフリをしててもね嵐が来る!って分かるの目に見えない空気の揺らぎを感じるの彼は電話して来ないって“空間”を共有すれば解るの感情的なイキモノだもの! 物事を軽く捉えないって最高よ― 私にとっては全てが熱をもってるの通りを歩く時だって、朝ママが私を起こす時だって失うことには耐えられの!ニュースだって人ごとじゃないの! 感情的なイキモノなんだから! 全てとみんなと繋がっているの!そういう風に生まれてきたの! 否定的に決めつけて、若いからとか、女の子だからーなんて言わなせない! この感情が私をより良くしてくれるの生きてることを実感でき心の準備をさせ強くしてくれる私は感情的なイキモノなの! 齢を重ねた女性がなぜか忘れてしまう― ものごとを理解する特別な方法― それがまだ私の中には在るの! 私は木の実が落ちる瞬間がわかるわ私たちは地球を苦しめすぎたの父が戻ってこないことも分かってる― 誰も不足の事態への準備ができてないの口紅が見せものじゃないことも男子の自信が全く無くなったことも俗に言うテロリストは生まれず造られることもね 1つのキスが― 私の判断力をゼロにできることも知ってる時にはそうあるべきだと思うの極端なことじゃないわ、女子力よ私たちの内にあるドアが開かれればみんながこうなるのよ “冷静になれ熱くなるな ― 泣くんじゃない” なんて言わせない私は感情的なイキモノよ! それは地球が創られた様に風が命を運び続ける様に― 荒れる海に向かって“わきまえなさい”なんて言わないでしょ? 私は感情的なの! どうして私を黙らせ揉み消そうとするの? 私はあなたの記憶の名残なのあなたを連れ戻してあげれるのに薄れてなんかないわ隙間からこぼれ落ちてもいない聞いて! 例え私の命を止められても心に傷を負っても― たとえその場から放り出されてもあなたの秘めた感情を感じれることが― 責任感を与えてくれるそれが大好きなの私は感情的で無償的― 献身的なイキモノなの! 聞いて! 女子って本当に最高よ! みんなも言ってみて女子って本当に本当に― 最高!! ありがとう	I'm very happy to be here in India. And I've been thinking a lot about what I have learned over these last particularly 11 years with V-Day and "The Vagina Monologues," essentially meeting with women and girls across the planet to stop violence against women. What I want to talk about today is this particular cell, or grouping of cells, that is in each and every one of us. And I want to call it the girl cell. And it's in men as well as in women. I want you to imagine that this particular grouping of cells is central to the evolution of our species and the continuation of the human race. And I want you imagine that at some point in history a group of powerful people invested in owning and controlling the world understood that the suppression of this particular cell, the oppression of these cells, the reinterpretation of these cells, the undermining of these cells, getting us to believe in the weakness of these cells and the crushing, eradicating, destroying, reducing these cells, basically began the process of killing off the girl cell, which was, by the way, patriarchy. I want you to imagine that the girl is a chip in the huge macrocosm of collective consciousness. And it is essential to balance, to wisdom and to actually the future of all of us. And then I want you to imagine that this girl cell is compassion, and it's empathy, and it's passion itself, and it's vulnerability, and it's openness, and it's intensity, and it's association, and it's relationship, and it is intuitive. And then let's think how compassion informs wisdom, and that vulnerability is our greatest strength, which lead to radical, appropriate, saving action. And then let's remember that we've been taught the exact opposite by the powers that be, that compassion clouds your thinking, that it gets in the way, that vulnerability is weakness, that emotions are not to be trusted, and you're not supposed to take things personally, which is one of my favorites. I think the whole world has essentially been brought up not to be a girl. How do we bring up boys? What does it mean to be a boy? To be a boy really means not to be a girl. To be a man means not to be a girl. To be a woman means not to be a girl. To be strong means not to be a girl. To be a leader means not to be a girl. I actually think that being a girl is so powerful that we've had to train everyone not to be that. And I'd also like to say that the irony suppressing girl, suppressing emotion, refusing feeling has lead thus here. Where we have now come to live in a world where the most extreme forms of violence, the most horrific poverty, genocide, mass rapes, the destruction of the Earth, is completely out of control. And because we have suppressed our girl cells and suppressed our girl-ship, we do not feel what is going on. So, we are not being charged with the adequate response to what is happening. I want to talk a little bit about the Democratic Republic of Congo. For me, it was the turning point of my life. I have spent a lot of time there in the last three years. I feel up to that point I had seen a lot in the world, a lot of violence. I essentially lived in the rape mines of the world for the last 12 years. But the Democratic Republic of Congo really was the turning point in my soul. in a place called Bukavu in a hospital called the Panzi Hospital, with a doctor who was as close to a saint as any person I've ever met. His name is Dr. Denis Mukwege. In the Congo, for those of you who don't know, there has been a war raging for the last 12 years, a war that has killed nearly six million people. It is estimated that somewhere between 300,000 and 500,000 women have been raped there. When I spent my first weeks at Panzi hospital I sat with women who sat and lined up every day to tell me their stories. Their stories were so horrific, and so mind-blowing and so on the other side of human existence, that to be perfectly honest with you, I was shattered. And I will tell you that what happened is through that shattering, listening to the stories of eight-year-old girls who had their insides eviscerated, who had guns and bayonets and things shoved inside them so they had holes, literally, inside them where their pee and poop came out of them. Listening to the story of 80-year-old women who were tied to chains and circled, and where groups of men would come and rape them periodically, all in the name of economic exploitation to steal the minerals so the West can have it and profit from them. My mind was so shattered. But what happened for me is that that shattering actually emboldened me in a way I have never been emboldened. That shattering, that opening of my girl cell, that kind of massive breakthrough of my heart allowed me to become more courageous, and braver, and actually more clever than I had been in the past in my life. I want to say that I think the powers that be know that empire-building is actually -- that feelings get in the way of empire-building. Feelings get in the way of the mass acquisition of the Earth, and excavating the Earth, and destroying things. I remember, for example, when my father, who was very, very violent, used to beat me. And he would actually say, while he was beating me, "Don't you cry. Don't you dare cry." Because my crying somehow exposed his brutality to him. And even in the moment he didn't want to be reminded of what he was doing. I know that we have systematically annihilated the girl cell. And I want to say we've annihilated it in men as well as in women. And I think in some ways we've been much harsher to men in the annihilation of their girl cell. I see how boys have been brought up, and I see this across the planet: to be tough, to be hardened, to distance themselves from their tenderness, to not cry. I actually realized once in Kosovo, when I watched a man break down, that bullets are actually hardened tears, that when we don't allow men to have their girl self and have their vulnerability, and have their compassion, and have their hearts, that they become hardened and hurtful and violent. And I think we have taught men to be secure when they are insecure, to pretend they know things when they don't know things, or why would we be where we are? To pretend they're not a mess when they are a mess. And I will tell you a very funny story. On my way here on the airplane, I was walking up and down the aisle of the plane. And all these men, literally at least 10 men, were in their little seats watching chick flicks. And they were all alone, and I thought, "This is the secret life of men." I've traveled, as I said, and I've seen, if we do what we do to the girl inside us then obviously it's horrific to think what we do to girls in the world. And we heard from Sunitha yesterday, and Kavita about what we do to girls. But I just want to say that I've met girls with knife wounds and cigarette burns, who are literally being treated like ashtrays. I've seen girls be treated like garbage cans. I've seen girls who were beaten by their mothers and brothers and fathers and uncles. I've seen girls starving themselves to death in America in institutions to look like some idealized version of themselves. I've seen that we cut girls and we control them and we keep them illiterate, or we make them feel bad about being too smart. We silence them. We make them feel guilty for being smart. We get them to behave, to tone it down, not to be too intense. We sell them, we kill them as embryos, we enslave them, we rape them. We are so accustomed to robbing girls of the subject of being the subjects of their lives that we have now actually objectified them and turned them into commodities. The selling of girls is rampant across the planet. And in many places they are worth less than goats and cows. But I also want to talk about the fact that if one in eight people on the planet are girls between the ages of 10 to 24, they are they key, really, in the developing world, as well as in the whole world, to the future of humanity. And if girls are in trouble because they face systematic disadvantages that keep them where society wants them to be, including lack of access to healthcare, education, healthy foods, labor force participation. The burden of all the household tasks usually falls on girls and younger siblings, which ensures that they will never overcome these barriers. The state of girls, the condition of girls, will, in my belief -- and that's the girl inside us and the girl in the world -- determine whether the species survives. having talked to girls, because I just finished a new book called "I Am an Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around the World," I've been talking to girls for five years, and one of the things that I've seen is true everywhere is that the verb that's been enforced on girl is the verb "to please." Girls are trained to please. I want to change the verb. I want us all to change the verb. I want the verb to be "educate," or "activate," or "engage," or "confront," or "defy," or "create." If we teach girls to change the verb we will actually enforce the girl inside us and the girl inside them. And I have to now share a few stories of girls I've seen across the planet who have engaged their girl, who have taken on their girl in spite of all the circumstances around them. I know a 14-year-old girl in the Netherlands, for example, who is demanding that she take a boat and go around the entire world by herself. There is a teenage girl who just recently went out and knew that she needed 56 stars tattooed on the right side of her face. who lived for a year in a tree because she wanted to protect the wild oaks. There is a girl who I met 14 years ago in Afghanistan who I have adopted as my daughter because her mother was killed. Her mother was a revolutionary. And this girl, when she was 17 years old, wore a burqa in Afghanistan, and went into the stadiums and documented the atrocities that were going on towards women, underneath her burqa, with a video. And that video became the video that went out all over the world after 9/11 to show what was going on in Afghanistan. I want to talk about Rachel Corrie who was in her teens when she stood in front of an Israeli tank to say, "End the occupation." And she knew she risked death and she was literally gunned down and rolled over by that tank. And I want to talk about a girl that I just met recently in Bukavu, who was impregnated by her rapist. And she was holding her baby. And I asked her if she loved her baby. And she looked into her baby's eyes and she said, "Of course I love my baby. How could I not love my baby? It's my baby and it's full of love." The capacity for girls to overcome situations and to move on levels, to me, is mind-blowing. There is a girl named Dorcas, and I just met her in Kenya. Dorcas is 15 years old, and she was trained in self-defense. A few months ago she was picked up on the street by three older men. They kidnapped her, they put her in a car. And through her self-defense, she grabbed their Adam's apples, she punched them in the eyes and she got herself free and out of the car. In Kenya, in August, I went to visit one of the V-Day safe houses for girls, a house we opened seven years ago with an amazing woman named Agnes Pareyio. Agnes was a woman who was cut when she was a little girl, she was female genitally mutilated. And she made a decision as many women do across this planet, that what was done to her would not be enforced and done to other women and girls. So, for years Agnes walked through the Rift valley. She taught girls what a healthy vagina looked like, and what a mutilated vagina looked like. And in that time she saved many girls. And when we met her we asked her what we could do for her, and she said, "Well, if you got me a Jeep I could get around a lot faster." So, we got her a Jeep. And then she saved 4,500 girls. And then we asked her, "Okay, what else do you need?" And she said, "Well, now, I need a house." So, seven years ago Agnes built the first V-Day safe house And it was a house where girls could run away, they could save their clitoris, they wouldn't be cut, they could go to school. And in the years that Agnes has had the house, she has changed the situation there. She has literally become deputy mayor. She's changed the rules. The whole community has bought in to what she's doing. When we were there she was doing a ritual And there was a young girl named Jaclyn. Jaclyn was 14 years old and she was in her Masai family and there's a drought in Kenya. So cows are dying, and cows are the most valued possession. And Jaclyn overheard her father talking to an old man about how he was about to sell her for the cows. And she knew that meant she would be cut. She knew that meant she wouldn't go to school. She knew that meant she wouldn't have a future. She knew she would have to marry that old man, and she was 14. So, one afternoon, she'd heard about the safe house, Jaclyn left her father's house and she walked for two days, two days through Masai land. She slept with the hyenas. She hid at night. She imagined her father killing her on one hand, and Mama Agnes greeting her, with the hope that she would greet her when she got to the house. And when she got to the house she was greeted. Agnes took her in, and Agnes loved her, and Agnes supported her for the year. She went to school and she found her voice, and she found her identity, and she found her heart. Then, her time was ready when she had to go back to talk to her father about the reconciliation, after a year. I had the privilege of being in the hut when she was reunited with her father and reconciled. In that hut, we walked in, and her father and his four wives were sitting there, and her sisters who had just returned because they had all fled when she had fled, and her primary mother, who had been beaten in standing up for her with the elders. When her father saw her and saw who she had become, in her full girl self, he threw his arms around her and broke down crying. He said, "You are beautiful. You have grown into a gorgeous woman. We will not cut you. And I give you my word, here and now, that we will not cut your sisters either." And what she said to him was, "You were willing to sell me for four cows, and a calf and some blankets. But I promise you, now that I will be educated I will always take care of you, and I will come back and I will build you a house. And I will be in your corner for the rest of your life." For me, that is the power of girls. And that is the power of transformation. with a new piece from my book. And I want to do it tonight for the girl in everybody here. And I want to do it for Sunitha. And I want to do it for the girls that Sunitha talked about yesterday, the girls who survive, the girls who can become somebody else. But I really want to do it for each and every person here, to value the girl in us, to value the part that cries, to value the part that's emotional, to value the part that's vulnerable, to understand that's where the future lies. This is called "I'm An Emotional Creature." And it happened because I met a girl in Watts, L.A. I was asking girls if they like being a girl, and all the girls were like, "No, I hate it. I can't stand it. It's all bad. My brothers get everything." And this girl just sat up and went, "I love being a girl. I'm an emotional creature!" This is for her: I love being a girl. I can feel what you're feeling as you're feeling inside the feeling before. I am an emotional creature. Things do not come to me as intellectual theories or hard-pressed ideas. They pulse through my organs and legs and burn up my ears. Oh, I know when your girlfriend's really pissed off, even though she appears to give you what you want. I know when a storm is coming. I can feel the invisible stirrings in the air. I can tell you he won't call back. It's a vibe I share. I am an emotional creature. I love that I do not take things lightly. Everything is intense to me, the way I walk in the street, the way my momma wakes me up, the way it's unbearable when I lose, the way I hear bad news. I am an emotional creature. I am connected to everything and everyone. I was born like that. Don't you say all negative that it's only only a teenage thing, or it's only because I'm a girl. These feelings make me better. They make me present. They make me ready. They make me strong. I am an emotional creature. There is a particular way of knowing. It's like the older women somehow forgot. I rejoice that it's still in my body. Oh, I know when the coconut's about to fall. I know we have pushed the Earth too far. I know my father isn't coming back, and that no one's prepared for the fire. I know that lipstick means more than show, and boys are super insecure, and so-called terrorists are made, not born. I know that one kiss could take away all my decision-making ability. And you know what? Sometimes it should. This is not extreme. It's a girl thing, what we would all be if the big door inside us flew open. Don't tell me not to cry, to calm it down, not to be so extreme, to be reasonable. I am an emotional creature. It's how the earth got made, how the wind continues to pollinate. You don't tell the Atlantic Ocean to behave. I am an emotional creature. Why would you want to shut me down or turn me off? I am your remaining memory. I can take you back. Nothing's been diluted. Nothing's leaked out. I love, hear me, I love that I can feel the feelings inside you, even if they stop my life, even if they break my heart, even if they take me off track, they make me responsible. I am an emotional, I am an emotional, incondotional, devotional creature. And I love, hear me, I love, love, love being a girl. Can you say it with me? I love, I love, love, love being a girl! Thank you very much.	{ "source": "iwslt2017", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
困惑の表情のまま、地下の訓練場に拉致されたクラウドと、妙にやる気のあるマイキー。ひょっとして俺の前でいい格好を見せたいとか、そんなことを思っているのかもしれない。そを取り囲むように、首都と温泉町、双方の冒険者が野次馬と化している。「マイキー、首都のへなちょこ冒険者なんてやっちまえ!」「なんだと、俺たちはへなちょこなんかじゃねぇぞ! でもクラウドをぶちのめすのは許可する!」「ハーレム野郎に鉄槌を!」「モテ野郎に粛清を!」「粛清を!」こういう時だ団結して唱和する首都の冒険者たち。その異様な雰囲気に、集落の冒険者たちは一瞬にして気圧されてしまう。それにしても、いつ見てもクラウドへの敵愾心は高いな。やはり半魔人族への確執は根深いようだ。「クラウド、実は友達いないの?」「まぁ、半魔人族だからね。しかたないよ」「問題なのはそこじゃない!」森が主戦場となるマイキーは剣よりも槍の方が使い勝手がいいのだろう。「そう言えばクラウドって、槍を使う相手って初めてかもしれないなぁ」「えっ、そうなの? クラウドくん、頑張れ!」口元に手をやり、声を広げようとする仕草は、よく見かける物ではある。「将来はマリアクラスに迫るか......」「ほら、ニコルちゃんも」「この展開、前にも見た。もーどうでもいいし?」ミシェルちゃんの声援を受け、なぜかクラウドではなく、観客の冒険者がエキサイトする。「なに? あいつ、あっちの白い子と付き合っていたんじゃないのか?」「あの胸......将来有望すぎるでしょう?」「つまり二股ってことか? 許せん」事情を知らない温泉町の冒険者は、こうしてなし崩しにクラウドの敵に回ってしまった。問題なのは対戦相手のマイキーの方だった。「違うし」「許せん。モテ男死すべし、慈悲はない」「お前もかよ!?」こうして首都の冒険者たちのダメさ加減は感染していく。そこへ、さも俺は無関係でございと言わんばかりの態度で、ぞんざいにマテウスが開始の合図を告げた。「では、はじめ!」「死ねやぁ!」「これは試合だろぉ!?」反撃に剣を突き出そうとするクラウドだが、マイキーはそれより早く一歩踏み出した。槍は盾で止められており、それなのにマイキーは一歩踏み出す。この結果、相対的に槍は一歩分、マイキーの方へ引き寄せられたことになる。一瞬早く再度槍を突き出すマイキー。クラウドはこれを身を捩って避けた。「へぇ......意外にやるじゃん」「うわわ、クラウドくんがピンチだ!」「いや、あれくらいなら避けれるよ。パパの特訓受けてるわけだし」現にクラウドの上半身は大きく仰け反っているが、下半身は崩れていない。まだまだ余裕があるという証だろう。だが槍の面倒くささには気付いたはずだ。槍は持ち手の位置で間合いを自在に変えられる武器でもある。もし戦いの素人に何か一つ武器を持たせろと言われたら、俺なら槍を選ぶ。それくらい簡単に扱え、殺傷力があり、そして奥が深い武器である。クラウドは身体を捻った勢いを殺さず、その場で一回転して、盾を水平に振り回した。盾と言っても金属製である。それを横にして殴られたら、洒落にならないダメージを受けるだろう。マイキーはとっさに槍を盾にしてこの攻撃を受け止め――そして反対側から剣の攻撃を受けた。剣と盾で疑似的な二刀流を再現して見せたのか。クラウドもなかなか成長しているようだった。だが剣の攻撃はかなり軽い。必殺の勢いを持つには至っていないせいで、マイキーにかろうじて避けられてしまう。クラウドと違い、完全に体制を崩し、地面を転がる羽目に陥る。そこへ追撃の蹴りを放つクラウド。マイキーはこれをまともに受けてしまった。「ぐっ......げほっ、この、やるな!」「降参するなら今のうちだぞ」どうやらマイキーも歳のわりにかなり腕が立つようだが、連日実戦と鍛錬を繰り返しているクラウドには敵わないようだ。その攻撃のバリエーションの豊富さは、これまでの経験によるものが大きい。一対一の状況ならば、クラウドも相応の実力を発揮する。次第にマイキーは押されはじめ、野次馬のすぐ前、つまり後がない状況に追い込まれてしまう。それをクラウドが予想していないはずもない。あいつの役割は防御役。常に攻撃を受けることを念頭に置いて戦っているのだ。「うおおおおぉぉぉぉぉ!」「思い切りはいいが――甘い!」マイキーの最後のあがきを盾を使って受け流し、すれ違いざまに足を引っかけて地面に転ばす。「勝負あり、だ。今回は坊やの勝ちだな」「......くそ!」そこでマテウスが判定を下す。地面を叩いて悔しがるマイキー。大衆の面前で敗北する屈辱はわからないでもない。「そう落ち込まない。これは練習だから、何度負けてもいいの。次があるんだから」「ニコル、でもよ......」「クラウドなんて、実戦で負けっぱなしなんだよ?」クラウド、俺がいい感じに話をまとめようとしているのに、茶々を入れるな。「むしろ今生きている方が不思議なくらい」「それは自分でも思うけどさぁ......」「マイキーは今力不足を知った。そして生きている。ならこれからも精進すればいい。それだけ」「あ、ああ......そうだな」握手を求められていると知り、それに応えるクラウド。「俺の負けだ。それと、突っかかって悪かったな」「まあ、気持ちもわからなくもないけどな。あれ、外面だけはいいから」「そうか? 中身も最高じゃないか。今回は醜態を晒したけど、今度しっかりとお前に勝ってから、もう一度出直してみるよ」「あー、まあ、がんばれ?」「がんばるな。あきらめろ」なんだか男二人で友情を確認しているようだが、マイキーよ、諦めてくれ。俺は男に興味はないんだ。	Cloud stood in the training area with a bewildered expression after being dragged there, while Mikey was looking strangely motivated. Maybe he was thinking of showing a cool side of him to me. Surrounding them were the Adventurers from both the capital and the hot-spring town, who were now transformed into curious onlookers. “Mikey, go get that capital greenhorn!” “Huuh, who are you calling greenhorns! Still, you have my permission to beat up Cloud!” “Smite that harem b̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲!” “Purge that playboy!” “Purge him!” The capital’s Adventurers have united for this occasion and were cheering in chorus. That strange atmosphere ended up overpowering the settlement Adventurers in a flash. Still, they were always so hostile to Cloud huh. The antagonism towards the Half-Demons was that deep-rooted it seems. “Cloud, do you actually have no friends?” “Well, you are a Half-Demon. Can’t be helped.” “That’s not the problem here!” While in half-tears, Cloud took up his favorite shield and fake sword. Mikey also held a fake spear that was a bit over a meter long. Perhaps he was better accustomed to using spears rather than swords considering that his principal battlefield was the forest. “Come to think of it, this might be the first time for Cloud to face a spear-wielding opponent.” “Huh, really? Hang in there, Cloud!” Michelle frantically cheered him on from next to me. It was a common scene for her to put her hands on her mouth to enhance her voice. It was a common sight, yes, but the two lumps of meat squeezed by her arms were anything but common. “She’ll probably reach Maria-class in the future...” “Nicole, come on you too!” “I’ve already seen this development before. I don’t really care, you know?” Michelle’s cheer made not Cloud but the surrounding Adventurers more excited. “What the? Wasn’t that guy dating that white girl?” “Look at that chest... She has some seriously promising future, doesn’t she?” “Wait, so he’s two-timing them? Unforgivable.” The hot spring Adventurers who didn’t know the situation were gradually turned into Cloud’s enemies like this. Cloud in question was already used to this development, so he just dropped his shoulders as if saying, The problem was Mikey who he was facing. “No.” “Unforgivable. Popular guys should just die without mercy.” “Not you too!?” Just like that, the hopelessness of the capital’s Adventurers had infected more people. Following that, Mateus signaled the start of the match while acting like he was completely unrelated to this. You caused this mess, okay? I haven’t forgotten it. “Now then, begin!” “Dieee!” “Isn’t this just a match!?” The spear was thrust—Of course, the training-use one—and Cloud’s large shield stopped it. Then Cloud tried to thrust his sword to counterattack, but Mikey stepped forward faster than him. His spear had been stopped by Cloud’s shield, yet he still took a step forward. The result was that the spear was pulled towards Mikey by the distance of that one step. With that action, he managed to both approach the opponent and bring back his spear. Then Mikey once again thrust his spear as fast as he could, but Cloud twisted his body and dodged it. “Heh... He’s pretty good.” “Wahh, Cloud’s in a pinch!” “Nah, he can dodge that much. He’s receiving dad’s training, after all.” As proof of that, while Cloud’s upper body was bent back quite a bit, his lower body posture was still firmly in place. This told me that he still had some leeway left. Still, this should’ve made him realize how troublesome spears were. It was a weapon that could freely change the attack range with the wielder’s position. And it generally had a longer reach than a sword. If I was asked to give an amateur some kind of weapon, I would have gone with a spear. It was just that simple to use, yet was very lethal and quite profound. Cloud failed to kill his momentum so he rotated where he stood and swung his shield horizontally. Though it was a shield, it was still a metallic object. If you got slammed with something like that, the resulting damage wouldn’t be a joke. Mikey instantly used his spear as a shield to block it—but he also received a sword strike from the opposite side. Was Cloud reproducing a pseudo-double-sword battle style? He seemed to have grown up quite a bit. That said, his sword strike was quite light. As it didn’t have the necessary lethal power, Mikey managed to just barely dodge it. Even so, he didn’t come out completely unharmed. Unlike Cloud, his posture was completely broken, and he ended up tumbling on the ground. Cloud followed up with a kick, which Mikey ended up taking head-on. “Khh...Cough! Damn, you’re not bad!” “This is your chance to surrender.” Mikey seemed to be quite skilled for his age, but he still couldn’t match Cloud who was experiencing actual combat and training on a daily basis. Different from Mikey who could only use his spear, Cloud also used his shield and kicks aside from the sword to turn the situation to his advantage. His experiences until now were the main reason behind the abundance of his attack varieties. If it was one on one fights, Cloud could display a formidable power. Thus, Mikey was gradually pushed back, and he found himself pushed near the onlookers, in other words, to a place with nowhere to go. Realizing his escape behind was cut, Mikey decided to go for a fierce charge. But there’s no way Cloud would not have expected it. His role was a defender, so he was constantly ready to receive an attack. As such, this must have been fully in his expectations. “Haaaaaaaaah!” “You have a good judgment—But still too naive!” He used his shield to ward off Mikey’s last struggle and tripped his legs in the passing, knocking him down on the ground. And just as he tried to get up, Cloud thrust his sword at him. “Okay, we have a match. This seems to be this boy’s win.” “...Dammit!” Mateus announced his judgment. Mikey hit the ground in frustration. I could understand the feeling of disgrace after losing in front of a large crowd. I approached him and tapped him on the shoulder. “Don’t feel so down. This is just training, so you can lose as much as you want. There’s always the next time.” “Nicole... But...” “Besides, Cloud keeps on losing in actual battles, you know?” Cloud, I’m trying to end things on a good note here, so stop interrupting. “In fact, it’s strange that he’s still alive now.” “Well, I find that fact strange myself...” “Mikey, you realized your lack of ability with this. And you’re still alive. That means you can focus on improving from now on. It’s as simple as that.” “Y-Yeah... You’re right.” He stood up and extended his right hand towards Cloud. Realizing he was asking for a handshake, Cloud responded to it. “It’s my loss. Also, sorry for flaring up at you like that.” “Well, I understand where you were coming from. Only her outward appearance is good at least.” “Really? I think she is just as amazing on the inside. I showed a shameful sight this time, but I’ll properly win the next time and make a fresh start.” “Ah, well, do your best, I guess?” “Don’t do your best, just give up.” The two seemed to have been confirming their friendship, but Mikey, please just give up. I have no interest in men.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 6, "inserted_lines_src": 15, "inserted_lines_trg": 0 }
朝......。身支度を整えた俺は、緊張の面持ちでPCを立ち上げた。ついに『第1回NSO最強パーティ決定戦』の詳細が発表される日が来たのだ。時刻は午前7時......のちょっと前! 生放送は7時ジャストに始まる。『黄道宮』が発表された時もこの時間だったな。俺は健康的なゲーマーだから無理せず起きることが出来たが、徹夜ゲーマーや昼夜逆転ゲーマーには苦しい時間帯だろう。 ......ソワソワするなぁ。時間までに何か動画を見たり音楽でも聴こうか......。いや、なんとなく気分じゃないな。今回は神妙にその時を待つとしよう......。生配信のコメント欄は盛り上がっている。無数の言葉の流れの中に『キュージィ』とか『幽霊組合』という単語が結構な頻度で混じっているのを、俺は見逃さなかった。前回のイベント『黄道十二迷宮』にプレイヤー同士の対戦要素があったが、それは本来のMMORPGとしての対戦とはかけ離れたレースゲームだった。今回はバトロワや陣取りに近い完全な対人戦が予想される。ならば、対人戦やチャリン戦で結果を残してきた俺や幽霊組合の名前がコメントされるのも当然だろう。こうなってくると、流石に俺もプレッシャーを感じる。有名人らしく振舞おうとか、みんなに楽しんでもらえるようなプレイングを見せようとは思わないが、無様に負けたくないという気持ちは芽生えてくる。この無様にというのはプライドから来るものというより......なんだろう? 俺自身、全力を尽くして戦いたいという気持ちの裏返し......だろうか。やれることをすべてやって、持てる力のすべてを出し尽くして負けるなら問題ない。でも、例えばちょっと前に作ることが出来るようになった『再生薬』みたいな、他のプレイヤーのほとんどが使うポピュラーな回復アイテムすら準備せずに、それが原因で負けてしまったのなら、それは無様だ。 1人のプレイヤーとして俺を応援してくれている人もガッカリさせるだろうし、自分自身悔いが残る。これが超絶廃人プレイでしか手に入らない激烈レアアイテムの差で負けたり、何十年も鍛え続けた極のプレイングで負けるなら......まあ、仕方ないだろう。また、今度リベンジしようと思える......。『じゃじゃーん! NSO公式チャンネルの生放送が始まるにょん!』「うわっ!?」物思いにふけっていたので、PCから急に音が出てビビった......。前の生放送の時も音にビビっていた気がする......。だが、この声の主についてはよく知っているし、もう語尾に関してツッコむこともない。『知ってる人は知っている! 今となっては本当に結構な人が知っているはず! 『Next Stage Online』さんとコラボして『黄道十二迷宮』というイベントを開催してもらった人工知能アイドルのチャリンだにょん!』もはや顔なじみと言える高性能AIのチャリンが画面に現れる。いやぁ、人って慣れるものだなぁ。初見はこの見た目と語尾に驚いたが、今となってはすべてがしっくりくる。『あぁ......長かった私のイベントもついに終わりの時を迎えるにょん。日が昇れば星が見えなくなるように、私もこのNSOの中で見ることは出来なくなるにょん......。つまり、お別れの時だにょん......。私の本業の方に遊びに来てくれたら話は違うんだけど......』チラチラッとチャリンがこちらを見てくる。そうか、コラボイベントが終わるということは、彼女とゲーム内で会う機会もなくなるってことか......。それはちょっと......いや、結構寂しいなぁ......。『と、いうことでバイバイにょ~ん!』チャリンはぴょんっと横っ飛びで画面外に消えたかと思うと、反対側の画面外から再び姿を現した。画面と端と端が繋がっているアクションゲームのように......! 『まあ、さっきのは冗談で......。私ことチャリンは今回のイベント『第1回NSO最強パーティ決定戦』でも司会や実況を担当することになったにょん!』おお、それはサプライズだな......! よほどコラボイベントの評判が良かったのか、NSOの運営に司会などが出来る人材がいないのか。どちらにせよ、まだチャリンとお別れせずに済んだのはかなり嬉しいなぁ。『茶番はこれくらいにしてイベントの詳細情報を発表するにょん! まず、参加条件は4人パーティであることのみ! 勝てるかどうかは置いといて、全員始めたばかりのレベル1でも参加は出来るにょん! ただ、ソロやデュオなど4人未満での参加は受け付けていないにょん!』参加のハードルが思ったより低いな。優勝のハードルが恐ろしく高いから、何万人参加しようが問題ないということだろうか? でも、優勝を決める過程が冗長になりそうな気がするんだよなぁ......。あ、プレイヤーのレベルに応じた階級分けがあるのかも。『実力に応じたクラス分けのようなものはなくて、全パーティが同じ状況で戦うことになるにょん!』最強を決めるイベントなわけだから、まだ弱いプレイヤーに向けた配慮は一切不要ということだな。確かに始めたばかりのプレイヤーに大金と栄光が転がり込むよりは、長くNSOを遊び、やりこんでくれたプレイヤーにそれらの賞品が贈られる方が運営としても気分が良いだろう。『ここでパーティ構成に関する補足があるにょん! プレイヤーは4人が最大だけど、ユニゾンは5人目の枠として1体だけ入れることが可能だにょん! このユニゾンに関してはいてもいなくても参加に関しては関係ないにょん! 不要ならばナシというのも選択肢のうちだにょん! また、ユニゾントレーナーなどの職業の特権によってパーティに加えられたユニゾンと5枠目のユニゾンは干渉しないにょん!』つまり、ガー坊を戦いの場に連れていくことは可能だってことだな......! それにサトミのユニゾンとも干渉しない。ガー坊とゴチュウ、2体とも一緒に戦える。ネココが4人目のギルドメンバーを探し始めてから少し気がかりだったガー坊のポジションがこれで明確になったな。装備を一新してスキル奥義を増やした甲斐がある! 『次にアイテムに関することだけど、今回も私との戦いの時と同じように『持ち物制限』があるにょん! イベントに持ち込めるアイテムは10種類まで、同名アイテムは10個まで! 装備も消費アイテムも同じく1枠を消費するからよーく考えるにょん!』これはまあ予想通りだな。回復アイテムをいくらでも持ち込めるとみんなちまちま逃げて回復するから戦いのテンポが最悪になる。スピーディかつ緊張のある展開にするためにも、なんらかの制限は絶対に必要だ。『そして! みんなが一番気になっている試合のルールだけど......イベント当日まで発表しない方針になったにょん! サプライズってことらしいにょん! 文句は直接運営に言ってほしいにょん!』流れるような責任転嫁......いや、チャリンは雇われ司会だから最初から責任はないのか。それにしても、ルールの発表ナシはいろんな意味でサプライズすぎるだろう......。『1つだけ言えるのは、陣取りみたいなガチガチの特殊ルールではないってことだにょん! シンプルかつ、テンポよく数を減らして本選につながるような予選が......あっ! 予選と本選があるって言っちゃったにょん! まあ、いいか! もうちょっと喋るにょん!』かなりわざとらしい口の滑らせ方だったが、もうちょっと情報を出さなければ生配信の低評価が増えてしまうところだった。やはり、人工知能アイドル......そこらへんのことはわかっている。『ぶっちゃけ本選は1つのパーティ対1つのパーティ......構成によって多少の差はあれど基本4対4のバトルになるにょん。相手のチームを全滅させた方が勝ちにょんね』それがまさに『ルール』だろ......! 『でも予選はすこーし違うにょん! 対人戦なのは間違いないけど、ルールがシンプルかつサクサクプレイヤーが脱落して、最終的にこちら側が望む数のパーティを残せるルールと言えば......わかるにょんね?』ああ、幽霊組合にとってなじみが深い『アレ』か。 ......あってるかな? 『あ! ヤバい! 余計なことをたくさん喋ったせいで生放送の時間が終わろうとしているにょん! えーっと、予選の開催は2週間後! それまでにエントリーを済ませておくといろいろスムーズだにょん! あと、『黄道十二迷宮』も予選の開催まで、つまり2週間延長して開催することが決定したにょん! 諦めずにMEメダルを取りに来るにょん! 相手をしてやるにょん!』すごい早口だ......。俺的にはあの『言わなくていいことを言ってしまった感』は演技で、運営は最初からあそこまでの情報を公開する算段だと思っていたが、まさかガチか......? チャリンならあり得るのがすごいところだ。 AIの反乱はすでに起こっているのかもしれない......! 『詳しくは公式サイトをチェックだにょん! じゃ、ばいばいにょ~ん! ......はぁ、間に合った』生放送は終わった。コメント欄は大盛り上がりだ。演技かガチかは置いておいて、チャリンがエンターテイナーだということは確かだ。ただのイベントの詳細発表なのにハラハラドキドキさせてもらった。戦いは2週間後......。ハッキリ明言されると、新たなイベントが始まるという現実感が急に強くなった。「楽しみだなぁ......!」生放送の前はいろいろ考えていたが、放送が終わって最初に出てきた言葉がこれだ。そう、楽しめばいいんだ。『Next Stage Online』に初めてログインした時のように純粋な気持ちで......!	Morning... After getting through my morning routine, I turned on my computer nervously. The day had finally arrived. They were going to announce the details for the st NSO Strongest Party Tournament. It was in the morning...almost! The broadcast would start at exactly. They had announced the zodiac event at the same time as well. As I was a healthy gamer, I could wake up early without any issue, but it would be annoying for gamers who played late into the night instead of during the day. Perhaps I should kill time by watching videos or listening to music... No, I wasn’t in the mood for that. This time, I would just wait quietly... The comment section for the livestream was very lively. As the countless words moved, I could occasionally see ‘Kyuji’ and ‘Ghost Guild’ appear among them. There had been some PvP elements during the zodiac event, but it was just a racing game, which wasn’t the usual way that people competed in MMORPGs. This time, it would be more similar to the battle royale or turf war. So it was no wonder that I or the Ghost Guild would be mentioned, as we had done well in PvP and the Charin fight. Of course, it also meant that I felt a lot of pressure. Not that it made me want to act like I was famous, or play in a way that would entertain the audience, but it did strengthen my desire to win. It wasn’t because of pride...but what was it? I suppose it was part of wanting to fight with all of my power. Do everything that I can possibly do, and give it my all. And if I still lose, then that was fine. But if I lost because of something like not preparing a ‘regeneration potion,’ which was a popular item that most players had, then that would be awkward. People who were rooting for me would be disappointed, and I would have regrets. At least if I lost because some hardcore player had an ultra rare item, or if it was against a veteran who had decades of experience...I could accept it. I would just try harder next time... ‘Tadaa! It’s the start of the official NSO livestream-nyon!’ “Woah!?” As I had become lost in thought, the sudden voice from my computer startled me... I think this happened last time too... Only this time I recognized the voice, and wouldn’t make jokes about the way she ended her sentences. ‘Some of you already know about me! Well, most of you do! I am the AI idol Charin, who presided over the zodiac event as part of a collaboration with NSO-nyon!’ The familiar AI idol had appeared on my screen. It was surprising what a person could get used to. The bold appearance and speech had taken me aback at first, but it seemed normal now. ‘Ah... My event was so long, but it’s now time for it to end-nyon. Just like how the stars fade away when the sun rises, you will no longer be able to see me in NSO... In other words, it’s time to say goodbye... Unless you come to visit me in my own game...’ Charin said while looking at the camera. I see. So now that the event is finished, she won’t appear in the game anymore... That was a little...well, quite sad... ‘So, this is bye-bye-nyon!’ Charin hopped to the side of the screen and disappeared. But then she hopped back in from the other side. It was like an action game where both sides were connected...! ‘So...that was a little joke... Because I, Charin, will also be presiding over this event, the st NSO Strongest Party Tournament!’ Oh, now that was a surprise...! The collaboration event must have been received very well, or they just didn’t have anyone better to do it. In any case, I was glad that we didn’t have to say goodbye to Charin just yet. ‘That’s enough of that nonsense. It’s time to talk about the event! First, the requirement for joining is that you are a party of four! Ignoring your chances of actually winning, anyone can join, including level beginners! As long as you aren’t solo or in a party that has fewer than four-nyon!’ The bar for participating was lower than I thought. I suppose because it was so difficult to win, they didn’t care if tens of thousands of people gave it a try? However, that would mean that it would take a very long time to decide the winners... Unless they split people up depending on their level. ‘There will be no separation of classes based on ability. And so all parties will fight under the same conditions-nyon!’ ...I see. It was an event to find the strongest, and so they weren’t going to make things easier to accommodate weak players. Besides, management would want to give the prize to players who have been here for a long time, rather than allow some beginner to win the fortune and glory. ‘Now I will explain to you about parties-nyon! While there can be up to players, you can bring Unison as a th player! So you can choose to have a Unison fill that slot or not! You don’t have to bring one if you don’t need them! Furthermore, Unisons that are added to a party through the special privilege that Unison Trainers have do not affect the 5th slot!’ In other words, I could bring Garbow with me to the fight...! And Satomi’s Unison wouldn’t be affected. Both Garbow and Gochu could fight with us. I had been wondering about this ever since Necoco started to look for a 4th member, but it was all cleared up now. Changing his equipment and increasing his skills had been worth the effort! ‘About the items next. Just like the fight against me, there will be restrictions-nyon! You can bring up to 10 types, and 10 of those types of items! Both equipment and consumable items take up a slot, so think carefully-nyon!’ This was expected. If you could bring too many health items with you, people would constantly run away and heal, which would ruin the pacing. In order to keep fights quick and exciting, they needed some kind of restriction. ‘Also! I’m sure that you all want to hear about the rules of the battle...but we won’t be announcing them until the day of the event-nyon! It’s supposed to be a surprise! If you have any complaints, talk to the developers-nyon!’ She was quick to shift the blame... Well, I suppose it made sense, since she was just fired by them. Still, not explaining the rules wasn’t exactly a pleasant surprise... ‘One thing that I can say is that they won’t be like the strict, special rules during the turf war! The whole point is to have the preliminaries be simple so that we can quickly trim down the number of players for the final selection...oh! I wasn’t supposed to say that! Well, who cares! I might as well tell you-nyon!’ It wasn’t a very convincing slip of the tongue, but had she not given us more information, the live stream would have gotten a lot of downvotes. I suppose she understood such things...as an AI idol. ‘The final battles will be 1 party vs 1 party...so 4 vs 4. The party that defeats every player of the other party will win.’ So she was going to explain the rules after all! ‘But the preliminaries will be a little different-nyon! It’s still PvP, but the rules will be simple so that players will be eliminated quickly, until we have the desired number of parties left... Understand-nyon?’ Ah, so it’s ‘that’ thing that is deeply related to the Ghost Guild. ...I think? ‘Ah! Damn it! I’ve been yapping so much that the livestream is about to end! Uh, the preliminaries will start in 2 weeks! It will be a lot smoother if you sign up to enter before then! Also, it’s been decided that the zodiac event will be extended 2 weeks, so that it ends when the preliminaries start-nyon! So don’t give up on getting the ME medals! I’ll take you on any time-nyon!’ She was talking very quickly now... I had assumed that she was just acting, and management wanted her to announce all of that information all along, but maybe it really was a mistake...? What was crazy was that I could believe it, since this was Charin. Perhaps the AIs were already rebelling...! ‘You can check the official site for more details-nyon! Now, bye-bye! ...Ah, I finished in time.’ The livestream ended. The comment section was blowing up. Whether it was intentional or not, Charin was entertaining to watch. It was just an announcement, but now everyone was excited. The fight would start in two weeks... It now felt so much more real. “I can’t wait...!” I had been thinking all kinds of things before the livestream, but the words that came to mind when it was finished was: Yes, I just need to enjoy myself. With that pure feeling that I had when I first logged into Next Stage Online.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 0, "inserted_lines_src": 3, "inserted_lines_trg": 2 }
洗礼の儀とは、地元の教会に訪れ、そこで識別のための魔法陣に乗り、それぞれが持つギフトを認識するのだ。プライバシーの問題もあるので、認識したギフトは本人にしかわからないようになっている。だが識別されるのは基児である。ギフトを得た子供は嬉々として親にその内容を報告するのが常であった。近場の教会で最も偉い神官が、三歳になった成長をこの村の教会では、一番偉いのはマリアであるため、彼女がその訓辞を演説していた。俺は村の子供たちと一緒に、教会前の広場でその話を聞いていたのである。「それではこちらの魔法陣に。そこであなた方に神の祝福あれば、それを認識する事ができるはずです」ギフトはせいぜい百人に一人くらいしか得られない。この村の子供の数では、せいぜい一人出ればいい方だろう。それでもこの儀式が続いているのは、子供の才能を伸ばすため、そして権力者が有用な能力者を確保するためである。この年の子供は、全部で十数人しかいなかった。その数ではギフト持ちが発見される可能性はほとんどない。案の定、最初と次のグループでギフトを持っている子供はいなかったようだ。そしてようやく俺の番――いや、俺とミシェルの番である。結局俺の衣装はマリアが押し切って、リボンとフリル多めのドレスである。これでまた、レイドと名乗り出る事ができない理由が増えてしまった。バサバサと裾を蹴立てて魔法陣の上に乗る。生前の俺のギフトは操糸と隠密である。このギフトが受け継がれているかはまだ分からないが、人の目を掻い潜るのは相変わらず得意だった。それに生後半年の辺りで魔力を感知できた訳だし、魔法の素質があってもおかしくない。最後に俺が魔法陣に入った段階で、マリアが魔法を起動させる。それに反応するかのように、俺の脳裏には三つの単語が浮かんできた。つまり、操糸、隠密、干渉系魔法である。この世界ではいくつかの魔法系等が存在する。マクスウェルのよう属性を含む属性系の魔法、マリアのように信仰心を元にした神聖魔法。他にも死者を操作する霊属性魔法や、俺を殺した神父が使っていた、魔神などを俺の持っていた干渉系魔法は主に物質に干渉する魔法である。短期的に武器の威力を強化したり、鎧を多少硬くする程度の事ができる魔法である。無論、魔法と言うだけあって、極めれば常識を蹴り飛ばすほど恐ろしい効果を持つものもあるが、その領域に到達できるのは、この魔法の素質以外にも魔術行使の才能を持つ者だけだ。俺は一般人よりはうまく魔法を使えるようだが、その領域に到達するにはかなりの修練を必要とする、と言う事だろう。生前と比べ、ギフトが一つ増えている訳だが......転生の際、あの神の言っていた『サービス』というのが、この魔法の事なのだろうか? 見ると、ミシェルちゃんも、目をキラキラさせてこぶしを握り締めていた。「ミシェルちゃん、何か持ってた?」「うん、射撃だって!」やはり、それを口に出す危険性は一切考慮せず、ミシェルはその言葉を口にした。そう言えば彼女は、あのコボルドに襲われた緊迫した場面でも、的確に投石を敵に当てていた。あの正確さはギフトによる物もあるのだろう。「それ、お父さんにも言っちゃダメだよ?」「え、なんで?」「だって射撃なんて能力、強すぎるもの」投石だけならまだいい。射撃と言う事は、何かを撃ち出すという行為の全てに掛かってくるはずだ。つまり、投石はもちろん、弓や弩、果ては超長距離から一方的に敵を攻撃できる能力。そんなものが知られたら、国が放っておくはずがない。そうなれば彼女には、普通の子供時代と訪れないだろう。幼少時から国が保護し、血を吐くほどの英才教育を施されることは間違いない。無論、いつまでも隠し通せるものではないだろうが、親元にいる時間は長い方が、彼女にとってもいいはずだ。「うん、わたしと約束」「うん、やくそく!」俺とミシェルちゃんは指を絡めて約束する。三歳児の言う事だからまず当てにはならないが、いくらかは時間は稼げるだろう。その間にマリアかライエルを動かして、彼女を保護させる事にしよう。その日の夕食時、俺はマリア達に自分の能力を尋ねられた。生前のギフトを引き継いでいたことあり、三つのギフトを抱えている俺は、ある意味では規格外の存在と言える。特にこの二人は俺の生前の事を知っている。操糸と隠密というギフトの組み合わせから、俺の正体を見抜く可能性は結構高い。だからこの二つに関しては、彼等に漏らす訳にはいかない。問題は干渉属性魔法のギフトである。この魔法は結構素質を持つ物も多く、魔法系の中ではありきたりのものだ。故に、これをライエル達に漏らしても、大事には至らないだろう。むしろ彼等ならば俺を保護しつつ、最適な教育を施してくれると思われる。「なぁ、ニコル。ギフトは何かあったか?」「あなた、黙ってるって事は察してあげなさいよ!」珍しく鋭い声でマリアがライエルを咎める。ギフトを得るという事は狭き門なのだ。しかも俺は英雄たちの娘とあって、周囲の期待は自然と大きくなる。だからこそ、マリアは俺がギフトを持たなかった場合も考えて、ライエルを咎めたのだ。「うん、干渉属性魔法だって」「え、ああ! 良かったじゃないか、ニコル」「干渉属性かぁ、私はあまり詳しくはないわね。マクスウェルなら詳しいんだけど」「あいつはエルフの国の指導者でもあるからな。この北部に長居する訳には行かないだろう」「じゃあ、ニコルの方から出向いた方がいいかしら?」「あの魔術オタクの元にか? 優秀な弟子を見つけたら、そのまま帰ってこれなくなるぞ」マクスウェルが記憶のままならば、確かに手放してくれそうにないかもしれない。だがそれよりも、今は話さないといけない事がある。「それより、ミシェルちゃんなんだけど――」「ん、あの子がどうかしたのか?」「射撃のギフトを持ってたんだって。すごいよね」俺はできるだけ無邪気にそう告げてみた。彼女の両親なら権力者の申し出を断る事はできないだろう。だがこの二人が保護すれば、無理に引き離そうとする者はいないはずだ。俺は、ただ一人でも一軍に匹敵する戦闘力を持っているのだから。「射撃......それは凄いな」「遠距離から一方的に攻撃できるスキルね。知られたら貴族たちが黙っていないわ」「ああ。あの歳で親元を引き離すのは、あまりにも可哀想だな」「どうします、あなた。隠しますか?」「......そうだな。だがいつかは知られる。それまでに自分の身は自分で護れるようにしてやりたい」「じゃあ......」「ああ、ニコルも剣を教えてくれと言っていた事だし、彼女もいっしょに鍛えてやろう」「そうね、それはいいかもしれないわね」俺とミシェルちゃんが仲がいいのは、マリアも知っている。一人で修業するより、仲間がいる方が心強いと感じたのだろう。こうして俺は、ライエルの指導の下、基礎体力修練を始める事になったのだった。	The baptism ceremony is held at the local church, where a magic formation is used to identify each individual’s gifts. Since there once was a problem of privacy, the gift can only be known by the specific individual. However, it is basic to identify gifts at three years old. Gifted children would report to their respective parents with glee. The highest priest in the local church will make a speech on future choices available. In the village church, Maria is the highest priest, thus she will make the speech. I was listening to the speech with the village children in the square in front of the church. “With the help of this magic circle, if you are blessed by god, you would be able to recognize your individual gifts.” (Maria) Gifts are at most only present in one out of a hundred people. Among this small group of children, there would at most have only one gifted child. Still, this ritual is performed to expand the potential of the children, and to confirm the strength of those who are gifted. There are only a few children this year. With this number, there is little possibility that gifted children will be found. Sure enough, there seem to be no children in the first few groups who are gifted. And finally it’s my turn – no, it’s me and Michelle’s turn. Maria forced a frilly dress with ribbons on me. This is just one of the reasons why I will never mention my past as Reid. The hem of my dress rustled as I step forward to face the magic circle. My gifts in my previous life were Thread Manipulation and Covert Tactics. I do not know whether these gifts are inherited, but I was good at avoiding attention. Besides, although I can feel the flow of magic power from half a year old, it would be useless if I have no element affinity. When I entered the magic formation, Maria starts chanting magic. Three words appeared in my mind in response to the magic. Those are; Thread Manipulation, Covert Tactics, and Interference Magic. There are several magic systems in this world. There are elemental based magic including four major attributes like Maxwell, or holy magic based on faith like Maria. Other spiritual attribute magic includes necromancy, and the priest who killed me used Devil summoning magic. The interference magic that I had is magic that mainly manipulates matter. It is a magic that can strengthen the power of weapons temporarily and can also strengthen armor. Of course, it’s magic, after all, there are certain spells that completely break common sense, but only a few of those who have actual talent could reach that realm. I seem to be able to manipulate magic better than an ordinary person, but it will take considerable training to reach that level. Compared to my previous life, the number of gifts I possess increased by one... is this perhaps what the god meant by [service]? When I looked at Michelle-chan, her eyes were sparkling. “Did you get something, Michelle-chan?” (Nicole) “Yeah, Marksmanship!” (Michelle) Without considering the risks of saying so, she blurted the name of her gift. Come to think of it, she threw a stone accurately at the kobold in the previous encounter. That accuracy may be due to her gift. “Well, you should not tell your father about your gift.” (Nicole) “Huh? Why?” (Michelle) “The gift of Marksmanship is too strong.” (Nicole) Her stone-throwing was good. Marksmanship probably involves all acts of launching a projectile. In other words, other than stone-throwing, her gift would also apply to the use of bows and crossbows, including castle-destroying ballista. It is a gift for attacking enemies from long distances. If such things are made known, the country will not let her go. If so, she will never be able to obtain a normal childhood. There is no doubt the country will force her to train until the extent of vomiting blood. Of course, it is not possible to hide it forever, but it would be best for her to be able to continue leading a normal life with her parents. “Yes, I promise!” (Michelle) “Yeah, promise!” (Nicole) Michelle and I made a pinky promise. Because it is something done by a three-year-old, it may not be reliable, but at least it will gain me some time. Meanwhile, I’ll make Maria and Lyell do something to protect her. At dinner, Maria asked me about my gifts. I have inherited the gifts from my previous life, having three gifts. In a sense, it can be said to be out of the norm. Particularly, these two people know me in my previous life. There is a possibility that they will know my actual identity based on the combination of Thread Manipulation and Covert Tactics. As such, I cannot tell them about these two gifts. The problem is the gift of Interference Magic. This magic has many qualities, and it is common in the magic system. Therefore, even if I tell them, it will not be too risky. Rather, they would provide optimal education and protect me. “Hey, Nicole... did you get any gifts?” (Lyell) “You, I told you to stay silent!” (Maria) Maria reproaches Lyell unusually sharply. There is a narrow chance of getting a gift. However, being the daughter of the heroes, there is naturally a high expectation. That’s why Maria reproached Lyell, thinking that I did not have a gift. “Yup, Interference Magic.” (Nicole) “Oh, that’s good, Nicole.” (Lyell) “Interference Magic huh? I do not know much about it, but Maxwell is familiar with it.” (Maria) “He is also the leader of the country of the elves, I don’t want to go and stay in the northern part for long.” (Lyell) “Would you rather I visit with Nicole?” (Maria) “That magic addict? If he found an excellent disciple in Nicole, you may not be able to come back.” (Lyell) If I remember Maxwell correctly, it is entirely possible. However, there are things that I have to say. “Besides that, regarding Michelle-chan ...” (Nicole) “Well, what happened to her?” (Lyell) “She got the gift of marksmanship. It’s amazing, is it not?” (Nicole) I told them that as innocently as I could. Her parents will definitely give in to those in power. But if these two protect her, there should be no one who would try to separate her from her parents. Because any one of the heroes is able to match the strength of an army. “Marksmanship...... that is amazing.” (Lyell) “It’s a skill that can unilaterally attack from a long distance, the nobles definitely won’t stay silent if they know this.” (Maria) “It would be cruel to separate her from her parents at this age.” (Lyell) “What will you do, hide it?” (Maria) “......Yes, but it will be known eventually. By then, she should be able to defend herself.” (Lyell) “Well...” (Maria) “Oh, Nicole also said that she wanted me to teach her swordsmanship, let’s train them together.” (Lyell) “I suppose that should be fine.” (Maria) Maria also knows that Michelle and I are on good terms. It would be more encouraging to train alongside friends rather than do it alone. Thus, I began my physical training under the guidance of Lyell.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 2, "inserted_lines_src": 4, "inserted_lines_trg": 0 }
お店に戻るやティム達に先ほどの件を注意する。呑気に遊んでいて魔犬に襲われでもしたら堪らない。「ティム、話があるんだけど......」「お姉様、我もお話があります」「あら奇遇ね。でも、まずは私の話を聞いてくれる?」「わかりました」「実はね、最近ザルギーの村近辺で魔獣の被害が出ているらしいの」「我もその話です。不覚です。魔王軍のせいでガルガンの存在が嗅ぎつけられました。噂は既に近隣まで伝わっております」え、えっとガルガン? それに魔王軍? 子犬ではなくて魔犬の群れの話をしているのだが......。そもそも魔王軍のせいってどういう意味だよ! 俺はティムの顔を見る。いたって真面目な表情だ。ふざけている様子はない。 ......なるほど。いつもの語ね。ここで会話を中断してもいい。だが、中二病の治療は根気が必要である。無視はせず、話ぐらいは聞くべきであろう。「ティム、ガルガンは子犬のことだよね? 今回の件とは関係ないでしょ」「ふふ、お姉様にとっては子犬同然でしょうが、ガルガンはれっきとしたですか。じゃあ、うちはそれを二匹も飼ってることになる。すごいね。店の名物にできるよ。いっそドラゴン料理でも作ってみようかな。「魔王軍のせいっていうのは?」なんかもう話を進めてもぐだぐだになりそうだが聞いてみる。「ガルガン秘匿のため、身元不詳の山賊や盗賊達を餌としてきました。村人に手をだすと、さすがに国にばれますから」「そうだね。きっと治安部隊がすっとんでくるよ。そして、あまり変なことばかり言ってると、怖い治安部隊のお姉さん達がお尻ぺんぺんしちゃうんだから」暗にティムの中二言語を注意する。だが、ティムは気にしていないようだ。と言うよりも自分のことだと思っていない? そのまま話を続けてくる。魔王軍の動向に組織の動き、近隣諸国への侵攻等々。だらだらと話が長い。結論......。を食べてたら、魔王軍の斥候部隊と激突しちゃった。ザルギーの村を襲ってた斥候部隊は、魔獣を連れてたらしく村人達を食い殺してたと。そこにガルガン登場。ギャース! 皆さん慌てて撤収したんだって。逃げた斥候部隊、襲われて廃墟となったザルギーの村々にガルガンがぽつりといたところを目撃されたんだと。「ふぅん、それはガルガン災難だったね。冤罪だね、冤罪」「はい。邪神軍の覇道のためにあえてガルガンには自重させていたというのにこれで水の泡です。どうせばれるのであれば、思い切り暴れさせてやりたかったです」ティム、わかっているよ。わかっているけど、中二病いつになったら治るんだろう。こんな調子では同年代の友達が、いつできるかわかったもんじゃない。「カミーラ様のお怒りはごもっともでございます。にっくき魔王軍にそれなりの報復をせねばなりませんな」もティムに負けず劣らず中二病全開で話し出す。はぁ、あなたまで面倒見ないといけないと思うと頭が痛くなる。もう中二話はいいや。本題に移ろう。こんな与太話をしている場合ではない。「ティム、魔王軍の話はおしまい。本題は魔獣注意報の件よ。外出時にはザルギーの村近辺には近づかないこと」「お姉様、わかっております。これ以上、痕跡を残すわけにはいきません。近衛の皆にも伝えておきます」「そ、そう。まぁ、近づかないでくれるならそれでいいわ」とりあえず伝えられてほっとしたよ。ティム達が遊んでいる場所は本当に危険区域みたいだったから心配だった。後は魔犬の群れを討伐隊に退治してもらえば一件落着だね。いや、待てよ。そう話は単純ではない。人的被害は魔犬の群れのせいだ。だが、ガルガンも放し飼いにしているから田畑を荒らしている可能性がある。ガルガンも討伐対象になってても不思議ではない。ガルガンについても何かしらの対処をする必要がある。「ティム、実はこの件でギルドから討伐隊が来る予定なんだけど、ガルガンどうしようか?」「それはまずいことになりましたね」「うん、そうなんだよな」きっと、討伐隊は魔獣を見たら手当たり次第に狩っていきそうだ。子犬だからといって容赦してくれるかな? ガルガンは放し飼いにしているノラだ。前世のゆるい日本でさえ野良犬は保健所に連れていかれる。この世界で見逃してくれるはずがない。だめもとで討伐隊の人に頼んでみようか? でも「だめだ。だめだ。一つを認めれば全部を認めることになる。魔獣は皆殺しとの御達しだ!」とか言われそうだ。しょうがない。お店で匿っておくか......。いや、それも無理だ。うちは料理屋としての矜持がある。たとえ数日でもお店の衛生面に悪影響をだしてはいけない。ティムにはかわいそうだけど、ガルガンはどこか遠くの自然に帰してやるのも手かもしれない。「ティム、残念だけどガルガンを手放さなければならないかもね」「えっ!? ガ、ガルガンは先の大戦も含め数々の戦いで我と生死を共にした一心同体の存在です。で、ですが、お姉様のお望みとあらば我は......わ、我は......」ティムが沈痛な面持ちでそう答えてくる。いかん。あからさまにティムの顔が落ち込んでいるよ。「ああああ、嘘、嘘だよ! ガルガンはティムの大切な友達だもんね。そんなことは絶対にしない」「いえ、良いのです。我が大切なのはお姉様です。お姉様以上に大切な存在などありません。ご命令とあらば生死を共にした分身でさえ殺して御覧に入れます」「い、いいから。別にそんなことはしなくていい。私はティムが悲しむことは絶対にさせないからね」「お姉様!」ふ~なんとか治まってくれた。どうやらティムにとってガルガンはすっかりお気に入りのペットになったみたいだね。これは捨てさせられない。「こうなれば、一戦覚悟で攻め入るのも手ではないでしょうか?」は血気盛んに一戦、つまり「討伐隊に訴えてみたら?」と提案する。簡単に言うなぁ~。犬一匹とはいえギルドに意見するのは骨が折れそうだ。「お姉様、ニールゼンの言に一理あります。魔王軍は現在弱体化しております。ここは全力で人間側に攻め入るのもありかと」う~ん、どうしようか? 討伐隊は魔獣狩り専門の冒険者で組織されるはずだ。一癖も二癖もありそうな奴らが集まる予感がする。まぁ、でも冒険者だから無法者というわけでもないだろう。話し合いをしてみるのが一番良い方法かもしれない。「そうね。とりあえず交渉してみるのも手かな」「はっ。それではまずは交渉、決裂したら戦闘でよろしいですかな」決裂したら戦闘って......。お前、言うこと聞かなかったらぶん殴るつもりなのか? そうだな。とりあえずこのバカは置いていこう。こいつを連れていったら収拾がつかなくなることは目に見えている。「そうね。その方向でいいわ」「いいえ。ニールは留守番よ。お供は親衛隊のミューにしてもらうから」「ミュッヘンですか?」「そうよ。何か不満?」「......いえ、それではミュッヘンに伝えておきます」「よろしく!」この前のチャンバラごっこ以来、ミューの株は花丸急上昇中なのだ。ギルドに訴えをしにいくのだ。大人な対応をする人じゃないとね。それに、このメンバーの中で一番強いのはミューだ。話し合いとはいえ何があるかわからない。凄腕の剣士に見守ってもらわないと安心できないよ。	When I returned to the shop, I needed to warn Timu and the others about what I had heard earlier. I wouldn’t be able to bear it if magic dogs attacked them while they were happily playing. “Timu, I kind of need to talk to you...” “Elder sister, I too have something I must speak to you about.” “Oh, what a coincidence. Well then, won’t you listen to me first?” “Understood.” “The truth is, apparently the nearby village Zalgie has been attacked by magic beasts.” “I too wished to speak about that. It was my blunder. Because of the Demon King Army, they have noticed Gargan’s presence. Rumors have already begun to spread to the neighboring towns.” U-, Ummm, Gargan? And the Demon King Army? But I was talking about a pack of magic dogs, not some puppy. To begin with, what the heck do you mean it’s the Demon King Army’s fault! I looked at Timu’s face. It’s her usual serious expression. She doesn’t look like she’s messing with me. ...I see. So it’s her usual chuunibyou speak. I could just cut her off here. But chuunibyou needs patience to heal. I won’t ignore her. I should be hearing her out. “Timu, Gargan is a puppy, isn’t he? He’s unrelated to the topic this time, right?” “Huhu, Gargan may be a puppy to you, elder sister, but he is a fully-fledged dark dragon, you know. To the rabble, I believe Gargan is like a calamity that overturns heaven and earth.” Mmn, this isn’t getting anywhere. A dark dragon, you say? Then we’re keeping two of them as pets. That’s amazing. We could make them our shop’s selling point. Hell, maybe I should just start cooking dragon. “And about this being the Demon King Army’s fault?” Honestly, I’ve just about given up on trying to advance this conversation, but I’ll ask just in case. “In order to conceal Gargan, I have been using untraceable mountain bandits and highwaymen as food. If we touched any villagers, naturally this nation would be alerted.” “Well yeah. The Public Safety Force would come rushing over. And if too many strange stories are told, a scary big sister from the Public Safety Force will come running over to hand out a spanking, okay?” I was subtly warning Timu about her chuuni speak. But Timu didn’t seem to mind at all. Or rather, she doesn’t even realize I was talking about her? The conversation went on without her realizing. She talked on and on about the Demon King Army’s movements, or the activities of the organization, or the invasion on the neighboring counties. And the conclusion...? Gargan was being fed bandits as pet food. The peace and safety around Beruga town was all safe and good. And then, the more bandits (pet food) Gargan ate, the more often they could bump heads with scouts from the Demon King Army. Those scouts had been attacking Zalgie village with magic beasts that devoured the villagers. That’s when Gargan appeared. All the scouts evacuated in a hurry. The scouts had escaped, and somebody caught a glimpse of Gargan just as Zalgie village had been destroyed. “Hmm~ Gargan has it rough, huh~ So it was a false accusation, huh~” “Yes. For the sake of the Evil God Army’s world domination, I had been keeping Gargan prudently, but it has all come to nothing. Had I known this was going to happen, I should have just let him rampage to begin with.” Timu, I get it. I get it, but just when are you going to recover from your chuunibyou? At this rate, who knows when you’ll be able to make any friends your age. “Lady Camilla’s anger is most justified. We must exact the appropriate vengeance upon the loathsome Demon King Army.” Not losing to Timu at all, Pervert (Nielsen)’s chuunibyou jumped right into full throttle. Hahh. I have to look after you as well? I’m getting a headache. Honestly, just give me a break from all this chuuni please. Let’s move to the real topic. This isn’t the time for nonsense. “Timu, let’s not speak of the Demon King Army anymore. The real problem is the warning about magic beasts. When you head out to play, stay away from Zalgie Village.” “Elder sister, of course I already know this. I cannot allow our presence to become any more salient. I will convey your message to all the members of the Household Guard.” “I-, I see. Well, as long as you stay away, that’s fine I guess.” It looks like I can finally relax for a bit. Timu and the others were playing in a real danger zone, so I was worried. All we need now is for the subjugation team to take down the magic dogs, and then we’re in the clear. Wait, hang on. That isn’t simple at all... It’s the fault of the deadly magic dog pack. But Gargan is being kept free range, so there’s a chance he’ll mess up people’s farms. It wouldn’t be strange for the subjugation team to exterminate Gargan as well. I need to do something about this. “Also, a subjugation team will be dispatched from the Guild, so what will you be doing about Gargan?” “That would become a problem, wouldn’t it?” “Yeah, it would, huh.” I’m sure that those guys will hunt down any magic beast they see. Would they be lenient if it’s just a puppy? Although Gargan is our pet, he’s being raised like a stray. In my old life, back in lax Japan, stray dogs would be brought to a health center. But in this world there’s no reason to spare them. Should I try talking to the subjugation team just to try? But they’d probably say “No way, no way. If we spare one, we’ll end up sparing them all. The orders say to eliminate all magic beasts!” Can’t be helped. Should we shelter Gargan in the shop then? No, I don’t think that would work either. We have pride as a restaurant. Even for a few days, we can’t allow a hygiene problem. I feel bad for Timu, but we might have to return Gargan to the wild someplace far away. “Timu, it’s a shame, but it’s starting to look like we’ll have to let go of Gargan.” “EH!? G-, Gargan is like my other half that I have braved countless battles together with in the last great war. B-, But if elder sister so desires then I... t-, then I...” Timu told me that with a heartbroken expression. No good. Timu’s clearly getting depressed. “AAHHHHHH! I was kidding! Just kidding! Gargan is your precious friend, right? We definitely won’t be doing anything of the sort.” “No, it is fine. Elder sister is what’s truly important to me. There is nobody more important than you are. If you so order, then I would even kill my other half.” “I-, It’s fine, I said. You don’t have to do anything like that. I definitely won’t make you do anything that makes you sad, Timu.” “Elder sister!” Phew~ Looks like I somehow got it under control. It looks like Timu has gotten really attached to Gargan as a pet. And it looks like we can’t abandon him now. “In that case, should we not brace ourselves, and play all our cards in an all-out invasion, Lady Tilea?” Pervert (Nielsen) enthusiastically suggested a battle, in other words, “How about we complain to the subjugation squad?”. It’s easy to talk about it, huh~ Although it’s just the matter of one puppy, it’s probably going to be crazy hard to convince the Guild. “Elder sister, Nielsen’s suggestion holds merit. At present, the Demon King Army is presently on the decline. I believe that perhaps now is the best chance for an all-out invasion of the human world.” Hm~mm, what should I do... The subjugation squad should comprise magic beast hunting specialists. I’ll bet they’re a bunch with a few quirks here and there. But well, it doesn’t mean that they’ll be a rowdy bunch just because they’re adventurers. Maybe talking it out really is the best option. “Yeah. For now let’s try negotiating first.” “Milady. Can I take that to mean, negotiate first, and if negotiations break down, we commence all-out war?” If negotiations break down, we commence all-out war, he says...? If the subjugation team won’t do as we ask, are you planning on punching it out? I know. For now I’ll leave this idiot aside. It’s obvious that if I bring this guy along, things will just spiral out of control. “Yeah. Let’s go with that, then.” “No, you’ll be guarding the house, Niel. I’ll be taking Myuu as my bodyguard.” “Mühen, you say?” “That’s right. Problem?” “...No. Well then, I shall relay your order to him.” “I’ll leave it to you!” Ever since our little sword show the other day, Myuu’s stock has been on a sudden rise. We’re going to have a talk with the Guild after all. Obviously we need somebody who can behave like an adult, right? And also, Myuu is the strongest member of our group. Although we’re just going there to talk, who knows what might happen. I won’t be able to relax without a talented swordsman watching over me.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 2, "inserted_lines_src": 5, "inserted_lines_trg": 0 }
時間は夕飯というにはちょっと早めの時間帯。夕方6時位? このくらいの方が混まずに入れるのだそうで。ちなみにノルンとベルはお留守番。ごめんよぅ......お詫びという訳じゃないけど、晩ご飯にマッドブルのお肉を置いてきた。自作の焼肉のタレで焼いたやつ。リリーさん達がもの欲しそうに見ていた事は言うまでもないと思う。宿からレストランまでは徒歩で移動、なんだけど、実は割と直ぐ近くだったのも掛からずに到着した。中に入るとリリーさんが対応して待合室まで通されて、しばし待機。その間もリリーさんが給仕の人相手に色々と応対をしていた。注文とかしてるみたい? まあ、今日の私はご馳走になる側なので全部お任せ。こういう所は初めてだし、正直よく分からないからね...... それからしばらくすると大きい広間に通された。等間隔という訳ではないけど、ある程度間を置いてテーブルが配置されている。個室ではないのは平民用のフロアだからかな? でもその平民用のフロアでも上等の部類らしい。選んだ料理のコースで通されるフロアが違うとかなんとか。ちなみに貴族様のフロアは更に奥にあり、基本的に個室だそうだ。移動中にリリーさんが教えてくれた。なるほどなー。そんなこんなでテーブルまで案内されて椅子を引かれ、着席、しようとした所で問題が発生。私がマントを着用しっぱなしなのがまずいらしい。マント着用のままでもいいのでは? と聞いてみたところ、以前は確かにそうだったのけれど、最近その格好で問題を起こした冒険者が複数いたとかで見直す事になったのだそうだ。何と言うとばっちり。折角ここまで来たのだから食べずに帰るというのは流石に無い。なので諦めてマントを脱ぐ事にする。「なんだかすみません......こんな事になってたなんて......」「大丈夫ですよ、気にしないでください」リリーさんが凄い恐縮しちゃってて少し申し訳ない気分になる。いや、ほんと気にしないでいいからね? 諦めてマントを脱いで給仕の人に預けると、途端に周囲の席の人の目が集中してちょっと落ち着かない。給仕の人も目を見開いて固まっちゃってるし。むむむ。でももうここまできたら私も気にしないでスルーするしかないので、気にしない気にしない! 気を取り直しておしゃべりしているうちにいよいよお料理が運ばれてきた。ドキドキしますなー! リリーさん曰く、このフロアを使える富裕層でも、平民はマナーを身に着けてない人も多いらしく、順番に料理を持ってくるコース料理だと色々と勘違いして文句を言う人が居るかららしい。そもそも、お金を持ってる平民となると上位の冒険者である場合も多いとか何とか。それだと確かにマナーを学ぶのは難しい気がする。んー、貴族とも付き合いがあるであろう大商人とかだとまだ違うのかも知れないけど......その辺りどうなのだろう? 内容はサラダ、スープ、唐揚げっぽいもの。パンは籠に山盛りになってるけど、見た感じ、白パンかな? 記憶が戻ってから初めて見た。更に後からメインの肉料理が運ばれてくるらしい。そして最後にデザートもあるみたい? んー、それぞれで食べ過ぎるとデザート入らなくない? 全体的にかなり量が多くて、なんだか色々微妙な気が...... 色々気にはなるけど取り敢えず食事開始。カトラリーも複数並んでるけど、前世の記憶にある物との差はないようなので、順番に該当するものを使っておけば問題はないかな? というかクレームはいるからって料理全部乗せしておいてカトラリーは複数並べるとか、やっぱりおかしい気がする。周りのテーブルにさりげなく視線をやってみれば類だけしか使わずに色々食べてる人がちらほら...... 気になった事をそのままにしておくのもなんとなく収まりが悪いので素直に聞いてみたところ、非常に言いづらそうに教えてくれた。ぶっちゃけると、自尊心を擽る為らしい。それに、数年に一度の贅沢な外食とか、何かの記念日に、なんて人達もいる訳で......うん、色々納得。高級感は確かに大事だね。なるほどなー。さてさて。全部乗せだけど一応コースに則った順番で食べるのがマナーかな? という訳でまず一口水に口をつけて、最初は前菜を兼ねてるっぽいサラダから。見た感じレタスっぽい葉野菜にソースっぽいものが掛かってる。フォークで刺してぱくり。しゃくしゃく。あー、レタスだこれ。んー、このソースはグレイビーソースっぽい? 牛肉を煮込んだ系の煮汁をベースに手を加えた感じかな? 食べやすくする為に油は丁寧にとったみたいだけど、それでも前菜で食べるにはちょっと重い気もする。味はいいんだけど、んー。そういえば後からメインの肉料理を運んでくるって言ってたっけ? それの流用かな? 風味的に赤ワインを使ってるようだから、牛肉のワイン煮辺り? メインの肉料理について給仕の人に確認してみたら、何で分かったのかと驚かれた。サラダのソースの事を説明したら信じられないものを見る目で見られた。あれ? 普通分かるでしょ? え? 分からないのが普通? そんなこと言われてもなー。サラダを平らげて次はスープ。具沢山だ。ただ、スープは澄んでいて丁寧に灰汁取りしたのが窺える。スプーンで一口。うん、コンソメっぽい。本来のコンソメスープではないけど、材料的に似た系統の味になるのは致し方なし。でもスプーンでこの量の具を全部平らげろというのはちょっと酷じゃなかろうか。いや、美味しいけどね。「レンさん、気に入ったみたいですね」「わかりますか?」「はい、すごい幸せそうな顔してますから」無意識に頬が緩んでいたらしい。ちょっと恥ずかしい。でも美味しいものを食べるのは幸せな事なので仕方ないのです、と伝えると。「そうですね。美味しいものを食べると幸せな気持ちになりますよね。ふふっ。まわりの席の人もレンさんの表情に見惚れちゃってますよ?」 ......みんな私のこと見すぎじゃない? ご飯食べるのに集中しようよ。もぐもぐ。「でも驚きました。レンさんテーブルマナーわかるんですね。私よりもちゃんと出来てて......一体どこで覚えたんですか?」「秘密です」前世で覚えました。なんて言えるはずも無いけれど、これでも一応お偉いさんとの会食だとか、金に物を言わせて一時期外食しまくったりしていたのだ。それにあわせて相応の作法は身に付けてある。技術者兼研究者といっても開発だの研究だのだけしてる訳ではない。色々な根回しだとか開発費をせびる為だとか、色々大変だったのだ。でもリリーさんが気になるのも仕方ないとは思う。前世ではともかく、今の私は冒険者なので、基本的に世間一般では無教養と思われてるのが普通だ。更に私はまだ11歳。だと言うのにそれがほぼ完璧にテーブルマナーをこなしていれば変に思われても已む無し。とは言え明確に答えられるはずもないので、くてりと首をかしげて笑顔で誤魔化す。これ、最近よくやってる気がする。「リリー、ほら、レンさんだから......」「......そだね」あれあれ? なんだか酷い評価をされてる気がするよ? ちぎって一口。もしゃもしゃ。うーん、柔らかい。天然酵母を使ったものと比較したら当然硬い部類だけど、今まで食べたパンは基本的に黒パンばかりだったので、柔らかいパンは久しぶり。というか前世ぶり? そう考えると少し感慨深いものが......ああ、天然酵母といえば、今度自作してパンを焼くのもいいかもしれない。というか何で今まで思いつかなかったのか、無念だ。さて、次は唐揚げっぽいもの。フォークでざくり。パクリ、はむはむ......うん、鶏の唐揚げだこれ。なんだ、この世界ちゃんと揚げ物料理あるじゃん。料理人の腕がいいのか揚げ具合は悪くなく、ジューシー。ただ、衣の食感的揚げしてる感じではないのが惜しい。そして肉の味。下味でタレに漬けるとかせずに塩胡椒を振っただけっぽい。それだけでも十分に美味しいけど、こういう所が未発達なのか......色々惜しい。尚、胡椒少な目の模様。香辛料はそれなりに高級品だしなあ......いや、普通に美味しいけどね。でも個人的になんとなく物足りないので、今度自分で作ろうと決意してみる。というか肉の後にまた肉が来るって、やっぱり微妙だよねえ? いや、内陸部で魚の輸送が難しいからってのは分かるんだけど...... 「肉が続くのもちょっと重いですね......」「まあ、色々とありますから......」「やっぱり本来のコース料理だと魚なんですか?」「そうですね、って、何で知ってるんです!?」「まあ色々と? でも、川魚ならいけるんじゃないですか?」「コース料理で使えるような大きい川魚は貴族用のコース料理に優先されるみたいです。沢山仕入れた時はここでもたまに出てくる時があるみたいですけど。それでも取り敢えず食べるだけなら、庶民向けの食堂に行けば何とか......」「......それは、あまり味には期待できそうにないですね」だから川魚も専門の商人が護衛を雇って仕掛けを使って、まとめて獲ってきてまとめてレストランとかに卸すのだそうな。でもそれでも魚を食べたいなら後は頑張って自力で釣ってくるしかないらしい。まあ、この世界は害獣どころか魔物が居るし、命がけって考えると......いや、私は川魚も【ストレージ】に沢山あるけどね。なんて駄弁っているうちにメイン肉登場。予想通りに牛肉のワイン煮。量産に向いてるし、妥当と言うか順当と言うか、うん。でもだからと言って手を抜いてる風ではなく、ちゃんと灰汁取りとかして丁寧に作ってあるのがわかる。肉は柔らかでとろとろ。うーん、美味しい。頬が緩むわー、美味しい。むふー! 「......レンさん、その、もう少し表情を」おおっと、周囲の目が! でも美味しいから我慢するのは無理! これは......ホットケーキ? バターが乗ってて、蜂蜜も掛かってて......一口食べる。うん、ホットケーキだ。あ、そういえばこの世界でちゃんとした甘味食べたの初めてかも......自作以外では、だけど。あー、でも美味しいなー。もぎゅもぎゅ。いやはや、お腹一杯。というかきつい! ちょっと食べ過ぎた! っていうかやっぱり量多いよ! 「......ちょっと苦しいです。美味しかったですけど、やっぱり量、多くないですか?」「ああ、それはここの利用者は上位の冒険者が多いからなんですよ」「なるほど、納得しました」冒険者は身体が資本だし、それを差し引いてもここの料理は美味しいし、上位冒険者は収入も多いだろうから、贅沢を楽しむ意味でも頻繁に通ってるんだろうなあ。宿への帰りの道中にぽっこりお腹を撫でながら、ちょっと運動しないとまずいかも、なんて考えが頭をよぎったけど、明日からまた馬車移動だった事を思い出して運動してカロリー消費する事も出来ない事実にちょっと戦慄してみたり。ああ、うん。王都に着いたら頑張るから......	And so we have arrived at the restaurant.The time was a bit early for dinner. It should be around six now? With this we should be able to avoid some of the crowds. I see, it seems the two took this into consideration. Lily and Arisa sure were good kids. Additionally, Norn and Bell were house-sitting. Sorry.......it wasn’t much of an apology, but I left them some Mad Bull meat for dinner. I grilled it using the yakiniku sauce I made myself. It goes without saying that Lily and Arisa were staring quite intensely at me. We traveled from the inn to the restaurant on foot, but since it was quite close, we arrived in less than five minutes. When we entered inside, Lily got us a waiting room and we waited for a while. Meanwhile, Lily was giving various orders to the waiter. I guess she’ll be handling the orders? Well, that was fine with me since I was the one being treated. It was my first time in this kind of place, so I wasn’t really familiar with things too....... After a while, we were led into a large hall. The tables weren’t evenly spaced apart, but they were spaced some distance apart. I guess there weren’t any private rooms since this area was for ordinary people? But it still looked quite high class despite being an area for ordinary people. Apparently, each area had different course meal selections. Incidentally, the area for nobles was further back, and were private rooms. Lily told me all this while we were moving, I see. We were guided to a table and a situation occurred where I had tried to pull the seat and sit down when the waiter was supposed to do it for me. And it seems there were issues with me keeping my cloak on. I thought I was allowed to keep my cloak on? When I asked, I was told that it used to be the case, but the rule had been revised due to recent issues with the appearance of some adventurers. What should I even say here. There was no way we were going to return without eating after having come this far. So I gave up and took off my cloak. “I’m sorry.......for something like this to happen........” “It’s fine, don’t worry about it.” I felt apologetic towards Lily who felt that the incident was her fault. So really please don’t mind it, okay? When I gave up and took off my cloak and gave it to the waiter, the eyes of the people in the surrounding seats immediately gathered on me and I became a bit restless. The waiter’s eyes were also wide with surprise. Mumumu. But since we were already here, I have no choice but to ignore it, so just ignore everything! After I recomposed myself, we chatted for a bit and the food was finally brought out. I feel excited! All the dishes were placed onto the table at once. It didn’t seem like it was course-style. Lily explained that even though this area was used by people with more wealth, most of the people were still commoners and thus didn’t know formal dining etiquette. As such, some people would complain or be confused when the food was brought out course-style. To begin with, when it comes to ordinary people who have money, it would usually be top adventurers or something similar. Which would make it difficult to enforce formal dining etiquette. But it might be different if the person was a big merchant who was associated with nobles, so.......I wonder how that would work out? When I asked Lily about it, she said those types of people would usually book a private room. I see, understood. Anyways, time for the dishes then. The contents were salad, soup, and something like fried chicken. There was bread placed inside a basket, and from the looks, white bread? It was the first time I saw white bread since regaining my memories. Apparently, the main meat dishes would be brought out later. Lastly, there was also dessert too. But I wonder if I would be able to eat the dessert after eating everything else? The portion of everything was quite large so I felt quite complicated....... I was worried about various things, but I started eating regardless. There were several utensils lined up on the table, since they didn’t look any different from the ones in my previous life, I assumed it would be fine if I used them in corresponding order. Rather, it was due to the various complaints from the past that the current situation came to be. As expected, it felt weird to have all the food on the table alongside various utensils. When I casually glanced at the tables around me, I saw that there were many people who were using only a single utensil to sample various dishes. When I slightly tilted my head in confusion, the waiter told me it was fine if I didn’t follow the formal dining etiquette. That said however, I was still curious about what the various utensils were used for. I didn’t know about it, but I still wanted to find out. It also wasn’t easy for me to let go of things I was curious about, so I would like it if he would teach me. Furthermore, it was also a hit on my self-esteem. Even if I didn’t understand the formal dining etiquettes, I still would like to act elegantly since the utensils were all lined up! Well, anyway, it’s just that when people go out for luxurious dining once every year or so for things like anniversaries and such......I understood how they felt. The feeling of class was definitely important, you see~ Moving on. Everything was on the table, but I suppose I should eat everything in the order of a course meal? As such, I took a sip of water and began with the salad that acted as the appetizer. It was lettuce-like vegetables with sauce drizzled on it. I stabbed at it with a fork, put it in my mouth and started chewing. Yep, it was lettuce alright. Hmm, this sauce was kind of a bit like gravy? I would guess the base used something like beef broth? The amount of oil appeared to have been carefully adjusted to make it easier to eat, though it was still a bit heavy as an appetizer. It still tasted quite nice. That aside, the main meat dish was supposed to be brought out later, right? Although, I suppose that would go against its meaning? Since red wine was supposedly being used to adjust the flavor, I guess it would be something like steak simmered in wine? When I checked with the waiter about the main meat dish, he was surprised that I knew. After I followed with an explanation on salad dressing, I was met with a look of disbelief. Huh? Knowing this is normal though? Eh? Not knowing is what’s actually normal? Even if you tell me that... I finished off the salad, and the soup was next. Chock full of ingredients too. However, its clearness showed how thoroughly the scum had been removed. I took in a spoonful. Mhm, quite like consommé. It wasn’t really a true consommé, but these ingredients wouldn’t have made that possible anyway. Using a spoon to eat all these ingredients did feel rather inconvenient though. Well, it was good regardless. “Ren, it seems you quite like it.” “You can tell?” “Yes, you look really happy.” It seems that my cheeks had unconsciously loosened. Which was a bit embarrassing. But eating good food was a wonderful thing, so it couldn’t be helped. Thus, I told them that. “Right. Eating good food is a wonderful thing. Fufu. The people around us are also captured by Ren’s expression, you know? ......Everyone was looking at me? Let’s just concentrate on eating the food. Nom, nom, nom. “But I’m surprised. So Ren knows about formal dining etiquette. You’re even better than me......where did you learn it from?” “It’s a secret.” I learned it from my past life. But I didn’t say anything, it wasn’t like I could tell them that it was because I used to accompany my superiors out for luxurious dining. As such, I ended up learning formal dining etiquette. Engineers and researchers didn’t just have to deal with development and research. There were various other difficult matters, such as negotiations and handling development expenses. But it was obvious Lily wouldn’t see it as such. Regardless of my past life, I was an adventurer now, so most people would think that I lack basic education. Plus I was only eleven. But even so, I had almost perfect formal dining etiquette, so it could be considered strange. However, since I couldn’t give a clear answer, I merely tilted my head and smiled back in response. It felt like I have done this a lot recently. “Lily, look, it’s because it’s Ren.......” “.......Right.” Huh? Why did it feel like I was being perceived rather negatively? Anyways, I finished with the soup so I reached for the bread and took a bite. Yep, nice and soft. Naturally, it was harder than bread using natural yeast, but the bread I had eaten until now were basically just black bread, so I haven’t had soft bread for quite a while. Or rather, this would be my first time ever in this world? I began thinking back upon it some more....... Ahh, but speaking of natural yeast, it might be a good idea to use it for making my own bread next time. Rather, it was disappointing that I didn’t think of this before. Next up was the possibly fried chicken. I used a fork to eat it. .......Yep, this was definitely fried chicken. So this world did have actual fried food. The frying skill of the chef was not bad, the chicken was very juicy. Unfortunately, the texture of the outer skin made it obvious it hadn’t been fried twice. And the taste of the meat. It was just seasoned with salt and pepper without marinating in any sauce. It was still delicious, but this area still needed improving......which was regrettable. Additionally, there wasn’t enough pepper on it. Spices were considered expensive products......not that it didn’t taste good. But personally I was dissatisfied, so I wanted to try making my own version next time. But wasn’t it a bit strange that it was just continuous meat dishes? Well, I do understand that it was difficult to transport fish inland, but...... “The continuous meat dishes are a bit heavy......” “Well, there were various things.......” “Was fish supposed to be the original dish?” “That’s right, wait, how did you know!?” “Well, there’s various reasons, I guess? But was it supposed to be something like river fish?” “The nobles are given priority for the larger river fishes for their course meals. It seems that there are even times when a lot would be bought from here. If you want to eat it, you might be able to find it at one of the restaurants for commoners, but.......” “.......But the taste wouldn’t be something to look forward to.” Additionally, monsters would sometimes appear, so fishing peacefully in the river was also quite difficult. As such, it would seem that merchants would usually hire escorts to handle them, and capture large quantities of fish to sell to restaurants. Thus, it seems that river fish were generally also rather expensive. So if I wanted to eat fish, I would have to work hard and catch it myself. Aside from pests, there were also monsters in this world, so when taking life into consideration....... Well, I actually have a lot of river fish inside Storage. The main meat dish was brought out while we were talking. And it was wine-simmered beef as expected. It was quick to make after all, so that only seemed correct, or at least a reasonable guess. But quick to make didn’t mean sloppy; the scum had been properly removed and the expert crafting of the dish was easy to see. The meat was so soft it practically melted. Mmmm this was good. My face was turning droopy, it was just that good. Mmm! “......Ren, your expression, please be a bit more discrete.” Oops, the surrounding people! But it’s just so delicious, I just can’t endure it! After finishing the steak, the dessert was finally brought out. This.....hotcakes? There was even butter and honey on top. Yep, definitely hotcakes. Did they use baking soda to make it more fluffier? Ah- ..with baking soda I could make various dishes.....I should go look for some next time so I can make them. Ah, this would be the first time I’ve ever eaten a sweet in this world......aside from my own. Ah~ But it’s so good~ And so we finished eating everything. I was completely full. I feel heavy! I ate too much! As expected, the portions are too large! “......It’s a bit hard to move. It was delicious, but don’t you think it was a bit much?” “Oh, that’s because there are many top-level adventurers who come here.” “I see, I get what you’re saying.” Adventurers relied on their bodies, plus the food served here was very good. Top-level adventurers also made a lot of money, so they could often enjoy luxury. As I stroked my stomach on the way back to the inn, I began thinking that it would be bad if I didn’t exercise a bit. But I gave a shudder upon realizing that I wouldn’t be able to get any exercising done since I would be riding inside of a carriage tomorrow. Ah, I see. Then I’ll do my best once I arrive at the royal capital.......	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 0, "inserted_lines_src": 13, "inserted_lines_trg": 0 }
ルノアの森を抜けると、見えてきたのは緩やかな丘だった。秋も深まっており、すでに辺りは暗くなってきている。おそらく、クルルカンの住む群れまでは、約1日の登山が必要になる。さすがに夜間の登山は難しい。どうせ急ぐ旅ではないので、本日はここで野営をすることにする。無限収納からジャガイモと玉ねぎ、カースシャロレーの肉、調味料を取り出す。今日は腕によりをかけた肉じゃがだ。森の中で採取したキノコを入れてみる。毒はないのでいけるはずだ。醤油がないが、塩で何とかしよう。日本酒ではないが、何か甘い酒があったのでそれをみりん代わりに使う。砂糖と酒を加えて最後に塩で味を調える。その間、パンとサラダを用意する。卵が残り少なくなった。今日食べてしまおう。卵焼きをちゃっちゃと作る。「肉もー肉も―、と言っているでありますー」肉好きのラースのために、昼に余った焼き肉を出してやる。塩で食べてるだけなのだが、本当においしい。魔力が肉を美味くするのか?機会があれば調べてみたい。俺、ゴン、ラースで食卓を囲む。ラースの喰いっぷりは見ていて気持ちがいいくらいだ。嫌いなものはなく、なんでも食べる。おそらくこいつの味覚は、「大好き」か「好き」しかないのだろう。肉じゃがをペロリと食べ、お代わり。確かにおいしかったのだが、俺たちの分を食いつくす勢いで食べている。フライドポテトなどは皿にてんこ盛りに出したので食べてしまった。ゴンが恨めしそうな顔をしている。そんな顔しない。お兄ちゃんなんだから。・・・またゴンに、フライドポテトをつくってあげよう。食後のデザートは大学芋だ。こいつはゴンにもラースにも大好評で、ここ数日のデザートはいつもこれだ。焼き芋のようなものも作ってみたのだがのリクエストはいつも大学芋だ。特にラースはカリッカリのものが大好きのようで、いつもそれをリクエストされる。俺はぜんざいだ。やっぱりあんこはいい。小豆は動物の餌に使われているため、この世界ではとても安価で手に入る。もし、もち米が手に入るのであれば是非、おはぎを作ってみたい。他人が食べているものは美味しく見えるらしい。ラースが寄ってきた。仕方なく少し上げると嬉しそうに食べている。一体こいつの胃袋はどうなっているんだ? 満腹になり、あとは寝るだけだ。イリモを傍に呼んで結界を張る。ドラゴンの生息地なので、ちょっといつもより厚めにしておく。ラースはイリモの上に乗って遊んでいる。この旅の間に、この二人は随分仲良くなった。最初はちょっとビビっていたイリモだが、そこは姉の風格だろうか?見事にラースを操っている。ラースが手綱をもってイリモを走らせているが、イリモがラースを落ちないように気をつけて走っているのだ。小さいドラゴンがユニコーンペガサスに乗って疾駆している。シュールな光景である。見る人が見たら卒倒する光景なのだろう。カメラなどの映像を記録する装置がないのが悔やまれる。さて、そろそろ寝ようかとなった時、俺のマップに反応があった。とんでもないスピードで山を下ってきている。その数5。おそらくドラゴンだろう。俺とゴンの間に緊張が走る。マップにはこのドラゴンは黄色で表示されている。俺たちに危機感を持っている証拠だ。おそらくドラゴンの斥候部隊だろう。そう考えているとすぐに、ドラゴンは姿を現した。・・・でかい。本当にでかいドラゴンだった。15メートルはあるだろうか。結界から漏れる薄明りに真っ赤な鱗が映える。おそらく、ククルカンだろう。俺は立ち上がり、生活魔法のライトを出す。辺りが照らし出される。ドラゴンたちは丘の中腹に降り立っている。俺はラースの姿が見えるよう、ラースを抱っこする。一匹のドラゴンが動いた。その瞬間、ものすごい咆哮が上がった。大地を揺るがす咆哮。耳がキーンとなる。「ラース!といっているでありますー!!!!!!」こんな状況でも通訳してくれるゴンが頼もしい。おそらくラースの母龍で間違いないだろう。直ぐに俺たちの至近距離にやってきた。首の後ろに二枚の羽と背中に二枚の羽を持つドラゴン。ちょっと鑑定してみる。ナキテス(クルルカン・304歳) LV54 HP:100024 MP:9654 風魔法 LV5 結界魔法 LV3 MP回復 LV3 気配探知 LV3 魔力探知 LV3 肉体強化 LV4 竜魔法 LV4 回避 LV4 教養 LV4 麻痺耐性 LV3 毒耐性 LV3 飛翔 LV4 天候支配・・・さすがドラゴン、強い。全てのステータスが高いレベルになっている。ドラゴンは1000年生きると言われているが、このドラゴンはまだ、若い方なのだろう。人間で言うと30代か。俺たちの至近距離にナキテスと表示されているドラゴンは降りてきた。ラースが俺の腕を飛び出して、母龍のところに飛んで行った。母龍の顔の周りを飛び回るラース。本当にうれしそうだ。「ゴウゴウゴウーグルルルル―」雷鳴のような音が鳴る。母龍もラースとの再会を喜んでいるのだろう。しばらくすると母龍は、クルリと尻尾を巻き付け、とぐろを巻くような形を作った。その真ん中に空いた穴にラースはすっぽり収まった。母親の背中にグリグリ、スリスリと顔を押し付けている。「ゴウゥゥゥゥ。グゴゲガガガガー」「子供を助けていただき、連れ帰ってくれたことに感謝する、と言っているでありますー」よかった。本当によかった。「このお礼は、後日改めてとも言っているでありますなー」「ああ、それには及ばないと伝えてくれ。」「これからどこに行くのだと聞いているでありますー」「できるなら・・・この山を抜けて、ヒーデータ帝国のクシャナに向かいたい」この山を突っ切るとクシャナなのだ。ここから一番近い町になる。「ゴゴゴゴグォー」「承知した。この辺りは我らが領域。他の領域の種にも、そなたらには手を出さぬよう言っておこう、と言っているでありますー」「十分です。感謝します」そんな母龍と会話していると、ラースがパタパタと俺のところに飛んできた。そして俺の胸にしがみついた。「グルァ、グルァ」「離れたくない、と言っているでありますー」ラースの爪が食い込むほどの、強い力で俺の腕をつかんでいる。俺はラースを抱っこする。母龍が、すみません、と謝ってくる。「いや、いいんですよ。小さいころはみんなこんなもんですから。ええ、ラースは確かに寂しがり屋で泣き虫ですが、結構強いところもあるんですよー」そんな会話を母龍としていると、ラースが静かに寝息を立て始める。いつもこうすると、すぐに寝るのだ。しかし、気が張っているせいか、ふっと目を開けて俺を見る。俺の姿を確認するとまた、ラースは俺の腕にしがみつく。「ああ、大丈夫ですよ。ラースはすごかったんですよ?捕らわれても一切敵の言いなりにならなかったんです。そう、1週間も水も食料も与えられない中で。それどころか、その捕らわれている場所から全力で逃げようとしたんですよ」再びラースの瞼が落ちていく。そして、寝息を立て始める。しばらくするとまた、ピクッと体が動き、再びラースが顔を上げる。俺の顔を確認して、また俺の腕にしがみつく。俺はラースをぎゅっと抱きしめる。「ええ、私が見つけたとき、ラースは大怪我をしていました。・・・怪我は完全に治療しました。その後、一人で群れに帰ると言っていたのですが、さすがにそれでは危険なので・・・。いいえ、とんでもない。私たちこそ、とっても勉強になりました。途中、自分で大ネズミなんかを狩っていたんですよー」ラースが安心したような顔をする。徐々に瞼が落ち、そしてまた寝息を立て始める。しばらくするとラースの体が重くなった。熟睡したのだ。俺はラースを再び母龍のとぐろの中に返した。とても幸せそうな顔をしている。俺は知っていた。寝ているときに、何度も「ママ、ママ」と寝言を言うラースを。やっと、やっと、大好きなママに会えたのだ。よかったな、ラース。幸せな顔をしているラースの顔をイリモがチラリと舐めた。これまでいい遊び相手であり、いいお姉さんだったものな。イリモも喜んでいるみたいだ。「では、そろそろ。と言っているでありますー」ラースを抱えたまま母龍はゆっくりと空に浮き上がった。そしてそのまま遠くの空に消え、その他のドラゴンも、その後を追うように飛んでいった。ラース、よかったな。きっとお前は立派なドラゴンになる。できるだけ長生きをして、ラースの雄姿を見たいなと思いながら俺は、ゴンを背中に乗せ、イリモの上に跨った。今宵一晩をかけて、この山を突っ切る。目指すはヒーデータ帝国だ。	Once we crossed the Runo forest, we saw a peaceful hill. Since it was late autumn, it was already dark. We are approximately day away from the kukulkan tribe. It is difficult to climb at night. Since we weren’t in a hurry, we camped on the hill. I took out the potatoes, onions, Curse Charole’s meat and some seasoning from the infinite storage. Today’s meal is meat and potatoes. Let’s try adding the mushrooms from the forest. They aren’t poisonous, so it should work. I don’t have the soy sauce, so I will have to go with salt. Although it’s not a Japanese sake, I have something similar on me, let’s add it too. To finish, I added some salt. Meanwhile, I prepared the bread and the salad. I don’t have many eggs left, let’s finish them today too. I decided to make an omelet. 「Meat too, meat too, he says」 For the meat lover, I took out the leftover meat from the previous meal. I only added some salt, but it is truly delicious. Does mana make the meat delicious? I need to investigate it. I, Gon and Lars surrounded the dining table. Lars was the most eager. He is not picky and eats everything. Perhaps, there is only 「like」and「like very much」in his dictionary. He ate the meat and potatoes with great delight and asked for another serving. It is certainly tasty, but he will eat everything at this pace. I brought out the fried potatoes, but they vanished in a second. Gon made a grumpy face. Don’t make such a face, he is your little brother after all. ....Let’s make fried potatoes for Gon when I have the chance. The dessert is university potatoes. It is a big hit with both Gon and Lars, these past days we always have it for the dessert. I tried to make something like roasted sweet potato, but the two always requested the university potatoes. Lars was especially happy to receive it. As for me, it is zenzai. It is really the best. The beans are used to feed animals in this world, so it is cheap and accessible. If only I could find some rice. It seems the other’s food is better. Lars flew towards me. Can’t help it, I will share a little. I wonder how his stomach works. Once full, it was time to sleep. We gathered around Irimo and I created a barrier. It’s the dragon’s territory after all, we need to stay closer to each other. Lars climbed Irimo and was playing around. During this trip, the two became quite close to each other. She was a little scared at first, but now she looks like a big sister. She splendidly controls him. Lars held onto the reins and rode her, while she run carefully so he didn’t fall. A small dragon riding a unicorn pegasus. Such a surreal scenery. A person could faint due to the lack of common sense upon seeing it. I wish I had a camera to record this. When I was about to lie down, I caught a presence on my map. They are coming here with an outrageous speed. Their number is .It is probably the dragons. Gon and I tensed up. The dragons are displayed on the map in yellow color. It is the proof of their wariness towards us. Most likely, it is a scout group. While I was thinking that, the dragons showed themselves. ....Huge. A really huge dragon. It’s at least meters. I could see the red scales on it. It should be a kukulkan. I stood up and created light from the life magic. I illuminated the surroundings. Dragons descended halfway up the hill. I embraced Lars so everyone could see him. One dragon moved. At that moment, I heard a tremendous roar. A roar that was able to shake the ground. My ears stung. 「Lars! Or so it says!!!!!!」 Gon sure is reliable for translating even in these circumstances. It should be his mother. She immediately approached us. She was a dragon with two feathers behind her neck and two more on her back. Let’s try appraising her. Nakitess (Kukulkan, years old) LV4 HP: 100024 MP: 9654 Wind Magic LV5 Barrier Magic LV3 MP Recovery LV3 Presence Detection LV3 Mana Detection LV3 Body Strengthening LV4 Dragon Magic LV4 Evasion LV4 Liberal Arts LV4 Paralysis Resistance LV3 Poison Resistance LV3 Flight LV4 Weather Ruler .......As expected of a dragon, strong. All of her skills are high-level. Dragons are rumored to live for 1000 years, so she is still relatively young. In human terms, she is in her thirties. The dragon named Nakitess lands beside us. Lars jumped out from my embrace and dashed to his mother. He flew around her head in circles, he looked very happy. 「Gougougougurururu」 There was a sound like that of a thunder. The mother is probably happy to reunite with Lars too. Then, she twisted her tail in a shape of a roll. Lars immediately fitted himself in that hole. He was pressing and rubbing his face on his mother’s back. 「Gouuuuu. Gugogegagagaga」「I’m grateful for saving my child and bringing him home, she says」 Then’ it is good. I’m glad. 「The reward will be presented to you very soon, she says」「Ah, tell her that I don’t need any」「She is asking where are going to go from now on」「If possible.... I want to cross these mountains and arrive at the city of Kushana of the Hideta Empire」 Once you cross the mountains, it will be Kushana. The closest city from here. 「Gogogoguo」「Understood. Around here, it’s our territory. I will also tell to other clans to let you safely pass」「It is enough. I appreciate your help」 When I was talking with the mother, Lars flapped his wings and flew to me. When he arrived, he clung to my chest. 「Gurua~, Gurua~」「I do not want to part, he says」 Lars grasped my hand with a great force. I hugged Lars. I will apologize to the mother later. 「No, it is fine. All kids are like that. Eh, Lars is certainly a crybaby, but he has some strong points too」 While I had such a conversation with the mother dragon, he fell asleep. However, maybe he was too worried, he opened his eyes again. Once he confirmed it was me, he once again clung to me. 「Ah, it is all right. Lars was great, wasn’t he? He was caught but never surrendered to the enemy. Yes, he didn’t even receive the food and water for the whole week. Not just that, he even tried to desperately escape」 Lars’ eyelids became heavy again. He started snoring soon after. After a while, he awoke once again and looked at my face. He gripped my hand again and I hugged him. 「Yes, when I found him, he had some serious injuries.....I completely healed his wounds and. He wanted to cross the forest alone, but that was, as expected, too dangerous.....No, it was nothing. It was quite educational for us too. On the way, he even hunted a great rat by himself」 Lars relaxed and fell asleep again. After a while, his body became heavier. This time, he is asleep for sure. I returned Lars to the mother dragon. He looked very happy. I knew. He always muttered「mama, mama」when asleep. In the end, you reunited with your mother. I’m glad for you, Lars. Irimo licked his happy sleeping face. He was her playing partner and she was his big sister. Irimo was glad for him. 「Well then, it is about time for us to depart」 Gently holding Lars, the mother dragon carefully flew away. The other dragons followed her. I’m glad for you Lars. You will definitely become an outstanding dragon. While thinking of living long enough to see Lars’ gallant figure, I put Gon on my back and mounted Irimo. Today I will cross the mountains and reach the Hideta Empire.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 2, "inserted_lines_src": 0, "inserted_lines_trg": 0 }
天頂に輝く月が見えなくなるほどの灰竜の群れ。優に百体は超えているだろう。そして、その中心には胸元に傷を付けた白竜と、背に騎乗するフリード・バグアーの姿。「悪く思うな。敵戦力の分断は戦いの定石だ」空間魔法〝界穿〟が作り出した転移ゲートの奥へと消えていったシアとミハイル。そしを追って飛んでいった黒鷲部隊を横目にフリードは宙に佇むユエに語りかける。風系統の魔法を使っている気配もないのに、まるで夜天に浮かぶ月のように空に浮かぶその姿に、目を細めながら反応を伺うが、ユエは無表情のまま静かにフリードを見据えているだけだ。フリードは、魔人族であることに誇りを持っており、例に漏れず、他種族を下に見ている。魔人族が崇める神に対する敬虔な信者でもあり、価値観の多様性を認めないタイプの男だ。故に、他種族の女に興味を示すことなど有り得ない事だった。だが、そのフリードをして、本物の月が自らの配下である灰竜達により隠されてなお、地上を照らす月の如き輝きを放つ美貌の少女には、〝殺すのは惜しい〟と思わせるだけの魅力を感じていた。その思いは、ハジメを殺すためにも必要だと分かっていながら、そして同胞を殺された事に対する憎しみを抱いていながら、それでも、つい戯言を口にさせてしまう。「惜しいな。......女、術師であるお前では、いくら無詠唱という驚愕すべき技を持っていたとしても、この状況を切り抜けるのは無謀というものだろう。どうだ? 私と共に来ないか? お前ほどの女なら悪いようにはしない」そんなフリードの勧誘に対するユエの反応はというと...... 「......ふっ、生まれ直してこい。ブ男」何とも手厳しい、嘲笑混じりの痛烈な皮肉の投げ返しだった。ちなみに、フリードは十人中十人が美男子と評価すると言っても過言でないほど整った容姿をしている。その力の大きさと相まって、魔人族の間では女性に熱狂的な人気がある。断じてブ男ではない。しかし、ユエは、フリードが【グリューエン大火山】で神を語った時の恍惚とした表情を見ており、それが酷く気持ち悪かったという記憶があるのだ。そんな男が、澄まし顔で誘ってくる。もう、気持ち悪い上に滑稽な男にしか見えなかった。そもそも、ハジメ以外の男に対して何かを感じるという事すらないので、本当に戯言以外の何ものでもなかった。ユエの言葉を受けて、フリードの目元がピクリと引きつる。「殉教の道を選ぶか? それとも、この国への忠誠のためか? くだらぬ教え、それを盲信するくだらぬ国、そんなもののために命を捧げるのか? 愚かの極みだ、我らの神、〝アルヴ様〟の教えを知るといい。ならば、その素晴らしさに、その閉じきった眼もッ!?」全くの見当違いをペラペラと話しだしたフリードに、ユエは神速の風刃を放つことで答えとした。ただ単に、聞くに耐えなかっただけというのもあるが。夜風に乗って血飛沫が舞う。ユエの放った風刃はフリードが身を逸らしたために肩を浅く切り裂くに留まった。咄嗟に、フリードが風刃に反応できたのは、腐っても大迷宮攻略者ということだろう。でなければ、今頃は腕一本失っているところである。ユエは、怒りを宿した瞳で自分を睨むフリードに、冷めた眼差しを返す。そして、愚かな魔物の支配者に対し豪然と告げた。「......御託はいらない。ハジメが傷ついた分、苦しんで死ね」その言葉を合図に、ユエを中心にして極寒の氷雪が吹き荒れた。一瞬で巨大な竜巻へと発展したそれは、ユエを覆い隠しながら天頂へと登る。地と天を繋ぐ白き嵐は、周囲の温度を一気に絶対零度まで引き下げ、月を覆い隠して上空を旋回していた灰竜達の尽くを凍てつかせた。竜巻を発生させる風系中級攻撃魔法〝嵐帝〟と広範囲を絶対零度に落とす氷系最上級攻撃魔法〝凍獄〟の複合魔法である。まるで、氷河期をもたらした気候変動により一瞬で凍りついたマンモスのように、その身を傷つけることなく絶命した灰竜達は、地上へと落下すると地面に激突してその身を粉々に砕けさせた。体内まで完全に凍りついていたようで、赤い血肉の結晶が大地にコロコロと跳ね返っている。「聞く耳を持たないか。......仕方あるまい。掃射せよ!」一気に二十体近くの灰竜を落とされたフリードは、ギリッと歯を食いしばりながら一斉攻撃の命令を下す。それにより、旋回していた灰竜達が一斉に散開上下、あらゆる方向から極光の乱れ撃ちを行った。夜天に奔る幾百の極光は、さながら流星雨のよう。夜の闇を切り裂き迫る閃光は、中の術者を射殺さんと、吹き荒れる絶対零度のブリザードを剣山の如く貫いた。無数の極光による衝撃で、氷雪の竜巻は宙に溶けるように霧散していく。散らされた氷雪が螺旋を描き、その中央から現れたのは、極光に貫かれ傷ついたユエの姿......ではなく、前後左右に黒く渦巻く星を従えた無傷のユエだった。間髪いれず、目視した小さな敵に再び幾百の閃光が奔る。しかし、本来なら全てを消滅させる強力無比な死の光は、ユエを守るように周囲に漂う黒い星に次々と呑み込まれ、あるいは明後日の方向に軌道を捻じ曲げられて、ただの一つも届かなかった。ユエは、重力魔法を操作して更に高度を上げる。無数の極光に晒されながら、その表情に動揺の色は皆無だ。ユエの周囲を周回する重力球〝禍天〟と全てを呑み込む〝絶禍〟は、さながら月を守る守護衛星のようだ。「ブレスが効かぬなら、直接叩くまで! 行け!」フリードの作戦変更命令に、灰竜達はタイムラグなど一切なく忠実に従う。竜の咆哮を上げながら、その鋭い爪牙で華奢な少女の肉体を引き裂かんと眼に殺意を宿して襲いかかった。波状攻撃を仕掛けるつもりなのだろう。ユエの周囲は直ぐに灰竜の群れによって灰色に埋め尽くされた。対するユエは、迫り来る竜達の殺意など微塵も気にせず、静かに瞑目していた。深く集中しているようだ。動かぬならばむしろ好都合と言わんばかりに迫った灰竜達が、その鋭い爪を伸ばし、強靭な顎門を大きく開ける。もはや逃れようのない死が到達するかと思われたまさにその時、ユエの眼がカッ! と見開らかれた。そして、その薄く可憐な唇が言葉を紡ぐ。その瞬間、世界が一斉にまるで割れた鏡のように、何もない空間に無数の一線が引かれ、その線を起点に隣り合う空間が僅かにずれているのだ。そして、その空間の亀裂に重なっていた灰竜達は、一瞬の硬直の後、ズルっという生々しい音と共に空間ごと体を切断されて血飛沫を撒き散らしながら地へと落ちていった。空間魔法〝斬羅〟。空間に亀裂を入れてずらす事で、対象を問答無用に切断する魔法である。ユエによる防御不能の切断魔法で、周囲に集まっていた灰体以上が断末魔の悲鳴を上げる事すら出来ずに絶命した。フリードは、自分でも出来ない発動速度・展開規模での空間魔法の行使に戦慄の表情を浮かべる。「なんという技量だ。......もしや、貴様も神に選ばれし者なのか! それなら、私の誘いに乗れぬのも頷ける」額に汗を流しながら得心がいったというように頷くフリードに、ユエは、「この勘違い野郎、すごく気持ち悪いんですけど......」と誰が見てもわかる嫌そうな表情を浮かべた。「......冗談。私が戦うのは何時でもハジメのため。お前如きと一緒にしないで」辛辣な言葉に、フリードは自分どころか敬愛する自身の神をも貶されたような気になり(気のせいではない)無表情となった。どうやら、フリードのタブーに触れたようだ。「よかろう。もはや、何も言うまい。貴様を殺して、あの男の前に死体を叩きつけてやろう。さすれば、多少の動揺は誘えよう。その時が、あの男の最後だ」「......よく回る口。黙って行動で示せないの? ブ男」怒りを押し殺して告げた言葉に、嘲笑を以て返されたフリードの額に青筋が浮かぶ。直後の返答はユエの言う通り、行動で示された。【グリューエン大火山】でも見た、肩に止まる小鳥型の魔物に指示を出すフリード。すると、王都の外壁を破り都に侵攻していた魔物の群れの一部が地上からユエ達の方へと押し寄せて来た。どうやら、地上からも攻撃をするつもりらしい。ユエは、灰竜達の極光を重力球の守護衛星で防ぎながら、〝雷龍〟を召喚する。天に立ち込めた暗雲から落雷の咆哮と共に黄金の龍が姿を現した。〝絶禍〟に溜め込んだ極光を迫り来るフリードと灰竜達に解き放ち牽制しながら、地上部隊を殲滅せんと雷龍を強襲させる。いつも通り、問答無用に顎門に吸い込み全てを灼き尽くす雷龍......のはずが、体ートルを超えの亀型の魔物アブソドによってその進撃を止められてしまった。大口を開けた巨大アブソドによって、正面から逆に喰われ始めているのだ。アブソドは、以前、【オルクス大迷宮】でカトレアという魔人族の女が連れていた、魔法を体内に取り込む固有魔法を持つ魔物だ。しかし、地上で雷龍を吸い込んでいるアブソドは、迷宮にいたアブソドとは大きさが違う。おそらく、改良が加えられ更に強化されたのだろう。それでも、流石の雷龍というべきか。アブソドに呑み込まれながらも、その巨体を浮かせていき、少しずつではあるがその身を灼いていく。どうやら、同時に複数属性の魔法を呑み込むことが出来ないという制限は変わっていないらしい。雷は呑み込めても重力魔法の方は呑み込めないようだ。徐々に浮かされていく体に焦ったように六足をばたつかせるアブソドだったが、その巨体が雷龍に攫われる前に、もう一体のアブソドが重力魔法を呑み込み始めた。流石に、二体の強化されたアブソドによるフルパワーでの固有魔法〝魔力貯蔵〟の行使には雷龍も耐えられず、その雷の体を取り込まれてしまった。その直後、圧縮されたそれぞれの魔法が、ユエに向けて発射される。「......鬱陶しい」地上より発射された対空砲火二条は、正確な狙いでユエを襲う。灰竜と白竜の極光を防ぐために重力球の守護衛星を全力で使っていたユエは、咄嗟に上空へ〝落ちる〟ことにより、それを回避した。「ふっ、貴様がその奇怪な雷系魔法を使うことは承知している。アブソドがいる限り、お前の魔法は封じたも同然だ」ニヤリと口元を歪めながら嗤うフリード。しかし、ユエは特に焦ることもなく、ジッとアブソドを観察すると、ほんの僅かな時間、何かを考えるように視線を宙にさまよわせ再び集中状態に入った。「また、空間を裂く気か? そんな暇は与えんぞ!」白竜と灰竜がより一層苛烈に極光を放ち、地上からは空を蹴って黒豹型の魔物が迫った。極光の嵐を何とか重力球の守護衛星で防ぐものの、ユエの意識の大半は別の魔法を構築中であり、その動きは今までに比べると精細さを欠いた。そこへ、地上から黒豹がその姿を霞ませるほどの速度で迫り、無数の触手を射出し始め、更に、極光を防ぐため動き回る重力球を掻い潜って鋭い爪を振るった。僅かな攻防の間に、ユエの体に無数の傷がつき、夜空に赤い鮮血が飛び散る。しかし、どれも浅い傷ばかりなので全く問題ない。そもそもユエの本当の防御力とは、障壁でも重力球でもない。その反則的な〝再生力〟なのだ。仲間がいれば障壁を張るし、服が破れるのは好ましくないので回避もするが、本来は相手の攻撃を無視して己の再生力に任せ、一方的に攻撃するというのがユエのスタイルなのである。血飛沫を上げたユエに、半ば勝利を確信して笑みを浮かべたフリードの表情は、目に見えて修復されていくユエの傷を見て驚愕に目を見開いた。「それも、神代の魔法か? 一体、いくつ修得しているというのだ!」全くハズレでもないのだが、ユエに関しては間違った推測を口にしながら、ならば治癒が間に合わないほどの飽和攻撃をするまでと魔物達に全力の直接攻撃を命じる。そして、フリード自身も神代魔法の詠唱を始めた。だが、当然、先に集中状態に入ったユエの方が早く魔法を発動させる。ユエの強い意志の宿った瞳が見開かれ、閃光と咆哮の轟く空間に、その可憐な声が響いた。「〝五天龍〟」直後、暗雲が立ち込め雷鳴が轟き、渦巻く風が竜巻となって吹き荒れ、集う水流が冷気を帯びて凍りつき、灰色の砂煙が大蛇雲の如く棚引いて形を成し、蒼き殲滅の炎が大気すら焦がしながら圧縮される。その結果、王都の夜天に出現したのは五体の魔龍。それぞれ、別の属性を持ち、重力魔法と複合された龍である。ゴォアァアアアア!!! 凄まじい咆哮が五体の龍から発せられ、大気をビリビリと震わせる。巨体を誇り神々しくすらある魔龍の群れに、灰竜達は、本能が己の上位者であるとでも悟ったのか、怯えたように小さく情けない鳴き声を上げた。その瞳には、既にユエに対する殺意の色はほとんどなく、代わりに戸惑いと畏怖が住み着き、主たるフリードに助けを求めるような視線を寄せていた。フリードもまた、非常識極まりない魔法の行使に白竜の上でポカンと口を開くという醜態を晒していた。その隙を逃さず、ユエは五天龍を地上へと強襲させる。雷龍が、最初に己を呑み込んだアブソドに突撃し、アブソドも再び喰らい尽くしてやろうと大口を開ける。僅かばかり取り込まれる雷龍だったが、先程とは異なり、雷龍の後ろから飛び出した蒼龍が、その業火を以て相対するアブソドを融解させていった。「クァアアアアアアアアン!!」生きたまま甲羅から溶かされていく苦痛に、堪らず苦痛の声を上げて固有魔法を解いてしまったアブソドを放置して、雷龍は、次の標的を狙う。それは、嵐龍を呑み込もうとしている別のアブソドだ。神鳴る音を響かせながら雷龍の顎門がアブソドに喰らいつき、その灼熱によって身の端から灰に変えていった。また、少し離れたところでは、氷龍がアブソドを凍てつかせ、石龍が周囲一帯を根こそぎ巻き込んで石化させていく。雷龍により解放された嵐龍は、身の内に蓄えた風の刃でアブソド以外の黒豹などの魔物共も一緒くたに切り刻んでいった。流石に、五天龍の行使はキツかったのか、額に大量の汗を浮かべて肩で息をするユエ。早々にアブソドを片付けると、今度は上空の灰竜達に矛先を変えた。強力無比な竜の群れを従えるフリードに、同じく龍をもって挑むユエ。なすすべなく五天龍の餌食となっていく灰竜達の姿が、そのままフリードとユエの格の違いをあらわしているようだった。フリードは、ここに来てようやく悟る。自分がとんでもない化け物を相手にしてしまったことを。あの【グリューエン大火山】で自分に痛手を負わせた少年だけでなく、眼前の少女もまた、決死の覚悟で戦わねばならない相手だったのだと。戦う前に言った、自分の下に付けてやろうなどという傲慢な言葉を今更ながらに恥じた。故に、これより放つ魔法は、文字通りフリードの全力だ。「――――揺れる揺れる世界の理巨人の鉄槌竜王の咆哮万軍の足踏いずれも世界を満たさない鳴動を喚び悲鳴を齎すはただ神の溜息! それは神の嘆き! 汝絶望と共に砕かれよ! 〝震天〟!」周囲一帯の空間が激しく鳴動する。低く腹の底に響く音は、まるで世界が上げる悲鳴のようだ。ユエ自身、知識にあるその魔法に「むっ!」と警戒心を強め、すぐさま防御態勢を整えた。放たれる魔法は範囲が広すぎて回避は既に不可能なのだ。そして、並みの防御では、この魔法には一瞬も耐えられない。ユエは、五天龍と重力球の守護衛星を解除すると、即行で空間魔法を構築する。他の魔法にリソースを割いている余裕がないからだ。ユエが、驚異的な速度で空間魔法を発動したのと、一瞬収縮した空間が大爆発を起こしたのは同時だった。空間そのものが破裂する。そうとしか言いようのない凄絶な衝撃が、生き残りの灰竜や地上の魔物すら一瞬で粉微塵に砕いて、大地を抉り飛ばし、天空のまだら雲すら吹き飛ばした。空間魔法〝震天〟。空間を無理やり圧縮して、それを解放することで凄まじい衝撃を発生させる魔法である。「......んっ、流石......神代魔法」しかし、その衝撃の中心にいながらユエはしっかり生き残っていた。服が所々破けていたり、内臓を少しやられたのか口の端から血を流していたりしているが、空間そのものが砕け散ったかのような衝撃の中にいたにしては軽すぎるダメージだ。その軽傷も、一拍後には完全に再生されてしまった。本来なら、文字通り跡形もなく消し飛ぶほどの威力があったのだが...... その理由は、ユエが、〝震天〟が効果を発揮する直前に空間魔法〝縛羅〟を発動したことにある。これは、空間を固定する魔法だ。使い方によって、防御にも捕縛にも使える便利な魔法である。もっとも、例に漏れず消費コストは白目を剥きたくなるレベルだが。即行での展開だったので完全には空間を固定しきれず、ダメージを負ってしまったユエだが、〝自動再生〟による肉体の修復の他、再生魔法により衣服も修復したので、見た目、中身共に無傷である。周囲の全てが破壊された中、その中心で何事もなかったように佇み月光を浴びる姿は、その呆れるほどの強さと相まって神々しくすらあった。だが、そんなユエの強さを疑わない者が一人。ユエの死角から強襲する。「耐え切るとわかっていたぞ! 少女の姿をした化け物よ!」ユエの背後に開いたゲートを通り、極光を放ちながら白竜に騎乗したフリードが出現する。咄嗟に右側に〝落ちる〟ことで極光を回避するユエだったが、交差する一瞬で襲いかかった白竜の顎門までは回避しきれず、肩まで一気に喰らいつかれてしまった。ブシュ! という音と共に傷口から血が噴き出す。白竜は、ユエの片腕を噛み切らず、その鋭い牙を柔肌に喰い込ませたまま、ゼロ距離から極光を放とうとしているようだ。ったと勝利を確信し歓喜で満ちた眼差しをユエに向ける。しかし、ユエの表情を見た瞬間、フリードの背筋を言い知れぬ怖気が駆け巡り、その眼差しに宿す色は歓喜から恐怖に変わった。なぜなら、ユエの口元が、まるで三日月のようにパックリと裂けて笑みを浮かべていたからだ。薄い桃色の唇がやけに目に付く。その笑みには、先ほどの神々しさなど皆無。ユエを照らす月明かりは、その荘厳さを示すものではなく魔性を表すものへと変わった。夜風に吹かれ攫われた美しい金の髪の隙間から煌々と光る紅の瞳が物語る。すなわち ――私に触れたな? ユエの口から静かに神代魔法の詠唱が紡がれた。「〝壊刻〟」直後、魔性の月光が降り注ぐ夜空に、一人と一匹の絶叫が響き渡った。「ぐぅああああっ!!」クゥルァアアアン!! 白竜が身悶えした衝撃で、今度こそ腕を噛みちぎられたユエは、しかし、特に気にした様子もなく重力を操って天空へ上がった。そして、一拍おいて何事もなかったかのように再生された腕の様子を確かめると、全身から血を噴き出して悶えているフリードと白竜を睥睨した。「......どう? ハジメから受けた傷は。痛い?」「ぐぅうう! 貴様ぁ、これは......」無表情を崩し艶然として月を背負うユエに対し、フリードは壮絶な痛みに歯を食いしばって耐えながら、鋭い眼光を返した。フリードと白竜の状態は酷いものだった。白竜は、胸元に大きく抉れ焼き爛れたような傷を抱え、更に全身から血を流しており、今にも墜落しそうな有様である。フリードに至っては、胸にある一文字の切創からダラダラと血を流し、砕けた左腕をダランと下げ、内臓が傷ついているのか激しく吐血している。その他にも全身に大小様々な傷が付いており、まさに満身創痍といった有様だった。それらの全ては、かつて【グリューエン大火山】で相対した時に、ハジメ達によって付けられた傷である。再生魔法〝壊刻〟――対象が過去に負った傷や損壊を再生する魔法だ。直接・間接を問わないが、半径三メートル以内でどこかに触れていなければならず、再生できる傷は、魔力に比例するという制限がある。ユエは、出来ることなら、この魔法でフリード達を追い詰めたいと思っていた。この戦いは、あくまでユエの個人的な仕返しなのだ。【グリューエン大火山】では、愛おしい恋人を傷つけられ怒り心頭であったのに、仕返しの一つも出来ず逃げられてしまった。あの時から「......次にあったら絶対ボコる」と誓っていたのだ。そして、再生魔法を【メルジーネ海底遺跡】で手に入れた時に、殺るなら絶対、【グリューエン大火山】での一戦を思い出せるように、この〝壊刻〟を使ってやろうと思っていたのである。ユエの中の〝ヤン〟な部分が囁いたのだから仕方ない。しかし、ユエは接近戦が苦手だ。高速で飛べる白竜に乗ったフリードに追いついて、触れて、魔法を発動できるかは微妙だった。なので、適当にダメージを与えて墜としてから使ってやろうと思っていたのだが......わざわざフリード達の方から自分に触れてくれたのだ。思わず、笑みが浮かんでしまったのも仕方ない事だろう。ハジメの敵に、心が〝ヤンヤン〟してしまうのは止められないのだ。「......今の私では......勝利を得られないということか。......かくなる上はっ」「......させない」王手をかけられたと察したフリードが歯噛みし、ユエが止めを刺そうと片手を向けたその時、ユエに向けて地上から怒涛の攻撃魔法が放たれた。「フリード様! 一度お引き下さい!」「我らが時間を稼ぎます!」それは、王都侵攻に出ていた地上部隊の魔人族達だった。フリードの窮地を察して救援に来たらしい。「お前たち! ......くっ、すまん!」救援に来た魔人族達は、満身創痍のフリードと白竜を見て瞳に憤怒を宿し、防御など考えない特攻を敢行した。当然、ただの意気込みだけでユエを殺れるわけがない。しかし、フリードがゲートを開く時間だけはギリギリ稼げたようだ。ユエの放った炎槍がフリードと白竜に突き刺さる寸前、フリード達はゲートに飛び込み姿を消してしまった。「......邪魔」まんまとフリードに逃げられてしまったユエは、未だ、「よくもフリード様を!」等と喚きながら攻撃を繰り返す魔人族達を冷たく見下ろすと、先程フリードが放った空間魔法〝震天〟を発動し周囲一帯を纏めて爆砕した。八つ当たり気味に一瞬で殲滅を完了したユエだったが、その表情には、少しの苛立ちが見て取れる。鬱憤は晴れなかったらしい。ユエが、何とか気持ちを落ち着けようと深呼吸をしていると、戦場には似つかわしくない明るい声が響き渡った。「ユエさ~ん! まだ、あの野郎、生きてますかぁ? 生きてたら一発殴らせ......うわぁ~何ですか、ここ? 天変地異でもあったんですか?」ウサミミをなびかせて、空に浮く円盤を足場に跳躍してきたシアが、呆れたような声音で周囲を見渡しながら尋ねた。「......逃げられた」不機嫌そうなその一言で大体の事情を察したシアは、フリードの意外なしぶとさに内心驚きつつ、苦笑いしながらユエを宥める。そして、失った魔力を補充しながらしばらく情報交換していると、王宮の一角で爆発が起き、次いで、遥か天空より降り注いだ巨大な光の柱が、外壁の外で待機していた数万からなる魔物の大軍を根こそぎ消滅させるという有り得ない光景を見て、お互い顔を見合わせた。「「......ハジメ(さん)」」二人の答えはばっちり同じらしい。「......取り敢えず王宮に行きますか」「......ん」ユエとシアはハモリながら非常識の犯人はハジメであると断定し、消し飛んだ魔物と巨大なクレーターを一瞥して呆れたような笑みを浮かべると、二人一緒に、ハジメがいるであろう王宮に向かうのだった。	The shining moon became invisible behind the crowd of ash dragons. There’s likely over figures that could be seen. And at the center of it all is the white dragon, the appearance of Freed Bagua could be seen riding it’s back. “Don’t think less of us. Dividing up the enemy forces is a standard technique in battles” Shia and Mikhail had just disappeared into the transfer gate “Field Pierce” made through space magic. Then Freed ordered the black eagle force to pursue them, as they passed by they glared and trash talked Yue who was stationary. Although there wasn’t any signs of wind magic being used at all, to the appearance that floats in the skies just like the moon that floats in the nocturnal sky, a smile appeared even when their reactions were heard, Yue is only quietly staring at Freed expressionlessly. Freed is a proud Majinzoku, rather than looking at others equally, they’re looked down upon. He is a pious believer in their Majinzoku God whom they worship, he’s the type of man that would not accept any other way of life or values. Hence, it was impossible that he would have an interest in a woman from another race. However, that Freed is now, while the ash dragons and his subordinates were still blocking the true moon, to the girl with a pretty face that shines just like the moon, felt charmed with the thoughts “It would be regrettable if such a gem were killed”. With those thoughts, although he understands it’s necessary to kill Hajime, and though he holds hatred because his brethren were killed, still, foolish words came out of his mouth. “How regrettable. .....Woman, as a spellcaster, no matter how much I want the ability to cast magic without chants, though this may be reckless in this situation. How about it? Will you join me? We won’t treat you badly just because you’re a woman” Towards Freed’s invitation, Yue’s reply was.... “.....Fu~, come back after being reborn. Ugly man” It was indescribably severe, a reply of severe sarcasm mixed with ridicule was returned. By the way, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration that Freed’s figure if evaluated by ten people, every one of them would agree that he was a good-looking man. Combined with his vast powers, he was extremely popular to the Majinzoku women. Therefore, he’s not an ugly man at all. However, Yue saw Freed’s desolate expression at the [Mountain of Great Flames] when he talked about his god, in her memory it was awful and sickening. Such a man, invited her with a clarified face. The only thing seen was already just a sickening foolish man. To begin with, she doesn’t feel anything for any other man but Hajime, so it was nothing but foolish talk to begin with. When Yue’s response was heard, Freed’s eyes twitched and cramped up. “Have you chosen your path as a martyr? Or, because of your loyalty to this country? Discard your teachings, do not simply follow a country in blind faith, do you plan on sacrificing your life for those kinds of things? That is the highest reaches of stupidity. Once you know of our god, “Aruvu-sama’s” teachings. Then, you’ll be purified after just closing your eyes just once!?” To Freed who began blabbering on about unrelated topics, Yue simply answered by rapidly firing out Wind Blades. It was merely because she couldn’t endure hearing him babble on any longer. A spray of blood dances on the evening winds. Because Freed managed to dodge his body, the Wind Blades that Yue shot out only managed to cut his shoulder shallowly. Immediately, Freed was able to react to the Wind Blades, he was definitely one of the few great people who conquered a labyrinth. If not, he would have lost an arm immediately. To Freed who was glaring at her with anger, Yue only returned it with a cool gaze. Then, she announced to the foolish looking demon leader. “......Your question is unnecessary. The moment you hurt Hajime, you were already sentenced to death in agony” As if the words were a signal, extremely cold ice and snow blew around Yue. It instantly turned into a huge tornado, it climbed up towards the heavens as it surrounded Yue. A white storm which connected the heavens to the ground, the surrounding temperature is quickly reduced to absolute zero, the ash dragons which were blocking the moon were completely frozen. This was a compound magic of ice at a superlative degree in the system attack magic “Frozen Prison” along with the intermediate wind system attack magic “Storm Emperor” which created a wide range tornado at absolute zero temperatures. Almost like a mammoth being frozen instantaneously due to the climate change that brought upon the glacial epoch, the ash dragons all died without damage to their exterior, they fell and crashed onto the ground, breaking their bodies into pieces. It appears that their insides were completely frozen as red crystals of blood bounced around on the earth. “Did you not hear me. ......Guess there’s no helping it. Shoot her down!” Freed who lost nearly ash dragons instantly, ordered the attack while gritting his teeth. As a result, the ash dragons all deploy together from all directions, top and bottom, they shot out aurora’s disorderly from every direction. As if they were meteor showers, over aurora’s were shot out in the night sky. The dark night was torn up by the flash of lights, as if the spellcaster in the center was committing suicide, an absolute zero blizzard blew out and raged like a flower pinholder. From the impact of the countless auroras, the tornado of ice and snow dispersed as if melting in the air. The scattered ice and snow created a spiral, what appeared from the center was the appearance of Yue who was wounded from the powerful blast....actually no, it was an unhurt Yue accompanied by the black swirling star which circled around her. Without wasting a second, over 100 aurora’s were once again seen after they confirmed the small enemy was still there. However, the matchless lights of death which would normally eliminate everything, one after another is swallowed into the black star that was tossed around by Yue, or bent and reflected outwards towards the horizon, none of them reached her at all. Yue used gravity magic to further increase her altitude. While being exposed to countless auroras, there is no unrest in her expression at all. “Exceeding Curse” was used to swallow up everything and “Cursed Sky” was used to move the ball of extreme gravity, as if it were a protection satellite orbiting and defending the moon. “The breaths are ineffective, directly swat her down! Go!” To Freed’s change of strategy, the ash dragons didn’t lag behind at all and followed the orders obediently. While releasing the roar of a dragon, murderous intent was shown in its eyes from wanting to tear up the slender girl with its sharp claws and teeth. They intended to attack in waves. Yue’s environment was immediately buried under the gray crowd of ash dragons. Yue who was being confronted didn’t worry at all at the incoming ash dragon’s murderous intent, she calmly closed her eyes. While deeply concentrating. It could be said that it was convenient for the ash dragons that she wasn’t moving, their claws expand, and their strong jaws spread open. At the moment where they thought that it would be impossible to escape death, while facing them, Yue’s eyes opened up! And then, her lovely thin lips voiced out. At that moment, their world shifted in unison (. . .). Like a mirror which had cracked, countless lines are drawn out in the open space, the lines were purposely made adjacent to the starting point. And then, the ash dragons which were coming in succession into the cracked space, after stiffening for an instant, fell to the ground while hearing the sound of their scattering and spraying blood from their cut body parts that came into contact with the broken space. Space magic “Beheading Threads”. Through cracking space and moving it, it’s a no brainer that it’s a magic that will cut apart any object. By Yue’s unseeable cutting magic, more than 30 ash dragons died without being able to do anything but scream out their last moments. Freed’s expression trembles from the activation of space magic, motion speed, and development scale that were far from what he could do. “What great ability. ....By chance, are you one of the people chosen by God! If that’s so, then your rejection of my proposal is understandable” Freed sweats a good amount while nodding in consent, Yue, “This misunderstanding imbecile, it’s extremely sickening though....”, anyone could understand that she had an unpleasant expression. “......What a joke. Whenever I fight, it’s always for Hajime’s sake. Don’t place me in the same group as you” Towards the harsh words, Freed whose personality holds the gods in high esteem, love and respect, (he couldn’t imagine it) and became expressionless. It appears that mentioning that was taboo for Freed. “Rejoice. I won’t be saying anymore than this. We’ll kill you and I will throw your corpse in front of that man. If I step on it, it may provoke some unrest. At that time, it would be that man’s end” “....That mouth sure runs a lot. Can’t you just show it through your actions while being silent? Ugly man” Towards the words that subdued his angry rant, multiple veins showed on Freed as he was ridiculed. Just as Yue had said, he decided to show it with actions. But it was already seen at [Mountain of Great Flames], Freed issued instructions to a small bird-type demon that rode on his shoulder. Then, a part of the crowds of demons that had invaded and broke the outer wall of the Kingdom’s capital, surged towards Yue from the ground. It appears that they intend to attack from the ground. Yue, while protecting herself from the ash dragon’s auroras with her gravity ball, summoned the “Thunder Dragon”. The golden dragon appeared from the dark clouds in the sky and let out a roar of lightning. It approached as the auroras from the ash dragons and Freed were being restrained by “Exceeding Curse”, the thunder dragon was then sent to wipe out the ground troops. As usual, it was a no brainer that the thunder dragon’s mouth sucked in everything.....was what was supposed to happen, but the advance was stopped by 6 pairs of turtle-typed demon Abusodo Abusodo was also seen before with the Majinzoku woman named Cattleya at [Orcus Great Labyrinth], it’s a demon whose inherent magic is able to take in other magic into its body. However, the Abusodo that was consuming the thunder dragon on the ground was a different size from the Abusodo seen in the labyrinth. Most likely, it was improved and strengthened. Still, as expected of the thunder dragon. Though it’s being swallowed by the Abusodo, with its large body, though slowly, it’s surely lifting it up. It appears that the limitation of only being able to swallow one type of magic hasn’t been changed yet. Even if the thunder is being swallowed, it cannot swallow the gravity magic. The 6 Abusodos were gradually floating and they flailed around hastily, before their big bodies were carried off by the thunder dragon, another Abusodo began to swallow the gravity magic. As expected, the thunder dragon couldn’t endured the 2 strengthened Abusodo’s with their inherent magic “Magic Storing”, the body of the thunder dragon was consumed. Immediately after that, the compressed magic was launched at Yue. “.....Annoying” Just like an anti-aircraft homing missile was launched from the ground, it accurately attacked Yue. Yue who was using the gravity ball to the best of her abilities to block the ash dragons and white dragon’s auroras, immediately evaded by “falling” from the sky. “Fu~, I understood that you used strange thunder system magic. As long as Abusodo is here, your magic will be sealed off” Freed laughs while grinning. However, Yue isn’t particularly worried, only quietly observing the Abusodos, only after a short time, her eyes wandered in the sky while thinking something and then concentrated on them again. “Are you trying to tear space again? I won’t be giving you that kind of time!” The white dragon and ash dragons further increased the severity of their attacks, a black panther typed demon approached by kicking off the ground and into the sky. Although the storm of aurora’s was blocked by the gravity ball, most of Yue’s consciousness was used to construct another magic, her movements were lacking compared to before. There, the appearance of the black panther approached quickly from the ground, it began releasing countless tentacles Between offense and defense, countless wounds appear on Yue’s body, red blood splashes in the night sky. However, because it was only a flesh wound, it wasn’t much of a problem. To begin with what is Yue’s true defensive powers, certainly not barriers nor gravity balls. It was the cheating “Regeneration Power”. A barrier would be placed if there was a companion, or evaded if the attack will cause clothes to tear because it would be a nuisance, originally she would just disregard the other parties attacks and leave it up to her regeneration powers, Yue’s true battle style was simply, one-sidedly attacking. To Yue who was spraying blood, Freed’s expression was that of one who was convinced of their victory, when Yue’s wound was automatically restored, his eyes could only open widely in astonishment. “Is that also an Age of God’s magic? Just exactly how many have you acquired!” Although he wasn’t completely wrong, while voicing out his misunderstanding to Yue, he gave out orders for all demons to continue attacking until they beat her recovery rate. And then, Freed also started chanting an Age of God’s magic. However, naturally, Yue was already concentrating on her magic previously. Yue’s eyes opened up and showed strength, in the space of the thundering roars and flashes, her lovely voice resounded. “[Five Heavenly Dragons]” Immediately afterwards, dark clouds appear and the thunder roared, the swirling wind turns into a storm and blew harshly, the water currents produced were frozen into ice, a gray cloud of sand took shape like a big snake, and flames strong enough to burn up the atmosphere were condensed. As a result, the appearance of 5 demonic dragons were seen in the night sky of the Kingdom’s capital. Although they were dragons created from gravity magic, they all had their own respective attributes. Gooaaaaaa~!!! The 5 dragons roared out greatly enough to make the atmosphere tremble. The group of gigantic demonic dragons looked divine, the ash dragons probably realized on instinct that they were greatly outmatched and leaked out a small miserable cry in their fright. In their eyes, there’s already little to no murderous intent towards Yue, instead fear and shock settled in its place, their eyes glanced over to their master Freed, demanding for help. Freed once again exposed his disgraceful behavior of having his jaw drop down from the magic that lacked common sense while riding the white dragon. That chance wasn’t missed, Yue sent the 5 heavenly dragons to assault the ground troops. The thunder dragon charged at Abusodo and swallowed it first, Abusodo put up a fight and opened its large mouth as well. Although the thunder dragon was slightly consumed, it was different from a while ago, the blue “Kuaaaaaan~!!” The pain generated from its shell melting down while still alive caused Abusodo to cry out painfully as its inherent magic was completely bested, the thunder dragon then aimed at another target. It was, another Abusodo that was swallowed by the storm dragon. While letting out a godly roar, it bit into the other dragon where Abusodo was, the edge of its body transformed into ash from being scorched. Again at a nearby place, the ice dragon is freezing Abusodo and the stone dragon rolled up and caused all surrounding areas to petrify. The storm dragon which was freed by the thunder dragon, advanced onwards and cut the demons such as the black panthers besides Abusodo into pieces. As expected, using the 5 heavenly dragons was harsh, Yue was panting and her forehead was drenched in sweat. After quickly disposing of the Abusodos, her next target was the ash dragons in the sky. Freed’s group of matchless dragons were similarly challenged by Yue and her dragons. Without a doubt the figures of the ash dragons becoming food to the 5 heavenly dragons could be seen, this seemed to just show the difference in ability between Yue and Freed. Freed finally realized after coming this far. The shape of a terrible monster which would normally be avoided. It was not just the boy who took heavy damage from the surprise attack at [Mountain of Great Flames], but also the girl in front of his eyes, she was without a doubt someone that he had to risk his life against when fighting. Therefore, this next magic attack is literally with all of Freed’s energy put into it. “——————World which is always swaying, giant’s iron hammer, roar of the dragons, Army of trampling legs, both worlds are never met, hearing rumbles, bringing screams, It’s God’s sigh! It’s God’s grief! Thou, be crushed with despair! [Trembling Heaven]!” The surrounding space rumbles intensely. Sounding lower than a hungry bellies groan, as if the world itself was screaming. Yue’s thoughts, “Mu~!” her cautiousness intensifies as she has knowledge of this magic, a defensive system was immediately thought up. The range of the blast magic was far too wide to evade in time. And all average defenses would be completely broken in an instant. After canceling the 5 heavenly dragons and the gravity ball, she immediately constructed space magic. This is because she has no room to spare resources on other magics. Yue with the quick use of space magic and simultaneously, the space shrunk momentarily and caused a great explosion. Space itself exploded. Without a doubt, it was had great force, even the leftover ground troops and ash dragons were obliterated in an instant, it gouged out the earth and even blew away all clouds within the area. Space magic [Trembling Heaven]. Space is forcefully compressed, it’s a magic that generates an extremely powerful impact from letting loose the compressed space. “.....N~, as expected....of Age of God’s magic” However, Yue had survived even though she was at the center of the impact. Her clothes were torn in some places, blood dripped from her mouth, some of her internal organs were probably damaged, however it was all too light compared to the impact that went off. Normally, it had enough power to completely wipe out everything without a trace...... ] before [Trembling Heaven] activated. This was a magic that restores space. In use, it was an convenient magic that could be used for defense and restraining. More so, it’s magic consumption wasn’t at the point of wanting to tear out the whites of ones own eyes out. The space wasn’t completely restored because it was instantaneously created, though Yue took some damage, other than physical restoration from “Automatic Reproduction”, her clothes were also restored through reproduction magic, her appearance in both the inside and outside were flawless. At the center of where everything in the surroundings were destroyed, a figure was seen bathing in the moonlight as if nothing had happened at all, it was an amazing combination of divineness and strength. However, there was one person who didn’t doubt Yue’s strength. He assaulted Yue from a blind spot. “I knew you would withstand it! Monster disguised as a girl!” Passing through the gate behind Yue, Freed who rode on the white dragon appeared while shooting out an aurora. Though Yue evaded the aurora by immediately “falling”, she could not dodge the white dragon’s opened mouth as they intersected, it tried to devour her arm from the shoulder down in one go. Bushu~! blood gushes out from the wound. The white dragon was unable to completely tear off Yue’s arm, when its sharp fangs sank down onto her soft skin, it tried to shoot out an aurora at point blank. It seemed to be improvised as Freed continuously shot out great magics, this time he was once again convinced of his victory, he turned to look at Yue in delight. However, the moment he saw Yue’s expression, an unspeakable chill ran through Freed’s spine, his eyes full of delight turned into fear. Because, on Yue’s lips was a smile in the shape of a perfect crescent moon. Her thin pink lips easily stood out. The smile no longer showed the divineness that was shown awhile ago. The moonlight which shined on Yue, changed into one not of solemnity, but one of devilishness. Through the night wind, deep red eyes shining brightly between the gaps of her beautiful gold hair could be seen. In other words ——-You touched me? The chant of the Age of God’s magic was quietly voiced from Yue’s mouth. “[Destruction Engraving] Immediately afterwards, in the night sky where the devilish moonlight pours down, the scream of two were simultaneously heard. “Guuaaaaa~!!” Kuuruaaan~!! The white dragon writhed from the impact, this time Yue’s arm was completely torn off, However, she didn’t have an anxious expression and manipulated gravity magic to go up into the sky. And, in an instant, the appearance of the missing arm returned, she then glared at Freed and the white dragon that was in agony while gushing blood from their whole bodies. “......How is it? The same wounds that Hajime received. Does it hurt?” “Guuu~! Damn you, this.....” To Yue who was expressionless and shouldering the moon on her back, Freed grit his teeth in fierce pain and glared sharply back. Freed and the white dragon’s states were severe. The white dragon suffered a hollowed chest through combustion, in addition it was bleeding throughout its entire body, it seemed that it would crash at any moment. As for Freed, he was bleeding slowly from an incision wound on his chest, his left arm was broken and lowered lifelessly, and he was coughing out blood intensely as his internal organs were damaged. In addition there were big and small wounds throughout his whole body. All of the wounds were the same as the time where Hajime was injured at [Mountain of Great Flames]. Reproduction magic “Destruction Engraving”——–a magic that reproduces the wounds and destruction that an object once received in the past. Although not direct nor indirect, if it’s not touched within a radius of less than 3 meters it wouldn’t work, the wounds that can be reproduced is proportional to the magic power being used. Yue if possible, wanted to corner Freed with this magic. This fight was personal revenge from Yue to the end. At the [Mountain of Great Flames], her lover was greatly injured and anger took root in her heart, unable to escape unless revenge was carried out. Since then, “......The next time we meet, I’ll definitely beat the hell out of him”, she promised. Undersea Ruins], while remembering the events at [Mountain of Great Flames], now that she could, she intended to use “Destruction Engraving” on him. Yue’s “Yan However, Yue was weak in close combat. it would be futile as she wouldn’t be able to activate the magic in time before Freed and his white dragon which flew away at high speeds before they could touch. Therefore, she thought she’d have to substantially damage the enemy before she could use it but.....Freed and them purposely touched her instead. There was no helping it that she unintentionally leaked out a smile. To Hajime’s enemies, her mind cannot stop the “Yan Yan”. “......The me right now.....does it mean I wasn’t chosen to be the victor this day. .......I was unprepared “......I wouldn’t let you” Freed guessed that it was checkmate and grits his teeth, at the time when Yue was about to deal the finishing blow, waves of attack magic that shot from the ground were aimed at Yue. “Freed-sama! Please pull out at once!” “We will buy time!” They were the ground troops that had gone to invade the Kingdom’s capital. They seemed to have guessed that Freed was in a predicament and came to rescue him. “You guys! ....Ku, sorry!” The Majinzoku’s that came to the rescue, after seeing Freed and the white dragon covered in wounds, their eyes borne hatred, they carried out suicide attacks without thinking about defending at all. Naturally, there’s no way they could kill Yue with just enthusiasm. However, it seems that the very limited time earned was enough for Freed to open a gate. Immediately before the flame spear that Yue shot could pierce Freed and his white dragon, they both jumped into the gate and disappeared. “.....Obstructed” Yue after Freed successfully ran away, still, “You dare do that to Freed-sama!”, coldly looked down at the Majinzoku who attacked repeatedly while yelling the same thing, the space magic “Trembling Heaven” that Freed used awhile ago was used once again. Although Yue completely annihilated their snarling feelings in an instant, you could see some irritation on her expression. Her pent-up anger wasn’t cleared. While Yue was taking deep breaths to calm herself, an unbecoming bright voice resounded on the battlefield. “Yue-sa~n! Is that guy still alive? If he’s alive, let me hit him once......uwa~a what happened here? Was there a natural disaster?” waved as she jumped to the floating disk and asked while looking at the surroundings with an amazed voice. “.....Fled” Shia understood roughly what went on from that single phrase, while being slightly surprised at Freed’s unexpected tenacity, she soothed Yue with a wry smile. And while waiting to replenish their magical powers, they exchanged their information, then an explosion occurred in the corner of the royal palace, following that, a huge pillar of light poured down from the sky, an impossible scene of the large army of demons consisting of tens of thousands that were outside of the outer walls were completely obliterated, then they looked at one another. “”......Hajime (San)”” The two answered at the exact same time. “......For the time being, should we go to the royal palace?” “......N” Shia and Yue concluded that the perpetrator of the lack of commonsense was Hajime, they smiled as they glanced at the huge crater where the demons had vanished, together, the two went to the royal palace where Hajime would be.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 0, "inserted_lines_src": 2, "inserted_lines_trg": 12 }
街角の向こうに消えたマテウスを追って、コルティナは路地裏へと駆け込んだ。「待ちなさい!」しかしそれでも宿の少年を人質に取られている以上、追わないわけには行かない。英雄としての矜持が、なによりレイドに恥じるような行為ができるわけがない。誘導されるままに街路、二つと曲がり、やがて完全に大通りから離れてしまう。「やあ、英雄さん。元気そうで何より?」「そういうあなたは、マテウスって男で間違いないかしら?」「その通り。実に察しが良いね?」微妙に語尾を上げる奇妙な話し方が、コルティナの神経を逆なでる。「あの子はどこ?」「んー、一緒に来てくれればお話してもいいんだけどねぇ?」「私は下手なナンパに付き合う気分じゃないんだけど」護身用の杖を突き出し、戦闘の体勢を取るコルティナ。補助具でもあり、杖術にも使える頑丈な愛用の杖だ。「はいはい。実は誘拐なんてしてませんよ? こいつはあの子が買い食いして汚したエプロンを買い取っただけでね?」「アンタ、駄賃をあの子にやっただろ。それで揚げ芋を買い食いしてたんだ。この赤いのはケチャップの跡。今頃はウチの若いのの足止めを食らって、公園で一服してる頃じゃないかな?」「......うまく誘い出されたってわけね」「いや、うまく囲いに入ったと言うべきかな?」薄汚れた服に、使い込まれた皮鎧。右腰には片手剣。一見すると少しくたびれた感じの冒険者。比較的軽めの武装は、街中で見かけても不自然ではない。「準備万端ってわけ? だけどこっちも、それなりの覚悟があってきてるのよ」「へぇ? でもまあ、準備万端ってのは、その通り。俺は旦那を追って来る連中を追い払うのが仕事でね。アンタたちがあの魔法陣を見て追ってくるのは想定内。それにアンタの覚悟程度で俺が負けるとは思えないんだけど?」「魔法陣はわざと残したっていうの? 追われるのが嫌なら消しておけばいいのに」「おや、技量差の方は無視かい? まあ、逃げるだけじゃ、延々とコソコソ隠れる羽目になるじゃない。俺は面倒な仕事は嫌なんだよ?」じりじりと間合いを詰めてくる後ろの二人。民家に囲まれたこの裏路地は、他に道はない。「アンタを押さえれば雄も統率を失う。そしてあんたは中でも一番手を出しやすい。だろ?」確かにコルティナは六英雄の中では最も弱く、こうして命を狙われた事も何度かある。「それに、あの子が無事なら、無粋な男と付き合う必要もないわね」「無粋とは言ってくれるねぇ。荒事は面倒だから、降伏してくれるとありがたいんだが。っていうか、結構お話に付き合ってくれてるよね?」「降伏、か。ありがたいお誘いね......でも残念。レイド風に言うなら、返事は『断固として断る』よ!」かつての仲間の言葉を借り、コルティナは一気に冷静に迎え撃つべく、剣を抜き、構える。しかしコルティナは、その二人の直前で杖を地面に突き立て、宙へと舞い上がった。だが、しょせん二メートルにも満たない杖では、あまり高度は稼げない。そこで狭い街路の壁を一蹴りして、さらに高度を稼ぎ、男たちの頭上を飛び越えた。「なにっ!?」予想を超えた機動を行ったコルティナに、驚愕の声を上げる二人。そして勢いのままに起き上って、そのまま逃走へと移った。「何やってんの、お前ら?」「す、すみません!」呆れたマテウスの声に、謝罪を返す二人。しかし棒立ちになっていたわけでなく、すぐさまコルティナの追走に移っている。驚愕からとっさに追撃の行動に移れる所を見ると、それなりに場数は踏んでいるのだろう。対するコルティナも、身体能力に優れた猫人族である。機先を制した逃走劇では負ける気はしない。元来た道を一息に駆け戻り、大通りに出れば派手な真似はできない。そう計算して角を曲がったところで、足を止めた。木箱は結構な量がばらまかれており、乗り越えるのはさすがに骨が折れる。かと言って、これをどけて突破するのはさらに時間がかかる。どっちの手段も、逃げる側にとっては致命的だ。先ほどのように棒高跳びの要領で飛び越えることは可能だろうが、そのための杖は、男たちを飛び越えた時に投げ捨てていた。乗り越えるにしても、どけるにしても時間がかかり過ぎる。「待て、こら!」「手間かけさせやがって!」対するコルティナは完全に無手。抵抗する術は無い――かと思われた。しかし彼女は、非武装と思って無防備に近付いてきた男に向かって、木箱を拾い上げて、叩き付けた。「うわっ!?」武器が無いと思って油断していた男は、その攻撃を避けることができない。コルティナはその男の首筋に握り拳の小指側を叩き付けた。いわゆる鉄槌と呼ばれる打法である。力に劣る、女性のコルティナでも男を昏倒させることができるほど、危険な当て身だ。それを急所である首筋に受けては、ひとたまりもない。一瞬で意識を失い、ゆっくりと崩れ落ちる男。突然の反撃に一歩出遅れたもう一人の男が、ここでようやくコルティナに斬りかかる。斬りかかった男はその行為に剣を止めようとしたが、勢いを殺しきれず、したたかに仲間を打ち据えてしまった。砕けた木板は先が尖っており、そのまま手槍の代わりに使える。倒れたまま、コルティナは腕を大きく振り、その破片を男の足首に突き立てた。これが街の外だったのなら、そのため普通の革靴のままだった男は、その一撃で足の甲を大きく傷つけられた。「ぐぎゃあ!」足の甲の骨は、実は細い。そして筋肉も付きにくい。木の破片であっても充分に砕くことが可能だ。その激痛に男はもんどりうって地に倒れる。二人を無力化したところで、コルティナは男の下から這い出した。そこへゆっくりと歩み寄る、最後の男――マテウスがついに追い付いてきたのだった。	Following Mateus who disappeared behind the street corner, Cortina rushed into the back alley. At the same time, she saw a silhouette ahead turning a corner and heading deeper into the alley. It was obvious who it was based on his characteristic long arms and twin swords hanging from his waist. “Hold it!” Cortina was well aware of the dangers of pursuing a skilled assassin on her own. Still, as she had gotten the staff member involved in this, she had no other choice but to pursue him. Her pride as a Hero didn’t allow that, and more importantly, she did not want to do anything that she would feel ashamed of in front of Reid. They turned corners a few times as she was being lured away, and finally, they ended up in a place completely separated from the main street. And there, Mateus awaited her. “Why hello there, miss Hero. You seem to be quite lively there, eh?” “So let me make sure just in case, you are that Mateus I have heard about, right?” “Indeed. You really do have great discerning skills, hmm?” The way he ended his sentences in a questioning tone rubbed Cortina the wrong way. But she had to put that aside for now. “Where is the boy?” “Hmm, if you come with me, I can tell you maybe?” “I am not about to get sweet-talked by some playboy.” Cortina took out her combat staff and prepared for battle. It was a tool that could be used both for magic assistance and for staff combat. Seeing her conduct, Mateus shrugged his shoulders in an exaggerated manner. “Okay, okay. I haven’t abducted him or anything, you know? This is actually something I merely bought from him after he stained it during his snack, you see?” “You gave that kid some reward, right? He went and bought baked potatoes with that money. The red stains in this are just ketchup. He should be taking a little rest in the park right about now after one of our young got in his way.” “...So I was lured here that easily, huh.” “I would say, you were entrapped here that easily, I suppose?” Matching Mateus’ words, Cortina felt another presence behind her. They wore dirty clothes and a visibly worn-out pelt. They had swords hanging on the right side. Overall, they looked like slightly battered Adventurers. They had relatively light armors on them that would not look unnatural even if you passed by them on the street. However, with those two showing up at such timing, it was easy to guess that it wasn’t a mere coincidence. Both the path ahead and behind were blocked now, cutting her way of escape. “So you came fully prepared, huh? But I didn’t come here so half-heartedly either.” “Oh? But yes, you are right that we came fully prepared. My job is to drive away the people pursuing my Master. I expected you to find that magic circle and pursue us. Besides, regardless of your determination, I don’t believe I can possibly lose, you know?” “So you’re saying you left that magic circle there purposely? If you didn’t want to be pursued, why didn’t you just erase it?” “Oh, are you going to ignore the difference in abilities? Well, it would be a bother to keep moving secretly like that. I hate such bothersome jobs, you know?” The two behind started to slowly close the distance. This alley that was sandwiched between houses had no other exit. “If we catch you, the Six Heroes would lose their leadership. Besides, you are the easiest to catch among them. Right?” Cortina was certainly the weakest among the Six Heroes, and her life had been targetted like this many a time. However, each of those times she had managed to struggle her way out with various means. “Besides, since I know that kid is fine, there’s no longer a need to keep dealing with a boorish man like you.” “Oh dear, calling me boorish is a bit. I hate violence, so I would be happy if you surrender. And actually, you’ve been talking to me quite readily all this time, weren’t you?” “Surrender, huh? That’s quite generous of you... But too bad. As Reid would say, “Not in a million years”! Using her former comrade’s words, Cortina instantly turned heel. And then she dashed towards the two behind her. The two seemed to have expected her to act this way and weren’t flustered by this development. They calmly pulled their swords and prepared to meet her. However, just before Cortina reached the two, she thrust her staff into the ground and flung herself into the air. She used the thrust point and threw her body in the air similar to pole vaulting. That said, doing that with a staff that didn’t even reach two meters wasn’t enough to give her enough altitude. However, she made up for that by kicking the wall of the narrow corridor to jump higher, and leaped over the two man’s heads. “What!?” Seeing Cortina’s completely unexpected actions, the two men yelled in shock. Meanwhile, Cortina did not kill her momentum but instead used it to roll even farther away from the two. And then she used that same momentum to stand back up and proceeded to run. “What are you two doing?” “I-I’m sorry!” The two apologized to Mateus who was looking at them with an exasperated expression. That said, they didn’t just stand still, but quickly responded to the situation and began their pursuit. Looking at them quickly fix their composure and start chasing, you could tell that they were experienced to a degree. Cortina, being a cat beastman, excelled in physical abilities. She was confident she would not lose in this tag when she was already ahead of them. If she rushed back where she came from and managed to reach the main street, they would not be able to make any big moves against her. On the road where there was nothing before, there was now a pile of wooden boxes. There were too many of them scattered about, so climbing over them would take too much effort. That said, trying to clear the way and breakthrough would take even longer. Regardless of the means, they were both fatal for someone in flight. It was possible to leap over them with a staff like before, but the staff in question was left behind when she leaped over the men. Whether she tried to climb over or move them, it would take too much time. And as expected, the two men didn’t take a long time to catch up with her. “Hold it there!” “Making work difficult for us!” The men were rushing over while throwing jeers towards her. Cortina was completely empty-handed there. She had no means of resisting them—or so it seemed. Just as the man tried to vulnerably approach her to take her out, she picked up a box and slammed it at him. “Wha!?” The man that had let his guard down thinking she had no weapons wasn’t able to avoid that attack. That said, he wasn’t so stupid to take it head-on, either. He quickly used his sword to defend, thus he avoided taking too much damage. As the wooden box met the iron sword, it got crushed to bits, but it also broke the man’s posture. Cortina quickly approached the man and drove the underside of her fist to his neck. It was the so-called hammer blow. This was a technique that was easiest to put power into while also having a low risk of injuring your hand in the process. It was a vital blow, enough for Cortina, a physically weaker female, to knock out a man. And since it landed on the neck, which was a weak point, he had no chances of recovering from it. Thus, he momentarily lost consciousness and started slowly collapsing on the spot. The other man who was a step slow to react to her sudden counterattack immediately moved to cut her down. Cortina intentionally slipped under the falling man and used him as a shield to block his attack. Seeing that, the man tried to stop his slash, but he failed to kill his momentum completely and it landed on his comrade. The broken board had a sharpened tip and it could be used as a spear. While still collapsed on the ground, Cortina swung her arm with all she had and drive the fragment in the other man’s ankle. If they were outside of the city, this would have been defended by his greaves. However, they were inside the city now, so wearing too much armor would’ve made him stand out too much. As such, he was now in normal leather shoes, so this attack managed to seriously injure his instep. “Gghaaah!” The bone of an instep was actually very thin. It also had little muscle. It was quite possible to break it even with something like a broken wood fragment. That sharp pain caused him to roll over and fall on the ground. Having overpowered both men, Cortina finally crawled out from under the man. At that point, the third man, Mateus, who walked without hurry, had finally caught up to her.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 4, "inserted_lines_src": 22, "inserted_lines_trg": 0 }
気が付けば、18歳になっていた。気が付いたのは冬で、しかも年も押し迫ったころだった。とにかく、この秋から冬にかけて俺たちは多忙を極めた。まず俺であるが、クルムファル領の領国経営にはほとんどタッチせず、どちらかというと結界魔石の製作に没頭していた。なぜかというと、この魔石が爆発的にヒットしたのだ。店の方は冒険者を中心に数十名単位の来客で、それは十分にルアラの店番で事が足りた問題であったのは、帝国軍や皇族、商人などから大量の注文を受けたことだ。下手をすれば万単位の注文が来る。それを対処するべく時間の大半を費やした。石運びにはジェネハたちハーピーにも大いに協力してもらい、本当に感謝である。まあ、驚くほど儲かったので、良しとする。とはいえ、儲かった金の大半は、クルムファル領への投資で消えていったのだが。問題のクルムファル領についてだが、農業の方はメイを筆頭に、ゴンとペーリスが担当してくれている。当初はどうなるかと思っていたが、蒔いた種からはきちんと芽が出ているし、生育状況も悪くないとのこと。水田も多くあり、問題はそこからきちんと米がとれるかどうかであり、それは経過観察中である。漁業の方は逆に絶好調である。カイリークの町の近くに港を整備したため、そこに市が出来、かなりの賑わいが出てきている。エサラハルの料理も好評であり、わざわざそれだけを食べに帝都からやってくる人も見られるようになった。塩田も復活し、こちらの方も順調である。比較的漁業は税収が大きくアップしたため、農業の赤字を何とか補てんすることが出来た。嬉しかったことと言えば、この魚料理や取引を目当てに来た客が、クルムファルのことを口コミで広めてくれたことで、少しずつであるが人口が増えてきている。農業を希望する者もおり、俺は休日はクルムファルに行き、土魔法で荒れた土地を農地用の土に変え、そこにメイの肥料を散布するという作業をしていた。もう一つ嬉しかったことは、塩を生成する際に「ニガリ」が取れることである。これまでは薬屋を通じて買っていたが、今後はそれがなくなった。豆腐も作り放題である。ホテルの準備は、かなり念入りにしているので、俺としては絶対の自信を持っている。何しろ、そこで働くのはクエナを筆頭とした、帝国王室でリコに仕えていた者たちなのである。当然彼ら彼女らは洗練された動きはもちろん、ベッドメーキングや掃除、気づかいや心配りまで超一流である。そこいらの一流ホテルをはるかに凌駕するサービスの達人たちなのだ。この人たちから一度サービスを受ければ、他のホテルには泊まれないだろう。当然このホテルにも、水洗式のトイレと便座ウォーム、そして風呂にはこだわった。それらは俺の土魔法で錬成された物を使っており、ちょっとシックな出来栄えになっている。一番苦労した下水の処理であるが、これも何とか土魔法を駆使して土中に穴を掘り、それを固く錬成して一か所にまとめるようにすることが出来た。土の中を掘っていくのは難航を極め、一度魔力不足でぶっ倒れたが、メイのひざまくらの甲斐あって、どうにか完成させることが出来た。そこには、ファルコ師匠の「魔法はイメージ」という教えが大きなヒントになった。要はきちんとイメージが出来れば魔法は発動することを改めて認識させられたのだ。俺は本当にいい師匠を持ったし、今は心からその師匠に感謝している。集めた下水は目下、ゴンの手によって農作物用の肥料に変えられている。基本となる下水ラインが出来たので、今後新しく建つ(あるいは、新築の)建物は全て水洗式にする予定だ。領内から汲み取り式のトイレをなくすことも、心ひそかに決めた俺の目標になっている。ホテルの料理のメニューはもっぱらペーリスプロデュースの料理だ。リコの侍女の中で料理に興味のある者や、帝都で募集した者の中から十数名を選んで、ペーリスに料理のレシピを教えさせた。料理の味に関しては絶対の自信を持っている。将来的にはクルムファル領で採れた野菜と魚、そして肉を使った料理を提供するのが目標だ。ホテル自体は職人を入れて細かい外壁の修理や中身のリフォームを実施した。領主の館ということで、政庁も兼ねていたためかなり部屋数は多かったのだが、バス・トイレの設置と居住性に重点を置いたため館の中身は全部リフォームすることになった。この世界は魔法があるため、職人にかかればものの1か月で全ての作業が完了し、現在では全く別の内装になってしまった。亡きクルムファル伯爵が見たら、腰を抜かすだろう。ホテル自体は、年明けごろにオープンする予定だ。これらの事業に加え、収税、財務、クルムファル軍や警察、警備、消防、裁判といった事柄をリコを中心に、リコの側近たちが実に頑張ってまとめてくれている。ピウスとアーガは軍の担当、パルタンとポピアは警察と警備、パーリオは抜群の計算能力を生かして収税を、ノキュは財務、ノキタは消防、ジャクンは裁判や訴訟を。そして抜群の事務処理能力を持つニーズとツージンは総務として、それぞれが忙しいときに助けに入る役割も兼ねている。これらの下に、帝都から連れてきた者たちを部下として付けている。全員、希望してその仕事に就いているので、モチベーションが高く、仕事の効率もよいようだ。貴族もいれば平民もいる、獣人もいるなど多国籍化しているのだが、これらを見事にまとめるリコの力量も素晴らしい。屋敷内の料理は、忙しいペーリスに替り、フェリスが担うことが多くなった。彼女もペーリスに劣らず料理上手である。朝早く起きて俺たちの朝食を作り、昼は帝都に買い出し、そして、くたくたになって帰ってくる俺たちのために、夕食を作って待っていてくれる。俺たちの約束として、どんなに忙しくとも、できるだけ朝食と夕食は一緒に食べるということを約束した。そして、その食事タイムがそれぞれの報告と予定の確認の時間になっているのだ。このところメイは食事が終わった後に研究室にこもることが多くなった。増加する農民の農具を研究しているのだという。かなり丈夫で使いやすいものを開発し、それを無料で提供しているので、農民からの感謝のされようは半端ではない。その上あの、美貌と巨乳である。男どもからの人気はとんでもないものらしい。しかし、メイの偉い所は、女性からも人気が高いところだ。常に謙虚でつつましやかな態度が、人々の心を開かせるのだろう。そういうわけで、夜は自然とリコと一緒に過ごすことが多くなった。リコはリコでそれがうれしくてならないらしい。このところ、忙しいにもかかわらず、彼女は常に穏やかである。とはいえ、リコが一緒にいられない時は、必ずメイが一緒にいてくれる。リコとは違い、夜は溜まっていたものをぶつけたくなるようで、いつになく彼女は積極的になる。結果的に、俺もリコもメイもがうまくバランスが取れているような格好になっている。そんなことをしていると、年が明けてしまった。年明けは休暇を長めに取り、それぞれが英気を養った後、俺たちは本格的にホテルの開業準備をすすめた。港を整備して取引を拡大し、冒険者や旅行者の来訪もあり、彼らの宿泊スペースの準備が急務となっていた。取りあえず、住居用結界を張って対応していたのだが、所詮はキャンプである。きちんとした宿屋の建設の要望が多かったので、年の暮れから突貫工事で宿屋の建設を依頼していたのだ。この世界には新年を祝う行事は特にはない。国の一大イベントは皇帝の誕生日か皇族の結婚や出産、戴冠式くらいのものであり、わざわざ年末年始に休暇を取るのはダーケ商会くらいなものだ。しかし俺は、そこにはこだわった。ダーケ商会は帝国一のホワイト企業を目指すのだ。突貫工事の甲斐あって、年始休暇が終わるころに宿屋は完成した。部屋数、約40。こには、海人族や農業から離れた女将さん連中が店を切り盛りすることになった。ここは税金さえ納めてくれれば経営には口を出さないつもりだ。そしていよいよ、ホテルのオープンが迫ってきた。栄えある来客一号は、なんと皇帝陛下である。休暇を過ごすための行幸で、完全にプライベートということであったが、必要最低限の従者は連れて来ていたため、16ある部屋が全部埋まってしまった。陛下は、大人しくつつましやかそうな、美しい、というよりかわいらしい感じの女性を連れてやってきた。おそらくこの人が陛下が一番寵愛している人なのだろう。噂に聞くと、平民の出であるそうな。彼女の飾らない、純朴さに惹かれたのだと思うと、陛下のことが好きになった。陛下は我々のサービスに痛く満足され、三日間の逗留を心から楽しんでくれた。従業員にも気さくに声をかけ、料理長が出す料理に舌鼓を打ち、皇帝の料理番をこのホテルに修行に来させるとも仰った。逗留を終えて帝都に帰るその日の朝、ロビーで見送る俺たちに陛下は、「来年の同じ時期にまた来るぞ。今後、余の休暇はここで取ることにする。部屋の調度品から皆の応対、窓から見える景色に日々の料理。どれも気に入った。できるなら、宮城をここに移したいくらいだの。いや、宮城を移しては、この趣が無くなってしまうか。ハハハハハ」そう言って大満足の中、帝都に還御されたのだった。結果的に陛下の行幸は大成功だった。ヒーデータ帝国皇帝が大満足されたサービスを受けようと、オープン以来ずっと満室の状態で、逆にクレームが出るくらいだ。しかし今のところ、サービスや料理についてのクレームは一件もない。しかしこの間、スタッフ全員で対策を協議する必要があるクレームが初めて寄せられた。その客は、チェックアウトの際、フロントで怒りの声を上げた。「帰らなきゃいけないのに、ここの居心地が良すぎて帰れない。どうしてくれるんだぁ!」	I turned before I noticed. I finally noticed it at winter, not just that, I was going to be next year soon. Anyway, this autumn and winter we were very busy. First about me, since there was nothing major for me to do, I became absorbed in the development of the barrier magic stones. The reason being that they became a big hit. When it were just the adventurers and a few other customers, it was enough to let Luara watch the store. The biggest problem was the number of orders from the army, royalty, and merchants. On some days, I was buried in orders. I spent a lot of my time to deal with it. I’m grateful for the harpies help in delivering the stones. Well, since it was unexpectedly profitable, let’s leave it at that. That being said, most of the profits went into the Kurumfar territory. As for the troublesome Kurumfar territory, Mei, Gon, and Peris were in charge of the agricultural development. I was worried at first but the seeds sprouted properly and their growth was acceptable. There were also plenty of paddy fields, the problem is whether it’s possible to grow rice on them, this matter is still being investigated. The fishing industry, on the other hand, was faring quite splendidly. Since the port of the Kairiku city was opened, the city became much more lively. The esaraharu dishes became popular and you can see people coming all the way from the imperial capital just to taste them. The salt problem was solved and this side is also bustling. The tax revenue from the fishing industry was somehow able to make up for the agriculture deficit. Speaking of the happy occasion, it seems that the visitors, who tried the new dishes, spread the word and the population of the Kairiku town increased little by little. Since there were people interested in developing new lands, I went to the Kurumfar territory on my day off, fixed the land with earth magic, and had Mei spread her fertilizer around. As for the other happy occasion, it’s possible to get「Nigari」together with the salt. Previously, I used to buy it in a drugstore but there is no need to do this anymore. I can make as much tofu as I want. I approached the matter of the hotel very thoroughly, I have a great confidence in its success. After all, there are Rico’s servants working there with Kuena being in charge of them. Their refined movements and, of course, their bed making, cleaning, and caring skills are exceptional. They can provide services that can’t be compared to even the first-class hotels. You won’t be able to stay in another hotel once you went through their services. Of course, there are baths and flushable toilets with warm seats in this hotel. They were used by those, who were trained by me in earth magic, it became something like a luxury treatment. [] I spend quite a bit of effort dealing with the sewage by digging a big hole in the ground, hardening its walls, gathering it in one place. Digging that hole took a lot from me and I collapsed midway but thanks to the magical effect of Mei’s lap pillow, I managed to somehow complete it. There, my teacher’s Falco teaching 「magic is an image」became a great hint. In essence, I was able to confirm that you can activate a spell if you have a clear image in your head. I had a great teacher and I’m truly grateful to him. The gathered wastes turn into fertilizer thanks to Gon’s efforts. Since the sewage line was is complete, next time, I plan to connect the other building to it. To eliminate all the scooping type toilets from the territory is my hidden goal. The hotel’s menu was a masterpiece of Peris’ making. I chose some of Rico’s servants, who were interested in cooking, and some of the people I brought from the capital and had Peris teach them the recipes. I have absolute confidence in the taste. In the future, I plan to introduce the vegetables, meat, and fish from the Kurumfar territory to the hotel. As for the hotel itself. I hired workers to repair and remodel the building inside out. Since it was previously used as the Lord’s mansion, there were plenty of rooms but because I put an emphasis on baths and toilets there was a need to completely reform the building. Since there is magic in this world, the work took only month to complete and the interior of the building changed significantly. The late Count Kurumfar would have become weak in the knees if he saw that. The hotel is going to open its door on the second month of the year. In addition to the projects above, Rico and her aides dealt with the matters of taxation, finances, army, police, security, firefighting, and trial. Pius and Aga were in charge of the army, Poltan and Popia were in charge of police and security, Pario used his outstanding calculating abilities to settle the taxes, Nokyu dealt with finances, Nokita with firefighting, Jokun with trials and lawsuits. Nizu and Thujin used their abilities to deal with general affairs and everyone had a job to make them occupied. The people brought from the capital worked under them. Everyone put their hopes into their work making their motivation and working efficiency quite high. There were nobles, commoners, and beastmen amongst them, Rico, who made them work together, is quite something. When it comes to cooking in the mansion, Ferris often substituted for Peris, who was busy recently. Her cooking didn’t lose to Peris’. She wakes up early in the morning to prepare breakfast, goes shopping at noon, and welcomes the tattered us with dinner. We promised to each other that no matter how busy we are, we would always have breakfast and dinner together. Like that, we used our mealtime to confirm our plans and schedules. At that time, there were a lot of days when Mei shut herself in the laboratory. She said that she was researching better farming tools. They were quite durable and easy to use on top of being provided for free, the farmers’ gratitude was out of bounds. Besides that, you know, big-breasted beauty and all. Her popularity amongst men isn’t to be underestimated. But what was unexpected is that she became popular with women too. Her humble and enthusiastic attitude captured people’s hearts. In that way, the times I spent my night with Rico increased. Rico being Rico couldn’t get enough of it. Those times, despite being busy, she was always submissive. That being said, when she wasn’t able to be with me, Mei made sure to definitely appear in her place. Contrary to Rico, she released her pent-up stress without reserve and was much more aggressive. As a result, Rico, Mei, and I created a nice balance with each other. While I was doing all of that, the year came to an end. After we used this time to take a long vacation and restore our spirits, we proceeded with the preparations to open the hotel. With the port operating and trade expanding, the number of adventurers and tourists increased and the matter of their accommodation became urgent. For the time being, we dealt with it by creating a barrier for residential use, but, in essence, it was just a camp. There was a great number of demands for a proper inn, so I made an urgent project to construct an inn. This world doesn’t particularly celebrate the New Year. The biggest events of the country are the birthday of the emperor, birth of marriage in the royal family, or something like a coronation ceremony. Only the Daquet Company went out of the way to take a break on the New Year. Daquet Company is striving to become the greatest white company in the empire. [] Due to its urgency, the inn was completed around the end of the holidays. The rooms numbered around . There, the sea tribe and some of the women, who weren’t involved in farming, took care of its management. I don’t plan to meddle with their arrangement as long as they properly pay the taxes. And finally, the time to open the hotel came. The honored customer number one was, unexpectedly, His Majesty the Emperor himself. Since he came here to rest in peace and quiet, he brought only the smallest number of people with him but they still took whole 6 rooms. His Majesty brought a rather obedient and more adorable that beautiful girl with him. Most likely, she was his most loved person. According to the rumors, she seems to be a commoner. His Majesty was attracted to her simple unsophisticated nature and she fell in love with him. His Majesty was satisfied with our services and enjoyed his three days stay quite a bit. We also called out to his servants and brought out the dishes prepared by our chef. The imperial chef cook was impressed and wanted to visit the hotel again to train himself. In the morning of the day when His Majesty needed to return to the capital, he said 「I shall come again in the next year around the same time. The next time will be even longer. Furniture, view from the window, food. I like all of them. To the extent that I want to move the imperial palace here. No, if I move the palace, it will lose its meaning, isn’t it. Hahaha」 He said and returned to the capital in great satisfaction. As a result, the emperor’s vacation could be considered a success. Since it was able to satisfy the emperor, the hotel has been full ever since, to the extent of people making complaints. However, there were no complaints about the dishes or services. At that time, the staff even doubted the need to listen to the complaints. That customer screamed in anger during the checkout. 「I have to go back but it’s too comfortable here to leave. How are you going to solve this!?」	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 0, "inserted_lines_src": 0, "inserted_lines_trg": 0 }
このことがよく表れているのが人工知能やロボットで仕事がなくなると私たちが心配していることですつまり短期的な視点で技術を過大評価しているのですでも私が心配なのは長期的に必要になる技術を得られるか人口構成の変化により労働力が不足し私たちの社会は将来ロボットの鉄の肩にすがらざるを得なくなりますだから私はロボット不足になることが怖いのです長い間技術の進歩で仕事がなくなると心配されてきました 1957年スペンサー・トレイシーとキャサリン・ヘプバーンの映画の― 結末をご存知でしょうスペンサー・トレイシーは資料調査業務にコンピュータを導入します 1957年当時の大型コンピューターですその会社では司書は会社の幹部の知りたいことを調べていました「サンタクロースのトナカイの名前は?」と聞かれればその答えを調べますこのコンピュータはその仕事を助けるはずでしたもちろん 1957年当時のコンピュータはさほど役に立ちません司書は自分たちの仕事がなくなると心配しましたがでも現実は違いましたこの種の職の雇用は 1957年以降ずっと増え続けましたインターネットが普及しウェブサイトや検索エンジンが普及して初めて資料調査という業務が減りましたまた 1957年当時には誰もが現在の技術を過小評価していたと思います現実には今は皆がこうしてポケットに入れて技術を持ち運べ「サンタクロースのトナカイの名前は?」と言えばすぐに答えが返ってきて何でも知ることができるのにですちなみにその間司書の賃金はアメリカのどの仕事よりも早く上がりました司書がコンピュータのパートナーになったからですコンピュータがツールとなったことで使えるツールが増えて当時の司書の仕事はより効果的になりました同じことがオフィスでも起こりますかつては表計算がされていましたつまり紙の表計算用紙を使って手で計算をしていましたでもここで面白いことが起こります 1980年頃のパソコン革命で表計算ソフトは事務員のために改良されました事務員に取って代わるのではなく事務員はプログラムができる人として尊重されたのですつまり事務員は表計算のプログラマーになりその能力は向上しましたつまらない計算作業をしなくてもよくなりそれ以上のことができるようになったのです今日では様々な場面でロボットを見かける様になりました左の写真は iRobot社のパックボットですイラクやアフガニスタンで走行中に爆弾に遭遇しても兵士は防御スーツを着て外に出て棒でつついて処理しなくてよい 2002年頃まではそうしていたけれど今はロボットを送り込みますつまり危険な仕事はロボットがしてくれます右の写真はタグと言いピッツバーグのAethon社のものですタグはアメリカ中の何百もの病院に導入され汚れたシーツを洗濯場まで食べ終わった食器をキッチンまで運びそして薬局から薬を持ってきますタグがいれば看護師や看護助手たちは機械的に物を運搬するような単純労働から解放され患者さんとの時間を多くとれるようになります事実ロボットはいろんな形で私たちの生活に浸透していますでもそれが工場用ロボットとなるとまだ怖がられていると思いますそばに置くには危険な存在ですからプログラムするにも 4次元や6次元で考える必要があり普通の人が一緒に作業することはできませんこの技術は間違った方向に進んでいると思います技術から労働者を締め出していますだから私たちが本当に目を向けなければいけないのは普通の労働者が一緒に作業できる技術ですそうした例として今日はバクスターを紹介しますこのバクスターは工業環境において― 普通の人たちが共に作業できるロボットの第一世代と考えていますさぁバクスターの登場です Rethink Robotics社のクリス・ハーバートも一緒ですそこにコンベヤーがあります照明がきつすぎなければいいのですが― ほら見てくださいコンベヤーから物を持ち上げましたこちらに運んで来て置きますそして元の位置に戻って次の物に手を伸ばします面白いのはバクスターは基礎的な常識も身に付けていることさてバクスターの目を見てくださいスクリーン上に目があってロボットが動こうとする方向を見ていますだからロボットを使っている人はロボットが次にどう動くのか把握でき驚かされることもありません今クリスはロボットの手から物を取り上げましたバクスターは物を置く動作をすることなく戻りましたまた物を取る必要があると分かっているバクスターはちょっとした常識を使い物を取りに行くわけですバクスターとは触れ合っても安全です今の産業用ロボットとこんなことできませんよねでもバクスターなら大丈夫バクスターは力を感じてクリスがそこにいると理解し彼を押しのけて傷つけるようなことはしないのですバクスターで一番面白いと思うのはユーザー・インターフェースクリスがバクスターの反対側の手をつかみます腕をつかまれるとバクスターは無力・重力補償モードになりスクリーンにグラフィックスが表示されますスクリーンの左側にあるアイコンが右腕の状態を示していますクリスはバクスターの手に何か握らせこちらに持って来てボタンを押して手から物を離させますロボットはこう理解するわけです「ここで物を下させたいんだな」そして小さなアイコンが表示されますクリスが移動してロボットの指で握らせるとロボットはこう理解します「僕に物を拾い上げてほしいんだな」すると緑色のアイコンが現れます今度はどこから物を拾い上げるべきか範囲の設定をしますこうして動かすことでロボットはそこが探す領域だと認識します画面で操作をする必要ありませんそしてクリスは一旦離れてその動作を訓練します話を続けましょうこうして訓練を続ける間工場ではこれがどうなるのかお話しましょうこのロボットは毎日出荷され全国の工場に納められていますこちらはミルドレッドコネチカットの工場で働いています 20年以上生産ラインで働いてきました初めて産業ロボットを見てものの一時間で彼女は工場での作業をいくつかプログラムしました彼女はロボットが好きだと確信しましたロボットは単純な反復作業をしています以前は彼女がしないといけなかったことを今はロボットにさせています私たちが初めて工場で働いている人たちにどうすればロボットとより良く働けるか聞きに行ったときこんな質問もしました「自分の子どもにも工場で働かせたいか?」皆の答えはこうでした「いや子どもにはもっとよい仕事をしてほしい」とどのつまりミルドレッドは典型的な― 今日のアメリカの工場労働者なのです工場労働者の高齢化はどんどん進み若い人たちが工場労働に就くこともあまりありませんだから工場での作業はそこで働く人にとって重荷になっていく一方で彼らに協力するツールを与える必要があります彼ら自身が解決策の一部となり彼らが継続して働けアメリカでモノ作りが続けられるように私たちはミルドレッドのような労働者を「ライン作業者」から「ロボット訓練者」にしたいのです労働者は技量を上げますちょうど 1980年代に事務員たちができる仕事の技量を上げたように私たちが提供したいのは何年も勉強しなければ使えないツールではなく数分もあればどうやって操作するか学べるようなツールです今意志に左右されるが避けられない二つの大きな力があります気候変動と人口動態です人口動態は本当に私たちの世界を変えますこれは労働人口の割合です過去40年で少し下がってきていますがこれからの40年では劇的に変わります中国でさえです労働人口の割合は劇的に下がり定年した人たちの割合は本当に急速に上がりますベビーブーム世代が定年を迎えるからですつまり社会保障にあてるお金が減る一方より多くの人が社会保障を必要とするわけですでもそれ以上に年を取れば力も弱くなってかつてはできていた作業もできなくなります介護士の年齢についての統計を見ると介護士たちの年齢層もどんどん上がって行くのが分かります今まさに統計的に起こっていることです定年退職を迎えた人たちがさらに年を取り増えていく一方で世話をする人たちは減っていきます私たちはロボットの助けが本当に必要になりますロボットを付き添ってくれる仲間とは考えていませんロボットは私たちが年を取ってするのが難しくなったことをしてくれるもの車から食料品を出して階段を上り台所へ運ぶようなことですもっと年を取れば人に会いに車を運転することもですロボット工学があれば年を取っても尊厳を維持できるかもしれないロボットによる解決策をコントロールしさえすれば良いのです頼れる人は減る一方ですが人に頼る必要はありません私はこう信じています私たちは日々の生活でバクスターのようなロボットとより多くの時間を過ごし行動を共にするようになるそして― ほらバクスターよくやったねそして今後40年の間に私たちはロボットに頼るようになるでしょう毎日の生活の一部としてありがとうございました	And I think that's some of the fear that we see about jobs disappearing from artificial intelligence and robots. That we're overestimating the technology in the short term. But I am worried whether we're going to get the technology we need in the long term. Because the demographics are really going to leave us with lots of jobs that need doing and that we, our society, is going to have to be built on the shoulders of steel of robots in the future. So I'm scared we won't have enough robots. But fear of losing jobs to technology has been around for a long time. Back in 1957, there was a Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn movie. So you know how it ended up, Spencer Tracy brought a computer, a mainframe computer of 1957, in to help the librarians. The librarians in the company would do things like answer for the executives, "What are the names of Santa's reindeer?" And they would look that up. And this mainframe computer was going to help them with that job. Well of course a mainframe computer in 1957 wasn't much use for that job. The librarians were afraid their jobs were going to disappear. But that's not what happened in fact. The number of jobs for librarians increased for a long time after 1957. It wasn't until the Internet came into play, the web came into play and search engines came into play that the need for librarians went down. And I think everyone from 1957 totally underestimated the level of technology we would all carry around in our hands and in our pockets today. And we can just ask: "What are the names of Santa's reindeer?" and be told instantly -- or anything else we want to ask. By the way, the wages for librarians went up faster than the wages for other jobs in the U.S. over that same time period, because librarians became partners of computers. Computers became tools, and they got more tools that they could use and become more effective during that time. Same thing happened in offices. Back in the old days, people used spreadsheets. Spreadsheets were spread sheets of paper, and they calculated by hand. But here was an interesting thing that came along. With the revolution around 1980 of P.C.'s, the spreadsheet programs were tuned for office workers, not to replace office workers, but it respected office workers as being capable of being programmers. So office workers became programmers of spreadsheets. It increased their capabilities. They no longer had to do the mundane computations, but they could do something much more. Now today, we're starting to see robots in our lives. On the left there is the PackBot from iRobot. When soldiers came across roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan, instead of putting on a bomb suit and going out and poking with a stick, as they used to do up until about 2002, they now send the robot out. So the robot takes over the dangerous jobs. On the right are some TUGs from a company called Aethon in Pittsburgh. These are in hundreds of hospitals across the U.S. And they take the dirty sheets down to the laundry. They take the dirty dishes back to the kitchen. They bring the medicines up from the pharmacy. And it frees up the nurses and the nurse's aides from doing that mundane work of just mechanically pushing stuff around to spend more time with patients. In fact, robots have become sort of ubiquitous in our lives in many ways. But I think when it comes to factory robots, people are sort of afraid, because factory robots are dangerous to be around. In order to program them, you have to understand six-dimensional vectors and quaternions. And ordinary people can't interact with them. And I think it's the sort of technology that's gone wrong. It's displaced the worker from the technology. And I think we really have to look at technologies that ordinary workers can interact with. And so I want to tell you today about Baxter, which we've been talking about. And Baxter, I see, as a way -- a first wave of robot that ordinary people can interact with in an industrial setting. So Baxter is up here. This is Chris Harbert from Rethink Robotics. We've got a conveyor there. And if the lighting isn't too extreme -- Ah, ah! There it is. It's picked up the object off the conveyor. It's going to come bring it over here and put it down. And then it'll go back, reach for another object. The interesting thing is Baxter has some basic common sense. By the way, what's going on with the eyes? The eyes are on the screen there. The eyes look ahead where the robot's going to move. So a person that's interacting with the robot understands where it's going to reach and isn't surprised by its motions. Here Chris took the object out of its hand, and Baxter didn't go and try to put it down; it went back and realized it had to get another one. It's got a little bit of basic common sense, goes and picks the objects. And Baxter's safe to interact with. You wouldn't want to do this with a current industrial robot. But with Baxter it doesn't hurt. It feels the force, understands that Chris is there and doesn't push through him and hurt him. But I think the most interesting thing about Baxter is the user interface. And so Chris is going to come and grab the other arm now. And when he grabs an arm, it goes into zero-force gravity-compensated mode and graphics come up on the screen. You can see some icons on the left of the screen there for what was about its right arm. He's going to put something in its hand, he's going to bring it over here, press a button and let go of that thing in the hand. And the robot figures out, ah, he must mean I want to put stuff down. It puts a little icon there. He comes over here, and he gets the fingers to grasp together, and the robot infers, ah, you want an object for me to pick up. That puts the green icon there. He's going to map out an area of where the robot should pick up the object from. It just moves it around, and the robot figures out that was an area search. He didn't have to select that from a menu. And now he's going to go off and train the visual appearance of that object while we continue talking. So as we continue here, I want to tell you about what this is like in factories. These robots we're shipping every day. They go to factories around the country. This is Mildred. Mildred's a factory worker in Connecticut. She's worked on the line for over 20 years. One hour after she saw her first industrial robot, she had programmed it to do some tasks in the factory. She decided she really liked robots. And it was doing the simple repetitive tasks that she had had to do beforehand. Now she's got the robot doing it. When we first went out to talk to people in factories about how we could get robots to interact with them better, one of the questions we asked them was, "Do you want your children to work in a factory?" The universal answer was "No, I want a better job than that for my children." And as a result of that, Mildred is very typical of today's factory workers in the U.S. They're older, and they're getting older and older. There aren't many young people coming into factory work. And as their tasks become more onerous on them, we need to give them tools that they can collaborate with, so that they can be part of the solution, so that they can continue to work and we can continue to produce in the U.S. And so our vision is that Mildred who's the line worker becomes Mildred the robot trainer. She lifts her game, like the office workers of the 1980s lifted their game of what they could do. We're not giving them tools that they have to go and study for years and years in order to use. They're tools that they can just learn how to operate in a few minutes. There's two great forces that are both volitional but inevitable. That's climate change and demographics. Demographics is really going to change our world. This is the percentage of adults who are working age. And it's gone down slightly over the last 40 years. But over the next 40 years, it's going to change dramatically, even in China. The percentage of adults who are working age drops dramatically. And turned up the other way, the people who are retirement age goes up very, very fast, as the baby boomers get to retirement age. That means there will be more people with fewer social security dollars competing for services. But more than that, as we get older we get more frail and we can't do all the tasks we used to do. If we look at the statistics on the ages of caregivers, before our eyes those caregivers are getting older and older. That's happening statistically right now. And as the number of people who are older, above retirement age and getting older, as they increase, there will be less people to take care of them. And I think we're really going to have to have robots to help us. And I don't mean robots in terms of companions. I mean robots doing the things that we normally do for ourselves but get harder as we get older. Getting the groceries in from the car, up the stairs, into the kitchen. Or even, as we get very much older, driving our cars to go visit people. And I think robotics gives people a chance to have dignity as they get older by having control of the robotic solution. So they don't have to rely on people that are getting scarcer to help them. and working with robots like Baxter in our daily lives. And that we will -- Here, Baxter, it's good. And that we will all come to rely on robots over the next 40 years as part of our everyday lives. Thanks very much.	{ "source": "iwslt2017", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
鍛冶師の男は革製の使い込まれたジャケットの上にローブを纏い、旅慣れた雰囲気を纏わせている。腕には俺の物とよく似た手甲を装備していた。さすがに糸の射出機構はなさそうなので、格闘用の物だと思われる。しかし旅立つ前、やっておかねばならない事があった。「なあ、アンタ。今更だが、呼び名を教えてくれないか?」「名は聞かないのではなかったのか?」確かに名を聞かないように提案したのは過去の俺だ。だがこれから先、一緒に行動するというのに名前を知らないのでは、不便が発生する可能性もある。「この先は戦闘があるかもしれない。なのにアンタの呼び名が無いんじゃ、こっちも指示を出しにくい」「ああ、それは確かに。そうだな......では、アスト、とでも呼んでくれ。無論本名じゃない」「堂々と偽名を宣言してくる奴は初めて見たよ」アストと名乗った男は、知った事かと言わんばかりの仕草で地面に魔法陣を描き始めていた。「ほう、図形を先に描き込むのですな?」「そうだ。先に誘導路を構築しておいてやると、魔力を誘導しやすいのでな」「ですがそれだと、とっさの発動が間に合いませんぞ」「その時は通常通りの魔法を発動させればいい。それに先に陣を書き込んでおいた布でも持っておけば、通常の発動方法よりも早く確実に発生させられる」「ふむ......興味深い。入り口の仕掛けも、術式はかなり古いものと見ましたが」「ほう、わかるのか? そこの無骨者と違って見る目があるな」「悪かったな、無骨で」前世の俺は魔法に関しては門外漢だったんだよ。今なら確かに普通の術じゃないと気付く。「それはともかく......どこへ向かうんだ?」「まずはミスリル糸の調達。次に外装の素材を集めに行く。特に外装はここまで劣化するとは思わなかったので、素材を厳選させてもらおう」「この手甲だけでも結構な代物だと思うんだがな」「それはニッケルという金属を混ぜ込んでおいた。硬度ではやや劣るが腐食しにくく、靭性が高い」「靭性?」「粘り強いという意味だ。攻撃を受け止めた時、砕けるのではなくひしゃげる事で衝撃を逃がす。内部の糸のクッション性もあるので、防具としての性能はかなり高いはず」「だから剣の一発でひしゃげたのか」「その代わりお前の左腕は無事だっただろう?」もちろん、きちんと整備しておけばここまで脆くはならなかったのだろうが、それでもここまで簡単にひしゃげるとは思わなかった。「まあ、おかげで助かったのは確かだな」大の男の、大上段からの斬り下ろし。そしてそれを受けるのは、幻覚を纏った十歳の左手一本で受けた場合、外装が砕け、その下の俺の腕まで砕けていた可能性がある。それだけにとどまらず、俺の頭か肩を斬り裂かれた可能性もあった。「そういうわけで、まずはミスリル糸の確保に向かうぞ」「この糸の作り方ですな! 私も以前よりこの糸の製法には興味を持ってましてな」「......他言無用に願おう」興味津々のマクスウェルに、珍しく困ったような顔を向けてから、アストは魔法を発動させた。一瞬の浮遊感に包まれ、次の瞬間には俺たちは暗い闇の中に放り出されていた。「ここは?」一見して、今までいた山の中とは風景が違う。どこかの建物か洞窟の中に跳躍したらしい。じっとりとした湿気を含んだ空気が肌に張り付いてくる。それでいてまとわりつく空気はあまりにも冷たかった。「妙に肌寒い......だけじゃないな。息が......」息苦しい。いや、呼吸はいつも通りにできている。だが吸い込む空気の量が同じなのに、呼吸が浅くなったように感じられた。この現象は覚えがある。標高の高い山に行った時などに襲われる現象だ。「ここは世界樹の中だ」「世界樹......フォルネウス聖樹国か!?」フォルネウス聖樹国。この世界最大の宗教である世界樹教の総本山。頂点には聖樹の生命力を蓄えた若芽が存在し、口にすれば不老不死を得られたという話だ。もっとも、その世界樹は神話の中で破戒神によってへし折られ、全体程度しか残されていない。「......考えてみると、碌な事してねぇな。あの白いの」「まあ、当時は当時でそうせざるを得ない状況だったわけだが......いや、なんでもない」「アスト、ひょっとして破戒神を知っているのか?」「ノーコメントだ」あからさまに視線を逸らせるアスト。その行動から顔見知りである事は容易に見て取れた。「まあいい。それで、その世界樹の迷宮で何を探せばいいんだ?」「こ層だな。この近辺にはヒュージクロウラーという巨大な芋虫がいる。そいつを――」「ぶちのめせばいいのか!」「いや、捕まえてくれ」「あ?」殺意をみなぎらせた俺の出鼻をくじく命令。殺し専門の俺が、モンスターを捕まえるだと? 「ヒュージクロウラーは世界樹の幹すら食い荒らす消化能力を持っている。そいつらにミスリルの鉱石を食わせ糸を吐き出させれば、食ったミスリルを多量に含んだ合成物が手に入る」「なるほど、その糸を縒り合わせれば、俺の使っている糸になるんだな」「その通りだ」モンスターの生態を利用して、装備を作るとか聞いた事もねぇ......普通はモンスターを倒して、その素材で装備を作る物だ。どうやら俺は、また一筋縄では行かない非常識人の知人を持ってしまったようである。	Within ten minutes of deciding to depart, we all stood lined up in front of the entrance. The man wore an aged leather jacket and a robe on top, giving off the feeling that he was accustomed to traveling. He wore similar gauntlets to mine on his arms. It didn’t seem like they had some kind of thread shooting mechanism in them, though, so he probably just used them for hand-to-hand combat. We were ready to depart as soon as Maxwell and I finished our business related to the inn. But before we actually departed, there was something I had to do first. “Hey. It’s kinda late for this, but can you tell me your name?” “Weren’t you the one who was against knowing it?” The man answered in exasperation. Indeed, in the past, I made such a proposal. However, since we were going to travel around, it would be quite inconvenient if I didn’t even know what to call him. “We might find ourselves in battle. It would be hard to give directions if we don’t know what to call you.” “Yeah, you have a point. Let’s see... You can just call me Aste. It goes without saying but it’s not my real name.” “I’ve never seen someone declare their fake name so proudly.” The man calling himself Aste started drawing the magic circle on the ground without caring about my retort. His way of drawing circles was quite different from that of Maxwell. “Oh, are you drawing the shape first?” “That’s right. If you draw the guiding lines first, it would make it simpler to guide the magic power through it later.” “But if you do that, the instantaneous invocation would not be enough to make it in time.” “If that happens, you can just cast it normally. Besides, if you have a cloth with the pre-drawn circle on hand, it would be much faster than the normal way of casting it.” “I see... Very interesting. It seemed that the technique at the entrance was quite old too.” “Oh, you saw through it? You have quite good eyes unlike that bumpkin over there.” “Well sorry for being a bumpkin.” In my previous life, I was a complete amateur with everything related to magic. Now, I could see that it was not a normal technique. Be it how easily he could make precious magic tools or this, it was clear that he was no ordinary blacksmith. “That aside... Where exactly are we heading?” “First comes the procurement of the Mythril threads. Next would be gathering materials for the exterior. I didn’t expect the exterior to have deteriorated this much, so I’ll have to hand-pick the materials.” “These gauntlets alone seem quite a big thing.” “I made them by using a metal called nickel. It lacks a bit when it comes to hardness, but it’s strong against corrosion and has high toughness.” “Toughness?” “As in, it’s quite tenacious. When an attack lands on it, it doesn’t break but bends instead and mitigates the attack. The threads inside of it also act as a cushion, so it’s quite good as a means of defense.” “So that’s why it got crushed from one hit of a sword.” “But in exchange, you managed to keep your left arm safe, right?” The right one’s mechanism failed, but the left one took damage due to that sword strike. If I maintained it well, it wouldn’t have been so brittle, but I still didn’t think they’d be so easy to crush. But it was made that way to prioritize the safety of my hand. “Well, yeah, I remained safe thanks to that fact.” I muttered, having a flashback of that time. It was an overhead swing from an adult man. And blocking it was a -year-old girl. If I guarded with just my left hand alone, it could’ve broken its exterior and even my hand with it. It might not even have stopped at that and cut through my head or shoulder. However, by redirecting its power through getting crushed, I was able to endure the blow even with my meager strength. “So with that, let’s go get the Mythril threads first.” “Oh, so we are going to produce these threads! I was always curious as to how they were made.” “...Please not a word to anyone about it.” Aste looked at the overly-enthusiastic Maxwell with an uncharacteristically troubled face, and then activated the magic. The magic circle under our feet shined and the scenery around us got blurred. After a momentary floating sensation, we were thrown into total darkness. “Where is this?” At a glance, this place looked different from the mountain we previously were at. It seemed that we had teleported into a building or cavern of some kind. The air full of stagnated humidity clung to my skin. Not just that, it was strangely cold too. “It’s strangely chilly here...not just that. Even when it comes to breathing...” It feels suffocating. No, I could breathe in normally. The amount of air I could inhale was the same, but it felt as if the breathing itself had turned inadequate. I remembered this sensation. It was the same phenomenon you felt when you were on high mountain peaks. “We are inside the World Tree.” “The World Tree... You mean we’re in the Holy Tree Kingdom of Forneus!?” The Holy Tree Kingdom of Forneus. It was the headquarters of the world’s largest religion, the World Tree religion. It was the kingdom located at the center of the continent, holding the most influence, and in the center of its Capital Berith, stood the World Tree Yggdrasil that reached up to the heavens. The inside of that Holy Tree was like a labyrinth that, at one point in time, boasted of having floors. It was said that there was a young bud at its summit that stored its lifeforce, which would grant immortality and eternal youth to one who ate it. However, according to the legends, the God of Destruction broke that tree, and only about % of its original body was left standing now. “...Now that I think about it, that Whitey sure did something awful, huh.” “Well, those times called for such drastic measures... No, nevermind.” “Aste, could it be that you know the God of Destruction?” “No comment.” He clearly averted his eyes. That gesture was enough to tell me that they were acquaintances at least. This guy was surprisingly bad at lying. “Oh well. So, what are we searching for inside here?” “We are currently on the 250th floor. There should be giant caterpillars called Huge Crawlers around here. You need to-” “Should I take one down?” “No, catch it alive.” “Huh?” My blood was starting to boil but he killed my enthusiasm with one order. Telling someone specialized in killing to catch it alive... “Huge Crawlers can even eat and digest the World Tree trunks. If we feed it some Mythril ores and get the threads out of it, we should be able to get our hands on the composite that consists of a large amount of Mythril.” “I see. So if we intertwine those threads, they would become usable threads for me.” “Exactly.” I’ve never heard of using the monsters’ ecology to create equipment... Normally you defeated said monsters and used their remains to make them. It appears that I had yet another fellow among my acquaintances that deviated from the common standards.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 0, "inserted_lines_src": 14, "inserted_lines_trg": 0 }
護衛の道中は、その後も問題なく続いた。何度か野生動物の襲撃などはあったが、クラウドとミシェルの前では全く敵にならなかった。そし目の朝、ようやくメトセラの街に戻ってきた。「いや、実に順調だった。これは次も頼むしかないな」クラウドも道中で商人とは仲良くなっており、気安く言葉を交わす程度の仲にはなっていた。対してミシェルは、初めて訪れた町に興味津々で、視線はせわしなく街路の屋台を捕捉していたりもした。「それじゃ、後でギルドの方に金を振り込んでおくから、そっちで報酬を受け取ってくれ」「おっと、積み荷を降ろすまでは依頼のうちだからな!」「わかってますって」元は炭鉱などで粉塵を防ぐために使われていた物で、その遮蔽率はラウムの品よりも遥かに高い。それがおよ個。商人の経験からしても、結構な大口取引である。「悪いな、本当なら休んでもらわないといけないんだが、特注品で個包装されていてな。その分嵩が増してるんだ」「しょせん布なんで、軽いもんスよ。それに俺、こう見えても力自慢なんで」「そういってくれると助かるよ」実際、クラウドはその細身の身体からは想像できないほど力が強い。「荷降ろしが終わったら、詫び奢らせてくれ。お前たちも一緒に飲もう」「へい!」待機していた人足たちにもそう声をかける。彼らもタダ酒が飲めるとあって、表情を明るくしていた。「それじゃ倉庫に行くぞ。南の三番倉庫だ」「え、お昼食べてからじゃないの?」「ミシェル、あとで買ってやるから」「ホント? ぜったいだからね?」さすがに仕事の最中に買い食いするほど、ミシェルも非常識ではないので、それに大人しく従っていた。「ハハハ、なら仕事が終わったら俺が腹いっぱい食わせてやるよ!」「やったぁ!」「やめておけ! マジで!?」その意味を理解せず、きょとんとした表情を浮かべる商人。夜になり、商人は約束通り、ミシェルたちに食事をおごっていた。すでにミシェルの暴走を止める気は、毛頭ない。「いや、これは......よく食うな」「ちっさい頃からそれが自慢だったし」「この外見に騙されて、何人が泣いたことか」「む、騙してなんてないもん」ミシェルの体格自体はほっそりとしている。肩も腕も健康的ではあるが、無駄な肉はない。胸以外は。今その犠牲者リストに、商人の名前も載ろうとしていた。「悪いね、こっちばっかり食ってて」「気にすんな。俺たちもタダ酒飲ませて貰ってるからな」男たちも同じテーブルについて、一緒に酒を飲んでいるが、卓上の料理はほとんどミシェルの胃に消えていっている。それを謝罪したのだ。これまでに、ミシェルを狙って一服盛ろうとする男たちを散々見てきたからだ。クラウドの視線に気付いているのか、男たちも微妙に緊張した様子を見せていた。「なんだか視線を感じるんだが......?」「ああ、悪い。つい癖でね。ほら、相方がアレだから」「なるほどな。心配の種は尽きないってところか」「気を悪くしたなら謝るよ」「いや、気持ちはわかるさ」ニコルが貴婦人的な美しさだとしたら、ミシェルは村娘の気安さを漂わせていた。どちらに声をかけやすいかと問われれば、圧倒的にミシェルに軍配が上がるだろう。そんなやり取りを交わしつつ夜も更けていき、やがて人足の一人が席を立った。「悪い、ちょっとトイレ行ってくるわ」「おう。手早くな」トイレは厨房のそばに設置されていている。これは店員も頻繁に使用するからである。しばらくして新しい料理が運ばれ、揚げ物の一つに即座にミシェルが手を伸ばした。クラウドはその光景を眺めつつジョッキに口を運んでいたが、中身が空であることに気付いた。「ついでに持ってきたぞ」「ああ、手間をかけたな」男からジョッキを受け取り、口に運ぶ。するとしばらくして、くらりと視界が揺れた。に、慌ててミシェルに視線を送ると、彼女はすでに酔い潰れたかのように、テーブルに突っ伏していた。「バカな。彼女は、酒は飲んで、ない、はず......」ミシェルはほとんど酒を口にしない。今日も料理ばかりで酒は飲んでいないはずだった。見れば、商人も同じように酔い潰れている。「いや、これは......一服、盛った、な......」視界が暗転する寸前、クラウドは男たちがニヤニヤとした笑みを浮かべているのを、目にしていた。	The guarding continued without any problems even after that. Though some wild animals attacked them on the way, they were practically no match for Cloud and Michelle. Each time it happened, the scarred merchant couldn’t hide his astonishment at Michelle’s skill. Then, when the morning of the third day came, they finally returned back to Methuselah. “That went really well. I would love to depend on you two next time too.” Cloud had grown quite close to the Merchant during the journey too, so they were on good enough terms to talk casually now. Michelle on the other hand was full of curiosity when she first visited the new city and had her eyes peeled on the street stalls all the time. Cloud had to peel her off the stalls whenever she fixated on one and wouldn’t move. “Well then, I will send the payment to the Guild later, so you can receive it there.” “Oh wait, your work still continues until we unload the luggage, you know?” “I know, I know.” The ordered goods were masks with fine stitches that were made in the Matara kingdom in the east. It was originally used to protect the wearer from the mineral dust in coal mines and such, so their masking potency was far higher than those made in Raum. And there were about of those here now. It was quite a big order even from his experience as a Merchant. “Sorry about that. I would’ve given you a breather, but these are special orders and are packaged individually. Due to that, their volume is larger.” “It’s just cloth, in the end, so it should be light. I’m a power-type even if I don’t look it.” “Glad to hear it then.” Cloud was in fact unbelievably strong in contrast to what his thin body suggested. It was due to all the training and battles he had gone through since he was a child that he managed to gain that strength. “Once we’re done with the unloading, let me treat you to a drink as an apology. You guys should come join us too.” “Sure!” He also called out to the laborers who were on standby. Their expressions brightened up when they heard they’d be getting free drinks. “Okay then, let’s head to the warehouse. It’s the third one in the south.” “Huh, we’re not gonna eat first?” “Michelle, I’ll treat you to some later.” “Really? I’m gonna believe you, okay?” Cloud pulled regretful-looking Michelle along and they headed to the warehouse. Michelle wasn’t as thoughtless as to eat during work either, so she decided to behave herself. “Hahaha, then I’ll let you have your fill once the work is over!” “Yaay!” “Seriously, don’t do that!” Cloud, who knew how big her appetite was, was desperately trying to stop the merchant from something so reckless. The merchant looked puzzled, not understanding the reason behind it. Thus, they headed to the warehouse in such a boisterous mood. Come night, the merchant treated them to a meal as he promised. Seeing Michelle’s unrestrained appetite made him stare wide-eyed at her gluttony. Cloud had a somewhat apologetic expression as he drank his alcohol. He had no more intention to stop Michelle’s rampage. “Oh my... you sure can eat.” “That’s been my selling point since I was a kid.” “So many people were brought to tears, deceived by her appearance.” “Hmph, I haven’t deceived anyone.” Michelle’s body itself was slender. Her shoulders and limbs looked healthy, but with no needless flesh. Setting her chest aside. Deceived by that, many men had invited her to eat with ulterior motives, but her appetite had thoroughly ruined their wallets. The merchant’s name was about to be added to the list of such victims. “Sorry about that. We’re the only ones eating here.” “No worries. We’re getting free drinks here too.” Cloud apologized to the laborer men. They were sitting at the same table and enjoying drinks, but the food on the table mostly disappeared into Michelle’s belly, so he apologized for that. They didn’t seem to have minded that, so he felt relieved and returned back to eating. Still, he didn’t remove his eyes from monitoring their hands. It was because he had seen many people aiming at Michelle that tried to drug her. They seemed to have noticed his gaze and were somewhat nervous too. “I feel like you’re giving us a strange gaze...” “Oh, sorry. It’s just my habit. I mean, I have her with me, after all.” “I see. I suppose you have endless worries.” “Sorry if I ruined your mood.” “No, no, I understand what you mean.” Setting Michelle’s body aside, even her looks were charming and gave off a naive impression. If Nicole had the beauty of a noblewoman, Michelle gave off a relaxed feeling of a village girl. If you asked which one was easier to call out to, the scales would be overwhelmingly tilted towards Michelle. For that reason, there was no end to men making extreme approaches at her. It got late as they continued their chat, and eventually, one of the laborers left his seat. “Sorry, I’ll hit the bathroom for a bit.” “Okay. Make it quick. He raised his hand in response and casually disappeared deeper into the store. The bathroom was installed next to the kitchen. It was because the staff frequently used it too. Eventually, new food was carried to the table, and Michelle immediately reached out for a piece of deep-fried food. The merchant also reached with his fork in vigor. Cloud gazed at that scene while carrying the mug to his mouth, but he noticed it was empty. He noticed the men around were low on it too, so he ordered more alcohol. The man who went to the bathroom also returned. He also brought the ordered alcohol. “I brought it with me while I was at it.” “Oh, thanks for that.” The staff probably gave it to him when he was returning from the bathroom. He received the mug from the men and carried it to his mouth. After a while, he felt his gaze shake. Feeling the unnatural dizziness, he quickly looked towards Michelle, and saw she was plopped on the table as if she was dead drunk. “What. She shouldn’t...have been...drinking...” Michelle barely touched alcohol normally. She was focused on food this time too and wasn’t drinking. Cloud was also paying attention to it when they were with other men too. Looking again, the merchant was similarly dead drunk. “No, looks like...we were drugged, huh...” Just before he blacked out, Cloud saw the men grinning at him.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 3, "inserted_lines_src": 25, "inserted_lines_trg": 0 }
オックスフォードにあるグランドカフェですなぜ撮ったかといえば 1650年にイングランドではじめて開業したコーヒー店だからですすばらしく由緒ある店ですこれをお見せしたいと思ったのは歴史あるイングランドでスターバックスみたいなものを紹介したいからではなくイングランドのコーヒー店がこれまで500年にわたって知的創造の発展と普及つまり啓蒙運動の中心的役割を担ってきたからです啓蒙運動の発生にあたってコーヒー店が大きな役割を果たした背景に出される飲みものが絡んでいましたなぜならコーヒーや紅茶が英国文化に浸透するまで上流階級も一般大衆も朝から晩まで毎日酒を飲んでいたからです昼間から好んで酒を飲んでいました朝食でビールを少し昼食でワインを少し特に1650年ごろにはジンを飲み夜はビールとワインで仕上げました水が安全ではなかったので衛生的な正しい選択でしたつまりコーヒー店ができるまでは市民全員が一日中酔っぱらっていたといえます一日中酒を飲んでいたらそういう方もいらっしゃるでしょうがどうなるか想像がつくでしょうところがたるんだ生活をカフェインで覚醒すればいいアイデアが浮かぶようになります頭が冴えて注意深くなりますですからイングランドで紅茶やコーヒーを飲み始めて素晴らしい革新が起きたのは当然なのですコーヒー店が重要な理由は他にもありますそれは空間構造ですさまざまな経歴の人たちさまざまな分野の専門家がこの空間を共有しますマットリドリーが言うアイデアがセックスする空間です夫婦が寝るベッドのようでありここでアイデアが交じり合いますこの時代に生まれた膨大な数の革新を紐解くとその歴史のどこかにコーヒー店が関わっていますこの5年間多くの時間を費やしてコーヒー店について考えてきたのはこんな疑問の答えを探し求めているからです「良いアイデアはどこで生まれるのか?」どのような環境からたぐいまれな革新やたぐいまれな創造が生み出されるのか? 創造性をはぐくむ環境とか空間とはどのようなものか? そこで私はコーヒー店のような環境を調べたりインターネットのように革新が相次ぐメディア環境を調べたりしてきましたその歴史が始まった地を訪れたり生物学的な革新が次から次に生じるサンゴ礁や熱帯雨林といった生物環境も訪れこういったあらゆる環境で共通して見られる徴候を探し求めてきました私たちの生活、組織、環境などに応用したときにもっと創造的で革新的にできるような共通のパターンはあるのでしょうか? いくつかありましたがこれを理解しこれらの本質を真に理解するためには従来の比喩や表現に見られるアイデアの創造を特定の概念に結びつけるような多くの思い込みを捨てる必要がありますアイデアが生まれる瞬間を表現する言葉は豊富にあります「閃光が走る」「脳天を打つ」「神が舞い降りる」、「ひらめいた!」「光が灯る」などがありますね。見て分かるように全ての概念が大げさに誇張されていますしいずれの概念もアイデアは単独で存在し素晴らしい光を受けた瞬間に浮かび上がることを前提にしていますでも実際は個別要素のネットワークだと申し上げたいのですそう考えてもらったほうがよいのです頭の中ではそうなっているからです脳内で協調を取りながら伝達し合うニューロンの新しいネットワークが新しいアイデアなのです今まで構築されていなかった新しい組み合わせですではどんな環境に置かれた脳が新しいネットワークを構築しやすいのでしょう? 実は外界に見られるネットワーク構造は脳内のネットワーク構造と似通っていることが分かっています好きな逸話があります 1650年代から時代は下り最近の素晴らしいアイデアにまつわるお話ですティモシープレステロという素晴らしい人物がデザインザットマターズという組織を運営しています途上国での幼児死亡率といった悲惨で猶予のない問題に取り組むため設立された組織ですこんなことで困っていましたどこであっても近代的な新生児用の保育器を使い未熟児を暖めてやることでその環境の幼児死亡率を半減できますその技術はすでに存在しますどの先進国でも一般的なものです問題なのはそれを4万ドルで購入してアフリカにある中規模の村に送ったとしても 1年や2年はとても役に立ちますがその後はどこか調子が悪くなって壊れてしまい壊れたまま放置されます予備の部品の流通システムもなく 4万ドルの装置を修理するような現地の技術者もいないからですお金をつぎ込んで援助や最新機器を送っても無駄になるそんな問題に行き当たるのですプレステロたちは良く考えて途上国で十分に行き渡っているものは何か? という点に注目しビデオも電子レンジもあまりないけれど車を走らせるためのメンテナンスはうまく行われていると気づきましたどこでもトヨタのハイラックスが道を走っていますから車をメンテナンスする技術者ならいるようなのでこう考えました「車の部品だけで新生児用の保育器を作れないだろうか?」出来上がったものがこちら改良型保育器です西洋諸国の近代的な病院にあるような普通の保育器と一見同じですが中身はすべて車の部品ですファンを使いヘッドライトを熱源にしてドアベルを警報装置にしていますカーバッテリーで動作しますトヨタ店舗から予備部品を入手できてヘッドライトを修理できるならこの保育器を修理できます素晴らしいアイデアですが私が言いたいのはこの話がアイデア創出の示唆にあふれていることです 4万ドルの最新保育器のような先端技術の結晶を飛躍的アイデアだと思いがちですが身近に落ちている何らかの部品でも組み立てられることが多いのです私たちは人からアイデアをもらいますコーヒー店で偶然会った人からアイデアをもらって新しい形態に縫合して新しいアイデアを生み出しますそうやって革新が起きるのですつまり革新や熟考とは何かについての概念を一部変える必要があります熟考といえばこんな姿でしたこちらはケンブリッジ時代のニュートンとリンゴです像はオックスフォードにあります座って熟考したりリンゴの落下を見て万有引力の法則に気づいたりしますでも歴史的にみると革新を生み出す空間とは実はこのような姿をしています酒場での政治的な集まりをホガースが描いたものです当時のコーヒー店もこのような様子でした混沌とした状況でアイデアが飛び交いさまざまな立場の人が集まって新しく面白く予測不能な衝突が生まれていそうですより革新的な組織を作りたいなら変に思えてもこれに少し似た空間を作ったほうがいい皆さんのオフィスをこうしたほうがいいそれが私のメッセージですこの分野の調査では自己申告があてにならないという問題がありますどこで良いアイデアを思いついたか最高のアイデアはどう生まれたかを聞くときの話です数年前にケビンダンバーという偉大な研究者はやり方を変えて監視に基づく手法で良いアイデアが生まれる場所を調べました世界中の研究所をたくさん訪れて研究者全員の挙動を全てビデオ撮影しました顕微鏡の前に座っているところや冷水器の脇での同僚との立ち話も会話を全て記録しどこで一番重要なアイデアが生まれたか見つけ出そうとしました研究室の科学者のイメージといえば顕微鏡ごしに何かを垂らしてサンプル細胞の状態を見ながら「ひらめいた!」と叫ぶというものですがダンバーが実際にテープを見てみると実は重要な飛躍的アイデアのほとんどは研究室の顕微鏡を前に一人で思いつくのではなく毎週開かれる研究室の会議で生まれていました会議では全員で最新データや成果を持ち寄りたびたび失敗、エラー、観測信号に含まれるノイズなども持ち寄っていました私はこういった環境を「流動的ネットワーク」と呼んでいますここにさまざまなアイデアが集結し立場や興味を異にする人たちが集まり互いに意見を交えるのですこの環境こそ革新につながる環境ですまだ別の問題もあります誰もが短期間で革新を遂げたことにして「ひらめいた!」瞬間の物語として伝えたがります「立っていたら突然浮かんだ」と言いたいのですでも実際に過去の記録を調べてみると重要なアイデアの多くにとても長い熟成期間があったことが判明しました「ゆっくりとした予感」と呼べるものです最近よく予感や直感や一瞬のひらめきについて耳にしますが実際には素晴らしいアイデアはときに何十年も心の奥でくすぶっています興味を引く問題に気づいていてもそれを解き明かす術が全くないのですずっと何かの問題に取り組んでいても別の興味を引くものが気になるのに決して解決できないのですダーウィンはうってつけの例です彼は自伝の中で自然淘汰のアイデアを思いついたいわゆる「ひらめいた!」瞬間を記していますダーウィンは 1838年10月の研究中に人口に関するマルサスの著書を読みながらまさに突然頭の中に自然淘汰の基本アルゴリズムが浮かび「ついに取り組むべき理論を見つけた」と言ったと自伝に書いています 10年か20年ほど前にハワードグルーバーという偉大な学者がその時代のダーウィンのノートを調べ返しましたダーウィンが残した膨大なノートにはどんな小さなアイデアや予感も記されていましたグルーバーの調査によればマルサスの著書を読んでいた1838年10月の「ひらめいた!」瞬間よりもずっと何か月も前から自然淘汰の理論ができ上がっていたようですそれが分かる記載があるのですダーウィンの言う「ひらめいた!」瞬間より前の記述から彼の著書の内容をすでに読み取れるのですつまりダーウィンはアイデアや概念を手にしながらまだ完全には考え抜けていなかったことが分かります優れたアイデアはこのように生まれるものであって少しずつ長期に及んでいるのですここで厄介な問題がありますどうすればアイデア創出までの長い熟成期間を辛抱できる環境を作れるか? 上司にこう言うのは大変です「有用で素晴らしいアイデアがあります 2020年ごろに使えるようにします取り組む時間をいただけませんか?」グーグルのようないくつかの企業では革新を生むために20%の時間を割いています予感を育むための組織的なシステムだといえますこれはとても重要なことですまた自分の予感を他者の予感に結合させることも重要でよくあることです半分ずつアイデアをもつ二人が適切な環境で出会うと足し算以上の結果が生まれます考えてみると私たちは普段から知的財産権保護の価値を話題にしていますつまり防衛手段を築いたり研究開発を秘密にしたり何でも特許にしたりしますアイデアを価値あるものとして残しアイデア創出を奨励し文化をもっと革新的なものにするためですただ言っておきたいのですがアイデアの結合をもたらす要因についてもせめて同じぐらい重要視するべきです保護の話だけではだめですそこでこんな話があります示唆に富んだ革新に関する素敵な話で思いもよらない成り行きからどのように革新が生まれるか教えてくれます時は 1957年10月のスプートニクがまさに打ち上げられた直後米国メリーランド州のローレルにあるジョンズホプキンズ大学付属の応用物理研究所でのことです月曜の朝スプートニクが軌道を回っているというニュースが飛び込んできましたここは専門バカの巣窟で物理屋は誰もが「え〜!嘘だろ信じられないよ」という気持ちでした研究所にいた 20代の研究者が二人食堂のテーブルで他の多くの研究者に混じって雑談していましたガイアーとウェイフンバックの二人ですどちらかがこう言いました「だれかこいつの音を聞いてみた? 今宇宙で人工衛星が飛んでいるんだ当然何か信号を送っているからチューニングしたら聞こえるかも」何人かに尋ねて回ると「思いつかなかったおもしろいね」と誰もが言います実はウェイフンバックはマイクロ波受信技術の専門家でしたから研究室には増幅器が付いた小さなアンテナもありました二人はウェイフンバックの研究室に戻り装置をいじり始めました今でいうハッキングでしょうか 2時間ほど経つと受信可能になりました実はソ連は追跡しやすいようにスプートニクを設計していたのですちょうど20メガヘルツですから簡単に合わせられますソ連は嘘だといわれたくなかったので見つけやすくしていたのです二人が座り込んで耳を傾けていると研究室に人が集まりだして「いいね!聞かせて?すごいよ」なんて言われましたそしてすぐ「歴史的瞬間だ聞いたのは米国で初めてだろうから記録しておこう」と考えて大きくかさばるアナログのテープレコーダーでピー、ピーという小さなビープ音を録音し始めましたさらに録音した小さなビープ音ごとに日時を記載しておきましたそして「あれ? 周波数がわずかに変動しているなドップラー効果を利用して計算すれば衛星の移動速度がわかるかもしれない」と思いましたしばらく考えを暖めると専門分野の違う何人かの研究者に尋ねましたこう返ってきました「すごいねドップラー効果の変化率が分かれば衛星がアンテナに一番近い位置と一番遠い位置が分かるよこれはすごいよ」その後許可が下りました職務外のプロジェクトという位置づけを改め導入直後で最新の部屋いっぱいの大きさの UNIVACコンピュータの使用許可を得ました計算を重ねながら 3、4週間かけて地球をまわる衛星の正確な軌道を描き出すことができましたある日の食事中の思いつきからスタートして片手間の作業でかすかな信号音を聞いてそれだけの所からたどり着いたのです 2週間後上司のフランクマクルアが二人を呼んで尋ねました「君たちがやっているプロジェクトのことでちょっと聞きたいことがあるんだ位置が分かっている地上から地球を回っている衛星のいる位置を計算できたんだから逆はどうだろうか? 衛星の位置が分かっているときに地球上での位置を知ることができないだろうか?」考えてから答えました「できると思いますよちょっと計算してみましょう」検討してから上司のところに戻り「こちらのほうが簡単です」と伝えると上司は言います「それはいいね新しい原子力潜水艦を作っているのだけど太平洋の真ん中で潜水艦の位置を把握できないとモスクワ上空に向けて正確にミサイルを発射するのはとても難しいんだ衛星をたくさん打ち上げて潜水艦を追跡すれば太平洋の真ん中で位置を把握できるのではないかと思っていたんだよこの問題に取り組んでほしい」こうしてGPSが誕生しました 30年後ロナルドレーガンは GPSを開放してオープンプラットフォームとしました誰もがこれを足掛かりとすることができ誰もが参加してこのプラットフォームの上に創造と革新につながる新しい技術を構築していけますまさに誰でも何でもできるように開放されているのです間違いないことがありますこの会場の少なくとも半分はポケットに入った携帯から宇宙に浮かぶ衛星と通信していますそして間違いなく誰か一人はその携帯と衛星を使って近くのコーヒー店の場所を探したはずです少なくとも昨日か先週か (拍手) これはオープンイノベーションという体系の持つ素晴らしく思いがけない創発的で予測不可能な力について学べる良い事例なのです正しく構築すれば構築者すら予期しなかった全く新しい方向に導いてくれるのです先ほどの二人の男たちは予感や湧きあがる情熱のままにただ突き進んでいるだけでしたがやがて冷戦に立ち向かうこととなり時を経てソイラテを飲みたい誰かの手助けをすることになったのですこのようにして革新は起きるのです心がつながればチャンスは訪れますありがとうございました	This is the Grand Cafe here in Oxford. the first coffeehouse to open in England in 1650. That's its great claim to fame, and I wanted to show it to you, not because I want to give you the kind of Starbucks tour of historic England, but rather because the English coffeehouse was crucial of one of the great intellectual flowerings of the last 500 years, what we now call the Enlightenment. And the coffeehouse played such a big role in the birth of the Enlightenment, in part, because of what people were drinking there. Because, before the spread of coffee and tea through British culture, what people drank -- both elite and mass folks drank -- day-in and day-out, from dawn until dusk was alcohol. Alcohol was the daytime beverage of choice. You would drink a little beer with breakfast and have a little wine at lunch, a little gin -- particularly around 1650 -- and top it off with a little beer and wine at the end of the day. That was the healthy choice -- right -- because the water wasn't safe to drink. And so, effectively until the rise of the coffeehouse, you had an entire population that was effectively drunk all day. And you can imagine what that would be like, right, in your own life -- and I know this is true of some of you -- if you were drinking all day, and then you switched from a depressant to a stimulant in your life, you would have better ideas. You would be sharper and more alert. And so it's not an accident that a great flowering of innovation happened as England switched to tea and coffee. But the other thing that makes the coffeehouse important is the architecture of the space. It was a space where people would get together from different backgrounds, different fields of expertise, and share. It was a space, as Matt Ridley talked about, where ideas could have sex. This was their conjugal bed, in a sense -- ideas would get together there. And an astonishing number of innovations from this period have a coffeehouse somewhere in their story. I've been spending a lot of time thinking about coffeehouses for the last five years, because I've been kind of on this quest to investigate this question of where good ideas come from. What are the environments that lead to unusual levels of innovation, unusual levels of creativity? What's the kind of environmental -- what is the space of creativity? And what I've done is I've looked at both environments like the coffeehouse; I've looked at media environments, like the world wide web, I've gone back to the history of the first cities; I've even gone to biological environments, like coral reefs and rainforests, that involve unusual levels of biological innovation; and what I've been looking for is shared patterns, kind of signature behavior that shows up again and again in all of these environments. Are there recurring patterns that we can learn from, that we can take and kind of apply to our own lives, or our own organizations, or our own environments to make them more creative and innovative? And I think I've found a few. But what you have to do to make sense of this and to really understand these principles is you have to do away with a lot of the way in which our conventional metaphors and language steers us towards certain concepts of idea-creation. We have this very rich vocabulary to describe moments of inspiration. We have the kind of the flash of insight, the stroke of insight, we have epiphanies, we have "eureka!" moments, we have the lightbulb moments, right? All of these concepts, as kind of rhetorically florid as they are, share this basic assumption, which is that an idea is a single thing, it's something that happens often in a wonderful illuminating moment. But in fact, what I would argue and what you really need to kind of begin with is this idea that an idea is a network on the most elemental level. I mean, this is what is happening inside your brain. An idea -- a new idea -- is a new network of neurons firing in sync with each other inside your brain. It's a new configuration that has never formed before. And the question is: how do you get your brain into environments where these new networks are going to be more likely to form? And it turns out that, in fact, the kind of network patterns of the outside world mimic a lot of the network patterns of the internal world of the human brain. So the metaphor I'd like the use I can take from a story of a great idea that's quite recent -- a lot more recent than the 1650s. A wonderful guy named Timothy Prestero, who has a company called ... an organization called Design That Matters. of, you know, the terrible problems we have with infant mortality rates in the developing world. One of the things that's very frustrating about this is that we know, by getting modern neonatal incubators into any context, if we can keep premature babies warm, basically -- it's very simple -- we can halve infant mortality rates in those environments. So, the technology is there. These are standard in all the industrialized worlds. The problem is, if you buy a $40,000 incubator, to a mid-sized village in Africa, it will work great for a year or two years, and then something will go wrong and it will break, and it will remain broken forever, because you don't have a whole system of spare parts, to fix this $40,000 piece of equipment. And so you end up having this problem where you spend all this money getting aid and all these advanced electronics to these countries, and then it ends up being useless. So what Prestero and his team decided to do is to look around and see: what are the abundant resources in these developing world contexts? And what they noticed was they don't have a lot of DVRs, they don't have a lot of microwaves, but they seem to do a pretty good job of keeping their cars on the road. There's a Toyota Forerunner on the street in all these places. They seem to have the expertise to keep cars working. So they started to think, "Could we build a neonatal incubator that's built entirely out of automobile parts?" And this is what they ended up coming with. It's called a "neonurture device." you'd find in a modern, Western hospital. In the inside, it's all car parts. It's got a fan, it's got headlights for warmth, it's got door chimes for alarm -- it runs off a car battery. And so all you need is the spare parts from your Toyota and the ability to fix a headlight, and you can repair this thing. this is a great metaphor for the way that ideas happen. We like to think our breakthrough ideas, you know, are like that $40,000, brand new incubator, state-of-the-art technology, but more often than not, they're cobbled together from whatever parts that happen to be around nearby. We take ideas from other people, from people we've learned from, from people we run into in the coffee shop, and we stitch them together into new forms and we create something new. That's really where innovation happens. And that means that we have to change some of our models of what innovation and deep thinking really looks like, right. I mean, this is one vision of it. Another is Newton and the apple, when Newton was at Cambridge. This is a statue from Oxford. You know, you're sitting there thinking a deep thought, and the apple falls from the tree, and you have the theory of gravity. In fact, the spaces that have historically led to innovation tend to look like this, right. This is Hogarth's famous painting of a kind of political dinner at a tavern, but this is what the coffee shops looked like back then. This is the kind of chaotic environment where ideas were likely to come together, where people were likely to have new, interesting, unpredictable collisions -- people from different backgrounds. So, if we're trying to build organizations that are more innovative, we have to build spaces that -- strangely enough -- look a little bit more like this. This is what your office should look like, is part of my message here. And one of the problems with this is that people are actually -- when you research this field -- people are notoriously unreliable, on where they have their own good ideas, or their history of their best ideas. And a few years ago, a wonderful researcher named Kevin Dunbar decided to go around and basically do the Big Brother approach to figuring out where good ideas come from. He went to a bunch of science labs around the world and videotaped everyone as they were doing every little bit of their job. So when they were sitting in front of the microscope, when they were talking to their colleague at the water cooler, and all these things. And he recorded all of these conversations and tried to figure out where the most important ideas, where they happened. And when we think about the classic image of the scientist in the lab, we have this image -- you know, they're pouring over the microscope, and they see something in the tissue sample. And "oh, eureka," they've got the idea. What happened actually when Dunbar kind of looked at the tape is that, in fact, almost all of the important breakthrough ideas did not happen alone in the lab, in front of the microscope. at the weekly lab meeting, when everybody got together and shared their kind of latest data and findings, oftentimes when people shared the mistakes they were having, the error, the noise in the signal they were discovering. And something about that environment -- and I've started calling it the "liquid network," where you have lots of different ideas that are together, different backgrounds, different interests, jostling with each other, bouncing off each other -- that environment is, in fact, the environment that leads to innovation. The other problem that people have is they like to condense their stories of innovation down to kind of shorter time frames. So they want to tell the story of the "eureka!" moment. They want to say, "There I was, I was standing there and I had it all suddenly clear in my head." But in fact, if you go back and look at the historical record, it turns out that a lot of important ideas have very long incubation periods -- I call this the "slow hunch." We've heard a lot recently about hunch and instinct and blink-like sudden moments of clarity, but in fact, a lot of great ideas linger on, sometimes for decades, in the back of people's minds. They have a feeling that there's an interesting problem, but they don't quite have the tools yet to discover them. They spend all this time working on certain problems, but there's another thing lingering there that they're interested in, but they can't quite solve. Darwin is a great example of this. Darwin himself, in his autobiography, tells the story of coming up with the idea for natural selection as a classic "eureka!" moment. He's in his study, it's October of 1838, and he's reading Malthus, actually, on population. And all of a sudden, the basic algorithm of natural selection kind of pops into his head and he says, "Ah, at last, I had a theory with which to work." That's in his autobiography. About a decade or two ago, a wonderful scholar named Howard Gruber went back and looked at Darwin's notebooks from this period. And Darwin kept these copious notebooks where he wrote down every little idea he had, every little hunch. And what Gruber found was that Darwin had the full theory of natural selection for months and months and months before he had his alleged epiphany, reading Malthus in October of 1838. There are passages where you can read it, and you think you're reading from a Darwin textbook, from the period before he has this epiphany. And so what you realize is that Darwin, in a sense, had the idea, he had the concept, but was unable of fully thinking it yet. And that is actually how great ideas often happen; they fade into view over long periods of time. Now the challenge for all of us is: how do you create environments that allow these ideas to have this kind of long half-life, right? It's hard to go to your boss and say, "I have an excellent idea for our organization. It will be useful in 2020. Could you just give me some time to do that?" Now a couple of companies -- like Google -- they have innovation time off, 20 percent time, where, in a sense, those are hunch-cultivating mechanisms in an organization. But that's a key thing. And the other thing is to allow those hunches to connect with other people's hunches; that's what often happens. You have half of an idea, somebody else has the other half, and if you're in the right environment, they turn into something larger than the sum of their parts. So, in a sense, we often talk about the value of protecting intellectual property, you know, building barricades, having secretive R&D labs, patenting everything that we have, so that those ideas will remain valuable, and people will be incentivized to come up with more ideas, and the culture will be more innovative. But I think there's a case to be made that we should spend at least as much time, if not more, valuing the premise of connecting ideas and not just protecting them. And I'll leave you with this story, which I think captures a lot of these values, and it's just wonderful kind of tale of innovation and how it happens in unlikely ways. It's October of 1957, and Sputnik has just launched, and we're in Laurel Maryland, associated with Johns Hopkins University. And it's Monday morning, and the news has just broken about this satellite that's now orbiting the planet. And of course, this is nerd heaven, right? There are all these physics geeks who are there thinking, "Oh my gosh! This is incredible. I can't believe this has happened." And two of them, two 20-something researchers at the APL are there at the cafeteria table having an informal conversation with a bunch of their colleagues. And these two guys are named Guier and Weiffenbach. And they start talking, and one of them says, "Hey, has anybody tried to listen for this thing? There's this, you know, man-made satellite up there in outer space that's obviously broadcasting some kind of signal. We could probably hear it, if we tune in." And so they ask around to a couple of their colleagues, and everybody's like, "No, I hadn't thought of doing that. That's an interesting idea." And it turns out Weiffenbach is kind of an expert in microwave reception, and he's got a little antennae set up with an amplifier in his office. And so Guier and Weiffenbach go back to Weiffenbach's office, and they start kind of noodling around -- hacking, as we might call it now. And after a couple of hours, they actually start picking up the signal, because the Soviets made Sputnik very easy to track. It was right at 20 MHz, so you could pick it up really easily, because they were afraid that people would think it was a hoax, basically. So they made it really easy to find it. So these two guys are sitting there listening to this signal, and people start kind of coming into the office and saying, "Wow, that's pretty cool. Can I hear? Wow, that's great." And before long, they think, "Well jeez, this is kind of historic. We may be the first people in the United States to be listening to this. We should record it." And so they bring in this big, clunky analog tape recorder and they start recording these little bleep, bleeps. And they start writing the kind of date stamp, time stamps for each little bleep that they record. And they they start thinking, "Well gosh, you know, we're noticing small little frequency variations here. We could probably calculate the speed that the satellite is traveling, if we do a little basic math here using the Doppler effect." And then they played around with it a little bit more, and they talked to a couple of their colleagues who had other kind of specialties. And they said, "Jeez, you know, to figure out the points at which the satellite is closest to our antennae and the points at which it's farthest away. That's pretty cool." And eventually, they get permission -- this is all a little side project that hadn't been officially part of their job description. They get permission to use the new, you know, UNIVAC computer They run some more of the numbers, and at the end of about three or four weeks, turns out they have mapped the exact trajectory of this satellite around the Earth, just from listening to this one little signal, going off on this little side hunch that they'd been inspired to do over lunch one morning. A couple weeks later their boss, Frank McClure, pulls them into the room and says, "Hey, you guys, I have to ask you something about that project you were working on. You've figured out an unknown location of a satellite orbiting the planet from a known location on the ground. Could you go the other way? Could you figure out an unknown location on the ground, if you knew the location of the satellite?" And they thought about it and they said, "Well, I guess maybe you could. Let's run the numbers here." So they went back, and they thought about it. And they came back and said, "Actually, it'll be easier." And he said, "Oh, that's great. Because see, I have these new nuclear submarines that I'm building. if you don't know where the submarine is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. So we're thinking, we could throw up a bunch of satellites and use it to track our submarines and figure out their location in the middle of the ocean. Could you work on that problem?" And that's how GPS was born. 30 years later, Ronald Reagan actually opened it up and made it an open platform that anybody could kind of build upon and anybody could come along and build new technology that would create and innovate on top of this open platform, left it open for anyone to do pretty much anything they wanted with it. And now, I guarantee you certainly half of this room, if not more, has a device sitting in their pocket right now that is talking to one of these satellites in outer space. And I bet you one of you, if not more, has used said device and said satellite system to locate a nearby coffeehouse somewhere in the last -- in the last day or last week, right? And that, I think, is a great case study, a great lesson in the power, the marvelous, kind of unplanned emergent, unpredictable power of open innovative systems. When you build them right, they will be led to completely new directions that the creators never even dreamed of. I mean, here you have these guys who basically thought they were just following this hunch, this little passion that had developed, then they thought they were fighting the Cold War, and then it turns out they're just helping somebody find a soy latte. That is how innovation happens. Chance favors the connected mind. Thank you very much.	{ "source": "iwslt2017", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
サンダーバード......。なんでこんな場所に居るんだ? この場にいる全員が、唖然とした。さすがはSSランカーと騎士団長、すぐに応戦しようとした...が。雷鳥は休ませるつもりはないらしく、放電流を何本も流してくる。あの放電はまた、魔法とは違う物だ。雷鳥自らの身体から雷を出している。俺の吸魔の剣でも吸い取れないだろう。行動を起こそうとしていは、すぐに、その放電から、騎士団長は王様、バッカスさんはテュールさんを庇いつつ、うまく回避した。ラハンドさんは、ミュリさん、リロさんから電流を遠ざけたが、彼は電を、足に喰らってしまったようだ。オルゴさん、ルインさん、そして意外にも大臣さんは自力で回避していたが、オルゴさんが右腕に被弾してしまった。オルゴさんとラハンドさんには、後でポーションを渡そう。ところで、俺とカルアちゃんのところだけ異常に本数が多い気がする。俺はカルアちゃんを苦しくも突き飛ばし、電流から逃れさせる。俺は、迫ってきた電流のうち、4本を捌ききれなくて、被弾してしまう。一本は左腕、一本は右の脇腹。そして残り二本は顔面に。「ヴグガァァァァッ...............」主に顔が燃えているのがわかる。痛い。苦しい。唇が火傷で塞がってしまい、まともに声も出せない。左目も、焼き#爛__ただ__#れてしまったようだ。耳も聞こえなくなった。幸い、右目と右手、両足は使える。十分だ。俺の友達を襲った糞鳥を切り刻むには、足と片手と片目さえあればいい。「あ.........り.........おが......かおがぁぁ......」カルアちゃんが泣きながら何かを言っている。ただ、今の俺には全然聞こえないが。周りのみんなも、俺の顔を見て口を抑えていたり、顔を背けたり、ふせたり、泣いたりしている。そんなに酷いのだろうか? 騎士団長とバッカスさんはスクッと立ち上がり、怒りに満ちた顔つきで、サンダーバードに向かって行った。 ......させっかよ。そいつは俺の獲物だ。幸い、あのグローブはつけてきている。つまり今、俺は4倍の速さで動ける。一瞬で、空中にいるサンダーバードとの間合いを詰める。そして、気痛剣を取り出し、8000MPを注ぎ込み、剣の強さを20倍にして『剣極奥義滅』を叩き込む。この間一瞬。そして、奴は気絶。俺は、サンダーバードが落下する前に、その巨体のくちばしを掴み、空いた壁の穴から、城の中に無理やりねじ込む。そして、食会会場内で『剣極奥義・一の段』2回。トドメに『剣極奥義・五の滅』をもう一回放つ。城内は、俺の攻撃によって付けられた傷はない。本当にこの剣は役に立つ。ヤツは無傷で倒れた。カルアちゃんが無事か気になり、ふと、その方向を見てみると、白い煙が何やらカルアちゃんに近づいてきている......。その煙は実態化し、あの醜男の手となった。趣味の悪そうな装飾品をつけていたから、よくわかる。なるほど、こいつはサンダーバードと戦ってる間にカルアちゃんをさらう。そういう計画だったんだな? 俺は、その手に向かって、カルアちゃんに当たらないように剣を投げる。カルアちゃんが驚いてる。ごめんね。だが、残念、完全に実態化する前だったらしく、煙が散るばかりで、ファウストの手は攻撃できなかった。俺は今、痛みで動けない。さっき、身体を酷使しすぎた。醜男を捕まえられない。また、カルアちゃんをさらいに来るかもしれないのに。でも、でも、本当に痛くて動けない。主に顔が......。ははっ、多分今、冗談でも美少女なんて言えない顔してんだろうなぁ...。グレートポーションで治したいけど、口が開かない。そんなこと考えてると、見張りの兵を含め、その場にいた全員、こちらに駆け寄ってきた。そして、騎士団長さんは、俺の口をナイフでこじ開け、そこに、おそらく、俺が前にルインさん達にあげたであろうグレートポーションを流し込んできた。わかる、身体が癒されていくのが。わかる、全てが元に戻るのが。 ___カルアちゃんが、俺に大泣きしながら抱きついた。俺は自然と涙が出ていた。ちゃんと、両目からだ。そして口々に『良かった良かった』と言っている。俺は担架で医務室に運ばれた。別にグレートポーション飲んだからそんなの必要ないのに。そんなに、様子が酷かったのだろうか? 医務室に一緒に来たルインさんに、俺はどんな顔をしていたのか聞いてみたが、『知らない方がいい』と言っていた。まぁ、自分の感覚でも一部分、骨ぐらいは剥き出しになってた感じがしたし、相当なものだったんだろうね。カルアちゃんが、やはり、大泣きしたまま『ごめんなさい、ごめなさい』と謝ってくる。なぜ、そんなに謝ってしているのか聞くと、こう答えた。「ありむぢゃんがっ......ぅっ......わだしを庇って......あんな、あんな風になっじゃっで......っ......うぁぁぁぁぁ......ごめなざいっ...ごべんなざおっ.........おごっでっ!......ますよねっ......」なるほど、庇って貰って、自分の不備だと感じ謝ってきたのか。その気持ちは嬉しいが、俺はおこってないぞ? 「え......ボク、全然怒ってないよ? むしろ、カルアちゃんが無事で良かったって思ってるよ?」「え......そうなん......ですか? てっきり、怒ってるから、剣を投げつけてきたのかと......」「そうだ、アリムよ。それは私も聞きたい。お前が理由も無しに、姫様に剣を投げつけるなんて考えられないからな。今日、一緒に過ごしてそう思った。......なぜ剣を投げたのだ?」騎士団長さんが、食い気味で聞いてくる。王様も知りたいようだ。まさか、誰も気付かなかったのか? 「え......? みなさん、気付かなかったんですか? あいつを...」「なに? サンダーバードのことか?」「いえ、違います。サンダーバードを倒したあとに、カルアさんに向かって、手が、不自然に浮かんでた煙から伸びてたんです」「なんだって!?」「はい、あれは確かに連れ去ろうとしてました」「なるほど......このドサクサに紛れて姫様をってことか......とんでもない奴だ。今すぐ全兵を警戒させよう」「ん? 煙だって? .........まさか」バッカスさんが何かに気付いたようだ。その煙というワードが強調されたためか、騎士団長さんも、その人物に気付いた。「煙......まさかファウストか?」「......確かに、あの手はファウストの手でした。趣味の悪い装飾品が見えましたから」「...そうか......あのファウストか......サンダーバードもおそらく......」そう、国王は呟き、一旦下を向く。そして、次の瞬間、彼から膨大な魔力が溢れ出る。この世界の人間は、本気でキレた時、身体から魔力が溢れ出るのだ。すげぇ...この人も、相当強いな...。そして、彼はこう、騎士団長とその場にいた兵士達に、鬼の形相で命令した。「今すぐ、今すぐにっ! ヤツの指名手配を強化し、捜索をしろっ! 1000万ベルの賞金をかけてもいいっ! 各国に連絡し、見つけ次第、報告してもらうようにしてくれ! 俺の家族をサンダーバードにより攻撃した罪、神聖なる会食を穢した罪、国に仇をなした罪、城を破壊した罪......そして我が娘の友を、一瞬でも、あのような姿にし、大怪我を負わせた罪を問うのだぁっ! 奴め......捕まり次第......二度と、二度と外の景色を見れると思うなよっ」	Thunderbird... Why is it in this place? Everyone in this place was stunned. As expected of an SS-ranker and the Knight Commander, they immediately tried to counter attack... but. Thunderbirds don’t have any delay between attacks, and they constantly send out electrical discharges. The electrical discharge is different from magic. Thunderbirds emit lightning from their bodies. I won’t be able to take out my sword from my pouch. The Knight Commander moved to protect the King and Bacchus-san moved to protect Tuhl-san. They showed skillful evasion. The Hand-san managed to keep the discharge away from Myuri-san and Lilo-san, but he seems to have eaten a discharge at his feet. Olgo-san, Ruin-san and unexpectedly the minister-san, where avoiding on their own, but Olgo-san got hit on his right arm. I’ll give a potion to Olgo-san and The Hand-san later. Incidentally, it feels like there are more discharges near me and Karua-chan. I push Karua-chan out of the way of the discharges forcefully. Four of the discharges hit me that I was unable to avoid. One on my left arm and one on my right flank. And the other two hit my face. 「Bugugaaaaa....」 I can feel my face being burned. It hurts. Painful My lips get burned together and my voice won’t come out. My left eye seems to have been baked. I can no longer hear anything. Fortunately, I can still use my right eye, right hand, and both feet. It was enough. One hand, one eye, and both feet are more than enough to cut up the shit bird that attacked my friend. 「A..... ri.... ...of.... ....ace is....」 Karua-chan is saying something while crying. But, right now I can’t hear anything. The people around me that see my face are covering their mouth or looking away or look like they will cry. Is it really that bad? The Knight Commander and Bacchus-san stood up and headed toward the thunderbird with faces filled with anger. ... I’ll have you know. That’s my prey. Fortunately, I am able to put on my glove. So, now I can move four times as fast. In an instant, I am close up to the Thunderbird in midair. I then take out my magic sword, pour MP into it, and strengthen the sword by times and attack with 『Extreme Sword Technique・Fifth Destruction』. All this in was in an instant. And then, it fainted. I grab the giant beak of the Thunderbird before it falls and force it through the gaping hole in the wall. And then, from inside the banquet hall, I unleash 『Extreme Sword Technique・First Grade』twice. And as a finishing blow I invoke『Extreme Sword Technique・Fifth Destruction』. Inside the castle, there were no marks left by my attack. This sword is really useful. It fell down undamaged. I was worried about Karua-chan, and when I looked in her direction, white smoke was approaching Karua-chan... The smoke changed form and became the hand of that ugly guy. It was easy to identify as it had an ornament with bad taste. Now I see, that guy planned to abduct Karua-chan while we fought the thunderbird. So that was your plan, huh? I threw my sword towards the hand that was approaching, making sure not to hit Karua-chan. Karua-chan is surprised. Sorry. But unfortunately, it seems like it was not fully materialized, and the smoke was only scattered, but Faust’s hand could not attack. I can no longer move because of the pain. Just now, I have overworked my body. I was unable to catch the ugly man. He might come for Karua-chan again. But, but it really hurts so bad I cannot move. It was mostly around my face... Haha, probably right now, it would be a joke to call myself a beautiful girl... I want to heal it with a great potion but I cannot open my mouth. While I was thinking such things, everyone who was there, including the guards, rushed to me. Then the Knight Commander-san used a knife to pry upon my mouth and poured in a great potion. It is probably one that I had given to Ruin-san before. I have confirmed it, my body is healed. I have also confirmed that everything has turned back. ...Karua-chan was hugging me while crying. The tears where spontaneously coming from my eyes as well. Naturally, it was from both eyes. And several people were saying 『Thank goodness, Thank goodness』. They took me to the doctor’s office on a stretcher. That wasn’t particularly necessary as I had drunken a great potion. Was my state really that bad? I asked Ruin-san who had come together with me to the doctor’s office what sort of face I had but he said, 『Better if you don’t know』. Well, with what feeling I had, I suspected that it had burned down to exposing bone, so that’s quiet appropriate. Likewise, Karua-chan was crying quite hard saying 『I’m sorry, I’m sorry』. When I asked her why she was apologizing so much, she replied. 「Alim-chan was... uuu... In order to protect me...to become like tha... uaaaa... I’m sorry... I’m sowwy... sowie! ...I am...」 I see, to be protected, and then feel one’s own lack of strength and apologize. 「ee... I am completely not angry, you know? Rather, I am wondering, Karua-chan, are you safe and uninjured? 」「eee... is that... so? I thought for sure that you were so angry that you threw your sword at me...」「Oh right, Alim, about that, I‘d like to hear the reason. It is normally unthinkable to throw a sword at a princess without a sufficient reason. Today you spent time together...why did you throw your sword at her? 」 The Knight Commander-san, asked to understand the reason. The King also seems to want to hear about it. No way, did no one else notice? 「ee...? Did no one else notice? That guy...」「What? The thunderbird? 」「No, that’s wrong. After defeating the thunderbird, I turned to Karua-chan, and I saw an unnatural smoke floating towards her with a hand reaching out.」「What did you say!?」「Yes, I was certain that she was going to be kidnapped.」「I see... to kidnap the princess during the confusion... what a ridiculous guy. All soldiers should be put on high alert.」「n? Smoke you say? ... It couldn’t be」 Bacchus-san seems to have noticed it. Because of the emphasis on the word smoke, the Knight Commander seems to have figured out who it may be. 「Smoke... don’t tell me it was Faust?」「... certainly, that hand belonged to Faust. It had the same bad taste ornament that he was wearing.」 (Alim) 「... that so... then Faust... the thunderbird too is probably...」 Right, the King murmured that to himself while looking down. Then, in that moment, a huge amount of magic power came out of him. In this world, when a human seriously snaps, magic power overflows form their body. Amazing... this person is considerably strong... Then, with a face like a demon, he ordered the Knight Commander and the surrounding soldiers. 「Now, immediately! Increase the search for that man and issue more search warrants. Add million bells reward! Contact the other countries, and ask them to report any information found! He is accused of the crime of attacking my family with the thunderbird, the crime of interrupting the the banquet, the crime of destroying the castle... and the crime of making my daughters friend look like that for a moment, that serious injury! That guy... when he is caught... I will make sure that he never, ever sees the light of day again」	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 0, "inserted_lines_src": 1, "inserted_lines_trg": 1 }
突然宙を舞ったゴブリンに、クラウドは唖然として空を見上げた。高々とートルは打ちあがったゴブリンは、その頂点で腹の辺りかに分かれ、血の雨を降らせながら石畳へと墜落する。そしてその赤い雨の向こうにはの男が片腕を振り上げた態勢で立ち尽くしていた。「お、お前――!」異様に長い腕に二刀を持った姿は、クラウドにとって忘れがたいモノだった。今は敵対していないとはいえ、自分の腕を切り落とした、憎むべき男がそこに立っていた。「マテウス!」「よう、元気そうじゃないか、坊や?」だらりと腕を下ろし、まるで散歩のような気楽さで歩み寄ってくる。必要な部分以外はすべて脱力し、そこから鞭のように腕をしならせ、とんでもない破壊力を生み出してくる。それは大盾を持つクラウドの防御を悠々と弾き飛ばすほどの力を秘めていた。マテウスは地に墜ちたゴブリンの死骸を見て、フムと一つ頷いている。「なんだよ?」「ん? ああ。ほら、俺ってゴブリン程度じゃ相手にならねぇじゃん。つまり、俺、強いんだよな?」「認めたくないけど......そうだな」「なのに最近負けっぱなしでさぁ。ちょっと自信無くなってたんだよな?」愛用の大盾を前方に翳し、マテウスの横をすり抜ける。その剣圧はすさまじく、ゴブリンの頭部を絶ち割り、あばらをへし折り、腰骨に当たってようやく止まるほどの威力を持っていた。人体......というにはやや小柄だが、ゴブリンの身体はその分皮膚や骨が固い。頭蓋骨というのは身体の中で最も固いと言われている骨だ。「くっそ、お前、俺の時は手を抜いてたな!」「そりゃ、ガキに本気なんて出さねぇって。いや、ニコル嬢ちゃんには出しても負けたけど?」言い合いながらも互いに背中合わせに立ちゴブリンに備える。対するゴブリンはと言うと、瞬く間に仲間を二体屠られ、完全に混乱していた。これがロードの支配を完全に受けていたのなら、狂乱して襲い掛かってきたのだろうが、半端な支配を受けていたのが仇となった。戦意は高いが狂乱はしない。そんな半端な状態ゆえに、逃げる判断が一瞬遅れてしまう。完全に出遅れたゴブリンに対し、マテウスは容赦なく剣を振るう。自身の勢いを大盾に乗せ、ゴブリンを壁に叩きつけて抑え込む。その場から逃れるべく、ようやくゴブリンは爪を振るいだしたが、時すでに遅し。クラウドの持つ長剣が盾の横から突き出され、ゴブリンの脇腹を深々と抉っていた。本来なら距離を取って逃げたいところなのだろうが、壁と盾に挟まれ身動きが取れない。そうやってもがいている間にもクラウドは剣身を抉って傷口を広げていく。やがて切っ先が重要器官を破壊したのか、ゴブリンは血を吐きグッタリと脱力した。クラウドとて、ニコルやライエルに鍛え上げられ、経験も積んでいる。「なんだ、やろうと思えばやれるんじゃないか?」「うるせ。さっきは数が多かったから手こずってたんだよ」「そういう時は一体に絞って優先的に倒すんだよ?」「後ろに子供がいるのに、迂闊に突進なんてできないっての」「俺だったら気にしねぇけどなぁ?」元々暗殺者出身のマテウスは、誰かを守るという思考そのものをあまり持たない。ゴブリンを倒せと言われたら、背後に居るものを守ることなど考えずに突っ込んでいっただろう。「まぁいいや。おい、そっちのガキ。見ての通りゴブリンどもが潜り込んできてる。さっさと親のところに戻ってろ?」「ひっ!?」自分の命を脅かせたゴブリンすら相手にしない強者。その男に凄まれ、ひきつったような声を上げる少女。「そっちに行けばアーガスっておっさんがいるから、そいつに助けを求めな」「は、はいぃ!」指さしていった方に、転がるように駆けていく少女たちを見て、マテウスは不本意そうに鼻を鳴らす。「猫の軍師様に命じられて巡回してたんだが......どうもガキにゃ好かれねぇみたいなんだよなぁ。これじゃニコル嬢ちゃんがなびかねぇのも無理はないか」「お前みたいな胡散臭いのになびく女なんて、そもそもいないだろ」「お、言ってくれるねぇ少年。今度じっくり話をしようか。物理的に?」「望むところだ。鍛錬の成果を見せてやるからな!」「ハッ、そりゃ楽しみだねぇ?」子供に嫌われる体質だというのに全く物怖じしないクラウドを、面白そうに見やりながら巡回に戻るマテウス。その後ろを悪態吐きながらも付いていくクラウド。彼の巡回ルートは決められている。偶然だがマテウスが進む先も、同じルートを辿っていた。「っんだよ、ついてくるなよ!」「俺もこっちに行きたい気分なんだよ。坊やこそルートを変えたらどうだ?」「巡回ルートは決められてんだよ」悪態を吐き合いながらも、周囲に鋭く視線を飛ばす二人。この日、彼らだけで十人以上もの人間を救うことになったのだった。 ◇◆◇◆◇	Cloud stared at the sky dumbfounded, seeing a Goblin suddenly fly up. After getting launched good five meters up into the air, it got split into two at around the torso, and then crashed down to the stone paving along with a shower of blood. Beyond the rain of blood, one man stood still with one of his hands raised. “Y-You are—!” He, who held two swords in his long arms, was someone Cloud could hardly ever forget. He was the object of fear, and of hate, as well as a wall he had to overcome. Though not an enemy at present, the man he ought to loath after cutting his arm off stood there. “Mateus!” “Hey there, boy, you look quite lively there eh?” He loosened his arm down, and approached casually as if taking a stroll. But this was actually his battle condition. He removed the strength from all his body parts except the ones that mattered, and then twisted his hands like a whip, generating tremendous destructive force. He hid strength that could effortlessly break through Cloud’s large shield. Mateus looked down on the Goblin corpse and gave a single nod. But his expression looked like he wasn’t satisfied with something. “What’s wrong?” “Hmm? Ah, well, the Goblins aren’t my opponents. So, I’m strong, right?” “I hate to admit it... But that’s right.” “And yet, I keep on losing lately. So I feel like I’m losing my confidence?” He held his favorite shield in front and slipped past him. There was a Goblin that tried to attack him from behind. He stopped its claws aiming for the back of Mateus’ head. At the same time, a sword was swung right next to him. It had a terrific pressure to it, splitting the Goblin’s head, crushing its ribs and finally stopping after reaching the hipbone. The Goblins were a little small to call human-size, but in exchange, they had tougher skin, and bones. Bisecting them vertically like that was something Cloud found unbelievable. The skull was the hardest bone of the body. He managed to split it, along with breaking all the ribs and even the spine at parts. The power held behind that blow was apparent even to a novice like Cloud. “S̲h̲i̲t̲, so you were actually holding back against me back then!” “Well, I can’t go all out against a brat. Though, I still lost against Nicole despite doing it?” Despite throwing remarks at each other, they stood back to back and faced the Goblins. Goblins on the other hand were in disorder after seeing two of their own die in the blink of an eye. If they were under the Lord’s complete domination, they would have still rushed in a fit of frenzy, but the partial domination actually backfired now. They had high fighting spirits but they weren’t mad. Due to such unstable conditions, their judgment to flee was delayed by a moment. Mateus mercilessly swung his swords towards the Goblins who were late to take action. He made an upward and downward swing at the same time, this time managing to bisect one completely in half. Cloud also set up his shield and charged. He transferred all his momentum to the shield and slammed the other Goblin at the wall, keeping it in place. The Goblin finally swings its claws trying to escape, but it was already too late. Cloud stabbed his sword to its flank from the side of the shield, making a deep cut. The Goblin wanted to escape, but it was sandwiched between the wall and the shield, keeping it fixed in place. As it squirmed around, Cloud moved his sword, widening the wound. Before long, his sword seemed to have destroyed some important organ, the Goblin started vomiting blood and lost its strength. Cloud had been trained by Nicole and Lyell, so he had a decent level of experience. He would never lose to a Goblin one on one. The difficulty he faced earlier was all due to their numbers. “Look now, you can do it when you try, huh?” “Shut up. They just overwhelmed me with numbers earlier.” “In these situations, you have to focus on one of them and defeat them in priority, okay?” “I couldn’t carelessly charge at them when I had kids behind me.” “I wouldn’t have cared about that, though?” Mateus, being originally an assassin, didn’t have much consideration for protecting others. If he was told to defeat the Goblins, he would charge at them without caring about protecting the ones behind him. That was something Cloud, who was used to party battles, couldn’t do. “Oh well. Hey, you kids over there. The Goblins are crawling out as you already saw. Return to your parents’ side now, won’t you?” “Eek!?” He was someone whom even the Goblins that threatened them stood no chance against. Being intimidated by him, the girl leaked a stiffened yelp. She supported the weak-kneed boy and desperately left the place. “If you go that way, you’ll meet a guy called Argus, so ask him for help.” “O-Okay!” Seeing the children running towards the direction he pointed while tumbling around, Mateus snorted in disappointment. “The cat strategist told me to come here... But it seems I’m hated by kids as always. No wonder Nicole isn’t swayed by me.” “There’s no girl who’d be swayed by a shady-looking guy like you in the first place.” “Oh, those are some words. Shall we have a nice long talk after this? A physical one.” “Bring it on! I’ll show you the fruits of my training!” “Hah, I guess I should look forward then?” Finding it amusing that Cloud did not show fear despite his nature to be hated by kids, Mateus returned to patrol. Cloud followed after him while spitting abusive language. He already had a patrolling route. By coincidence, Mateus’ route also matched his. “Stop following me already!” “I feel like going this way too. Why not go somewhere else yourself, boy?” “This is the route I’m assigned to!” While cursing at each other, the two still had their eyes carefully monitoring the surroundings. That day, this pair had managed to save over ten people. ◇◆◇◆◇	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 2, "inserted_lines_src": 14, "inserted_lines_trg": 0 }
シェーナは鍋に魔法で火をかけると、コンソメ、ご飯、水を入れてほぐしていく。いい具合に煮たら、そこに牛乳を加えて煮詰めていくと粉チーズと塩を適量に入れていく。皿に盛り付けていくと、コショウをかけてチーズリゾットを完成させる。「お待たせ。今日はリゾットを作ってみたよ」「チーズの香りが食欲をそそるね」「本当はそこにハムやベーコンを加えたいところだけど、異世界にないからね」「えっ? エルフの酪農業者が作っているわよ。最近は市場にも流れ始めているし、『森の聖弓』に依頼すれば割と簡単に入手できるわよ」「そうなのか......」それどころか家畜として豚も飼育されているから驚いた。森の加護を受けているエルフは手先が器用で農作物や穀物を育てることに特化している。最近になってエルフの集落に人間がノウハウを学びに訪れることもあると言う。「でも普通に美味しいわよ。料理や剣の腕も抜群な女騎士様なら、良いお嫁さんになるわよ」「お嫁さんね......」「君の場合は耳が痛いか。まあ料理に関しては、あの人妻ダークエルフと組んだら間違いなく繁盛すると思うよ」サリーニャは皿のリゾットを口に入れながら、太鼓判を押してくれた。料理を褒めてくれるのは嬉しいが、あまり気を抜いて変な事を口走ったら録音機器でサリーニャを別の意味で満足させてしまうのは避けたい。可愛らしいエルフの少女が食事をしているのに、残念な言動がなければとシェーナは切に思う。「冷蔵庫は明日にでも届けられるから、設置場所は決めてあるの?」「ああ、すぐそこの台所に設置するつもりだ」「わかった。朝方に設置業者が運びに行くからね。それと保証の問題だけど以内に不具合で故障したら無料で修理を引き受けるわ。冷蔵庫と一緒に保証書も渡すから、無くさないで保管してね」「何だか家電量販店みたいな対応だね」「これぐらいのサービスは基本よ。もっとサービスして欲しかったら、女騎士様や人妻ダークエルフの強気なお言葉が必要になるわ」シェーナはこれ以上の過剰なサービスは結構と押し退けて、サリーニャは無念そうな顔をする。そんなやりとりをしていると、サリーニャは腕を伸ばして工房へと戻り、最後の仕上げに取り掛かる。	After lighting up the pot with fire magic, Schenna then proceeded to put in the consomme, along with rice and water. As soon as it boiled to the perfect temperature, she added in milk as well as the right portion of powder cheese and salt. To wrap it up, she added in some pepper and the risotto was now complete. “Sorry for the wait. I tried making risotto today.” “The smell from the cheese is already making me hungry.” “The truth is I actually wanted to add in some ham and bacon, but sadly we don’t have it in this world.” “Uh? They do produce it over at the elves’ dairy farms. Lately they have been available in the market as well, if we ask Holy Bow it should be quite easy to get. “Oh really?” Schenna was quite surprised after finding out they did breed pigs after all. Lately, humans began visiting the elves’ farms in order to learn more and more about what they were able to do since they were gifted with the divine protection from the forest, giving them quite dexterous hands. “But this is quite delicious. A female knight who’s good at cooking and swordsmanship, I’m sure you will turn out to be a great wife!” “A wife...” “In your case it’s not a compliment right... Well, if you were to tag along with that dark elf I’m sure it would work out very well.” Sareenea gave Schenna her approval of the food while feasting on the plate of risotto. Schenna was happy for having her cooking skills complimented, but at the same time, she was holding back her words, trying not to say anything that could be misunderstood and recorded by Sareenea. She stared at the cute little elf finishing her meal and thought to herself – “If only her behavior wasn’t so deplorable...” “I’ll make sure the refrigerator gets here tomorrow, did you decide where you’re going to place it yet?” “Yeah, right here in this kitchen!” “Alright then, expect it to arrive during the morning. Also as for the guarantee, if anything happens within a year, I’ll take care of it for free. I’ll send the papers along with the refrigerator tomorrow so make sure you don’t lose it.” “You kind of start to sound like an electronics seller.” “Well, it is business after all so I have to make sure the basics are covered. If you want some more from me, you and your dark elf wifey need to provide me with some stronger motivation.”Schenna put aside the need for any extra services, making Sareenea’s expression seem somewhat sad. After they were done with their conversation, Sareenea raised her hand to Schenna saying goodbye as she headed back to her shop.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 0, "inserted_lines_src": 1, "inserted_lines_trg": 1 }
――本当は気が付いていたくせにそれが、大迷路を攻略している時から、ずっと鈴の耳に囁かれていた言葉だ。そして、今、全身をに染めた赤黒い瞳の自分に正面から投げつけられている言葉でもある。その言葉を聞く度に、鈴の心は、まるでプレス機にでもかけられているかのようにギリギリと締め付けられ軋みをあげた。当然だ。それを認めることは、鈴にとって罪を認めることと同じなのだから。負の感情から作られた虚像の鈴が突き付けた事実。それは、鈴が恵里の性質について薄々気が付いていたということだ。中村恵里に対する周囲の印象を聞いたなら十人中十人はこう答えるだろう。大人しく控えめで、一歩引いた位置から全体を客観的に見ることの出来る女の子。普段は、口出しを控えているが、ここぞと言う時には的を射た意見を言える思慮深さと、さり気なく手助け出来る気配り上手な女の子。少し後ろから微笑みながら追従してくる姿は大和撫子のよう、と。他にも色々あるだろうが、概ね、優しくて善意に溢れる性格だと、そういう印象を抱いている。光輝達も同じだった。観察眼の鋭い雫でも、ほぼ変わらぬ印象を持っていた。だからこそ、あの日、恵里が本性をあらわしたとき雫もあれほど驚いたわけだ。そんな中、鈴だけは少し違う印象を抱いていた。鈴は、恵里という女の子をもう少し打算的な女の子ではないかと思っていたのだ。それは、恵里の親友を自負し、常に傍で見ていたからこそ、そして、谷口鈴という女の子が特別、人の感情の機微に敏感だったからこそ分かったことだろう。恵里の微笑む瞳の奥に、時々鋭さや冷たさが宿るのを鈴は気が付いていたのだ。そして、普段から一歩引いているのは性格からくる自然なものというよりも、積極的な情報収集にはその方が便利だからという合理的な理由から来るものだということも、何となく察していた。だが、それを恵里自身に指摘したことはないし、不快に思うこともなかった。なぜなら、恵里がそうやって集めた情報を言葉や行動に変えたとき大抵は誰かの為になったからだ。そして、大抵の場合に含まれない時でも、恵里の在り方や言動が己の心身を守る為のものであると察したからだ。己の身を、心を守る為に、何かを演じるという行為を鈴は否定しない。なぜなら、それはイコール自分に対する否定に繋がるから。それは、どういうことか。理解するには鈴の生い立ちを知る必要がある。鈴の両親は根っからの仕事人間だった。朝から晩まで仕事、仕事。幼い頃から、鈴は、雇われのお手伝いさんに育てられたようなものだ。参観日や父兄参加の恒例行事にも両親が出たことはない。それなりに裕福な家ではあったが、お手伝いさんが帰ってしまえば鈴は広い家にポツンと一人取り残されることが常だった。幼子が長い時間一人でいれば、性格的に暗くなるのは必然。保育園や小学校低学年の頃は友達も余りいない根暗な子供だった。別に、両親に愛されていなかったわけではない。与えられるものはどれも吟味されたものだったし、夜帰って来たときこっそり鈴の様子を見に来て頭を撫でてくれたことを鈴は知っている。でも、幼い鈴には、それでは全然足りなくて......だから、拗ねた気持ちで、たまに会えた両親に対しても素っ気ない、可愛げもない態度をとってしまったり、本当は起きていたのにわざと寝たふりをしてしまったり...... そんな鈴が、今の天真爛漫の体現者のような在り方になったのは、ひとえにお手伝いさんの影響だろう。雇われて数年が経ち、塞ぎ込んでいく幼い鈴を見かねた恰幅のいいお手伝いのおばさんは、鈴に一つアドバイスをした。それは、〝取り敢えず、笑っとけ〟という何とも適当さ溢れるアドバイスだった。それで周りは変わるから、と。今も、鈴の家に通ってくれている鈴にとってはもう一人の母にも等しいお手伝いさんの言葉だ。当時の鈴はわけがわからないまでも、それで寂しくなくなるならと実践した。まず、両親に対して素直に喜びをあらわにしてみた。にっこり笑って、飛び跳ねて、頭を撫でられたり、プレゼントをもらった時に全力で嬉しさを表現した。本当は、まだ心にわだかまる気持ちはあったのだが、それを押し込めて接してみたのだ。すると、両親の顔は鈴の記憶にある限り見たことも無いほどデレ~と、だらしのないものになった。相変わらず仕事が忙しいのは変わらなかったが、それでも両親が自分を見る度に幸せそうに微笑む姿を見ることが出来るようになった。それは、鈴自身も幸せになるような笑顔だった。次に、学校でもよく笑うようにした。本当は楽しいことなんて特に何もなかったけれど、それでも常にニコニコと笑顔を浮かべるようにした。すると、いつの間にか鈴の周囲には常に誰かがいるようになった。その誰かは、みんな笑顔で楽しそうに鈴に話しかけるのだ。それを見ていると、今まで学校生活が嘘のように楽しいものに変わった。それで鈴はわかったのだ。たとえ辛くとも悲しくとも、笑顔でいれば釣られて笑顔は増えていく。そうすれば、もう一人にならなくて済むのだと。それからというもの、鈴と一人にならない為にどんな時でも笑顔を絶やさないようにした。そう、どんな時でも。鈴の笑顔は常に本心からのものではなかった。むしろ、半分くらいは演技の笑顔だった。長年の在り方が、本心からの笑顔と演技のそれを区別させないほど同じものとしていたのだ。だからこそだ。同じように大和撫子然とした仮面を被って、己の心身を守る恵里の打算的な性格に気が付いていながら不快に思えなかったのは。むしろシンパシーを感じたからこそ、気が付いた後、より深く付き合うようになったのだ。それは、恵里の方も同じだと思っていた。恵里もまた演技的な在り方をする鈴にシンパシーを感じてくれているのだと思っていたのだ。打算的で保身的ではあるが、本当に友人だと、親友だと思ってくれていると、そう思っていた。そして、自分の身を傷つけようとしない相手には、ちゃんと善意の心を持っているとも思っていたのだ。いや、そう信じたかったと言うべきか。この世界に来てから膨れ上がっていた違和感を放置して、気が付いてしかるべきだったことに気が付こうとせず、その努力を放棄したのは、笑顔の仮面を取り去って打算に塗れた恵里の心に踏み込むことが恐かったから。今までの心地よい関係が終わってしまうことを、もしかしたらと薄々気がついていた恵里の悪意が露呈し突き付けられるのが恐かったから。だから、信じた。盲目的に信じた。抱いてしまった違和感も、感じる不安も胸の奥底に封じ込めて、恵里に悪意などないと、打算的でもそれは常に親友である自分や仲間である光輝達の為になるはずだと。その結果、『あの日の悲劇が起きた。二人のクラスメイトを失い、メルドさんを含め多くの騎士達が死に、南雲君達がいなければ香織も死んでいた。この世界に来て、恵里の本性を薄々察していた鈴だけがあの日の悲劇を止められたのに、我が身可愛さに鈴は現実から目を逸らした。自分でも自覚できないほど心の奥底に封じ込めてしまった。いつも通り、笑顔を貼り付けて......』鈴の心の闇。それは凄まじい罪悪感。自分だけが恵里の凶行を止められたかもしれないのに、恵里が悪いことをするはずないと現実を否定するように放置した。結果、多くの人間が死に、危うくクラスメイト達も全滅するところだった。さり気なく雫にでも相談しておけば、それだけで何か変わったかもしれないのにと、あの日から鈴の心には激しい後悔が渦巻いていた。『親友だと公言しながら、彼女の心の歪さには気が付かなかった。鈴なら、誰より恵里と一緒にいた鈴なら、気が付くことが出来たはずなのに、あんなに歪んでしまう前に、どうにか出来たかもしれないのに......相手の心に踏み込むことで、自分の笑顔が演技であることもばれるかもしれないって......恐れて何もしなかった。......〝親友〟が聞いて呆れるよね』「......」『笑顔さえ貼り付けていればいいと思った? 広く浅くの関係ばかりで、本当に心を通わせたことなんてないくせに、一人じゃないなんて思ったの? 恵里の言う通り、馬鹿丸出しだね?』鈴は無言で鉄扇を薙いだ。展開していた数十の障壁が風を切って虚像の鈴に殺到し周囲を取り囲む。刹那、その内包魔力を爆発させ、即席の破片手榴弾の如き暴威を白い鈴に叩きつけた。周囲の地面が吹き飛び、氷片がキラキラと宙を舞う中で、やはりというべきか、顔の半分を隠すように白い鉄扇を広げた虚像の鈴が障壁の輝きに包まれて無傷で現れた。戦闘が始まってから、ずっとこの繰り返しだった。鈴の攻撃は白い鈴の防壁をどうしても突破できなかった。そして、防備を固めた虚像の鈴は容赦なく一方的に言葉の刃で鈴を切り裂くのだ。『もう一度、恵里に会ってどうするの? 本当は会って自分が何を言いたいのかもわかっていないくせに、どうせ問答無用で殺意と嘲笑を向けられると思っているくせに』白い鈴が過去のことだけでなくこれから先の未来のことまで刃に変えて振るう。すべきことをせず、現実から目を背けて、自分自身を誤魔化して、多くの人を死なせた罪悪感、親友と称しながらその歪さに踏み込もうとしなかった後悔、会いたい気持ちは本物なれど、実際に会ってどうしたいのか未だに分からず、深い霧の中を彷徨うような不安と焦燥。軋みをあげ、切り裂かれて血を流し、散々嬲られた鈴の心は限界......のはずだった。『これだけ言っても、中々、強化されないね。最初は、言えば言うだけ「やっぱり、そういうルールなんだね。それなら、何を言っても、もう君が強くなることはないよ」『そうみたいだね。途中から、少しずつ、心を定め始めた。やれやれといったように頭を振る白い鈴に相対しながら、肩で息をし、震える手で鉄扇を握る鈴は、それでも凛とした声音で口を開く。足踏みするのは終わり。元々、【ハルツィナ大迷宮】で夢を見たときから、鈴がどれだけ大切なことから目を逸らして来たのか分かっていたから」『......都合のいい夢だったね』白い鈴が嗤う。だが、鈴も笑った。それは演技ではない、苦さと痛みを含んでいるものの本心からの笑み。「得られるはずだったんだよ。あの夢の世界は。鈴が現実をきちんと受け止めていればね」鈴が静かな瞳で独白する。が〝笑っとけ〟って言ったのは、ただ笑顔でいればいいって意味じゃなかった。それだけじゃなくて、誰かと心通わせたいのならまず自分が心を開けって意味だったんだよ。今なら、わかる」誰かを幸せにしたいなら、まず自分が幸せであれ、というような言葉を聞いたことのある者は多いだろう。それと同じことだ。「君の言う通り、恵里に会ってどうしたいのかは、正直、鈴にもわからない。罵りたいのか、責めたいのか、目を逸らしていたことを謝りたいのか、説得したいのか......わからない」鈴の心は、あの日、手痛い裏切りを受けた日から千々に乱れている。いろんな感情が大雨の後の川のように氾濫して、ただ溢れそうになるのを堪えている。きっと、相対して初めて堤防は崩れ、鈴の心は叫ぶのだろう。だから、「わからないけど、会わなきゃならないことだけはわかるから......」もう、【ハルツィナ大迷宮】の時のような無様は晒さない、言外にもう一人の自分へそう伝える。『......また、少し力が下がった。決意は本物なんだね』「そうだよ。もう言葉だけじゃない。甘いだけの夢は見ない。鈴は、君を越えてこの先の道を行く! 集いて再来せよ――〝聖絶・転〟!!」鈴は決意を言葉に乗せ宣言した。そして、大きく一対の鉄扇を扇いだ。直後、白い鈴の周囲が燦然と輝きだし、まるで逆再生でもしているかのように障壁が作り出されていく。〝聖絶・転〟――再生魔法により一度壊れて霧散した障壁の魔力を利用して再度障壁を作り出す魔法だ。今まで壊れた鈴の障壁は数百に達し、壊した白い鈴の障壁も多数に上る。その全てを再生し出現したバリアバーストの為の障壁総数は、計枚。それが、城壁のように白い鈴を取り囲んでいる。『そっか......自分だけじゃ足りないから、鈴が壊された障壁の分まで再生したんだね』「うん。君は鈴自身だから再生するのは難しくなかった。代わりに全ての魔力を持ってかれちゃうけど......君は倒せる!」『なら試してみて。全て乗り越えて決意に変えたその力を!』白い鈴の障壁が輝く。打ち砕けるものならやってみろと挑発するように。鈴は鉄扇を力強く薙ぎ払った。障壁の全てに指向性を持たせて爆散させる呪文と共に。直後、広い空間が轟音と共に激震し、天井から氷片がパラパラと降り注いだ。余りの爆発力に術者たる鈴も吹き飛ばされ壁際まで地を滑っていく。そして、氷壁にぶつかって激しく背中を打ち付けながら意識を飛ばしかけた。防御に回す僅かな魔力すら惜しいと、全て爆発力に注ぎ込んだのが原因だ。鼓膜が破けたのか耳鳴りのような音を感じるだけで何も聞こえない。朦朧とする意識をどうにか繋ぎ留め、揺れる視界をどうにか定めながら爆心地に視線を向ける鈴。もうもうと上がる魔力の残滓と氷片の煙が晴れていき、巨大なクレーターが出来た場所には......何もなかった。同時に、鈴から見て右側の氷壁の一部が突如溶け出し新たな通路が出現する。それを見て、鈴はようやく試練を乗り越えたことを悟った。途端、魔力枯渇と衝撃波によるダメージで急速に意識が遠のいていく。 (......少しだけ......休んでもいいよね) 鈴は内心でそう呟いてから、引きずり込まれるように意識を闇に落とした。ほの暗い水の底でたゆたうような、そんな感覚の中で鈴の意識は僅かに覚醒した。一定のリズムで体が揺れているようで、鈴は、まるでゆりかごのようだと曖昧な意識の中で思う。しかし、ドスドスと響く音と頬に伝わる温かさが、体重の重い人間の足音と体温であると理解した瞬間、鈴の意識は急速に浮上していった。「あ、あれ? なに? どうなって......」「よぉ、鈴。起きたかよ?」「へ? 龍太郎くん?」「応よ、俺だぜ」一瞬、「すわっ、誘拐かな!?」と焦っていた鈴は体を強ばらせたものの、どうやら龍太郎の背中に背負われているらしいとわかり体から力を抜いた。「えっと、どうして龍太郎くんが鈴をおんぶしてるの?」「そりゃあ、お前。ムカつく野郎をぶっ飛ばして出来た道を通って来たら、同じような部屋の隅で爆睡してる鈴がいたから、取り敢えず連れて来たんだよ。揺すっても起きねぇし、流石にプロレス技かけるわけにもいかねぇし」「うん、そんな起こし方をされてたら寝起きのバリアバーストだったよ」鈴は、一瞬、龍太郎ならやりかねないと嫌そうな表情を浮かべたものの、結果的に女性に対する気遣いが出来ているので、これも成長だね......と安堵の息を吐いた。以前は男も女も関係なく肩とか背中とかをバンバンと叩きながら豪快に笑うような奴だったのだ。「でも、そっか。あの試練の部屋って他の皆とも繋がってたんだね」「みてぇだな。この道の先も誰かの部屋があると思うぜ?」「カオリンかティオさんだといいなぁ。まだ回復しきってないし......って、龍太郎くんも何かボロいのにありがとうね? 鈴を運んでくれて」龍太郎の大きな背中に収まりながら鈴がにこやかに礼を述べる。見れば、龍太郎も相当な激戦を制して来たようで衣服共々かなりボロボロだ。ノッシノッシと歩く足取りに乱れはないが、かなりダメージを受けているように見える。「ああ、このくらいどうってことねぇよ。ちょっとアバラが五本くらいと、肩の脱臼と腕の骨が折れてるくらいだ」「それは〝これくらい〟で済ませていいレベルじゃないよっ!!」「いやいや、肩ははめ直したし、腕も〝金剛〟で補強してっから、大丈夫だゲボハァ!?」「ひぃいいい!! 龍太郎くんが有り得ない量の吐血したぁ!?」龍太郎の自己申告を聞いて慌てる鈴の眼前で、大丈夫だと言いかけた龍太郎が真っ赤なマーライオンになった。どうやら内臓にも相当なダメージがあったようだ。悲鳴を上げながら急いで龍太郎の背中から降りた鈴が、拙い回復魔法をかける。回復系の術に適性があるわけではないので、いざという時の為に習得していた初級の魔法に過ぎないがないよりはマシである。大量の血をリバースしたとは思えないほどケロッとした龍太郎がワイルドに口元を拭っているところに淡い光が包み込む。携帯できるほど簡略化した魔法陣のせいで効果はそれほど高くないが、止血と痛み止め、小さな傷を治すくらいなら可能だ。「お? 何かちょっと楽になったような? ありがとよ、鈴」「......あのね、龍太郎くん。バケツをひっくり返したみたいな量の吐血をしておいて、何で平然としてるの? 実は人間じゃないの? 馬鹿なの?」「ひでぇなぁ。なに、この程度なら気合でどうとでもなる」「......気合......便利な言葉だね」疲れた表情で治癒を終える鈴。ついでに自分も爆発の衝撃で体の芯にダメージが残っていたので、治癒しておく。もっとも、気休め程度なので早く香織かティオ辺りに見てもらいたいところだが。「まぁ、順調にクリアして来てっから、ちょっとテンション上がってるっていうのもあるけどな」「あ~、確かにね。樹海の時と違って、ちゃんと戦えてるのは......確かに、嬉しいね」「だろ?」「そう言えば、龍太郎くんはどうだったの? あんまり悩みとかなさそうだけど......あっ、答えづらかったらいいよ?」さり気なく、「脳筋なんだから言葉責めされるポイントがねぇだろ」と酷いことをいう鈴。ある意味、一皮向けたようだ。一方、ナチュラルに罵倒された龍太郎は特に気にした風もなく、というか気が付いた様子もなくあっけらかんと答えた。「いや、大したことじゃねぇから構わねぇよ。ただ単にヘタレ野郎って罵倒されただけだしな」その言葉にキョトンとする鈴。龍太郎は目の前に危険があっても取り敢えず突貫してみるという男だ。怯んだ姿は見たことがない。それがヘタレとはどういうことか。想像できなくて鈴は首を傾げた。そんな鈴に龍太郎は少し恥ずかしげに頬をポリポリと掻きながら視線を逸らして爆弾を落とした。「いやぁ、昔からな、惚れた女にどう接すればいいのか分からなくてなぁ。告白したこともない上に大体他の男に取られちまって......その辺がなぁ」「......それは......何というか......」ある意味、軽い悩みとも言える。鈴の予想通り、もしかすると大迷宮側も「こいつ負の感情とか少な過ぎるんですけど? どうやって責めたらいいか分からないんですけど?」という感じだったのかもしれない。「それでまぁ、遠慮せずに力尽くで奪っちまえみたいな、そんな感じで色々と嫌な感じが湧き上がって来たんだが......」龍太郎の場合、心の闇を突き付けることで自滅を図らせるような手が無意味だったため、どうやら大迷宮側は意識の誘導を強めて理性を失わせる、あるいは善意などの正の感情を打ち消して欲望に心を呑ませる、という方向で龍太郎を攻めたようだ。それはそれで、狂人化の危険がある厄介な試練ではあったのかもしれない。だが、龍太郎は理性を失わず欲望の権化とはならなかった。その最たる理由は龍太郎の精神力というよりも...... 「実質的に奪うとか不可能だし。有り得ねぇし。むしろ瞬殺されるし。南雲にも、ユエさんにも」「へ? .................................................................................ぇええええええええええええええええっ!!?」話の流れから鈴は龍太郎の心の内を知り、その余りの意外さに数拍の間の後、盛大に驚愕の声を張り上げた。そして、口をパクパクさせつつ大きく目を見開いた鈴は、恐る恐るといった感じで確認し始めた。龍太郎はムスっとした表情でそっぽを向いているが、若干、耳が赤くなっているので照れ隠しだとバレバレである。「りゅ、龍太郎くん、え? うそ? ほんとに? お姉様のこと好きだったの?」「あぁ~、何だよ、俺があの人に惚れるのがそんなにおかしいかよっ」「い、いや、そんなことはないんだけど。でも、そんな素振り全然みせないから......」「......お前、あの二人を前にして、そんな素振り見せられると思うか?」「......龍太郎くん......なんて哀れな......」「同情してんじゃねぇよ! お前、何か性格変わってるぞ!」龍太郎が、可哀想なものを見るような眼差しを向けてくる鈴に吠えたてた。言動が妙にストレートになっているので、その指摘は正しい。もう、ただ笑顔でいるだけの女の子ではないのだ。だが、今、重要なのは鈴の変化ではなく、惚れた女が眼前で他の男と人目もはばからずにイチャイチャしている光景を見せつけられ続けた龍太郎の心の傷(笑)の方である。確かに、ハジメとユエを前にして、ユエに惚れているような言動など取れるはずもない。雰囲気を漂わせることもはばかられる。男のプライドとか意地とか心のダメージ的に。出来ることと言えば、失恋を認めて割り切ることだろう。実際、龍太郎はそうしていた。その辺りを大迷宮は無理やり引っ張って来たということなのだろうが...... 奪う相手が悪すぎた。男側も女側も。欲望云々の前に、手も足も出ない未来が確定的だ。いくら奪えと黒い感情を刺激されても、不可能なものは不可能である。むしろ、煽るもう一人の自分に「無茶言ってんじゃねぇ! 現実を見やがれ!」当たり兼説教をかましたくらいだ。「う~ん、でも本当に意外だったよ。まさか、龍太郎くんがお姉様に惚れてたなんて......」「別にそこまで不思議でもねぇだろ? お前だって、あの日から〝お姉様〟なんて呼んでるじゃねぇか」「ああ、そういうことなんだね。うん、それは確かに不思議じゃないかも」龍太郎の言葉に鈴は得心したように手をポンと合わせた。龍太郎の言う〝あの日〟とは、【オルクス大迷宮】で絶賛大ピンチだった時のことだ。蒼い龍を従えて敵を蹂躙したユエの神々しさすら感じる美しさと圧倒的な強さ、泰然自若とした態度、見た目の幼さに反した妖艶な雰囲気、僅かに見せた鈴への優しさ......その全てが高校生の少年少女には余りに魅力的すぎた。鈴がお姉様と慕うようになったのと同じように、幾人かの男子生徒(一部女子生徒)があの日のユエに心奪われていたりするのだ。龍太郎もその内の一人というだけである。「他の奴等には言わないでくれよ」「それは、まぁ、言わないよ。言ったところで龍太郎くんがダメージ受けるだけだし。っていうか、鈴にも言わなくてよかったのに」「......確かにそうなんだが......」「あぁ、一度くらい、誰かに聞いて欲しかった......みたいな?」「鋭いじゃねぇか。まぁ、そんなところだ。愚痴みたいなもんだよ、悪ぃな」苦笑いを浮かべる龍太郎に、鈴もまた苦笑いで返した。「でも、八つ当たり気味に正面決戦でも挑んで、そんなにボロボロになったのはいただけないね」「......野郎の面がムカついたんだ。思い出したらまた殴り飛ばしたくなってきたぜ」「鏡を使えばいいと思うよ」何とも微妙な試練をくぐり抜けて来たことが判明した龍太郎に鈴が微妙な表情をしていると、やがて前方に行き止まりが見えてきた。どうやら話している内に終点まで到着したようである。「お? 次の部屋だな」「カオリンか、ティオさんがいますように......」回復を頼みたい鈴は祈るように手を合わせながら氷壁に近づいた。それに反応して溶けるように氷壁が消えて行き奥の部屋への入口が開く。果たして......鈴の願いは届いたようだ。「きゃっ!?」「うおっ!?」鈴と龍太郎が、部屋に入った途端襲ってきた衝撃と魔力の奔流に、思わず悲鳴を上げながら両腕で顔を庇う。そして、どうにか鈴が障壁を展開し、向けた視線の先には、互いに片手を突き出し、黒色と純白の閃光を放ち合うティオの姿があった。対局にある二色の閃光は、ティオと、白髪に雪のような白い着物を纏った虚像のティオとの中間で、互いの閃光を呑み込まんと正面からぶつかり合っている。氷の部屋を蹂躙している衝撃は、互いのブレスが衝突して発生させているものだった。の憎悪と憤怒を。恐怖と諦念を。何百年経とうとも、忘れることないあの悲劇、庇護していた者達の手のひらを返したような裏切り、侮蔑と畏怖の眼差し、仲間を、友を、両親を殺され、その亡骸を辱められた屈辱』「......」白と黒の閃光が空間を染め上げる中、虚像のティオが嫌らしい笑みを浮かべながら、やけに明瞭に響く声音で語る。それは、五百年前の、歴史から竜人族が消え去ることになった大迫害の記憶。最強の国の最強の種族として、しかし、決して傲慢を見せず、暴力的な支配とは無縁にあった最高の国の最後。竜人族は数が少ないが故に、彼等の治める国には人間や亜人を問わず、様々な種族が共存繁栄していた。無力な者を庇護し、弱き者を支え、邪悪が現れれば国を問わず立ち向かい、道徳と善性を正面から掲げた。そんな冗談のような彼等であったが、間違いなくその理念が貫かれていたことで、自国の民のみならず、周辺の国も含めて、竜人族こそが〝真の王族〟とまで言われ称えられていた。誰もが、いつか、どこかで、なんらかの理由で、竜人族達に守られ、救われていたのだ。誰もが、畏敬の念を持って彼等を慕っていたのだ。だが、そんな日は唐突に終わりを迎える。 ――竜人族は、魔物であるそんな馬鹿げた考えが、まるで悪夢のように人々の中へ急速に浸透していったのだ。大陸中、どんな種族を見ても、完全に別種に変身する種族などいない。その圧倒的な力と、完全竜化という獣の見た目は、確かに、人と魔物の境界をあやふやにするものだった。それでも、今までの功績が、その高潔なまでの在り方が、否定されるわけがない。にもかかわらず、その考えが流れ出した途端、人々の目は畏敬から畏怖へ、信頼から疑惑へ、そして憧れから侮蔑へと変わっていった。よ。あの時は、なかなか爽快な気分であったのぅ。ほれ、教会を粉微塵に砕いてやった時じゃ。あの大迫害の時も、各国を束ねて妾達を追いやった中心は教会であった。憎き敵が砕け散る様は、得も言われぬ快楽であったじゃろう』で、本当は自らの復讐を果たせたことにこそ歓喜していたのだろうと。結局のところ、ティオ・クラルスにとっては、南雲ハジメの生死より、復讐のための大義名分を得られたことが何より重要だったのだろう、と。その言葉に、普段からハジメに隠すこともなく好意をぶつけている姿しか知らない鈴や龍太郎が、驚愕したように目を見開いてティオを見つめる。しかし、ティオは反論らしい反論もせず、ただ黙ってブレスを放ち続けるばかりだ。まるで、虚像の言葉を肯定しているかのように。それに気を良くしたのか、虚像のティオの舌は、ますます滑らかに動く。『最初に、南雲ハジメについて行こうと考えたのも、本当は〝使える〟と、そう思ったからじゃろう? あの男の力は異常じゃ。そして、その力が目立たないわけがない。で、あるならば、あの不自然なほど唐突に始まった大迫害の黒幕――神もまた必ず注目する。そして、かつて力を持った竜人にそうしたように、彼にもまた牙を剥く。そうすれば、南雲ハジメの牙もまた神へと向き、弑逆への一助になるやもしれんと、そう考えたのじゃろう』それは何とも打算的な考えだ。ますますもって普段のティオからはかけ離れた考え方。傍から聞いている鈴と龍太郎も信じられない思いだ。しかし、虚像の己が語る言葉は、決して嘘ではないのだ。たとえ僅かでも、たとえ本人ですら自覚がなくとも、確かに本人が心の奥に欠片でも持ち合わせている感情なのだ。だからこそ、被虐趣味の変態で、でも時折とても理知的で優しい面を見せるティオの知られざる内面に、驚愕を隠せない。そんな二人の様子に気がついたのか、ティオがチラリと視線を向けた。その顔には、何の感情も浮かんでいない。明るさも、ふざけた笑みも、優しさも、知性の光も、宿ってはいない。初めて見たティオの表情に、鈴と龍太郎が息を呑む。『人間、亜人、魔人、そして神。あの時、大切なものを奪い去った全てが憎い。じゃが、その憎しみは、怒りは、白の閃光が、僅かに黒の閃光を呑み込み始めた。力の拮抗が崩れ始めたのだ。それは、虚像の言葉が、ティオの心を揺さぶったからか。ティオは覚えていた。両親が常日頃から、誇り高く高潔であれと口にしていたことを。事実、二人は一族を逃がすために戦い、最後の最後まで竜人族の矜持を貫いた。故に、ティオの内なる想いは、他者への憎悪と憤怒を正当とし、復讐を肯定する感情は、そんな両親への裏切りでもある。虚像のティオが、弱まったティオの力にニヤリと口元を歪めながら、そっと、ブレスを放つのとは反対の手を差し出した。『妾の手を取れ。さすれば、妾がその復讐を成し遂げさせてやろう。もう、内にくすぶる業火を無理に押さえ込まんでもよい。良心に苛まれて、復讐の牙を鈍らせることはない。妾が、南雲ハジメを上手く誘導してやるのじゃ。なに、あの男も、憎からず妾を想うておる。一度懐にいれた者には甘い男じゃ。やりようはいくらでもある』それは誘惑だ。ティオの深奥に封じられていた復讐の炎を業火へと変える燃料。ティオの心を傷つけへし折り、ティオ自身を殺すためのものではなく、龍太郎の時と同じ、誘惑による精神の変質を狙った攻撃。ティオを使い、神殺しへと駆り立てるハジメ達への罠でもある。白いブレスはますます勢いを増し、黒のブレスはティオの心を示すように弱まっていく。その様子に危機感を覚えたのか、鈴と龍太郎が焦燥の滲んだ表情で「ティオさん、聞いちゃダメ!」「しっかりしてくれ、ティオさん!」と叫んでいる。白の閃光は、もう着弾寸前。そのまま消し飛ばされるか、それとも虚像の手を取り仲間をも利用する変質したティオとなってしまうのか。その場合、事の目撃者である鈴と龍太郎が無事で済むとは思えない。だが、今、鈴と龍太郎には自分達の危機以上に、変態だが頼れる姉さんのような存在であるティオの堕ちる姿を見たくないという気持ちの方が遥かに強かった。たとえ、ティオが一向に振り向いてくれなくても、ならば障壁を解いて直接虚像と戦おうと考えるほどに。と、ティオが陥落寸前と思われたその時、不意に声が響いた。それは、今の今まで一言も口を利かなかったティオの声。「我等、己の存する意味を知らず」静かな声音。それは語りかけるというよりも、まるで己の中の何かを確かめているかのよう。「この身は獣か、あるいは人か。世界の全てに意味あるものとするならば、その答えは何処に」『その言葉は......』虚像のティオが、何かに気がついたように呟きを漏らす。同時に、自分の放つブレスの侵攻がピタリと止まっていることに気がついた。「答えなく幾星霜。なればこそ、人か獣か、我等は決意もて魂を掲げる」『っ、力が......、馬鹿な、一体、なにがきっかけで――』黒色の閃光が前へ出た。ググッと白を黒に染め上げ、奪われた距離を奪い返す。虚像のティオは、押し返されたブレスと共に、己の中の力が弱まっていくのを感じた。ティオは、ずっと自分の言葉を黙って聞いていたはずだ。何一つ反論など出来ず、その心に隙を作り、負の己に屈しようとしていたはずだ。なのに、なんのきっかけもなく、いきなり盛り返した。虚像のティオが混乱する中、次第にブレスの奏でる轟音をも塗り潰す朗々とした言葉が響き渡る。「竜の眼は一路の真実を見抜き、欺瞞と猜疑を打ち破る」獣の瞳なれど、それは誰かを恐怖に陥れるためだけのものではない。知性を合わせ持ち、真実を見抜き、誰かの救いとなるためのもの。「竜の爪は鉄の城壁を切り裂き、巣食う悪意を打ち砕く」どのような敵も打ち砕いてみせよう。守るべき者がそこにいるのなら。竜の爪は、ただ悪意を滅ぼすためにだけ振るわれる。「竜の牙は己の弱さを噛み砕き、憎悪と憤怒を押し流す」強大であり、人とはかけ離れた姿であるからこそ、厳しく己を律しなければならない。その為ならば、己自身に牙を突き立てよう。憎悪や憤怒に身を焼かれ、理性を失うことなど、自身が許しはしない。「仁、失いし時、我等はただの獣なり」ただ感情のまま力を振りまき、無辜の者達を傷つける己に成り下がったなら、認めよう。自分達は、ただの獣であると。だが、「されど、理性の剣を振るい続ける限り――我等は竜人である!」ティオが、宣言と共にカッと目を見開いた。その瞳は縦に割れて獣性を示し、燦然と輝く黄金で彩られていた。同時に、ティオから溢れ出す不可視の圧力。大瀑布の水圧にも等しい、だがハジメの嵐のような暴力的なものとは異なり、まるで遥か高き霊峰を仰ぎ見たような、自然と頭を下げたくなる、そんな威圧――強いて言うならば、覇気というものだろう。『......まさか、お主よ。制御しておったのか?』虚像のティオが、有り得ないとでも言いたげな表情になる。それはそうだろう。きっかけ一つなく、精神を弱らせ虚像に力を与えていたのに、何事もなかったように盛り返したのだ。その意味するところは一つ。ティオが、己の精神の強弱すらコントロールしていたということ。大迷宮の試練すら欺く精神の制御など並大抵のことではない。ハジメ達が揃いも揃って武力チートだとするなら、ティオは精神力チートというところか。「大迷宮の意思よ。感謝するのじゃ。中々、己の本心を客観的に聞くことの出来る機会はない。心とは、広大な海のようなものであるからして、妾自身の気づかぬ内に隙が出来ているかもしれんと利用させてもらったが......存外、収穫はあったのじゃ」その言葉で、自分の推測が確かだったのだと理解した虚像がますます有り得ないといった表情になる。『......じゃが、妾の言ったことに偽りはない! 負の感情がなくなったわけではないはずじゃ! なぜ、こうも容易くっ』虚像の言葉に、ティオはスッと目を細めた。そして、虚像から根こそぎ力を奪うほど精神を強化していく。黒い着物の裾と、長く艶やかな腰まで届く黒髪を魔力の奔流にはためかせ、威風堂々と立ちながら、真っ直ぐに腕を伸ばすその姿は、きっとこの場にハジメがいたなら、ユエが隣にいたとて思わず目を奪われるであろう美しさがあった。変態性のかけらも見せない、王とも見紛う立ち姿で、ティオは言葉に魂を乗せて響かせる。「舐めるな。妾を誰と心得る」人である以上、負の感情がないなど有り得ない。虚像がいった打算的な面も、復讐心も、ティオの心には確かにある。だが、虚像の疑問に対する答えなら、先程の竜人族の魂の宣言で示している。あの竜人族に伝わる誓いこそが、ティオの精神を強靭足らしめている支柱だ。ティオが竜人である限り、決して砕けぬ絶対の核。それでも分からなかったというのなら、と、竜人族の誇りと気高さをもってティオは宣言する。「誇り高き竜人――クラルス族が末裔、ティオ・クラルスなるぞ!」それが答え。竜人ティオ・クラルスだから折れはしない。ただ、それだけのことだった。虚像のティオに、言葉はない。その表情には、どこか納得したような、まいったと言いたげな、そんな曖昧な微笑みが浮かんでいた。そんな己の虚像へ、ティオは威風堂々と最後の言葉を贈る。「復讐の牙など......真に強靭なるは竜の牙じゃ。その身をもって味わうがよい」直後、ティオのブレスがドクンッと一つ脈打つと、倍化でもしたように太くなり僅かな抵抗も許さず白の全てを呑み込んだ。そして、そのまま部屋の壁に大穴を開けて霧散していく。後には何もない。すぐさま修復されていく氷の空間と、新たに出現した氷の通路を一瞥すると、ティオは、特に喜ぶでも、感慨にふけるでもなく踵を返した。結果を見れば無傷。黒を基調とした着物の裾をふわりとなびかせ、前に垂れた髪を片手で優雅に振り払う。静謐さすら感じる雰囲気と、その美しい所作に、先程の圧倒的な強さと相まって絶世の美女という言葉が自然と浮かび上がる。「やっばいかも......鈴に、第二のお姉様ができそうだよ」「俺は何とも思ってねぇぞ。あぁ、思ってねぇったら思ってねぇ。ちくしょうめ」鈴と龍太郎の会話が耳に届いたのか、ティオが二人を見てふわりと微笑む。そんな笑顔にも、二人はいちいちドギマギさせられてしまう。「二人とも、無事だったのじゃな。ここへ来たということは試練も突破したということかの?」「は、はい。な、何とか......」「お、おう、です。突破した、っす」妙にキョドル鈴と龍太郎に、ティオは首を傾げる。そんな所作も、今の二人には心臓的によろしくない。普段は頗る付きの変態なくせに、このギャップは反則だろう! と声を大にしてツッコミたかった。特に、龍太郎が。そんな二人の様子を疑問に思いつつも、ティオは鈴達が通ってきた背後の通路を見る。「合流したのは、主ら二人だけかの?」「う、うん。他の人は、見てないよ」鈴の言葉に、「そうか」と頷いて、少し残念そうな表情になるティオ。そして、切なげな表情をして、更に鈴と龍太郎の体温を上げつつ、ポツリと零した。「ご主人様がおれば、虚像に晒されたご主人様と出会った当初の考えのことで――今すぐ、お仕置きしてもらえたじゃろうに。それもとびっきりのお仕置きを。残念じゃ」「「残念なのは、あんただよ」」思わず、ハモりながらツッコミを入れた鈴と龍太郎。本当に、ほんと~に! 残念だった。いろんな意味で。ただ、ちょっとだけ、やっぱり変態なティオを見て安心したとは、なんだか負けた気がするので絶対に口にはしないのだった。	?Even though you actually noticed. Those words had been whispered into Suzu’s ear since she first entered the great labyrinth. And right now, those words were thrown at her from her reddish-black eyed self whose entire body color was white. Each time she heard those words, Suzu’s heart creaked grindingly as though it was compressed by a pressing machine. That was just natural. Because recognizing these facts for Suzu was the same as recognizing her sin. The false image of Suzu which was created from her negative emotion thrust the truth at her. The voice referred to how Suzu had faintly noticed Eri’s true nature. If others were asked about their impression toward Nakamura Eri, ten of ten would surely answer like this: She is meek and reserved, a girl that is able to take a step back and observe the whole objectively. Usually, she refrains from meddling, but she is someone prudent that can say out her opinion with skillful consideration when it counts and that can nonchalantly give help. Her figure following behind with a smile is like a Yamato Nadeshiko. There was also various other opinions, but in general, people harbored an impression that she had a gentle and good-willed personality. Kouki and company were also similar. Even Shizuku with her sharp observations had almost the exact same impression. For that reason, that day, when Eri exposed her true nature, Shizuku was also greatly shocked. Among those people, only Suzu harbored a slightly different impression. Suzu thought that Eri might be a slightly calculating girl. She understood her best friend’s conceit the best, because she was always looking at her from the side, and also because the girl named Taniguchi Suzu was special. She was sensitive toward the subtleties of human’s emotion. Suzu noticed that inside Eri’s smiling eyes, sometimes, there was coldness and sharpness that resided there. And then she noticed how Eri was usually a step behind. Rather than calling that something natural from her personality, it was something that came from the logic. It was more convenient to collect information assertively in that position, Suzu somehow understood that kind of thing too. But she had never pointed that out to Eri herself. Suzu didn’t think that such a behavior was unpleasant. If she was asked why, it was because when Eri gathered information like that while changing her gestures or words, generally, she was doing it for the sake of someone else. And then, even at this time that couldn’t be considered ordinary, Suzu guessed that the way Eri did a thing, her speech and her conduct were for the sake of protecting her own mind and body. Suzu didn’t reject the idea of acting a part for the sake of protecting one’s own heart and body. If asked why, it was because it would be like rejecting herself. What was the meaning of that? To understand that, there is a need to know about Suzu’s early life. Both of Suzu’s parents were workaholics right to their core. From morning until evening, it was only work, work, work... Since her childhood, it was as though Suzu was raised by the employed caretaker. Both her parents didn’t even attend the custom events like visitation day or child and parent day. Her family was quite prosperous, but after her caretaker went home, Suzu was always left alone inside the spacious house. If a young child was left alone for a long time, it was inevitable for them to become gloomy. When Suzu was in kindergarten and the early elementary school grades, she was a moody child without any friends. It wasn’t like she wasn’t loved by her parents or anything. They carefully considered anything that they gifted Suzu. Suzu also knew that when they went home late at night, they secretly came to look at Suzu’s condition and stroke her head. But, for the young Suzu, all that was not enough at all... that was why, with the sulking feeling she was cold toward her parents when she occasionally met them, she took an attitude that wasn’t cute at all; she pretended to sleep when she was actually awake... For such a Suzu to turn out like the current cheerfully simple girl was solely thanks to the influence of her caretaker. A few years passed since she was employed, the caretaker couldn’t bear to look at the moping Suzu, so the large-bodied caretaker auntie gave advice to Suzu. That advice was, ‘Anyway, just laugh’, truly advice that was overflowing with vagueness. ‘With that your surrounding will change’, she said. Those were the words of the caretaker that even now was still working in Suzu’s house, who for Suzu was like another mother already. For Suzu of that time, she didn’t understand what the caretaker meant, but if by doing that she wouldn’t be lonely then she thought there was no harm in doing it. First, she tried to show upfront happiness towards her parents. She smiled widely, she jumped at them, she got her head stroked, and when she received present, she expressed happiness with her all. Actually, there was still lurking feelings in her heart, but she tried to come into contact with her parents while repressing it. Thereupon the faces of Suzu’s parents turned ‘dere’, it was a face so slovenly that Suzu had never seen it at all until that time. They are still constantly busy with their work without any change, but even so, each time her parents looked at her she could see them smiling happily. Those smiling faces also become something that made Suzu happy. Next, she also smiled cheerfully in the school. In truth, there was nothing that was really fun or anything there, even so, she constantly floated a wide smile. Thereupon, before she realized it there was always someone in Suzu’s surroundings. Someone would always talk joyfully with a smile at Suzu. When she saw that, her school life until now became like a lie and it changed into something fun. With that, Suzu understood. Even if she was sad or pained, if she made a smile, it would attract other smiles. With that, she wouldn’t be alone anymore. Because of that, so that she wouldn’t be alone again, Suzu would smile without end no matter what kind of time it was. Yes, no matter what kind of time it was. Suzu’s smiling face wasn’t something that always came from her heart. Rather, about half of her smiles were faked. She was doing it for so long that her true smile and the fake smile became the same and couldn’t be differentiated from each other. That was why while Suzu noticed the calculating personality of Eri that put on the mask of Yamato Nadeshiko to protect her body and heart just like Suzu, she didn’t think of that as unpleasant. Rather she felt sympathy to Eri. After she noticed, she associated with her even deeper. She thought that what Eri did was the same as her. She also thought that Eri felt sympathy for Suzu who was living by acting. She thought that even though it was true that Eri was calculating for the sake of herself, that they were really friends, even best friends. And then, she also thought that toward someone who didn’t have the intention to harm her, Eri would properly hold a good will towards them. No, perhaps it should be said that she wanted to believe it to be so. She left alone the unease that was bloating in her since they arrived in this world. She didn’t try to notice the thing that should be noticed. She gave up putting the effort because she feared to step into the calculating heart of Eri, who had taken off her smiling mask. She feared that the pleasant relationship they had until now would end and that Eri’s malice that Suzu perhaps had faintly realized would be shoved into her face. That was why she believed. She believed blindly. She stuffed the unease she held, the anxiety she felt, into the bottom of her chest. She convinced herself that there was no malice or anything in Eri, that even her calculating aspect was always for the sake of her best friend Suzu and for Kouki and the others who were her comrades. And the result... {The tragedy of that day occurred. Two of Suzu’s classmates were lost. A lot of knights including Meld-san died. if Nagumo-kun and others weren’t there, then Kaori would have also died. Even though it was only Suzu who since coming in this world had faintly noticed Eri’s character and could stop the tragedy of that day, Suzu averted her eyes from reality because Suzu treasured herself. Suzu sealed everything so deep in the bottom of her heart that she didn’t even realize it herself. Pasting a smile on the face, just like usual...} “...” The darkness in Suzu’s heart. That was a fierce guilt. Even though it was only her who could stop Eri’s crime, she neglected that by denying the reality that Eri would do anything bad. As a result, a lot of people died, and her classmates were also almost annihilated. If she just nonchalantly consulted with Shizuku, perhaps something would have changed. The regret of not doing that had been whirling fiercely in Suzu’s heart since that day. {While declaring that Suzu is her best friend, Suzu didn’t notice the distortion of her heart. If it was Suzu, if it was Suzu who had been together with Eri longer than anyone. She should have been able to notice it, yet... by stepping into her heart, perhaps it would also exposed the fakeness of Suzu’s own smile... Suzu feared that so she didn’t do anything... Hearing the words ‘best friend’ from you feels really astonishing.} “...” {Do you think that everything would be fine if you just put on a smile? Even though it was just a widely thin relation where your hearts didn’t connect with each other, did you think that you are actually not alone? Just like Eri said, what open stupidity, isn’t it?} Suzu wordlessly swept her iron fan. Dozens of barriers that she deployed cut through the wind and rushed the false image, surrounding it. Instantly, magic power exploded inside the containment, the explosion that was like an improvised frag grenade striking the white Suzu. The surrounding ground was blown away, ice fragments were dancing in the air sparklingly, and perhaps it was only expected, the false image appeared unharmed wrapped in shining barrier while she was unfolding her white iron fan, hiding half her face. Since the battle started, this development had been repeated all along. Suzu’s attack couldn’t break through the white Suzu’s protection no matter what. And then, the false image that hardened her defense mercilessly tore apart Suzu with blades of words one-sidedly. {What are you going to do after meeting Eri one more time? Even though you actually don’t know what you want to say when you meet her, even though you are thinking that you will only get hostility and scorn directed at you without question anyway.} Not only the past, the white Suzu also turned the matter of the future into a blade to swing at Suzu. Not doing what she should do... averting her eyes from reality, tricking herself, the guilt of letting many people die, the regret of not trying to step into that distortion even while calling herself the best friend, although her feeling of wanting to meet was true, actually, she still didn’t know what she wanted to do when she actually meets her. She felt anxiety and fretfulness as though she was wandering inside a thick mist. The heart of Suzu was creaking, it was torn apart, bleeding from the thorough torment, reaching its limit... was how it should be... {Even after saying this much, Suzu is not really getting stronger, huh. Even though at first you turned weak from what Suzu was saying. Even though you just denied it, if you only averted your eyes, Suzu can get stronger...} “As Suzu thought, there is really that kind of rule. If that’s the case, then no matter what you are saying, you won’t be able to get stronger.” {It looks like it. In the middle, your heart began to gain determination little by little. Suzu’s words, on the contrary, became your strength to look back at yourself.} While facing the white Suzu that was shaking her head as though to say ‘good grief’, Suzu was breathing hard, her hands that were grasping her iron fans were trembling, even so, she opened her mouth to speak with a dignified tone. “... Yes. Even though it’s about Suzu herself, but the more it was showed to Suzu, it felt really painful, agonizing. But, what you are saying is all true? That’s why it’s fine already. It’s enough already standing still for the sake of Suzu herself. In the first place, since Suzu saw the dream at Haltina’s Great Labyrinth, Suzu had come to understand just how much Suzu averted her eyes from what is important.” {... What a convenient dream that is.} The white Suzu laughed. But, Suzu also laughed. That wasn’t a fake laugh, it was a laugh filled with bitterness and pain that came from her heart. “Suzu should be able to get it. That world of dreams. Only if Suzu properly accepted reality.” Suzu talked to herself with calm eyes. “At that time, what Taeko-san said to ‘just laugh’, she didn’t mean that it’s fine if Suzu just smiles. That’s not all, what Taeko-san meant is to open your own heart first if you want to connect with other people’s hearts. Right now, Suzu understands.” If you wanted to make others happy, first you yourself had to be happy. Surely, there were a lot of people who had heard those words. This was the same as that. “It’s just as you said, honestly, Suzu also doesn’t understand what she wants to do by meeting Eri. Does Suzu want to curse at her, blame her, apologize for averting Suzu’s eyes, or to persuade her back... Suzu doesn’t know.” Suzu’s heart since that day, that day when it received that painful betrayal was disordered in pieces. Various emotions were overflowing like a river after a heavy rain. It was merely enduring so that it didn’t flood over. Surely, the dam of Suzu’s heart would break the first time she confronted Eri and would scream. That was why... “Suzu doesn’t understand, but Suzu knows that Suzu has to meet her so...” She wouldn’t expose any unsightliness just like at Haltina’s Great Labyrinth. That was conveyed implicitly to her other self. {... Suzu’s strength is lowering a little again. Looks like your resolve is the real thing.} “That’s right. This is not just words anymore. This is not seeing just a sweet dream. Suzu will surpass you and go ahead on this path! ‘Gather and return?Divine Severance–Turn’!” Suzu proclaimed with resolve in her words. And then, she swung her pair of iron fans widely. Right after, white Suzu’s surrounding shone brilliantly, the barrier was created as though in reverse regeneration. ‘Divine Severance–Turn’?By using regeneration magic, this magic made use of the magic power of a barrier that had been smashed and dispersed once to create a barrier once more. The Suzu’s barriers that had been smashed until now had reached several hundred. The barriers of the white Suzu had also been smashed in great numbers. All those were regenerated and manifested for the sake of barrier burst. The total number of barriers were a hundred and fifty layers. Those barriers surrounded white Suzu like a castle wall. {Is that is so... if it’s insufficient with just your own, you even regenerate the barrier that Suzu smashed.} “Yep. You are Suzu herself so it is not hard to regenerate it. In exchange, all of Suzu’s magic power is dried away but... you are defeated!” {Then try it. Use that power that is changed into the resolve to surpass everything!} The barrier of the white Suzu shined. It was a challenge to just try it if she thought she could break it. Suzu swept her iron fans powerfully. All the barrier was made to have directionality, and the spell commanded them to burst and scatter. Right after that, the spacious room shook fiercely along with a thunderous roar. Ice fragments were raining down in sprinkles from the ceiling. Even the caster Suzu was blown away by the great explosion and slid until the wall. And then her consciousness skipped when her back fiercely struck the ice wall. The cause was because she poured everything into the explosive power, even the little bit of her magic power that should be for defense. She couldn’t hear anything except ringing in her ears. Perhaps her eardrums were torn. She somehow managed to hold back her hazy consciousness. She directed her gaze at ground zero while fixing her shaking eyesight, somehow. The dense remains of magic power and smoke of ice fragments were clearing, at the large crater created there... there was nothing. At the same time, the ice wall at Suzu’s right side suddenly melted in one part and a new passage appeared. Looking at that, Suzu discerned that she finally overcame the trial. Immediately her consciousness was succumbing to the damage from the shockwave and her magic power consumption. (... It’s okay to rest, isn’t it... just for a little.) Suzu whispered so inside her heart, then her consciousness was dragged into darkness. It felt like drifting in the bottom of the gloomy water, inside such a sensation, Suzu’s consciousness slightly awakened. It felt like her body was shaking in a certain rhythm, in her hazy mind Suzu thought it was like she was in a cradle. However, heavy sounds and the warmth conveyed on her cheek making her comprehended that it was the footsteps of a large person and their body warmth. The instant she comprehended that Suzu’s consciousness rapidly rose to the surface. “E, eh? What? How...?” “Yoo, Suzu. You woke up?” “Hee? Ryuutaro-kun?” “Yeah, it’s me.” For a moment, “Uwaa, kidnapping!?” Suzu thought fluttered and her body stiffened, but she somehow understood that she was carried on Ryuutaro’s back and her body relaxed. “Err, why is Ryuutaro-kun carrying Suzu on your back?” “You see. After sending the irritating ***** flying away and passing through the path that appeared, I saw Suzu sleeping like a log at the corner of a similar room, so for the time being, let’s just carry you. You didn’t wake up even when I shook you, yeah as expected, there was also no way I could wake you up with wrestling moves, too.” “Yes, if you tried to wake up Suzu like that then it will be waking up to Barrier Burst for you.” For a moment, Suzu made an unpleasant expression thinking that if it was Ryuutaro, then he might really do that. Although in the end, he was able to be considerate towards the female, so perhaps this was also a growth... Suzu thought that with a relieved sigh. Previously he was a guy that would hit the back or shoulder of another hard while laughing heartily without caring of the other party’s sex. “But, so that’s how it is. So that trial room is connected with everyone else then.” “Looks like it. I think ahead of this path will be the room of someone else.” “It will be great if it’s Kaori or Tio-san. Suzu is still not healed here... wait, Ryuutaro-kun is somehow worn out too, right? Thank you for carrying Suzu.” Suzu expressed her gratitude brightly while settling on Ryuutaro’s large back. Now that she looked, Ryuutaro’s clothes were also looking quite ragged after winning a really hard fight. There was no stutter on his footsteps that moved forward ruggedly, but he looked like he received quite the damage. “Aah, just this much ain’t a big deal. It’s only about five of my ribs, and also my shoulder that got dislocated and my arm was broken, that’s all.” “That’s not something at the level that you can just write off as ‘that’s all’!” “No, no, I fixed my shoulder already. I also reinforced my arm with ‘Vajra’, so its fin-gebohaa!?” “Hiiiii!! Ryuutaro-kun is vomiting out an impossible amount of blood!?” In front of the panicked Suzu who heard Ryuutaro’s unsubstantiated assertion, Ryuutaro who was about to say that he was fine became a bright red merlion. It looked like his internal organs were also considerably damaged. Suzu hurriedly got down from Ryuutaro’s back while screaming, she put a shoddy healing magic on him. She didn’t have an aptitude for healing magic, so it was only a basic magic she learned for a critical time but it was better than nothing. Faint light wrapped Ryuutaro who was mildly wiping the blood on his mouth nonchalantly as though he hadn’t just vomited a large amount of blood. The effect wasn’t that high because Suzu used a simplified magic circle that could be carried around, but it was possible to stop bleeding and pain and heal the little wound with that. “Ah? It feels a little more comfortable somehow? Thanks, Suzu.” “... Listen here, Ryuutaro-kun. Why are you that calm after vomiting blood in buckets like that? Actually, you are not a human, are you? You are an idiot, aren’t you?” “That’s cruel, eh. What, if it’s just this much then you can make it somehow with your spirit.” “... Spirit... what a convenient word.” Suzu finished the treatment with a tired look. While she was at it, she also treated the remaining damage on her body core due to the explosive impact. Although this was only something for the peace of mind, she wanted to find Kaori or Tio quickly. “Well, I also only just cleared the trial favorably, so I also got a little high tensioned here.” “Aa, certainly there is that. It’s not like the time at Sea of Trees, we are properly fighting here... indeed, it feels joyful.” “Right?” “Now that you mentioned it, how did Ryuutaro-kun do? You don’t look like you have any worry or anything but... ah, it’s fine if it’s something hard to say, you know?” Suzu nonchalantly said something cruel like “You are muscle brain, so there is no point even if you are abused verbally, right?”. In a certain meaning, it seemed that she had put down a mask of hers. On the other hand, Ryuutaro that was naturally disparaged didn’t look like he particularly minded it, rather he didn’t even notice it and answered indifferently. “No, it’s not anything big, so I don’t mind. I was just given insults that I’m a loser ***.” Suzu was dumbfounded hearing those words. Ryuutaro was a man that would just charge ahead even when there was danger in front of him. She had never seen him faltering back. What was the meaning of calling him a loser? Suzu tilted her head unable to imagine it. Looking at Suzu who was like that, Ryuutaro scratched his cheek a little embarrassed while averting his eyes, before he dropped a bomb. “Oh man, you see, since quite some time ago, I don’t know what to do to approach the woman I fell in love with yeah. I didn’t even confess, on top of that she was taken completely by another man to begin with... something like that.” “... That’s... what to say...” In a sense, it could be said to be a light worry. It was just as Suzu expected, perhaps even the great labyrinth was feeling something like “This guy’s negative emotion is too little, though? What can you do to torment him, I don’t get it?” “And then, I got told something like steal the woman with brute force without reservation, various kind of unpleasant emotions were welling up in me but...” In Ryuutaro’s case, the method of shoving the darkness in his heart to his face so he would self-destruct was pointless. It seemed that the great labyrinth tried to attack Ryuutaro by strengthening its conscious enticement to make him lose reasoning, possibly to drown his heart in desire and erase his positive emotion as his virtue. In that way, this could be a troublesome trial with the danger of going mad. But, Ryuutaro didn’t lose his sense, and he avoided turning into an incarnation of his desire. The prime reason for that, rather than because of Ryuutaro’s mental strength it was because of... “Realistically stealing her is impossible, anyway. There ain’t just no way. Rather it’s suicide. I’ll get killed by Nagumo, also by Yue-san, too.” “Heh? ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .... eEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEH!!?” Suzu knew what was inside Ryuutaro’s heart from the flow of the story, because of how unexpected it was, Suzu raised a magnificently loud voice of shock after a few beats. And then Suzu whose mouth was closing and opening while her eyes widened largely began to confirm it timidly. Ryuutaro looked away with a sullen expression, but his ears turned red so it was obvious that he was hiding his embarrassment. “Ryu, Ryuutaro-kun, eh? Lies? Really? You liked Onee-sama?” “Aa, what’s with you, is it really that strange for me to be in love with that person huh- “ “N, no, that’s not true at all. But, you didn’t show anything that pointed at that at all so...” “... You, in front of those two, do you think I can show any kind of attitude like that?” “... Ryuutaro-kun... what a pitiful...” “Don’t pity me! You, your personality changed somewhere somehow!” Ryuutaro howled at Suzu who was sending him a gaze as though she was looking at a pitiful thing. Her speech and conduct strangely turned straight so what he pointed out was correct. She was not just a girl who was only smiling anymore. But right now, what was important wasn’t Suzu’s change, but the wound of Ryuutaro’s heart (lol) who kept being shown the spectacle of the woman he fell in love with flirting with another man regardless of who was watching. Indeed, in front of Hajime and Yue, there was no way he could take action as someone who fell in love with Yue. He was also made to hesitate by the atmosphere those two wafted off. His pride as a man and the obstinacy in his heart was damaged. If he was asked what he could do, then it was to recognize it as unrequited love and make a clean break with it. In reality, that was what Ryuutaro actually did. And the great labyrinth forcefully dragged that out but... The side he needed to steal from was just too bad. Whether it was the male side or the female side. In front of desire and whatever, there was only a definite future of helplessness. No matter how much his black emotion was stimulated telling him to steal her, what was impossible was impossible. Rather, it even made him want to explode and scold “Don’t say something absurd! Look at reality you idiot!” at the other self that was instigating him. “Hm, but that’s really unexpected. Who would have ever thought that Ryuutaro-kun was in love with Onee-sama....?” “It’s not really that strange, right? Even you called her ‘Onee-sama’ since that day, ain’t you?” “Aah, so it’s like that. Yep, perhaps that is indeed not that strange.” Suzu clapped her hands ‘That day’ which Ryuutaro mentioned was the time when they were in the absolute great pinch at Orcus Great Labyrinth. Yue’s beauty and overwhelming strength trampled the enemy accompanied with a blue dragon made any watcher even feel divinity. Her imperturbable manner, her bewitching atmosphere that was in contrast with her young appearance, and the slight kindness she showed to Suzu... all of those were just too charming for a high school student, whether male or female. Similar to how Suzu came to yearn for Yue as Onee-sama, several male students (and a part of the female students) had their heart stolen by Yue that day. Ryuutaro was just one person among that group. “Don’t say this to the others, okay?” “That’s, well, Suzu won’t talk. Saying that will only damage Ryuutaro-kun. Rather, isn’t it better if you didn’t tell Suzu?” “... Certainly, that’s true but...” “Aaa, is it something like... you want to tell someone else, just for once?” “Ain’t you sharp? Well, something like that. It’s something like complaining, my bad.” Looking at the wryly smiling Ryuutaro, Suzu also returned a wry smile. “But, challenging the opponent from the front with angry feeling and turned ragged like that is unacceptable, isn’t it?” “... That *****’s mug was irritating. When I recalled it, it made me want to punch him flying again.” “I think you can just use a mirror for that.” Suzu made a complicated look at Ryuutaro who confirmed he had gone through a really strange trial, but before long the end of the road became visible ahead. It seemed that while they were talking they had reached their last stop. “O? It’s the next room.” “Please, Kaori or Tio-san be there...” Suzu who wanted to ask for healing clasped her hands in prayer while approaching the ice wall. The ice wall reacted to them and melted, opening the entrance toward the room inside. In the end... it seemed Suzu’s prayer reached. “Kyah!?” “Uoh!?” The moment Suzu and Ryuutaro entered the room, the assaulting shockwave and the torrent of magic power made them reflexively scream while covering their face with their hands. And then Suzu somehow deployed a barrier, ahead of her gaze was the figure of two Tios, both of them raising one of their hands while firing black and pure white flashes at each other. The opposing two colored flashes were clashing right from the front in the middle of Tio and the false image of Tio wearing white kimonos and hair that was white like snow. The two flashes were swallowing each other. The shockwave that trampled the room of ice was created from the collision of the two breaths. {Fufufu, I feel it. Thy hatred and rage. The fear and resignation. No matter how many hundreds of years has passed, that tragedy that cannot be forgotten, the betrayal of the people thy protected as easy as flipping over one’s hand, the gazes of scorn and fright, the murder of thy comrades, friends, parents, the humiliation carved on their corpse.} In the middle of the space that was dyed with white and black flashes, the false image of Tio was floating a repugnant smile while talking with a voice that was resounding with excessive clarity. That was the memory of the great persecution that erased the dragon clan from history five hundred years go. They were the strongest race of the strongest country, however, they by no means displayed arrogance. They were the greatest country that was far unrelated with the violent rule, and it was their last. Because the dragon clan was few, the country they managed didn’t differentiate any human or demi-human, they had prosperous coexistence between various races. They protected the powerless, supported the weak, opposed when evil appeared regardless of country, hoisting morals and virtue right from the front. Such way of life was a joke, but they were undoubtedly persisting in that ideal. Besides the people of their own country, the surrounding countries even extolled the dragon clan as exactly the ‘true royalty’. Everyone was saved and protected by the dragon clan sometime, somewhere, by some kind of reason. Everyone held respect and idolized them. But, such days suddenly met their end. ?Dragon clan was a monster. Such foolish thinking was spreading among the people so rapidly like a nightmare. Throughout the continent, no matter which clan you looked at, there was no race that could completely transform into another race. That overwhelming strength and the beastly appearance of complete dragonification were certainly something that blurred the boundary between human and monster. Even so their achievement until now and their noble way of living couldn’t possibly be denied. Regardless the moment such thinking was spreading, the eyes of the people changed from reverence to fear, from trust to doubt, and then from aspiration to disdain. {O thee. At that time, it was quite an exhilarating feeling, wasn’t it? Remember, that time when thou smashed the church into dust. Even that time of great persecution, the fellows who cornered us and united all the countries together against us were the church. Trampling the hateful enemy, it was an indescribable pleasure wasn’t it?} The false image talked. In the front, Tio said that she was helping up Hajime, but actually what truly made her delighted was accomplishing her own revenge. At the end of the day, for Tio Claus, rather than Nagumo Hajime’s life and death, the most important thing for her was obtaining the just cause for the sake of her revenge, the false image said. Hearing those words, Suzu and Ryuutaro that usually only knew the figure of Tio who was always frankly showing her affection to Hajime opened their eyes wide in shock and stared at Tio. However, Tio didn’t even try to protest, she was only staying quiet and kept firing her breath. It was as though she was affirming the words of her false image. Perhaps getting into a good mood because of that, the tongue of the false image of Tio was getting increasingly smoother. {At first, even when thou thought of going together with Nagumo Hajime, actually what thou actually thought was to ‘use’ him correct? The power of that man is abnormal. And then, there is no way that power won’t stand out. And, in that case, the mastermind of that great persecution that unnaturally started suddenly?the god too would surely direct his attention at him. And then, just like what he did at the dragon clan who once possessed power, the god would also bare his fang at him again. When that happen, the fang of Nagumo Hajime would be directed at the god too, it might be of assistance for the killing of god, that was what thou thought.} That was really a calculating thinking. It was a way of thinking that was even more and more distanced from the usual Tio. Suzu and Ryuutaro that listened from the side thought it was unbelievable. However, the words that the false image of oneself talked were by no means a lie. Even if it was only something slight, even if the person themselves didn’t aware of it, it was certainly an emotion that the person possessed even if by a fragment in their heart. For that reason, looking at the unknown side of Tio who was a pervert with suffering fetish but who sometimes shown gentle and intellectual aspect of her, made Suzu and Ryuutaro unable to hide their shock. Perhaps noticing the condition of those two, Tio sent a glance at them. At her face, there was no emotion visible at all. Not even cheerfulness, or her joking smile, or her kindness, or the light of intellect, none of those were reflected there. The expression of Tio that they saw for the first time made them swallowed their breath. {Human, demi-human, the devil, and then god. At that time, thou hate everything who stole those important for thou. But, that hatred, rage, those are something natural for thou to have. ?Yes, revenge, is thy legitimate right!} The white flash was slightly beginning to swallow the black flash. The rivalry of power began to crumble. Perhaps that was because the words of the false image were shaking the heart of Tio. Tio remembered. Both her parents were always talking proudly and nobly. In fact, both of them fought in order to let their clan escaped, until the very end they persisted in the dignity of the dragon clan. Therefore, these feeling inside Tio that justified hatred and rage toward other people, the feeling that affirmed revenge, they were betrayal toward her parents. The mouth of the false image of Tio distorted in a grin looking at the weakened strength of Tio while, slowly, she presented her hand that wasn’t releasing the breath. {Take my hand. If thou do that, I will enable thou to accomplish that revenge. It’s fine already to not forcefully repress the hell fire smoldering inside thy heart. Thy fang of revenge won’t dull because of the torment of thy conscience. I will skillfully lead Nagumo Hajime. No worry, that man too is not thinking unfavorably of me. He is a sweet man toward anyone who has entered his heart. There are so many ways to do this.} That was a temptation. A fuel to change the flame of revenge sealed deep inside Tio’s heart into a hell fire. It wasn’t something to hurt Tio’s heart and broke it so it could kill Tio, it was similar like with Ryuutaro’s trial, it was an attack that aimed at a change of mind using temptation. It was also a trap to spur Hajime and co to kill a god by using Tio. The momentum of the white breath was increasingly getting stronger, the black breath was getting weaker as though expressing Tio’s heart. Perhaps they felt a sense of danger from that situation, Suzu and Ryuutaro were yelling “Tio-san, don’t listen to that!” “Get a hold of yourself, Tio-san!” with expression colored by uneasiness. The white flash was just about to hit. Was Tio going to be erased just like that, or perhaps she would take the hand of the false image and became a changed Tio that would make use of her comrades. In that case, it was unthinkable if Suzu and Ryuutaro that witnessed this would stay safe. But, right now, more than the danger to themselves, the feeling of Suzu and Ryuutaro that didn’t want to see the figure of Tio whose existence was a pervert but also a reliable big sister for them, falling to darkness was far stronger. Their feeling was so strong to the degree that they were thinking even if Tio wouldn’t look back at them, then they would just undo the barrier and directly fought the false image. But, at that time when it seemed that Tio would fall, suddenly a voice resounded. That was the voice of Tio who until now hadn’t said even a single word. “We, don’t know the meaning of our own existence.” It was a calm voice. Rather than calling that talking, it was more like ascertaining something inside oneself. “Is this body a beast, or man? If everything in this world has meaning then where is that answer could be.” {Those words... } The false image noticed something and leaked out a murmur. At the same time, she noticed how the progress of the breath she fired stopped still. “Many months and years without an answer. In that case, whether man or beast, we will hold our soul with determination.” {-, my strength..., impossible, just what in the world, starts this?} The black flash was moving forward. With hard effort the white was dyed by black, the stolen distance was stolen back. The false image felt how the strength inside her was weakening along with her pushed back breath. Tio should have been listening all her words all this time while staying quiet. She wasn’t unable to refute for even a single thing, a gap was made in that heart, and she was about to submit to her negative self, that was how it should be. Despite so, without even any previous sign Tio suddenly made a comeback. While the false image was confused, sonorous words resounded clearly that it gradually even painted out the thunderous roar the breaths played out. “The eyes of dragon see through the straight truth, destroying deceit and suspicion.” Although it was the eyes of the beast, it wasn’t something just for the sake of making someone to fall into terror. By possessing intellect as well, it would see the truth and became something for the sake of saving someone. “The claw of dragon tears apart the rampart of steel, crushing the nesting malice.” If there were people to protect there, then it would crush any kind of enemy no matter what. The claw of dragon was wielded only for the sake of overthrowing evil. “The fang of the dragon crunches one’s own weakness, washing away hatred and rage.” It was a gigantic figure, far separated from man, exactly because of that, they had to strictly discipline themselves. If it was for that sake, then thrust that fang even to oneself. To let one’s body burned in hatred and rage, and lost one’s reasoning, was something unforgivable by oneself. “Benevolence, at the time that is lost, we are merely a beast.” If oneself was reduced to wielding power by merely following the emotion, injuring the innocents, let’s recognize it. Themselves were merely a beast. But, “Be that as it may, as long as we continue to wield the sword of reasoning?we are the dragonkin!” (TN: All this time the dragon I wrote here in the raw is written as dragon man. But I just write it as dragon because dragon man doesn’t have a nice ring for me.) Tio opened her eyes wide together with her proclamation. Her pupil split vertically and showed her bestiality, shining brilliantly in golden color. At the same time, the invisible pressure was overflowing from Tio. It was equal to the water pressure of a grand waterfall but different with Hajime’s brutal storm, this pressure was like when someone looked up at a sacred mountain that was far high, causing one to want to lower one’s head to nature. Such coercion?if it was said strongly, then this was what one called supreme will. (TN: Or Haki, like in One Piece) {... Don’t tell me, thou. Thou were holding back?} The false image’s expression turned into the unbelieving look. That couldn’t be helped. There was nothing that should trigger this, how even though Tio’s mind should weaken and granted power to the false image, yet she suddenly made a comeback as if it was nothing. There was only one explanation. Tio was controlling the weakening and strengthening of her own mind. It wasn’t something ordinary to control one’s mind that it could even trick the trial of a great labyrinth. If every one of Hajime’s group were all fighting cheat, then Tio could be a mental strength cheat. “O will of great labyrinth. I thank thou. A chance to listen objectively to one’s own true heart objectively cannot be found that easily. Because of the heart, is something like a vast sea, perhaps there is a gap created while I myself don’t notice it and so I made use of thou but... unexpectedly, I collect quite a harvest here.” Those words caused the false image to comprehend that her assumption was correct and her expression was turning increasingly unbelieving. {... But, there is no falsehood in what I said! There is no way thy false emotion is gone! Why I’m this easily-} The words of the false image made Tio calmly narrowed her eyes. And then she strengthened her mind to the degree that it take away the strength of the false image right to the core. The sleeves of her black kimono and her long smooth black hair that reached until her waist was flapping due to the torrent of magic power, while Tio was standing majestically, her figure where her hand was stretching straight ahead, was so beautiful that surely if Hajime was there, his gaze would reflexively get stolen even if Yue was right beside him. Not even a fragment of her perversion was showing through, with her standing figure that could be mistaken as a king, Tio put her soul into her words and resounded it. “Don’t look down on me. Know just who I am.” As long as one was human, it was impossible to not have a negative emotion. What the false image said about her calculating side, her revengeful heart were certainly existing inside Tio’s heart. But, if the doubt of the false image was to be answered, the answer could be seen from the proclamation of dragon clan’s soul just before this. The oath that was handed down among the dragon clan was exactly the pillar that was toughly supporting Tio’s mind. As long as Tio was a dragon clan, it would be her absolute core that would never break. If she still didn’t understand from that, then, Tio proclaimed with the pride and nobility of the dragon clan. “The proud dragon?the descendant of Claus clan, Tio Claus is here!” That was the answer. Because she was the dragon Tio Claus that she didn’t break. That was all there was to it. The false image of Tio had no words. In her expression, it looked like there was some kind of understanding, as though to say that she was beaten, she was floating a vague smile that looked like that. Toward such false image of hers, Tio majestically gifted her last words. “Thing like fang of revenge... is no compare to the might of the true fang of a dragon. Thou can taste it by that body of thee.” Right after that, Tio’s breath pulsed, it turned thicker as though it was doubled, not tolerating even the littlest of resistance and swallowed all the white. And then, without stopping it opened a large hole in the wall of the room and dispersed. Later there was nothing left. After giving a glance at the ice space that was immediately repaired, and the newly appeared ice passage, Tio turned on her heel without looking especially happy or moved. Looking for the result she was unwounded. She waved the sleeve of her black kimono gracefully and elegantly brushed off the hair hanging in front of her with one hand. That tranquil atmosphere and beautiful gesture, completed with the overwhelming strength of just now, caused words of peerless beauty to naturally float in one’s mind. “This is bad... it’s like, Suzu is going to find her second Onee-sama.” “I’m not thinking anything at all. Yeah, I’m not thinking anything and I’m sticking to that. God dammit.” Perhaps the conversation between Suzu and Ryuutaro reached her ear, Tio turned her gaze at the two and smiled gently. Even that smile made the two of them completely flurried with every bit of it. “Both of thou are safe. For thou both to arrive here means you have passed through thy trial then?” “Ye, yes. So, somehow...” “O, ou, desu. We passed, desu.” (TN: Ryuutaro here suddenly used a polite language.) Tio tilted her head toward Suzu and Ryuutaro who was behaving strangely. Even such gesture wasn’t something good for the heart of the two currently. Even though normally she was just an excessive pervert, this gap was just foul! The two of them wanted to make that tsukkomi with a loud voice. Especially Ryuutaro. Even while feeling confused about the state of the two, Tio looked at the passage Tio and Ryuutaro passed behind them. “There are only the two of thou that linked up?” “Ye, yes. We didn’t see, anybody else.” Nodding “Is that so” at Suzu’s words, Tio made a little disappointed face. And then with her pained expression that caused the body temperature of Suzu and Ryuutaro to increase, even more, she leaked out in a small voice. “If the master is here, and he heard about my thought when I first met master that my false image exposed?I will be punished right now without delay. Furthermore, it will be an extraordinary punishment without a doubt. How unfortunate.” “What is unfortunate is you.” “Unconsciously, Suzu and Ryuutaro made tsukkomis harmoniously. It was truly, truly unfortunate... in various meaning. However, just for a little, it was relieving to see that Tio was really a pervert just as expected, but it felt like losing somehow to feel that so they absolutely wouldn’t say it out loud.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 0, "inserted_lines_src": 13, "inserted_lines_trg": 3 }
前日寝たのは12時45分頃です夜中に一度目を覚ましました私の心拍数は1分当たり61です血圧は最高127 最低74です昨日は運動を全くしていないので運動中の最高心拍数は測れませんでしたカフェインを約600ミリグラム摂取しアルコールはゼロですナルシズム的人格指数もしくは NPI-16は 0.31と安心させられる値でした宣伝や運営管理調査を行うときに私たちは数字が役立つことを理解しています数字を元に自分と向き合い学び覚え改善したい時にどのように役立つのかお話致します数年前パートナーであるケビン・ケリーと私は人々が毎日体重計に乗るといった従来の記録習慣の枠を超えた定量的測定や自己追跡を試し始めていることに気づきました人々は自分たちの食べ物をTwitter上に投稿し子供のおむつをiPhone上で管理していたのです人々は日々の出費やその日ごとの気分症状や治療法について詳細な日記をつけ始めたのです私たちの日常にこのような変化をもたらしているのはいくつかの技術的要因がありますモバイル端末への理解とその普及データストレージやデータ処理の飛躍的な改良そして生体センサーの驚くべき改良が挙げられますこの小さな黒い点が 3次元加速度計です空間を通して動きを追跡しますご覧の通りとても小さい上に安価です今は 1個あたり1ドル以下にまでなり様々な端末に組み込まれ始めています興味深いのはこのセンサー1つだけで驚く程詳細な情報が得られる点にありますこのようなセンサーが現在アーリーアダプターたちに大ウケの生体端末 Fitbitに組み込まれています睡眠時も含めて人の行動が記録されますがその正体はこのセンサーです Nike+システムをご存知かと思いますこの青い点がセンサーです玄関ベルの中にあるようなただの圧力センサーです Nikeはそのセンサーを元に人の走るペースや距離を測っているのですこれは人々が心拍数のデータをNike+システムへ転送する際に使っているストラップですこれは良く出来た新しいデバイスで詳細な睡眠時のデータを取得します寝ているか起きているかだけでなく睡眠時の周期も取得します深い眠りや浅い眠り REM睡眠などですあのヘッドバンドに内蔵された小さな金属片がセンサーですその下がベッド脇に置くコンソールです参考までにこれは数年前の睡眠計測システムです本当に今までではこうでしたそしてこれが現在の睡眠計測システムですこれはつい最近ワシントンD.C.の医療カンファレンスで発表されたものです見た感じほとんどぜんそく用の吸入器ですが上部は極小のGPS送受信機になっていてぜんそくの発作が発生した時の日時と場所を知らせ自分自身の脆弱性と時間や環境要素との関係について新たな認識を与えてくれます今新しいツールが世界中で私たちの自己認識を変化させています実際のデータを取得する小型センサーやそのデータを理解・利用するためのユビキタスコンピューティングそして人々との連携や投稿を可能とするソーシャルネットワークなどですこれらのツールは窓のように外向きのものだと考えられがちですしかし皆さんにこういったツールはまた内側を映す鏡にもなり得ることを知って頂きたいのですそういったものを利用して系統的な改善をしたいと考えた時はこれらがどのように自己改善や自己発見自己形成自己認識に利用できるかも考えますここに生体測定端末があります Appleのイヤホンです去年 Appleはイヤホン経由で血中酸素濃度心拍数や体温を取得する特許を出願しました何のためのものでしょう? 何であるべきものでしょう? 生体認証用のセキュリティーのためでしょうか? 公衆衛生の研究のためでしょうか? 実験的な市場調査のためでしょうか? 皆さんにお伝えしたいのはこれが自己認識のためでもあるということですしかも自己だけに限りません自己は私たちの管制センターであり意識であり倫理基準です従って私たちがもっと現実社会でもっと効果的に行動したい場合自身の事をよりよく知る必要があるのですありがとうございました	I was awakened once during the night. My heart rate was 61 beats per minute -- my blood pressure, 127 over 74. I had zero minutes of exercise yesterday, so my maximum heart rate during exercise wasn't calculated. I had about 600 milligrams of caffeine, zero of alcohol. And my score on the Narcissism Personality Index, or the NPI-16, is a reassuring 0.31. We know that numbers are useful for us when we advertise, manage, govern, search. I'm going to talk about how they're useful when we reflect, learn, remember and want to improve. A few years ago, Kevin Kelly, my partner, and I noticed that people were subjecting themselves to regimes of quantitative measurement and self-tracking that went far beyond the ordinary, familiar habits People were tracking their food via Twitter, their kids' diapers on their iPhone. They were making detailed journals of their spending, their mood, their symptoms, their treatments. Now, we know some of the technological facts that are driving this change in our lifestyle -- the uptake and diffusion of mobile devices, the exponential improvement in data storage and data processing, and the remarkable improvement in human biometric sensors. This little black dot there is a 3D accelerometer. It tracks your movement through space. It is, as you can see, very small and also very cheap. They're now down to well under a dollar a piece, and they're going into all kinds of devices. But what's interesting is the incredible detailed information that you can get from just one sensor like this. This kind of sensor is in the hit biometric device -- among early adopters at the moment -- the Fitbit. This tracks your activity and also your sleep. It has just that sensor in it. You're probably familiar with the Nike+ system. I just put it up because that little blue dot is the sensor. It's really just a pressure sensor And Nike knows how to get your pace and distance from just that sensor. This is the strap that people use to transmit heart-rate data to their Nike+ system. This is a beautiful, new device that gives you detailed sleep tracking data, not just whether you're asleep or awake, but also your phase of sleep -- deep sleep, light sleep, REM sleep. The sensor is just a little strip of metal in that headband there. The rest of it is the bedside console; just for reference, this is a sleep tracking system from just a few years ago -- I mean, really until now. And this is the sleep tracking system of today. This just was presented at a health care conference in D.C. Most of what you see there is an asthma inhaler, but the top is a very small GPS transceiver, which gives you the date and location of an asthma incident, giving you a new awareness of your vulnerability in relation to time and environmental factors. Now, we know that new tools are changing our sense of self in the world -- these tiny sensors that gather data in nature, the ubiquitous computing that allows that data to be understood and used, and of course the social networks that allow people to collaborate and contribute. But we think of these tools as pointing outward, as windows and I'd just like to invite you to think of them as also turning inward and becoming mirrors. So that when we think about using them to get some systematic improvement, we also think about how they can be useful for self-improvement, for self-discovery, self-awareness, self-knowledge. Here's a biometric device: a pair of Apple Earbuds. Last year, Apple filed some patents to get blood oxygenation, heart rate and body temperature via the Earbuds. What is this for? What should it be for? Some people will say it's for biometric security. Some people will say it's for public health research. Some people will say it's for avant-garde marketing research. I'd like to tell you that it's also for self-knowledge. And the self isn't the only thing; it's not even most things. The self is just our operation center, our consciousness, our moral compass. So, if we want to act more effectively in the world, we have to get to know ourselves better. Thank you.	{ "source": "iwslt2017", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
どちらの筋書きも、実は､ありそうもないと思われる。ただ自由市場主唱者だけが、火を噴く勢いで極端な切り上げを求めている。中国の不安定な経済システムが自由化を一晩さえも生き残れないことに気づいていないようである｡	Neither scenario is very likely. Only fire-breathing free-market advocates, seemingly oblivious to the fact that China’s shaky financial system cannot survive liberalization overnight, are calling for an extreme version of floating.	{ "source": "news_commentary", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
さぁ、今日も張り切って料理を作りますか! 今日は異世界版「肉じゃが」を作る予定である。材料はオークの肉にじゃがばたいも数個、味醂、塩、お砂糖等の調味料だ。まずは、オークのバラ肉を数センチ刻みに切り刻んでいく。そして、鍋に油を入れ、刻んだ肉サイズに切ったじゃがばたいもを入れる。その後調味料を加え、中火でコトコト、中の肉色が変われば完成だ。ふん♪ ふん♪ そろそろかな? 鍋の蓋を開け中を確認していると、ティムと「ティレア様!」「お姉様!」ともな~に? 新種のドラゴンでも見つけたの?」「いえ、そのような報告はございません」「じゃあ何?」「はっ。近衛隊の再編も完了し邪神軍のこれからの戦略をお訊きしたいのですが」「我とニールゼンを含め、近衛隊総員がお姉様の下知を待ち望んでおります」が藪から棒にそう言ってくる。以前から「近衛隊の再編中です」とか「視察に来て欲しい」とか言ってたし、どうやらティム達は魔王軍ごっこに俺を誘いたいらしい。この前のお茶会で俺が中二病の話をしたからきっと仲間だと思ったのだろう。確かに前世、俺は中二病だったけどただ、あまり趣味に否定的だと反発するだけだ。俺がそうだったからわかる。とりあえず一緒に遊びながらそれとなく注意していくしかないだろうね。よし、そうと決まれば俺も邪神軍総帥として久しぶりに遊んでみるか! は戦略を訊きたいと言っているが、俺はこの魔王軍ごっこの右も左もわからない状況だ。う~ん、とりあえず何か役職でも与えてみようかな。「それじゃあティム、あなたを邪神軍総督に命ずる。あなたがまず好きなように方針を決めてみなさい」「はっ。大任を仰せつかり我は嬉しゅうございます。お姉様のご期待に添えるよう身命を賭して取り組みます」ティムが興奮して目を輝かせている。命を懸けるって......まぁ、そんな風に言われたら中二病患者がエキサイトするのも当然だった。総督は言い過ぎだったかもしれない。でも、まぁ、あんなに喜んでいるのだ。良しとしよう。「ニールは前みたいに近衛隊長ね」「ははっ。私も身命を賭して務めさせて頂きます」も目をキラキラ輝かせている。うん、予想通りだ。「あと、どうせなら邪神軍も魔王軍みたい将を作ってみる? ティムの親衛隊の中で将軍になってくれそうな人いるかな?」「お姉様。我でなくお姉様の近衛隊でございます」「あぁ、そう。それで一緒に遊んでくれる人材は誰がいたっけ? え~とベルは知っているんだけど......」「ベルナンデスは諜報員として優秀ですが、将軍の器ではございません」がそう解説してくる。ふぅん、そうなんだ......。ばかり隊長していたら、仲間内で不満が溜まっちゃうぞ。そういうのは順番でやらせてあげなきゃ。そう言えば今まで職位はどうやって決めていたんだろう? ジャンケン? それともティムの指名? まぁ、ジャンケンでもアミダでもどっちでもいいや。郷に入っては郷に従え。ティム達のルールに従おう。「そう。それじゃあティムが総督と将軍を兼任してやって。そのうちどっかから人材を引っ張ってくるから」「ははっ。お任せください。お姉様の敵は全て打ち砕いてみせます!」ティム達よっぽど楽しいみたいね。と「王都の戦力はどうだ?」とか「魔王軍への備えは?」とか話をして盛り上がっている。さらには「村ごと根絶やしだ!」なんてぶっそうな言葉まで聞こえてくる始末だ。ティム、ちょっとヒートアップしすぎよ。そのうち「王都にはいつ攻め込みにいきましょうか?」とか言い出しそうで困る。ただね、悪いけど俺は料理の修行があるから、いつもティム達と遊んではいられないんだよ。そうなるとお姉ちゃんとしては他に遊んでくれる人を探さないとね。う~ん、誰か他に遊んでくれそうな人......。父さん、母さんはお店があるし無理は言えない。も仕事はあるが警護なんてできる能力はない。町の警護ができない以上遊んでいるようなものだ。せめて住民とのふれあいを大切にしてもらいたい。俺がそう思っていると、「ティレアちゃん」おっ! 噂をすればなんとやら「ビセフさん、こんにちは! 今日はどうしたんですか?」「またプレゼントだよ。ティレアちゃん」プレゼント!? は両脇に箱を抱え、その箱はご丁寧にリボンが巻かれてある。よくある贈り物って感じだ。おいおい、完全に貢君になっちゃってるよ。この前のメイド服の時に過剰に喜んだのが原因か? もういいよ。無理して破産でもされたら寝覚めが悪い。「ビセフさん、無理しなくていいですよ。お礼は十分です」「うん、でもね。今回も特注の服なんだよ。絶対に気に入ると思うから」特注って......こいつ本当に大丈夫か? レア防具の修理にオーダーメイドの目だぞ。相当、散財していると思うのだが......。「ビセフさん、本当に十分ですから」「もう返品はできないし、何より俺がティレアちゃんにもらって欲しいんだ。だから、ね?」ふむ。返品できないのであれば、勿体ないか。「わかりました。ビセフさん、ありがとうございます。ではちょうだいします」から箱を受け取る。箱の中身は......。黒を基調としたレース。フリルに飾られた洋服。そう通称「ゴスロリ服」というやつだった。おぉ、なんということでしょう! 匠の技が光ってるね。ふっ。前回に続き二度も言ったよ。言わされたよ。素晴らしいできばえだ。め。やりおる。俺がメイド服を頼むときに色々言っていた案をちゃんと覚えていたんだな。細かい仕様まできっちりと再現してあった。「喜んでくれて嬉しいよ。俺も散財したかいがあったよ」「散財って......どのくらいしたんですか?」「そうだね~ざっと三百万ゴールドぐらいかな」「さ、三百万!? ビ、ビセフさん、そんなに遣って大丈夫なんですか?」「まぁ、なんとかなるよ。少しヤバいとこから金を借りてるけど、期日までに返せば問題ないし」い、いや~。それってまずいだろ。闇金ってやつだよね。が勝手に貢いできたとはいえ、俺のために借金までさせてしまったとわかると心が痛い。俺の中で罪悪感が膨れ上がっている時、「ゴミではないか! そうかティレア様に貢物を持ってきたのか。ゴミとはいえ殊勝な心がけである。ティレア様にかわり褒めてやる」「また貴様か! 頭のおかしい可哀想な奴だから許してやろうと思ったが、お前とは一度決着をつける必要があるな」「ゴミの癖にでかい口を叩きおる。その決着とやらは今でも構わんぞ。怖気――」「ニールゼン、やめないか! お姉様の教えを忘れたか! 言ったはずだぞ。お姉様の作戦を妨げることは許さんと」「も、申し訳ございません」「はは、何それ? まったく大の大人が面白い遊びをしているよ」まったくその通りです。「主従ごっこ」っていうんですよ。大の大人が子供に土下座する光景シュールだよね。俺はもうこの光景には慣れたけど......。「それにしてもティムちゃんって以前と雰囲気変わったよね?」「あぁ気にしないでください。ティムは今、反抗期なんですよ」「そうなの? ふ~んティムちゃん、お姉さんをあまり困らせちゃだめだよ」「き、貴様に言われるまでもないわぁあ――っ! 我がお姉様を困らせるだと? おのれぇ、人間如きになんという屈辱――」「どうどうティム、落ち着きなさい。お姉ちゃんとの約束をもう忘れたの?」「も、申し訳ございません。わ、我はまたお姉様を失望させてしまいました」「よしよし、いいのよ。ティムは良い子、失望なんてしないわ」よしよしとティムの頭を撫でてやる。「ビセフさん、すみません。ティムは今こんな感じで今日のところは......」「わ、わかったよ。ティムちゃん、ごめんね。それじゃあこれは置いていくから」が少し心配だが、奴も大人だ。大丈夫と言っていたんだ、大丈夫だろう。とにかく、せっかくのプレゼントだ。有効に活用しないとね。それじゃあ、ゴスロリ服のお披露目といきましょうかね。抱きしめているティムに語りかける。「ティム、早速なんだけどこれ着てみてくれない?」「わかりました」が置いていったゴスロリ服を手に取る。まじましとゴスロリ服を見つめるティム。やはり珍しいから興味津々なのだろう。「おぉ、懐かしい服です!」「え!? ティム着たことあったっけ?」俺の記憶するかぎりこんな服、うちになかったはずだが......。「我が幼少時代によく着ていた服に似ております」「へ? へ? へ?」「さすがに千年を超えたあたりからは着なくなりましたが......今の我の体格からするとこれは確かにぴったりですね」あぁ、なるほど魔族カミーラだったらの話をしているのね。うん、確かにこの服、魔族や吸血鬼がよく着ていそうなイメージだ。ティム、想像力豊かじゃない。「そっか。それじゃあ久しぶりに着てみようか」「はい、それがお姉様のお望みとあれば......」ティムがゴスロリ服を手に取りお着替えをする。待つこと数分......。ティムがゴスロリ服を着て俺の前に現れた。「ふぉぁあああ。似合っているよ。似合いすぎだよ」予想通り。いや、予想以上の破壊力だ! やはりティムにはゴスロリ服が似合う。「そうですか。お姉様がそう仰るのであればこの服は我の家宝とします」「えぇ、えぇ、ぜひそうして。ついでに髪型も少し変えようか?」俺はティムの髪型をツインテールにする。するとどうだ! ゴスロリの格好にティムの銀髪ツインテールが映える映える! どこかのお姫様みたいだ。ツインテール属性を刺激するよ。うおぉおぉ、俺グッジョーブゥ! すっばらしぃ――っ! 「えへへ、かわいすぎだよ。ティム」「お、お姉様。また目が怖いことになってます」	Now then, shall I try my best as well, today! Today I’m planning on making the Otherworld version of “meat stew”. The ingredients I’m using are orc meat and a few buttered potatoes, as well as salt, mirin, sugar, etc. for the flavoring. First I’ll be chopping boned ribs into strips of a few centimeters. After that I’ll put oil into the pan and add in the meat together with bite-sized pieces of buttered potato. After that I’ll add the seasoning, simmer it on medium heat, and then when the color of the meat starts to change, it’s done. Hm ♪ Hm ♪ Around now, I guess? I opened the lid to have a look inside when I suddenly heard Timu and Pervert (Nielsen)’s voices. “Lady Tilea!” “Elder sister!” “What isss it, you two? Did you spot a new type of dragon or something?” “No, it is not a report of that sort.” “Then what?” “Milady. The reorganization of the Household Guard has been completed, and on this occasion we humbly inquire about the Evil God Army’s strategy from this moment on.” “I eagerly await your orders, elder sister, as do all members of the Household Guard, Nielsen included.” Is what Timu and Pervert (Nielsen) suddenly said. In the past they did say stuff like “reorganizing the Household guard” or “we would like you to come for an inspection,” so apparently Timu and the others are inviting me to play Evil God Army. After what I said during tea time the other day, they probably thought I was one of them. Well it’s true that in my past life I was a chuunibyou, after all. I’m healed now though. Only, if I’m being too negative about their hobby, they’ll just go against me. I was like that too, so I understand. I guess I don’t have any option except to play along for now, and warn them indirectly. Alright. Now that that’s decided, shall I play the part of Generalissimo too!? Let’s see, let’s see. What should we do first? Pervert (Nielsen) said that he wanted to hear the battle plans, but right now I don’t know about this pretend Demon King Army. Mm~mm, maybe for now I’ll allocate them positions or something. “Well then, Timu, I appoint you Viceroy of the Evil God Army. From now on, you are to decide on the direction of the army yourself.” “Understood. I am joyed at being appointed to such an important task. I shall strive to meet your expectations with my life.” Timu’s eyes sparkled in excitement. With her life? ...Well, it’s natural that a chuunibyou would get excited after you tell them something like that. I might have gone a bit too far with the Viceroy thing. But, well, look at how happy she is. Let’s just take this as a good thing. “Niel, you’ll be Household Guard Captain, just like before, okay?” “Yes Milady. I shall fulfill this role with my life.” Pervert (Nielsen)’s eyes sparkled as well. Mn. Just as expected. “Also, while we’re at it, shall we copy the Demon King Army and create a Six Demon Generals group as well? Is there anybody suitable for being a general in Timu’s Praetorian Guard?” “Elder sister, it is not my Household Guard, but yours.” “Aah, right. And so, was there anybody talented amongst the people you play with? Uummm, I know Bel, but...” “Belnandes is talented as an intelligence operative, but he does not have the caliber to lead an army.” So explained Pervert (Nielsen). Hmmmm, I see... But if Pervert (Nielsen) is the only one with a role, the others are going to get dissatisfied, you know. People need to take turns for stuff like that. Speaking of which, how have they been deciding the roles thus far? Scissors-Paper-Rock? Or did Timu appoint them? Well, Scissors-Paper-Rock or Eeny Meeny Moe is all good I guess. When in Rome, do as the Romans. I’ll follow their rules. “Right. Then Timu, you’ll be both the Viceroy and a General. I’ll find somebody talented before long.” “Understood. Please leave it to me. I shall crush all of your enemies, elder sister!” Looks like Timu’s having a lot of fun. She was particularly ecstatic when I told her about the Viceroy thing. She started having a great time, asking Pervert (Nielsen) stuff like “How are our forces in the Capital?” and “How goes the preparations against the Demon King Army?” I even ended up hearing crazy stuff like “We shall eradicate them along with the village!” Timu, you’re getting a bit too into it, you know. I’ll be troubled if you start asking stuff like, “When shall we attack the Capital?” But you know, sorry about this, but I have my cooking training, so I can’t always be playing with you. As her older sister, I’d better find her some suitable playmates, right? Hm~mm, who else seems suitable... Dad and Mum have the shop, so I can’t ask the impossible. Well, he has his job, but it’s not like he’s any use at it. As long as he’s useless as a town guard, he’s as good as playing. Then I want him to at least bond with the townsfolk. “Tilea.” Oh! Speak of the devil. “Hello, Bizef! What brings you, today?” “Another present, Tilea.” Present!? In Loser (Bizef)’s hands was a box with a ribbon neatly wrapped around it. It really looks like a present. Oi, oi, he’s completely turned into one of those guys that keeps giving a girl presents. Is this because I was overly happy that time with the maid outfit? Honestly, enough. I won’t be able to sleep well if he forces himself into bankruptcy. “Bizef, you don’t have to force yourself. You’ve already thanked me enough.” “Yeah, but you know, the clothing this time is specially made. You’ll definitely like it.” Specially made? ...Is this guy really okay? It isn’t just repairs for his rare equipment, but also three pairs of order made clothes, you know. I would think that it would be quite an expenditure, but... “Bizef, it really has been plenty.” “Well I can’t give it back now, and it would make me happiest for you to have it. So take it, okay?” Hmm. If he can’t return it, then would it just go to waste? “I understand. Bizef, thank you very much. I shall accept it then.” I accepted the box from Loser (Bizef). Inside was... Black lace. Frills on a western style dress. Commonly known as “goth loli”. Oohh! Oh my goodness! The skill of a craftsman sure shines, huh. Heh. This makes it the second time I’ve said it. The second time I’ve been made to say it. What a magnificent piece of art. Damned Loser (Bizef). Not bad. You clearly remembered all the plans I talked about when I asked you for the maid clothing, didn’t you. Even the fine details have been reproduced. “I’m happy that you like it. It makes the fortune I spent worthwhile.” “Fortune... Just how much did this cost?” “Hmm~ About three million gold I guess?” “Th-, Three million!? B-, Bizef, are you okay spending so much?” “Well, I’ll make do somehow. I borrowed a little from somewhere a bit dangerous, but as long as I repay them before the deadline it won’t be an issue.” U-, Ummm~ Isn’t that pretty bad? It’s one of those illegal loans, right? Uu, although he did it on his own accord, since I know it was for my sake that my heart hurts. Just as the guilt was rising up inside me, Pervert (Nielsen) joined our conversation. “Why if it isn’t Garbage! I see. So you have brought tribute to Lady Tilea. Although you are garbage, your attitude is admirable. I shall praise you on behalf of Lady Tilea.” “You again, huh! I thought about forgiving you since you were a pitiful crazy, but it looks like we’ll have to settle this between us, huh.” “You speak beyond the place of garbage. I do not mind settling it right here. The dread―” “Nielsen, will you not stop! Have you forgotten elder sister’s teachings? She has already warned us. That she would not excuse any actions that would impede her strategy.” “M-, My deepest apologies.” “Haha, what the hell? Honestly, as a grown adult, you sure have interesting games.” Honestly, it’s exactly as he says. This is playing “Master and Servant” you know. Seeing a grown adult prostrating to a child really is too surreal, isn’t it. Although I’ve already grown used to it... “But still, hasn’t Timu’s atmosphere changed quite a bit?” “Aah, don’t mind that. Timu is in her rebellious phase.” “Really? Hm~ Timu, don’t trouble your sister too much.” “I-, I need not be told that by YOUUU!!! I, trouble elder sister, you say? B̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲d̲d̲, what disgrace to receive from a human―” “Hush, hush. Calm down, Timu. Have you already forgotten your promise with your big sis?” “M-, My deepest apologies. I-, I have once again let you down, elder sister.” “There, there. It’s okay. You’re a good girl, Timu. I haven’t been disappointed.” I rubbed Timu on the head. “Sorry, Bizef. Since Timu’s like this, for today you should...” “G-, Got it. Timu, I’m sorry. Well then, I’ll be leaving this with you.” Saying that, Loser (Bizef) immediately left. I’m a bit worried about him since he even took out a loan, but he’s an adult too. He said it would be fine, so I’m sure it will be. Anyway, he did go to such lengths to give me this present. I’d better make the best of it. Now then, shall the goth loli outfit make its debut? I spoke to Timu in my arms. “Timu, won’t you change into this for me?” “Understood.” Timu took the goth loli outfit and began to stare hard at it. Since it’s something different, she’s probably quite curious. “Oohh! What a nostalgic outfit!” “Eh!? Timu, you’ve worn something like this before?” As far as I can remember, we’ve never had an outfit like this before, but... “It is quite similar to the outfit I wore in my childhood.” “Eh? Eh? Eh?” “As you would expect, once I passed a thousand years old I stopped wearing it, but... based on my current body, this would certainly be a perfect fit, wouldn’t it.” Aah, I see. So she’s talking about Demon Camilla. Mn, it’s true that this outfit fits with the image of stuff you’d imagine demons and vampires to wear. Timu, you’ve got quite the imagination, don’t you. “I see. Then how about putting it on for the first time in a while?” “Yes. If that is your wish, elder sister...” Timu took the goth loli outfit and went to change. After waiting for a few minutes... Timu appeared before me in goth loli. “Fuoahhh. It fits you. It super fits you.” Just as expected. No, this destructive power is even GREATER than expected! Goth loli really does suit Timu. “I see. If you think so, then I shall make this my family heirloom, elder sister.” “Yes, yes, please do. How about changing your hairstyle while you’re at it?” I gave Timu twintails. How about it! The goth loli twintail Timu is super lovely! She’s like a princess from somewhere. You’re firing up my twintail-loving heart. UOHHHH, GOOD JOB, ME! SPLENNNDID――! “Ehehe, you’re so cute, Timu.” “E-, elder sister. Your eyes have become scary again.”	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 2, "inserted_lines_src": 27, "inserted_lines_trg": 1 }
俺は改めて全員に言う。「中にいるのは魅了をかけられた人間だ。危害を加えないよう制圧してくれ」「了解したわ」「気絶している可能性も高いだろうが、油断はしないに越したことはない」ゴランが笑顔でそう言った。真祖は逃亡した。とはいえほとんど魔力を奪い瀕死にはしたのだ。魅了をかけたのが真祖の場合、気絶している可能性はあるだろう。「真祖ともあろうものが、人間如きにいちいち魅了をかけるとも思えぬが」エリックの言う通りでもあるのだ。ロードどころか、アークヴァンパイアでも魅了をかけることは出来る。そして、アークもロードもハイロードも見つけ次第、退治してきた。「もし真祖以外が魅了をかけていたのなら、気絶している可能性はさらに高いだろうな」「とりあえず、見てみるとよいのである。あけて良いか?」ケーテは扉のノブに手をかけている。うずうずしているようだ。もちろん魔導士であるケーテは罠などは調べたうえでそうしている。ガルヴもケーテのすぐ近くでハアハア言っている。そんなガルヴを引き離してから、「ああ、開けてくれ」「うむ!」ケーテが扉を開けると、ちょっとしたパーティーを開けそうなぐらい広い部屋だった。その床の人間たちが転がっている。「気絶か。てえことは魅了をかけたやつは倒したって考えてもいいかもしれねーな」「恐らくはな」真祖の魔力切れによる魅了化解除の場合、魔力を取り戻した後どうなるのかわからない。だから慎重に処理をする。「どうやら、大丈夫なようだ。魅了は完全に解除されている」「介抱を始めるでありますよ」シアとセルリス、ゴランとエリックに介抱を任せて、俺とケーテ、ガルヴは部屋を調べる。倒れていたのは女ばかり五名。ベッド五台に、トイレと風呂も部屋の中にあるようだった。食事さえ供給されれば、ここで日常生活は送れなくはないだろう。「おおっ? まさか!」「えっ? なんてことなの」ゴランとセルリスが同時に驚いた様子で声を上げた。「......こいつは俺のゴランが一人の少女を抱きかかえながらつぶやくように言う。「なんだって?」詳しく俺が聞こうとしたとき、今いる建物、その少し離れたところから轟音が響いた。「なんなの!?」「どうしたのであるか!」「ガ、ガウ!」セルリス、ケーテ、ガルヴが慌てるとも慌てながらも身構えているので大したものだ。「壁をぶち抜いた音だろうな」「ロックさん、さすが冷静ね! つまりは敵襲ってことよね?」セルリスは剣を抜いて腰を低く構えた。シアも剣を抜き、ガルヴは姿勢を低くして尻尾を立てる。敵襲とは限らないが、警戒するのは正しい。「竜形態に戻ったほうがよいか?」「いや、とりあえずはいいだろう。昏竜はいない。人族だしな」当然、俺は魔力探知と魔力探査をかけ続けている。壁を爆破して突入してきたのは、三十人程の人族。統率のとれた素晴らしい動きだ。「ロック。どう見る?」エリックはとても落ち着いている。だが、一応フードを取り出してかぶった。他国であることを考えて、正体がばれることを懸念したのだろう。「対ヴァンパイア部隊だと思うが......。「ああ、頼む。普通ならばれることを懸念して断るべきなんだろうがな」魔法で変装していることがばれたら、当然のことながら疑いの目が強くなる。だから、ばれる可能性があるなら、最初から魔法で変装などしない方がいい。「まあ、よほどのことがなければ、ばれまいよ。一応言っておくが抵抗はするなよ?」「わかっているさ」エリックは、勇者だけあって魔力抵抗値が非常に高い。その上から無理やりかけるとなると、俺でも骨が折れる。だが、抵抗されなければ、変装魔術をかけるのは難しくない。それを見ていたセルリスが驚いたようだ。「すごい。おじさまにまったく見えないわ。まるで幻術ね」「幻術とはちょっと違う。いや、術理はとても似ているか」幻術は臭い、音、魔力を含めて、総合的に周囲の者の感覚すべてをだます魔法だ。変装魔術は姿、それも人相と髪色だけをごまかす魔法。身長や声は変えられない。だが相手の感覚をごまかすという点は共通だ。変装は幻術の下位互換と言ってもいい。そんなことを説明している間にも、侵入者たちはこちらに真っすぐ向かって来ていた。「とりあえず、敵か味方かわからないから俺が対処する」「おう、任せる。敵を無力化させる能力ならばロックが一番だ。俺は人質を保護しておく」ゴランは剣すら抜かず腕を組んでいる。全面的に俺に任せるつもりのようだ。「魔導士もいるのであるなー」「そうだな」その間に侵入者たちは扉の前に静かに隊列を整えている。 ――ダーンそして扉が爆音ともに一気にぶち破られた。	I reminded everyone who was present. “The humans inside have all had Charm cast on them. And so I want you to suppress them without harming them.” “Understood.” “While there is a good chance that they’re unconscious, it won’t hurt to keep your guard up.” Goran said with a smile. The True Ancestor had fled. That being said, I had taken most of his magic energy, and he should be close to death. And so if it had been him who cast Charm, then it was definitely possible that they had fainted. “But I don’t know if someone who is a True Ancestor would bother casting Charm on mere humans.” Eric said. And he was right. Not only Lords, but even Arch vampires could cast Charm. And we had killed all of the Arch, Lords and High Lords that we had found. “If it was someone else who had cast Charm, then the likelihood that they’re unconscious would be even greater.” “In any case, we should go and see. Can I open it?” Kathe had her hand on the door knob. It seemed like she was restless. Of course, as she was a Sorcerer, she had already checked for any traps before saying this. Grulf was also next to her and panting. And so I pulled Grulf back and said, “Yes, open it.” “Mmm!” When Kathe opened the door, we saw that there was a room that was big enough to have a party inside. And there were five humans lying on the floor. “They are unconscious. So I guess that means the person who cast Charm really was defeated.” “Yes, that is likely.” If it had been because the True Ancestor had run out of magic energy, then I didn’t know what would happen after it was recovered. And so I worked very cautiously. “It seems like they’re fine. Charm has been deactivated completely.” “I’ll start treating them at once.” I left that to Shia, Serulis, Goran and Eric. In the meantime, Kathe, Grulf and I searched the room. I didn’t find anything like magic tools. The people who had fainted were all women. There were also five beds and a bathroom. As long as you had food brought to you, you could live here without much problem. “Ohh? Could it be!” Goran and Serulis both raised their voices in surprise. “...This is one of my apprentices.” Goran muttered as he picked up one of the girls. “What?” Just as I asked him to explain, There was a thunderous sound a short distance away from the building that we were currently in. “What has happened!” Serulis, Kathe, and Grulf were all frantic. However, they were also prepared to fight. It was quite impressive. “It sounds like something crashed through a wall.” “Mister Ruck, it’s incredible that you can stay calm! In other words, is it an ambush?” Serulis asked as she unsheathed her sword and went into a low fighting stance. Shia also unsheathed her sword and Grulf crouched and his tail pointed up. While it wasn’t confirmed to be an enemy ambush, they were right to be cautious. “Should I return to my dragon form?” “No. It should be fine for now. I don’t see any Evil Dragons. They are humans.” Obviously, I was continuing to use Magic Exploration and Magic Detection. The people who had broken the wall in order to get through were a group of about thirty humans. And they were moving with wonderful, synchronized movements. “Ruck. What do you think?” Eric was very calm. However, he still took out his hood and put it on. Considering that we were in a different country, he likely did not want to be recognized. “It’s probably an anti-vampire unit... Should I cast some Disguise magic?” “Yes, that would help. Though normally, I would refuse, as they might see through it.” If they realized that you were using magic to disguise yourself, then they would become even more suspicious. And so if there was a possibility that you would get caught, then it was better not to use magic to disguise yourself at all. “Well, unless something very unexpected happens, they won’t be able to see through it. Also, I’ll remind you just in case, but don’t resist it, alright?” “I know.” Eric was a hero, and so his resistance against magic was very high. And so it would be backbreaking work if I had to cast magic on him by force. But if he didn’t resist, then casting Disguise magic wouldn’t be too hard. Serulis looked very surprised as she watched. “Amazing. You don’t look like yourself at all. It’s like an illusion.” “It’s a little different from an illusion. Well, perhaps the principles are similar.” Illusion magic allows you to trick all of the senses of those around you, including smell, sound and magic. Disguise magic was just magic that changed your appearance, such as facial features and hair. It did not change things like height or voice. However, it was similar in that it affected the senses of others. You could say that Disguise magic was like a lower type of Illusion magic. Even as I explained such things, the invaders continued their march towards us. “In any case, since we don’t know if they are friends or foe, I will deal with them.” “Aye, we’ll leave it to you. Ruck is the best when it comes to nullifying an enemy’s power. We’ll take care of the hostages.” Goran had not unsheathed his sword, and was still folding his arms. He really did mean to leave everything to me. “There is a sorcerer with them too.” “Yes, there is.” Now, the invaders were lining up in front of the door. —Daaan! And just like that, there was an explosive sound, and the door was torn down.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 4, "inserted_lines_src": 5, "inserted_lines_trg": 3 }
1990年代には、モロッコはイラン革命と、唯一の地球規模超大国アメリカのポスト冷戦期突入による衝撃を感じていた。この新時代における多くのムスリム国と同様に、モロッコも政治的イスラムの復興を体験するに至った。これは宗教の確立を監督した王の権限と同様に、厳格な教義に基づいて作られてきたモロッコの家族法を緩和しようとしたフェミニストの努力をも脅かした。	Like many Muslim countries in this new era, Morocco began to experience a revitalization of political Islam. This threatened the authority of the King, who had overseen the religious establishment, as well as feminists’ efforts to moderate Morocco’s Family Law, which had been based on a rigid view of religious teachings.	{ "source": "news_commentary", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
また私たち人間の行動選択振る舞いは温室効果ガス排出の今後の増加量も左右するでしょうこれは確かに非常に説得力のある意見ですだからこの言葉を聞いて罪悪感に襲われる人がいるかもしれませんどこに何度どのような手段を使って- 移動したかを思い返した時その決断は正しかったのかとまた家庭や職場でエネルギーを無駄使いしたことはないかとあるいは今までの生活で楽しみだけを追求しすぎたのではないかと一方で私たちは過去の行動を反省し地球の気候にここまで深刻な影響を及ぼしたことに思いをはせることもできますそうすることで将来私たちが否応なく直面する気候変動の規模は抑えられます今が選択の時ですまず挙げられる選択肢は気候変動を真剣に受け止めること温室効果ガスの排出を大きく削減して私たちがこれから直面する気候変動の幅を縮めることですもう1つの選択肢として気候変動の問題を無視し続けることもできますただしそれは併せてより激しい気候変動のある将来に対処することも選択しているのですそれだけではありません 1人当たりの排出量が大きい国の国民はそうではない国の人々の選択も担うことになります将来気候変動が起こらない可能性は残念ながら残されていません過去20年間にわたって各国の政府関係者や政策立案者達が集まり気候変動について議論してきました産業革命前と比較して平均気温の上昇を摂氏2度以内に抑えることが目標でしたその温度幅がほかの多くの指標における危険な影響と関係しているのです人類と環境の両方にとってです摂氏2度の変化は「危険な」気候変動となりますでも「危険な」というのは主観的な表現ですでは世界のどこかで起こる異常気象を例にとって考えましょう人間にとって十分なインフラが整っていて防災体制も整った国では異常気象の影響は「破壊的」な程度でしょう混乱が起こり多少の被害もあります死者が出るかもしれません一方インフラが整っていない別の国で仮に同じ異常気象が起こったとします防災体制も不十分な国で人々が支えあうネットワークも整っていませんこの場合異常気象は悲惨な結果をもたらします多くの住居が失われるだけではなく死者が多数に及ぶ恐れがありますこれは化石燃料と産業から排出される- 二酸化炭素の排出量のグラフです産業革命以前から現在までを表しています二酸化炭素の排出量が急激に増加してきたことが一目でわかります 1950年からのより短い期間に注目すると 1988年には気候変動に関する政府間パネルが設立され 1992年にリオ地球サミットが開催されましたその後数年の議論を経て 2009年にコペンハーゲン合意を採択科学の進化に合わせまた公平の原則の下に気温上昇を摂氏2度未満に抑えるという目標が定められました 2012年はリオ会議から20年後に当たりますこの期間の間に今説明した会議の他にも様々な会議が開催されましたが温室効果ガスの排出量は増加を続けました昨今の歴史的な排出量の増加に着目しグローバル経済の将来の方向性について私たちが学んだことと合わせて推測すると私たちはむしろ 2度の気温上昇ではなく 4度の地球温暖化に向かっていると推測できます少しここで時間を取って地球の平均気温が4度上昇するとはどのようなことか考えてみましょう地球の大半は海で覆われています海は陸地よりも熱慣性が高いので陸地の平均温度上昇は海よりも大きくなります次に人間は地球の平均気温を体験するわけではありません暑い日も寒い日も雨の日もあります私の住むマンチェスターでは特に多いでは都市の中心部はどうなるのか考えてみましょう世界の大都市を思い浮かべてくださいムンバイ北京ニューヨークロンドンなどです皆さんが経験した最も暑い一日太陽がじりじりと照りつけます周りを見渡すとコンクリートとガラスばかりではその同じ日が 6度か8度もしかしたら10度から12度熱波でより暑くなったとしたら? 地球全体の平均気温が摂氏4度上昇したとき私たちが実際に経験するのはこういうことなのですこのような異常気象ではただ最高気温が上がるだけでなく嵐や他の気象現象も以前よりも激しくなります問題は都市のインフラがこの変化に対応できないことです道路や鉄道ネットワークは長期的に利用する前提で設計されていますがどのインフラもそれが設置された場所の- 一定のインパクトしか想定してませんそのため大きな試練にさらされるでしょう例えば当地の発電所は水冷式となっていますがこれで効率と耐久性を維持できるのは一定範囲の気温が前提となります私たちの建物も一定の温度でのみ快適に過ごせるように設計されていますしたがって 4度の気温上昇が起こるとこれらも大きな試練にさらされるでしょうインフラは気候変動に対処するように設計されていませんまた 4度の気温上昇については直接的な影響だけではなく間接的な影響も考える必要があります例えば食糧安全保障への影響ですとうもろこしや小麦の生産は世界の特定の地域では気温が4度上昇した場合に最大40%も減少すると予想されています米も最大30%減少しますこれは地球の食糧安全保障にとって間違いなく危機的な状況です結論として気温が4度上昇すると予想される影響によりこれまでの調和の取れた暮らしは維持できなくなるでしょうでは再び 4度と2度の気温上昇のグラフの軌跡に戻りましょう気温上昇の目標を摂氏2度とするのは今でも妥当なのでしょうか? 私の同僚や他の科学者の多くはこう言います気温上昇を2度以下に抑えるにはもう遅すぎるとしかし私の研究によればエネルギーや食糧のシステム航空や船舶輸送にとって危険な気温上昇は摂氏2度未満に抑えられます可能性は小さいながらも残っていますそれには目標を実現するための数字に対して深い理解が必要ですこのグラフの軌跡をよく見ると黄色の丸で示された 4度の気温上昇を示す赤い線と 2度の気温上昇の緑の線が離れる時期が間近に迫っていますこれは累積の排出量別名「炭素収支」があるからです言い換えれば今ここにいる部屋の照明やプロジェクターにより電気が消費され大気中に放出された二酸化炭素は長く影響を及ぼします二酸化炭素の一部は 100年間またはそれ以上大気中に残りますこうして温室効果ガスは蓄積されるのですまたこのグラフの曲線は見方に注意が必要ですまず重要なのはグラフの線の下の面積で将来のどの日に到達するかはそこまで重要ではありませんつまり問題を一気に解決する- 素晴らしい技術が開発されたとしてもそれが 2049年の大みそかギリギリでは意味がありませんそれまでの間に排出量が蓄積されているからですそのため私たちが4度の気温上昇を示す赤い線を続けるのであれば長い期間続けるほど後日そのツケが大きく回ってきます炭素収支をを同じにしグラフの下の面積を変えたくないからですつまりこのグラフで言えば赤い線のカーブが急になります言い換えれば早いうちに排出量を減らさないと将来毎年大幅な排出量の削減をしなければならなくなります私たちのエネルギーシステムを脱炭素化しなければなりませんしかも早い時期から排出量削減の成果を出さなければ脱炭素化を急激に進める必要に迫られますそれは私たちにとって非常に大きなチャレンジになります炭素収支はエネルギー政策についても示唆を与えてくれます 1人当たりの排出量が大きな国に住む私たちがエネルギー需要を減らす必要があるということです世界中の人々がそれを望んでいるからです私たちは大規模な技術インフラを急いで展開しなければなりませんエネルギーシステムの供給サイドを脱炭素化するためですその変化はすぐには表れません原発か炭素捕捉や貯蔵かバイオ燃料の普及拡大か風力発電や波力発電を選ぶのかは問題ではありませんいずれも時間が必要ですグラフの下の面積のみが重要ですエネルギー効率は大事ですがエネルギー保全すなわち省エネルギーも重要なのですそして省エネルギーを行うことは供給側の技術の普及を続けることを意味しエネルギー消費を何とか減らすには活動自体を減らす以外にありませんそうすれば供給側に必要なインフラを縮小できるからですさらに私たちはもう1つの問題福祉と公平性にも取り組む必要があります世界には生活水準を上げなければならない多くの地域が存在しますしかし現在のエネルギーシステムは化石燃料に依存しており経済の成長は排出量の増加を伴いますその結果炭素収支の量を変えてはならない前提で世界の中である地域の排出量を増やさなければならないとすると他の地域の排出量は抑えなければなりません豊かな国にとってはとても大きな挑戦になります私たちの研究によれば 1人当たりの排出量がとても高い国- 例えば北米ヨーロッパオーストラリアなどにいた場合毎年10%以上の二酸化炭素を今すぐに減らすことが摂氏2度以上の気温変動を避けるために必要ですここで1つ引用をさせてください経済学者ニコラス・スターンは過去に年1パーセント以上炭素排出量を削減できたのは経済の後退や大混乱が起きたときに限られると述べていますそのため経済成長にとっては大きな挑戦になるのですなぜなら炭素集約型のインフラを利用している場合経済が成長するにつれて排出量も増加することを意味しているからですここで 2011年に私がケビン・アンダーソンと共同で書いた論文から引用しますそこでは危険な摂氏2度の気温上昇を避けるために経済成長を犠牲にしなければならないと書きました一定期間豊かな国が計画的に緊縮を行うのですこれは非常に厳しいメッセージです私たちが行動を変える必要があると言っているからです少しずつの変化では間に合いません行動を変えてシステム全体を変えて時には行動を抑制することを意味しているのですこれは人類全てに求められていることです地球をどこまで変えられるかは分かりませんが地域の政治家に手紙を書くことかもしれませんし上司に話すことや上司として行動すること友人や家族に話したり自分自身の生活を変えることかもしれませんなぜなら私たちには本当に大きな変化が必要だからです私たちは今 4度のシナリオに向かいかけています 2度の気温上昇も避けたいと真剣に思うのならば今すぐ行動を始めなければいけませんありがとう (拍手) ブルーノ・ジッサーニ: アリス今回のトークの要点は豊かな国が毎年10%の排出量削減を 2020年や25年ではなく今行わなければ 4度の気温上昇のシナリオに一直線だということですね 2070年に70%の排出量削減という数字をどう思いますかアリス・ボウズ=ラーキン: 2度の上昇を避けるだけでは不十分です私たちに必要な施策を見つけるためにモデル研究がよく使われますがこの手法の問題は他国もすぐに CO2 排出量の削減に着手できる状態だと過剰に期待する傾向があることですその結果大胆な予測をしてしまうのです私たちが行ったのは累積の排出量に関する研究なので短期の問題が非常に重要になりますそのため大きな違いが出るのですもし例えば中国のような大きな国がたとえ数年間でも成長を続けるとすれば脱炭素化が必要となる時期に大きな影響を及ぼしますしたがって目標達成の時期は予測できません今後の短期間で何をするかによって結果が変わるからですしかし今大局を理解したのにエネルギー需要を減らすように行動を変えないとしたら恥ずべきことだと思います TEDで貴重なデータを共有してくれてありがとうありがとう	Actions, choices and behaviors will have led to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions. And I think that that's quite a powerful thought. But it does have the potential to make us feel guilty when we think about decisions we might have made around where to travel to, how often and how, about the energy that we choose to use in our homes or in our workplaces, or quite simply the lifestyles that we lead and enjoy. But we can also turn that thought on its head, and think that if we've had such a profound but a negative impact on our climate already, then we have an opportunity to influence the amount of future climate change that we will need to adapt to. So we have a choice. We can either choose to start to take climate change seriously, and significantly cut and mitigate our greenhouse gas emissions, and then we will have to adapt to less of the climate change impacts in future. Alternatively, we can continue to really ignore the climate change problem. But if we do that, we are also choosing to adapt to very much more powerful climate impacts in future. And not only that. As people who live in countries with high per capita emissions, we're making that choice on behalf of others as well. is a no climate change future. Over the last two decades, our government negotiators and policymakers have been coming together to discuss climate change, and they've been focused on avoiding a two-degree centigrade warming above pre-industrial levels. That's the temperature that's associated with dangerous impacts across a range of different indicators, to humans and to the environment. So two degrees centigrade constitutes dangerous climate change. But dangerous climate change can be subjective. So if we think about an extreme weather event that might happen in some part of the world, and if that happens in a part of the world where there is good infrastructure, where there are people that are well-insured and so on, then that impact can be disruptive. It can cause upset, it could cause cost. It could even cause some deaths. But if that exact same weather event happens in a part of the world where there is poor infrastructure, or where people are not well-insured, or they're not having good support networks, then that same climate change impact could be devastating. It could cause a significant loss of home, but it could also cause significant amounts of death. So this is a graph of the CO2 emissions at the left-hand side from fossil fuel and industry, and time from before the Industrial Revolution out towards the present day. And what's immediately striking about this is that emissions have been growing exponentially. If we focus in on a shorter period of time from 1950, we have established in 1988 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, then rolling on a few years, in 2009 we had the Copenhagen Accord, where it established avoiding a two-degree temperature rise in keeping with the science and on the basis of equity. And then in 2012, we had the Rio+20 event. And all the way through, during all of these meetings and many others as well, emissions have continued to rise. And if we focus on our historical emission trend in recent years, of the direction of travel in our global economy, then we are much more on track for a four-degree centigrade global warming than we are for the two-degree centigrade. Now, let's just pause for a moment and think about this four-degree global average temperature. Most of our planet is actually made up of the sea. Now, because the sea has a greater thermal inertia than the land, the average temperatures over land are actually going to be higher than they are over the sea. The second thing is that we as human beings don't experience global average temperatures. We experience hot days, cold days, rainy days, especially if you live in Manchester like me. So now put yourself in a city center. Imagine somewhere in the world: Mumbai, Beijing, New York, London. It's the hottest day that you've ever experienced. There's sun beating down, there's concrete and glass all around you. Now imagine that same day -- but it's six, eight, maybe 10 to 12 degrees warmer on that day during that heat wave. That's the kind of thing we're going to experience under a four-degree global average temperature scenario. And the problem with these extremes, and not just the temperature extremes, but also the extremes in terms of storms and other climate impacts, is our infrastructure is just not set up to deal with these sorts of events. So our roads and our rail networks have been designed to last for a long time and withstand only certain amounts of impacts in different parts of the world. And this is going to be extremely challenged. Our power stations are expected to be cooled by water to a certain temperature to remain effective and resilient. And our buildings are designed to be comfortable within a particular temperature range. And this is all going to be significantly challenged under a four-degree-type scenario. Our infrastructure has not been designed to cope with this. So if we go back, also thinking about four degrees, it's not just the direct impacts, but also some indirect impacts. So if we take food security, for example. Maize and wheat yields in some parts of the world are expected to be up to 40 percent lower rice up to 30 percent lower. This will be absolutely devastating for global food security. So all in all, the kinds of impacts anticipated under this four-degree centigrade scenario are going to be incompatible with global organized living. So back to our trajectories and our graphs of four degrees and two degrees. Is it reasonable still to focus on the two-degree path? There are quite a lot of my colleagues and other scientists who would say that it's now too late to avoid a two-degree warming. But I would just like to draw on my own research on energy systems, on food systems, aviation and also shipping, just to say that I think there is still a small fighting chance of avoiding this two-degree dangerous climate change. But we really need to get to grips with the numbers to work out how to do it. So if you focus in on this trajectory and these graphs, the yellow circle there highlights that the departure from the red four-degree pathway to the two-degree green pathway is immediate. And that's because of cumulative emissions, or the carbon budget. So in other words, because of the lights and the projectors that are on in this room right now, the CO2 that is going into our atmosphere as a result of that electricity consumption lasts a very long time. Some of it will be in our atmosphere for a century, maybe much longer. It will accumulate, and greenhouse gases tend to be cumulative. And that tells us something about these trajectories. First of all, it tells us that it's the area under these curves that matter, not where we reach at a particular date in future. And that's important, because it doesn't matter if we come up with some amazing whiz-bang technology to sort out our energy problem on the last day of 2049, just in the nick of time to sort things out. Because in the meantime, emissions will have accumulated. So if we continue on this red, four-degree centigrade scenario pathway, the longer we continue on it, that will need to be made up for in later years to keep the same carbon budget, to keep the same area under the curve, which means that that trajectory, the red one there, becomes steeper. So in other words, if we don't reduce emissions in the short to medium term, then we'll have to make more significant year-on-year emission reductions. We also know that we have to decarbonize our energy system. But if we don't start to cut emissions in the short to medium term, then we will have to do that even sooner. So this poses really big challenges for us. The other thing it does is tells us something about energy policy. If you live in a part of the world where per capita emissions are already high, it points us towards reducing energy demand. And that's because with all the will in the world, the large-scale engineering infrastructure that we need to roll out rapidly to decarbonize the supply side of our energy system is just simply not going to happen in time. So it doesn't matter whether we choose nuclear power or carbon capture and storage, upscale our biofuel production, or go for a much bigger roll-out of wind turbines and wave turbines. All of that will take time. So because it's the area under the curve that matters, we need to focus on energy efficiency, but also on energy conservation -- in other words, using less energy. And if we do that, that also means that as we continue to roll out the supply-side technology, we will have less of a job to do if we've actually managed to reduce our energy consumption, because we will then need less infrastructure on the supply side. Another issue that we really need to grapple with is the issue of well-being and equity. There are many parts of the world where the standard of living needs to rise. Bbut with energy systems currently reliant on fossil fuel, as those economies grow so will emissions. And now, if we're all constrained by the same amount of carbon budget, that means that if some parts of the world's emissions are needing to rise, then other parts of the world's emissions need to reduce. So that poses very significant challenges for wealthy nations. Because according to our research, if you're in a country where per capita emissions are really high -- so North America, Europe, Australia -- emissions reductions of the order of 10 percent per year, and starting immediately, will be required for a good chance of avoiding the two-degree target. Let me just put that into context. The economist Nicholas Stern said that emission reductions of more than one percent per year had only ever been associated with economic recession or upheaval. So this poses huge challenges for the issue of economic growth, because if we have our high carbon infrastructure in place, it means that if our economies grow, then so do our emissions. So I'd just like to take a quote from a paper by myself and Kevin Anderson back in 2011 where we said that to avoid the two-degree framing of dangerous climate change, economic growth needs to be exchanged at least temporarily for a period of planned austerity in wealthy nations. This is a really difficult message to take, because what it suggests is that we really need to do things differently. This is not about just incremental change. This is about doing things differently, about whole system change, and sometimes it's about doing less things. And this applies to all of us, whatever sphere of influence we have. So it could be from writing to our local politician to talking to our boss at work or being the boss at work, or talking with our friends and family, or, quite simply, changing our lifestyles. Because we really need to make significant change. At the moment, we're choosing a four-degree scenario. If we really want to avoid the two-degree scenario, there really is no time like the present to act. Thank you. Bruno Giussani: Alice, basically what you're saying, the talk is, unless wealthy nations start cutting 10 percent per year the emissions now, this year, not in 2020 or '25, we are going to go straight to the four-plus-degree scenario. I am wondering what's your take on the cut by 70 percent for 2070. Alice Bows-Larkin: Yeah, it's just nowhere near enough to avoid two degrees. One of the things that often -- when there are these modeling studies that look at what we need to do, is they tend to hugely overestimate how quickly other countries in the world can start to reduce emissions. So they make kind of heroic assumptions about that. The more we do that, because it's the cumulative emissions, the short-term stuff that really matters. So it does make a huge difference. If a big country like China, for example, continues to grow even for just a few extra years, that will make a big difference to when we need to decarbonize. So I don't think we can even say when it will be, because it all depends on what we have to do in the short term. But I think we've just got huge scope, and we don't pull those levers that allow us to reduce the energy demand, which is a shame. BG: Alice, thank you for coming to TED and sharing this data. ABL: Thank you.	{ "source": "iwslt2017", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
「ぐあぁ!」私の前で胸を剣で切り付けられの兵士が大量の血を流して倒れる。私はその光景に一瞬思わず目を逸らしそうになるが、目を逸らしている間に何をされるか分かったものでは無いと思い、その光景をしっかりと見続ける。「リオ。無理に見なくてもいいんだぞ?」「私は大丈夫です。これが戦いですから」その事に対して今しがた兵士を切り捨てたサクが私に声をかけてくれるが、私はその気遣いを嬉しく思いつつもそっけなく返す。「それにしても、ここまで腐っている兵士が多かったとはな......」外から聞こえてくる雨音を耳にしつつサクは悲しそうな瞳を切り捨てた兵士に向ける。きっと国を継ぐ者として思う所が色々とあるのだと思う。「ああ、レイの性格や父上の言葉からして必ずセンコノトの何処かに居るはずなのだがな」私とサクは数人の護衛役である騎士を連れてセンコノト城の中で今回のクーデターの首謀者であるレイ第四王子を探していた。なお、私たちがたった数時間でセンコ国の外れであるクヌキ領から首都であるセンコノトまで来れたのは、私たちに味方をしてくれる領主の領地にある転移魔法陣を乗り継いだからだけど、私は転移魔法の余波として起きる転移酔いと言うものになって色々と酷かったので、正直に言って出来ればもう使いたくない。「しかし、パンプキン殿の魔法は凄まじいな」「街に張られた防御魔法も無視して街中の人間を眠らせる魔法......使い方次第では文字通り戦いが変わりますね」「と言うよりも対策が無ければ殆どこれだけで戦いが決まるぞ。現に今の俺たちは何の苦労もしていない」「宮廷魔道士の連中は今頃頭を抱えてんだろうなぁ......」護衛役の騎士たちはサクの言葉に思い思いに返す。実際、今の私たちは何の苦労も無く城の中にいた兵士たちを倒す、もしくは捕えられていることを考えると、護衛の騎士たちの言うとおりパンプキンさんの魔法は殆どそれ一つで戦いを決する力を持っていると言ってもいいと思う。そして私たちが次の部屋に向かおうとしたところで突然...... 「きゃっ!」「くっ、大丈夫か!」「地面が揺れているぞ!」「何かに掴まれ!」「何が起きてる!?」王城全体が揺れ始め、城が揺れる中で私はよろけて倒れかかったところをサクに支えてもらい、他の騎士たちもある者は私たちに軽い防御の魔法をかけ、またある者は周囲の壁や家具が倒れてこないかを警戒してくれる。「こ、この辺りってこんなに揺れるの?」「いや、私の覚えている限りではこれほど揺れたことは無かった。それにこの揺れは何かがおかしい。これはそう、まるで下から何かが......!?」サクは私を抱えながらそう言うとおもむろに下を向く。そしてそこまで言ったところでサクは何かに気づいたかのような顔をする。「総員身構えろ!下から何か来るぞ!!」「「「!?」」」サクの言葉が私たち全員に伝わったその瞬間。私たちは下から上がってきた何かによって吹き飛ばされた。 ■■■■■ 「ロウィッチだ。スパイン聞こえるか?」『聞こえてるぞロウィッチ』俺は特殊な事態に備えて用意してあった衣装に着替えた状態で箒に跨り、クヌキハッピィにある『ウミツキ文房具店』からセンコノトに向かって空を飛んでいた。『封印解除Lv.1を申請するなんて一体何があったんだ?』「偽神及び中級神級の何かが活動している反応を検知したから、現地に向かっている。が、流石に中級神と相対するのは普段の俺じゃ自殺行為だからな」『なるほどな。ついでに正体の隠蔽も兼ねてって事か』「まあそう言う事だ」俺はレースや宝石が付けられて普段の古典的な魔法少女装束よりも豪勢な見た目になっている魔法少女装束を指でつまみながら、通信先のスパインの言葉に応じる。「と、そろそろ見えてくるな。必要が有ったらまた連絡するから社長への連絡準備をしつつ待機しておいてくれ」『分かった。流石に中級神相手だと何かあった時が怖いしそうさせてもらう』スパインとの通信を終わらせた俺は正面に見えている雲を突っ切ると、センコ国の首都であるセンコノトとセンコノト城そしてセンコノト城を突き上げる様に生えた巨大な腕を見た。アレが偽神の反応源......恐らくは破壊神だろう。となればアレは大して問題にはならない。「あそこか......」俺は俺が問題とすべき相手......中級神の反応を首を巡らして探す。そして反応があったのはセンコノト上空にいっそ不自然と言っていい形で発生している雨雲の中だった。「行くか」俺は自分の装備を確かめてから雨雲の中に突入する。雨雲の中はやはり不自然と言っていいほど静かだった。やはりこれは自然に発生したものでは無く誰かが意図的に生み出した物なのだろう。「っつ!?」そして雨雲を抜けた俺は自らの視界に映ったその光景にまず驚愕する。「【リプレッション】」『なぜ潰れぬ......』何故ならば確かパンプキンと名乗った男がボロボロの身体で周囲に膜の様な物を張り巡らし、破壊神の拳を空中で押しとどめていたのだから。だがそれ以上に驚くべきはそのパンプキンが身に纏っていた力とその目に宿る意思の色。「海月ですか。様子見にでも来ましたか?」その力と意思は明らかにパンプキン以外の何ものかであった。	“Guaaaah!” In front of Rio, a soldier was slashed in the chest with a sword and fell down, shedding a profusion of blood. She briefly thought of turning away from the scene but decided against it since she knew she may be attacked if she did. “Rio. You don’t have to force yourself to look, you know?” “I’m fine. This is a battle.” In response to this, Saku, who had just dispatched a soldier, called out to her. While she was appreciative of his care, her reaction was nonchalant. “Nevertheless, I didn’t expect so many soldiers to be so corrupt...” With the sound of rain in the background of his ears, Saku turned his sorrowful eyes to the soldier he had eliminated. As the heir to the kingdom, he must have a lot on his mind. “Yeah, based on Ray’s character and my father’s words, I’m sure he’s somewhere in Senkonoto.” In the castle of Senkonoto, Saku and Rio were searching for the Fourth Prince Ray, the instigator of this revolution, along with a few knights who served as guards. Furthermore, the reason they were able to come to Senkonoto, the capital, from the Kunuki territory, which lay on the outskirts of Senko, in just a few hours was due to a teleportation magic circle in the territory of a lord who was willing to stand by their side. Rio, on the other hand, suffered “teleportation sickness,” which was a side effect of using teleportation magic, and it was so dreadful that she genuinely didn’t want to use it again if possible. “But Pumpkin-dono’s magic is amazing.” “The magic that puts everyone in the city to sleep, even disregarding the defensive magic set up in the city... Depending on how it is used, it can literally shift the tide of the battle.” “This is basically the sole factor that will influence how the conflict turns out in the absence of countermeasures. In fact, we’re having no trouble at all right now.” “The imperial court sorcerers must be losing their minds right now...” The knights who acted as guards responded to Saku’s words in a thoughtful manner. In reality, it would be fair to claim that, as the knights in the escorting party had said, Pumpkin’s magic possessed the capacity to be the deciding element in nearly any fight by itself, given that they had now defeated or captured the troops in the castle without any difficulty. They were going to enter the next room when suddenly... “Kya!” “Damn, are you okay!” “The ground is shaking!” “Hold on to something!” “What’s happening!?” While other knights cast minor defensive spells on them, others kept an eye out for collapsing walls and furniture, and Saku supported Rio as she stumbled and nearly fell, the entire castle started to rumble and tremble. “I-Is it always that shaky around here?” “No, as far as I can remember it has never had a tremor like this. And there is something off about this tremor. This is like as if something is coming from below...!?” Holding Rio in his arms, Saku said this and looked down. After saying that much, Saku made a face as if he had realized something. “Everybody brace yourselves! Something is coming from below!!” [[[!?]]] At that moment, Saku’s words reached all of them. They were blasted away by something that rose up from below us. ■■■■■ “It’s Lowizc. Spine, can you hear me?” [I can hear you, Lowizc.] While dressed in the costume prepared for the extraordinary occurrence, she was flying from “Umitsuki Stationery Shop” in Kunukihappi to Senkonoto, astride a broomstick. [What in the world has happened that you would apply for Unsealing Lv. ?] “I am on my way there because I detected a reaction that something of a false god and intermediate-level god was in activity. But facing an intermediate-level god would be suicide for me.” [I see. You mean, in addition to covering up your true identity?] “Well, I suppose so.” Her magical girl costume, which was more opulent in appearance than her typical classic magical girl costume with lace and jewelry attached to it, when she answered Spine’s words on the other end of the line, was being pinched. “I can almost see it. I’ll be in touch if necessary, so please stand by while preparing to contact the president.” [I get it. In any event, if something goes awry with an intermediate-level god, something terrible may happen.] After finishing the communication with Spine, Lowizc passed through the clouds in front of her and saw Senkonoto, the capital of Senkonoto, Senkonoto Castle, and a huge arm that grew like it was thrusting up against the Senkonoto Castle. That is the source of the reaction of the false god... which is probably the God of Destruction. In that case, that is not really a problem. “There it is...” She craned her neck to find the reaction of the... intermediate-level god in question. And the reaction came in the form of a rain cloud that was forming in a rather incongruous manner over Senkonoto. “I should go.” After checking her equipment, she plunged into the rain cloud. Within the rain clouds, it was still unnaturally quiet. As she suspected, this was not a natural occurrence, but something that someone had intentionally created. “What!?” The sight she saw in her field of vision astonished her. “[Repression].” [Why can’t you be destroyed...] She recalled him as the man who went by the name “Pumpkin,” and now had a ragged body and a membrane-like structure around it, suppressing the fist of the God of Destruction in mid-air. Yet what was even more astounding was the power that Pumpkin wore and the color of the will that resided in his eyes. “Is it Umitsuki? Have you come to check on the situation?” Those powers and will were obviously not that of Pumpkin.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 2, "inserted_lines_src": 0, "inserted_lines_trg": 0 }
彼らの後継者たちは今日では、対照的に、アジアの資本主義モデルを公然と批判している。かつて中国は、空想的理想主義者にとって半資本主義の指標であったが、今日では新世代の空想的理想反動主義者、すなわちヨーロッパ現状維持の擁護者にとって、ウルトラリベラル的な天罰を加えるものに変わった。昨今、パリ街頭の学生デモ活動家は中国人やインド人のようになりたがってはいない…彼らはグローバリゼーションの論理を拒絶し、辛くも勝ち取った社会保障を手放すことを拒否しているのだ。	Yesterday China was an anti-capitalist lodestar for utopian revolutionaries; today it has become an ultra-liberal nemesis for a new generation of utopian reactionaries – the defenders of the status quo in Europe. The student demonstrators in the streets of Paris recently don’t want to become like Chinese and Indians; they reject the logic of globalization and refuse to surrender hard-won social guarantees.	{ "source": "news_commentary", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
『私は勿論転生方法を探るチームに入るわ。私がいないと始まらないだろうしね。この時ルファスはあえて気にしなかったが、ポルクスには至急調べねばならぬ事があった。妖精郷アルフヘイム。ルファスがいる時に皆を援護する為に呼びだした複数の英霊......フェニックスやハイドラス騎士と共にさりげなく復活させておいた『彼女』は空気を読んであの場を素早く離れ、そして今はこの妖精郷に来ているはずだ。少し離れれば案の定、ポルクスを待っていたように適当な木に背を預けた幼い姿を見付ける。「随分と久しいのう、ポルクス」「ええ、久しぶりね......パルテノス」見た目こそ幼い少女だが、その実年齢は人間としては破格も破格の二百歳超えであり、老婆というよりは最早化石にも等しい。アルゴナウタイは全盛期の姿で呼び出される為、かつて十二星として猛威を振るっていた二百年前の姿で呼び出されている。「それで何の用じゃ? 久しぶりに若い身体を得たのは喜ばしいが儂には龍の封印を守るという役目がある。出来れば元の場所に戻して欲しいんじゃがの」「その龍の封印について聞きたい事があるのよ」ポルクスは目を細め、パルテノスを鋭く睨む。「ねえパルテノス。貴女、何故......女神様のアバターを素通りさせたのかしら?」「......ほう、あの時の一行の中にそんなものが紛れていたとは。これは盲点......」「誤魔化さないで。ルファス様ならそれで煙に巻けるかもしれないけど私は違うわ。ルファスはこれを、『パルテノスはかつて女神の聖域の守護者だったから女神と似た存在であるディーナを通してしまった』と考えた。何故ならば龍とは女神の代行者であり、それを起こさない為に封印がある。つまりディーナが素通りしてしまったのはルファスが考えているような理由ではなく......明確な意思を持ってパルテノスが通したという事だ。何かの間違いで通してしまったとしても......あるいは何らかの方法で彼女が結界を素通りしたとしても......顔を見た時点で、貴女は彼女の正体に気付いていなくてはならない」「......」「答えなさいパルテノス」そう視線で語るポルクスに、やがてパルテノスは両手を挙げて降参の意を示した。「流石じゃな、ポルクス。全てお前さんの言う通りじゃよ。「......どういう事?」「決して他に漏らすでないぞ。特に口の軽い輩にはな」何故自分がディーナを素通りさせたのか。ディーナとは一体何者で、何を企てて動いているのか。深層心理の奥底で、彼女自身すらも無意識下でかろうじて覚えているに過ぎない儚い記憶だが、それでもルファスはディーナが敵ではないと『知っている』。それを聞いたポルクスは最初は信じられないといった顔をし、しかしやがて納得したような表情へと変わった。おかしいとは思ったのよ......いくらルファス様が脳筋だからって、不自然なまでに踊らされ過ぎだと。「その割には不満そうじゃの?」「ええ、不満よ。私はあの方に全てを明かされていたわけではなかった。「仕方のない事じゃ。お前さんは最悪、女神様に記憶を読み取られる恐れがあった。「分かってるわよ。それも含めて情けないって言ってるの」あの唯我独尊で、女神の干渉すら跳ね除ける規格外ならば万に一つも女神に操られる恐れなどない。記憶を読み取られる心配などしなくてもいい。だが自分にそれは出来なかった。抵抗はしたが女神に操られてしまったし、今後も同じ事があればやはり抗えないだろう。それが本当に情けなくて、嫌になる。精神力のステータス云々ではない。女神相手では例えステータスが無限だろうが抵抗など出来ないだろう。「それでこれから儂はどうする? もう戻っていいかのう?」「いいえ、念のため待機していて。大丈夫だとは思うけど何かあった時に貴女の力が必要になるかもしれない」「それはいいが封印の護りはどうする気じゃ」「貴女の代理として『冠』のボレアリスをヴァナヘイムに向かわせたわ。大丈夫よ」「......抜かりないのう」元々はルファス登場以前の人類の治める国としては最も巨大な帝国を支配していた帝王だったのだが、ルファスとの一騎打ちに敗れて惚れ込み、彼女が国を立ち上げた際には真っ先に軍門に下ったという逸話がある。その姿は身長220で、上半身裸の上からマントを羽織った変態染みたナイスミドルであり、接近しての殴り合いに限定すればルファスすらも苦戦させると言われている。「そういうわけよ。貴女はこのまま私と一緒に行動してルファス様と合流して貰うわ」「ふむ、いいじゃろう。久々にルファス様の為に力を振るう事になりそうじゃな」「ええ、頼りにしてるわよ」「ほう、覇道十二星か」「元、じゃがの。その名は孫に譲って、今はただのパルテノスじゃ」プリーストの高位スキル『ダブル・スター』。習得条件はプリーストレベル100である事。更にそこから『フォース・スター』を起動する。その習得条件はプリーストレベル200かつ『ダブル・スター』を習得済みである事だ。更に一度ダブル・スターを発動した後でなければ起動出来ないので使うまでに若干の隙を晒す事になるが、その分効果は絶大だ。その効果は一定時間の間のみ中級以下の天法使用。パルテノスが指を動かすと彼女の前に四つ星魔法陣が浮かび、その全てが場の全員へと付与された。日属性天法――『フォトンウェポン』。味方の攻撃力を上昇。日属性天法――『レイ・ブロック』。味方の対物理防御力を上昇。日属性天法――『レイ・バリア』。味方の対魔法防御力を上昇。日属性天法――『フォトンフィールド』。味方が受けるダメージを肩代わりする領域を形成。「ほれ、まだじゃ。儂を早う止めんと取返しの付かん事になるぞ?」これにはソルも顔色を変え、すぐに攻勢へと移った。日属性天法――『リジェネレイト』。一定時間HPが自動回復。日属性天法――『マナ・リジェネレイト』。一定時間SPが自動回復。日属性天法――『スピード・オブ・ライト』。味方の速度を倍化させる。日属性天法――『オーラバースト』。味方の全ステータスを上昇。他の補助技と併用可能。ソルがパルテノスへ切り込もうとするが、それをテラの刃が正面から受け止めた。そしてまた一手。再びパルテノスに術を行使する間を与えてしまった。「ほれほれ、どんどん行くぞ? もっと急げ急げ」日属性天法――『オートリザレクション』。HPが0になった時に一度だけ自動で蘇生。日属性天法――『エレメントリフレクター』。指定した属性のダメージを一定時間半減。日属性天法――『オーラフェザー』。味方に光の翼を与えて飛行可能とする。日属性天法――『レイ・フォース』。味方が敵に与える魔法ダメージを上昇させる。「馬鹿な......早い!?」テラと切り結びながらソルはパルテノスの術の速さに驚愕していた。だが術を発動するまでには多少なりともタイムラグがあり、四つも使えば発動までにかかる時間は並の術者ならば数分.....雄クラスでも数秒は要するはずだ。それを一切の動作なく、ほぼ一瞬で使うなど有り得ない。『フォース・スター』は決して無敵のスキルではない。むしろ使う術が増える分発動までの時間が伸びて速攻性を失い、肝心な場面に肝心な術が発動しないなどの問題を抱えている。それならばむしろ、そんなスキルは使わずに速効性を優先して普通に術を使った方がマシ、というのがプリーストの常識だ。それにおかしい。この女......先程から高位の術まで当たり前のように混ぜてきている! しかしそれを可能とするのがパルテノスであった。覇道十二星にはレオンを例外とし、全員がそれぞれの固有スキルを有しており、いずれも反則級の力を誇る。パルテノスも例外ではない。彼女の固有スキルである『ザヴィヤヴァ』は他の十二星と比べると、決して派手なものではない。その効果は、高位天法の制限解除。『一定ランク以上の術は使えない』と制限がかかっているスキルは多数あるが、その全てを無視して高位術や最高位の術までそこに組み込んでしまう。一見すると地味だが、これはふざけているまでに反則的なスキルだ。何故ならプリーストやソーサラーには『一定ランク以下の魔法の消費SPを激減させる』スキルや『一定ランク以下の天法の発動待機時間をゼロにする』といったものがあるのだ。(もっともこれは本当に下位の術にしか適用されない。故にフォース・スターの主な活用法としては最下級の術を連射して手数で補うといったものになる)。だがパルテノスはそれを無視する。本来弱い術にしか適用されないスキルを平然と高位の術に適用させる。確かにパルテノスは純粋な戦闘力という意味では十二星最弱候補だ。そこに異論を挿む余地はない。ルファス自身も『補助は凄いが戦闘力は微妙』と言っており、彼女を弱いと断言している。そこに居るだけで戦力差を覆す補助のスペシャリスト。それこそが先代『乙女』の力だ。ソルがテラの刃に掠りながらも前線を突破し、この場で最も危険な女へと拳を放った。だが迂闊。確かにパルテノスは十二星の中では弱い部類だが、ポルクスのようにレベルに合わぬほど弱いわけではない。少なくともレベル800相当の力は備えており......補助が充実した今を計算に含むならば、その膂力は前衛の一撃すら受け止めるものまで達するのだ。「阿呆が」「っ!」そのまま相手が驚愕から立ち直る間も与えずに右足を軸に回転。遠心力を乗せて丸太の一撃をソルの横面へと叩き込んだ。	“I’m naturally on the team searching for a way to reincarnate. Nothing would get done without me...and there’s another thing that worries me.” This was what Pollux said when they were splitting up into teams. Ruphas didn’t particularly care at that time, but Pollux considered it to be something that must be investigated urgently. That was because, depending on the situation, she believed that it could potentially cause the plans Ruphas had made two hundred years ago to completely fall apart. The fairies’ village, Alfheim. Once they returned here, Pollux distanced herself from the others for a while before she started talking about the avatars. When Ruphas was still present, multiple heroic spirits had been summoned to support everyone...They included Phoenix, Hydrus, the Three Winged Knights and her. At that time, she had read the atmosphere and quickly left the location. Thus, by now, she should already be in the fairies’ village. Slightly away from the others, there was a young figure leaning against a tree as if she had been waiting for Pollux. Her braided hair was green. Dressed in a white robe, she appeared to be about twelve years old. She smiled when she noticed Pollux. “It’s been a long time since we last met, Pollux.” “Yes, it has been a while...Parthenos.” She was Parthenos, the previous Maiden. A year ago, she had reached her natural lifespan, but now she was here as if she was in her prime. She looked like a young girl, but her actual age was more than two hundred years old, which was exceptional for a human. She wasn’t just an old woman; she was practically a fossil. Argonautai would summon heroes as they were in their primes, so she had been summoned as she was two hundred years ago when the Twelve Stars were in their glory days. Of course, Pollux could have summoned her as an old woman, but she wouldn’t have done that since she was a woman herself. “So, what is it that you want? I’m glad to have a young body again after such a long time, but I still have to watch over the seal of the ouroboros. I’d like to return to my former location, if it’s possible.” “I have something to ask about the seal of the ouroboros.” Pollux narrowed her eyes and stared sharply at Parthenos. “Hey, Parthenos. Why did you...let the avatar of the Goddess pass?” “...Oh, so there was something like that mixed in with the group back then. That was a blunder...” “Stop pretending. If it’s Ruphas-sama, you might be able to smoke your way through, but it won’t work for me. Don’t look down on me.” The thing that Pollux wanted to check was why Dina had been allowed to pass through the barrier of Parthenos when Ruphas and the others visited Vanaheim. Ruphas had previously thought, “Parthenos used to be the guardian of the Goddess’ Sanctuary, so as an entity similar to the Goddess, Dina could have simply passed through.” But that was strange, way too strange. This was because the ouroboroses were proxies of the Goddess, so there were seals to prevent this from happening. If an entity similar to the Goddess was able to pass through, there would be no point in the barrier. In other words, Dina was able to pass through, but not for the reason Ruphas believed...It was because Parthenos knowingly let her through. “Another thing. You’re the Manager of the Goddess-sama’s Sanctuary. It’s impossible for you not to know the face of the Goddess-sama. Even if she somehow passed through by mistake...or even if she somehow bypassed the barrier, when you saw her, you must have figured out her identity.” “......” “Answer me, Parthenos.” Neither excuses nor deceptions would work. Parthenos raised her hands, expressing her intention to surrender. Other people aside, she judged that Pollux alone could not be deceived. “As expected of you, Pollux. Everything is exactly as you have said. I was aware of her identity and deliberately let her through the barrier. But it seems not even you noticed her ‘identity that’s behind her identity’.” “...What do you mean?” “I wouldn’t leak this to anyone else, especially someone who isn’t tight-lipped.” And Parthenos explained. Why did she let Dina pass through? Who was Dina and what was she trying to do? And why did Ruphas trust her without reservation? Why was Dina...not recognized as an enemy even after it was discovered that she had been deceiving them? Yes, it wasn’t merely because Ruphas didn’t think about it or was careless. Ruphas had a reason not to consider her as an enemy. It was just a vague memory buried deep in her psyche that Ruphas recalled subconsciously, but she knew that Dina was not an enemy. When Pollux heard it, she had an incredulous look, but eventually she became convinced. “...I see. That certainly makes sense. I thought it was strange...No matter how much of a muscle-brain Ruphas-sama was, she was being played around with too unnaturally. But certainly, if that was the case, I can’t say I’m not convinced.” “Are you dissatisfied with this?” “Yes, I’m dissatisfied. I wasn’t told everything. That’s pathetic.” “It couldn’t be helped. In the worst-case scenario, it’s feared that your memories could be read by the Goddess. The most important information needed to be hidden no matter what.” “I know. I’m saying it’s pathetic because of that.” Pollux was ashamed of her own weakness. If it had been the Vampire Princess, even if she was the avatar of an ouroboros, Ruphas would have told her everything. Even on the off chance that the Goddess interfered, her peerless pride rendered her beyond the norms. There was no fear that she would be controlled by the Goddess. There was no need to worry about her memories being read. But Pollux couldn’t do that. Although she resisted, she was still controlled by the Goddess. She wouldn’t be able to withstand it if the same thing were to happen again in the future. It was really pathetic and she hated it. This had nothing to do with her mental status. Even if one had infinite status, they would still be unable to resist the Goddess. It would require a ridiculously strong will that went beyond status. Otherwise, it would be impossible to resist the Goddess. “So what do I do now? Should I go back?” “No, wait here just in case. It’ll probably be okay, but we might need your help if something happens.” “That’s fine, but who’s going to protect the seal?” “I’ve sent Borealis of the Crown to Vanaheim on your behalf, so it’s fine.” “...You don’t miss a thing.” Borealis of the Crown was a Level grappler who was one of Ruphas’ subordinates. There was an anecdote that he was originally the ruler of the largest humanoid empire before the coming of Ruphas. He fell in love with her after losing to her in a duel. When Ruphas founded her own nation, he quickly became her subordinate. His height was two hundred twenty (centimeters). He was a nice middle-aged man who wore only a cloak over his otherwise naked upper body, making him come across as a pervert. It had been said that if it was restricted to close quarters combat, even Ruphas would struggle against him. To put it simply, he was far better than Parthenos when it came to single combat. “That’s how it is. You’ll come with us until we meet up again with Ruphas-sama.” “Hmm, fine. It’s been a long time since I used my power for Ruphas-sama.” “Yes, then I’ll be counting on you.” “Oh, the Tyrannical Twelve Stars?” “Formerly. Now, the position has been given to my granddaughter. Currently, I’m just Parthenos.” Parthenos laughed fearlessly and activated her skill. It was the high-tier priest skill, Double Star. This skill could only be learnt by a Level priest. Then, Quadruple Star was activated. This skill required the user to be a Level 00 priest who had already learnt Double Star. It could only be used after activating Double Star. Although this skill created some openings, its effect was tremendous. Its effect allowed the quadruple use of mid-tier divine magic for a certain period of time. Parthenos moved her fingers and four pentagram magic circles appeared before her, buffing everyone present. The Sun-attribute divine magic, Photon Weapon, increased the attack power of allies. The Sun-attribute divine magic, Ray Block, increased the physical defense of allies. The Sun-attribute divine magic, Ray Barrier, increased the magical defense of allies. The Sun-attribute divine magic, Photon Field, created an area which would absorb damage dealt to allies. “Oh, I’m not done yet. Don’t regret not stopping me from buffing later, okay?” As she said that, she activated the skill again. Seeing this, Sol’s expression changed and he immediately moved to attack. However, he was too late. His complacency made him too slow to react for a move. That extra move was enough for Parthenos to buff another four times. The Sun-attribute divine magic, Regenerate, automatically recovered HP for a certain period of time. The Sun-attribute divine magic, Mana Regenerate, automatically recovered SP for a certain period of time. The Sun-attribute divine magic, Speed of Light, increased the speed of allies by several times. The Sun-attribute divine magic, Aura Burst, increased all statuses of allies. It could be used together with other support skills. Sol attempted to interrupt Parthenos, but Terra’s blade blocked him from the front. Normally, Sol would win, but their powers were currently comparable. This was possible only with the support of Parthenos. And there was yet another move. Once again, Parthenos had the time to activate her skill. “Hey, hey. There’s more? Hurry, hurry!” The Sun-attribute divine magic, Auto-Resurrection, would automatically revive allies once when their HP reached zero. The Sun-attribute divine magic, Element Reflector, halved the damage of a specific attribute for a certain period of time. The Sun-attribute divine magic, Aura Feather, granted allies the ability to fly using wings of light. The Sun-attribute divine magic, Ray Force, increased the magic damage dealt by allies. “Impossible...So fast!?” While dealing with Terra, Sol was astonished at the speed of Parthenos’ skills. Certainly, it wasn’t impossible for a high-level caster to use four skills at the same time. However, there would be a slight time lag between each skill activation, and the time required to activate four skills would normally be a few minutes...Even if they were of the same class as the Seven Heroes, it would still take a few seconds. It was impossible to activate everything instantly without any lag. Quadruple Star was by no means an invincible skill. The more the skill was used, the longer it would take to activate, causing one to lose the initiative. There was also the problem of not being able to use the appropriate skill for an important situation. Therefore, it was a priest’s common sense to not rely on such a skill and activate the skills normally in order to quickly prioritize the important skills. This is weird. This woman...has been mixing in some high-tier skills from the start! But it was precisely because she was Parthenos that she could make this possible. With the exception of Leon, all the other Tyrannical Twelve Stars had their own unique, cheat-like skills. Parthenos was no exception. Her unique skill, Zavijava, was by no means flashy when compared to those of the other Twelve Stars. At least, it wasn’t a big skill with a visible impact. However, that didn’t mean that it was weak. When Ruphas was in the game, she had sincerely thought, “Isn’t this broken?” Its effect was to lift the restriction on high-tier divine magic. There were many skills which had a restriction on the tier of skills which could be incorporated. This particular skill ignored all these restrictions and allowed the incorporation of high-tier and even highest-tier skills. It looked plain at first glance, but it was a ridiculously overpowered skill. This was because priests and sorcerers had skills that decreased SP consumption for arcane magic below a certain tier and reduced cooldown time to zero for divine magic below a certain tier. (However, this normally applied only to low-tier skills, so the main use of Quadruple Star was to fire the lowest-tier skills rapidly and compensate with numbers.) But Parthenos ignored this. Meta-skills, which could only be applied to low-tier skills, could be applied by her to high-tier skills. And this was the result—a nightmare in which high-tier skills could be used rapidly with no delay! Certainly, Parthenos was among the weaker members of the Twelve Stars in terms of pure combat power. There was no argument about it. Ruphas had confirmed her weakness and said, “Her support is awesome, but her combat power is terrible.” But she had also said, “It’d be more than enough to just let her use her skills from the rear.” Such a support specialist could overturn the difference in combat power just with her very presence. This was the power of the previous Maiden. After being grazed by Terra’s blade, Sol broke through the frontline and threw a punch at the most dangerous woman present. But he was careless. Certainly, Parthenos was among the weakest of the Twelve Stars, but she was not as weak as Pollux whose combat power was a mismatch with her level. At least, she still had the power of a Level 800...If all the buffs were taken into consideration, her arm strength was comparable to the strike of a vanguard. “Idiot.” “!” Parthenos used a log to block Sol’s punch, narrowed her eyes, and laughed. She then started spinning with her right foot without giving her opponent time to recover. Using centrifugal force, she smashed the log into Sol’s face.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 0, "inserted_lines_src": 44, "inserted_lines_trg": 0 }
「どうしてにやけてるの? 気持ち悪いよ」「で、どうしたの?」「ジル、貴方、魔法学園に行けるのよ、私の助手としてだけどね」ジルは固まったまま私を見ている。何かリアクションをとってくれないと分からないわ。「ここ......、から、出られ......、る?」「そう言う事よ」瞳が潤んでいるのが分かる。「これで、私はちゃんと約束を守ったわ。後は貴方がどう生きてい......、っ」私が話し終える前にジルが私の胸に飛び込んできた。びっくりしたわ。こんな時ってどうすればいいのかしら。誰かにこんな風に抱きつかれるのって悪くないわね。私はジルを優しく抱きしめ返した。たまには悪女もこんな感情を持ってもいいわよね。目が腫れているのが分かる。私はジルの頭を撫でた後、ウィルおじいさんの方を見た。「ウィルおじいさんはまだ王宮へ戻りたいと思う気持ちはあるのですか?」嫌な事を思い出させてしまったのかもしれないけど、私は出来る事ならウィルおじいさんに王宮に戻って欲しいと思った。そしてその知恵をこの国の為に使って欲しかった。私なら必ずウィルおじいさんを王宮に戻してみせるわ。「今は......、もう思っていない」「え?」「アリシアがレベッカに救世主になれと言った時にな、わしはこの目で貧困村がどう変わっていくのかここで見たいと思ったんじゃ。まぁ、目はないがな」そう言ってウィルおじいさんは目尻をクシャっとさせて笑った。私の言動がウィルおじいさんの王宮へ戻りたいって気持ちをなくしてしまったんだわ。「アリシア、自分を責めるな」また、ウィルおじいさんに私の心を読まれたわ。「アリシア、君がわしの為に行動してくれようと思うその気持ちがどんなにわしを幸せにしていると思う? アリシアがその気持ちをわしに持っていてくれる限り、わしはまたこんな貧困村で明日を生きようと思うんじゃ」「違う、違うわ。私はそんな綺麗な気持ちを持っていないわ。自分の利益の為に動いているのよ。ウィルおじいさんに王宮に戻って欲しい理由はその知恵を利用したいからよ」私は誰かに希望を与えるなんて事をしないのよ。ウィルおじいさんが私に隙を与えないように話す。「わしの知恵など今ここで沢山聞いて、自分のものにしてそれをアリシアが王宮で言えば良いだろう?」「そんな卑怯な真似は絶対にしたくないですわ!」私は思わず声を上げてしまった。「そんな事をしたら私が人間として終わってしまいますわ」ウィルおじいさんがいつものように私の頭を優しく撫でてくれた。「アリシア、わしはここにいる」ウィルおじいさんの顔は見えなかったけど、その言葉だけははっきりと私の耳に残った。今日の私は随分と感情が荒れているわね...悪女としてまだまだだわ。「私のエゴを押し付けてしまって、ごめんなさい」悪女なら絶対にこんな事はしないわ。そんな事は百も承知よ。けどウィルおじいさんは私の唯一の理解者だもの。失いたくないのよ。頭を下げるのはこれで最後よ。私はジルの唇にお父様から頂いた瓶をつけて、中に入っていた薄ピンク色の液体をジルの口に流し込んだ。寝ているのを起こしてしまうのは可哀想だもの。ジルが起きたら絶対に嫌がりそうだけど、お姫様抱っこが一番安全なのよね。私はジルの為に持ってきたマカロンをポケットから出してウィルおじいさんに渡した。「今度はレベッカと食べて下さい」そう言ってウィルおじいさんは温かい笑顔を私に向けてくれた。「今の時間は皆寝ているから大丈夫だと思うが、念のためこれを被っていきなさい」私は軽くウィルおじいさんにお辞儀して、家を出た。出た瞬間、貧困村の人達が地面に寝転がっていた。私は彼らを起こさないようにしてジルを抱えながら霧の方へ駆け抜けた。	“Why are you grinning at me like that? Gross.” “Well? What’s the reason?” “Gilles, you were given the green light to be able to attend the magic academy. Er, basically. They’re letting you come with me as my attendant.” Gilles’s shoulders stiffen as he stares at me. Is that a good sign? If you don’t give me more of a reaction to go off of, I won’t be able to tell if you’re happy about this or not. “I.... can.... get out of here?” “That’s right.” I notice tears spring to his eyes. “With this, I’ve fulfilled my promise. Now we just need to discuss how you’ll be living from– Oof!” Before I could finish speaking, Gilles flings himself at me. He wraps his small arms around me and clings to me with his shoulders shaking. That surprised me. At a time like this, how am I supposed to react? Since I’ve never encountered a situation like this before, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. I shoot an unsure glance in Grandpa Will’s direction. He doesn’t say anything. He just slowly nods his head and gives me an encouraging smile. I guess I should just appreciate the moment. It’s not bad at all having someone hug me like this. I hesitantly place my arms around Gilles, gently returning his embrace. Holding on to his tiny, trembling form, I can’t help but feel a warmth spread over me. He’s such a good child. It should be fine for a villainess to have these sorts of feelings every once in a while. Glancing down at his face, I notice that his eyes look quite puffy. He must have cried a good deal. I affectionately pat Gilles’s head and then turn to look at Grandpa Will. It’s time to address the most important topic at hand. “Grandpa Will, have you ever thought about wanting to return to the royal palace?” I may have forced him to recall some painful memories, but I need to ask. Because, if it’s in my power to allow him to work there again, I want to help him as much as I can. And even if it’s not the most pleasant idea to him, if possible I’d like him to be able to utilize his knowledge and wisdom for the sake of this country. I don’t want to let such a talented and intelligent person like Grandpa Will let his abilities go to waste in a dump like this. So I’ll return him to his rightful place no matter what. “I.... no longer want to return.” “Huh?” “Alicia, the moment you tasked Rebecca with being the savior of this village, I realized something. I want to see just how much this wretched place can change. So I want to stay here to be able to witness it with my own eyes. Well, figuratively speaking of course.” Saying that, Grandpa Will smiles and the expression lights up his whole face, crinkling the corners of his eyes. So it was my own words and actions that made him no longer want to return? What should I do? This is all my fault. “Alicia, don’t blame yourself.” Again. He was able to read my deepest feelings like an open book. Seriously. How does he always know what I’m thinking? “Alicia, do you know how happy it makes me that you are trying this hard for me? But for just as much as you want to help me, I have a wish to help this village rebuild and live to see a better tomorrow.” “No, you’re wrong. Don’t try to romanticize my actions. My motives aren’t pure. I only ever move for my own perceived profit. The real reason that I want you to be able to return to the royal palace is because I want to make use of your wisdom there.” Giving people hope and doing things for their sakes has never been my intention. That’s not part of a villainess’s job description. “Then why are you so unhappy at the thought of leaving me behind here?” Grandpa Will asks, attacking the weakness in my argument. He’s not giving me even an inch of wiggle room. “There’s no need for me to go to the palace. You can just come here when you need advice and then pass it off as your own wisdom and knowledge when relaying it at the palace, can you not?” “No! I can’t! I don’t ever want to use those sorts of despicable and cowardly methods! I can’t pass someone else’s hard work off as my own!” Without meaning to, I ended up raising my voice. “If I ever do that, then I’ll no longer be human. Only a disgusting rat would stoop that low.” Grandpa Will pats my head gently as he always does and the turmoil in my heart quickly quiets down. “Alicia, I’ll be here.” Although I didn’t see his expression as he said this, Grandpa Will’s words strike me to the core. They leave a lasting sense of comfort and relief and confidence in me. My emotions have truly been all over the place today.... As a villainess, it seems I still have a long way to go. “I’m sorry for trying to force my own egotistical values onto you,” I say, bowing my head deeply. This is something that a villainess would never do. I’m acutely aware of that fact and yet.... Grandpa Will is my sole supporter. He’s the only one who I have been completely honest with and who has accepted me entirely. I don’t want to lose him. But, this is only for today. This will be the last time that I’ll ever bow my head to someone else like this. I put the vial that Father had given me up to Gilles’s lips and pour the light pink liquid into his mouth. I would feel bad waking him up, so I just tilt his head back and make sure that he swallows all of its contents before I pick him up and head towards the door. If he was awake, I’m sure he would have hated every second of this. He’d consider it demoralizing for a boy like him to be held in a princess carry, but what can I do? This is the safest method of transport. I take out the macarons that I had brought for Gilles and pass them over to Grandpa Will. “Please share these with Rebecca this time.” “Thanks you,” Grandpa Will says, smiling warmly at me. “I think everyone should be sleeping again by now, but just in case, make sure to wear this,” he continues, wrapping my now tattered cloak around me. I give him a small bow and then I leave the house. The moment I walk out the door, I see all the inhabitants who had been chasing after us asleep on the ground. So as not to wake any of them up, I carry Gilles and weave my way around them as quietly as I can. I head towards the wall of fog and then out into the woods.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 3, "inserted_lines_src": 23, "inserted_lines_trg": 3 }
これがなんだか皆さん覚えてますか? そう LPレコードです別の物に取って代わられましたよね過去二十年以上にわたり世界を圧倒したデジタル技術によって追いやられてしまったそうでしたね今日私たちがこの部屋に入ったときトーマスが音楽を「再生」してたのが良い例ですね音楽の世界ではある種の文化というか生態系が生み出されましたアップル社が広告コピーで言うところの Rip Mix Burn です世界の誰もが新しい音楽や音楽的なアイデアを自由に創れるということなのです既存の音楽的なアイデアを世界中の人が取り込みコピーしたりしながらイノベーティブな方法で再利用できるということです音楽的なアイデアの端切れを様々にミックスしながらつなぎ合わせ新たな作品として作成できるそういう創作のサイクルを繰り返していくそのようにして作り出された活気のあるコミュニティーの中で人々は音楽的なアイデアを結びつけ新しい作品を生み出し続けているのです今日のヒット曲は去年のものとは違いますでも今日は音楽の話をしに来たのではなく本の話をしに来たのですとりわけ我々が毎日学校で使う教科書や教材についての話ですこの中に学校へ通ったことのある方はいますか? 学校が危機に瀕していることはご存じですか? 世界中でその辺りにはあまり時間を割きませんが特にお話ししたいのは著者が本を出版する際の幾つかの断絶についてです実際出版過程というのはとても複雑であるが故に本は重く高価にならざるを得ずある種の壁を著者と本の利用者との間に築いてしまいますもしあなたが世界の主要言語特に英語を理解できない場合この問題はさらに深刻です私は彼らを「締め出しバリアに隔てられた人々」と呼びますなぜなら彼らは知識を世界と共有できる過程から完全に閉め出されてしまっているからです今日お話ししたいのはまさにこの点です音楽文化の世界で起きていることについてふれましたが同様のアイデアによって本を書いたり使ったり教えるのに使ったりする方法を変えることができますでは実際どうやってこのようなことを実現していくかについてお話ししますまず最初に簡単な思考実験をしましょうでは世界中のありとあらゆる本を手にしているところを思い浮かべてくださいそれからそれらの本のページを破り取ってくださいそして解放されたページをデジタル化し全世界につながった巨大なデータ貯蔵庫に収めます書籍コンテンツのための大規模な「iTunes」を想像してくださいそして中身をすべて公開し誰もが自由にしかも無料で修正を加えながら改善することができ世界中の人々がこれらの知識にアクセスし内容を更新改善し好きなように利用することが情報技術によって可能になり何年もかけてきた作業が数秒で処理されるのを想像してください二年ごとに再版されてきた本が 25秒ごとに更新されていくのを想像してください人々の力を動員してそういうことが可能であることを想像してみてください本の著者だけでなく将来書き手と成りうる人々すべてを巻き込んだエコシステムを築けるのですしかもそれは世界中の様々な言語を介したものですこんなシステムが実現したら何と呼びましょうかとりあえずは「ナレッジ・エコシステム」とでも呼びましょうこれは夢のような話です我々の試みを分かりやすく例えるなら世界中の誰もがどんな人でも教育的DJになれるということです教材を開発したら世界と共有しつねに改善してゆくことができるそんな夢です実際この夢は実現されつつあります過去6年半をかけて我々はライス大学にて「コネクションズ」というプロジェクトに一生懸命に取り組んできました残りの時間はコネクションズを通じて行われている試みについてお話ししますニコラス・ネグロポンテ氏が昨日話された内容と対照的に捉えてもらえるでしょう彼らの試みは教育を世の中に行き渡らせるためのハードウェアの開発ですが我々の試みはオープンソースのツールと教育コンテンツに関する取り組みですそこのところを頭に入れておいてくださいではどんな人たちがこのようなツールを利用しているかと言うとまずはケンブリッジから京都にまたがる工学系教授たちのコミュニティーがあり電子工学の教材を開発しています巨大なスーパー教科書の開発だと考えてくださいそれは電子工学分野の全領域を網羅しているだけでなくそれぞれの大学が目的に合わせてカスタマイズして利用できるように作られていますまたキティー・ジョーンズさんというイリノイ州シャンペーン市出身のお母さんで音楽の家庭教師をされている方は子供たちに音楽の演奏法を教えるための独自の教材を世界中に公開したいと考えました現在彼女の教材は毎月60万回以上も利用されています大変な利用頻度ですよね実際米国の幼稚園・小・中・高校で利用されているケースが多いのですがそれは学校の予算削減により真っ先に影響を受けるのが音楽教育だからですそれ故に無料で自由に利用できるこのような教材の需要はとても大きいのです多くの先生たちがこのシステムを使っていますでは教材のRipping 複製再利用についてはどうでしょうかテキサス大学エルパソ校では大学院生のボランティアグループが先ほどのスーパー電子工学教科書の内容を翻訳しています一週間以内にはラテンアメリカ特にメキシコの至る所で評判の教材として多く利用されるようになるはずですそれはこの教材の本質がオープンな拡張性にあるからですボランティアの人たちや企業までもがこの教材を中国語や日本語タイ語などアジア諸国の言語へ翻訳しさらに広範に知識を行き渡らせようとするこの試みに参加していますそれでは Mixing についてはどうでしょうミキシングとはそれぞれのニーズに合った教育課程を作るつまりそれぞれの用途に合った教科書を作ることを意味しますナショナル・インスツルメンツなどの企業は効果的なインタラクティブ・シミュレーションを埋め込むことで普通の教科書を用いてはできないようなインタラクティブな学習体験を実現させる実際にシミュレーションをインタラクティブに使いながら体感的に学べるオンライン教科書の開発をしています「国境なき教師団」は我々の教材をミキシングして用いることに大変な関心を寄せています我々の開発した「コネクションズ」のシステムをプラットフォームにして教師に教授法を指導するための教材を開発し全世界84カ国に配信しようとする試みを計画中です彼らは現在米国国際開発庁の支援を受けイラクで2万人の教師を養成中です彼らにとって現地のニーズに合ったものに教材を改良できるという考え方は大変重要ですなぜなら発展途上国の人々が無料で教材が入手できるなら何でも喜ぶだろうというのは一種の文化帝国主義だからです彼ら自身が現地の事情に沿った教材に作り直し彼らの母語に翻訳したものを所有できるそのような仕組みがなければうまくいかないのです我々と一緒に仕事をしている団体は他にもありますカリフォルニア大学メルセド校をご存じですよねカリフォルニアのセントラルバレーにある新設大学でコミュニティーカレッジとも密接に連携しています彼らは科学・工学系のカリキュラムを実際に開発中で我々のシステムを通して世界中に公開しようとしていますさらに全てのソフトウェアツールを完全にオープンソースで開発しています他には AMDという企業が「50 by 15」というプロジェクトを通じて 2015年までに世界人口の50% にインターネットアクセスを行き渡らせるという取り組みをしています我々は既存の教材を多言語で提供することでこの試みに協力しています他にも多くの団体と協力しています特にヒューレット財団に援助を受けた多くのプロジェクトはオープンコンテンツの領域ではリーダー的な役割を果たしました次は「Burn」ここがとても面白いところですがこれはつまりこのような教育課程を物質化する行為を指します皆さんの多くがすでに受け取られたと思いますが皆さんへのギフトパックの中にこのような音楽の本が一冊入っていたと思いますささやかな贈り物ですかいつまんでお話ししますこの工学系の教科書を例にしましょう分厚い300ページもの本です誰か値段を当てられますか? 書店では一体いくらで売られているでしょう : 65ドル学生は22ドルで買えますどうして22ドルで済むのかそれはオンデマンドで刊行されこの公開教材の貯蔵庫を利用して作られたからですもし仮にこの本が一般の出版社を通して出されたら最低でも 122ドル (1万1千円)はするでしょうお話しているのはこの「Burning」という出版のプロセスを一般的な一人の著者によるものからコミュニティーによって執筆された教材をそれぞれのクラスのニーズに合わせて組み立て低コストでオンデマンド出版するものへ変革するということですアマゾン経由で販売しても良いですしコープ(生協)などのオンデマンドサービスを通しての出版もできますこれはとてつもなく面白い分野だと思いますなぜなら出版ではロングテールの部分に素晴らしいものが存在するからですハリーポッターのようなロングテールの左側に属するものではなく超幾何偏微分方程式のような本について話しているのですそう一年に100冊から1000冊程度しか売れない出版物のことですこの「ロングテール」による驚くほど持続的な収益は我々のようなオープンプロジェクトを維持していくだけでなくこの二冊を出版したコープの事業のような新興のオンデマンド出版を支えるのにも役立っていますこの話の中で大変重要なのは中間業者の省略です脱中間業者の動きはさらに盛んになり数年の間には出版業界における大きな潮流となるでしょうそしてこれは我々そして世界にとってより有益に働くでしょうではこの流れを可能にしてくれているのは何でしょうか? この変革を促している真の立役者は何か大量のテクノロジーがある中で私が本当にお話ししたいのは唯一XMLについてです XMLをご存じの方はどのくらいいらっしゃいますか? 素晴らしい XMLはウェブの未来を支えるテクノロジーです XMLはコメントやコンテンツの意味的表現でありこの場合のXMLの意味合いはこれらのページ群をひとまとめにするパッケージだと考えられるでしょう先ほど本を取り出してページを破り取ったことを覚えてますか? つまり XMLの役目とは基本的にこれらのページをレゴのブロックに置き換えることなのです XMLはコンテンツを無数の様々な形で組み立て直すためのレゴ的機能の中心的役割を担っておりさらにコンテンツを共有するための「枠組み」を提供してくれます XMLは皆さんにこれらの教材コンテンツや破り取った数々の本のページが散在する「原始段階」にあるこのシステムから高度に洗練された学習装置を作り出すことを可能にしてくれます本や学習課程や授業教材のことですこのXMLという技術がそれぞれの学生の学習体験をニーズに合ったものにしてくれるので各学生は個人の学習スタイルや学習環境使用言語や関心に合った教科書や学習課程を手に入れることができるのです XMLを使えば同じ教材を異なった斬新な方法で再利用できますさらにXMLは異なる領域の関連性の表示を可能にし多様なアイデアを結びつける過程を支援します個人的な話ですが我々がこのようなアイデアを思いついたのは 6年半ほど前に赤い四角枠で囲まれた内容(方程式)を教えていたのがきっかけですクリスが言ったように私は電子工学の教授です例えば信号処理について教える際に大変なのはこの数式が... おやこの方程式を見ただけで半分の方は居眠りしてしまいましたねしかしこのつまらなそうな数式がテクノロジーや音楽のシンセサイザーのようなアプリケーションを莫大な経済的成功の機会に結びつける非常に強力なウェブの中心的存在でありまた知的所有権によって統制されているものなのですそして私が解ったのは一人のエンジニアとしてこのように包括的な本は決して一人では書けないということでしたコミュニティーがあってこそ成し遂げられたことです幾つものアイデアを結びつけるための新しいツールも必要でしたある意味で我々が取り組んでいるのはミンスキー教授の夢の実現なのです図書館にある様々な本がお互いに会話を始めるのを想像できるでしょう教師や教えたことのある人ならこの意味がお分かりでしょう教えるという行為の真髄はアイデアを相互に連結させることですよね数学の話に戻りますが次のようなことが可能だと想像してくださいあなたの電子教科書に載っている全ての方程式の一つ一つをクリックするだけで探究や実験をしながら更に詳しく学ぶことができるとします例えば中学二年生のお子さんの代数の教科書に載っているすべての方程式をそれぞれクリックするだけで簡単なツールが出てきて実際にシミュレーション実験しいじりながら方程式についての理解を深めることができます実際にやってみないと真の理解はできないからです MathMLと同様の化学用マークアップ言語を使用すれば分子構造を手に取るように理解できる教科書を作れますし XMLを音楽の分野へ応用すれば音楽の意味的構造を探究し実際に体験しながら理解できるような教科書の作成が可能です誰もが飛びつきたくなるのも不思議じゃないですよね東方の三賢者でさえそうですよさて二番目に大切な変革の立役者である知的所有権についてですが実は一つ大嘘をついてしまいましたこの壇上から音楽の世界で起きている変化がいかに素晴らしいかお話ししたばかりですが音楽を共有したり分解してリミックスして作成するのはすべて違法行為なのです著作権侵害者として告発されうるのですもとの楽曲には所有権がありますからねそしてそのほとんどを巨大産業が握っていますつまりこのようなことは本来可能ではないのですナプスターがやっていたようなことは許されないのですそこで原点に戻ってこの問題を解決するために取り組まなければならないのは「共有」を可能にししかも容易に理解できるような知的所有権に関する枠組みを見つけることなのです突破口は LinuxやGPLのようなオープンソースソフトウェアとクリエイティブ・コモンズ・ライセンスにありますクリエイティブ・コモンズのことを聞いたことがありますか? ご存じでなければまず「Creativecommons.org」にて学んでくださいコネクションズで共有されている全教材とその他多くのプロジェクトの教材の末尾にはこのロゴマークが付いておりクリックするだけで公開された内容を用いて何をすることが許されているのかが誰にでもわかる証文に誘導されます実際自由に共有したりコピーしたり修正を加えること商業的に使用することさえもが著者を明記する限り許されていますなぜなら学術出版や多くの教育出版の目的は知識の共有により社会的インパクトを与えることにありお金儲けのためではないからですここで言っているのは「ハリー・ポッター」のことでななくロングテールの末端部分の本のことです法的規定がしっかりされているので注意深く使えばクリエイティブ・コモンズはうまく働いてくれます 4千3百万以上もの著作物がクリエイティブ・コモンズのライセンス下で提供されています文章のみならず音楽や画像やビデオなどの作品も含まれます実際楽曲をこのライセンス下で公開し誰もが自由に「取り込み、ミキシング、作成、共有」できるようにするという「再サンプリング」のアイデアに賛同する人々の数も増えています最後に要点を二三まとめて終わりたいと思います我々が作った「コモンズ」のアイデアはすでに人々に利用されており我々のサイトだけでも毎月50万人以上のアクセスがあります別の巨大オープンコンテンツサイトであるMITオープンコースウェアも同様の数のアクセスがありますでは我々の試みをどうしたら未来につながるように守っていけるでしょうか最初に挙げられるのは質管理のことでしょう何しろこのコモンズには誰が何を提供しようとかまわないことになっていますからそれは問題になり得ます例えば下着についての投稿が出始めるまでにはそう長くはかかりませんでした実際なかなか出来の良いモジュールでしたが... 唯一の問題は、内容がフランスの大手フェミニスト雑誌からの盗作であり講義のウェブサイトに行こうとすると下着販売サイトに繋がってしまうことでしたさすがにこれは少々問題ですよねですから明らかに何らかの質管理の考え方が必要なのですここは正に検証と査読いう考え方が必要なところです皆さんが TEDに来られたのはなぜですか? それはクリスと彼のチームがこのイベントの質の高さを確保し続けてきたからですよね我々も同様のことを可能にする仕組みを考案する必要がありますだから我々は誰もが自分のピアレビュー過程を実現するためのソーシャル・ソフトウェアを開発しているのですこのような仕組みを「レンズ」と呼んでいますこのソフトによって誰でも自分用のピアレビュー過程を設定し本当に重要だと思われる貯蔵庫の内容だけに集中できるのです TEDもまたこのレンズ的な存在としてとらえることができます最後になりますがこのような変革は「行動への引き金」だと見ることができますコネクションズとオープン・コンテンツの真髄は「知識の共有」ですここにいる皆さんは膨大な量の知識に満ちあふれています私が皆さん一人一人にぜひお勧めしたいのは我々のプロジェクトを含めその他同様の試みへの参加と貢献です我々が共に行動すれば教育と教育出版の在り方を真に変革することができると私は思いますご静聴ありがとうございました	Does anybody remember these? OK, so these are LP records and they've been replaced, right? They've been swept away over the last two decades by these types of world-flattening digitization technologies, right? And I think it was best witnessed when Thomas was playing the music as we came in the room today. What's happened in the music world is there's a culture, or an ecosystem that's been created that, if you take some words from Apple, the catchphrase -- that we create, rip, mix and burn. What I mean by that is that anyone in the world is free and allowed to create new music and musical ideas. Anyone in the world is allowed to rip or copy musical ideas, use them in innovative ways. Anyone is allowed to mix them in different types of ways, draw connections between musical ideas, and people can burn them or create final products and continue the circle. And what that's done is it's created, like I said, a vibrant community that's very inclusive, with people continually working to connect musical ideas, innovate them and keep things constantly up to date. Today's hit single is not last year's hit single. But I'm not here to talk about music today. I'm here to talk about books. In particular, textbooks and the kind of educational materials that we use every day in school. Has anyone here ever been to school? OK, does anybody realize there's a crisis in our schools, around the world? I'm not going to spend too much time on that, but what I want to talk about is some of the disconnects that appear when an author publishes a book. That in fact, the publishing process -- just because of the fact that it's complicated, it's heavy, books are expensive -- creates a sort of a wall between authors of books and the ultimate users of books, be they teachers, students or just general readers. And this is even more true if you happen to speak a language other than one of the world's major languages, and especially English. I'm going to call these people below the barrier "shutouts" because they're really shut out of the process of being able to share their knowledge with the world. And so what I want to talk about today is trying to take these ideas that we've seen in the musical culture and try to bring these towards reinventing the way we think about writing books, using them and teaching from them. So, that's what I'd like to talk about and, really, how we get from where we are now The first thing I'd like you to do is a little thought experiment. Imagine taking all the world's books. OK, everybody imagine books and imagine just tearing out the pages. So, liberating these pages and imagine digitizing them and then storing them in a vast, interconnected, global repository. Think of it as a massive iTunes for book-type content. And then take that material and imagine making it all open, so that people can modify it, play with it, improve it. Imagine making it free, so that anyone in the world can have access to all of this knowledge, and imagine using information technology so that you can update this content, improve it, play with it, on a timescale that's more on the order of seconds instead of years. Instead of editions of a book coming out every two years, imagine them coming out every 25 seconds. So, imagine we could do that and imagine we could put people into this. So that we could truly build an ecosystem with not just authors, but all the people who could be or want to be authors in all the different languages of the world, and I think if you could do this, it would be called -- I'm just going to refer to it as a knowledge ecosystem. So, really, this is the dream, is we're trying to enable anyone in the world, I mean anyone in the world -- to be their own educational DJ, creating educational materials, sharing them with the world, constantly innovating on them. So, this is the dream. In fact, this dream is actually being realized. Over the last six-and-a-half years, we've been working really hard at Rice University on a project called Connexions, and so what I'd like to do for the rest of the talk about what people are doing with Connexions, which you can kind of think of as the counterpoint to Nicholas Negroponte's talk yesterday, where they're working on the hardware of bringing education to the world. We're working on the open-source tools and the content. So, that's sort of to put it in perspective here. What are some of the people that are using these kind of tools? Well, the first thing is, there's a community of engineering professors, who are developing engineering content in electrical engineering to develop what you can think of as a massive, super textbook that covers the entire area of electrical engineering. And not only that -- it can be customized for use in each of their own individual institutions. If people like Kitty Jones, a shut-out -- a private music teacher and mom from Champagne, Illinois, who wanted to share her fantastic music content with the world, on how to teach kids how to play music -- Her material is now used over 600,000 times per month. Tremendous use. In fact, a lot of this use coming from United States K-12 schools, because anyone who's involved in a school scale back, the first thing that's cut is the music curriculum. And so this is just indicating the tremendous thirst for this kind of open, free content. A lot of teachers are using this stuff. What about ripping? What about copying, reusing? A team of volunteers at the University of Texas at El Paso -- graduate students translating this engineering super textbook ideas. And within about a week, having this be some of our most popular material in widespread use all over Latin America, and in particular in Mexico, because of the open, extensible nature of this. People, volunteers and even companies that are translating materials into Asian languages like Chinese, Japanese and Thai, to spread the knowledge even further. OK, what about people who are mixing? What does "mixing" mean? "Mixing" means building customized courses, means building customized books. Companies like National Instruments, who are embedding very powerful, interactive simulations into the materials, so that we can go way beyond our regular kind of textbook to an experience that all the teaching materials are things you can actually interact with and play around with and actually learn as you do. We've been working with Teachers Without Borders, who are very interested in mixing our materials. They're going to be using Connexions as their platform to develop and deliver teaching materials for teaching teachers how to teach in 84 countries around the world. TWB is currently in Iraq, training 20,000 teachers supported by USAID. And to them, this idea of being able to remix and customize to the local context is extraordinarily important, because just providing free content to people has actually been likened by people in the developing world to a kind of cultural imperialism -- that if you don't empower people with the ability to re-contextualize the material, translate it into their own language and take ownership of it, it's not good. OK, other organizations we've been working with, UC Merced -- people know about UC Merced. It's a new university in California, in the Central Valley, working very closely with community colleges. They're actually developing a lot of their science and engineering curriculum to spread widely around the world in our system. And they're also trying to develop all of their software tools completely open-source. We've been working with AMD, which has a project called 50x15, which is trying to bring Internet connectivity to 50 percent of the world's population by 2015. We're going to be providing content to them in a whole range of different languages. And we've also been working with a number of other organizations. In particular, a bunch of the projects that are funded by Hewlett Foundation, who have taken a real leadership role in this area of open content. OK, burn -- I think this is, sort of, quite interesting. "Burn" is the idea of trying to create the physical instantiation of one of these courses. And I think a lot of you received -- I think all of you received one of these music books in your gift pack. A little present for you. Just to tell you quickly about it: this is an engineering textbook. It's about 300 pages long, hardbound. This costs -- anybody guess? How much would it cost in a bookstore? 65 dollars. Richard Baraniuk: OK. This costs 22 dollars to the student. Why does it cost 22 dollars? Because it's published on demand and it's developed from this repository of open materials. If this book were to be published by a regular publisher, it would cost at least 122 dollars. So what we're seeing is moving this burning or publication process from the regular, sort of single-authored book towards community-authored materials that are modular, that are customized to each individual class and published on demand very inexpensively, either pushed out through Amazon or published directly through an on-demand press, like QOOP. And I think that this is an extraordinarily interesting area because there is tremendous area under this long tail in publishing. We're not talking about the Harry Potter end, right at the left side. We're talking about books on hypergeometric partial differential equations. Books that might sell 100 copies a year, 1,000 copies a year. There is tremendous sustaining revenue under this long tail to sustain open projects like ours, but also to sustain this new emergence of on-demand publishers, like QOOP, who produced these two books. And I think one of the things that you should take away from this talk is that there's an impending cut-out-the-middle-man disintermediation, that's going to be happening in the publishing industry. And it's going to reach a crescendo over the next few years, and I think that it's for our benefit, really, and for the world's benefit. OK, so what are the enablers? What's really making all of this happen? There's tons of technology, and the only piece of technology that I really want to talk about is XML. How many people know about XML? Oh, great. So it's the future of the web, right? It's semantic representation of content. And what you can really think of XML in this case is it's the packaging that we're putting around these pages. Remember we took the book, tore the pages out? Well, what the XML is going to do is it's going to turn those pages into Lego blocks. XML are the nubs on the Lego that allow us to combine the content together in a myriad different ways, and it provides us a framework to share content. So, it lets you take this ecosystem in its primordial state of all this content, all the pages you've torn out of books, and create highly sophisticated learning machines: books, courses, course packs. It gives you the ability to personalize the learning experience to each individual student, so that every student can have a book or a course that's customized to their learning style, their context, their language and the things that excite them. It lets you reuse the same materials in multiple different ways, and surprising new ways. It lets you interconnect ideas, indicating how fields relate to each other. And I'll just give you my personal story. We came up with this six-and-a-half years ago because I teach the stuff in the red box. And my day job, as Chris said -- I'm an electrical engineering professor. I teach signal processing and my challenge was to show that this math -- Wow, about half of you have already fallen asleep just looking at the equation. But this seemingly dry math is actually the center of this tremendously powerful web that links technology -- that links really cool applications like music synthesizers to tremendous economic opportunities, but also governed by intellectual property. And the thing that I realized is there was no way that I, as an engineer, could write this book that would get all of this across. We needed a community to do it and we needed new tools to be able to interconnect these ideas. And I think that really, in a sense, what we're trying to do is make Minsky's dream come to a reality, where you can imagine all the books in a library actually starting to talk to each other. And people who are teachers out here -- whoever taught, you know this -- it's the interconnections between ideas that teaching is really all about. OK, back to math. Imagine -- this is possible: that every single equation that you click on in one of your new e-texts is something that you're going to be able to explore and experiment with. So imagine your kid's algebra textbook in seventh grade. You can click on every single equation and bring up a little tool to be able to experiment with it, tinker with it, understand it. Because we really don't understand until we do. The same type of mark-up, like MathML, for chemistry. that actually understand the structure of how molecules are formed. Imagine Music XML that actually lets you delve into the semantic structure of music, play with it, understand it. It's no wonder that everybody's getting into it, right? Even the three wise men. OK, the second big enabler, and this is where I told a big lie. The second big enabler is intellectual property. Because, in fact, I got up here and I talked about how great the music culture is. We can share and rip, mix and burn, but in fact, that's all illegal. And we would be accused of [piracy] for doing that, because this music has been propertized. It's now owned, much of it by big industries. So, really, the key thing here is we can't let this happen. We can't let this Napster thing happen here. So, what we have to do is get it right from the very beginning. And what we have to do is find an intellectual property framework that makes sharing safe and makes it easily understandable. And the inspiration here is taken from open-source software. Things like Linux and the GPL. The Creative Commons licenses. How many people have heard of creative commons? If you have not, you must learn about it. At the bottom of every piece of material in Connexions and in lots of other projects, you can find their logo. Clicking on that logo takes you to an absolute no-nonsense, human-readable document, a deed, that tells you exactly what you can do with this content. In fact, you're free to share it, to do all of these things: to copy it, to change it, even to make commercial use of it, as long as you attribute the author. Because in academic publishing and much of educational publishing, it's really this idea of sharing knowledge and making impact. That's why people write, not necessarily making bucks. We're not talking about Harry Potter, right? We're at the long tail end here. Behind that is the legal code, very carefully constructed. And Creative Commons is taking off -- over 43 million things out there, licensed with a Creative Commons license. Not just text, but music, images, video. And there's actually a tremendous uptake of the number of people that are actually licensing music to make it free for people who do this whole idea of re-sampling, ripping, mixing, burning and sharing. OK, I'd like to conclude with just the last few points. So, we've built this idea of a commons. People are using it. We get over 500,000 unique visitors per month, just to our particular site. MIT OpenCourseWare, which is another large open-content site, gets a similar number of hits. But how do we protect this? How do we protect it into the future? And the first thing that people are probably thinking is quality control, right? Because we're saying that anybody can contribute things to this commons. Anybody can contribute anything. So that could be a problem. It didn't take long until people started contributing materials, for example, on lingerie, which is actually a pretty good module. The only problem is it's plagiarized from a major French feminist journal, and when you go to the supposed course website, it points to a lingerie-selling website. So this is a little bit of a problem. So we clearly need some kind of idea of quality control and this is really where the idea of review and peer review comes in. You come to TED. Why do you come to TED? Because Chris and his team have ensured that things are very, very high quality, right? And so we need to be able to do the same thing. And we need to be able to design structures, and what we're doing is designing social software to enable anyone to build their own peer review process, and we call these things "lenses." And basically what they allow is anyone out there can develop their own peer-review process, so that they can focus on the content in the repository that they think is really important. And you can think of TED as a potential lens. So I'd just like to end by saying: you can really view this as a call to action. Connexions and open content is all about sharing knowledge. All of you here are tremendously imbued with tremendous amounts of knowledge, and what I'd like to do is invite each and every one of you to contribute to this project and other projects of its type, because I think together we can truly change the landscape of education and educational publishing. So, thanks very much.	{ "source": "iwslt2017", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
「うわっ! ビックリした!」と言いつつ、マココは円形のブーメランでしっかりネココのキックを受け止めていた。さらにブーメランが光を帯びていることから、スキルを使うだけの余裕もあったことがわかる。反射神経が並じゃない......! しかし、これでクロッカスJr.とは分断され、マココは地上へと落ちていく。今のうちに追撃を......! 「カァー! カァー!」「うおおっ!?」クロッカスJr.は落下するマココを助けに行くこともなく俺に突撃してきた! マココを見捨てたように見える行動だが、実際マココを助けたいなら俺の追撃を妨害するのが正しい。そこまで考えての突進なんだろうか......! とにかく、マココという重い荷物を捨てたクロッカスJr.のスピードは尋常ではない。まずは1発当てて、ひるませるんだ! 相手は鳥だから矢が持つ『飛行特効』が乗る。かすってもそれなりにダメージが......。「くっ......! かすりもしないとは!」流石はただのカラスではなくモンスター。知能、速度共にリアルではありえないレベルに達している。ここまで華麗に矢を避けられたのは初めてかもしれない......! だが、クロッカスJr.も回避するのに必死で、俺との距離を詰められていない。この状況が長く続けば次第に目が慣れて当たるような気もするが、時間をかけるとマココが来る! 状況を打破する後一手が欲しい......! 「ガァー! ガァー!」「こ、この声は......ガー坊!」ガー坊が赤い光となって駆け抜け、クロッカスJr.にぶつかる! そのまま2体のユニゾンはフィールドを流れる川の中に落下してしまった! 「ガー坊!?」川は濁ってはいないが、薄暗さもあって中はほとんど見えない。流れもかなり急で、俺が入ったら即流されていしまいそうだ。確かにガー坊とクロッカスJr.はこの中に落ちた。だが、すでに位置はまったくわからない......。いや、動揺するんじゃない! ガー坊は水中に敵を引きずり込んだんだ。それこそリアルのワニのように、獲物を自分の得意なフィールドで仕留めるために......! 水中のガー坊の強さは俺が誰よりも知っている。ここは相棒を信じて任せるんだ! 「おじさん! 早くこの場から離れて! 叔母様の相手は私がする!」「......わかった!」作戦は決めてあるというのに、俺は一瞬だけ迷った。理由の1つは以前と同じく、マココに対して1人で本当に大丈夫なのかということ。覚悟は決まっていたはずだが、実際にマココと相対すると、その化け物っぷりが身に染みてわかった。だから、少し覚悟が揺らいだ。そして、もう1つは相反する思考。俺とネココで挑めば、マココも手早く倒せるのではないかということ。反射神経が素晴らしく、スキルの効果によって攻撃がいなされてはいるが、当たらないわけではない。 2人がかりで挑めばもしかしたら......という淡い期待。それが間違いだということはすぐにわかった。「んがぁ......ッ!!」見えざる何かに右肩を切り裂かれた......! 欠損こそしていないが、そこそこHPも減り、羽織が大きく傷つく! 一体、何が当たったんだ......!? 「ブ、ブーメランなのか......?」斬撃は背後から来たように感じた。つまり、マココは吹っ飛ばされながらも片手に持っていた『く』の字型ブーメランをスキルの効果で透明化。それを正面に向けて投げると動作で察知されるので、吹っ飛ぶような体の動きに投擲を混ぜ込み、ブーメランが弧を描いて戻ってくるタイミングで俺に当てようとした......ってことか? ああ、自分で言っててもワケがわからない......! ただ、1つだけわかったことがある! 「ワープアロー!」戦うかどうか迷っているような人間がいていい場所じゃない......! 俺は俺で与えられた役目を「武運を祈る、ネココ!」 ◆ ◆ ◆ 「......キルアナウンスが聞こえてこないわね」戻ってきた透明のブーメランをキャッチし、マココがつぶやく。「跳ね返した透明の矢と私の投げた透明のブーメランが直撃しているなら、防御の薄いおじさんが生き残れるはずがない......。つまり、両方の攻撃を回避されているということ。やっぱり、ネココが選ぶだけあって並のプレイヤーじゃないわね」マココはどこかへと姿を隠したネココに語りかける。【サンダーボルトキック】を食らわせた後、ネココはすぐに追撃を加えなかった。理由は完全に隙を突いたはずの【サンダーボルトキック】をブーメランで受け止められてしまったからだ。もし、あの攻撃をマココが防御せず、態勢を崩しながら吹っ飛んだのならネココも迷わず追撃を加えていただろう。しかし実際は、マココはあの攻撃を食らいながらもキュージィに対してブーメランを投げる余裕があった。そんなマココに安易に突っ込めば、返り討ちにされるのはわかっていた。今のネココの目的は、マココを倒すことではない。時間を稼ぎ、仲間が加勢に来てくれるのを待つことである。彼女はそのことを十分に承知していたからこそ、追撃を加えなかった......というのが理由の半分である。もう半分の理由は、純粋な恐れにより体が動かなかったことに他ならない。事前に固めた覚悟など、実際に覚悟が試される時には揺らぎがちなものだ。ネココの恐れは一瞬だった。ただ一瞬......憧れの人と戦うことを恐れた。それは尊敬しているから傷つけられないなんて甘いものではなく、マココに対して自分の攻撃が通用するのかという不安に近い。そう、ネココがマココと真剣勝負をするのはこれが初めてなのだ。お互い背負うものがある本気の戦いは、友達と集まってワイワイ遊ぶようなものとはまるで違う。マココは今でこそリラックスした表情をしているが、キックを受け止めた時にはまるで戦士のような鋭い視線でネココを見た。映像で何度も見てきた叔母様の本気の目が自分に向けられた時、ネココはすべてが見透かされたような気持ちになった。今までマココに倒されてきたプレイヤーは、全員この気分を味わったのだろう。中にはこれだけで戦意喪失した者だっているかもしれない......。だが、ネココは違った。憧れと恐れ、尊敬と......闘志! 乱された心の中でも、ネココの闘志の炎は燃えていた! 「ネココ、出てらっしゃい。出てこないなら......他のプレイヤーを狙うまでよ!」マココはくるりと背を向けて駆けだす。本物の強者は敵に背を向けることを恥だとは思わない。弱者が背を向けることは敵からの逃走を意味するが、強者が背を向けることは敵を見逃してやるという意味になるからだ。「そうはさせないわ、叔母様! ここで私が足止めするって、みんなと約束したんだから!」キュージィを逃がした時点でネココの作戦はマココにバレている。それでも叫んだ理由は、自分のやるべきことを自分に言い聞かせるためだ! 「私のかわいい姪っ子はどこまで強くなったのかしら? もちろん、手加減はしないけど」マココは微かにほほ笑んだ。だが、その目は笑っていなかった。	“Woah! That was a shock!” While she said this, Macoco had properly blocked Necoco’s kick with her circular boomerang. Not only that, but the boomerang was glowing, which showed that she even had the time to use a skill. Her reflexes were incredible...! However, Macoco was now separated from Crowkus Jr., and she fell towards the ground. This was my chance to attack...! “Kaa! Kaa!” “Woah!?” Instead of going to help the falling Macoco, Crowkus Jr. charged towards me! At a glance, it seemed like he was abandoning Macoco, but in fact, if he wanted to help her, it was best to stop me from attacking. Was it really able to think ahead like that...? In any case, Crowkus Jr. was a lot faster now that it wasn’t carrying anything. I had to hit it once and stagger it! As it was a bird, I did more damage when it was in the air. So even a scratch would deal decent... “Tsk...! I can’t even scratch it!” It was no ordinary raven, but a monster. And so its intelligence and speed were both at a ridiculous level. I don’t think anyone has ever dodged my arrows so smoothly before...! However, Crowkus Jr. was also clearly dodging them desperately, and wasn’t able to get much closer. I had a feeling that if this continued, I would get used to tracking it and be able to land a hit. But Macoco would return before that happened! I wanted a little more time...! “Gar! Gar!” “This voice... It’s Garbow!” Garbow became a red light that shot through the air as he crashed into Crowkus Jr.! And just like that, the two Unisons fell into the river that flowed through the field! “Garbow!?” While the water wasn’t murky, it was quite dark, and so I couldn’t see what was happening inside. And since the current was strong, I would likely be washed away immediately if I went inside. I was sure that both Garbow and Crowkus Jr. had fallen in. But I no longer knew their positions... No, I can’t be shaken by this! Garbow had dragged the enemy into the water. Like a real alligator, he would kill his prey in an environment that he could move well in...! I knew more than anyone how strong Garbow was inside of the water. And so I would believe in him! “Old man! Hurry up and get out of here! I’ll deal with my aunt!” “...Alright!” Even though we had already settled on this strategy, I hesitated for just a second. The reason was that I still wondered if she could really handle Macoco by herself. I had already made up my mind before, but now that I had actually faced Macoco, I knew just how strong she really was. And so I couldn’t help but hesitate. And there was another idea. What if both Necoco and I fought her? Perhaps we could defeat her more quickly? She had amazing reflexes and used skills to dodge our attacks. However, it wasn’t like it was impossible to hit her. Maybe we could do it if we were together... I had a faint hope. However, I realized that this was wrong quite quickly. “Aghh...!!” Something that I couldn’t see had cut my right shoulder...! And while I hadn’t lost an arm, it took away a decent amount of HP, and my haori was damaged! What the hell was that...!? “Wa-was it the boomerang...?” The slash attack had seemed to come from behind. In other words, even as Macoco was being blown away, she had used a skill to make one of her boomerangs invisible. And she had unleashed it while disguising her movements in the air. And made it curve so that it would hit me while returning to her...? Ah, even I didn’t understand it...! But there was one thing that I did know! “Warp Arrow!” This was not a place for someone to be when they were hesitating...! I would fulfill the role that had been given to me! “Good luck, Necoco!” ◆ ◆ ◆ “...I still haven’t heard any death announcements.” Macoco muttered as she caught the invisible boomerang. “If both the returned arrow and invisible boomerang hit him directly, the old man with low defense should not have been able to survive... In other words, he had dodged both attacks. I suppose that’s why you chose him.” Macoco said to Necoco, who was hiding somewhere. After unleashing Thunderbolt Kick, Necoco had not followed with more attacks. The reason was that though it was meant to be an ambush, Thunderbolt Kick had been blocked with the boomerang. Had Macoco not been able to block it, and had her stance collapsed as she flew, then Necoco would not have hesitated to unleash a follow up attack. However, Macoco had been able to throw the boomerang at Kyuji even while being attacked. And so she knew that charging at Macoco then would just result in being driven back. Besides, Necoco’s goal wasn’t to defeat Macoco. She was supposed to buy time and wait until the others arrived. As she understood this very well, she did not continue to attack... That was half the reason. The other half was simply that she was scared, and her body would not move. She had thought that she was resolved, but one’s resolve tended to get shaken when put to the test. But Necoco’s fear only lasted a second. For just a second...she was afraid to fight the person that she looked up to. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to hurt someone who she respected, but more of a worry that her attacks wouldn’t work against Macoco. Yes, this was the first time that Necoco was seriously fighting against Macoco. And so this battle would be completely different from the times that they gathered together as friends and played. While Macoco still had a relaxed expression, for a second when being kicked, she had looked at Necoco with the sharp expression of a warrior. She had seen this expression on her aunt in videos many times, but when it was directed at her, Necoco felt like her aunt could see right through her. Had all of the players felt like this when being defeated by her aunt...? For some, that might have been enough to lose the will to fight... But Necoco was different. Respect and fear...and the will to fight! Even though there had been a conflict deep within, the fire was still burning inside of her! “Necoco, come out. If you don’t...I’ll just target a different player!” Macoco turned around and started to dash. If you were really strong, there was no shame in showing your back to an enemy. When a weak person did it, it meant they were running away. But when you were strong, it just meant you were allowing your enemy to escape. “I won’t let you do that, aunt! I promised everyone that I would stop you here!” The fact that Kyuji had run away made their strategy clear to Macoco. Still, she shouted it as a way of reminding herself about what needed to be done! “Just how much stronger has my little niece become? Well, I still won’t go easy on you.” Macoco said with a slight smile. However, her eyes were not smiling.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 2, "inserted_lines_src": 1, "inserted_lines_trg": 0 }
「くっ! 逃がさねぇぜ!」コアの声が下から聞こえてくる。スナイパー相手にここまで接近できたんだから、向こうも引き下がるわけにはいかないだろう。蛇のようにしつこく、狡猾に俺を追い回してくることは明白......! でも、俺としてはこの状況で戦いたくない。すでに距離を詰められてる以上、とにかく逃げるのが正解だ。ならば【ワープアロー】や【アイムアロー】に距離を取れば良いのでは? 答えはノーだ。移動した先に敵がいる可能性もあるし、矢の軌道を見られたらどこにワープしたかはすぐバレる。それにこのルールではガー坊を引っ込められない。【ワープアロー】では置いてけぼりにしてしまう。また、味方殺しが可能なので抱きかかえて【アイムアロー】で逃げるとむごいことになる。まったくいきなり不利な状況......か? 冷静に考えればガー坊がいるんだから人数的にはこっちが有利だ。第3進化を終えて装備を一新したガー坊のスペックはプレイヤーに劣らない。流石に単体でコアのようなリーダー格の相手は難しいかもしれないが、隣に俺がいる。不利な要素......なくないか? 「ちょっと臆病になり過ぎてたかもな......!」俺だって優勝候補と囁かれ、恐れられるプレイヤーだ。たまには胸を張って強敵を迎え撃つのも悪くない! 「ガー坊、ストップ!」十分に距離は取れた。これより迎撃を開始する! 標的はマッドスライムのリーダー『コア』! 彼は今、まっすぐ道路を走っている! 「小手調べだ! ガトリング・インフェルノアロー!」地獄の炎で燃え盛る矢を連続で放つ。これをどう防御するのか、また回避するのかでおおよその戦闘スタイルがわかる! 「おっ! やっとやる気になったかよ! でもぬる過ぎんだよなぁ! 蛇腹剣の刃がコアを取り囲み、ぐるぐると高速回転する。矢は回転で切れ味を増した刃に阻まれコアに届かない。なるほど......攻撃は受け止めるタイプか! ならば対処は簡単。受け止めきれない攻撃を当てればいい! 巨大雷の矢切り捨てられても電気で感電させられることに期待した【サンダーアロー】と、1本のでっかい矢を撃つだけという超シンプルな新奥義【ビッグアロー】を融合。このデカくてビリビリする矢は簡単には切れないぞ! 「こりゃでけぇ! でもノロマだなぁ~。蛇腹剣の先端が蛇の頭に変化する。コアはそれをまっすぐ伸ばし、立体交差の他の道路の端っこに噛みつかせた。「こういう避け方もできんだぜ?」蛇腹を縮める勢いでコアは宙を舞う。そのまま他の道路に着地するつもりだろうが......そうはいかない。【ビッグアロー】の長所短所は当然把握している。長所はそこそこの威力と大きさによる威圧感、そして気軽に撃てるクールタイム1分! 短所は大きさゆえの視認性の高さ、そして愚鈍さだ。コアのことはまだよく知らないが、本選に残るようなプレイヤーが回避できない奥義ではない。だが、手軽でも奥義は奥義だ。受け止めるなら防御の奥義、相殺するなら攻撃の奥義が必要になる。向こうも手の内を1つ見せてくれればそれで良し、見せない場合は......確実にスキルで回避しようとしてくる。道路は決して広くない。デカい矢の攻撃を避けようと思えば、他の道路に飛び移るしかない。そう、狙いは最初から空中におびき出すこと! 「ガー坊! ミサイルフィッシュ! 俺は...... 空を覆い尽くさんばかりの射撃攻撃の合わせ技! 多少空中を移動できる能力があったとしても、この飽和攻撃からは逃れなれない! 「......やっぱすげぇわあんた。もうあの頃の面影はねぇんだな。今じゃ立派なトッププレイヤーだ。素晴らしいよ」力を認めて負けを受け入れるようなセリフ......。だが、その顔は何か愉快なもの見るように笑顔だった。今度は剣の先端だけでなく、剣そのものが蛇の口に変化した! でっかい口だ......! 立ったままの人を丸飲みできそうなくらいグワッと開かれている! 「一気呑みだ! アナコンダ!」蛇の口は周辺の矢とミサイルをどんどん吸い込んでいく......! これは対射撃攻撃用の防御奥義なのか!? 「ちっ......! ちょっと呑みたりねぇな。まあいい! 吐き出せ! アナコンダ!」一度閉じられた蛇の口が再び開かれる。そして、中から濃い緑色のエネルギー弾が吐き出された! 呑み込んだ攻撃だけ威力を増すタイプのカウンター奥義......! 『コバンザメシューター』にかわるガー坊の新たな武器『本当は弓以外の武器にしようと思っていたが、あまりにもナイスなネーミングに思わず選んでしまった! ガー坊の周りをフワフワと泳ぐ巨大な弓は、まさにマンボウのような形をしている。そもそもリアルのマンボウもあの上下のヒレが弓っぽいと前から思って......いたりいなかったり。「照準は敵の奥義! 放て! 』が放った矢は、もはや矢に見えない。それもそのはず、矢は太陽のごとき光の球体に包まれているからだ。やたらまぶしく、やたら大きな太陽は......やたら遅い! 【ビッグアロー】よりもさらにのんびり屋さんのこの矢は、言い換えれば発動時間が非常に長い。その場に居座って盾や目くらましの役目を果たせるのだ。俺が普段使う奥義はとにかく高速で消費されるものなので、正反対の効果を持つ奥義を獲得することで戦略の幅が広がった! ジュウゥゥゥゥゥゥゥゥゥッ!! 】がコアの放った奥義と衝突し、一方的に消滅させた。遅い分、威力は十分!	“Tsk! I won’t let you get away!” I could hear Core’s voice coming from below. He had been able to get this close to a sniper, so there was no way that he was going to back off now. It was clear that he would chase after me, tenacious as a snake, and with eyes for nothing else...! However, I did not want to fight under these conditions. Now that he was this close, the correct thing to do was to run. In that case, wouldn’t it be best to use Warp Arrow or I’m Arrow and create some distance between us all at once? The answer was no. It was possible that there would be an enemy where I landed, and he would still be able to see my trajectory and figure out my location. Besides, according to the rules, I could not dismiss Garbow. That meant he would be left behind if I used Warp Arrow. Furthermore, you were able to attack your comrades here, which meant he would likely die if I took him and escaped with I’m Arrow. Damn it. I just had to start in such a disadvantageous situation...or had I? Now that I thought about it, with Garbow here, we had the advantage in numbers. After the rd evolution and new gear, Garbow’s specs were close to an average player. Obviously, that was not good enough to take on Core alone, but I was here too. Surely...we had the upper hand? “Maybe I was being too cowardly...!” After all, there were some who thought I was a candidate to win. I was a feared player in my own right. And so it would not be bad to sometimes proudly fight back when a strong enemy approaches! “Garbow! Stop!” We were far enough now. I would start my own attack! My target was Core, the Mad Slime leader! Currently, he was running straight down the road! “Let’s do some testing. Gatling Inferno Arrow!” I unleashed a chain of arrows that burned with hellfire. How would he defend himself? Or would he dodge it? It would give me an idea of his fighting style. “Oh! So you finally grew a spine! But that’s not enough! Coil Bellows!” The whip sword surrounded Core and began to rotate at a high speed. And so the arrows were blocked by the rotating blades and were not able to reach Core. I see... So he blocks attacks! Then there was a simple way of dealing with him. Unleash so many attacks that he won’t be able to block all of them! “Big Thunder Arrow!” I fused Thunder Arrow, which I hoped would electrocute him even if cut down, and Big Arrow, which was a new and simple charge attack that shot a single large arrow. This huge, electric arrow would not be easy to cut down! “That’s a big one! But not enough. Bite Bellows!” The tip of the chain whip transformed into a snake head. Core extended it straight so that it bit the edge of a different road. “I can escape like this as well!” Core flew through the air as the chain whip retracted. He probably meant to land on that other road...but I wouldn’t allow him. I knew Big Arrow’s strengths and weaknesses. Its strength was that it was powerful and big, and could be shot casually, as the cool down was only minute! Its weakness was that its size made it easy to see and dodge. While I still didn’t know much about Core, it was not the kind of charge attack that players in the finals should have trouble with. However, even if it was simple, it was still a charge attack. If you wanted to block it, you needed to use a defense charge attack. And if you wanted to cancel it out, you needed to use an offensive one. He might have to show one of the tricks up his sleeve... And even if he didn’t...he would still try to use one of his skills to get away. The road was not very wide. And so he would have to jump to another road in order to dodge the arrow. Yes, my aim had been to lure him into the air! “Garbow! Missile Fish! And I’ll...Thunder Arrow Tempest!” An attack that unleashed enough arrows to block out the sky! Even if you had the ability to move in the air a little, it would not be enough to escape this overwhelming attack! “...You really are amazing. A completely different person from before. An actual top player. It’s wonderful.” It sounded like an admission of my power and his own defeat... However, he was smiling as if highly amused. This time, it wasn’t just the tip of the sword, but the entire sword transformed into the mouth of a snake! A huge mouth...! And it was gaping wide so that it could swallow a standing player! “Swallow! Anaconda!” All the arrows and missiles in the area were sucked into the anaconda’s mouth...! Was this a specifically anti-ranged attack method of defense!? “Tsk...! That wasn’t enough. Oh, well! Spit it out! Anaconda!” The mouth closed and then opened again. And a thick, green bullet of energy shot out! It was a counter attack that was enhanced by all the attacks it swallowed before...! Garbow’s new weapon was Sunfish Bow! I had actually been considering a weapon that wasn’t a bow, but I had to choose it due to the name! A giant bow floated around Garbow, and it was in the shape of a sunfish. I had always thought that sunfish looked a little like a bow...sort of... “Target the enemy charge attack! Fire! Sunfish Arrow!” The arrow that the Sunfish bow unleashed didn’t even look like an arrow. It was no wonder, as it was surrounded by a sphere of light that looked like the sun. It was so bright and big and...slow! The arrow was even slower than Big Arrow. And the activation time was also long. Which meant it could blind the enemy and act as a shield. The charge attacks I normally used were quick and disappeared almost instantly, but having something that was the opposite had broadened my options! Juuuuuuu!! The Sunfish Arrow crashed into Core’s unleashed charge attack, and killed it. While it was slow, it was powerful!	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 2, "inserted_lines_src": 7, "inserted_lines_trg": 0 }
イングリス達がワイズマル劇団の公演のために稽古を始めて、暫くの期間が過ぎた。「と、とうとうこの日が来たわね、クリス――!」「うん。長かったね、ラニ――!」イングリスとラフィニアの瞳には、うっすらと涙が浮かんでいた。「ここまでよく頑張ったわよね、あたし達......!」「うん。自分で自分を褒めたい......!」再建された、騎士アカデミーの新校舎。まだまだ工事中の部分も多いが―― もうすぐだ、もうすぐ待ちに待った時が―― 「いや、泣く程の事なのかしら――」「そもそも、食堂が開いていない間は、劇団の賄いを散々食べていたではありませんか」レオーネとリーゼロッテは、少々呆れ気味だ。「メニューが少なくても、我慢してたもん!」「食べる量も、劇団の皆さんの分が無くならないように控えてたし!」ワイズマル伯爵は、いい公演が出来ればそれでいいと気にかけていないようだったが。と、食堂の扉が軽い音を立てて開け放たれた。「おや? 並んで待ってくれてたのかい? お待たせ! 食堂の再開だよっ!」顔見知りの食堂のおばさんが、笑顔で迎え入れてくれた。「きゃーっ! やったわ! 超特大全部乗せ激辛パスタがあたしを待ってる!」「わたしもだよ! 何人前、食べられるかな......!?」「いや......この後、また劇団の稽古があるでしょう?」「あまり食べ過ぎると、動けませんわよ」「「腹が減っては戦は出来ぬ......!」」声を揃えるイングリスとラフィニア。もはや食べ物の事しか頭にない様子である。「ああやっぱりここにいましたねえ、イングリスさん、ラフィニアさん!」「あ、校長先生――」「こんな所でこんなことしてる場合じゃないですよお!」「え? どうかしたんですか?」「劇団の稽古までは、まだ時間があるかと思いますが――」「違うんですよぉ! 大事なお客さんが来てますよぉ!」「はあ......?」それは本当に、食堂の超特大全部乗せ激辛パスタを上回る大事な用件なのだろうか。「それって、食堂でご飯食べた後じゃダメですか?」ラフィニアも、イングリスと同じ感想だったようだ。「ダメです! お待たせしては失礼ですよぉ!」「うーん仕方ないか......」「すぐ行ってすぐ帰ってこよう、ラニ」「うん。そうね――」「校長室でお待ちですから、すぐ行きましょう」イングリス達は、食堂はお預けにして校長室へと向かう事にした。「ふぅ~よかった、食堂を食べ荒らされる前で――再建で予算も厳しいですし、少しでも節約しないと......」ミリエラ校長はこっそりと、そう呟いていた。「イングリス!」「ラフィニア!」そこに待っていたのは、成熟した美しさの、大人の女性が二人―― 「お母様!」母セレーナと、伯母イリーナだった。「お母様っ! ここに来てくれるなんて――! 会えて嬉しいっ......!」「ふふふ――まだまだ甘えん坊ね、ラフィニアは」ラフィニア散に伯母イリーナに駆け寄って、自ら抱き着いた。「クリスちゃん......! 元気だった? お母さん、心配していたわよ......!」「はい母上。問題はありません、お会いできて嬉しいです」いくつになっても子にとって、母親は母親。前世の時代は孤児だったイングリスにとって、母親という存在の尊さ、ありがたさは人一倍身に染みて、実感できる。「問題――無いんですかねえ......? いやでも、うーん――」ミリエラ校長が唸っている。「あの――娘が何かご迷惑をおかけしていますでしょうか......?」「あ、いえいえ......とんでもない! お二人とも優秀な生徒さんで、色々助けて下さっていますよお」「そうですか。安心しました」と、母セレーナは笑顔を見せる。「ですが母上、どうしてこちらに――?」「毎年、侯爵様から国王陛下に税をお納めしているでしょう? 今年からは、あの空飛ぶ小船......」「そう。あれで王都からお役人がやって来て、税を納めるための移動を手伝って下さるようになったの」「それはいい事ですね。陸路で運ぶより安全で速いです」従来ならば、陸路で王都まで税を運んでいた所だ。を回して回収してくれれば、安全度も輸送の速さも増す。陸上型の魔石獣からは襲われないし、飛行型の魔石獣も振り切れる可能性が高い。本来は領主側が輸送の手段や人を手配する所だが、に同乗して、国王陛下にご挨拶なさるという事だったから、私達も連れて来て頂いたの。あなた達の顔が見たかったから――お父さんはお留守番で、残念がっていたけれど」「そうですか――父上にもお会いしたかったですが」「わ! じゃあお父様も来てるのね! やったぁ!」「ラフィニア。あまりはしゃがないのよ? クリスちゃんの気持ちも考えてあげなさい」と、伯母イリーナはラフィニアを窘める。「構いませんよ。侯爵様とお会いできるのは、わたしも嬉しいですから」「そう? 本当にクリスちゃんはしっかりしてて、大人よねぇ。クリスちゃんがラフィニアと一緒にいてくれれば、安心だわ」「いえ、わたしなどまだまだ力不足です。ラニに不順な異性交遊になど興味を持たず、騎士候補生としての修練にのみ専念するように言って下さい」精神的には男性である故か、ラフィニアがやれ誰々が格好いいとか、どういう人が好みだとか、セオドア特使が素敵だとか、そういう事を言うのを止められないのだ。ここは母親であるイリーナに、強く釘を刺しておいてもらいたいのだが―― 「ええっ!? 何々、ラフィニア彼氏が出来たの? 良かったわねえ、ねえどんな子どんな子? この機会に紹介してくれるのかしら?」イリーナはキラキラと目を輝かせるのだった。「伯母上えぇぇぇっ! 違いますそうではありません! ラニに為すべき事に専念するようにお説教を――」「あら? 若いうちに恋をする事も重要なお勉強よ? で、どうなのラフィニア?」「えー。彼氏なんてできてないわよ。そりゃまあ、できたら欲しいけど――」「じゃあ誰か、いいなって思う人はいるの?」「えー? えへへ――」何のえへへだ――!	It had been some time since Inglis and her friends started rehearsing for the Weissmall Troupe. The big day was approaching. In the meanwhile, the troupe prepared the meals for Inglis and Rafinha, which they couldn’t be thankful enough for. And, finally... 「F-, finally, this day has come, Glis!」「Yeah. It has been long, Rani!」 Both Inglis and Rafinha were teary-eyed. 「We’ve persevered so hard, didn’t we!」「Yeah. I even want to praise myself for all the hardships!」 They hugged each other tightly, praising their brave struggle, thinking of their now-past days of endurance. The reconstructed, new building of the Knight Academy stood before them. While there were still many segments under construction, it will be the reopening of the cafeteria today. They couldn’t bear sitting still, and so they had been waiting there even before it was effectively open. Soon......soon the time we’ve been waiting for will come! 「No, is that something to cry about?!」「To begin with, haven’t you two been eating a lot of bribes from the troupe while the cafeteria wasn’t open?」 Leone and Liselotte were a bit exasperated by the two’s reaction. 「They don’t have much variation, so we had to put up with it!」「We also had to each so much less so we wouldn’t wolf down the whole troupe’s portion!」 The people in charge of cooking for the troupe were scratching their heads, wondering if having Inglis and Rafinha in the play would be profitable at all. However, Count Weissmall seemed not to mind it much, as long as they could give him an excellent performance. The door of the cafeteria was thrown open with a light bang. 「My? You’ve been waiting together here? Sorry for the wait! The cafeteria is back open!」 The diner lady, whom both Inglis and Rafinha had known very well, welcomed them with a smile. 「Kyaah! Yaay! The Double Extra-Large All Topping Super Spicy Pasta awaits me!」「Me too! I wonder how much I can eat......?!」「No......We have another rehearsal just after this, don’t we?」「If you eat too much, you won’t be able to move as much.」「「You can’t fight a war on an empty stomach......!!」」 Inglis and Rafinha spoke in the same breath. It seemed all they could think about was food. But then... 「Aah, I knew you two will be here, Miss Inglis, Miss Rafinha!」「Ah, Principal!」「This isn’t time for you two to idle around here!」「Eh? What’s wrong?」「There should be some time until the rehearsal with the troupe...」「It’s not that! You have some important guests!」「Huh?」 Were they really that important, even more important than the Double Extra-Large All Topping Super Spicy Pasta? Wouldn’t it just be a tragedy if they once again missed the huge feast because they were summoned to the castle and offered another troublesome position they had no interest in? To be honest, Inglis wasn’t in the mood to deal with it. 「Can’t they wait until after we’re done eating?」 Rafinha seemed to be of the same opinion. 「That’s not good! It’s rude to make your guests wait!」「Hmm, there’s no other way then......」「Let’s just give a brief greeting then run back here, Rani.」「Yeah. Let’s.」「They are waiting in my office, so let’s go right away.」 Inglis and Rafinha decided to leave the cafeteria behind them and headed towards the Principal’s Office. 「Phew~ Thank goodness I reached them before they could eat in the cafeteria, our budget is tight no thanks to the reconstruction, so we gotta save where we can......」 Muttered Principal Miliera under her breath. And, as they reached the Principal’s Office... 「Inglis!」「Rafinha!」 What awaited them there were two mature, beautiful adult women... 「Mother!」 It was Selena, Inglis’ mother, and Irina, her aunt. 「Mother! You’ve come! I’m so happy to see you!」「Fufufu... You’re still such a spoiled kid, Rafinha.」 Rafinha rushed to Aunt Irina and threw a tight hug to her. 「Little Inglis! Have you been well? Your mom is worried!」「I am, mother. There’s no problem. I’m glad to see you.」 Inglis didn’t behave as childishly, but she didn’t resist the hug Selena gave her either. This nostalgic warmth was certainly comforting. For a child, their mother would always be their mother, no matter how old they had become. For Inglis, who had been an orphan in her previous life, the value and gratitude of having someone to call as a mother was something she could feel more deeply than anyone else. 「No problem, huh? No, but, well...」 The Principal groaned. 「Pardon me, has my daughter causing you any trouble at all?」「Ah, no, no......they never! They are both excellent students and have helped me a lot.」「Is that so? That’s reassuring.」 Mother Selena smiled. 「However, why have you come, mother?」「You know how the Marquis pays the tax to His Majesty the King, don’t you? Starting this year, umm, those flying boats......」「Yes, that. An official from the Capital will come riding it and help us transport the fares.」「That’s great. It’s safer than transporting them overland that way.」 So far, goods and taxes would have to be transported by land all the way to the Royal Capital. Not only would it be a long journey from the remote town of Ymir, but there was also always the threat of Magic Stone Beasts along the way. It would be safer and faster if the Royal Capital could send Flygears to collect the tax. Not only would they be safe from the assaults of land-bound Magic Stone Beasts, but there was also a huge chance they could shake off flying Magic Stone Beasts. Normally, it was the feudal lord’s role to arrange the means of transportation and the people, but Flygears were state-of-the-art weapons. It wasn’t widely used in a rural area like Ymir. Therefore, it was the Capital that made the dispatch. It was a flexible response to an advance in technology. How very thoughtful. 「Yes. And so, since the Marquis was riding the Flygear that went back to the Capital to greet His Majesty, he brought us along with him. We wanted to see your faces, after all. Although, it was regrettable that your dad has to stay.」「Is that so. That was unfortunate, I wanted to see Father too.」「Wah! So Father is here too! Yay!」「Rafinha. Don’t get too merry, you hear me? Be thoughtful like Glis.」 Aunt Irina rebuked Rafinha. 「I don’t mind. I’m happy to see the Marquis too.」「Really? You sure are reliable and mature, little Glis. I don’t have anything to worry about as long as Rafinha has you by her side..」「That’s not true, I still have a long way to go. Please, tell Rani to not chase after illicit relationships and focus solely on her training as a Knight candidate.」 Perhaps because Inglis was mentally a man, she couldn’t stop Rafinha from saying things like which men had the handsome face or which one she had a crush on, or how wonderful Special Envoy Theodore was, etc. She would like Irina, Rafinha’s own mother, to be the one to drive those points into her, but... 「Eeh?! What, Rafinha, you got a boyfriend? Isn’t that great! What is he like, what is he like? Will you introduce him to me since I’m here?」 Irina’s eyes shone brightly. At times like this, her eyes were just like Rafinha’s. 「AAAUUNNNT!! That’s not it, that’s not what I meant! Rani needs to focus on the things necessary for her!」「Oh my? Falling in love while young is also an important lesson, you know? So, how is it, Rafinha?」「Eeh. I don’t have a boyfriend. I mean, of course, I want to have one, but...」「Then, is there someone you have in your heart?」「Eeh? Ehehe...」 What do you mean “Ehehe”?!	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 3, "inserted_lines_src": 23, "inserted_lines_trg": 0 }
魔神王の城はすぐに見付かった。というよりアルゴナウタイがとっくに位置を割り出していたらしい。まあ流石年もカストールに飛び回ってれば敵の拠点くらいは調べておくか。暗黒大陸の中でも特にマナが濃密な荒野。そこに聳える崖の上に黒く巨大な城が建っていた。うむ、いかにも『私がラストダンジョンです』といわんばかりの威容だ。見た目だけは恐ろしい魔物が周囲を警戒するように飛び、黒雲は太陽を遮って常に夜中のようだ。雷光が鳴り響き、これでもかとばかりに雰囲気を出している。むしろテンプレすぎて最近は逆に見ないんじゃないかな、こういう城って。後、この手の城を見て毎回思うんだがこれ、外から崖を崩せば城が落ちて中の雑魚一掃出来そうじゃね? いや、やらんけどさ。何で魔王の城って崖とか断崖絶壁とかの不安定な場所に造りたがるんだろうな。凄い不便っていうか、ぶっちゃけ自分では住みたくない物件だ。というかあれだ。王都もないのにポツンと城だけ建ってるって正直どうなんだろうな。王である以上、当然税金やらで生活を賄っているんだろうが、これじゃ税金持ってくるのも一苦労だろ。もっと町の近くに建てろよ。 ......まあ俺のマファール塔も人の事言えんけど。「さて、どうする? 外から狙い撃ちにでもするか?」「まあ待て。我等は別に争いに来たわけではない。向こうが何もせん限りは手を出さんでいいだろう。俺は空を見上げ、適当に魔法をぶっぱした。低級魔法だが、まあ雲を散らすだけならそれで充分だ。俺の一撃で空を覆っていた根性なしの黒雲はあっさりと消し飛び、青空が広がって陽光が差し込む。よし、明るくなった。折角ラスダンっぽい雰囲気を出してた所悪いが、俺は明るい方が好きなのだ。とか思っていたらベネトが何か言いたそうに俺の方を睨んでいた。あ、やっべ。こいつそういや昼苦手だったわ。彼女は無言で指を鳴らすと、一瞬にして昼から夜へと変わって再び闇に包まれる。月属性魔法の『ムーンリットナイト』か。当たり前のように高位魔法を無動作で使うな、こいつ。「おい、ベネト」折角晴れにしたのに一瞬で元に戻されてしまった。俺はその事に文句を言おうとするが、ベネトは気にした様子もなくズンズン進んでいる。どうやら普通に真正面から行く気らしい。まあ今更俺達が裏口とか探して潜入ってのもあれだし、正面突破は俺も賛成だ。城へ近付くと周囲を飛んでいた魔物が一斉に飛びかかって来るが、ベネトがそちらを向いた瞬間、彼等は一瞬で顔を真っ青にして逃走した。ベネトに威圧のスキルなどはないが、それでも本能で死を感じ取ったのだろう。実際今のは英断だった。後1m......いや、その半分も距離を詰めていれば彼等は間違いなく細切れにされていた。城の前へと辿り着いた俺達の前に立ち塞がるのは巨大な鋼鉄の扉だ。大きさは何故か10m以上。巨人でも出入りするのかってサイズだ。普通ならばここで、この扉を開くためのアイテムなり方法なりを探す場面なのだろうが、そんなのは俺達には関係ない。ベネトが無造作に扉に手をかけ、そのまま腕力だけで強引にこじ開けてしまった。鍵? ああ、それなら一瞬で捻じ曲がって千切れたよ。豆腐で出来てたのかな? 「ば、馬鹿な、あの扉を素手で!?」「あの鍵は鋼鉄製だぞ!」「それに扉は重さ50トンはあるはずなのに......ば、化物か!」はい、解説ご苦労様。扉の向こう側で顔を青くしていた連中に軽く威圧をかけ、地面に縫い付けた。お前等、そこから動くなよ。少しでも動くとベネトに潰されるからな。俺達が踏み入ると当然のように警備の魔神族がワラワラと出てくるが、いくら数がいても意味はない。「邪魔だ。退け」重そうな鎧を着ていた兵士達は一瞬で潰れたように地面に座り込み、動けなくなった。俺達はそんな彼等の横を素通りし、無意味に広い城の中を見渡す。現在地は大広間だが、少しばかり道が多すぎる。まず左右にどこに繋がっているかも分からない通路ずつ。合。正面には階段があるが、その階段の両脇にも扉。階段を登った先には魔神王を描いた肖像画があり、そこから左右に階段が分かれて二階へと繋がっているがその先に更に通路ずつ。。この時点で十六に道が分かれている。そして道を進めば更に枝分かれして兵士の宿舎とか厨房とか、訓練室とか、そういうのがあるのだろう。 RPGのラスダンにありがちな構成ではあるが、勇者ってのはよくもまあこんな面倒な城の中を敵とエンカウントしながら探せるものだ。「無駄に通路が多いな」ベネトが面倒くさそうに呟いた。確かにこれらを一つ一つ調べるのは少し手間だ。こんな入り組んだ造りになっているのはやはり、敵の潜入を警戒してのものか? こういった建築物は敵に潜入されてもすぐに目的地へと辿り着けないように、わざと入り組んだ造りにしているとか何処かで聞いた事がある。「探すのは面倒だな。こいつに案内させるか」ベネトは地面に座っている魔神族の中から適当に一人を選んで首根っこを掴んだ。哀れにも選ばれてしまったモヒカンの魔神族はガタガタ震えながら涙を流している。敵ではあるが同情せざるを得ない。とはいえ、案内人を使うというアイディアには俺も賛成だ。「其方、魔神王の居場所は知っているな? 案内してくれれば見逃すと約束しよう。「は、はひ......よ、よろこんで......」案内人に道を聞きながら、俺とベネトは複雑な城の中を進んだ。通路を進んで曲がって、階段を登って降りて、扉を潜って、また階段登って......。いやちょっとこれ、入り組みすぎだろ。迷路かよ。歩き始めて十数分も経つ頃にはベネトのイライラが募り、目に見えて不機嫌になっていた。「おい、いつになったら着くんだ?」「は、はい! その先を進んだ所です!」そう言って案内人が指さしたのは通路が途切れている場所であった。下には棘が無数に生えており、この罠にかかったらしい骨などが散らかっている。「こ、この道は誰かがこの場でレバーを抑えていなければ渡れない仕組みなのです。何で世の中のラスボスってのは城の中にこんなアトラクションを造るのかね。遊園地じゃあるまいし。これ、普段生活する上では邪魔なだけだろう。多分これはあれだな。ラストバトル前にパーティーの誰か一人が離脱するイベント用トラップだ。案内人がレバーを抑えると、向こうから橋がかかり道が繋がった。まあ俺達なら普通にジャンプで渡れる距離だが、せっかくだし好意に甘えよう。とか思っていたら、橋を渡ると同時に案内人が何かボタンを押して、瞬間に俺達を電流が撃ち抜いた。その電流は10億ボルト50万アンペア! どんな強靭な身体を持つ奴だろうと一瞬で黒焦げよお! 何やら嬉しそうに高笑いをする案内人。だが俺はむしろ彼が哀れでしかなかった。確かにこの罠なら普通の奴は倒せるだろうが、生憎普通じゃないんだよなあ、こっちは。 10億ボルトというと、大体雷くらいか? まあ確かに凄い事は凄いんだが......雷くらい、ちょっと上位の魔法使いなら魔法でバンバン落とせる世界よ、ここ? 普通のファンタジーだって雷くらい当然のように落として、それ喰らった奴が普通に反撃したりするぞ。ましてやここはパワーバランスがぶっ壊れた何ちゃってファンタジーだ。何でこれで俺達を倒せると思ったのかね。俺は肩をすくめ、ベネトも呆れたように溜息を吐いた。どうでもいいが電流はまだ続いている。「まあ、こんな事だろうとは思ったさ」「うぇ!?」俺がとりあえずベネトに意見を求めると、ベネトも薄々予感くらいはしていたと返してきた。ま、途中から誘導されてるような気はしてたんだよな。いくら何でも道を逸れ過ぎてたし。なんか企んでるなーくらいには思ってたんだが、結果は御覧の通り。俺達は間抜けにもまんまと罠に嵌ってしまったわけだ。「ここまでご苦労だった。もう貴様はいいぞ」も、もうしません! 案内します、服従します! 靴の裏だって舐めます! お、おたす......」それが彼の最期の言葉となった。ベネトが離れた距離でデコピンをするように指を弾くと、それと同時に案内人の頭部が弾け飛んだのだ。おおグロイグロイ。「で、どうする? こうなると、ここまでの道が正しかったのかも怪しいが」「とりあえず進むしかあるまい。違っていたら引き返せばいいだろう。俺はベネトに言われ、懐から紙を出す。ここまでの道のりは一応マッピングしていた。これでも一応レンジャーのクラスも跨いでいるのだ。レンジャースキルによって描かれた見取り図はこの上ない正確性で描かれ、完璧に城の構図などを記録している。 ......しかしそれは、今や塵となっていた。「......」「......」俺やベネト、そして俺達が着ている衣服などはこの程度の電流ではビクともしない。しかし俺がマッピングに使っていたのはただの紙だ。当然、紙は雷に耐える事など出来ない。これはあれだ。俺の迂闊さよりも敵の計略を天晴見事と褒める場面だろう。いやー、案内人は見事な知略の持ち主だった。まさかマッピングが台無しにされてしまうとは。「さて、行こうか」「おい、何か言い訳くらいはないのか?」「細かい事を気にするな。それよりまずは罠を抜けよう。「相変わらずいい加減な奴め......」あーあー聞こえない。人は失敗を繰り返して成長するのだ。一つの失敗に囚われてはいけない。俺達は橋を渡り、とりあえず電流の罠を抜けて先へと進んだ。結果待っていたのは、ただの行き止まりである。予想は出来ていたが、やはりここは外れのルートだったようだ。「仕方ない、戻ろうか」「いっそ城の中で暴れてみるか? 向こうから出向いてくれるかもしれんぞ」「それは最後の手段にしようか。もう少し探してもいいだろう」俺とベネトは話し合いながら橋へと戻り、再び電流を浴びながら元の道へと戻った。大して痛くはないんだが、電気で髪が乱れるのだけはどうにかならんもんかな。俺は手櫛で適当に髪を整えながら、一つ前の分かれ道へと戻る。すると、そこには呆れたような顔で立っている魔神族の女の姿があった。ウェーブのかかった茶色の髪に、灰色の地味なローブを着たその女性は、他の魔神族と比べるとレベルがやや高めだ。無論、俺やベネトの敵ではない。何で普通に電流トラップを往復してるのよ......それ、雷と同じ威力があるのよ......」「其方は?」「私の一人、『土』のサートゥルヌス。敵対の意思はないわ、そもそも戦いが成立しないし。ああなるほど、七曜か。道理でレベルが少しだけ高いわけだ。とりあえず案内してくれるというのであれば渡りに舟。素直に案内される事にしよう。俺がベネトを見ると、彼女も頷いて同意した。「助かる。よろしく頼むぞ」「......疑わないの? 罠かもしれないのよ?」「罠だったら、その時は貴様が死ぬだけだ」ベネトはこう言っているが、実を言うと俺も決して何も警戒していないわけではない。今この瞬間にもレンジャーのスキルの一つである『トラップサーチLv1』を発動している。このスキルは発動中は一定時間ごとにSPを消費する代わりに罠を探知してくれるスキルで、レベル5まである。当然レベルが上がる毎により細かい罠なども探知出来るようになるし、その分燃費も悪くなる。俺が使っている『トラップサーチLv1』の効果は『即死トラップだけを判別する』というもので、他の罠にはガンガン引っかかってしまうものだ。しかしゲームなんてのは死ななきゃ安いもので、とりあえず死にさえしなければ回復すればどうにかなってしまうのである。だからとりあえずLv1だけ発動して消費を抑えつつ、後は罠など気にせずガンガン進む。これが高レベルプレイヤーの基本的なダンジョンアタックのやり方だ。実際高レベルになると細かい罠なんて一々解除するより、わざと発動させてしまった方が時間を短縮出来るし効率的なのである。レベルが上がればサーチのレベルも上がる。だが高レベルになるほどに高いレベルのサーチは要らなくなる。酷いバランスもあったものだ。しばらく城の中を歩いた俺達はやがて、一際巨大な存在感を放つ鉄の扉の前へと案内された。いや、扉......というよりは、これはその中にいる奴の存在感か。「さ、通りなさい」サートゥルヌスはそう言い、ゆっくりと扉を開いた。	We ended up finding the Demon King’s castle very quickly. Or rather, the Argonautai had apparently long identified the location of the castle. Well, I supposed after flying around with Castor for years, it made sense for them to have at least searched out the enemy’s base of operations. Even in the Dark Continent, it was a wasteland which was particularly dense with mana. In the midst of this wasteland soared a cliff with an enormous black castle on top. Indeed, its majestic and dignified appearance really screamed, “I am the last dungeon!” There was a large number of scary-looking magical beasts flying about and patrolling the surrounding area. Furthermore, dark clouds obstructed the sunlight to keep the place under a perpetual night. Thunder resounded along with lightning flashes, creating an eerie atmosphere. If anything, this castle is way too much of a stereotype that, lately, you actually don’t see much anymore. Also, I think about it every time I see these kinds of castles, but... if you collapse the cliff from the outside, wouldn’t the castle drop down and kill all the small fries in one go? I mean, I’m not going to do that but... Why is it that demon kings’ castles are always situated on an unstable place like the edge of a cliff or some precipice? Isn’t it just so inconvenient? Or rather... honestly speaking, it’s a type of building that I would not want to live in. Actually, it’s that, you know? I just genuinely want to ask...Why is there a castle casually standing in the middle of nowhere even though this place isn’t even the capital? Since he’s a king, I assume that he would naturally be sustaining himself on the tax money from his citizens. But with where this castle is, it must have been quite a hassle for the person bringing in that tax money. Build the cities closer to your castle! ... Well... I can’t say much to others because of Mafahl Tower. “So, what now? Do you want to shoot it down from the outside?” “Nah, no need to rush. We didn’t really come here to cause conflict. As long as they don’t come attacking us, there shouldn’t be a need for us to do anything to them. Having said that, I’m not really liking this dark and dull setting.” I looked up at the sky and casually fired arcane magic at it. It was only low-tier arcane magic, however, considering that it was just to scatter the clouds, it was more enough. As a result of my single attack, the cowardly clouds quickly flew away and the blue sky expanded in all directions, allowing the sunlight to shine through. Good, now it’s bright. I’m sorry that they went to great trouble to look like the last dungeon, but I like it better when it’s bright. Whilst thinking such a thing, Benet glared at me as if she had something to say. Oh, crap. I forgot that she disliked the daytime. She snapped her finger, turning day into night in an instant and making the whole place shrouded in darkness once again. Moon-attribute arcane magic [Moonlit Night], huh? She really did just use high-tier arcane magic without any additional movement as if it’s the most normal thing in the world. “Oi, Benet.” Even though the weather just turned fine, it reverted back in an instant. When I figured that I would complain a bit, Benet started progressing forward without minding it in the slightest. It seemed she wanted to just boldly walk right in from the front. I supposed it would be unnecessary and seem bad for the two of us to look for a backdoor to sneak in. Therefore, I was also in favour of boldly walking in from the front. As we closed in on the castle, the magical beasts in the surroundings all came flying at us. However, the moment Benet turned to look at them, they all instantly turned pale and ran away. Benet did not possess any intimidation skill, yet they must have instinctively felt that they were going to die. In fact, it was an excellent decision on their behalf. If they had progressed more metre... no, even if they had progressed half that distance, they would no doubt have been shredded into pieces. Once we reached the front of the castle, what was in our way was a giant steel door. For some reason, its height was over m long. It was big enough that even a giant could utilise the door. Normally, this was the part where we would need to present some item or find some method to open the gate. But that whole part was irrelevant for us. Benet simply placed her hand on the gate and forcibly wrung the gate open using nothing but her arm strength. Lock? Ahh, if you’re asking about that, she twisted and grinded it in an instant. Perhaps it was made out of tofu or something? “Wh, what, how can it be? To open that gate with her bare hand!?” “That gate was made out of steel, you know!” “That door should have a weight of tonnes... Is, is she a monster!?” Okay, okay, thanks for that exposition right there. I lightly applied Coercion on the bunch of pale-looking people on the other side of the gate, forcing them down on the ground. You lot, don’t move from there, alright? If you move even a little, you’ll be crushed by Benet. When we stepped through the gate, as one would expect, demons which were guarding the place started flooding out, but however many of them there were, it was all meaningless. “You’re in my way. Get lost.” The warriors who were wearing heavy-looking armour all fell down to the ground as if they were being pushed down and became unable to move. The two of us brushed past them and looked around the inside of the castle which was needlessly spacious. We were currently in a reception hall, but unfortunately, there were far too many routes that we could take. There were three routes on each side of us leading to who-knows-where, totalling to six. Directly in front of us, there were stairs, but there were additional doors on each side of them. If one were to climb the stairs for a bit, they would see a portrait of the Demon King as the stairs split to the left and right, both of which further split again into four paths each, totalling to eight paths. At this point, there were already 16 different possible routes. Additionally, if we were to take any of those paths, they were bound to further split into paths leading to the guards’ rooms, kitchens, training room and etcetera. The whole place was constructed similarly to a typical RPG’s last dungeon. But honestly, heroes must really be tolerant to actually bother finding the boss patiently in a troublesome castle like this whilst encountering enemies. “There’s a needlessly high number of paths, eh?” Benet muttered as if she was hassled by all of this. Indeed, to search all of the paths one at a time was too much of a bother. To have the castle constructed in this way, was it perhaps due to a vigilance or precaution against enemy infiltration? I had previously heard somewhere that facilities like this were purposefully built in this way so that even if enemies were to infiltrate, they would not be able to immediately reach their intended location. “It looks like it’s going to be a bit of a hassle to actually search ourselves. I guess we’ll make this guy guide us.” Benet randomly selected a single demon amongst the ones which were sitting on the floor and grabbed him by his neck. The pitiful demon with a Mohican haircut which was selected shook violently in fear and was sobbing his heart out. Although he was my enemy, I did feel a little sympathy for him. Having said that, I was also in support of the idea of using a guide. “You. I assume you know where the Demon King is? If you guide us to him, I promise that we’ll let you go. So can you tell us where he is?” “Y, yhes... Gu, gladly...” Whilst asking for the path, Benet and I continued to progress forward through the complex structure of the castle. We progressed straight, we turned, we ascended some stairs, we descended some other stairs, we went through some doors, we then climbed some more stairs and... Hang on a minute, this is way too complicated. Is this a maze or something? After walking for a little over ten minutes, Benet’s irritation had clearly significantly intensified, such that she was visibly annoyed. “Oi, when are we going to get there?” “Y, yes! If we go straight through here, we’ll be there!” Saying that, the location that the guide was pointing to was a path where the trail cut off. Below that place, a countless number of needles were placed along with scattered bones which I assumed belonged to those who were caught by the trap. “Th, this road has a mechanism where someone needs to pull the lever here or it can’t be passed. I, I will keep the lever pulled, so please pass through.” Why is it that the insides of the last bosses’ castles always have these kinds of attractions? It’s not like they’re theme parks. Wouldn’t gimmicks like this just be troublesome under ordinary conditions? It’s probably that, you know. It’s probably one of those traps designed to make sure that someone from the party gets struck out even before arriving at the last battle’s location. When the person who was guiding us pulled the lever into place, a bridge appeared from the other side and connected the path. Well, it was a distance that we could have easily jumped across, but we might as well accept the chivalrous act. Whilst thinking that, the moment we started crossing the bridge, the guide pressed some button, instantly sending an electric current running through us. “Hiyahahahaha! Idiots! You got caught so gullibly! These currents are 1 billion volts and 500 000 amperes. It doesn’t matter how strong your body is, you’ll turn into ash in an instant! I’ve done it, Demon King-sama! This great servant have struck down the Supreme Ruler and the Vampire Princess!!” The guide was hyperactively laughing in joy for some reason. But I only felt pity for him. Indeed, this trap would have killed ordinary people, but unfortunately, we were anything but ordinary. 1 billion volts is what? Approximately the same as a live lightning strike? Well, if you asked if it was amazing, I supposed it was... but... if it was just lightning, an individual who could use high-tier arcane magic could spam it. We were in that kind of a world right now, you know? Even in ordinary fantasy worlds, lightning strikes were often casually dropped on people, and the people who received them could often casually counterattack, you know? Not to mention this was a fantasy world where the power balance was completely out of whack. I didn’t even know how he thought we would be taken down by something of this degree. I shrugged to show my exasperation and Benet similarly let off a sigh. Yet the electric current was still running. “Well, I predicted it’d be something like this.” “Eh!?” When I prompted Benet for her opinion, she replied that she had guessed that something like this might happen. Well, I did feel like we were being led around halfway through. I mean, we were way off track. I figured that the guide was at least scheming something and the end result was what had just happened. We ended up foolishly getting caught in some obvious trap. “You did well until now. We don’t need you anymore.” “Wa, wai!? P, please wait! It, it was just a passing impulse! I won’t, I won’t do it anymore! I’ll guide you! I’ll be submissive! I’ll even lick the bottom of your feet! Mer, mercy...” Those were the last words he spoke. Even though there was some distance between them, Benet executed a forehead flicking motion from some distance away. Matching that motion, the head of the guide splattered into a fine mist. Ohh, how grotesque. “So, what now? With the way things are, we don’t even know if the path until this point has been correct.” “Well, we can only continue forward until we figure it out. Even if it’s wrong, we can just turn back. By the way, Mafahl, have you been mapping until this point?” When I was questioned by Benet, I took out a piece of paper from my pocket. The path we had taken until this point had been mapped. I mean, even considering how I acted, I had the ranger class. The floor plan drawn using the ranger skill resulted in maps which had no equal when it came to precision. The map which had been composed perfectly recorded the layout of the castle. ... But that map... had been turned into ashes. “......” “......” Me, Benet and the clothes that we were wearing would not even need to care for such a measly electric current. However, the material that I had been using to map our path was just an ordinary piece of paper. Naturally, a piece of paper would not be able to endure a lightning current. Err... I should probably think like this, you know. Yeah, this was the point where, rather than thinking about my carelessness, I should be praising the amazing plan that the enemy executed. Yeah... that guide was someone with amazing resourcefulness or foresight. To think that they would be able to ruin the mapping that I had been undertaking until now. “Anyways, shall we get going?” “Oi, aren’t you at least going to bother making an excuse?” “Don’t worry about the small details. Let’s just get out of the trap first. Even though it’s just single digit damage, our HP is being shaved away by a single digit’s worth.” “You still have that same old irresponsible and sloppy personality...” Aaaa, aaaa, I hear nothing. People became mature by continuously making mistakes. There was no reason for one mistake to hold you back. We crossed the bridge and got out of the electric current trap. We then decided to go forward for now. In the end, we were met with nothing but a dead end. Although we had already predicted it, it turned out the path we were taking was actually a wrong route. “Can’t be helped, let’s turn back.” “Why don’t we just go on a rampage inside the castle? They might come out and meet us instead.” “Let’s leave that as our final resort. It shouldn’t be that much of a problem to look around a bit more.” After chit-chatting for a bit, we returned back to the bridge and got back to the prior path after having the current run through us once again. Although it was not painful, I wondered if we could do something about my hair being messed up a little from the running current. Using my fingers as a comb, I ran them through and combed my hair all the while we were going back to the previous paths. When we got there, there was an appearance of a female demon looking exasperated. She had wavy brown-coloured hair and wore a plain-looking grey robe. She was also of a higher level than most other demons. Needless to say, she was not enough to be Benet’s or my enemy. “... I’ve been told already, but... what a monster you guys are. To come and go across the electric current trap as if it’s the most natural thing in the world... that thing has the same power as live lightning, you know...?” “And you are?” “I am one of the Seven Luminaries, Saturnus of the [Earth]. I have no hostile intentions. To begin with, it wouldn’t even be a battle. I have been ordered by the Demon King-sama to guide the two of you to him.” Ahh, I see. The Seven Luminaries, huh. No wonder her level was slightly higher than the others. Anyways, since she was offering to guide us, we might as well accept the offer. I decided to let her guide us without objection. When I turned to look at Benet to see what she thought, she nodded, suggesting that she was of the same mind. “Appreciate it. We’ll be relying on you.” “... Are you not going to doubt me? It might turn out to be a trap, you know?” “If it turns out to be a trap, at that time, it’ll result in nothing more than you dying.” Benet replied in such a way, but in truth, it was not as if I was completely incautious. Even at this very moment in time, I had one of the ranger class’s skills [Trap Search Level 1] activated. When this skill was activated, at set intervals, the user’s SP would be consumed. In exchange, the skill would detect traps for the user. This skill could go as high as level 5 and naturally, the higher the level of the skill, the more intricate of a trap that it would be able to detect and the worse the SP consumption became. The skill that I had activated, [Trap Search Level 1], had the effect of detecting only “traps which would result in instant death”. As a result, the user would be assaulted by other traps one after another. In games, as long as the player did not die, everything else was as good as irrelevant. After all, if a player did not die, they could recover one way or another and all would be well. As such, the skill was only activated up to level one to reduce the consumption of resources, whilst progressing forward without a care in the world regardless of how many traps they were to end up triggering. This was the basic strategy of high-level players for conquering dungeons. In truth, when the players reached a high level, it would be much faster and far more efficient to purposefully trigger the traps rather than bother with disarming every single trap that they came across. The higher the level of the individual, the higher the level of search skill they would be able to use. Yet, as the individual’s level beame higher, the more they would not require the search skill. It was a horribly balanced scenario. After walking around the castle for a while, we came to stand before a steel gate giving off an enormous amount of presence. Correction... rather than the door, it was from the individual which was on the other side of the gate. “Now, please enter.” Saturnus said so and then slowly opened the gate.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 4, "inserted_lines_src": 10, "inserted_lines_trg": 0 }
エリックは俺たとゲルベルガを見る。「獣人族の皆がハイロードの場所を暴いてくれたぞ」「助かるってもんだな。どうやって見つけるか大変だからな!」ゴランはそういって豪快に笑う。シアも興奮気味に言う。「さっそく、突っ込むでありますね!」俺がそういうと皆がうなずいた。馬に乗ったまま、ヴァンパイアハイロードの拠点に向かって移動する。走り出してから、俺は先程手に入れた階の剣を思い出した。魔神王の剣と打ち合って折れなかった業物だ。有効活用したほうがいい。俺はエリックとゴランとシアの剣を見る。勇者エリックの剣は聖剣だ。第六位階の剣よりいい物だろう。ゴランの剣も使い込まれた魔法の剣だ。火炎属性に不壊属性が付与されている。シアの剣も悪くない剣だが、細くて頼りない。おそらくシアはスピード重視で細い剣を選んでいるのだろう。「シア。この剣をやろう」第六位階の剣をシアに渡した。「この剣はいったい?」そういってシアは馬上のまま、剣を数度振った。「とても軽い剣でありますね。今のあたしの剣より軽いでありますよ」「その剣は第六位階が使っていた物なのだが、俺の振るう魔神王の剣と打ち合って折れなかったんだ」「それはすごいでありますね。こんな素晴らしい剣をもらってしまって良いのでありますか?」「シアは、ゴブリンロード戦で剣が折れて苦労しただろう?」「まだ、未熟ゆえ......」「この剣ならそうそう折れることはないだろうさ」「ありがたくいただくでありますよ。とても嬉しいであります」それを見ていたゴランが言う。「ヴァンパイアロードの剣か。呪いとか大丈夫か?」俺がそういうと、ゴランは納得したようだ。魔導士としてその点はしっかりチェックしてある。解呪は難しくとも呪いが掛かっているかどうかは俺にも見分けられる。シアに渡した第六位階の剣には呪いはかかっていない。悪しき魔法もかかっていない。だから安心である。そうこうしている間に、狼の獣人族の族長に教えてもらった地点に到着する。「む? 何もないな」「たしかに。不審な気配はするが......」ゴランとエリックは馬から下りると、周囲を慎重に観察している。「いえ、あたしには見えるでありますよ」「俺にも見えるぞ。隠ぺいの魔法だ」シアと俺も馬を下りる。隠ぺいの魔法と言っても、ヴァンパイア独自のものだ。高位の魔導士の俺と、ヴァンパイアの精神作用系魔法が効かないシアには通用しない。「いいか、いまから隠ぺい魔法を解除する。解除と同時に敵に気づかれると思った方がいい」「突っ込めばいいんだな?」エリックとゴランは真剣な顔だ。シアは剣を抜いた。「ゴラン、エリック、シア、俺の順で突っ込もう」「大魔法は使わなくていいのか? ラック、そういうの好きだろ?」ゴランはよく俺の好みを知っている。「好みだが、魅了されている人間がいるかもしれないしな。捕らえられた獣人族がいるやもしれないし」「そうか。それもそうだな」「だから使う魔法は慎重に選ばなければなるまい。突入は魔法の後に頼む」俺は隠ぺい魔法の魔力の流れを把握する。そして魔力を流して、一気に流れをかき乱してから遮断した。たちまち洞窟の入り口が見える。見張りはいない。隠ぺい魔法をかけている以上、見張りはいないほうがいい。見張りを立てれば人の気配も消さねばならないので、隠ぺいの難度が跳ね上がるのだ。おそらく中に入ってすぐのところに、獣人対策の見張りを置いているのだろう。「少し待て」眠りの雲風の魔法を同時に使い、雲を洞窟の中へと流していく。そして、しばらく待機する。眠りの雲を洞窟に完全に充満させてから、風魔法で眠りの雲を外に飛ばす。これから突入するエリックたちが眠っては困るのだ。そして俺はゴランたちに向けて言う。「ヴァンパイアどもは精神異常耐性が高い。それでもレッサーまでは眠っているはずだ」「了解した!」ゴランはまっすぐに突っ込んでいった。さすがに速い。エリックもシアもついて行く。洞窟に入ると、すぐにアークヴァンパイアと鉢合わせる。アークヴァンパイアは少し眠そうだ。俺たちに気づくのが少し遅れる。「な......」言葉を発しかけたときには、すでにゴランの剣が首をはねていた。ゴランの剣の火炎属性により、ヴァンパイアは斬り口から燃え上がる。ゴランはヴァンパイアと遭遇しても足を緩めない。出会うすべてを斬り伏せるわけではない。走り抜けるのに邪魔な奴だけを斬っていく。自分が斬らなかったやつはエリックが倒してくれると信じているのだ。エリックも見事な剣技でヴァンパイアを仕留めていく。聖剣の威力は昏き者どもに対しては絶大だ。一瞬で灰になる。「罠であります!」「了解!」罠はすべてシアが見破り、破壊していく。ヴァンパイアの精神作用系魔法、つまり隠ぺい魔法はシアには通用しないのだ。それに加えて鋭い嗅覚と耳。対ヴァンパイアのスカウトとして申し分ない。快調に進んでいくと、複数のヴァンパイアロードが立ちふさがった。その数5体。さすがのゴランでも、無視するわけには行かない。足が止まる。「ロード5体か。ハイロードはきっとこの奥であろうな」「おう、ラック。シア。ここは俺たちに任せて先に行け」エリックとゴランは笑う。いくらエリックとゴランでもヴァンパイアロード5体を相手なら苦戦しそうだ。「ロード5体だぞ。大丈夫か?」「あたりまえだろうが。この10年、強くなったのはお前だけじゃねーぞ」「我らを舐めるでない。今はハイロードを仕留めるのが第一目標である。逃げられるわけにはいかぬ」「ラック、シア頼んだぜ」「わかった。死ぬなよ?」「当然だろうが」「そなたたちこそ、気をつけるのだぞ」俺とシアはヴァンパイアロードたちの横を駆け抜けた。「逃すか!」ヴァンパイアロードが俺たちに追いすがり、攻撃をしかけようとする。だが、ゴランの剣がそれを許さない。ヴァンパイアロードの攻撃は俺たちには届かなかった。	Eric looked at us three and Gerberga. “The beastkin have exposed the location of the High Lord for us.” “That’s very helpful. Finding it was going to be the hardest part, after all!” Goran said with a boisterous laugh. Shia was also excited as she said, “Well, let’s go and invade it then!” I said and everyone nodded. We continued to ride our horses as we moved towards the Vampire High Lord’s lair. While we were riding, I started to think about the th Officer’s sword I had acquired a short while ago. It was able to trade blows with the Devil King Sword. It would surely be useful. I looked at Eric, Goran and Shia’s swords. Eric the Hero’s sword was a holy sword. It was probably better than the th Officer’s sword. Goran’s sword was also a strong sword of magic. It had a fire attribute and was indestructible. Shia’s sword was not terrible, but it was thin and did not look reliable. I felt like Shia had chosen it because she prioritized speed. “Shia. I want you to have this.” I handed her the th Officer’s sword. “Where did this come from?” Shia asked as she swung the sword several times while riding. “It is a very light sword. It is lighter than the sword I have now.” “That sword was used by the th Ranking Officer. And it did not break while trading blows with my Devil King Sword.” “That is amazing. Are you sure you want to give me such a wonderful sword?” “Shia, don’t you remember how hard it was when your sword broke against the goblin lord?” “I was...not ready and...” “A sword like this is not likely to break so easily.” “Then I will gladly accept it. I am so very happy.” Goran saw this and said, “A Vampire Lord’s sword, eh? Are you sure it isn’t cursed?” “Of course, I’m sure.” I said, and Goran was satisfied. As a Sorcerer, I inspected it well in advance. While breaking curses was difficult, I could easily tell whether or not there were any. And there were no curses cast on the th Officer’s sword. And no evil magic either. And so it was safe. Before we knew it, we had arrived in the location that the beastkin chief had indicated. “Hm? There is nothing here.” “Indeed. Though, I do feel a strange presence...” Goran and Eric dismounted and cautiously inspected the area. “No, it is quite visible to me.” “Me too. It is concealment magic.” Shia and I said as we dismounted. While it was concealment magic, it was a type specific to vampires. As I was an advanced Sorcerer and Shia was immune to vampire magic with psychological effects, it could not fool us. “Alright, I’m going to deactivate it now. We should consider ourselves discovered by the enemy the moment that it comes down.” Eric and Goran looked serious. Shia unsheathed her sword. “Goran, Eric, Shia, and then me. We’ll charge inside in that order.” “You’re not going to use any great magic? Wasn’t that your favorite thing to do, Ruck?” Goran knew my style well. “It is, but there might be humans who have been charmed inside. There could be captured beastkin as well.” “I see. That’s true.” “So I must be careful in choosing what magic to use. We’ll charge in after I use magic.” First, I needed to grasp the flow of the concealment magic. Then I have my own magic flow inside, wrecking the current and blocking it. In a flash, the entrance to the cave appeared before us. There were no guards. If you had a concealment spell, it was best not to have guards stationed there. If you did, then you would have to erase the presence of the guards as well, which would make the spell much harder to cast. Of course, there were likely going to be guards deeper in, who were ready to take on any beastkin invaders. “Wait a moment.” I unleashed a Sleep Cloud into the cave. I used wind magic at the same time, and the cloud drifted deep down into the cave. And then we waited for some time. Once the Sleep Cloud had filled the cave completely, I used wind magic once again. This time it was to remove to cloud from the cave. It would be annoying if Eric and Goran fell asleep right after they charged in. “Can we go in now?” And then I turned to Goran and said, “Vampires have a high resistance to psychological status effects. Still, the lessers should have fallen asleep.” “Understood!” And Goran charged inside. He was very fast. Eric and Shia followed after him. After entering the cave, we immediately bumped into an Arch Vampire. The Arch Vampire looked a little drowsy. And so he did not see us immediately. “Wha-” Just as the sound escaped his lips, Goran’s sword took his head off. As Goran’s sword had fire attributes, the wound began to burn up. Goran’s feet did not slow down after this encounter. He wasn’t even killing every enemy ahead of him. He only cut down the ones who tried to prevent him from running. He knew that Eric would handle the ones that he did not. Eric was also killing the vampires with brilliant swordwork. His holy sword was incredibly effective against these creatures of the shadows. They turned to ash in an instant. “It is a trap!” “Understood!” The traps could not escape Shia’s eyes, and she destroyed them. The vampires psychological magic, in other words, concealment magic, was not effective on Shia. On top of that, she had a sharp sense of hearing and smell. She was the perfect anti-vampire Scout. We were making good progress into the cave until several Vampire Lords blocked our path. There were five of them. Even Goran could not just rush past them. He stopped. “Five Lords, eh? The High Lord must be behind them then.” “Ah, Ruck. Shia. Go on ahead and leave this to us.” Eric and Goran laughed. Even if it was Eric and Goran, five Vampire Lords would be a tough fight. “That’s five Lords. Are you sure?” “Of course, we are. You aren’t the only one who has become stronger in the last years.” “Don’t underestimate us. Killing the High Lord is our ultimate goal now. We cannot allow him to escape.” “Ruck, Shia. We’re counting on you.” “Fine. Don’t die on me, alright?” “It’s you who should be careful.” And so Shia and I rushed passed the Vampire Lords. “You won’t get away!” A Vampire Lord chased after us and tried to attack. However, Goran’s sword would allow no such thing. The Vampire Lord’s attack never reached us.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 5, "inserted_lines_src": 5, "inserted_lines_trg": 3 }
とは言え、ここ数週間「フットボール」を無視するのはとても難しくなっています。 Twitterにログインすると、知らない言葉が飛び交っています。 FIFA、ブブゼラ、タコに関する意味不明な冗談・・一つ、どうしても分からなくてイライラしたフレーズがあります。「Cala a boca, Galvao」です。最近、一回でもTwitterを使っていたらこのフレーズを見ているかと思います。「人気のトピック」に浮上しています。私は英語しか知らないアメリカ人なので、このフレーズの意味が分かりません。そこで、Twitterで「Cala a boca, Galvao」の意味を聞きました。幸運なことに、ブラジル人の友だちが助け舟を出してくれました。 Galvao、というのは鳥の種類で絶滅寸前のオウムの種類なんです、と。本当に危機的な状況です。もう少し詳しく話しましょう。ナレーター:ブラジルに生息するGalvaoという貴重な鳥について説明します。毎年、30万以上のGalvaoがカーニバルのパレードのために殺されます。イーサン:明らかに、悲劇的な状況です。まだ、続きます。 Galvaoというオウムは、とても美しくてかぶりものに使われるだけではなく、ある幻覚誘発剤を含んでいるそうなのです。つまり、困ったことに Galvaoの乱用が起きているのです。 Galvaoを「吸う」人も出てきています。それで、絶命の危機に直面しているのです。嬉しいことに、ブラジル人の友だちが言うには世界中の人たちが行っているそうです。「Cala a boca, Galvao」というタイトルのシングルをリリースしました。正確には、5-6枚のシングルですね。そして彼らに言うには「Cala a boca, Galvao」とツイートするだけでこの貴重で美しい鳥を救うための世界的なキャンペーンに 10セント寄付されるとのことです。さて、これがジョークだということは、もうお分かりでしょう。とても良く出来たジョークですね。実は、「Cala a boca, Galvao」というのはポルトガル語で「Galvao、おだまり!」という意味なのです。具体的には、Galvao Buenoというテレビ局Rede Globoのメイン実況者を指しています。ブラジル人の友だちが言うには、彼は決まり文句ばかり連発する癖があるそうです。陳腐なフレーズを何回も連呼することでどんなに面白い試合でも、つまらなくしてしまう。そこで、ブラジル人は対北朝鮮の一試合目の時にこの垂れ幕を出して、Twitterのキャンペーンを始めたのです。ツイートするように、と。これがあまりにもヒットして、 Twitterで二週間も「人気のトピック」としてランクインしたのです。さて、この一連の事柄から学べることは、いくつかあります。まず一つ目は、オンラインで人の行動を促すというのはそんなに難しくない、ということです。あるフレーズをRTする、くらいの簡単な行動であれば結構できてしまうものなのです。これは、大事な教訓だと思います。二つ目は、多くのブラジル人がTwitterを使っている、ということです。 500万人以上います。国単位で見るとブラジルのネット利用者の11%が、Twitterを使っています。アメリカやイギリスに比べると、圧倒的に高い数字です。日本に次いで第2位の利用割合です。あなたがTwitterや他のSNSを使っていてここが多くのブラジル人がいるスペースだと気づいていなかったとしても、それは一般的なことです。なぜかというと、ソーシャル・ネットワークというのは自分が選んだ人と接点を持つスペースだからです。私のように、体が大きい白人のアメリカ人ギークであれば他の、白人のアメリカ人ギークとからむ傾向があるのです。必ずしも、Twitterというのはブラジル人が多いスペースだという感覚はないのです。同様に、多くのアメリカ人はアフリカ系アメリカ人が多いという事実に驚きます。最近、Twitter社はユーザ層を解析したリサーチを発表しました。アメリカにおけるTwitterユーザの 24%が、アフリカ系アメリカ人だそうです。これは、実際の人口比率の約2倍です。繰り返しになりますがこう聞いて驚くTwitterユーザは多いのですが、その必要はありません。なぜかというと、「人気のトピック」を眺めているとアフリカ系アメリカ人の会話として自己完結しているトピックがたくさんあることに気づきます。 Fernando ViegasとMartin Wattenbergという優秀なビジュアリゼーションのデザイナーが行った実験があります。 Twitterのトラフィックを一週間分蓄積したところ「人気のトピック」の多くは人種によって別れているということが分かったのです。例えば、石油流出を話題にするのは主に白人アメリカ人でクックアウトは主にアフリカ系アメリカ人が話題にするということです。更に、何が凄いかというと Twitterでの交流にバリエーションを求めるのであればワンクリックで実現する、ということです。 #cookoutタグをクリックすると、そこには違うグループの人たちが参加している全く異なる会話があるのです。しかし、私たちはあまりやろうとはしません。わたしたちのつきあいは既に知っている人や知っている人に似ている人とつるむことになります。友人のEli Pariserはこれを「フィルター・バブル」と呼んでいます。私たちは、全体像が見えにくい状態にいるのです。これは、驚きの事実です。インターネットはそんなはずではなかったからです。インターネットの黎明期を思い返してみましょう。 Nick Negroponteが「ビーイング・デジタル」を書いていた頃です。当時、インターネットというのは文化の違いを撤廃し、何らかの形で世界中の人々を同じ土台に持っていく強大な力になるだろう、というのが予想でした。 Negroponteの本は、アトムで構成される世の中でコネクションを作るのは難しいだろう、という発言で始まります。彼は、フロリダの技術系イベントに参加していてテーブルに置いてある Evianのペットボトルを眺め「これはクレイジー」だと言います。「オールド・エコノミーだ」と。これらの重くて遅いアトムを長距離運ぶのは、とても難しいことです。未来は、全てがスピーディーで、軽くていつでも、どこでも存在しえるビットで構成される世の中に向かっている。そして、世の中は変わるのです、と。さて、Negroponteの予想の多くは当たりましたがこれは、大外れでした。実際何が起こっているかというとアトムというのはビットよりも可動性があるということです。例えば、アメリカでフィジーで詰められ、莫大な運送費をかけて運ばれてきたペットボトルを買うのは、とても簡単なことです。一方で、フィジー映画を観るのは案外難しいですね。フィジーの音楽を聞くのは、とても難しいしフィジーのニュースを入手するのは、非常に困難です。フィジーでは、クーデター、軍事政権言論の自由が弾圧されるなど、いろいろ起きていますので考えてみると、不思議な状態です。フィジーは、私たちが注目すべき場所だと言えるでしょう。私は、このように解釈しています。私たちは、グローバリゼーションのインフラストラクチャに注目しがちです。私たちが住むつながりの多い世界を可能とするフレームワークに注目します。そこには、飛行機の路線やインターネットのケーブルが含まれています。このような地図を見ると拠点がつながっているので世の中がフラットに見えます。ロンドンまで飛べば同じ日にはバンガロールに到着します。ふたっ飛びすれば、フィジーの首都スヴァに着きます。そのように見えますね。でも、これらのネットワークの上で存在しているものを観察しだすと違うものが見えてきます。国際線の仕組みを観察すると世の中は、全然フラットでないことに気づきます。とてもデコボコしているのです。直結している拠点はありますよ。ロンドンとニューヨークの間には空上に大きな道ができていると言えるでしょう。でも、この地図を数分眺めていると南アメリカやアフリカに行く飛行機はあまりないことが分かります。そして、仕組みから切り離されている地域もあることが分かります。コネクションを可能とするインフラを脇に置き実際に何が起こっているかを観察すると世の中は、私たちが想像しているようには機能していないことが分かるのです。これが、私がここ10年ほど研究しているテーマです。世の中は、グローバル化が進みどんどんつながってきています。多くの問題は、世界規模で影響があります。経済活動は、世界規模で影響があります。そして、メディアは日に日にグローバル化の逆へ進んでいます。 1970年代のアメリカでは夜のニュース番組は 35-40%が国際ニュースでした。今は、12-15%まで落ちています。世の中の歪んだ見方が提供されていることを意味します。以前のTEDトークで、Alisa Millerが使ったスライドです。 Public Radio Internationalの社長です。一ヶ月の間でアメリカのニュース番組がピックアップした国の統計地図です。注目度に応じて地図を作成するとアメリカのニュース番組が言う「世界」というのは膨れ上がったアメリカと侵入したいくつかの国で構成されていることが分かります。私たちのメディアは、こんなものなのです。だからといってひどいのはアメリカのニュース番組だけであると決め付けるのは早計です。ひどいことには賛同しますがニューヨーク・タイムズなどのエリートなメディアをマッピングしたのですが、同じ結果でした。ニューヨーク・タイムズや、他のエリートなメディアを見ると裕福な国々と私たちが侵入した国々が取り上げられています。そして、ニューメディアはこの状態を大して緩和していません。 Oxford Internet Instituteの Mark Grahamが作成した地図です。ジオコードのついたWikipediaの記事をマッピングしたものです。北アメリカと西欧に大きく偏っていますね。自分たちのコンテンツをオンラインで作成しているWikipediaでさえも均等なのではなく Wikipedia の記事を書く人が多い地域が充実しているのです。ここはイギリスですがこのセッションが終わったら、パソコンを立ち上げてインド、オーストラリア、カナダ、アメリカの新聞を手にとることができます。けれど、おそらくやらないでしょう。オンラインのメデイア消費を見てみましょう。インターネット人口のトップ10ではニュース購読の95%が国内のニュースサイトを対象としています。アメリカがイギリスより上を行っている数少ないケースです。アメリカ人はイギリスのメディアを読むのが好きだからです。その反対よりも。これらの事象をまとめると私が「想像的世界主義」と呼んでいる状態が見えてきます。わたしたちはインターネットを使えば世の中のことが分かると思い込んでしまいます。偶然、中国語のページに遭遇すると世の中とつながる最高のテクノロジーを目の前にしていると勘違いします。ほとんどの場合、インターネットはレッドソックスの点数をチェックするために使っていることを忘れます。これは、大きな問題です。レッドソックスが順調でないことはさておき TEDでも議論が行われているように世の中の問題、解決しなければいけない問題というのはスケールもスコープもグローバルです。グローバルなソリューションにたどり着くにはグローバルな会話が必要です。これが、我々が解決しなければいけない問題です。さて、朗報があります。 6年前から、Global Voicesというグループと活動をしています。世界中のブロガーが集まったグループです。世の中のメディアを直すことをミッションに、 2004年に始めました。お気づきかもしれませんが、あまり進展していません。そして、私たちだけでこの問題を解決できるとは思っていません。でも、考えれば考えるほどここ6年間で学んだことはウェブを活用してより広い世の中を作り出すための「配線直し」の作業に使える、と思えてきます。まず、世の中には注目されていない地域があることを気に留めなければいけません。夜中の地球を表現したNASAの地図で電気がないため、暗いエリアができています。以前は、この暗いエリアというのは生活に必要なものが他にもたくさんあるためニュースが入手できないエリアかと思っていました。でも最近は、入手可能だと思いはじめました。ただし、莫大な労力と莫大な応援が必要となります。暗いエリアの一つは、マダガスカルです。ここに住んでいる素敵な人たちよりもドリームワークスの映画の方が有名な場所ですね。マダガスカルでFoko Clubを設立した人たちは自国のイメージを変えることは念頭にありませんでした。もっとシンプルなことを成そうとしていたのです。最初は英語を勉強しコンピュータやインターネットのスキルを身につけるクラブでした。でも、マダガスカルでクーデターが起きほとんどの独立メディアは、閉鎖されました。 Foko Clubでブログのスキルを身につけていた高校生たちは突然、インターナショナルなオーディエンスとデモのこと、暴力のこと、マダガスカルで起きていることを話す状況ができたのです。コンピュータの前に人を座らせて日頃考えていることを投稿し、独立メディアを作る、というこの小さな小さなプログラムは私たちのマダガスカルに対する知識へ巨大なインパクトを与えたのです。さて、ここで難しいのはここにいるほとんどの人は、マラガシ語を話さないということです。中国語を話す人も少ないでしょう。ネットで最も使われているのが中国語であることを考えると、寂しいことです。幸いに、この問題を解決する取り組みが進んでいます。 Google Chromeを使っていて中国語のサイトに遭遇するとブラウザの上部に可愛らしいボックスが表示されます。このページが中国語であることを検知しワンクリックでこのページを翻訳することができます。残念ながら、これは機械翻訳されたページです。 Googleは、いくつかの言語は得意としますが中国語は、結構ひどいですね。たまに、笑える結果が表示されます。理想はボタンをクリックしたら人間が翻訳してくれるよう順番待ちのキューに入ることです。論外だと思うかもしれませんが、そんなことはありません。中国に、Yeeyanというグループがあります。 150,000人以上のメンバーがいるグループです。彼らは、毎日ウェブ上で英語で書かれている面白いコンテンツを探します。そして、主要の新聞やウェブサイトから一日約100本の記事を翻訳します。全て、無料でオンラインで読むことができます。プロジェクトの発起人は Zhang Leiという男性です。ラサ騒動が起きた時にアメリカに住んでいてアメリカでの報道の偏り具合に唖然としたことがきっかけでした。双方の国の人たちが、少しでもお互いのことを理解できるように、自分ができることとして翻訳を始めたのです。そこで、私からみなさんへの質問です。もしYeeyanが、英語のコンテンツを中国語へ翻訳するために150,000人を集めることができるのであれば英語圏のYeeyanは、どこにあるのでしょうか? 4億人ものインターネット人口を抱える中国を誰が追いかけているのでしょうか? 面白いことを言っている人間は、一人くらいいるでしょう! そして、中国語から翻訳する方法を見つけたとしてもそこにたどり着く保証はありません。ネット上で情報を探す時主に2つの手段がとれます。まずは、検索です。何を探しているかを知っていれば、問題ありません。でも、偶然を求めている場合はいかがでしょうか? それを必要としていることさえも分からない「偶然」を発見したい時はソーシャル・ネットワークを使います。友だちが見ているものは自分も見るといいのかもしれない、と。このスタンスの問題は集団の知恵からしかインプットがないことです。自分に似た人たちつまり自分と同じような興味がある人と群がることになります。そして、別の話題で集まり盛り上がっている他の団体について情報を得るのは、極めて難しいと言えます。自分の集団から、他の集団に出るようつついてくれる人が必要です。ガイドが必要なのです。そのガイドが、Global Voicesの中東のエディター、Amira Al Hussainiです。彼女は、非常に難しい仕事をしています。イスラエルとパレスチナのメンバーが喧嘩しないようにしないといけないし読者が興味を持つような中東の話題が何なのかを見極めなければいけません。例えば、あなたが慣れている話題から少し背伸びをしてもらい、ラマダンの間は禁煙をしている人について注目してもらうためには、TM グローバルなオーディエンスについて知る必要があります。さらに、何のストーリーがあるかを知る必要があります。つまり、彼女はDJなのです。目の前にある素材を把握しオーディエンスの声を聞き入れ賢い選択をしながら人を何らかの形で誘導することができるとてもスキルが高いキュレーターなのです。これは、必ずしも計算可能なプロセスではないと思います。 DJの活動が、より大きなオーディエンスへ届くことが、より簡単になっているのがインターネットの長所だと思います。 Amiraは、友だちなので何を読むべきか、聞くことができます。でも、インターネットがあれば何を読むべきかをたくさんの人に教えることができます。こういった話題の広がり方に興味があればあなたも耳を傾けることができます。このようにして自分の世界を広げ始めたり暗いエリアの声にスポットライトを当て始めたり翻訳やキュレーションを始めるととても奇抜な発見があります。これは、私の大好きなブログ AfriGadgetからとった写真です。アフリカという切り口からテクノロジーを探求するブログです。これは、車のシャフトをのみに変えているナイロビのキベラにいる鍛冶屋です。この画像を見ると、「私と何の関係があるの?」と思うかもしれません。彼が説明してくれるでしょう。® Erik Hersmanです。このカンファレンスでお会いしたかもしれません。彼のニックネームは、White Africanです。顔の広いアメリカ人ギークですがスーダン産まれでケニヤ育ちのケニヤ人でもあります。彼は、「橋渡し役」なのです。アフリカの技術系コミュニティとアメリカの技術系コミュニティの両方に軸を置いています。ですので、キベラの鍛冶屋の話題を技術の転用、制限から生まれるイノベーション、素材の使い回し、という切り口でストーリーとして組み立てることができるのです。彼は一つの世界を知っていてもう一つの世界に伝えようとしています。彼は、両方の世界と深く関わっています。ウェブを活用して世の中を広げるための未来は彼のような橋渡し役にあると確信しています。ただし、橋というものは最終的には、渡る人が必要です。そこで、外国との接し方に話題をうつしましょう。もし私がNFLに所属していればきっとオフシーズンは、体を休めて自宅でゆったりするかと思います。ヒップホップのアルバムを作ってみるかもしれません。シンシナティ・ベンガルズの Dhani Jonesは、少し違います。彼は、「Dhani Tackles the Globe」というテレビ番組を担当しています。この番組では毎週どこかの国に旅をして地元のスポーツ・チームを見つけます。一週間一緒にトレーニングをして、試合をします。なぜこのようなことをするかというとムエタイをマスターしたいからではなく彼に取ってスポーツというのはこの大きな世界の素晴らしさと交じるための「言葉」だからです。ある人にとっては、「言葉」は音楽かもしれません。食べ物かもしれません。文学やライティングかもしれません。このように、世界に出ていって自分の居場所を探すためにはさまざまなテクニックがあるのです。今日のトークを聞いてみなさんに外国好きになってもらいたいわけではありません。 TEDGlobalというイベントに参加しているのですからそういった言い方をするかは別としてみなさんは、既に外国好きでしょう。私の目的は世界をより広くするということです。ですが、これを達成するには個人的な決断では足りない、ということです。現存する仕組みを配線し直してメディアを直しインターネットを直さなければいけません。教育システムを直さなければいけません。移民政策を直さなければいけません。偶然を作り出す方法を研究し翻訳を普遍的なものにして橋渡し役が容認・称賛される方法を探さなければいけません。外国に興味がある人を増やす方法を探らなければいけません。これが、私のやろうとしていることです。ご協力お願いします。	That said, it's been really hard to ignore football for the last couple of weeks. I go onto Twitter, there are all these strange words that I've never heard before: FIFA, vuvuzela, weird jokes about octopi. But the one that's really been sort of stressing me out, is this phrase "Cala a boca, Galvao." If you've gone onto Twitter in the last couple of weeks, you've probably seen this. It's been a major trending topic. Being a monolingual American, I obviously don't know what the phrase means. So I went onto Twitter, and I asked some people if they could explain to me "Cala a boca, Galvao." And fortunately, my Brazilian friends were more than ready to help. They explained that the Galvao bird is a rare and endangered parrot that's in terrible, terrible danger. In fact, I'll let them tell you a bit more about it. Narrator: A word about Galvao, a very rare kind of bird native to Brazil. Every year, more than 300,000 Galvao birds are killed during Carnival parades. Ethan Zuckerman: Obviously, this is a tragic situation, and it actually gets worse. It turns out that, not only is the Galvao parrot very attractive, useful for headdresses, it evidently has certain hallucinogenic properties, which means that there's a terrible problem with Galvao abuse. Some sick and twisted people have found themselves snorting Galvao. And it's terribly endangered. The good news about this is that the global community -- again, my Brazilian friends tell me -- has released a new single -- actually five or six new singles, as near as I can tell -- titled "Cala a boca, Galvao." And my Brazilian friends tell me that if I just tweet the phrase "Cala a boca, Galvao," to a global campaign to save this rare and beautiful bird. Now, most of you have figured out that this was a prank, and actually a very, very good one. "Cala a boca, Galvao" actually means something very different. In Portugese, it means "Shut your mouth, Galvao." And it specifically refers to this guy, Galvao Bueno, who's the lead soccer commentator for Rede Globo. And what I understand from my Brazilian friends is that this guy is just a cliche machine. He can ruin the most interesting match by just spouting cliche again and again and again. So Brazilians went to that first match against North Korea, put up this banner, started a Twitter campaign to tweet the phrase: "Cala a boca, Galvao." And in fact, were so successful at this that it topped Twitter for two weeks. Now there's a couple -- there's a couple of lessons that you can take from this. And the first lesson, which I think is a worthwhile one, is that you cannot go wrong asking people to be active online, so long as activism just means retweeting a phrase. So as long as activism is that simple, it's pretty easy to get away with. The other thing you can take from this, by the way, is that there are a lot of Brazilians on Twitter. There's more than five million of them. As far as national representation, 11 percent of Brazilian internet users are on Twitter. That's a much higher number than in the U.S. or U.K. Next to Japan, it's the second most represented by population. Now if you're using Twitter or other social networks, this was a space with a lot of Brazilians in it, you're like most of us. Because what happens on a social network is you interact with the people that you have chosen to interact with. And if you are like me, a big, geeky, white, American guy, you tend to interact with a lot of other geeky, white, American guys. And you don't necessarily have the sense that Twitter is in fact a very heavily Brazilian space. It's also extremely surprising to many Americans, a heavily African-American space. Twitter recently did some research. They looked at their local population. They believe that 24 percent of American Twitter users are African-American. That's about twice as high as African-Americans are represented in the population. And again, that was very shocking to many Twitter users, And the reason it shouldn't be is that on any day you can go into Trending Topics. And you tend to find topics that are almost entirely African-American conversations. This was a visualization done by Fernando Viegas and Martin Wattenberg, two amazing visualization designers, who looked at a weekend's worth of Twitter traffic and essentially found that a lot of these trending topics were basically segregated conversations -- and in ways that you wouldn't expect. It turns out that oil spill is a mostly white conversation, that cookout is a mostly black conversation. And what's crazy about this is that if you wanted to mix up who you were seeing on Twitter, it's literally a quick click away. You click on that cookout tag, there an entirely different conversation with different people participating in it. But generally speaking, most of us don't. We end up within these filter bubbles, as my friend Eli Pariser calls them, where we see the people we already know and the people who are similar to the people we already know. And we tend not to see that wider picture. Now for me, I'm surprised by this, because this wasn't how the internet was supposed to be. If you go back into the early days of the internet, when cyber-utopians like Nick Negroponte were writing big books like "Being Digital," the prediction was that the internet was going to be an incredibly powerful force to smooth out cultural differences, to put us all on a common field of one fashion or another. Negroponte started his book with a story about how hard it is to build connections in the world of atoms. He's at a technology conference in Florida. And he's looking at something really, truly absurd, which is bottles of Evian water on the table. And Negroponte says this is crazy. This is the old economy. It's the economy of moving these heavy, slow atoms over long distances that's very difficult to do. We're heading to the future of bits, where everything is speedy, it's weightless. It can be anywhere in the world at any time. And it's going to change the world as we know it. Now, Negroponte has been right about a lot of things. He's totally wrong about this one. It turns out that in many cases atoms are much more mobile than bits. If I walk into a store in the United States, it's very, very easy for me to buy water that's bottled in Fiji, shipped at great expense to the United States. It's actually surprisingly hard for me to see a Fijian feature film. It's really difficult for me to listen to Fijian music. It's extremely difficult for me to get Fijian news, which is strange, because actually there's an enormous amount going on in Fiji. There's a coup government. There's a military government. There's crackdowns on the press. It's actually a place that we probably should be paying attention to at the moment. Here's what I think is going on. I think that we tend to look a lot at the infrastructure of globalization. We look at the framework that makes it possible to live in this connected world. And that's a framework that includes things like airline routes. It includes things like the Internet cables. We look at a map like this one, and it looks like the entire world is flat because everything is a hop or two away. You can get on a flight in London, you can end up in Bangalore later today. Two hops, you're in Suva, the capitol of Fiji. It's all right there. flows on top of these networks, you get a very different picture. You start looking at how the global plane flights move, and you suddenly discover that the world isn't even close to flat. It's extremely lumpy. There's basically a giant pathway in the sky between London and New York. but look at this map, and you can watch this for, you know, two or three minutes. You won't see very many planes go from South America to Africa. And you'll discover that there are parts of the globe that are systematically cut off. When we stop looking at the infrastructure that makes connection possible, and we look at what actually happens, we start realizing that the world doesn't work quite the same way that we think it does. So here's the problem that I've been interested in in the last decade or so. The world is, in fact, getting more global. It's getting more connected. More of problems are global in scale. More of our economics is global in scale. And our media is less global by the day. If you watched a television broadcast in the United States in the 1970s, 35 to 40 percent of it would have been international news on a nightly new broadcast. That's down to about 12 to 15 percent. And this tends to give us a very distorted view of the world. Here's a slide that Alisa Miller showed at a previous TED Talk. Alisa's the president of Public Radio International. And she made a cartogram, which is basically a distorted map based on what American television news casts looked at for a month. And you see that when you distort a map based on attention, the world within American television news is basically reduced to this giant bloated U.S. and a couple of other countries which we've invaded. And that's basically what our media is about. And before you conclude that this is just a function of American TV news -- which is dreadful, and I agree that it's dreadful -- I've been mapping elite media like the New York Times, and I get the same thing. When you look at the New York Times, you look at other elite media, what you largely get are pictures of very wealthy nations and the nations we've invaded. It turns out that new media isn't necessarily helping us all that much. Here's a map made by Mark Graham who's down the street at the Oxford Internet Institute. A this is a map of articles in Wikipedia that have been geo-coded. towards North America and Western Europe. Even within Wikipedias, where we're creating their own content online, there's a heavy bias towards the place where a lot of the Wikipedia authors are based, rather than to the rest of the world. In the U.K., you can get up, you can pick up your computer when you get out of this session, you could read a newspaper from India or from Australia, from Canada, God forbid from the U.S. You probably won't. If you look at online media consumption -- in this case, in the top 10 users of the internet -- more than 95 percent of the news readership is on domestic news sites. It's one of these rare cases where the U.S. is actually slightly better than [the U.K.], because we actually like reading your media, rather than vice versa. So all of this starts leading me to think that we're in a state that I refer to as imaginary cosmopolitanism. We look at the internet. We think we're getting this wide view of the globe. We occasionally stumble onto a page in Chinese, and we decide that we do in fact have the greatest technology ever built to connect us to the rest of the world. And we forget that most of the time we're checking Boston Red Sox scores. So this is a real problem -- not just because the Red Sox are having a bad year -- as we're discussing here at TED, the real problems in the world the interesting problems to solve are global in scale and scope, they require global conversations to get to global solutions. This is a problem we have to solve. So here's the good news. For six years, I've been hanging out with these guys. This is a group called Global Voices. This is a team of bloggers from around the world. Our mission was to fix the world's media. We started in 2004. You might have noticed, we haven't done all that well so far. Nor do I think we are by ourselves, actually going to solve the problem. But the more that I think about it, the more that I think that a few things that we have learned along the way if we we wanted to use the web to have a wider world. The first thing you have to consider is that there are parts of the world that are dark spots in terms of attention. In this case -- the map of the world at night by NASA -- they're dark literally because of lack of electricity. And I used to think that a dark spot on this map basically meant you're not going to get media from there because there are more basic needs. What I'm starting to realize is that you can get media, it's just an enormous amount of work, and you need an enormous amount of encouragement. One of those dark spots is Madagascar, a country which is generally better known for the Dreamworks film the lovely people who live there. And so the people who founded Foko Club in Madagascar weren't actually concerned with trying to change the image of their country. They were doing something much simpler. It was a club to learn English and to learn computers and the internet. but what happened was that Madagascar went through a violent coup. Most independent media was shut down. And the high school students who were learning to blog through Foko Club suddenly found themselves talking to an international audience about the demonstrations, the violence, everything that was going on within this country. designed to get people in front of computers, publishing their own thoughts, publishing independent media, ended up having a huge impact on what we know about this country. Now the trick with this is that I'm guessing most people here don't speak Malagasy. I'm also guessing that most of you don't even speak Chinese -- which is sort of sad if you think about it, as it's now the most represented language on the internet. Fortunately people are trying to figure out how to fix this. If you're using Google Chrome and you go to a Chinese language site, you notice this really cute box at the top, which automatically detects that the page is in Chinese and very quickly at a mouse click will give you a translation of the page. Unfortunately, it's a machine translation of the page. And while Google is very, very good with some languages, it's actually pretty dreadful with Chinese. And the results can be pretty funny. What you really want -- what I really want, is eventually the ability to push a button and have this queued so a human being can translate this. And if you think this is absurd, it's not. There's a group right now in China called Yeeyan. And Yeeyan is a group of 150,000 volunteers who get online every day. They look for the most interesting content in the English language. from major newspapers, major websites. They put it online for free. It's the project of a guy named Zhang Lei, who was living in the United States during the Lhasa riots and who couldn't believe how biased American media coverage was. And he said, "If there's one thing I can do, I can start translating, so that people between these countries start understanding each other a little bit better." And my question to you is: if Yeeyan can line up 150,000 people to translate the English internet into Chinese, where's the English language Yeeyan? Who's going after Chinese, which now has 400 million internet users out there? My guess is at least one of them has something interesting to say. So even if we can find a way to translate from Chinese, there's no guarantee that we're going to find it. When we look for information online, we basically have two strategies. We use a lot of search. And search is terrific if you know what you're looking for. But if what you're looking for is serendipity, if you want to stumble onto something that you didn't know you needed, our main philosophy is to look to our social networks, to look for our friends. What are they looking at? Maybe we should be looking at it. The problem with this is that essentially what you end up getting after a while is the wisdom of the flock. You end up flocking with a lot of people who are probably similar to you, who have similar interests. And it's very, very hard to get information from the other flocks, from the other parts of the world where people getting together and talking about their own interests. you need someone to bump you out of your flock and into another flock. You need a guide. So this is Amira Al Hussaini. She is the Middle East editor for Global Voices. She has one of the hardest jobs in the world. Not only does she have to keep our Israeli and Palestinian contributors from killing each other, she has to figure out what is going to interest you about the Middle East. And in that sense of trying to get you out of your normal orbit, and to try to get you to pay attention to a story about someone who's given up smoking for the month of Ramadan, she has to know something about a global audience. She has to know something about what stories are available. Basically, she's a deejay. She's a skilled human curator who knows what material is available to her, who's able to listen to the audience, and who's able to make a selection and push people forward in one fashion or another. I don't think this is necessarily an algorithmic process. I think what's great about the internet is that it actually makes it much easier for deejays to reach a wider audience. I know Amira. I can ask her what to read. But with the internet, she's in a position where she can tell a lot of people what to read. And you can listen to her as well, if this is a way that you're interested in having your web widened. So once you start widening like this, once you start lighting up voices in the dark spots, once you start translating, once you start curating, you end up in some really weird places. This is an image from pretty much my favorite blog, which is AfriGadget. And AfriGadget is a blog that looks at technology in an Africa context. And specifically, it's looking at a blacksmith in Kibera in Nairobi, into a cold chisel. And when you look at this image, you might find yourself going, "Why would I conceivably care about this?" And the truth is, this guy can probably explain this to you. This is Erik Hersman. You guys may have seen him around the conference. He goes by the moniker White African. He's both a very well known American geek, but he's also Kenyan; he was born in Sudan, grew up in Kenya. He is a bridge figure. one in the world of the African technology community, one in the world of the American technology community. And so he's able to tell a story about this blacksmith in Kibera and turn it into a story about repurposing technology, about innovating from constraint, about looking for inspiration based on reusing materials. He knows one world, and he's finding a way to communicate it to another world, both of which he has deep connections to. These bridge figures, I'm pretty well convinced, are the future of how we try to make the world wider through using the web. But the trick with bridges is, ultimately, you need someone to cross them. And that's where we start talking about xenophiles. So if I found myself in the NFL, I suspect I would spend my off-season nursing my wounds, enjoying my house, so on and so forth -- possibly recording a hip-hop album. Dhani Jones, who is the middle linebacker for the Cincinnati Bengals, has a slightly different approach to the off-season. Dhani has a television show. And every week on this television show, Dhani travels to a different nation of the world. He finds a local sporting team. He trains with them for a week, and he plays a match with them. And his reason for this is not just that he wants to master Muay Thai boxing. It's because, for him, sport is the language that allows him to encounter the full width and wonder of the world. For some of us it might be music. For some of us it might be food. For a lot of us it might be literature or writing. that allow you to go out and look at the world and find your place within it. The goal of my Talk here is not to persuade the people in this room to embrace your xenophilia. My guess -- given that you're at a conference called TEDGlobal -- is that most of you are xenophiles, whether or not you use that term. My challenge instead is this. It's not enough to make the personal decision that you want a wider world. We have to figure out how to rewire We have to fix our media. We have to fix the internet. We have to fix our education. We have to fix our immigration policy. We need to look at ways of creating serendipity, of making translation pervasive, and we need to find ways to embrace and celebrate these bridge figures. And we need to figure out how to cultivate xenophiles. That's what I'm trying to do. I need your help.	{ "source": "iwslt2017", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
街道を歩くこ、木造の壁に囲まれた街(ザンブルという名前らしい)が見えてきた。なんで飛べるのに歩いているのかというと、何百年も昔、賊に高空から襲われることが頻発したため、各国共通のルールとして街から視認できる場所では飛んではいけないことになったらしい。最近は低空であれば一応大丈夫らしいが、警戒はされるし良い顔もされないみたいだ。ちなみにルールを無視した場合、魔法や弓で問答無用で攻撃される。王都のような大きい街であれば、場合によってはバリスタなんかも撃たれるとのこと。場面を想像して思わず身震いしてしまった。そんな事を教えてもらいながら歩いていると、いつの間にか門をくぐっていた。何事もなく街に入れてしまったので、疑問に思った僕は聞いてみる。「こういうところって入るときに身分証を見せたり、お金とったりするもんじゃないの?」「モイスもそうだけど、アリストもそういうのないみたいね。ハーヴェストは元々小さな国が集まってできたから、その名残で今もあるって聞いたことあるけど」へぇ、などと思いながらとりあえずの疑問がなくなった僕は街を見渡してみる。街並みは元の世界でいう中世...と思わせて色々とばらばらだった。家は石造りだったり木造だったり、煉瓦造りまである。ばらばらな理由は時代もあるのだろうが、恐らくはお金の問題が一番だろう。素人の僕が見てもその辺がありありとわかる。なんとも世知辛い... (なんだろうなぁこのもやもや感...) ...本当の中世みたいに道が汚物まみれになってないのはよかった、と素直に思っておこう。「ナツキー?今のうちに宿とるから早く行くわよー!」いつの間にか離れてしまっていたらしく大声で呼ばれる。返事をしながら若干足を速め、気を取り直して再度辺りを見渡す。家々はともかく人々はファンタジーそのものだった。耳の尖った人や犬のような耳が生えてる人もいるし、様々な尻尾も視界に入る。これなら僕の姿も浮かないな、と一安心した。ルティに追いつき、適当な宿に一緒に入る部屋で朝食夕食付き、一泊大銀也。ちなみにお金は大金貨、金貨、大銀貨、銀貨、銅貨類らしい。感覚としてはそれぞれ十万円、一万円、千円、百円、十円あたりのようだ。つまりこの宿は凡そ四千円相当。元の世界に比べると安い。「いやぁ、さすがに疲れたわねー!」部屋に着くなりボスンとベッドに座り込むルティ。僕もつられて座る。ふかふかとは言えないが、おっ?と思うほどには柔らかかった。この世界の文化水準は意外に高いようだ。「まず服屋か靴屋に行こうか迷ったけど、とりあえずさっぱりしてから行きたいしお風呂かしらね」「そうだねー。さっぱりしてからのほうがいいよね」なんだろう。何かを忘れている気がするが僕も疲れていたので、深く考えずに同意する。「ですよねー...」最初の頃こそ違和感があったが、この世界に来てそこそこ経つので、この体にすっかり慣れて失念していた。慣れたため「恥ずかしくて入れない!」なんて事はないのだが、若干気後れしてしまう部分がないわけではない。「どうしたの?早く入るわよ?」立ち止まったままの僕に気付いて、扉を開けて入ろうとしたルティが声をかけてくる。「いや、ほら、僕って元々が...ね?」「でも今は違うでしょ?なら問題ないじゃない」「さらっと言うね...ルティは気にしないの?」「気にするも何も、そもそも元を知らないし、初めて会ったときにはその姿だからね。私は普通に女の子と思ってるわよ」そう言われたら僕が気にしすぎなだけかなぁという気になってくる。もう元には戻れないだろうし、何より僕自身が別にこのままでもいいかなと思い始めているので、深く考えないでいいのかもしれない。「...じゃあ入りますかー」「そうそう、ナツキは難しく考えすぎよ。昔は昔、今は今なんだから」なんやかんやあったが、風呂に入るためようやく脱衣所まで来た。といっても僕は外套しか着ていないので脱衣というレベルではないのだが。さっと脱いで洗い場まで行く。「石鹸とか久しぶりだ」石鹸どころか、風呂自体が久しぶりだ。薪が大量に必要な風呂を維持するのは大変そうだったので、今までは水浴びで済ませていたのだ。おもむろに泡立てわしゃわしゃと洗っていく。「ちょっと、そんな乱暴に洗ったら髪は痛むし、肌も痛めるわよ」遅れて入ってきたルティに小言を言われ、そのまま洗い方をレクチャーされる。「頭皮も髪もまずよくお湯で洗って、そのあと石鹸をよく泡立てて洗うこと。軽く揉み込むようにして無理に力をかけないようにね。爪でガリガリとか駄目だからね?体は石鹸をよく泡立てた後なでるように丁寧に洗うのよ」「うむむ...意外に面倒なんだね...」男の体より存外手間がかかるらしい。女の風呂が長いと言われる原因の一つはこれだったのか。「あ、あと髪を洗い終わったらこれをお湯で薄めて髪に馴染ませて。その後洗い流せばキシキシしなくなるから」そう言われて謎の液体をとってみると...お酢だった。確かこれで石鹸と中和させてキシキシ感をなくすんだ。お金のない時に何度かやったことがある。でもこれ結構匂いキツイんだよね。そのうち代わりになるレモンでも持ち込んで使いたい。ようやく洗い終わり湯舟に入ろうとすると、髪が入らないようにタオルかなにかで纏め上げなさいよー、と言われる。今までやったことがないのでとりあえずそれっぽくする。「ふぅー」謎の達成感を感じつつ温まる。余りの気持ちよさに顔を弛緩させていると、ルティも洗い終わったのか入ってくる。「あーあー、髪ぐしゃぐしゃになってるじゃないの...」「初めてなんだから勘弁して。というかやり辛くてしょうがないから、次からは何か髪留め持ち込むよ...」「慣れればタオルのほうが楽よ?ほら、ちょっとこうやって...」と言いながら髪とタオルを直してくれた。「おぉ、さっきより凄いすっきりしてる」髪も直してもらい完全にリラックスモードになった僕は、心行くまで温まった。	After following the highway for a day, a town (which seems to be called Zanbul) surrounded by a wooden wall is now in view. The reason why we walked instead of flying here is because it seems like some centuries ago, there were frequent attacks from bandits flying in the sky, so it became an international rule to forbid flying at areas that are visible from towns. Lately, it looks like it’s somewhat allowed if you’re flying at low altitudes, but they’re still going to be cautious and people don’t really like when you do that too. By the way, if you ignore this rule, they’ll shoot you down, no questions asked. And it seems like in bigger places like the Royal Capital, they might even shoot you with a ballista or something depending on the situation. Just thinking about that gives me the chills. While being taught that as we were walking, we passed through the gate in no time at all. I was confused that we entered the town without anything happening, so I asked about it. 「Don’t they have like some identification check or some charges when going through these?」「We don’t have those in Mois too, and it seems like they don’t do it in Arst as well. But I heard that since Harvest was originally a collection of small countries, they still do those there. 」 I see, with my question now answered, I take a look at the town. The town’s street reminds me of the Middle Ages in my former world... but has a disorganized variety to it. Some houses are made of stone, some wooden, and some are even made of bricks. The reason for the different kinds of building might be because of the times too, but it’s most definitely a money problem. Even an amateur like me can clearly understand these kinds of problems. It’s a tough world...(Why am I feeling depressed...) Seeing a realistic aspect in this fantasy world I was excited about, I ended up having a faraway gaze... I’m just honestly happy that the roads aren’t littered with filth like how the Middle Ages really was. 「Natsuki? We’re getting a room as soon as possible, so let’s hurry up!」 I didn’t notice but I seem to have lagged behind, so I was being called with a loud voice. I moved slightly faster while replying to her. I pulled myself together, and took another look at the town. Unlike the buildings, the people are exactly like in a fantasy. There are people with pointed or dog-like ears, and different kinds of tails come in sight. With this, I was relieved that I won’t stand out in a crowd. I caught up to Ruti and we entered a random inn. We took a double room with free breakfast and dinner that is worth large silver coins a night. Incidentally, there are types of coins: Large Gold Coins, Gold Coins, Large Silver Coins, Silver Coins, and Copper Coins. For me, it feels like they’re probably worth a hundred thousand, ten thousand, one thousand, a hundred, and ten yen respectively. So, the room was about , yen. Compared to my former world, it’s cheap. , as expected, that was tiring-!」 As we reached our room, Ruti sat heavily on the bed. 」 from me. This world’s cultural standard seems to be surprisingly high. 「I’m still conflicted on whether we go to a clothing store or a shoe store first, but in the meantime, I want to freshen up before we go. So, why don’t we bathe first?」「That’s true~. It’s better to go feeling refreshed.」 I wonder why. I think I’m forgetting something but I feel too tired, so I agreed without thinking too much about it. 「Of course, right...」 In front of me is a big sign with the words『Women’s Bath.』 So what I thought I forgot about was actually my own gender.It felt weird for me in the beginning, but it’s been some time since I arrived in this world, so I’m completely used to this body and forgot. Since I’m used to it, I can’t really go 「It’s embarrassing to go inside!」 but it’s not like I’m completely fine with it now. 「What’s wrong? Aren’t you going inside?」 Noticing that I froze, Ruti calls out to me when she was about to enter inside. 「Well, it’s just, I’m originally... you know?」「But you’re different now , right? Then it shouldn’t be a problem.」「No hesitation at all... Don’t you find it weird, Ruti?」「Weird how? I don’t really know how you originally looked in the first place, and you already looked like that when we first met. I just normally think of you as a girl.」 Hearing her say that, maybe I’m just worrying about it too much. I probably won’t ever turn back after all; most of all, I’m starting to think that I don’t really mind staying this way, so maybe it’s best not to think too deeply about it. 「... Then, I’m going in-」「Good, good, you’re just overthinking the complicated stuff, Natsuki. Past is past and present is present, alright?」 This and that happened, but I finally got to the bath’s dressing room to get undressed. Still, the only thing I’m wearing is a cloak, so it’s hard to call this undressing. So I quickly took it off and went to the bathing area. 「It’s been a while since I used soap.」 Not only soap, it’s been a while since I’ve been in a hot bath. Since it seemed difficult to have a hot bath that needed a ton of firewood to maintain, I made do with cold water up until now. After roughly lathering my hands, I wash myself all over. 「Stop, if you wash yourself that roughly, you’re going to damage your skin and your hair, you know?」 Coming in late, Ruti scolded me and immediately begins a bathing lecture. 「You should first rinse your hair and scalp, lather them well with soap then rinse it off. Massage gently when you do it and don’t be too rough. Don’t scratch with your nails, okay? When doing the body, lather yourself with soap and gently rinse it off on a caressing manner.」 ... It’s unexpectedly bothersome...」 It seems to take a surprisingly lot more work than washing a man’s body. So is this one of the reasons that people say women take longer baths? 「Oh, also, after washing your hair, mix this in hot water and pour it on your hair. After rinsing it off, it should get rid of the waxiness.」 Saying so, I took the mysterious liquid and... it’s vinegar. If I remember, this neutralizes the soap and removes the waxy feeling. I’ve done it a few times when I ran out of money. But it smells pretty strong. In the future, I want to find a lemon to use as a replacement for this. After finally getting done with washing, I was about to get in the bathtub, but I was told, 「Phew-」 Feeling a mysterious sense of accomplishment, I warm myself up. When my face was melting from how good the heat felt, Ruti finished washing and went in the tub as well. , your hair’s all messed up...」「It’s my first time, so give me a break. Rather, it’s really hard to do, I’m bringing a hair clip or something next time...」「Using a towel is easier when you’re used to it, you know? Look, just do it like this and...」 Saying so, she fixes up my towel and hair. , It feels a lot better now.」 Now completely in relax mode after having my hair fixed up, I warm myself up to my heart’s content.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 0, "inserted_lines_src": 2, "inserted_lines_trg": 8 }
お昼の眠気をなんとか乗り越えた僕は放課後になったので家に帰ることにした。「それじゃ裕翔、僕動画撮影したいから今日は帰るねー」「おう頑張ってな!帰りは気をつけて帰れよー?」「お母さんじゃないんだから・・・」「まぁありがと気を付けて帰るよ。」「おう、俺も部活行ってくるよ。」「せんきゅー。」歩きながら手を振って裕翔は部室へ向かっていった。ちなみに裕翔は陸上部で、部内でも屈指の実力の持ち主で、女子の人気も結構高かったりする。ちょっと羨ましい・・・裕翔と別れた僕はバスに乗り家の近くのバス停で降りた僕は家へ帰り、一度荷物を置いてから買い物に出かけた。お弁当と夜ご飯の材料を買いに行かないといけないからね。自転車でスーパーへと向かい材料を購入。特に問題も無く帰宅した僕は汗を流すためにシャワーを浴び、服を着替えてからご飯を作ることにした。「まずご飯を作るところを撮影して後で音声と動画を付ければいいかな?」今日僕が作るのは唐揚げ。鶏肉をまずは一口大に切ってその切った鶏肉を醤油とお酒とみりん、にんにくのすりおろし、ナツメグ、うま味調味料を混ぜた調味液に鶏肉を30分程度漬け込んでいく。漬け込んでいる間にお米を炊き、他のおかずを調理していく。卵に出汁を入れて少しだけ砂糖を加えて混ぜる。あまり上手に巻ける訳じゃないから少し動画にするのは恥ずかしい。もう一つのおかずはきんぴらごぼう。量を多めに作っておいたので小分けにして冷凍しておく。そうすればお弁当を作る時に簡単に一品追加出来るのでおすすめだよ。 2つが出来上がる頃には漬け込みもいい感じになってきたのでそのまま揚げに入ろうと思う。片栗粉を漬け込んだ鶏肉につけて油で揚げていくよ。漬け込んだ鶏肉は水分をしっかりと切ることが重要だけど、ペーパーで拭くことはしなくて大丈夫。揚げも必要なく揚がったものから取り出していく。 3分程度余熱で火を通したら完成。サクサクとした食感の美味しい唐揚げの完成。あとはお弁当箱に詰めたらお弁当も完成。この撮影した動画にはご飯を食べた後に編集で音声と3Dモデルのテロップを入れていく。動画の編集をしていたら気付けば夜の22時になっていた。丁度動画も出来上がったので投稿もしておいた。『お兄ちゃん、お姉ちゃんこんばんは!今日はボクがお弁当を作っていこうと思うよ!』白姫ゆかがいえーい!とグーで腕を真上に上げながら話し始めた。『まず今日のおかずを紹介するね!唐揚げと卵焼き、きんぴらごぼうだよ!』『まず鶏肉を一口大に切って、このテロップの材料を混ぜた調味液に30分漬け込んでいくよー!』『漬け込んでる間に卵焼きを作るんだけど、ボクは甘い卵焼きが好きだからお砂糖を少し入れていくよ!もし参考にするならここは好みだから注意してね!』『卵を焼く時は強火にすると初心者の人は焦げちゃうから中火くらいにすると焼きやすいと思うよ!』『こうやって気泡が出来たら潰してさっと巻いて卵液をまた入れるよ、だいたい3回に分けてもらえると大丈夫だね。』『巻けたらこうやって切って盛り付けたら完成だね!』『次はきんぴらごぼう!ごぼうをささがきにするんだけどこれが面倒なんだよね・・・大好きなんだけど何回も作るのは面倒だから一回に大量に作って冷凍保存しておくよ!』『ごぼうをささがきに出来たら一度お水に浸しておいてその間ににんじんを細切りにしていくよ!出来たら炒めていくんだけど味付けは醤油砂糖みりんだよ!あとは好みで鷹の爪を入れて完成!』『これがご飯との相性が最高なんだよね・・・えへへ・・・』『最後に大本命の唐揚げ!調味液をしっかり切った鶏肉を片栗粉につけて油で揚げるよ!熱いから調理の際は気をつけようね!』『こんな感じでいい色になってきたら3分程度余熱で温めたら完成!』『次はお弁当!』『こうやってお弁当箱にご飯とおかずを詰めて・・・完成!』『お兄ちゃん、お姉ちゃん、味わって食べてね♪』『この動画が好評だったらシリーズ化するかもしれないからよかったら高評価、チャンネル登録よろしくね♪』「あっ、動画上がってる。」私は白姫ゆかのチャンネルからの通知を受け取り一度休憩がてら動画を見ることにした。「今回は料理動画なのね、って料理!?」 Vtuberは基本的にバーチャルな存在で、企業勢なんかはまず実写の動画を撮影することは無い。個人Vtuberだから出来ること、なのかな? 「ふふっ、好きなおかずはちゃんと男の子なんだ・・・」動画では唐揚げを楽しそうに作る白姫ゆかが映っている。あの可愛い男の子が美味しそうに食べてるシーンを想像するだけでご飯が3杯は食べられそうな気がしてくる不思議。実際そんなに食べられないけどね。『お姉ちゃん、味わって食べてね♪』「はぅぅぅ!」胸がきゅんきゅんとした。普段の私はクールな女性のイメージを作り上げているのだけど、この子を見ている間の私はまるで一人の乙女のようだった。 ------掲示板の反応------ [最カワボクっ娘]白姫ゆかについて語るスレ[まさかの個人勢?] 1:名前:名無しのお兄ちゃんここは白姫ゆかについて語るスレです。今後コラボなどで交流が出た場合などはいいですが現状は他Vtuberについての話題を出さないようにお願いします。 2:名前:名無しのお兄ちゃん 3:名前:名無しのお兄ちゃん 4:名前:名無しのお兄ちゃん今回の動画見たやつおるか? 5:名前:名無しのお兄ちゃん見たぞ、お腹減った。 6:名前:名無しのお兄ちゃん見た見た、腕細くて可愛かった。 7:名前:名無しのお兄ちゃん見たのそこかよ普通にいいレシピだったぞ、多分有名な料理系Yotuberのレシピだと思う。 8:名前:名無しのお兄ちゃんまじで?ゆかたんのご飯食べたいなぁ俺もなぁ・・・ 9:名前:名無しのお姉ちゃん腕細い、可愛い、抱きしめたい。頭撫でたい、甘えさせてあげたい。 10:名前:名無しのお兄ちゃん 11:名前:名無しのお姉ちゃん私もいるわよあわよくばお姉ちゃんおつかれさまって言われたいしお姉ちゃん大好きって言って欲しい。 12:名前:名無しのお兄ちゃん欲望に素直で草 13:名前:名無しのお兄ちゃん配信まで待ちきれないぜ、俺は寝て待つぜ! 14:名前:名無しのお兄ちゃんお前何日寝続ける気だ、起きろ。	Having overcome my midday drowsiness, I headed home after school. “All right, Yuuto, I wanna film a video today, so I’m heading home,” I say to Yuuto as I pack up my bag. “Got it, good luck! Be careful on your way back, okay?” “You’re not my mom, you know...” “Thanks, I guess. I’ll make sure to be careful on my way back.” “Good. I’m off to club practice,” he replies as he walks away. “Good luck.” “Thanks,” he says, waving goodbye as he makes his way to the clubroom. By the way, Yuuto is a member of the track and field club and is one of its best athletes. He’s even quite popular among the girls. I’m a little envious... After parting ways with him, I hopped on a bus and got off at the stop near my house. I dropped off my bag and headed out to buy groceries for dinner and tomorrow’s bento. I rode my bike to the supermarket and bought the necessary ingredients. Once I got home safely, I took a shower to rinse off the sweat and changed into clean clothes before cooking. “Should I film the process of making the food first and then add the audio and video later?” First, I cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces and marinated them in a mixture of soy sauce, sake, mirin, grated garlic, nutmeg, and seasoning liquid for about minutes. While the chicken is marinating, I’ll cook the rice and prepare the other side dishes. For my bento, I’ll make tamagoyaki. I mix eggs with dashi stock and a little sugar before simmering it over low heat in a tamagoyaki pan. I’m not very good at rolling it neatly, so I’m a little embarrassed to film it. For the second dish, I’ll make braised burdock root. I made a large amount and stored it in small portions in the freezer. That way, I could easily add it as a side dish when making future bentos. I really recommend it. By the time the two dishes were finished, the marinated chicken was also ready to be fried. I coat the chicken in potato starch and deep-fry it in oil. It’s essential to thoroughly remove any excess moisture from the chicken, but it’s okay even if you don’t wipe it with a paper towel. I didn’t need to fry the chicken twice, so I took it out once it was fully cooked. After cooking it for about minutes with residual heat, it was done. The result is a delicious and crispy karaage. I pack everything in a bento box, and the meal is complete. I filmed the process and added a voice-over and my D model in post-production. Before I knew it, it was already pm while I was editing the video. Luckily, I finished editing and uploaded it. Good evening, onii-chans and onee-chans! Today, I’m thinking of making a bento box for everyone! Yuka Shirahime exclaims, cheerfully raising her clenched fists. Let me introduce today’s dishes: karaage, tamagoyaki, and braised burdock root! First, I’ll cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces and marinate it in the seasoning mixture listed in this caption for minutes! While the chicken is marinating, I’ll make the tamagoyaki. I like mine sweet, so I’ll add a little sugar. But keep in mind that this is a matter of personal preference! When frying the egg, beginners might burn them on high heat, so I suggest using medium heat! Once bubbles appear, pop them and roll the egg quickly. You can repeat this process about three times. After rolling, slice it up and arrange it on the plate, and it’s done! Next up is the braised burdock! Honestly, it’s a bit of a hassle cutting the burdock into thin strips... But it’s one of my favorites, so I usually make a large batch and freeze it for later use! Once the burdock root is sliced, soak it in water for a bit, and while that’s happening, I’ll finely chop the carrots. Then, I’ll stir-fry everything with soy sauce, sugar, and mirin. And for some added heat, I’ll throw in some chili pepper! This dish goes so well with rice... Ehehe... Lastly, the main event: karaage! Coat the seasoned chicken in potato starch and fry it in oil. Be careful, though, as the oil can get very hot during cooking! When the chicken turns a nice golden color, let it rest for about 3 minutes to cool slightly, and then it’s ready! Next is the bento! Pack the rice and side dishes like so... and we’re done! Onii-chan, onee-chan, please enjoy your meal♪ If this video receives positive feedback, I might make it into a series. So, if you enjoyed it, please give it a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel! Thank you!♪ “Oh, there’s a new video.” I received a notification from Yuka Shirahime’s channel and took a break from work to watch it. “It’s a cooking video this time, huh? Wait, cooking?!” VTubers are virtual beings, and corporate VTubers rarely shoot hand cams and the like. I guess it’s because she’s an indie that she can do this, huh? “Haha, her fave side dish is so like a guy’s...” In the video, Yuka Shirahime is happily making karaage. Just imagining that cute boy enjoying the food makes me feel like I could eat three bowls of rice. It’s strange; I know I couldn’t actually eat that much. Onee-chan, make sure you savor the taste, okay♪ “Ackkkk!” My heart skipped a beat. I usually try to maintain a cool and composed image, but while watching Yuka Shirahime, I feel like a young girl in love. —The Online Forum’s Reaction— [The Cutest Boyish Girl Ever] A Yuka Shirahime Thread (Surprisingly an Indie VTuber?) 1: Name: Anon Onii-chan This is a thread about Yuka Shirahime. It’s okay to talk about collaborations and interactions with other VTubers in the future, but for now, please try to stay on topic. 2: Name: Anon Onii-chan 3: Name: Anon Onii-chan 4: Name: Anon Onii-chan did anyone else watch the latest video? 5: Name: Anon Onii-chan I did. Now I’m hungry. 6: Name: Anon Onii-chan I watched it too. Her arms are so slender and cute. 7: Name: Anon Onii-chan that’s what you were watching? the recipe was actually pre good, i think it’s from a famous cooking Yotuber. 8: Name: Anon Onii-chan Seriously? Now I wanna eat Yuka-tan’s food too... 9: Name: Anon Onee-chan Slender arms. She’s so cute and huggable. I want to pet and spoil her. 10: Name: Anon Onii-chan 11: Name: Anon Onee-chan i’m here too i wish yuka would make me a bento and maybe tell me “good job” and say she loves her onee-chan. 12: Name: Anon Onii-chan LOL, these desires are so honest 13: Name: Anon Onii-chan I can’t wait for her live stream. I’ll wait in my dreams till then! 14: Name: Anon Onii-chan Dude, how many days are you planning to sleep? Wake up.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 7, "inserted_lines_src": 10, "inserted_lines_trg": 12 }
エルフの里において『帯剣の儀』とは、それ即ち成人の儀式と同義である。エルフは掟として、成人前のならない者には帯剣を許していない。弓矢や刃渡りの短いナイフ、棍棒などは持つことを許可されているが的な刀剣類とされる物は所持を禁止されているのだ。何故、そのような決まり事があるのかは今では誰にもわからない。おそらく単純に、「子どもが持つのは危険である」と言う至極もっともな理由から始まった風習なのだろう。そしてそれが、永い時を経て絶対にその掟が受け継がれていく過程で、子どもから大人になったことへの証明として、成人の儀式には真剣を用いるのが常となった――『帯剣の儀』である。『帯剣の儀』は本来、十六の誕生日を迎えた者を対象に行う仕来りだが、例外があった。それは何らかの功績や貢献をして里の長が特別に認めた十六以下の者だ。里長に認められると十六にならなくとも成人として扱われ、一人前として認められる。子どもでは許可されていない、帯剣、飲酒、性交、婚姻、「オロン、テルーゼ両名の娘にして『仙女』ルゾーウルムが弟子、メルク――ここへ」さて、そんな成人前の『帯剣の儀』が、里の集会場でしめやかに執り行われていた。帯剣を受けるのは、『炎翼狼』を討伐した冒険者を案内し、なおかつ自身も単独で一体倒したメルクだ。急な事ではあったが、集会場には冒険者たちの活躍を讃える宴が予定されており、多くの里の者たちが詰め掛けていた。く。そして、儀礼用の華美な装飾がなされた剣を受け取った。受け取った剣を横にしたまま頭上へと両手で持ち上げ、鞘かの一程度抜く。そして鈍く光る刀身を仰ぎ見た後、ゆっくり再び鞘に納めた。する。それを待っていたかのように、里長はメルクの頭上から声を掛けた。「おほんっ。この度、我らの里に対する大いなる功績を認め、『ヴェルチェード』の名を贈り「はっ。メルク・ヴェルチェード――頂戴いたします」メルクが応えると、集まっていた者たちから盛大な拍手が送られる。こうして、メルクはかねてからの希望通り、にして成人が認められることとなったのだ。なく終了し、すぐに宴となる。本来であれば冒険者たちの『炎翼狼』討伐を讃える宴だったが、急遽としてメルクの成人祝いを兼ねるものとなった。当然、メルクも周囲から酒を勧められたが、一口だけ呑み後は固辞した。 (この身体でどれだけ呑めるか分からないからな。呑むなら初めては一人がいいだろう) 酔ってを晒したくない一心での対応だったが、周囲のエルフたちはその弁えたメルクの振る舞いに好意的だった。いわく、成人しても羽目を外さないのが格好いいとかなんとか。「やぁ、メルク。おめでとう」騒がしいエルフの集団から逃れ集会所の端で水を飲んでいると、ヨナヒムが気さくに声を掛けて来る。顔がそれほど赤くないところを見ると、そんなに酒を呑んでいないのかもしれない。「ああ、ありがとう。ヨナヒムはあまり酒はやらないのか?」「そんなことはないさ。ただやはり、見知らぬ土地でがぶがぶ呑めるほど肝は据わっていないのさ」「ふん、賢明な冒険者らしい考え方だ」さすが級に間もなく上がることになる冒険者だ。こう言った場でも警戒を怠らない。実力のある者でも酒で正体を失ったところで不覚をとることがある。だが、ことヨナヒムに関してはその心配はなさそうだ。「ところで、エルフは成人をすると名を贈られるのか?」「うん? ああ、さっきの『帯剣の儀』の話だな? いや、本来なら贈られない。私が通常通り十六になって『帯剣の儀』を受けていれば、そのままメルクだっただろう」真剣な顔で問いかけてくるから何かと思えば、どうやら先ほどの儀式が気になったらしい。メルクは拍子抜けしながら説明してやる。「里に対する貢献をして十六になる前に『帯剣の儀』が行われた場合は、勲章として里長に名を与えられるんだ。まぁ、一種の称号みたいなものだな」「ほう、称号か。しかしヴェルチェードねぇ......『翼狼殺し(ヴェルチェード)』か」何やら思うところがありそうなヨナヒムに首を傾げ、メルクは水を口に含んだ。「いや......勇ましいがそれは女子につける名前か?」「いや、だって『翼狼殺し』だろう? メルク・ヴェルチェード......メルクの美しい容姿には合わんだろう」「......お前、誰にでもそういうこと言うのか?」腕を組みながらキョトンとするヨナヒム。どうやらこの言動は無意識によるものらしい。何というか、あれだ。 (こいつ、ぶん殴りてぇ......) こういう言動でエレアを落としたに決まってる。ルカは良く分からないが、多分ヨナヒムの無意識の誉め言葉や労わる言葉で心奪われている女も少なくはないはずだ。前世、エステルトだった時にそういった事態は飽きるほど見てきた。ヨナヒムによく似た性格の、勇者フォルディアがそうやって無自覚に女にモテる姿は嫌と言うほど見てきたのだ。「こらぁ、ヨナヒムっ! エルフの女になんて鼻伸ばしてるんじゃないわよぉう」「あた?」するとメルクの代わりと言うように、ふらりと現れたエレアがヨナヒムの肩に拳をお見舞いした。ヨナヒムとは違い随分と酔っているのか、顔は赤く上気している。その艶っぽく乱れた様はエルフたちにはないもので、メルクはその姿に思わず下心を掻き立てられた。それと同時に、そんなエレアの好意を独り占めしているヨナヒムが一層憎々しく思える。「ったく。弱いくせにまた呑んでるな? ルカに見張りを頼んだのに」「ルカはぁ、報酬を受け取りに行ったよぉ」「なに? またあいつ......勝手に金額を吊り上げたりしてないといいんだが」「大丈夫ぅ......「任せろ」って言ってた」「全然大丈夫じゃないじゃないかっ」ヨナヒムは足元が覚束ないエレアの腕を掴み、メルクへ片腕を上げて小さく頭を下げた。「悪いな、メルク。俺はエレアを部屋まで運んでくる。さすがにこの状態では放っておけないからな」「あ、ああ......」少しだけ乱れたエレアの胸元からちらりと白い肌が見え、メルクは脳内にその姿を焼きつけながら生返事を返した。 (大変、良いものを見させてもらえた。感謝感謝) 内心で去り行く二人(正確にはエレア)に礼を言い、メルクはその姿を見送る。すると、後ろに人の気配を感じた。「......お姉ちゃん」「うん? おお、ロー。夜遅いのに、お前も連れてきてもらえてたのか?」背後から声を掛けられ振り返ると、弟のローがぎこちない笑みを浮かべて立っていた。今朝も会っていたはずだが、何だか随分久しぶりに会うような気がする。そしてその見慣れたはずの弟の顔が、何だか初めて見るような顔に見えた。	The Accolade was regarded as a coming-of-age ceremony in the elf village. Generally, elves under the age of sixteen were not permitted to use swords. They were allowed to carry bows, arrows, short knives, and sticks, but not common swords. No one knew exactly how that rule came to be, even now. Perhaps it began as a tradition because having swords in the hands of children would be unsafe. With the passage of time, the custom evolved into a rule that had to be followed. As a result of inheriting that rule, it became common practice to regard it as a coming-of-age ritual in which a child was given a sword. Normally, the Accolade was only held for elves who had reached the age of sixteen, although there were exceptions. Those exceptions were elves under the age of sixteen who had been approved by the village’s Chief because they had accomplished something or contributed in some way. Even if an elf had not yet reached the age of sixteen, if the Chief approved them, they would be treated as adults. They’d be allowed to do everything a child couldn’t. Such as wielding a sword, drinking, having sexual relations, marrying, and leaving the village. “Merc, daughter of Oron and Teruse, and Fairy Rosemary’s disciple, step forth.” And that prestigious Accolade was currently being held at the village assembly hall. The person for whom it was being held was no other than Merc. The girl who had single-handedly put down a Ghezo Velche during her trip with the adventurers. Despite the fact that it had been hastily put together, it drew a large crowd because it was performed in the assembly hall, which was to be used for the feast to commemorate the adventurers’ successful mission. Merc walked up to the Chief and kneeled before him, taking in everyone’s stares. She was then given a sword with ceremonial ornaments. With both hands raised above her head, she drew just a third of the blade from its scabbard. She cautiously slid the dull shining blade back into its scabbard after glancing at it. Merc carefully fastened the sword to her hip as the sound of the blade striking the scabbard rang across the area. The Chief spoke out after waiting for her to finish. “Ahem. On this day, I recognize your enormous contribution to our village and bestow the name Velchedo onto you, as well as declare you an adult.” “Thank you. I, Merc Velchedo, gladly accept it.” The audience in the assembly hall erupted in applause as if to congratulate Merc. Merc was officially recognized as an adult at the age of fourteen, just as she had hoped. Following the conclusion of the event, the feast began. The feast was originally planned to commemorate the adventurers’ victory of the Ghezo Velche, but because it had already been prepared, they decided to utilize it for Merc’s ceremony as well. Merc was naturally bombarded with alcohol, but she managed to stop herself after only one sip. I still don’t know how much this body can take. The first time I drink, I should do so alone. Merc was adamant about not drinking since she didn’t want to grow tipsy and embarrass herself. Her decision seemed to be well received by the other elves in her area. It was apparently good for an adult to be able to show restraint. “Hey, Merc. Congratulations.” Merc stumbled across Jonahim after escaping the raucous group of elves and running to the corner of the assembly hall to get some water. Merc deduced from his not-so-red complexion that he hadn’t drank much. “Thank you. Do you not drink, Jonahim?” “I do. It’s simply because I’m not comfortable drinking that much in an unfamiliar place.” “That’s a very adventurer-like way of thinking.” Nothing less from a soon-to-be Grade Adventurer. He has his guard up even in a place like this. Alcohol had caused mighty explorers to lose their senses and lose in the past. When it came to Jonahim, though, such worries didn’t seem to be necessary. “By the way, are all elves given a name when they become adults?” Jonahim asked with a serious face. “Hm? Oh, you mean during the Accolade. No, most don’t. I would not have received one if I had waited until I was to perform the ceremony.” Merc had expected Jonahim to ask another question based on his expression, but it turned out he just wanted to know about the ceremony. She continued to explain in a disappointed tone, feeling a little letdown. “The names given during the Accolade can be considered as medals bestowed by the Chief on people who have contributed to the village before the age of sixteen. You can consider them titles.” “Titles, huh... But still, Velchedo as in Velche Slayer is a bit...” “It’s not that I dislike it... It’s heroic, but is that truly a name for a girl?” Merc spat out her water after hearing Jonahim say that with a straight face. Fortunately, the water did not land on Jonahim. cough “I mean, it’s Velche Slayer... Merc Velchedo... It doesn’t fit your stunning beauty, no matter how I look at it.” “You... Do you go around and say such things to everyone?” “Huh?” Jonahim asked, his expression revealing his ignorance. It appeared as if he really was doing it unconsciously. Merc, on the other hand, was quite familiar with this behavior. I want to murder this b̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲... Merc was certain Elea had fallen for him just because of that. She wasn’t sure how things were going with Luka, but she didn’t seem like the type of woman who would fall in love with someone based on a few compliments. Merc had witnessed a lot of this in her past life, when she was still known as Estert. Foldia, whose character was eerily identical to Jonahim’s, had unwittingly stolen the hearts of a slew of young ladies. “Jonahim! What in the world are you doing, flirting with elves?!” Elea appeared and punched Jonahim in the shoulder with her fist before Merc could say anything. She was pretty drunk, unlike Jonahim, and her face was bright red. Merc’s attention was subconsciously taken away by her intoxicated, coquettish appearance, which was unlike anything seen in the elf village. Meanwhile, Jonahim, who had Elea’s undivided attention, appeared indifferent. “Good grief. Why did you drink so much despite being a lightweight...? Didn’t I ask you to watch over Luka?” “Luk-aa went to get the prize moneyy.” “What? That... I just hope she doesn’t squander them like she did last time.” “I-It’s finee... She told me not to worry.” “It’s nowhere near fine!” Because Elea’s feet were wobbly, Jonahim took her arm and raised his other arm towards Merc, bowing slightly. “I hope you’ll excuse me. I need to take Elea back to her room. I just can’t leave her like this.” “I understand...” Merc replied half-heartedly while burning the picture of Elea’s white skin peeking out from her chest. I’m grateful for this sight. As she saw them go, Merc silently thanked them both, particularly Elea. She sensed a presence behind her while doing so. “Sis...” “Hm? Oh, it’s you, Law. I’m surprised to see you here so late.” Merc turned around to face the source of the voice and saw Law, who had a forced smile on his face. Despite the fact that she had last seen him this morning, she felt as if they hadn’t seen each other in a long time. Although she was used to seeing her brother’s face, it appeared to be completely different today.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 4, "inserted_lines_src": 10, "inserted_lines_trg": 5 }
巨大な銀河の集団で互いの引力で引き合っています画面の斑点の殆どは個々の星ではなく星の集団つまり銀河なのですこれらの画像をご覧になると直ぐに銀河団はこのように美しいものだと思って頂けるでしょうがそれだけではないのです銀河団は神秘的で驚くべきもので有用な宇宙最大の研究室なのですそして研究室として銀河団を語るということはそこで行うことができる実験を語るということです研究対象には4つの主なタイプがありまず最初のタイプはとても大きなものの探査ですどれ程大きいかと言うとこれはある銀河団の画像ですがあまりに巨大なので通り抜ける光は銀河団の非常に大きな重力によって屈折し歪められます事実よく注意して見るとこの銀河団の周りに輪がいくつも見えるでしょう数字で説明するとこの銀河団は太陽の千兆倍以上もの質量がありその巨大さには驚愕させられますしかし質量だけでなくこんな特徴があります銀河団は本質的に孤立したシステムなのですつまり全宇宙の縮小版だと考えてもいいでしょうつまり全宇宙の縮小版だと考えてもいいでしょう宇宙を大きなスケールで見た時の多くの疑問は— 宇宙を大きなスケールで見た時の多くの疑問は— 例えば重力の作用の仕方など― これら銀河団を調べると答えが出て来るかもしれません大きな話はここまでです二つ目の研究はとても熱いものです銀河団の画像から星の光を全部取り除くと残されるものはこの大きな青い塊ですこれは本当の色ではありません実はX線を見ているのですこの光が銀河のものでなければ何処から来るのでしょう? 答えは熱ガスです百万度のガスですが実はプラズマなのですそんなに熱い理由は前のスライドで説明しましたが銀河団の強力な引力がガス粒子を超高速に加速しその速度が超高温のガスを生み出しているのですこれが主な理論ですが研究はまだ始まったばかりですプラズマの様々な基本的性質は未だにわからないことが多くあり頭を悩ませています超高温物質の物理学的研究はこれからの課題です三つ目は極小のものの探査ですこれを説明するには驚くべき事実を話さなくてはなりません宇宙の物質の殆どは原子ではできていませんそうではなかったのです殆どがとても不思議なものでできているのですダークマターと呼ばれ重力以外のものとほとんど作用しないもので重力以外のものとほとんど作用しないもので人々の関心を集めていますあなたが素粒子物理学者なら物をぶつけ合うと何が起きるか知りたいでしょうダークマタ—も例外ではありませんではどうやってこれをぶつけるか? その質問に答えるためにもう1つお聞きします銀河団同士がぶつかったらどうなるでしょうこれがその画像です銀河団は宇宙の縮小版見本のようなものです主にダークマターでできています青っぽい紫色の部分です赤は熱ガスを示しています多くの銀河が見えますね銀河団が衝突すると超巨大な粒子加速器のような状態になります銀河団が衝突すると超巨大な粒子加速器のような状態になります大事なのはこれにより実験室では見つけ難いような非常に検出が困難な微小な効果も何重にも複雑に重なり観測できるようになるかもしれないということですとても面白いです銀河団によりダークマターが分かる理由 — 銀河団で極小の物理が分かる理由は銀河団がとても巨大だからこそなのです四つ目はとても奇妙なものの物理です今まで話したことも確かに奇妙なことでしたがそれよりもっと奇妙なものがあるとしたならそれはダークエネルギーでしょうボールを空中に投げ上げると上昇していくだろうとは思いますが上昇のスピードが加速していくだろうとは思いません同じように宇宙学者は宇宙が膨張している理由を理解しても膨張がどんどん加速している理由は分からないのですこの加速的膨張の原因となるものをこの加速的膨張の原因となるものをダークエネルギーと呼んでいますそしてこれについてもっと知りたいと思っています特に疑問に感じているのはダークエネルギーが宇宙全体にどのような影響を与えているのかということですその強さによって宇宙の大規模構造の形成が変わってくるでしょう宇宙の大規模構造の問題点は恐ろしく複雑だということですこれはコンピューターシミュレーションです単純化する必要があります比喩を使って考えたいと思いますタイタニックの沈没を理解したいとすると一番大切なことは船の粉々になった破片を全て再現することでなく一番大きな二つの部分を見つけ出すことです同じように最も大きい断片を追跡することによって宇宙全体について学ぶことが出来るのですその最大な断片が銀河団なのですここまで話をしてきましたが騙されているような気がするかもしれませんつまり銀河団がどんなに有用かというところから話を始めてその理由を挙げましたが実際はどんな役に立つのでしょう? その答えは車に関して訊かれた時のヘンリー・フォードの言葉にあります車に関して訊かれた時のヘンリー・フォードの言葉にあります彼はこういいました「もし私が人に何が欲しいかと尋ねていたらもっと速い馬が欲しいと答えていたでしょう」今日私たちの社会は多くの難しい問題に直面していますその解決法は明確ではなく "より速い馬"では解決になりません解決には多大の科学的創意工夫が必要です解決には多大の科学的創意工夫が必要ですだから私たちは専心する必要がありますしかし同時に心に刻むべきなのは革新創意工夫ひらめきが起きるのは私たちが視野を広げ一歩離れ全体図を見渡した時だということですそしてそのための一番の方法は私たちのいる宇宙を探査することですありがとうございました	They are these huge collections of galaxies, bound together by their mutual gravity. So most of the points that you see on the screen are not individual stars, but collections of stars, or galaxies. Now, by showing you some of these images, I hope that you will quickly see that galaxy clusters are these beautiful objects, but more than that, I think galaxy clusters are mysterious, they are surprising, and they're useful. Useful as the universe's most massive laboratories. And as laboratories, to describe galaxy clusters is to describe the experiments that you can do with them. And I think there are four major types, and the first type that I want to describe is probing the very big. So, how big? Well, here is an image of a particular galaxy cluster. It is so massive that the light passing through it by the extreme gravity of this cluster. And, in fact, if you look very carefully you'll be able to see rings around this cluster. Now, to give you a number, this particular galaxy cluster has a mass of over one million billion suns. It's just mind-boggling how massive these systems can get. But more than their mass, they have this additional feature. They are essentially isolated systems, so if we like, we can think of them as a scaled-down version of the entire universe. And many of the questions that we might have about the universe at large scales, such as, how does gravity work? might be answered by studying these systems. So that was very big. The second things is very hot. Okay, if I take an image of a galaxy cluster, and I subtract away all of the starlight, what I'm left with is this big, blue blob. This is in false color. It's actually X-ray light that we're seeing. And the question is, if it's not galaxies, what is emitting this light? The answer is hot gas, million-degree gas -- in fact, it's plasma. And the reason why it's so hot goes back to the previous slide. The extreme gravity of these systems is accelerating particles of gas to great speeds, and great speeds means great temperatures. So this is the main idea, but science is a rough draft. There are many basic properties about this plasma that still confuse us, still puzzle us, of the physics of the very hot. Third thing: probing the very small. Now, to explain this, I need to tell you a very disturbing fact. Most of the universe's matter is not made up of atoms. You were lied to. Most of it is made up of something very, very mysterious, which we call dark matter. Dark matter is something that doesn't like to interact very much, except through gravity, and of course we would like to learn more about it. If you're a particle physicist, you want to know what happens when we smash things together. And dark matter is no exception. Well, how do we do this? To answer that question, I'm going to have to ask another one, which is, what happens when galaxy clusters collide? Here is an image. Since galaxy clusters are representative slices of the universe, scaled-down versions. They are mostly made up of dark matter, and that's what you see in this bluish purple. The red represents the hot gas, and, of course, you can see many galaxies. What's happened is a particle accelerator at a huge, huge scale. And this is very important, because what it means is that very, very small effects that might be difficult to detect in the lab, might be compounded and compounded into something that we could possibly observe in nature. So, it's very funny. The reason why galaxy clusters can teach us about dark matter, the reason why galaxy clusters can teach us about the physics of the very small, is precisely because they are so very big. Fourth thing: the physics of the very strange. Certainly what I've said so far is crazy. Okay, if there's anything stranger I think it has to be dark energy. If I throw a ball into the air, I expect it to go up. What I don't expect is that it go up at an ever-increasing rate. Similarly, cosmologists understand why the universe is expanding. They don't understand why it's expanding at an ever-increasing rate. They give the cause of this accelerated expansion a name, and they call it dark energy. And, again, we want to learn more about it. So, one particular question that we have is, how does dark energy affect the universe at the largest scales? Depending on how strong it is, maybe structure forms faster or slower. Well, the problem with the large-scale structure of the universe is that it's horribly complicated. Here is a computer simulation. And we need a way to simplify it. Well, I like to think about this using an analogy. If I want to understand the sinking of the Titanic, the most important thing to do is not to model the little positions of every single little piece of the boat that broke off. The most important thing to do is to track the two biggest parts. Similarly, I can learn a lot about the universe at the largest scales by tracking its biggest pieces and those biggest pieces are clusters of galaxies. So, as I come to a close, you might feel slightly cheated. I mean, I began by talking about how galaxy clusters are useful, and I've given some reasons, but what is their use really? Well, to answer this, I want to give you a quote by Henry Ford when he was asked about cars. He had this to say: "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses." Today, we as a society are faced with many, many difficult problems. And the solutions to these problems are not obvious. They are not faster horses. They will require an enormous amount of scientific ingenuity. So, yes, we need to focus, yes, we need to concentrate, but we also need to remember that innovation, ingenuity, inspiration -- these things come when we broaden our field of vision when we step back when we zoom out. And I can't think of a better way to do this than by studying the universe around us. Thanks.	{ "source": "iwslt2017", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
俺が異世界に来てか目、アイヲンモール異世界店の店長になってか目の朝。店舗入り口の前には、人だかりができていた。人だかりっていっても5、6人だけど。「アンナちゃん、なんだいこれ! ほんとにタダで食べていいのかい?」「ええ.。でも試食ですから一度だけにしてくださいね。行商人さんも、よかったら試食してみてください。おいしいですよ!」「ほう、カツレツと......これは?」「ハンバーグと言います。試食していただいて、評判が良ければ今度売りに出そうかと」「むっ、これは美味しい。いくらで売り出す予定ですか? ほうほう、それなら」アイヲンモール異世界店の店舗入り口前には馬車を停めるロータリーがあって、横には噴水もある。農家のおばちゃんも行商人も護衛も冒険者も、お客さまは必ず通る場所だ。休憩だけで店舗に入らない人も、トイレだけ使う人も。だから俺は、午前中のお客さまのピークに合わせて、そこに試食ブースを出した。ただでさえ早い開店時間に合わせて早朝に起きて、スケルトン部隊と一緒に仕込みをして。試食用に食材は確保してたけど、それほど量はない。でも問題ない。なにしろお客さまの数が少ないから。ある意味問題すぎる。「ナオヤ、カツもハンバーグも好評だぞ! なあなあ、いつ売り出すんだ? 私が買ってもいいんだろ?」「ほどほどにしろよクロエ。買い占めてお客さまが買えないってのはナシな」「くっ! ならば食材を購入して自分で作ればいいんだな! ナオヤ、作り方を公開して食材を売り出すのはいつだ!? するって言ってたよな!」「スーパー部門があるんだしそのつもりだけど......クロエ、料理できるのか?」「わ、わたしは『聖騎士』だぞ! 私の手にかかればそれぐらい! だ、だって作り方は公開するんだろう? 誰だって作れるんじゃないか?」「うわあ、料理できない人の発言っぽい」「うっ。な、ならばアンナに作ってもらうかナオヤに......はっ! ま、まさかナオヤは! 『俺が料理を作って食わせてやるから......お前という料理を食わせろ』などと! 肉に負けた私に肉欲をぶちまけようと!」「発想がおっさんかよ。そもそも食欲に負けるな。あと肉と肉欲って別にかかってないから」俺は朝の仕込みの際に、アンナさんにカツとハンバーグの作り方を教えた。お客さまから聞かれたら答えられるように、試食コーナーはアンナさんが担当してる。レシピを隠すつもりはない。なにしろここはアイヲンモール異世界店で、レストランじゃない。カツとハンバーグをお惣菜、もしくは弁当として売り出すのと同じタイミングで、スーパー部門では使う食材を売り出すつもりだし。「なあナオヤ、本当に作り方を公開していいのか? 食事処や屋台で真似されるんじゃないか?」「おお、クロエにしてはまともな発言。まあ問題ないって。飲食店でいちいち作ってたら手間も時間もかかるし、けっきょく売値は高くなるだろうから。ネックは油の値段と、ミンチの手間だな」「だがミンチ肉も売り出すんだろう? だったら他所でも作れるような」「それならそれでいいと思ってる。だいたい俺が考えた料理じゃないし、パクられてアイヲンモール異世界店の売上が伸びなかったらほかのメニューを投入するし」「ほかのメニュー......だと......? ま、まさかほかにも肉料理が!? ナオヤ、すぐ作ってくれ! 感想はたくさん教えるから!」「クロエが食べたいだけだろ。あー、まあ午後から仕込みに入って、明日目の料理を試食してもらうつもりだけど」「ナオヤ! ここは私たちに任せていますぐ仕込みに入るんだ!......ところで肉料理なんだな? もっと早く作れないか? ほら今日のお昼や夕飯で」「肉に食いつきすぎだろエルフ。時間がかかるからそれは無理だな。それにクロエには仕入れを頼んだろ? 昼からは街に行ってもらわないと」「くっ! さてはこうして焦らして! いざ完成したら『コレを食べたければ』などと言い出すんだろう! ケダモノめッ!」「俺の扱いがヒドい。むしろ言いがかりで逆にセクハラされてる気分」あいかわらずのクロエは無視して、試食コーナーに群がる人を観察する。カツもハンバーグも評判はいいみたいだ。まだ価格は決めてないけど、カツはこの世界分、ハンバーグは一食分程度の料金を想定してる。カツの方は油が高くてぶっちゃけ原価がキツいけど、まあ目玉商品ってことで。「農家のおばちゃんから畑で採れる野菜各種を買って、それからどれぐらいのペースと量で卵を買えるか聞いてほしい。あとは街の市場でほかの野菜を売ってれば野菜、それと肉屋な」「ああ、わかってるともナオヤ! ちゃんとメモは取ったんだ!」「運搬にはアンナさんのデカい『アイテムポーチ』が、アイヲンモール異世界店には冷凍庫があるからって肉を買いすぎるなよ? 日本と違って畜産も流通も発展してないだろうし、肉を買えるペースも知りたいけど」「うむ! 心配するな、いざとなれば私もバルベラも、アンナのスケルトン部隊もいるんだ! 肉が足りなければ狩ってこよう!」「......従業員に仕入れを任せたら狩りがはじまりそう。異文化どころかさすが異世界すぎる」「だいたい、肉屋で売ってるのはこの周辺で討伐されたモンスターの肉なんだ! 保管の魔道具で運び込まれてきた肉も少しはあるが」「あー、保管の魔道具、『アイテムポーチ』って中の時間はどうなってるの? よくある時間が止まってる系?」「ナオヤ、完全に時を止める『アイテムボックス』は伝説の魔道具だぞ? 通常の『アイテムポーチ』は普通に時間が流れている。遠方から運ぶ場合は、一緒に氷を入れるんだ」「ダメだ意味わからん。空間どうなってんの。なんで氷を入れたら冷えるんだよ。魔法怖い。異世界ヤバい」常識が違いすぎて思わず遠い目をしてしまう。そんな俺を見て、クロエは首を傾げてきょとんとしてる。喋らなければ美人だ。「なあ姉ちゃん、これ売ってくれねえか? 野外で食う保存食は味気なくてよ」「ありがとうございます冒険者さん。ですが今日はまだ試食で、販売を始める日は決まってないんです」「ぐあー、マジか。しゃあねえ、売る日が決まったら教えてくれよ!」「はい、もちろんです!」試食の反応は上々だ。あと、アンナさんは冒険者にもリッチだと気づかれないらしい。レジは打ってたしわかってたことだけど、いちおうね、いちおう。「よし。こっちが言い出さない限り、調理にアンデッドがかかわってても問題なさそうだな」ぼそっと言った言葉は、クロエにも聞こえなかったらしい。「んじゃクロエ、俺は三つ目の料理の仕込みをしてるから。アンナさんは接客を、クロエは買い出し、バルベラは」「バルベラは見まわりに行ったぞ? スケルトン隊長と一緒に、縄張りの外にモンスターがいないか確かめてくるそうだ」「あ、ああ、そう。ドラゴンとスケルトンはすごく馴染んでるのね。うん、じゃあそれでいいや」ここはモンスターがはびこる異世界だ。警備と警戒と討伐は大事で、だからバルベラとスケルトン隊長の働きはいいことだ。そいつらがモンスターだけどなあ! ツッコミは心の中に収めておいた。とりあえず。農家のおばちゃんたちから野菜も仕入れたし、調理場で三つ目の料理に挑戦しますか! 今日もエプロン付きスケルトンたちと一緒に! ......考えるな、考えるな俺。ありがたい労働力だ。人件費不要で勤勉で黙々と働いてくれるすばらしい労働力だ。ありがとうスケルトン。	On the seventh day after I arrived in another world, and the sixth morning after I became the manager of the Aion Mall Otherworld Store. There was a crowd of people in front of the store entrance. A crowd of five or six people. “Anna-chan, what’s this? Can I really eat for free?” “Yes. But it is a tasting, so please only eat once per person. If you want to try it, please do, too, Mr. Peddler. It’s delicious!” “Hoh, cutlet and..... what is that?” “It’s called hamburger steak. If it is well-received, we will sell it next time.” “Wow, they are delicious. How much are you planning to sell it for? Ohoho, well then.” At the entrance of the Aion Mall Otherworld Store, there is a roundabout where carriages can be parked, and there is also a fountain next to it. Farmers, peddlers, guards, adventurers, and other customers always pass through this area. Some just take a break and don’t go into the store, others just use the restroom. So I set up a sample booth there to coincide with the peak of customers in the morning. I woke up early in the morning to coincide with the early opening time, and worked with the skeleton crew to prepare the food. Actually we had food reserved for the sample, but not that much. But it was no problem. After all, the number of customers is small. In a way, that’s the biggest problem we have. “Naoya, the cutlets and hamburgers have been very well received! When are you going to start selling them? I can buy them, can’t I?” “Moderation is the key, Chloe. Don’t buy so much that your customers can’t afford it.” “Kuhh! Then I guess I should just buy the ingredients and make it myself! Naoya, when are you going to publish how to make it and sell the ingredients! I thought you said you were going to!” “We have a grocery department, and we intend to, but ...... Chloe, can you cook?” “I-I’m a [Holy Knight]! If I had it my way, that’s about as good as it gets! Anybody can do it, right? I mean, who can’t cook?” “Whew, that sounds like the talk of someone who can’t cook.” “Ugh. Well, if that’s the case, I’ll ask Anna to make it for me, or Naoya... Ha! Naoya, don’t tell me! You’re trying to [I’ll cook and feed you... the payment is, I’ll eat you]! You’re trying to lure me with meat just to get my ‘meat’!” “Are you an old man? Don’t lose your appetite in the first place. Also, please distinguish the meat that is actually edible and not that kind of meat that you mentioned in the later part.” I taught Anna-san how to make cutlets and hamburgers during the morning preparation. Anna-san is in charge of the sample corner so that she can answer customers’ questions if they ask. I have no intention of hiding the recipe. This is Aion Mall’s Otherworldly Store, after all, not a restaurant. At the same time as selling pork cutlets and hamburgers as side dishes for lunch boxes, I intend to sell the ingredients used in the supermarket section. “Hey Naoya, are you sure you want me to show you how to make this? Won’t people copy it at restaurants and food stalls?” “Oh, that’s a decent question coming from Chloe. Well, there is no problem. It would take a lot of time and effort to make it in a restaurant, and the selling price would be high. The bottleneck is the price of the oil and the time and effort required to mince the meat.” “But you’re going to sell minced meat, too, right? If so, it’s something that can be made elsewhere.” “I think that’s fine. If sales at the Aion Mall Otherworldly Store don’t increase because of the food I made, I will introduce other items on the menu.” “The other menu ...... ? D-don’t tell me there are other meat dishes! Naoya, make it right away! I’ll give you lots of feedback!” “Chloe, you just want to eat, right? Oh, well, I’m going to start preparing it this afternoon, and tomorrow I’ll have the third dish for you to try.” “Naoya! Let us take care of this and get started right now! ...... By the way, it’s a meat dish, isn’t it? Can’t you make it faster? For lunch or for dinner.” “Don’t be too eager to get into meat, Elf. That’s not going to happen because it takes time. Plus, didn’t I ask Chloe to stock up? I need you to go into town for some lunch.” “Kuh! So, you’re going to make me impatient! I bet you’ll say, [If you want to eat this, do what I tell you!] kuh, you beast!” ” The way you treat me is terrible. I feel like I’m being accused and harassed.” Ignoring Chloe, who was still in a state of shock, I observed the crowds of people at the sampling corner. Both cutlets and hamburgers seem to have a good reputation. I haven’t decided on the price yet, but I’m assuming the cutlet is about the price of two meals in this world and the hamburger is about the price of one meal. The pork cutlets are expensive because of the high oil content, but they are the main attraction of the menu. “I want you to buy a variety of vegetables from the farmer’s field, and then ask them how fast and how many eggs we can buy. Also, if there are other vegetables for sale at the market in town, don’t forget to ask the butcher too.” “Ah, of course I know that, Naoya! I got the memo!” “I know you have Anna-san’s big ‘item pouch’ for transport and the Aion Mall Otherworld Store has a freezer, but don’t buy too much meat, okay? Unlike Japan, livestock farming and distribution are probably not as developed, and I’d like to know the pace at which you can buy meat.” “Mm-hmm! Don’t worry, if push comes to shove, there’s me, Barbera, and Anna’s skeleton squad! If we don’t have enough meat, we’ll go hunting!” “If we let the ...... employees do the stocking, the hunt is about to happen. It’s not just a different culture, it’s a whole different world.” “The meat sold at the butcher’s is usually from monsters killed in the area! There is also a small amount of meat that is brought in by magic tools for safekeeping.” “Ah, I wonder what happens to the time inside the item pouch, the magic tool of safekeeping? Is it one of those things where time stops?” “Naoya, the ‘item box’ that completely stops time is a legendary magical tool. The normal ‘item pouch’ has normal time flowing through it. If you want to carry it from afar, you need to put ice together with it.” “No, I don’t get it. How does space work? Why does it get cold if you put ice in it? I’m scared of magic. This is another world.” I couldn’t help but look at her with a faraway look because our common sense is so different. Seeing me like that, Chloe tilted her head and looked at me strangely. If she didn’t talk, Chloe would be quite beautiful. “Hey big-sis, can you sell me some of this? I’m not used to eating preserved food in the open air.” “Thank you, Mr. Adventurer. But today is just a sample, and we haven’t decided when we will start selling them.” “Guah-, seriously? Geez, let me know when you decide to start selling them!” “Yes, of course!” The response to the sampling was positive. Also, it seems that even adventurers don’t realize that Anna-san is a Lich. It’s something I knew, but just in case, just in case. “Okay. As long as we don’t say anything, it doesn’t seem to matter if the undead are involved in the cooking.” Chloe didn’t seem to hear what I said in a whisper. “Well then, Chloe, I’m preparing the third dish. Anna-san will be in charge of serving the customers, Chloe will do the shopping, and Barbera-“ “Barbera’s on patrol, you know? She’s going with Captain Skeleton to see if there are any monsters outside the territory.” “Ah, right. I see that dragons and skeletons are getting along very well. Yeah, that’s fine then.” This is a different world infested with monsters. Security, vigilance, and killing are important, so it’s a good thing that Barbera and Captain Skeletor are doing a good job. Though they are in fact monsters! I kept my criticisms to myself. Anyway. Now that we have vegetables from the farmers, let’s go to the kitchen and try our third dish! With skeletons with aprons today, too! ...... Don’t think, don’t think. Thank goodness for the labour force. A wonderful workforce that works diligently and silently with no labour costs. Thank you skeletons.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 0, "inserted_lines_src": 0, "inserted_lines_trg": 0 }
これは13歳の時の私最初のダイエットを始めたときですこの写真を今見てみると思いますがこの人ダイエットなんかよりファッション・アドバイスのほうが必要だったでも私は体重を減らすべきと思いましたし体重が戻ってしまったときもちろん自分自身を責めましたそれから30年間様々なダイエットをやったり止めたりしました何をやってみても落とした体重は元に戻ってしまいました多くの方がその気持ち分って下さいますね私は神経科学者としてダイエットがなぜそんなに難しいのか疑問を抱きました明らかに体重は食べた量とカロリー消費量で決まります多くの人が気が付いていないことは空腹感とカロリーの消費はほぼ無意識のうちに脳でコントロールされているということです脳が陰でいろいろと作用しているのですそれは良いことなのです意識のある行動というものは ―どう表現したらいいのでしょうか― 少し散漫になり易いのです映画に夢中になっているときに呼吸をいちいち気にせずに済みます夕食で何を食べようかと考えているときに歩き方を忘れたりしません脳はどれだけの体重が必要かあなたが意識的に信じていることとは別に理解しているのですこれをセットポイントといいますでも誤解を招きやすい言葉ですというのは 4kgから7kg位の幅があるからですライフスタイルを変えることによってその範囲で体重を変えることができますその範囲から出ようといくら努力しても脳の一部である視床下部が体重を制御するように働くのです脳の中で「体重を増やせ」という 1ダース以上の化学的な信号と脳の中で「体重を増やせ」という 1ダース以上の化学的な信号と「体重を落とせ」という 1ダース以上の化学的信号があってまるでサーモスタットのように機能し飢え活動代謝といった体中から発せられる信号に反応し状況が変化しても体重を一定に保とうとするのですサーモスタットと同じですね? 外の天気の変化があっても家の中の温度を一定に保ちます冬に窓を開けて部屋の温度を変えようとしてもサーモスタットの設定は変わらないので暖房が作動し温度を元に戻そうとします脳も全く同じように機能し体重が落ちると強力な仕組みで正常と考えられる体重に戻そうとするのです正常と考えられる体重に戻そうとするのです体重をひどく落とすと飢餓状態にあると脳は判断し元の体重が高くあれ低くあれ脳は同様の反応を示しますあなたが体重を落としたいとかそうでないとか脳が分ってくれると思いたいところですがそうではないのです体重が大きく減ると空腹感が増し筋肉のエネルギー消費量は減るのですコロンビア大学のルーディー・ライベル博士が発見したことは体重を10%落とした人は代謝が抑制されエネルギーの消費が 250から400カロリー減ることですこれはかなりの量の食べ物に相当しますですからダイエットで落とした体重を維持するには同じ体重で元から痩せていた人に比べ食べる量をこれ程にも少なくし続けなければなりません食べる量をこれ程にも少なくし続けなければなりません進化論の観点から見ると体が減量に逆らうのには意味があるのです食べ物が不足していた時我々の祖先の生存はエネルギーの無駄な消費を抑えることに依存し食べ物があるときに体重を増やすことによって次に来たる飢餓に備えていたのです人間の歴史において飢餓は過食よりも重大な問題だったのです飢餓は過食よりも重大な問題だったのですこのことがあるとても残念な事実に説明を与えますセットポイントは上がり得るのですが滅多なことで下がりませんもしあなたのお母さまが人生なんて不平等と言ったらまさにこのことを言っているんですねダイエットに成功してもセットポイントは下がりません 7年間も体重を抑え続けていたとしても 7年間も体重を抑え続けていたとしても脳はなおも体重を元に戻そうとするのです体重の減少が長期の飢餓によるものであったらこれは道理にかなった反応ですハンバーガー・ショップのドライブスルーがある今の世の中では多くの人にとってなかなか上手くいかないものです祖先の時代と飽食の現代の差が肥満の原因であるとオタワ大学のヨニ・フリードホフ博士は考えており肥満患者たちを食べ物が少なかった時代に [タイムマシンがあればそれこそ最善の減量法だ] 連れて行きたいとさえ考えています [タイムマシンがあればそれこそ最善の減量法だ] また食をとりまく環境を変えることが肥満を防ぐ最善の解決方法だと考えています残念なことに一時的な体重増が恒久的なものになりうるのです体重が高いまま長い間留まると通常数年程度も続けば脳がそれがあなたの平常体重とみなしてしまうのです心理学者は食の観点から人を2つのグループに分類します空腹感に反応して食べる人とダイエットをする多くの人がそうであるように自制心でコントロールしようとする人これを直感的グループと自制的グループと呼びましょう興味深いことに直感的グループの方が太り過ぎになりにくく食べ物の事を考えている時間が短いのです自制的グループは (食べ物の)広告とか特大サイズの食べ物だとか食べ放題のブッフェとかに弱く食べ過ぎになりやすいのですひとスクープのアイスクリームとかいったちょっとした道楽が自制的グループには食べ過ぎにつながりやすいのです子供達は特にダイエットと過食のサイクルに弱いのですいくつかの長年の研究によると 10代の前半にダイエットを経験した少女達はたとえ標準的な体重から始まっても 5年も経てば太り過ぎになる確率が3倍に高くなりますまたこの分野における研究は何れも体重増加と同じ原因によって摂食障害を起こしやすくなることを示していますところで別の原因は ― 皆様方ご両親が ― ご家庭でお子さんの体重についてからかうことですからそんなことしてはいけませんよグラフは殆ど全て家に置いてきましたがこれだけはどうしてもお見せしたかったのですだって私は根っからの数字好きでそうやって生活しているのですからこれは体に良いとされる 4つの生活習慣が死のリスクとどう関係しているか 14年間研究したものです十分な果物と野菜を摂り週3回運動しタバコを吸わず飲酒はほどほどにするという 4つの習慣ですまずは標準的な体重の人を見てみましょう棒グラフの高さは死に至るリスクを表しており横軸の 0、1、2、3、4といった数字は横軸の 0、1、2、3、4といった数字はその人に当てはまる先ほどの良き生活習慣の数です期待通りですが健康的な生活を送っている人の方が研究中に死に至った人は少なくなります過剰体重の人の場合どうなるか見てみましょうあてはまる良き生活習慣が全くない人は死のリスクがより高まりますたった1つでも良い習慣があればリスクを平常のレベルに下げるのです肥満で良き生活習慣が全くない人は研究対象となったもっとも健康なグループと比較しリスクが7倍にも高いのです健康的な生活習慣は肥満者にとっても良いことなのです実際 4つの良き生活習慣全てに当てはまるグループは体重によるリスクの差は殆どありません健康状態は生活習慣をコントロールすれば体重を減量・維持できなくとも正常に保つことができますダイエットはあてになりませんダイエットの後5年たてば大抵の人はまた体重が戻ってしまいます 4割の人は元々の体重以上になってしまいますそういうことですからダイエットの結果はたいていの所長い目で見ると体重が減るどころか増加になるのがおちですダイエットには問題があるということを皆さんに分って頂けたならではどうしたらいいの? という質問がでますね私の答えは一言でいえば五感を集中しなさいということです瞑想の仕方を学びなさいとかヨガをしなさいと言っているのではありません意識して食べることを言っているのです身体の発する信号を理解し [意識して食べること] 空腹の時にこそ食事を摂り [意識して食べること] お腹が満たされたらそこでやめる [意識して食べること] というのは空腹でない時に食べると体重が一気に増えるからですどうやったらいいか? まずは食べたいだけ食べてみて自分の体が丁度良いと感じる量を考えてみて下さい他所事に心乱されることなくいつもの食事を摂り食べ始めと終わりに身体がどう感じているか考えてみて下さいそれができたら空腹感だけで食事を終えるタイミングを決めて下さい私はこれが分るまでに1年かかりましたでも本当に価値がありました今では私の人生の中で最もリラックスして食事しています食べ物の事を考えないことさえしばしばあります家にあるチョコレートの事さえ忘れてしまいますエイリアンが私の頭を支配した感じです全く変わってしまったのですこれは言っておかなければなりませんこの方法で減量はできないでしょう空腹でもないのについ食べる人でもなければですでも医者でさえ多くの人に有効な大幅減量の方法など知りませんだから今や多くの人が体重を落とそうとするのではなく肥満予防に注目し始めているのです現実を考えてみて下さいダイエットが上手くいくのなら皆とっくに痩せているでしょう? どうして同じやり方を続けながらも自分だけいい結果がでると期待するのでしょう? ダイエットは害が無いように思えますが実際には思わぬダメージを与えます一番悪いのは人生をおかしくすることです体重にこだわると特に年齢の低い子供は摂食障害を起こすことがありますアメリカでは 10歳の少女の内 80%がダイエットをしたことがあると言っています娘たちの世代は格好良く見せることを間違った基準で判断していますダイエットはよくとも時間とエネルギーの無駄遣いに終わります強い意志が- 子供たちの宿題を手伝ったり重要な仕事のプロジェクトをこなすのに必要ですが強い意志には限界があるので際限なくこれに頼るという戦略は何か別の事に気持ちが移った時点で結局失敗することは目に見えています最後にもう一つ申し上げますダイエットしている少女たちに空腹なら食べて良いのですと言い食べることを恐れるのではなく食欲のままに自然に食べれば良いのだと教えたら彼女たちはより楽しく健康的な人生が送れるでしょうそして大人になる頃には体型もよりスッキリしているかもしれません私が13歳の時に誰かがこの事を教えてくれていたらと思います有難うございました	This was me at age 13, when I started my first diet. I look at that picture now, and I think, you did not need a diet, you needed a fashion consult. But I thought I needed to lose weight, and when I gained it back, of course I blamed myself. And for the next three decades, I was on and off various diets. No matter what I tried, the weight I'd lost always came back. I'm sure many of you know the feeling. As a neuroscientist, I wondered, why is this so hard? Obviously, how much you weigh depends on how much you eat and how much energy you burn. What most people don't realize is that hunger and energy use are controlled by the brain, mostly without your awareness. Your brain does a lot of its work behind the scenes, and that is a good thing, because your conscious mind -- how do we put this politely? -- it's easily distracted. when you get caught up in a movie. You don't forget how to walk because you're thinking about what to have for dinner. Your brain also has its own sense of what you should weigh, no matter what you consciously believe. This is called your set point, but that's a misleading term, because it's actually a range of about 10 or 15 pounds. You can use lifestyle choices to move your weight up and down within that range, but it's much, much harder to stay outside of it. The hypothalamus, the part of the brain that regulates body weight, there are more than a dozen chemical signals in the brain that tell your body to gain weight, more than another dozen that tell your body to lose it, and the system works like a thermostat, responding to signals from the body by adjusting hunger, activity and metabolism, to keep your weight stable as conditions change. That's what a thermostat does, right? as the weather changes outside. Now you can try to change the temperature in your house by opening a window in the winter, but that's not going to change the setting on the thermostat, which will respond by kicking on the furnace to warm the place back up. Your brain works exactly the same way, responding to weight loss by using powerful tools to push your body back to what it considers normal. If you lose a lot of weight, your brain reacts as if you were starving, and whether you started out fat or thin, your brain's response is exactly the same. We would love to think that your brain could tell whether you need to lose weight or not, but it can't. If you do lose a lot of weight, you become hungry, and your muscles burn less energy. Dr. Rudy Leibel of Columbia University has found that people who have lost 10 percent of their body weight burn 250 to 400 calories less because their metabolism is suppressed. That's a lot of food. This means that a successful dieter must eat this much less forever than someone of the same weight who has always been thin. From an evolutionary perspective, your body's resistance to weight loss makes sense. When food was scarce, our ancestors' survival depended on conserving energy, and regaining the weight when food was available would have protected them against the next shortage. Over the course of human history, starvation has been a much bigger problem than overeating. This may explain a very sad fact: Set points can go up, but they rarely go down. Now, if your mother ever mentioned that life is not fair, this is the kind of thing she was talking about. Successful dieting doesn't lower your set point. Even after you've kept the weight off for as long as seven years, your brain keeps trying to make you gain it back. If that weight loss had been due to a long famine, that would be a sensible response. In our modern world of drive-thru burgers, it's not working out so well for many of us. That difference between our ancestral past and our abundant present is the reason that Dr. Yoni Freedhoff of the University of Ottawa would like to take some of his patients back to a time when food was less available, and it's also the reason that changing the food environment is really going to be the most effective solution to obesity. Sadly, a temporary weight gain can become permanent. If you stay at a high weight for too long, probably a matter of years for most of us, your brain may decide that that's the new normal. Psychologists classify eaters into two groups, those who rely on their hunger and those who try to control their eating through willpower, like most dieters. Let's call them intuitive eaters and controlled eaters. The interesting thing is that intuitive eaters are less likely to be overweight, and they spend less time thinking about food. Controlled eaters are more vulnerable to overeating in response to advertising, super-sizing, and the all-you-can-eat buffet. And a small indulgence, like eating one scoop of ice cream, is more likely to lead to a food binge in controlled eaters. Children are especially vulnerable to this cycle of dieting and then binging. Several long-term studies have shown that girls who diet in their early teenage years are three times more likely to become overweight five years later, even if they started at a normal weight, and all of these studies found that the same factors that predicted weight gain also predicted the development of eating disorders. The other factor, by the way, those of you who are parents, was being teased by family members about their weight. So don't do that. I left almost all my graphs at home, but I couldn't resist throwing in just this one, because I'm a geek, and that's how I roll. This is a study that looked at the risk of death over a 14-year period based on four healthy habits: eating enough fruits and vegetables, exercise three times a week, not smoking, and drinking in moderation. Let's start by looking at the normal weight people in the study. The height of the bars is the risk of death, and those zero, one, two, three, four numbers on the horizontal axis are the number of those healthy habits that a given person had. And as you'd expect, the healthier the lifestyle, the less likely people were to die during the study. in overweight people. The ones that had no healthy habits had a higher risk of death. Adding just one healthy habit pulls overweight people back into the normal range. For obese people with no healthy habits, the risk is very high, seven times higher than the healthiest groups in the study. But a healthy lifestyle helps obese people too. with all four healthy habits, you can see that weight makes very little difference. You can take control of your health by taking control of your lifestyle, even If you can't lose weight and keep it off. Diets don't have very much reliability. Five years after a diet, most people have regained the weight. Forty percent of them have gained even more. If you think about this, the typical outcome of dieting is that you're more likely to gain weight in the long run than to lose it. If I've convinced you that dieting might be a problem, the next question is, what do you do about it? And my answer, in a word, is mindfulness. I'm not saying you need to learn to meditate or take up yoga. I'm talking about mindful eating: learning to understand your body's signals so that you eat when you're hungry and stop when you're full, because a lot of weight gain boils down to eating when you're not hungry. How do you do it? Give yourself permission to eat as much as you want, and then work on figuring out what makes your body feel good. Sit down to regular meals without distractions. Think about how your body feels when you start to eat and when you stop, and let your hunger decide when you should be done. It took about a year for me to learn this, but it's really been worth it. I am so much more relaxed around food than I have ever been in my life. I often don't think about it. I forget we have chocolate in the house. It's like aliens have taken over my brain. It's just completely different. I should say that this approach to eating probably won't make you lose weight unless you often eat when you're not hungry, but doctors don't know of any approach that makes significant weight loss in a lot of people, and that is why a lot of people are now focusing on preventing weight gain instead of promoting weight loss. Let's face it: If diets worked, we'd all be thin already. Why do we keep doing the same thing and expecting different results? Diets may seem harmless, but they actually do a lot of collateral damage. At worst, they ruin lives: Weight obsession leads to eating disorders, In the U.S., we have 80 percent of 10-year-old girls say they've been on a diet. Our daughters have learned to measure their worth by the wrong scale. Even at its best, dieting is a waste of time and energy. It takes willpower which you could be using to help your kids with their homework or to finish that important work project, and because willpower is limited, any strategy that relies on its consistent application is pretty much guaranteed to eventually fail you when your attention moves on to something else. Let me leave you with one last thought. What if we told all those dieting girls that it's okay to eat when they're hungry? What if we taught them to work with their appetite instead of fearing it? I think most of them would be happier and healthier, and as adults, many of them would probably be thinner. I wish someone had told me that back when I was 13. Thanks.	{ "source": "iwslt2017", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
アルセニア魔法学園はアクエリスタン地方中部モルの街にある。モルの街は水との共存を掲げている街であり、街のあちらこちらに水路があるきれいな街だ。そしてレイリア王国全土の中でも、有名な観光名所として知られており、常日頃から観光客がにぎわっていた。そんなモルの街にあるアルセニア魔法学園では間目の授業が行われていた。しかし、訓練生の教室には教師などはいないため、完全な自主練の時間となっている。そして授業中だというのに、訓練生二年の教室には大きな人だかりができていた。人だかりを構成しているのは、ほとんどが男子生徒であり、人だかりの中心にいの少女に対して、必死に話しかけようとしていた。そんな男子生徒たちの中心にいる、きれいな青い髪に青い眼をした幼女は不安そうに周りを見ている。「ねえねえ、リリィさんってどこから来たの?」「アルーニャってユア様の一族なの?」「どんな魔法使うの?」「よかったら一緒に自主練しない?」「あっ、てめぇ抜け駆けは許さねぇぞ。俺と一緒にどうですか?」「なら、俺とは?」ある者は幼女とお近づきになろうとする。そしてそんな男子生徒たちの中心にいるのは、青い髪の幼女、リリィだ。男子生徒たちは、リリィと近づきたいという下心を全開にして、話しかけていた。授業中だというのにこのようなことをしていれば、もちろん教師に怒られてしまう。しかし訓練生の教室に教師はいない。「えーっと、えーっと」リリィは周りの少年たちの質問に、どうすればいいかわからず、あたふたとしている。それもそのはずだ。ついこの間までダリス大峡谷に住んでいたリリィは、人にほとんど会っていないのだから。例え人が来たとしても、対応は大人バージョンに任せたため、リリィはほとんど人と会話をしたことがなかった。とくに男性と。このような場合、リリィが大人バージョンになれば話は早いのだが、そうするとウンディーネってことがばれてしまう。もしそうなった場合、最悪、退学処分に追い込まれてしまう可能性がある。なのでリリィはセイヤと学園では大人バージョンにならないと、セイヤと約束していたのだった。「ねえねえ、一緒に自主練しようよ。僕は上級魔法師一族だよ」「俺も上級魔法師一族だよ。一緒に自主練しよう。リリィさん」「僕は中級魔法師一族だけど一緒にやろう」「リリィさん、俺と一緒にやりましょうよ」困ってるリリィに気付く様子もなく、少年たちは自らの欲望を全開でリリィを自主練に誘う。「えっと、えっと」そんな困っているリリィを助けてくれたのは一人の少女だった。「ちょっと、男子。リリィさん困っているでしょ。ここはクラス委員の私が、リリィさんを案内するから、男子たちは自主練してなさい」その女子はきれいな赤い髪をショートカットにした可愛い女の子だ。女の子はリリィに手を差し伸べながら言う。「リリィさん、行こう。」彼女に瞳はそのきれいな髪と同じく赤色で、青い髪のリリィをサファイアというならば、その少女はまるでルビーのようだ。しかし男子生徒たちも簡単には逃がしてくれない。「おい、待てよ」「そうだ、リリィさんは俺たちと自主練するんだ」「そうだ、いくらクラス委員だからって横暴だ」男子生徒たちが、リリィのことを連れ出そうとした赤髪の少女に対して文句を言う。どうやら彼らの中ではリリィは自分たちと自主練をすることが決定しているらしい。そんな男子生徒たちに対して赤髪の少女が見下すかのように言う。「自分の欲望で暴走しないで。それとも、決闘で決める?」突如、赤髪の少女から放たれた威圧感。それは訓練生のものとは思えないほど洗練されており、男子生徒たちはその威圧感に怯む。赤髪の少女はそんな男子生徒たちを無視して、教室からリリィを連れ出す。そして中庭へと移動した。噴水がある中庭、その周りにはベンチなどが多数あり、二人はそのうちの一つに座る。「リリィさん大丈夫? ごめんね、うちのクラス男子が」そんなことを言う赤髪の少女には、先ほどまでの威圧感はなく、とても優しげだ。リリィはそんな彼女に対してお礼を言おうと思ったが、彼女の名前がわからない。「えっと、その、ありがとう。えっと......」「あっ、ごめん。名前、まだだったよね。私はリリィさんと同じクラスで、クラス委員をやっているナーリ。ナーリって呼んで」赤髪の少女はナーリと名乗る。「ありがとうナーリ! 私はリリィ、リリィでいいよ! あと敬語はなし!」「うん!」この時、リリィはナーリのおかげでいつもの元気を取り戻していた。「違うよ」「じゃあ魔法学園は初めて?」リリィが魔法学園が初めてだと聞くと、ナーリは急にお姉さんのような雰囲気を纏い、リリィに提案する。「そっか、じゃあ私が案内してあげるよ」「本当? ありがとう!」その後、二人は二時間目の時間を使い学園中を歩き回った。途中、ナーリたちの担任の教師に見つかってしまったが、事情を説明すると案内を認めてもらい、二人は堂々と学園中を探検することができた。二人が一通り学園中を見終わると、ちょうど二時間目の終わりを告げるチャイムが鳴る。「中休みだ。教室に戻ろうか、リリィ」中休みという単語を聞いてあることを思い出すリリィ。「どうしたの、リリィ?」「リリィ、中休みになったら学園長室に行かなきゃいけないの。入学のあいさつとかで」リリィの言う通り、リリィとセイヤは中休みにあいさつのため校長室に呼ばれていた。それを聞いたナーリは理解したようにリリィに聞く。「学園長室の場所はわかる?」「わかんないけどその前に行くところがある!」「どこへ?」「えっとね、二年A組!」リリィはセイヤと合流して校長室に行く予定となっていたため、まずはセイヤのところへと向かう。「なんとなくわかるから大丈夫!」「じゃあ私は教室にいるから、終わったら教室に来てね」「ありがとうナーリ!」「いいよ、友達なんだし」そう言って二人は別れる。ナーリは教室に戻り、リリィはセイヤのところへ行くために校舎へと入る。セイヤの位置は契約の副産物でなんとなくわかるため、リリィは迷わずにセイヤの下へと向かう。そして、盛大にやらかすのだった。	Arsenia Magic Academy is located in the middle of the Aquaristan region in the center of Moru city. Moru city is filled with beautiful waterways and fountains. And among the entire Leiria Kingdom, it is known as a famous sightseeing spot. There are plenty of tourists here all the time. And currently, inside the Arsenia Magic Academy, the second lesson was in progress. However, since there were no teachers in the trainees’ classroom, trainees were free to use this time for self-study. But although it was in the middle of the lesson, the class was unusually noisy. Most of the boys were desperately trying to talk with a girl in the center of a crowd. A young girl with blue eyes and beautiful blue hair was in the center of this crowd, and she was looking around anxiously. 「Hey, Lily-san, where are you from?」「Arunia is Yua-sama’s surname, right?」「What magic can you use?」「Would you like to study with me?」「Do not step ahead of everyone, how about studying with me?」「Then how about me?」 They were trying to get close to this young girl. And the name of a beautiful blue-haired girl was Lily. [] Boys were trying to approach her and start a conversation. If you are to do something like this during the lesson, the teacher will get angry. However, there are no teachers in the trainees’ classroom. 「Etto, etto」 Lily didn’t know how to answer all these questions. That was normal. After all, Lily was living in the Great Dalis Canyon and rarely met people. Even if someone came, adult version of Lily dealt with them, so she had no chance to converse with anyone. Especially with men. If she switched to her adult version right now, the conversation will proceed, but then everyone will know that she is the Undine. If that happens, there is a possibility that she will be forced to drop out. So Lily had promised to Seiya that she won’t become an adult version in the school. 「Hey, let’s train together. I am from an advanced magician family」「I am also from an advanced magician family. Let’s work together, Lily-san」「I am from an intermediate magician family but let’s do it together」「Please study with me, Lily-san」 Without noticing her flustered appearance, the boys invited Lily to do self-training with increasing vigor. Then, a certain girl saved Lily from her predicament. 「Hey, boys. You are troubling Lily-san. As a class head I will guide her around, so you should continue your self-study」 This girl had a short red hair. She reached with her hand to Lily and said. 「Lily-san, let’s go.」 Her eyes were as red as her beautiful hair. If you call the blue-haired Lily a sapphire, then she is a ruby. But the boys didn’t let her escape so easily. 「Oi, wait」「That’s right. Lily-san will study with us right now」「Yes, even if you are a class head it’s too tyrannical」「Right, right」 Male students complained to the red-haired girl, that tried to save Lily. Apparently, they already decided that Lily will study with them. The girl with red hair says as if looking down on them: 「Control your urges. Or do you want to have a duel? 」 Suddenly, strong pressure was released from the girl with red hair. It was quite powerful for a trainee, and the boys easily got intimidated. The red-haired girl ignored the boys and brought Lily out of the classroom, into the courtyard. There were many fountains with benches around them, and the two sat down on one of them. 「Are you alright, Lily-san? I’m sorry for our boys」 There was no pressure emanating from the red-haired girl, she looked very kind. Lily wanted to thank the girl, but she remembered that she didn’t know her name. 「Etto, thank you. Etto....」「Oh, sorry. I didn’t introduce myself yet. I’m your classmate and the head of the class, you can call me Nari」 The girl with red hair introduced herself as Nari. 「Thanks Nari! I’m Lily, you can call me Lily! Also, don’t be so polite! 」 []「All right, best regards Lily」 Thanks to Nari, Lily regained her previous vigor. 「Wrong」「Then this is your first time in magic academy?」 When Lily answered that she was attending a magic academy for the first time, Nari suddenly assumed a sister-like atmosphere and proposed to Lily. 「I see, then I’ll show you around」「Really? Thank you! 」 After that, they roamed around the school for the whole nd hour. On the way, they were found by their homeroom teacher, but with a guidance as a reason, they were permitted to walk around. When the two of them finished walking around the school, the chime, signaling the end of the second hour, just rang. 「It’s break right now. Let’s return to the classroom, Lily」「Yes!」 Hearing the word “break”, Lily remembered a certain matter. 「What’s wrong, Lily?」「Lily should head to the principal’s office. It’s entry greetings or something」 As she said, Lily and Seiya were called to the principal’s office for a talk. Nari made an understanding expression and asked. 「Do you know where it is?」「I don’t know, but I have a place to go before that!」「Where?」「Etto, class -A!」 Lily was asked to go to the principal’s office together with Seiya, so she wanted to find him first. 「It’s more or less fine!」「Then I will go to the classroom, so please come to the classroom when you are finished」「Thanks Nari!」「It’s okay, we are friends after all」 After saying their goodbyes, they split up. Nari returns to the classroom and Lily tries to locate Seiya. Because they are bound by the contract, she can sense his location. [] And she found him pretty easily.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 5, "inserted_lines_src": 6, "inserted_lines_trg": 5 }
ハマスはまた、イスラエルの撤退中に、2 つの「軍事機密」を明らかにした。1 つめは、15 km の射程距離を持ち、より多くのイスラエル市街を攻撃可能である Sajil と名付けられた新型ミサイルである。2 つめは、闘争訓練に専従する「Qassamits」という若い女性たちである。ハマスはこの発表を撤退に合わせて行い、軍事拡張戦略が勝利したかのような印象を生み出した。	The second is the “Qassamits,” young women who are engaged in combat training. Hamas timed these revelations with the disengagement to create the impression that its intensifying military strategy had prevailed.	{ "source": "news_commentary", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
クレアさんやティルラちゃんと和やかに話していると、食堂の入り口が開いてワゴンに乗せられた料理が運ばれて来た。今日の夕食はソースのかかった肉のソテー、朝食の時より色が濃いドレッシングになったサラダ、白くて少しだけドロッとしたスープ......これはポタージュスープかな? 昨日は俺とレオの歓迎会とかで、量を多くして飾り付けに力を入れたって言ってたな。多分、これがいつもの夕食なんだろう。ちなみにレオの前にはソーセージが積まれてるが、昨日より量が少なく、サラダが代わりに置いてある。テーブルの下、レオが直接座ってる床にはバケツサイズの入れ物に牛乳が並々と入っていた。「クレアお嬢様、ティルラお嬢様、タクミ様、どうぞ召し上がって下さい」料理が皆の前に配膳された後、食堂に入って来た料理人らしきコック帽を被った女性が促し、夕食が始まった。まずはサラダを......朝のさっぱりしたドレッシングと違って、こっちのはちょっとこってりした味だ。健康のためにしっかり野菜は取らないとな! 続いてメインのお肉。牛肉っぽい食感と味、肉汁たっぷりでソースと絡めて食べるとさらにおいしい。箸休め的にスープも一口。口の中にあった油が洗い流されるようなさっぱりしたスープは、肉と一緒に頂くと味を引き立てる。 ......この世界の料理って、どれも美味しい物ばかりだ。米やみそ汁が無いから文化の違いはやっぱりあるけど、食べ物に不満を感じないだけでも先の不安は無くなるものだ。「んー。やっぱり美味しいですね」「ワウ」「ありがとうございます」レオと一緒に料理が美味しいと頷き合うと、コック帽を被った女性がお礼を言う。「タクミさんも気に入ったようですね」「それはもう。ここに来てからの料理は全部美味しいですから」「フフフ。良かったわね、ヘレーナ」「はい、クレアお嬢様。美味しいと言って頂く事が、我ら料理人にとって最高の喜びです」「タクミさん、ヘレーナはこの屋敷の料理長を務めています」「ヘレーナさん......美味しい料理、ありがとうございます」「いえ、こちらこそ、私共が作った料理を美味しいと言って頂いてありがとうございます」ヘレーナさんとお互いお礼を言い合い、少しだけ変な雰囲気になった。でもまぁ、美味しい料理を作ってくれた事に感謝、料理を美味しいと言って貰えた事に感謝、これって大事な事だと思う......多分。それはそうと、見た目はまだ若い......20代かな......女性が料理長を務めるって、結構大変じゃないかな。高級レストランとかで料理長になる人は大体40代~50代くらいの男性っていうのが俺のイメージだ。イメージなだけで本当は違うかもしれないが、ヘレーナさんの若さで料理長というのは、やっぱりすごい事だと思う。今まで食べた料理は全部美味しかったから、ヘレーナさんの腕が確かなのは間違いないな。「ヘレーナ、今日の料理も美味しいです!」「ありがとうございます、ティルラお嬢様」ティルラちゃんは、ヘレーナさんの作った料理を食べながら満面の笑みだ。昼寝をしたティルラちゃんは、元気いっぱいでニコニコしてる。 ......これは、レオが寝るのは遅くなるかもしれないな。食後のティータイム。相変わらずライラさんが淹れてくれたお茶はおいしいな。ソーセージをたらふく食べて、満腹になったレオは床に丸くなっている。レオのお腹あたりには、ティルラちゃんが入り込んで触り心地の良い銀色の毛に包まれて幸せそうだ。遊びたがると思ったが、意外にティルラちゃんがおとなしいな。それだけレオの毛に包まれてるのが気持ち良いんだろう。セバスチャンさん、ライラさん、ゲルダさんは後ろに控えており、お茶のカップが空になった時はすぐにお代わりを注いでくれる。 ......ありがとうございます、美味しく飲ませて頂いてます。ヘレーナさんは俺達が料理に舌鼓を打っている事に満足して、食器を持って食堂を出て行った。このまったりしてる時間なら気兼ねなく聞けるかもな。クレアさんの事をほとんど知らないからな。「クレアさん」「何でしょうか、タクミさん?」「ええとですね......昨日は俺の事を話しましたが、今日はクレアさんの事を聞かせてもらえますか?」「私の事、ですか?......そんな......私の事なんて......どうしよう......緊張して来たわ......」俺は変な事を言っただろうか? 一度きょとんとした表情を見せたクレアさんは、小声で何か呟きながら顔を赤くしている。小さく呟いたので、テーブルの向かいにいるクレアさんの声がはっきりと聞き取れなかった。「......ええと、ですね。俺は昨日クレアさんと森の中で出会ったわけですが、クレアさんが何故この屋敷で暮らしてるのかとか、使用人さん達だけでなく街の人達からも敬われてるような感じだったので、何故かな......と」「......そういう事ですか......わかりました。タクミさんの事を聞いておいて、私の事を話さないのはフェアではありませんものね......まったく、危うく勘違いしそうだったわ......」ん? 何だろう......最後だけまた聞き取れなかったが......。「クレアさん?」「......いえ、何でもありません。ええと、私がどうしてこの屋敷で暮らしているか、でしたね」「はい」「端的に言いますと、私とティルラはお父様から離れるためにここにいるのです」父親から離れるためとは穏やかじゃないな......その父親が何かしたのだろうか。	I talked with Ms. Claire and Tilura amidst a harmonious atmosphere, when the doors to the dining hall opened and the food was carried in on a wagon. Tonight’s dinner was a sauté meat with sauce, a salad with a much thicker dressing than the one served at breakfast, and a white soup...or was it a potage? They had said that since yesterday was a welcome dinner for me and Leo, they had served extra food and put a lot of effort into the presentation. I think that this was probably closer to how they usually dined. There was a plate of sausages in front of Leo now, but there were fewer sausages than yesterday. But she had a salad to make up for it. And on the floor, right where Leo sat, there was a large bowl that was filled with milk. “Lady Claire, Lady Tilura, Mr. Takumi. Please eat.” Said a woman, who looked like the cook, as she wore a chef’s hat. And so we began to eat. First, was the salad...unlike the refreshing dressing from this morning, this one was rich and tasty. One had to eat a lot of vegetables to stay healthy! Next was the main dish, the meat. The texture and flavor was similar to beef, and it was quite juicy, and delicious when combined with the sauce. I then tried the soup. It was light, and easily washed away the oil in my mouth. It perfectly complemented the meat. ...All of the food in this world was incredibly delicious. While there were differences in culture, as they did not have rice or miso here, I had no complaints regarding the food, which greatly helped in easing my anxiety about the future. “Mmm. This really is delicious.” “Wou!” “Thank you.” When Leo and I complemented the food, the woman in the chef’s hat thanked us. “You really seem to enjoy the food, Mr. Takumi.” “More than I can express. Everything I’ve eaten since coming here has been amazing.” “Hehehe. You must be very pleased, Helena.” “Yes, Lady Claire. As cooks, hearing that our food is delicious is our greatest joy.” “Mr. Takumi, this is Helena. The head cook of this house.” “Ms. Helena... Thank you for such a wonderful meal.” “No, thank you for being so complimentary towards the food that we made.” She thanked me back, and the atmosphere became a little awkward. Well, one was thankful for the food, and the other thankful for the compliments. I suppose it was a good thing...I think. Also, she looked rather young...perhaps in her twenties. It must be rather difficult, being the head cook at that age. Most of the head cooks I had seen at restaurants were middle-aged men. Well, maybe it was just me. Regardless, it was pretty impressive that she had that position. And since everything I had eaten was delicious, it was clear that she was very capable. “Helena! Your food is delicious as always!” “Thank you, Lady Tilura.” Tilura had the biggest smile on her face as she ate her dinner. As she had taken a nap, she was full of energy and in a good mood. ...Leo might have to stay up quite late tonight. After dinner, there was tea time. The tea that Ms. Lyra made was always great. Leo was full after eating sausages, and she was now curled up on the floor. Tilura was pressed up against Leo’s stomach, and seemed to be very happy as she was enveloped in the soft, silvery fur. I had thought that she’d want to play, but she was surprisingly quiet. It must be because Leo’s fur was that comfortable to be wrapped in. Sebastian, Lyra, and Gelda were standing in the back. And they would quickly pour us more tea when a cup was empty. ...Thank you. They are delicious. Thoroughly satisfied at the sight of us smacking our lips at her work, Ms. Helena had taken the dish and left the dining hall. Since this was such a laid back atmosphere, I could perhaps ask some questions without hesitating. I really knew almost nothing about Ms. Claire. “Ms. Claire.” “What is it, Mr. Takumi?” “Um, I was just wondering... Yesterday, I told you about myself. So today, I would like to learn more about you.” “About...me? Oh...well, I... What can I say... I’m starting to get nervous...” Had I said something wrong? While Ms. Claire looked taken aback for a moment, she then blushed and began to mutter to herself. And since she was on the other side of the table, I was not able to hear her. “...Uh, well. I met you in the forest yesterday, but I was wondering about how you came to live in this mansion. Also, it’s not just the servants, but even the townspeople seemed to have a great respect for you. And I was wondering why that...is...” “...I see... Very well. It would not be fair for me to have asked about you, and not say anything about myself... Really, I almost took that a different way...” Huh? What...what did she just say...? “Ms. Claire?” “...No, it’s nothing. Um, yes, about why I am living in this mansion, yes?” “Yes.” “To put it simply, Tilura and I are here in order to be away from our father.” Away from their father. That sounded a little ominous... Had their father done something?	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 0, "inserted_lines_src": 0, "inserted_lines_trg": 0 }
イラン君主制の因習を終わらせた1979年革命は、シーア派神学的基盤を持ち、シーア派の法律学者／聖職者に絶対的な統治力を与える、新たな政治秩序を生み出した。イランの長い歴史を通じて、シーア派神学校は、イランの社会及び政治に多大な影響を及ぼしてきたが、市民機関であると見なされてきた。イラン革命が起こるまで、神学校組織が政治的合法性の源とみなされることはなかった。	The 1979 revolution, which ended Iran’s monarchical tradition, created a new political order based on Shiite theological foundations and giving absolute ruling power to a Shiite jurist/cleric. Throughout Iran’s long history, Shiite seminaries exercised great influence on Iranian society and politics, but they had been considered civil institutions.	{ "source": "news_commentary", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
「はあはあ。まさかペンギンが襲い掛かってくるとは...」この地に飛ばされてから3日目。ひたすら歩き続けて海岸の近くまで来た私の周囲には普通のペンギンよりも大きく、腕が金属化し、剣のように鋭くなったペンギン型のモンスターと、その亡骸が大量にありました。「ギャアギャア!」「ガアガア!」何故、襲い掛かって来たかは分かりません。ただ、彼らは私の姿を認めると突然襲い掛かってきました。もしかしたら目についた生き物なら何でも襲うように命令されているのかもしれません。ただ、確かなのは、こうして彼らに見つかった以上は殲滅するしかない。という事ですね。来なさい≪形無き王の剣・弱≫」私は周囲の地面とこのペンギン(エッジペンギンとでも言っておきましょうか。)の腕に含まれる金属をより集め、一本の剣を作り上げます。その剣は形こそはよくある西洋剣。その中でもロングソードと言われるもので、装飾も何もない実戦重視の剣ですが、その中身は普通の剣とは比べ物にならない切れ味を有する一種の魔剣です。「ハッ!」「「「ピヨッ!?......ガッ......」」」現に今、武器を生成する間を隙と捉えたエッジペンギンが何匹かこちらに突っ込んできましたが、私が生成したばかりの剣で軽く横薙ぎしただけで全員真になりました。さて、≪形無き王の剣・弱≫ですが、これは私が半魔王化したことによって≪短距離転移≫に代わって現れたスキルです。“弱”と付いているのは私が純粋な魔王でなく、半魔王だからそれに合わせて弱体化したのでしょう。効果としては私の周辺に存在している金属を剣に出来、私自身と持っている剣を半径25m以内の好きな場所にテレポートさせるという効果があります。「ギャアギャア!!」と、また一羽飛び込んできたので、私は攻撃を避けた後にそのエッジペンギンの頭と被るように剣をテレポートさせます。「ピヨオオオォォォ!」すると、剣がエッジペンギンの頭を両断する形で出現し、エッジペンギンは絶命します。これがこのスキルの恐ろしいところで、詳しい条件はまだ分かりませんが、どうやらテレポート先に別の物体があると、その物体を切り裂くように出現するようなのです。「ふっ。」そして、テレポートさせた剣を素材に私の手元に生成します。こうすればテレポートさせて私の手元から離れた剣も戻せるようです。クロキリの霧の体も相当なチートだとは思いますが、私のこのスキルも十分チートだと思います。これでもまだ“弱”と付いているわけですし。仲間が一度に何羽も殺されたためでしょうか。周囲のエッジペンギンたちが大きく騒ぎ出します。ですが、逃げる気はないようです。「さて、それならば、半魔王の力がどの程度のものなのか確かめさせていただきましょうか。」私は先程倒したエッジペンギンの亡骸から二本目の剣を作り出し、左手に持ち、二刀流になります。そして、私による正式名称も分からないモンスターたちを一方的に蹂躙する戦いが始まりました。死体、死体、死体。辺り一帯見渡す限りエッジペンギンの死体ばかりです。切った数は50を超えた辺りで数えるのを止めましたが、この様子ですともしかしたら1000を超えているかもしれません。なにせ地面が1なら死体が7ぐらいですし。まあ、また襲われても困りますし、この先の考え事は移動しつつにしましょうか。さて、戦っていて思ったのですが、やはりこの体のスペックはステータス通りに異常なようです。ダンジョン外補正も普通の眷属と同じ程度にしか働いていないようですし。と、具体的なステータスを見せた方が早いですよね。こんな感じです。 -------------- Name:イチコ(定まらぬ剣の刃姫) Class:半魔王 Race:定まらぬ剣の刃姫・半霧人 Level:8 HP:1045/1045 MP:900/900 SP:945/945 Status 筋力 30 器用 45 敏捷 54 感知 54 知力 21 精神 25 幸運 10 Skill ≪形無き王の剣・弱≫≪霧の衣・薄≫≪魔性創生・下位≫≪短剣習熟I≫≪首切り≫≪キーンエッジ≫≪ロングエッジ≫≪主は我を道に力を行使す≫≪ Title ≪黒霧の王の眷族≫≪白霧の暗殺者≫≪鬼殺し≫≪霧王の依り代≫≪霧王の寵姫≫≪定まらぬ剣の刃姫≫≪魔神と遭遇せし者≫≪首切り姫≫ etc. 確かに魔王に比べたらステータス的には弱いのかもしれませんが、ダンジョン外にでも普通に出られますから考えようによっては魔王よりもはるかに強い気がします。それにしても名前も種族も見事に変わってしまっていますね。『定まらぬ剣の刃姫』それが今の私の種族であり、正式な名前なのですが、これはどういう意味なのでしょうね。剣や刃は固有スキルから納得もできますが、定まらぬの意味は分かりません。と、何か建物が見えてきましたね。私の想像通りならこの地はかなり厄介な場所なので、何かしらの便利な道具があるといいのですがね...。私はそんな事を考えつつその建物に向かっていきました。	————– “Haa. I never dreamed that penguins would strike me...” It has been three days since I was whisked away to this location. As I drew near the coast, I was confronted with penguin-shaped monsters that were larger than the average penguin, with metalized arms that were as acute as swords, accompanied by their carcasses in great numbers. “Gyagya!” “Gaga!” As for why they attacked me, it was not apparent. However, when they spotted me, they abruptly lunged at me. It may be that they have been under orders to assault any living creature that comes in sight of them. Nevertheless... “I have no option but to eliminate them now that they have discovered me in this state. Come, ≪Sword of the Formless King・Weak≫.” As I gathered more metals from the ground around me and from the penguin’s arm (Let’s call them Edge Penguin), I produced a sword. That sword was a conventional Western sword in shape. While it was referred to as a longsword with no decorations, the inner substance was a type of magical sword with sharpness unmatched by regular swords. “‘Gaaaaaah!’” “Ha!” “‘Piyot!?...Ga...’” In fact, several Edge Penguins seized the opportunity to charge at me while I was generating the weapon, but I lightly side-swiped them all in half with my newly generated sword. As a consequence of my metamorphosis into a half-Demon King, ≪Sword of the Formless King・Weak≫ had taken the place of ≪Short-range Teleportation≫. It was possible that it was branded “weak” because I was not a pure Demon King, but rather a half-Demon King, therefore it had been weakened to fit the criteria. I can convert any metal in my proximity into a sword and teleport myself and the blade I was wielding to any spot within a -meter radius as a corollary of this ability. Then another one lunged at me, and I teleported my sword to that Edge Penguin’s head after dodging its assault. “Pyoooooo!” The sword then appeared to bisect the Edge Penguin’s head, rendering it dead. This was the nightmarish aspect of this skill. Although the exact conditions were unclear, if another object was present at the teleportation location, it seemed to sever through it. “Phew.” The sword was then generated in my hand utilizing the material from the teleported sword. It appeared that I can teleport the sword away from me and back into my hand in this manner. While I would say that Kurokiri’s misty body was quite a cheat, I supposed that my skill was also a cheat. This skill was still classified as “weak” despite its faculty. Since several of their companions were slain at the same time, the nearby Edge Penguins were fueling a commotion. But they didn’t appear to have any intention of escaping. “Now then, let me verify the extent of the half-Demon King’s power.” Producing a second sword from the carcass of the Edge Penguin I had just defeated, I wielded it in my left hand and assumed two swords style. And so a one-sided battle has initiated in which I wreak havoc on monsters whose official names I didn’t even have a clue about. Carcasses, carcasses, and carcasses. As far as I could distinguish, the whole vicinity was awash with the carcasses of Edge Penguins. I quit counting after , but the number may have exceeded ,. In any case, if a single spot was 1, the number of dead bodies was about 7. Well, it would be a hassle if I am attacked again, so shall I ponder on the future while moving on? Now, while I was fighting, I recognized that the specifications of my body were as atypical as its status. Even the out-of-dungeon correction seemed to function only to the same extent as for ordinary kin. And it would be swifter to show specific statuses, right? Here is what it looks like: Name: Ichiko (Blade Princess of the Undefined Sword) Class: Half-Demon King Level: 8 HP:1045/1045 MP: 900/900 SP: 945/945 Status Strength 30 Dexterity 45 Agility 54 Perception 54 Intellect 21 Spirit 25 Luck 10 Skill ≪Sword of the Formless King・Weak≫, ≪Mist Cloak・Thin≫, ≪Monster Create・Low Rank≫, ≪Dagger Proficiency I≫, ≪Decapitation≫, ≪Keen Edge≫, ≪Long Edge≫, ≪The Lord Will Exercise His Power in My Path≫, ≪Enchanting Mist≫, ≪The Lord Transcends Reason for My Sake≫ Title ≪The King of the Black Mist’s Kin≫, ≪Assassin of the White Mist≫, ≪Demon Slayer≫, ≪Mist King’s Representative≫, ≪Favored Princess of the Mist King≫, ≪Blade Princess of the Undefined Sword≫, ≪The One Who Encountered the God of Calamity≫, ≪Decapitated Princess≫ etc. Depending on how one perceived it, it may be lower in status than the Demon King, but I believed it was far more stable than the Demon King because I can normally wander outside the dungeon. Nonetheless, both my name and race have been changed spectacularly. “Blade Princess of the Undefined Sword” was my current race and official name, but I wondered what this meant. Sword and blade made sense given my unique skills, but I didn’t grasp the meaning of “undefined”. And I spotted something like a building. If my assumption is accurate, this place is quite a nuisance, so I hope there are some handy tools here... With these thoughts in mind, I headed for that building.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 1, "inserted_lines_src": 5, "inserted_lines_trg": 9 }
こんにちは、レンです。酷い事件だったね......遠い目をして誤魔化してみてもダメですか。そうですよね、すみません。実はですね......あんな事があった数日後ですが、生理が来ましてね? 初潮ってヤツです。そのショックがですね......もうなんだか酷くて。『いきなりLV5事件』とかどうでもよくなりました。と言うかですね? この身体、重いんです。生理の症状が。動きたくないでござる。あ前世の知識を総動員して【創造魔法】で鎮痛剤作ったので、今はだるいけど何とか動けますよ。なんでそれにすぐ思い至らなかったのか! いや、動揺してたからですけどね。ちなみに痛み止めを使って何とか動けるようになったとは言っても、動く気力ありません。寝込んでます。ぐんにょり。そんな訳で健全な生活を心がけるようにしました、レンです。改めまして、こんにちは。え? 口調がいつもと違う? あー。あれですよ。今思考が女性寄りで安定してるようでして。『LV5事件』の原因のあれこれの行為とか、そのあとの初潮とかですか。それが原因だと思うんですけど、精神が肉体に引き摺られたみたいでしてね? 一応、現状としては女性の身体である事は受け入れました。基本的にここで生きた10年間が今の人格の下地になってると思います。但し前世のおっさんの記憶が強すぎて価値観はどうにも男性寄りに引き摺られてる事は拭えませんが。偶に男っぽい地がでますしね。なにはともあれ、女体の神秘パネェです。 ......て言うか、アレ、スキルなの!? やっぱり納得いかない! あと、夜の日課が増えました。ついでに寝室に鍵をつけて家を全室防音仕様に。 ......LV6になる日はそう遠くないかもしれないです。それはさておき。正直やる事ないんですよね、実際の所。体調も芳しくないから遠出して周辺調査とかもしたくないし。と言う訳で今は日向ぼっこを兼ねつつ畑仕事中です。健全だね! 健全! んー、でもまあ実際暇で平和で健全ですよ、ほんとほんと。 ......って、【探知】範囲内に動体反応? ......なんだろう? これ、狼? でもそれにしては動きがおかしいというか動きが無さ過ぎると言うか......そう、動かないのがおかしい? そもそも、この【探知】の範囲内って魔物除けと獣除けが効いてる筈なんだけど、なんで居るの? 「んー、このままここで考えてても仕方ないし、行ってみよう」さあ、準備! と言っても麦藁帽子取るだけだけど。そして鎌装備! しゃきーん! ......いや、鎌も置いていくよ。流石に。という訳でやってきました事件現場。事件じゃないけど。さてさて狼さん狼さん? 一体何がどうして......ああ、怪我をした母狼と子狼か。あー、この辺りは獣除けの匂いがするから、他の獣は寄って来ないってわかってここに来たのかな? 身の安全の為に。んー、どうしよう......見捨ててもいいし、殺して毛皮にしてもいい。何をしても私の自由だよね...... ......なら、助けてもいいよね? あー、前世の倫理観に侵されてるなあ......前世を思い出してなかったら間違いなく放置してた。でもどうやって助けようかな? 回復魔法が使えれば早かったんだろうけど、私の治療手段はポーションしかない。飲ませる? 野生動物が人の与えたものを飲むわけがない。と言うか近づいたら子狼が威嚇してきた。うーん。「怖くないよー?」「ぐるるるる」うん、知ってた。でもちょっとショック。んー、ポーションは患部に振りかけても効果がある。ならここからぶっかければいいんじゃない? と言う事で、ばしゃー。いやいや、助けようとしてるんだよ、って言っても分からないか。そもそも野生動物に液体ぶっ掛けるとか、普通にダメですよねー? なんて考えながら母狼の様子を見ていると徐々に傷がふさがっていく。すると威嚇していた母狼がおとなしくなっていった。やがて完全に傷口がふさがると、立ち上がってこちらを見つめてくる。あー、これは私が治したって理解してる感じかな? そのまましばらくこちらを眺めていたけど、その場を去って行った。流石に懐いたりしないよね、残念。そもそもぶっかけちゃったし! そう考えていた時期が私にもありました。今では庭で丸くなって寝ています。どうしてこうなった。いや、あのあと数日経って、体調も収まったから狩りに行ったんですよ。そしたらそこでばったり会いましてね? 折角なので小さい獲物を分けてあげたんです。それからも狩りに行く度に遭遇しまして、その度に餌付けしている内に気付いたらこの有様ですよ。いや、寂しくなかったって言ったら嘘になるしね? 正直な所、凄く嬉しい。一応名前もつけました。灰色がかった銀色の毛並みの母狼の方がノルン。白い白銀の毛並みの子狼の方がベル。元ネタ? あー、まあ......うん。子狼が3匹居たら丁度良かったんだけどね? 2番目の名前にしたのはなんとなく。でもこれでぼっち生活脱却ですよ。え? 会話が成立しない? それはそれ! これはこれ! ......あとはもふもふさせてくれれば!	Hello, this is Ren. What a horrible incident......it seems I can’t just pretend to ignore it. Right, I’m sorry. In truth.....a few days after that incident, I think my period came? It was my first menstruation. The shock was......quite terrible. Anyhow, I was now all of a sudden LV. And how should I put this? My body felt very sluggish due to the symptoms from menstruation. And I wasn’t able to move around for a while. Ah, I did use the knowledge from my previous life and made painkillers with [Creation Magic] so I could move around now. But it took a while before that idea came to mind. No, I couldn’t help it, I was upset. Anyways, I could now move due to the painkillers, but even so, I didn’t have the energy to move around. And so I’ve just been laying on the bed all day long. As such, I was considering to strive towards living a wholesome life. Therefore, let’s start over, I’m Ren, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Eh? My tone is different from before. Ah– It’s because of that. My thoughts were becoming more feminine. Most likely due to what I had done to cause the whole LV incident, or because of the menstruation. I believe that is the cause, so I’m assuming that the state of my mind is being affected by the body. For now, I accepted the circumstances since my body was female. The base of my current personality was the accumulation of ten years of life in this world. But, regardless, I wasn’t able to just erase the values and memories of my middle-aged male self from the previous world. My masculine thoughts would come out every now and then. Anyways, the female body sure was complicated. ......Rather, isn’t this all because of the skill!? Therefore, it’s not my fault! Also, my nighttime routines ended up increasing. As such, I would lock the bedroom during those times to prevent any sounds from leaking. ......At this rate, my days of reaching LV is probably not too far away. But that aside. To be honest, there was also nothing else to do. And I didn’t want to go outside hunting since I wasn’t feeling well. So instead, I was just sunbathing in the garden. Now, this is wholesome! But living peacefully would still be considered wholesome, it’s true okay? ........Hmm, Detection was reacting to something. ......What is it? A wolf? But it doesn’t seem to be moving much.......it’s a bit strange that it’s staying still. To begin with, what was a monster doing so close to be within my Detection range? “Hm, there’s no point in thinking about it here, let’s go see what’s up.” Alright, let’s prepare! But I only ended up grabbing a straw hat. And a sickle too! .......No, never mind, let’s leave the sickle behind. That would be a bit too much...... Anyways, I arrived at the crime scene. Although, it wasn’t really a crime scene. Now let’s see, two wolves? What are they doing here......ah, it’s an injured mother wolf and her child. Ah I see, I placed monster repellants around this area, so the two wolves probably came here because they knew monster wouldn’t appear here. Hmm, what should I do now.....I could just leave them alone, or kill them for their fur. Since it’s my freedom to choose what I want to do....... .......Then, should I help them? Hah, it seems I’m being influenced by the ethics of my past world.....I would probably just leave them otherwise. But how can I help them? It would be easier if I could use healing magic, but my only recovery methods are potions. Would they drink it? Wild animals usually wouldn’t drink what a human gives them. The wolf growled menacingly as I approached. Of course. “Are you scared?” “Grrrrrr.” Yep, knew it. But I was still a bit shocked. Well, it’s fine, the potion should be effective even if I just pour it on the affected area. So I guess I could just pour it from over here. Right, let’s just do that. It seems the wolf pup now understands that I was trying to help them. But wouldn’t splashing stuff on animals usually be considered abuse? As I was thinking random thoughts, I watched on as the wounds on the mother wolf gradually healed. The growling mother wolf immediately became quiet. After the wounds completely healed, it rose and stared at me. Ah, does she understand that I healed her? The mother wolf continued staring at me for a bit, then turned around and left with its child. As expected, it’s not like she would thank me, too bad. Well, I did splash stuff on them so... Or that’s what I initially thought. But the wolves were now sleeping in my garden. So how did this happen? Well, a few days ago, I went hunting because I was feeling a lot better. The wolves ended up following me for some reason. So I shared some of my spoils with them. Afterward, every time I went hunting, I would share what I caught with them and they became aware that I would feed them. I guess I would be lying if I said I wasn’t feeling lonely living in this forest by myself. So, to be honest, I was very happy. I also decided to give them names. The mother wolf with grayish-silver fur is Norn. And the silvery-white wolf pup is Bell. Am I basing the name off something? Ahh, well......yeah. It would’ve been great if there had been three wolves. I could’ve used the word that came after. But with this, I would be free of my loner life. Eh? But they don’t know how to talk? This and that are two different matters. ......Besides I’m able to fluff their fur!	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 2, "inserted_lines_src": 0, "inserted_lines_trg": 0 }
試しています実は仕事でも物語作家にツイッター上での新しい物語形式を提案したりしています今日はいくつか実例をご紹介したいと思いますネットの特性である柔軟なIDや匿名性を利用し実話と作り話の区別を曖昧にするという大変面白いものですでもまずは1930年代の話から始めさせてくださいツイッターができる何年も前ラジオが番組を流し何百万という人々とラジオ局という一箇所を結びつけていましたそれらのラジオ局は様々な物語を生み出しましたありふれた物語もあれば新しい物語もありましたしばらくの間は既存の物語形式でしたがラジオという媒体に応じた独自の形式に次第に変化していきましたラジオで生放送された物語がいい例ですラジオ局から生でシリーズ化された物語を放送するという新しい物語形式が生まれましたなぜラジオの話をしているかというとどうやって新しい媒体が新しい物語形式を生み出し更にそれが新しい物語を生み出すかの素晴らしい例だと思ったからです現在私たちにはインターネットという全く新しい媒体がありますこれはツイッターユーザーと彼らの関係がわかるマップですユーザーは何千万人といますネットにアクセスさえできれば誰でも情報を発信することができます一箇所から多くの人へではなく多くの箇所から多くの人へ配信という次元です人々がこの新しい媒体で話を伝える術を身につけたことで様々な新しい物語形式が生まれてきたことに私たちは気づき始めるでしょう目の前に壮大な荒野が広がっていると思ってくださいここには色々な建物を築くことができます私たちはインターネットという未開の荒野の仕組みがわかり慣れてきてやっと建物を築ける段階にきていますそしてそれらの建物はインターネットのおかげで生まれた新しい物語形式なのですこの新しい形式は既存の形式を利用して生まれます例えば短編小説です短編小説は電子書籍やデジタル市場のおかげで再び注目を浴び始めましたヒュー・ハウイーという著者が『ウール』という超短編小説をアマゾンで発売しました実はシリーズ化するつもりはなかったと彼は言いますしかし読者の間で大好評だったため続編を書くことにしました前作よりも少しだけ長い『ウール2』中編小説となった『ウール3』そして『ウール5』を発売する頃には 6万語の長編小説となっていましたハウイー氏は読者の感想をすぐに見られる電子書籍システムのおかげでここまでのことが出来たのだと思います彼は比較的短期間で小説を発売することができました彼と読者との間に誰もいなかったので読者の感想は直接彼に伝わりました読者の意見と要望に応えてハウイー氏は小説を書き続けることができましたこの取り組みは新しい試みでしたこの試みはある短編小説から始まりハウイー氏の物語形式となったのですそれはこの新しい媒体が可能にしたのです試み自体が新しい形式となったのですこれはジェニファー・イーガン氏による短編小説で『ブラックボックス』です『ブラックボックス』は元々ツイッター用に書かれた物語でしたイーガン氏はニューヨーカー誌を説得してツイッターに小説用アカウントを開設してもらい『ブラックボックス』をツイッター上で書くようにしましたもちろんツイートの文字数は 140字に限られていますご覧のようにイーガン氏はスケッチブックに実際のツイート画面の大きさのコマを作りそこに各ツイートを手書きして行きました最終的には600以上のツイートになりニューヨーカー誌によって連載されました毎晩8時にニューヨーカーのフィクションアカウントから短編小説を読むことができるのですそれはかなり画期的な事だと思います物語を読むのにテレビをつけるような感覚ですもちろんツイッター上なのでイーガン氏の物語を楽しむ方法は多様でしたまとめて読むこともできますが面白いのはリアルタイムで読んでいる場合どうなるか早く知りたい気持ちが高まるということですツイートは定期的に配信されますがいつ次のツイートを読むかを自分では決められないということです通常物語を読み進める際読む速度を決めるのは読者ですがこの場合ニューヨーカーでしたニューヨーカーは読み手に少しずつツイートを送るので次のツイートを待つ読者のドキドキ感は高まりましたその他のツイッターでのフィクションと短編小説の良い例を紹介します『エビデンス』という小説の作者エリオット・ホルトはツイートをこのように始めました「11月28日午後10時13分マンハッタンホテルの屋根から女性が転落死しましたブルックリン在住のミランダ・ブラウンと確認されました」ナレーターとしてホルト氏が話し始めますがナレーションが徐々に減っていきますホルト氏がツイッター上で作り上げたエルサ、マーゴ、サイモンという人物が続けて語ります様々な視点から語られる話はこの女性が亡くなった午後10時13分へと繋がっていくのですこの3人の登場人物の視点が実話であるかのような錯覚を引き起こしたのですある読者はホルト氏の物語を「ツイッターフィクションならでは」と評しましたまさにその通り語り口調複数の登場人物実際の時間との同時進行面白いことはツイッターが配信の役割だけでなく制作の役割も担ったのです後にホルト氏は言いました「親指だけで全てを書いたソファーに横たわり一行一行違う人物になりきりツイートした」とこのように登場人物の発言を場当たり的に書き上げることが登場人物が実在するかのように感じさせツイッター上のひとつの物語を複数の視点からという彼女独自の物語形式に信憑性を与えたのですネット上で変更可能なIDを使って現実世界の話題を取り入れることで更に面白くなります共和党の演説を揶揄した「見えないオバマ」共和党ロムニー氏の「女性が詰まったバインダー」発言のような2012年の米大統領選挙の例や『ザ・ホワイトハウス』という実在番組のファン・フィクション「ザ・ホワイトハウス・ツイッター」『ザ・ホワイトハウス』で実在する全ての登場人物それはたった一話のワンシーンにしか登場しなかった小鳥までもがアカウントを持ち登場しますこれら3つは同じ現象なのですこれらの作者はこの新しい媒体で何ができるか挑戦している想像力豊かな人たちなのですツイッター上の「ホワイトハウス」にはドラマの架空人物が現実世界と交わります登場人物は政界を批評し国会の闇を糾弾します彼らは民主党派なのですが物語の登場人物は現実世界の話題を語り合っています要するに現実世界の政治批判をしているのです変更可能なID 匿名現実世界の話題を使い現実の良い面だけを見せる作品やパロディを超えた物語を作ると本当に面白いものができますシカゴ市長選挙中ツイッター上であるパロディがありましたラーム・エマニュエル市長に関するものですそのパロディはエマニュエル市長の様々な姿特に市長の汚い言葉を使う姿を見せてくれますこのツイッターアカウントは日々の選挙活動を追いかけ汚い言葉でつぶやいていました好評なツイッターパロディによくある構成でしたが途中から少しずつおかしくなりました始めは選挙に沿った話でしたがリアルタイムでのSF長編小説の主人公としてエマニュエル市長は選挙の日別次元に行くのです・・・しかしそれは実際には起こっていませんでした私は新聞を確認しましたそしてなんとパロディは結末に至ったのですこれはツイッター上のパロディでは普段起こらないことですまさに物語の結末のようでした記者でありこの小説の作者であるダン・シンカーはそれまでずっと匿名にしていましたが結局それは物語形式になっていたのでシンカー氏は書籍化するのが最も自然と考えたのでしょうツイッター上のパロディから書籍化に至ることは今までにないような物語形式を生み出すという新しい形式の代表的なものです現在ツイッター上で特に気に入っているものは「クライマーショー」というばかげた番組です「クライマーショー」は天才的な犯罪者とあわれな探偵の対談でテレビで見られるような構成を使って 2人は対面するととても奇妙な喋り方をします制作者は言いました「クライマーショー」はイギリスの人気番組のパロディだとでも本当に変な話ですよ天才的な犯罪者のクライマーはよくテレビで見られるようなしぐさをしますかっこつけてサングラスを外したりカメラ目線をしたりしますでもそれは映像ではなく文章で表現されていますわざと「エピソード」を「エパソッド」と言い変え 1話ごとに分けられた話はテレビを真似して構成されたものでありとても新しい形式だと思いますツイッター上ではほとんど毎日新しい「エパソッド」が投稿され「エパソッド」ごとにまとめられています「クライマーショー」はおもしろい形式を試していると言えますテレビ番組を面白おかしく真似することで全く新しい形式が生み出されました実話に基づいてリアルタイムで楽しめる例もツイッター上に多くあると考えられます「リアルタイム第2次世界大戦」というツイッターのアカウントは 60年前のこの日に起きたことを事細かにリアルタイムで伝えるもので当時の新聞を読んでいるかのように感じますまた作者のテジュー・コールは文学的なおもしろみを出すために当時の話題を使って様々な方法を試してきましたここで彼は無人爆撃について語っていますこの2つの例ではツイッターのユーザーが様々な新しい方法を使って実話に基づいた物語を語る形式が出始めたことが分かりますリアルタイムで語られる物語は実話と作り話すなわち― 現実世界とデジタルの世界の境界を曖昧にし変更可能なID 匿名とともにこれらは私たちの手の届くところにあるツールで積み木のようなものですこの積み木は建物や骨組みを作るための資材でありやがてインターネットという荒野に街ができあがりこの街は創造的な物語を試す最適な場所なのですありがとうございました	And in my job at Twitter, I actually spent a little bit of time working with authors and storytellers as well, helping to expand out the bounds of what people are experimenting with. And I want to talk through some examples today of things that people have done that I think are really fascinating using flexible identity and anonymity on the web and blurring the lines between fact and fiction. But I want to start and go back to the 1930s. Long before a little thing called Twitter, radio brought us broadcasts and connected millions of people to single points of broadcast. And from those single points emanated stories. Some of them were familiar stories. Some of them were new stories. And for a while they were familiar formats, but then radio began to evolve its own unique formats specific to that medium. Think about episodes that happened live on radio. Combining the live play and the serialization of written fiction, you get this new format. And the reason why I bring up radio is that I think radio is a great example of how a new medium defines new formats which then define new stories. And of course, today, we have an entirely new medium to play with, which is this online world. This is the map of verified users on Twitter and the connections between them. There are thousands upon thousands of them. Every single one of these points is its own broadcaster. We've gone to this world of many to many, where access to the tools is the only barrier to broadcasting. And I think that we should start to see wildly new formats emerge as people learn how to tell stories in this new medium. I actually believe that we are in a wide open frontier that we've explored and begun to settle this wild land of the Internet and are now just getting ready to start to build structures on it, and those structures are the new formats of storytelling that the Internet will allow us to create. I believe this starts with an evolution of existing methods. The short story, for example, people are saying that the short story is experiencing a renaissance of sorts thanks to e-readers, digital marketplaces. One writer, Hugh Howey, experimented with short stories on Amazon by releasing one very short story called "Wool." And he actually says that he didn't intend but that the audience loved the first story so much they demanded more, and so he gave them more. He gave them "Wool 2," which was a little bit longer than the first one, "Wool 3," which was even longer, culminating in "Wool 5," which was a 60,000-word novel. I think Howey was able to do all of this because he had the quick feedback system of e-books. He was able to write and publish in relatively short order. There was no mediator between him and the audience. It was just him directly connected with his audience and building on the feedback and enthusiasm that they were giving him. So this whole project was an experiment. It started with the one short story, and I think the experimentation actually became a part of Howey's format. And that's something that this medium enabled, was experimentation being a part of the format itself. This is a short story by the author Jennifer Egan called "Black Box." It was originally written specifically with Twitter in mind. Egan convinced The New Yorker to start a New Yorker fiction account from which they could tweet all of these lines that she created. Now Twitter, of course, has a 140-character limit. Egan mocked that up just writing manually in this storyboard sketchbook, used the physical space constraints of those storyboard squares to write each individual tweet, and those tweets ended up becoming over 600 of them that were serialized by The New Yorker. Every night, at 8 p.m., you could tune in to a short story from The New Yorker's fiction account. I think that's pretty exciting: tune-in literary fiction. The experience of Egan's story, of course, like anything on Twitter, there were multiple ways to experience it. You could scroll back through it, but interestingly, if you were watching it live, there was this suspense that built because the actual tweets, you had no control over when you would read them. They were coming at a pretty regular clip, but as the story was building, normally, as a reader, you control how fast you move through a text, but in this case, The New Yorker did, and they were sending you bit by bit by bit, and you had this suspense of waiting for the next line. Another great example of fiction and the short story on Twitter, Elliott Holt is an author who wrote a story called "Evidence." It began with this tweet: "On November 28 at 10:13 p.m., a woman identified as Miranda Brown, 44, of Brooklyn, fell to her death from the roof of a Manhattan hotel." It begins in Elliott's voice, but then Elliott's voice recedes, and we hear the voices of Elsa, Margot and Simon, characters that Elliott created on Twitter specifically to tell this story, a story from multiple perspectives leading up to this moment at 10:13 p.m. when this woman falls to her death. These three characters brought an authentic vision from multiple perspectives. One reviewer called Elliott's story "Twitter fiction done right," because she did. She captured that voice and she had multiple characters and it happened in real time. Interestingly, though, it wasn't just Twitter as a distribution mechanism. It was also Twitter as a production mechanism. Elliott told me later she wrote the whole thing with her thumbs. She laid on the couch and just went back and forth between different characters tweeting out each line, line by line. I think that this kind of spontaneous creation of what was coming out of the characters' voices really lent an authenticity to the characters themselves, but also to this format that she had created of multiple perspectives in a single story on Twitter. As you begin to play with flexible identity online, it gets even more interesting as you start to interact with the real world. Things like Invisible Obama or the famous "binders full of women" that came up during the 2012 election cycle, or even the fan fiction universe of "West Wing" Twitter in which you have all of these accounts for every single one of the characters in "The West Wing," including the bird that taps at Josh Lyman's window in one single episode. All of these are rapid iterations on a theme. They are creative people experimenting with the bounds of what is possible in this medium. You look at something like "West Wing" Twitter, in which you have these fictional characters that engage with the real world. They comment on politics, they cry out against the evils of Congress. Keep in mind, they're all Democrats. And they engage with the real world. They respond to it. So once you take flexible identity, anonymity, engagement with the real world, and you move beyond simple homage or parody that's when things get really interesting. So during the Chicago mayoral election there was a parody account. It was Mayor Emanuel. It gave you everything you wanted from Rahm Emanuel, particularly in the expletive department. This foul-mouthed account followed the daily activities of the race, providing commentary as it went. It followed all of the natural tropes of a good, solid Twitter parody account, but then started to get weird. And as it progressed, it moved from this commentary to a multi-week, real-time science fiction epic in which your protagonist, Rahm Emanuel, engages in multi-dimensional travel on election day, which is -- it didn't actually happen. I double checked the newspapers. And then, very interestingly, it came to an end. This is something that doesn't usually happen with a Twitter parody account. It ended, a true narrative conclusion. And so the author, Dan Sinker, who was a journalist, who was completely anonymous this whole time, I think Dan -- it made a lot of sense for him to turn this into a book, because it was a narrative format in the end, and I think that turning it into a book is representative of this idea that he had created something new that needed to be translated into previous formats. One of my favorite examples of something that's happening on Twitter right now, actually, is the very absurdist Crimer Show. Crimer Show tells the story of a supercriminal and a hapless detective that face off in this exceptionally strange lingo, with all of the tropes of a television show. Crimer Show's creator has said that it is a parody of a popular type of show in the U.K., but, man, is it weird. And there are all these times where Crimer, the supercriminal, does all of these TV things. He's always taking off his sunglasses or turning to the camera, but these things just happen in text. I think borrowing all of these tropes from television as an episode, spelled E-P-P-A-S-O-D, "eppasod," presenting them as episodes really, it creates something new. There is a new "eppasod" of Crimer Show on Twitter pretty much every day, and they're archived that way. And I think this is an interesting experiment in format. Something totally new has been created here out of parodying something on television. I think in nonfiction real-time storytelling, there are a lot of really excellent examples as well. RealTimeWWII is an account that documents what was happening on this day 60 years ago in exceptional detail, as if you were reading the news reports from that day. And the author Teju Cole has done a lot of experimentation with putting a literary twist on events of the news. In this particular case, he's talking about drone strikes. I think that in both of these examples, you're beginning to see ways in which people are telling stories with nonfiction content that can be built into new types of fictional storytelling. So with real-time storytelling, blurring the lines between fact and fiction, the real world and the digital world, flexible identity, anonymity, these are all tools that we have accessible to us, and I think that they're just the building blocks. to create the structures, the frames, that then become our settlements on this wide open frontier for creative experimentation. Thank you.	{ "source": "iwslt2017", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
朝食のために客間へ行く前に準備をしようか、顔を洗ったりとかな。その前にレオからティルラちゃんを離さないと......レオは俺から離れないようだから、このままだと朝の準備する俺をティルラちゃんに観察されてしまう。別に変な事をするわけじゃないけど、子供とは言えずっと見られているのは恥ずかしい。男の朝の支度なんて楽しいものじゃないと思うしな。「ティルラちゃん、これから皆で朝食を食べるんだ。レオもそうだけど、ティルラちゃんもこのままレオにくっついていたら食べられないよ?」「......それは......困ります。お腹空きました」「そうだね。だから、まずは朝食を食べよう? その後は裏庭で遊んで良いってお姉さんにも許可を取ってあるから」「そうなのですか、姉様!?」「ええ。ただし、ちゃんと朝食を食べてからよ」「わかりました。今すぐ食べます!」レオと食後に遊べるとわかったからか、ティルラちゃんはレオから離れると走って部屋から出て行った。「まったくティルラは......ですが、ここまでレオ様に懐くとは思いませんでした。すみません、タクミさん、レオ様」「いえいえ、良いんですよ。子供は元気なのですからね。それにあのくらいなら可愛いものですよ」俺の言葉に同意するようにレオも頷いている。今更ながらに思ったけど、頷くって結構器用な事してるよな。シルバーフェンリルになったからか? まぁこれくらい細かい事か。「ではタクミさん、私はこれで。客間でお待ちしております」「はい、すぐ準備して向かいます」クレアさんが部屋から出て行くのを見送って、ベッドから降りて朝の支度を始める。とは言っても、着替えを持ってるわけではないので着替える物がない。レオの頭を撫でながら考えたけど、無い物は仕方ないか。「スンスン......多分、匂いとかは大丈夫......だよな?」「ワフ?......ワフ......ワウ!」レオにも嗅がせて確認したけど、大丈夫そうだ。 ......レオ嗅覚が鋭いのは当然としても、人間の嫌な臭いをどう感じるかまではわからないけどな。とりあえず今日はこのままで、明日からはどうしよう......。さすがににおいとかは大丈夫だとしても、ずっと同じ物を着続けるわけにはいかない。セバスチャンさんあたりに後で相談してみよう......。「何とか着れる物があれば良いけどなぁ......」体格的にはセバスチャンさんと同じくらいだが、貸してくれるだろうか? 執事服しか持って無いとか言われたらどうしよう......着たくないわけじゃないが、俺が着るとどうなるかちょっと想像出来なかった。着替えの事を考えるのは止めておいて、まずは顔を洗うか。俺が寝てる間にいつの間にか新しくなっていた、ベッドの横に置いてあるお湯とタオルで顔を洗い、念のため体も軽く拭いておく。「ライラさんが用意してくれたのかな? もしかしてさっき起こしに来てくれたクレアさんかもしれないな......後でお礼を言っておこう」「ワフ」髭剃りもしたかったが、さすがにそんな物はここに無い。これも後でセバスチャンさんに聞こう。この世界が中世ヨーロッパくらいの文化レベルだった場合、電動はもちろん、T字の剃刀すら無いかもしれないが、何かしらの方法で髭を剃るはずだ。「まぁ、なんとかなるか。......この際髭を伸ばしてみるのも面白いかもしれないな。ダンディでいいかも......」「......ワフ......ワフワフ」 ......髭を生やしてダンディな男......なれないかな......職場では童顔って言われてたから無理か......はぁ。「おっと、早く客間に行かないとな」身だしなみを出来る限り整え、俺はレオと一緒に部屋を出た。部屋のドアを出てすぐ横に、ライラさんとゲルダさんが待機していたので、朝の挨拶をしたに案内されて昨日の客間へ向かう。部屋を出てすぐ壁を背にして立ってたから驚いた......。そんなにきっちりしなくても、大丈夫なんですよ? あと、昨日も行った客間に案内されたのは、俺がまだこの屋敷を把握しきれてないからだ。広すぎるせいもあって、部屋から客間に行くにはどうするのかまだ覚えてない。トイレだけは、しっかり覚えたけどな。客間に行く途中に一回寄っておいた。ライラさん、ゲルダさんお待たせしてすみません。「お待たせしました」「タクミさん、改めておはようございます」「タクミさん! おはようございます! レオ様もおはよう!」「おはようございます。セバスチャンさんもおはようございます」「ワフワフ!」「おはようございます、タクミ様。昨夜は良く寝られましたでしょうか?」「はい。あんなに良いベッドと広い部屋を使わせて頂いて、ありがとうございます」入った客間には既にクレアさんとティルラちゃんがテーブルについていて、俺の到着を待っていた。ティルラちゃんが早く食べたそうにしてるな......結構待たせちゃったかな? セバスチャンさんと、メイドの二人はテーブルにはつかず、後ろに控えてる。皆と挨拶を交わしつつ、俺もテーブルについた。レオは俺の隣に椅子を使わずお座りの体勢。これで顔がテーブルの上まで来て、物を簡単に食べられるくらいなんだから、やっぱ大きいよな。テーブルの上にはパンとサラダ、ソーセージ等の肉類が入ったスープが既に用意されていた。もちろん、レオの前には大量のソーセージが皿に乗っている。 ......朝から豪勢だなぁ。俺とレオだけの時は朝食なんて総菜パンと牛乳だとか、シリアルに牛乳だけなんて事もあった。時間が無い時は、ブロックの栄養食品を栄養ドリンクで流し込むなんて無茶な事もしたもんだ。「それでは皆揃った事ですし、頂きましょう」「はい!」「ワフ!」俺だけ手を合わせて食事の挨拶をしていて、他の皆はそんな事をしていない。レオは仕方ないとしても、クレアさんとティルラちゃんはそういう文化が無いのだろう。日本の文化だからな、この世界の宗教がどうなってるのかは知らないが、海外のような神への祈りを捧げるという事はしないようだ......まぁ、異世界だしな。皆で一斉に食事へ手を伸ばし、食事を始める。レオは首を伸ばしてソーセージを勢いよく口に入れた。俺はフォークを手にして、まずはサラダから頂こうと手を伸ばした。野菜は大事だよな。	I should prepare before going down to eat breakfast. Like washing up. But first, I need to get Leo away from Telura... She did not seem like she wanted to separate from Leo, but I didn’t want her here while I was getting ready. While I wasn’t going to do anything strange, it was a little embarrassing to have someone in the room, even if they were a child. Besides, there was nothing more boring than seeing a man prepare himself in the morning. “Tilura. Everyone is going to eat breakfast now. If you stay here with Leo, neither of you will be able to eat.” “...That’s...not good. I am hungry as well.” “Yes. So, why don’t we all eat first? And then we can go out in the garden and play. Your sister already gave her permission.” “Is that true, sister?!” “Yes. But only if you eat your breakfast first.” “Very well. I will go and eat at once!” Once she understood that she could play with Leo after breakfast, Tilura moved away and dashed out of the room. “Tilura. She is such a... I really did not expect her to become so fond of your Leo. I’m really sorry, to both of you.” “No, it’s fine. It’s good to see a child so full of energy. Besides, I’ve seen worse.” Leo nodded as if in agreement. Now that I thought of it, there was something very clever about the way she nodded now. Was it because she was a Silver Fenrir? “Well, I’ll leave you alone now, Mr. Takumi. We’ll be waiting for you in the drawing room.” “Yes, I’ll go as soon as I’m ready.” I watched as Ms. Claire left the room, and then I got out of the bed in order to get ready for the day. That being said, I didn’t have anything to change into. I patted Leo on the head and thought about what I should do. But there really wasn’t anything that I could do. “Sniff...sniff... At least I don’t...smell...right?” “Wuff? ...Wuff...wou!” Leo sniffed me as well, and seemed to agree that I was fine. ...But while Leo would definitely have a sharp sense of smell, there was no guarantee that her idea of stench was similar enough to humans. In any case, even if this was fine for today. What should I do tomorrow... I could not continue to wear the same clothes every day. I suppose I could discuss the matter with Sebastian later... “I hope there is something that I can wear...” I was about the same height as Sebastian, so maybe he would lend me some of his clothes? But what if he only has butler uniforms... It’s not that I didn’t want to wear them, it was just difficult to imagine what I would look like. Regardless, I decided to stop thinking about clothes and wash my face instead. Someone must have changed it while I was sleeping, as there was a new basin of hot water and a towel next to my bed. And so I washed my face and wiped my body with it. “I suppose Ms. Lyra prepared it? Or maybe it was Ms. Claire, who woke me up... I’ll have to thank her later.” “Wuff.” I wanted to shave as well, but there were no razors in the room. That was another thing that I would have to ask Sebastian about. If this world really was at a similar level to medieval European culture, then there would be no electric shavers or cartridge razors. But they would still have something to shave with. “Well, I’m sure it will work out. ...Besides, it might be amusing to just grow out a beard. I could look quite dandy...” “...Wuff... Wuff, wuff.” ...A dandy man with a beard...perhaps that isn’t me...my coworkers always said that I looked young for my age... Ha... “Oh, I shouldn’t keep them waiting.” I did my best to look presentable and then I left the room with Leo. As Ms. Lyra and Ms. Gelda were waiting right outside of the room, I said good morning and then followed them to the drawing room. I had been quite surprised to see them standing there in front of the wall... Was it really necessary to be this orderly? Also, the reason why they took me to the same drawing room as yesterday, was because I still didn’t know my way around the mansion. The place was so big, so I didn’t even know how to reach it from my room. The only thing I had memorised was the location of the bathroom. And so I stopped there once before going to the drawing room. Though, I felt bad for keeping Ms. Lyra and Ms. Gelda waiting. “Sorry to keep you all waiting.” “Good morning, Mr. Takumi.” “Mr. Takumi! Good morning! Good morning, Leo!” “Good morning. Good morning, Sebastian.” “Wuff! Wuff!” “Good morning, Mr. Takumi. I hope you were able to sleep well last night?” “Yes, thank you for letting me sleep in such a big room with a great bed.” Ms. Claire and Tilura were already sitting at the table and waiting for my arrival. Tilura looked like she couldn’t wait to eat... Had I taken longer than I thought? Sebastian and the two maids were waiting at the back of the table. And so after greeting everyone, I took a seat. Leo sat down next to me on the ground. Still, her head loomed over the table, and so she would have no trouble eating from it. That was how big she was. And on the table, bread, salad, sausages and other meats had been prepared, along with soup. Of course, there was an especially large plate of sausages for Leo. ...It was quite the sumptuous breakfast. When it was just me and Leo, breakfast was cheap bread and milk or occasionally cereal and milk. And if I didn’t have time, I would eat some kind of protein bar with an energy drink. “So, now that everyone is here, let’s eat.” “Yes!” “Wuff!” While I put my hands together and said ‘itadakimasu,’ no one else did anything like that. I suppose it was not part of Ms. Claire and Tilura’s culture. I didn’t know what kind of religion they had in this world, but they didn’t offer any prayers to god like they do in other countries... Well, this was another world, after all. And so everyone’s hands stretched out and we began to eat. Leo’s head moved forward and she bit into the sausages hungrily. I picked up a fork and reached for the salad first. It was important to eat your vegetables.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 7, "inserted_lines_src": 0, "inserted_lines_trg": 0 }
スタジオの人とプロデューサー脚本家とテーブルを囲み「監督の考えは?」と聞かれ「踊るのが好きな人だったんじゃないかな」と答えました皆がこちらを見ているのがわかりました「ボリウッドだ」と誰かが言いました「彼を雇うのにいくら払ったんだ?」と別の人「別の監督を探そう」と言う人もいました方針を変えた方が良さそうだと思いエリザベスの描き方をいろいろ議論して「確かにちょっとボリウッド風過ぎたかも」と言いました「あの偉大なエリザベスが踊ってたって? そんなバカな」もう一度全体を考えなおし話がまとまりましたイギリスの偉人「エリザベス女王」を私たちはこんな風に登場させましたレスター伯:女王様、ご一緒してもよろしいでしょうか? エリザベス:お望みならカプール:ほら、彼女は踊っていましたこの映画を見ればエリザベスが恋をしていること彼女が本当に純粋で人生を楽しみ若々しかったことがわかるはずですわからなかった人はいますか? これが映像による物語の力ですこれが踊りの力で音楽の力なのです無知の力でもあります私が映画を撮る際はいつもスタッフと準備し過ぎ考え過ぎるんです知識が知恵に重くのしかかり単純な言葉が経験という泥沼に飲まれてしまいますだから私は言うのです「今日は何をするんだ?」計画していたことはせずに自らを完全なパニックに陥れます自分を解放するひとつの方法です「今日何をするか知ってるだろう何年も監督をしてきたんだから」という思いを取り除くのです撮影場所に行って完全なパニックになっています象徴的な仕草です台本を破り捨てるんですパニックに陥り怖くなります今もそうです見てください緊張しています言うべきことすべきことがわからず撮影所に行くのが嫌になりますでも到着すると ADが言うんです「今日の予定はご存知ですよね」私は「もちろんだよ」と答えますスタジオの重役たちはこう言うでしょう「さすがシェーカル、準備万端だ」頭の中はヌスラト・ファテー・アリー・ハーン彼の音楽は混沌としているからです私は自らを混沌に陥れます混沌から何らかの真実が生まれると思っているからです全ての準備は準備に過ぎませんそれが誠実なものなのか真実なのかということすらわかりません真実はいつもある瞬間に自然と訪れますもし物語や映画に素晴らしく活き活きとした瞬間を5つ織り込むことができれば観客にもそれが伝わるでしょう私はそうした瞬間を探し求めながら撮影所で「何と言おうか・・・」と迷っているのですつまるところ皆に見られているのです 6時45分には200人が撮影所に集まり 7時に到着した自分はこう言われるのです「何から始めます?何をしましょうか?」自分にも理解できないパニックに陥ります自分にもわからないのですわからないから何かを求めて宇宙に祈るんです私はアインシュタインがしたのと同じように宇宙と向き合います彼の方程式と同じ源を探すんです創造性は自分自身の外側からやって来ます宇宙の遥かかなたで瞑想するのと同じところから生まれるのです何かがやって来てひらめくのを待ちますひらめきが起きるまで撮影には入りませんでは何をするか? ケイトが言います「私にどう演じて欲しいの?」私は「ケイト君は何をしたいんだい? 君は大女優だ君たちに任せるよ何をしたいのか見せてくれないか?」何をしてるかって? 時間稼ぎですよ時間を稼ごうとしてるんです物語について私が最初に学んでからずっとしてきていることは「パニック」ですパニックの中で創造性が大いに引き出されます正気を脱するにはパニックしかありません正気を捨て去ってください捨てるのですそこから宇宙に行きましょうそこには自分の心よりも自分の宇宙よりももっと真理に近い何かがあります私はこれを繰り返していますスニャータすなわち虚心を得るためにいつもこうするんです創造性は虚心から生まれますこれが私のやりかたです子どもの頃 8歳くらいだったと思います昔のインドをご存知ですか公害はありませんでしたデリーで私たちはチャタとかコタという暮らしをしていましたコタは今では悪い意味になりました酒場風のテラスです夜は外で寝ていました学校ではちょうど物理を学んでいて実在するものは全て測ることができると教わりました測ることができなければそれは存在しないのだと夜になると澄み渡った夜空の下に横たわり私の少年時代のデリーは空気が汚れていなかったのですそして空を見上げてよく言ったものでした「宇宙はどれくらい広いんだろう?」私の父は医者でした「宇宙はどこまであるの」と私が聞くと「宇宙は永遠に続いているんだよ」と父は答えそれで私は「永遠を測ってよ測れないものは存在しないって学校で教わったんだ測れなかったらおかしいんだ」と言いましたでは永遠はどこまで続くのか永遠がどういう意味なのか分からず私は夜に泣きべそをかくこともありました想像したものを形にすることが出来なかったからですそれで私は何をしたかって? 当時弱冠7歳で私は物語を作りましたどんな物語かって? なぜかわかりませんが覚えています木こりが斧を手に取り薪を割ろうとしていましたそして全宇宙はその斧の一粒の原子でした斧が薪を割った時全てが破壊されて再びビッグバンが起きるのですでもビッグバンの前には木こりが存在していましたその物語が終わらんとするとき私はその木こりの宇宙が別の木こりの斧にある一粒の原子なんだと考えましたこうして私は物語を何度も繰り返し話すことができましたそうすることで自分が抱える問題を乗り越えることができたのです物語を語ることによって乗り越えたのですでは物語とは何でしょう? 物語とは我々の全てです私たちは自らが語る物語なのです自分は存在するのかしないのか自分は何者なのかという二重性の中で私たちは暮らしていますが自ら語る物語こそが私たちの存在の可能性を明らかにする証なのです私たちは自らが語る物語なのですそしてこれが物語の幅なのです物語とは自分自身や潜在的な自分と無限の世界の間で生まれる関係性のことでそれが我々の神話なのです私たちはさまざまな物語を語ります物語を持たない人などいませんアインシュタインは物語を語り自分の物語を追うことで理論を見出しそこから方程式を考え出しましたアレクサンダー大王は母親が昔語った物語を元に世界征服に乗り出しました誰もが自分の物語を持っていますそして自分自身に物語を語りますもっと突っ込んで言いましょう我物語を語る、ゆえに我あり私たちは物語があるから存在しているのです物語がなければ存在していません私たちは自らの存在を確立するために物語を作り出します物語を作らなければ恐らく狂人になってしまうでしょう絶対にそうだとは言えませんが私はいつもそう考えています映画の話をしましょう映画は物語を語ります私はブッダの映画を撮ろうと思っているのですが時々こんなことを考えますもしブッダが映画監督と同じ要素を手にしていたら― つまり音楽と映像ビデオカメラがあれば仏教はもっと分かりやすくなったのだろうかでもそうなるとプレッシャーですね私は物語をより巧みに語らなければなりませんでもサブテキストを使えばそうできるかもしれません初めてハリウッドに行った時サブテキストのことをよく口にしたのですが代理人に「その話はしないで」と言われましたなぜかと聞くと「サブテキストなんて言ったら- 誰も映画を撮らせてくれませんよ筋書きのことだけを話して自分がどれ程上手くそれを撮れるか映像はどうなるのかを話しなさい」と映画の良し悪しを判断する時私たちはこのような点に注目します物語の筋書きレベルそしてその物語の心理的なレベル政治的なレベルさらに物語の神話的レベルそれぞれのレベルで物語を検討しますこうした物語たちが互いに一致している必要はありません驚くべきことに多くの場合それぞれのレベルで物語は互いに矛盾しています偉大な音楽家であるラーマンと仕事をするとき私はよくこう言います「台本に書いてあることに従うのではなく書いてないことを見つけてください自分にとっての真実を探してください真実が見つかった時それは筋書きと矛盾するかもしれませんでも心配は無用です」『エリザベス:ゴールデン・エイジ』は『エリザベス』の続編です続編を作った時脚本家はこんなことを言っていましたフェリペ2世に脅迫され戦争を始めようとしている女性がウォルター・ローリーに恋をしたウォルター・ローリーに恋をしたので女王である理由がなくなってしまったでもウォルター・ローリーは女官と恋に落ちたので彼女は戦争を始めようとしている女王であるべきか別の何かを望むのか決めなければならなかった... 私はこんな物語を語りました神々がいて 2人の人間がいるフェリペ2世はいつも祈りを捧げており神聖な人だったエリザベスも神聖だったがそれほどでもなかった自らのことを神聖だと思っていたからだ彼女に流れるのは死すべき定めにある者の血だった神聖さというのは不公平なものであり神々は言った「よし正しい者を救うことにしよう」彼らは正しい者を救った神々はウォルター・ローリーを仕向けてエリザベスの死すべき肉体を彼女の精神から分離させた死すべき肉体とはウォルター・ローリーと恋をした少女のこと彼は徐々にエリザベスから遠ざかったのでエリザベスは神聖さを得ることができたのだ 2人の神聖な人間が争い神々は神聖さを秤にかけたもちろんイギリスの世論は怒って「我々はアルマダの海戦に勝ったんだ」と言いましたが私に言わせればアルマダを打ち破ったのは嵐で神々が嵐をもたらしたのです私が何をしていたのわかりますか? 映画を作る神話的な理由を探していたのですケイト・ブランシェットに「これは何の映画だい?」と尋ねたら「老いることと折り合いをつけようとしている女性についての映画よ」と答えました心理学的な答えです脚本家は歴史と策略についての映画だと言います私にとっては神話と神々についての映画です映画の一場面をお見せしますカメラワークにも注目してくださいエリザベスが死すべき運命の深みにいるシーンです彼女は死が持つ本当の意味ともし自分が死すべき運命ならば何が起きるのかを見出すのです死すべき運命の危険性に気づきなぜそれを排除すべきかを悟りますいいですか私にとってはエリザベスも女官のベスも同じ肉体の一部分です片方は死すべき自己でもう一つは精神的な自己ですではご覧くださいエリザベス:べス? べスはどこにおる? ベス・スロックモートン? べス:はいここに女王様エリザベス:述べよそれは真か? そなたは身籠っているのか? 子どもができたのか? べス:はい女王様エリザベス:この裏切り者めなぜそのことを隠しておった? そなたは恋をするにも子を産むにも私の許しが必要ではないかこんなあばずれが私の服を着ているとは聞いているのか? ウォルシンガム:陛下威厳と慈悲をお持ちになって下さいエリザベス:慈悲など言っている場合ではないお主は裏切り者の兄弟のところに行っておれ奴の子か? 申せ奴の子どもなのかべス:はい女王様私の夫の子ですエリザベス:あばずれめ! ローリー:陛下これは私が愛し仕える女王ではないエリザベス:こやつは私の侍女を誘惑し王室の許しなく結婚した法に違反する行為である奴を逮捕せよ行けお前にはもう私の庇護はやらんべス:お望みの通りに陛下エリザベス:行け消え失せよ! 行ってしまえカプール: 私はここで何をしようとしているか分かりますか? エリザベスは全てに気づき自らの嫉妬心自らの死すべき運命と向き合っています建築にも目を向けて下さい建物は物語を語っていますエリザベスが当時世界最高の権力者だったとしても他にも強大なものはあるのです建築は彼女よりずっと大きいのです石は自然界のもので巨大ですし彼女よりも長く存在し続けるでしょうつまり石は彼女の運命の一部として描かれていますまたカメラが見下ろす構図を取っているのは彼女が井戸の中にいるからです有限の命という井戸の中にいるのです彼女はそこから自ら抜け出し精神を解放しなければなりませんその時こそエリザベスとべスが一体になるのですでもそれはエリザベスが物理的にベスと別離する瞬間でもあります映画ではその場面を複層的に描いています我々は物語を映像音楽そして役者という層を通して語りますが層ごとに色合いは異なり互いにぶつかり合うこともあります私がこのような撮り方を始めたきっかけをお話ししましょう物語を語る過程とは何でしょう? 10年ほど前ある政治家からこんな話を聞きましたインドではあまり尊敬されていない政治家です彼が言うには都市に住む人々は田舎に住む人々の2日分の生活を支える水よりも多くの量の水を一度にトイレに流してしまうのだとそれにピンと来て「その通りだ」と答えました友人を訪ねた時マラバールヒルの彼のアパートで待たされましたムンバイの超高級エリアにある 21階の部屋です彼は20分間シャワーを浴びていました退屈した私はそこを離れ車を走らせましたいつものようにボンベイのスラムを通り抜けると強烈な日差しの下で女性たちが子どもを連れて長い列を作りバケツを持って給水車から水をもらうのを待っているのが見えましたそこからあるアイデアが生まれましたどうやってそれが物語になるのでしょう? 私は突然人類は災厄に向かっているのだと気づきました私の次回作は“Paani”という題名です水という意味です水の神話から世界を作り始めたところですどんな世界を作りそのアイデアやデザインはどこから来たのでしょう? 私が思うに未来にはフライオーバーが行われるようになるでしょうフライオーバーというのは A地点からB地点に速く行くため空を通るようになるということですでもそれは裕福な場所同士を効率的に行き交うということですここから生まれるのは中空で結ばれた都市です金持ちは上層の都市に行き貧しい人々は下層に残されます上層の都市に行くのは 10~12%ぐらいの人々です上層都市と下層都市には由来がありますインドの神話の中でヒンディ語でこんなことが言われています [ヒンディ語] どんな意味かわかりますか? 金持ちは常に貧民の肩にどっかりと座りそこで生きているのだということですその神話から上層都市と下層都市が生まれましたデザインには物語があるのです今何が起きているかというと上層都市の人々が全ての水を吸い上げているのですそう吸い上げているのです全ての水を吸い上げ自分たちのために使い下層都市にはポタポタとしか垂らしませんもし革命が起きれば水の供給を切ってしまうでしょう民主主義がまだ存在しますからもし私たちの望むものをくれるならば水をやろうと言うのが民主的な方法なのですもうそろそろ時間ですでもこれはお伝えしておきます私が映画を通じて行っているのはいかにして物語を発展させ物語と我々自身のつながりを語りそうしたことを映画という文法の中に落とし込んでいくことですでも結局物語とは矛盾ですあらゆるものは矛盾します宇宙は矛盾そのものですそして我々はいつも調和を探し求めるのです目を覚ますと夜と昼は矛盾していますでももし朝4時に目を覚ませば暗い空が最初に赤らむのは夜と昼が調和を見出そうとしているところですモーツァルトの楽譜に調和自体が現れなくてもどういう訳か彼の楽譜にある全ての矛盾は調和に向かっているように感じられます詩人や物語の語り手が心に存在する矛盾の中で調和を探し求めるとそうなるのです物語の語り手は心に倫理的な矛盾を抱えています詩人の心には言葉の衝突があります宇宙の心には昼と夜の相克があります男と女の心には常に男性と女性の矛盾があります私たちはその中で調和を見いだそうとするのです矛盾というのはこうしたものですでも矛盾を受け入れることは物語を語ることであって問題の解消ではありませんハリウッドや多くの映画で語られる物語が問題なのは矛盾を解決しようとするからです調和とは解決ではありません調和とは解決よりもずっと大きなことを暗示するものです調和とは包括的で普遍的永遠でもありこの瞬間のものでもある何かを暗示するものです解決というのはもっとずっと限られたものです解決は有限で調和は無限です物語とは宇宙にある他の全ての矛盾と同じく調和と永遠を探し求めるもので断固とした倫理観を持って解決する矛盾とそのまま残して置く矛盾を決め矛盾を残しながら本当に重要な問いを作り出すのですどうもありがとうございます	So we went around the table with the studio and the producers and the writer, and they came to me and said, "Shekhar, what do you think?" And I said, "I think she's dancing." And I could see everybody looked at me, somebody said, "Bollywood." The other said, "How much did we hire him for?" And the third said, "Let's find another director." I thought I had better change. So we had a lot of discussion on how to introduce Elizabeth, and I said, "OK, maybe I am too Bollywood. Maybe Elizabeth, this great icon, dancing? What are you talking about?" So I rethought the whole thing, and then we all came to a consensus. great British icon called "Elizabeth." Leicester: May I join you, my lady? Elizabeth: If it please you, sir. Shekhar Kapur: So she was dancing. So how many people who saw the film did not get that here was a woman in love, that she was completely innocent and saw great joy in her life, and she was youthful? And how many of you did not get that? That's the power of visual storytelling, that's the power of dance, that's the power of music: the power of not knowing. When I go out to direct a film, every day we prepare too much, we think too much. Knowledge becomes a weight upon wisdom. You know, simple words lost in the quicksand of experience. So I come up, and I say, "What am I going to do today?" I'm not going to do what I planned to do, and I put myself into absolute panic. It's my one way of getting rid of my mind, "Hey, you know what you're doing. You know exactly what you're doing. You're a director, you've done it for years." So I've got to get there and be in complete panic. It's a symbolic gesture. I tear up the script, I go and I panic myself, I get scared. I'm doing it right now; you can watch me. I'm getting nervous, I don't know what to say, I don't know what I'm doing, I don't want to go there. And as I go there, of course, my A.D. says, "You know what you're going to do, sir." I say, "Of course I do." And the studio executives, they would say, "Hey, look at Shekhar. He's so prepared." And inside I've just been listening to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan because he's chaotic. I'm allowing myself to go into chaos because out of chaos, I'm hoping some moments of truth will come. All preparation is preparation. I don't even know if it's honest. I don't even know if it's truthful. The truth of it all comes on the moment, organically, and if you get five great moments of great, organic stuff your film, audiences will get it. So I'm looking for those moments, and I'm standing there and saying, "I don't know what to say." So, ultimately, everybody's looking at you, 200 people at seven in the morning who got there at quarter to seven, and you arrived at seven, and everybody's saying, "Hey. What's the first thing? What's going to happen?" And you put yourself into a state of panic where you don't know, and so you don't know. And so, because you don't know, you're praying to the universe because you're praying to the universe the way Einstein -- say a prayer -- accessed his equations, the same source. I'm looking for the same source because creativity comes from absolutely the same source that you meditate somewhere outside yourself, outside the universe. You're looking for something that comes and hits you. Until that hits you, you're not going to do the first shot. So what do you do? So Cate says, "Shekhar, what do you want me to do?" And I say, "Cate, what do you want to do?" "You're a great actor, and I like to give to my actors -- why don't you show me what you want to do?" What am I doing? I'm trying to buy time. I'm trying to buy time. So the first thing about storytelling that I learned, and I follow all the time is: Panic. Panic is the great access of creativity because that's the only way to get rid of your mind. Get rid of your mind. Get out of it, get it out. And let's go to the universe because there's something out there that is more truthful than your mind, that is more truthful than your universe. [unclear], you said that yesterday. I'm just repeating it because that's what I follow constantly to find the shunyata somewhere, the emptiness. Out of the emptiness comes a moment of creativity. So that's what I do. When I was a kid -- I was about eight years old. You remember how India was. There was no pollution. In Delhi, we used to live -- we used to call it a chhat or the khota. Khota's now become a bad word. It means their terrace -- and we used to sleep out at night. At school I was being just taught about physics, and I was told that if there is something that exists, then it is measurable. If it is not measurable, it does not exist. And at night I would lie out, looking at the unpolluted sky, as Delhi used to be at that time when I was a kid, and I used to stare at the universe and say, "How far does this universe go?" My father was a doctor. And I would think, "Daddy, how far does the universe go?" And he said, "Son, it goes on forever." So I said, "Please measure forever that if I cannot measure it, it does not exist. It doesn't come into my frame of reference." So, how far does eternity go? What does forever mean? And I would lie there crying at night because my imagination could not touch creativity. So what did I do? At that time, at the tender age of seven, I created a story. What was my story? And I don't know why, but I remember the story. There was a woodcutter who's about to take his ax and chop a piece of wood, and the whole galaxy is one atom of that ax. And when that ax hits that piece of wood, that's when everything will destroy and the Big Bang will happen again. But all before that there was a woodcutter. And then when I would run out of that story, I would imagine that woodcutter's universe is one atom in the ax of another woodcutter. So every time, I could tell my story again and again and get over this problem, and so I got over the problem. How did I do it? Tell a story. So what is a story? A story is our -- all of us -- we are the stories we tell ourselves. In this universe, and this existence, where we live with this duality of whether we exist or not and who are we, the stories we tell ourselves are the stories that define the potentialities of our existence. We are the stories we tell ourselves. So that's as wide as we look at stories. A story is the relationship that you develop between who you are, or who you potentially are, and the infinite world, and that's our mythology. We tell our stories, and a person without a story does not exist. So Einstein told a story and followed his stories and came up with theories and came up with theories and then came up with his equations. Alexander had a story that his mother used to tell him, and he went out to conquer the world. We all, everybody, has a story that they follow. We tell ourselves stories. So, I will go further, and I say, "I tell a story, and therefore I exist." I exist because there are stories, and if there are no stories, we don't exist. We create stories to define our existence. If we do not create the stories, we probably go mad. I don't know; I'm not sure, but that's what I've done all the time. Now, a film. A film tells a story. I often wonder when I make a film -- I'm thinking of making a film of the Buddha -- and I often wonder: If Buddha had all the elements that are given to a director -- if he had music, if he had visuals, if he had a video camera -- would we get Buddhism better? But that puts some kind of burden on me. I have to tell a story in a much more elaborate way, but I have the potential. It's called subtext. When I first went to Hollywood, they said -- I used to talk about subtext, and my agent came to me, "Would you kindly not talk about subtext?" And I said, "Why?" He said, "Because nobody is going to give you a film if you talk about subtext. and say how wonderful you'll shoot the film, what the visuals will be." So when I look at a film, here's what we look for: We look for a story on the plot level, then we look for a story on the psychological level, then we look for a story on the political level, then we look at a story on a mythological level. And I look for stories on each level. Now, it is not necessary that these stories agree with each other. What is wonderful is, at many times, the stories will contradict with each other. So when I work with Rahman who's a great musician, I often tell him, "Don't follow what the script already says. Find that which is not. Find the truth for yourself, and when you find the truth for yourself, there will be a truth in it, but it may contradict the plot, but don't worry about it." So, the sequel to "Elizabeth," "Golden Age." When I made the sequel to "Elizabeth," here was a story that the writer was telling: A woman who was threatened by Philip II and was going to war, and was going to war, fell in love with Walter Raleigh. Because she fell in love with Walter Raleigh, she was giving up the reasons she was a queen, and then Walter Raleigh fell in love with her lady in waiting, and she had to decide whether she was a queen going to war or she wanted... Here's the story I was telling: The gods up there, there were two people. There was Philip II, who was divine because he was always praying, and there was Elizabeth, who was divine, but not quite divine because she thought she was divine, but the blood of being mortal flowed in her. But the divine one was unjust, so the gods said, "OK, what we need to do is help the just one." And so they helped the just one. And what they did was, they sent Walter Raleigh down to physically separate her mortal self from her spirit self. And the mortal self was the girl that Walter Raleigh was sent, and gradually he separated her so she was free to be divine. And the two divine people fought, and the gods were on the side of divinity. Of course, all the British press got really upset. They said, "We won the Armada." But I said, "But the storm won the Armada. The gods sent the storm." So what was I doing? I was trying to find a mythic reason Of course, when I asked Cate Blanchett, I said, "What's the film about?" She said, "The film's about a woman coming to terms with growing older." Psychological. The writer said "It's about history, plot." I said "It's about mythology, the gods." So let me show you a film -- a piece from that film -- and how a camera also -- so this is a scene, where in my mind, she was at the depths of mortality. She was discovering what mortality actually means, and if she is at the depths of mortality, what really happens. And she's recognizing the dangers of mortality and why she should break away from mortality. Remember, in the film, to me, both her and her lady in waiting were parts of the same body, one the mortal self and one the spirit self. So can we have that second? Elizabeth: Bess? Bess? Bess Throckmorton? Bess: Here, my lady. Elizabeth: Tell me, is it true? Are you with child? Are you with child? Bess: Yes, my lady. Elizabeth: Traitorous. You dare to keep secrets from me? You ask my permission before you rut, before you breed. My bitches wear my collars. Do you hear me? Do you hear me? Walsingham: Majesty. Please, dignity. Mercy. Elizabeth: This is no time for mercy, Walsingham. You go to your traitor brother and leave me to my business. Is it his? Tell me. Say it. Is the child his? Is it his? Bess: Yes. My lady, it is my husband's child. Elizabeth: Bitch! Raleigh: Majesty. This is not the queen I love and serve. Elizabeth: This man has seduced a ward of the queen, and she has married without royal consent. These offenses are punishable by law. Arrest him. Go. You no longer have the queen's protection. Bess: As you wish, Majesty. Elizabeth: Get out! Get out! Get out! Get out. Shekhar Kapur: So, what am I trying to do here? Elizabeth has realized, and she's coming face-to-face with her own sense of jealousy, her own sense of mortality. What am I doing with the architecture? The architecture is telling a story. The architecture is telling a story about how, even though she's the most powerful woman in the world at that time, there is the other, the architecture's bigger. The stone is bigger than her because stone is an organic. It'll survive her. So it's telling you, to me, stone is part of her destiny. Not only that, why is the camera looking down? The camera's looking down at her because she's in the well. She's in the absolute well of her own sense of being mortal. That's where she has to pull herself out come in, release her spirit. And that's the moment where, in my mind, both Elizabeth and Bess are the same person. But that's the moment she's surgically removing herself from that. So the film is operating on many many levels in that scene. And how we tell stories visually, with music, with actors, and at each level it's a different sense and sometimes contradictory to each other. So how do I start all this? What's the process of telling a story? About ten years ago, I heard this little thing from a politician, not a politician that was very well respected in India. And he said that these people in the cities, in one flush, expend as much water as you people in the rural areas don't get for your family for two days. That struck a chord, and I said, "That's true." I went to see a friend of mine, and he made me wait in his apartment in Malabar Hill on the twentieth floor, And he was having a shower for 20 minutes. I got bored and left, and as I drove out, I drove past the slums of Bombay, as you always do, and I saw lines and lines in the hot midday sun of women and children with buckets waiting for a tanker to come and give them water. And an idea started to develop. So how does that become a story? I suddenly realized that we are heading towards disaster. So my next film is called "Paani" which means water. And now, out of the mythology of that, I'm starting to create a world. What kind of world do I create, and where does the idea, the design of that come? So, in my mind, in the future, they started to build flyovers. You understand flyovers? Yeah? They started to build flyovers to get from A to B faster, but they effectively went from one area of relative wealth to another area of relative wealth. And then what they did was they created a city above the flyovers. And the rich people moved to the upper city and left the poorer people in the lower cities, about 10 to 12 percent of the people have moved to the upper city. Now, where does this upper city and lower city come? There's a mythology in India about -- where they say, and I'll say it in Hindi, [Hindi] Right. What does that mean? It says that the rich are always sitting on the shoulders and survive on the shoulders of the poor. So, from that mythology, the upper city and lower city come. So the design has a story. And now, what happens is that the people of the upper city, they suck up all the water. Remember the word I said, suck up. They suck up all the water, keep to themselves, and they drip feed the lower city. And if there's any revolution, they cut off the water. And, because democracy still exists, "Well, if you give us what [we want], we'll give you water." So, okay my time is up. But I can go on about telling you how we evolve stories, and how stories effectively are who we are and how these get translated into the particular discipline that I am in, which is film. But ultimately, what is a story? It's a contradiction. Everything's a contradiction. The universe is a contradiction. And all of us are constantly looking for harmony. When you get up, the night and day is a contradiction. But you get up at 4 a.m. That first blush of blue is where the night and day are trying to find harmony with each other. Harmony is the notes that Mozart didn't give you, but somehow the contradiction of his notes suggest that. All contradictions of his notes suggest the harmony. It's the effect of looking for harmony in the contradiction that exists in a poet's mind, a contradiction that exists in a storyteller's mind. In a storyteller's mind, it's a contradiction of moralities. In a poet's mind, it's a conflict of words, in the universe's mind, between day and night. In the mind of a man and a woman, we're looking constantly at the contradiction between male and female, we're looking for harmony within each other. The whole idea of contradiction, but the acceptance of contradiction is the telling of a story, not the resolution. The problem with a lot of the storytelling in Hollywood and many films, and as [unclear] was saying in his, that we try to resolve the contradiction. Harmony is not resolution. Harmony is the suggestion of a thing that is much larger than resolution. Harmony is the suggestion of something that is embracing and universal and of eternity and of the moment. Resolution is something that is far more limited. It is finite; harmony is infinite. So that storytelling, like all other contradictions in the universe, is looking for harmony and infinity in moral resolutions, resolving one, but letting another go, letting another go and creating a question that is really important. Thank you very much.	{ "source": "iwslt2017", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
これは「（例えば100年前のドイツのような）遅れた国々」の問題のひとつであると議論されてきた。人々を引きつける指導者達（ヒットラーもその一人）は、結果として生まれた挫折感を食い物にした。このような意見の評価がどうあれ、現代化途中の国の若者が抱く野心や、その先にある挫折感が、彼らを憎悪の伝道者達の対象にし、地道な成功への進路から外れさせ、より劇的な活動に向かわせることは明白である。	Seductive leaders (Hitler among them) exploited the resulting sense of frustration. Whatever the value of such theories, it is evident that the frustration of young people’s ambitions in modernizing countries makes them the object of preachers of hate and tempts them to leave the course of plodding progress and turn to more dramatic action.	{ "source": "news_commentary", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
どういう意味で言っているのか? これは動物が生気をなくし死んだかのように見えるのに何の支障もなく再び意識を戻せるプロセスですさてここでちょっと驚く見解があります自然を見渡すと気づきますが仮死状態があるところには生命の永続性が見られる傾向があるのですですから私がお話しするのは患者を少し仮死状態に近づける方法を見つけることですそうすれば心臓発作の患者も簡単に死なせないですみます極めて永続性のある生物の例を 1つか2つ挙げると植物の種や細菌胞子がありますこれらの生物は地球上の最も永続性のある生命体の代表でほとんどの時間を仮死状態で過ごす傾向にあります科学者らによると細菌胞子は個別の細胞として存在し仮死状態であれば 2.5億年でも存在できるそうですこのような微小生物のことを分かってもらうため身近な例を挙げます人間の卵巣にある不死胚細胞の卵子です卵子は実際に女性の一生で最高50年ほどの間仮死状態で卵巣に存在しますそれから私の気に入っている仮死状態の例としてシーモンキーがあります子供がいる人は知っていると思いますペットショップやおもちゃ屋で購入できます袋を開けて中身をプラスチックの水槽に入れると 1週間ほどで小エビが泳ぎ回るのが見られます泳ぎ自体には興味はありませんでしたが袋の中で何が起こっているかに興味を持ちましたおもちゃ屋に並んでいる袋その中に仮死状態で半永久的に眠っているエビですさて仮死状態は細胞や変わった小さな生物だけに見られるわけではありませんごく稀に人間が少しの間死んだようになることもありますこのような人々の話で一番関心を引くのは低温状況に関連するものです 10年前ノルウェーで凍った滝に落ちたスキーヤーがいました救助されるまで2時間水の中にいた彼女は非常に冷たくなっていて脈もありませんでした事実上凍死でした 7時間後も脈がないままでしたが彼女は生き返りその後彼女を救った病院の放射線科医長になりました 2~3年後― この手の話には興奮するんです― 約2~3年後カナダで生後13ヶ月の赤ん坊が冬に父親が夜勤で出かけたとき一緒におむつだけで外に出て凍死し何時間もあとに見つけられたことがありましたでも赤ん坊は生き返りました 65歳の女性が去年のある冬の朝ミネソタ州ダルースの自宅の前庭で凍死しているのが見つかったこともありました彼女も生き返り翌日あまりに元気なので検査しようとすると不機嫌になり帰ってしまいました奇跡ですよね? これらは本当に起こった奇跡です医者がよく言う言葉「温かくて死んでいるのでなければ死んでいない」は本当に正しいんですニューイングランド医学誌に発表されたある研究には適切な復温を行えば 3時間心拍がなかった人でも神経障害を起こさず生き返らせることができると書かれていました 50%以上の確率だそうですですから私が試みていたのはどうにかして仮死状態を研究してどのようにスキーヤーに起こったことを再現できるか考えることでしたとても奇妙なことなのですが低酸素の環境にいても必ず死ぬとは限りませんこの会場の酸素の濃度は20%ほどですもしこの濃度を下げたら全員死んでしまうでしょう実際私たちの研究所で使用されている小さなミミズや線虫などの生物も低酸素の環境下におくと死んでしまいましたでも皆さんも驚くと思いますが酸素の濃度をさらに下げ 100分の1の10ppmにするとミミズや線虫は死なずに仮死状態になりますそして何の障害もなく生き返ることができるのですこの酸素濃度― 仮死状態を引き起こしたきっかり10ppmの濃度は一定で様々な生物の間で見られますそのうちの1つは魚です電気のスイッチのように心拍をオン・オフして仮死状態にできますこんなことができるとは私もとてもビックリしましたですからスキーヤーの状態を再現しようとしていたとき彼女が酸素を消費していなかったことにもちろん気づきましたつまり仮死状態に近かったのかもしれませんでも冷たくなっていたことも踏まえラボの仮死状態の生物を冷却したらどうなるだろうと考えましたその結果分かったのは皆さんと私のように生きている生物を冷却すると使ったのはミミズですが― 死んでしまいますが仮死状態にしてから冷却すると死なないのですこれは非常に重要な点です寒さの中を生き延びたかったら仮死状態になればいいんですこれはとても素晴らしい発見ですそこでこれらの関連性とこれが実際スキーヤーに起こったことなのかについて考えていました「極限の寒さで死んでしまうところを生き延びるために代謝適応性の調節を行うことが出来るなんらかの作用因子を人が体内で作っていることはあり得るだろうか」そのようなものを探してみるのも面白いかもと思いましたここで簡単に言っておきたいのですが皆さんが目にする生理学の教科書にはこのようなことは異端な考えだと書いてあります第一呼吸をしたときから息を引きとるときまで― つまり人は生まれてから死ぬまで自分の代謝率をいわゆる基礎代謝率以下に下げることはできませんでも哺乳類も含め自分の代謝率を下げる生物の事例があるのは知っていましたジリスやクマなどは冬眠するときに自分の代謝率を下げますそこで考えました「このような状態を誘発するなんらかの作用因子を見つけられないか?」そしてそのようなものを探し始めましたこの時期は全くうまくいかない時期でしたケン・ロビンソンの失敗の栄誉の話じゃないですが失敗ばかりでしたケン・ロビンソンの失敗の栄誉の話じゃないですが失敗ばかりでしたたくさんの化学物質や作用因子を試しましたがどれもこれもダメでしたそんなある日私は家でテレビを見ていました妻が子供を寝かしつけていて私はテレビを見ていました PBSの教育番組NOVAがニューメキシコの洞窟特集をしていてたまたまレチュギア洞窟を見せていましたこの洞窟は人間には非常に有毒で完全装備なしでは研究者は入ることもできません有毒ガスである硫化水素が充満しているのですさて面白いことにこの硫化水素は人間の体内にあります自己生成していて最も濃度が高いのは脳内ですでも第一次世界大戦では化学兵器として使われていました極めて有毒な物質です実際化学物質事故で硫化水素を一定以上吸い込むと倒れてしまうことが知られていますそして死んだかのように見えますが大気のあるところに素早く連れ出されれば支障なく生き返ることができますこりゃ手に入れなくてはと思いましたでも9.11テロ後のアメリカです研究所に行って「すみません致死ガスを何本か高濃度の圧縮ガスボンベで頂けますか実は人を仮死状態にしたいと思っているんですよ全く問題ありませんから」と言うのは大変でしたでも試すべき根拠は本当にあるのだと説明しましたこの物質は人の体内にあり実際面白いことに細胞の中でもまさに酸素が結合し燃焼する場所に結合しますこの燃焼は生きるために行いますそこで椅子取りゲームのように硫化水素を人に与え酸素の結合する場所を椅子取りゲームのように陣取ることはできないかと考えましたそうすると酸素は結合できないので消費されることもなく酸素の必要量が減るかもしれませんあり得ますよね? ですから― 多少ドーパミンの心配や錯覚を少し起こす心配もありますがそれくらいでしょうそこで低温下で硫化水素を使ってスキーヤーの状況を哺乳類で再現することができるか調べたいと考えました哺乳類は温血動物ですから寒くなるとブルブル震えますね? 実際に酸素を余分に燃焼して中核体温を37度に保とうとするのですですから低温下でマウスに硫化水素を投与した結果は興味深いものでしたなぜならマウスの中核体温が下がったからです動かなくなり死んだように見えました酸素消費率は 10分の1になりましたそしてここが非常に重要な点です人の体内に硫化水素はあると言いましたがこれは急速に代謝されます 6時間の仮死状態のあとはただマウスを室温に置くだけでいいのですマウスは体温を取り戻し依然元気なままでしたこれは大成功でしたホントです哺乳類を仮死状態にする方法を発見したわけですからそれにマウスは障害も起こしませんでしたこれで酸素消費量を最低まで削減する方法を発見し問題なかったわけですこのような仮死状態下ではマウスは元気に動けませんが死んだわけではありませんでした後遺症も出ませんでしたそこで考えました「これがスキーヤーの体内にあった作用因子なのか? 他の人よりも多くあったため冷たくなってしまう前に酸素の必要量を下げることができミミズの実験で起こったように死んでしまわずにすんだのか?」そして考えました「この代謝柔軟性を制御できる能力で何か役に立つことができないか?」それで思ったことの1つが― 経済学者の方もいると思いますが需要供給は誰でも分かるでしょう供給が需要に等しい場合は何も問題ありませんでも供給が減少して― この場合酸素ですが― 需要が高いままだと死んでしまいますつまりこの制御能力で需要を減らせるということです供給も動物を殺さずに今までにない低水準に下げることができるはずですそして国防高等研究計画局から得た資金で証明することができましたマウスに硫化水素を与えると酸素の必要量を下げることができエベレスト山頂から更に1500mの高度の酸素濃度まで下げた状態にマウスを置けますしかも何時間もそのままで問題ありませんこれは本当に凄いことでしたまた硫化水素を与えれば動物が致死的な失血をしても救うことができることも発見しましたこのような概念実証実験から会社を設立してより幅広い分野にこれを応用すべきだと考え Ikariaという会社を人々の助けを借りて設立しましたそしてこの会社が最初に行ったのは硫化水素の液体製剤を注射可能な形態に製造し救命救急医療のモデルに取り組む世界中の医師兼科学者に配布することでした結果は非常に良好でした心臓発作のモデルの1つでは硫化水素を与えられた動物は標準ケアを受けた動物に比べ心臓の損傷が70%減少しました標準ケアとは現在心臓発作患者が受けているものです腎臓や肝臓のかん流が悪かったり急性呼吸窮迫症候群があったり心臓バイパス手術で受けた損傷のために起こる機能低下があった場合の臓器不全でも同じですしたがって世界中の外傷医学の思想的指導者が致死的な低酸素下で得るダメージは硫化水素を投与することで減少できるというのは本当だと言っていますさらに言っておきたいのはこの効果を得るために必要な硫化水素の濃度は非常に低いということです実際先に述べた効果を得るために医師は患者の代謝をあまり低くする必要はないので導入希望者には良いニュースです人を救うために昏睡状態にするのはややこしい話ですからそういうわけで只今人体での臨床試験を行っています今それで― (拍手)ありがとうございます第1相安全試験の結果は良好で次の段階に進んでいますが第2相と第3相にはあと数年かかりそうですすべて非常に迅速に進んでいますマウスを冬眠させる実験は 2005年に行われました最初の人体実験は2008年でこれがうまくいくかどうかは数年のうちに分かるはずですすべてが本当に迅速に進んだのは多くの人々の援助のおかげですまず妻です彼女なしではこのトークも研究も無理でしたどうもありがとう私の研究室で働く優秀な科学者たちやその他のスタッフもシアトルにある素晴らしい研究所フレッド・ハッチンソンがん研究センターそしてIkariaの素晴らしい科学者や業務担当者にも感謝します彼らの業績として挙げられるのはすごい勢いでベンチャー資本を消費していた新興企業の硫化水素の技術を別の有毒ガスを販売する会社の技術と結びつけたことですこのガスは硫化水素よりも毒性が強いのですが細胞組織にうまく酸素を送れず死亡しそうな新生児に与えられていますこのガスは1千以上の世界中の救命救急病院に配布されていますが現在用途限定の上で認可を受け何千人もの赤ん坊を生命の危機から救っています (拍手) このようなことに携わるのは本当に素晴らしいことですまた私たちは代謝の柔軟性の根本的な理解に向かって進んでいると思いますそう遠くない将来に救急医療員が硫化水素や関連した化合物を重傷を負った人に注射することになるかもしれませんその患者は仮死状態に近くなり命を落とさずに済むかもしれません自宅の照明を落とすように代謝を低下させることで病院に運ばれて必要な治療を受けるまでの時間をかせぐことができるわけですそして治療を受けた後スキーヤーや実験のマウスや 65歳の女性のように目を覚ますのです奇跡でしょうか? 現実となるかまたは少なくともよくある奇跡となることを願いますどうもありがとうございました	It is the process by which animals de-animate, appear dead and then can wake up again without being harmed. OK, so here is the sort of big idea: If you look out at nature, you find that as you tend to see suspended animation, you tend to see immortality. And so, what I'm going to tell you about is a way to tell a person who's in trauma -- find a way to de-animate them a bit so they're a little more immortal when they have that heart attack. An example of an organism or two that happens to be quite immortal would be plant seeds or bacterial spores. These creatures are some of the most immortal life forms on our planet, and they tend to spend most of their time in suspended animation. Bacterial spores are thought now by scientists to exist as individual cells that are alive, but in suspended animation for as long as 250 million years. To suggest that this all, sort of, about little, tiny creatures, I want to bring it close to home. In the immortal germ line of human beings -- that is, the eggs that sit in the ovaries -- they actually sit there in a state of suspended animation So then there's also my favorite example of suspended animation. This is Sea-Monkeys. Those of you with children, you know about them. You go to the pet store or the toy store, and you can buy these things. You just open the bag, and you just dump them into the plastic aquarium, and in about a week or so, you'll have little shrimps swimming around. Well, I wasn't so interested in the swimming. I was interested in what was going on in the bag, the bag on the toy store shelf where those shrimp sat in suspended animation indefinitely. are not just about cells and weird, little organisms. Occasionally, human beings are briefly de-animated, and the stories of people who are briefly de-animated that interest me the most are those having to do with the cold. Ten years ago, there was a skier in Norway that was trapped in an icy waterfall, and she was there for two hours before they extracted her. She was extremely cold, and she had no heartbeat -- for all intents and purposes she was dead, frozen. Seven hours later, still without a heartbeat, they brought her back to life, and she went on to be the head radiologist in the hospital that treated her. A couple of years later -- so I get really excited about these things -- about a couple of years later, there was a 13-month-old, she was from Canada. Her father had gone out in the wintertime; he was working night shift, and she followed him outside in nothing but a diaper. And they found her hours later, frozen, lifeless, and they brought her back to life. There was a 65-year-old woman in Duluth, Minnesota last year that was found frozen and without a pulse in her front yard one morning in the winter, and they brought her back to life. The next day, she was doing so well, they wanted to run tests on her. She got cranky and just went home. So, these are miracles, right? These are truly miraculous things that happen. Doctors have a saying that, in fact, "You're not dead until you're warm and dead." And it's true. It's true. In the New England Journal of Medicine, there was a study published that showed that with appropriate rewarming, people who had suffered without a heartbeat for three hours could be brought back to life without any neurologic problems. That's over 50 percent. So what I was trying to do is think of a way that we could study suspended animation to think about a way to reproduce, maybe, what happened to the skier. Well, I have to tell you something very odd, and that is that being exposed to low oxygen does not always kill. So, in this room, there's 20 percent oxygen or so, and if we reduce the oxygen concentration, we will all be dead. And, in fact, the animals we were working with in the lab -- these little garden worms, nematodes -- they were also dead when we exposed them to low oxygen. And here's the thing that should freak you out. And that is that, when we lower the oxygen concentration further by 100 times, to 10 parts per million, they were not dead, they were in suspended animation, and we could bring them back to life without any harm. And this precise oxygen concentration, 10 parts per million, that caused suspended animation, is conserved. We can see it in a variety of different organisms. One of the creatures we see it in is a fish. And we can turn its heartbeat on and off by going in and out of suspended animation like you would a light switch. that we could do this. And so I was wondering, when we were trying to reproduce the work with the skier, that we noticed that, of course, she had no oxygen consumption, and so maybe she was in a similar state of suspended animation. But, of course, she was also extremely cold. if we took our suspended animals and exposed them to the cold. And so, what we found out was that, if you take animals that are animated like you and I, and you make them cold -- that is, these were the garden worms -- now they're dead. But if you have them in suspended animation, and move them into the cold, they're all alive. And there's the very important thing there: If you want to survive the cold, you ought to be suspended. Right? It's a really good thing. And so, we were thinking about that, about this relationship between these things, and thinking about whether or not that's what happened to the skier. And so we wondered: Might there be some agent that is in us, something that we make ourselves, that we might be able to regulate our own metabolic flexibility in such a way as to be able to survive when we got extremely cold, and might otherwise pass away? I thought it might be interesting to sort of hunt for such things. You know? I should mention briefly here that physiology textbooks that you can read about will tell you that this is a kind of heretical thing to suggest. We have, from the time we are slapped on the butt until we take our last dying breath -- that's when we're newborn to when we're dead -- we cannot reduce our metabolic rate below what's called a standard, or basal metabolic rate. But I knew that there were examples of creatures, also mammals, that do reduce their metabolic rate such as ground squirrels and bears, they reduce their metabolic rate So I wondered: Might we be able to find some agent or trigger that might induce such a state in us? And so, we went looking for such things. And this was a period of time when we failed tremendously. Ken Robinson is here. He talked about the glories of failure. Well, we had a lot of them. We tried many different chemicals and agents, and we failed over and over again. So, one time, I was at home watching television on the couch while my wife was putting our child to bed, and I was watching a television show. It was a television show -- it was a NOVA show on PBS -- about caves in New Mexico. And this particular cave was Lechuguilla, and this cave is incredibly toxic to humans. The researchers had to suit up just to enter it. It's filled with this toxic gas, hydrogen sulfide. Now, hydrogen sulfide is curiously present in us. We make it ourselves. The highest concentration is in our brains. Yet, it was used as a chemical warfare agent in World War I. It's an extraordinarily toxic thing. In fact, in chemical accidents, hydrogen sulfide is known to -- if you breathe too much of it, you collapse to the ground, you appear dead, but if you were brought out into room air, you can be reanimated without harm, if they do that quickly. So, I thought, "Wow, I have to get some of this." Now, it's post-9/11 America, and when you go into the research institute, and you say, "Hi. I'd like to buy some concentrated, compressed gas cylinders of a lethal gas because I have these ideas, see, about wanting to suspend people. It's really going to be OK." So that's kind of a tough day, but I said, "There really is some basis for thinking why you might want to do this." As I said, this agent is in us, and, in fact, here's a curious thing, it binds to the very place inside of your cells where oxygen binds, and where you burn it, and that you do this burning to live. And so we thought, like in a game of musical chairs, might we be able to give a person some hydrogen sulfide, and might it be able to occupy that place like in a game of musical chairs where oxygen might bind? And because you can't bind the oxygen, maybe you wouldn't consume it, and then maybe it would reduce your demand for oxygen. I mean, who knows? So -- So, there's the bit about the dopamine and being a little bit, what do you call it, delusional, and you might suggest that was it. And so, we wanted to find out might we be able to use hydrogen sulfide in the presence of cold, and we wanted to see whether we could reproduce this skier in a mammal. Now, mammals are warm-blooded creatures, and when we get cold, we shake and we shiver, right? We try to keep our core temperature at 37 degrees by actually burning more oxygen. So, it was interesting for us when we applied hydrogen sulfide to a mouse when it was also cold because what happened is the core temperature of the mouse got cold. It stopped moving. It appeared dead. Its oxygen consumption rate fell by tenfold. And here's the really important point. I told you hydrogen sulfide is in us. It's rapidly metabolized, and all you have to do after six hours of being in this state of de-animation is simply put the thing out in room air, and it warms up, and it's none the worse for wear. Now, this was cosmic. Really. Because we had found a way to de-animate a mammal, and it didn't hurt it. Now, we'd found a way to reduce its oxygen consumption to rock-bottom levels, and it was fine. Now, in this state of de-animation, it could not go out dancing, but it was not dead, and it was not harmed. So we started to think: Is this the agent that might have been present in the skier, and might have she had more of it than someone else, and might that have been able to reduce her demand for oxygen before she got so cold that she otherwise would have died, as we found out with our worm experiments? So, we wondered: Can we do anything useful with this capacity to control metabolic flexibility? And one of the things we wondered -- I'm sure some of you out there are economists, and you know all about supply and demand. And when supply is equal to demand, everything's fine, but when supply falls, in this case of oxygen, and demand stays high, you're dead. So, what I just told you is we can now reduce demand. We ought to be able to lower supply to unprecedented low levels without killing the animal. And with money we got from DARPA, we could show just that. If you give mice hydrogen sulfide, you can lower their demand for oxygen, and you can put them into oxygen concentrations that are as low as 5,000 feet above the top of Mt. Everest, and they can sit there for hours, and there's no problem. Well this was really cool. We also found out that we could subject animals to otherwise lethal blood loss, and we could save them if we gave them hydrogen sulfide. So these proof of concept experiments led me to say "I should found a company, and we should take this out to a wider playing field." I founded a company called Ikaria with others' help. And this company, the first thing it did was make a liquid formulation of hydrogen sulfide an injectable form that we could put in and send it out to physician scientists all over the world who work on models of critical care medicine, and the results are incredibly positive. In one model of heart attack, animals given hydrogen sulfide showed a 70 percent reduction in heart damage compared to those who got the standard of care that you and I would receive if we were to have a heart attack here today. Same is true for organ failure, when you have loss of function owing to poor perfusion of kidney, of liver, acute respiratory distress syndrome and damage suffered in cardiac-bypass surgery. So, these are the thought leaders in trauma medicine all over the world saying this is true, so it seems that exposure to hydrogen sulfide decreases damage that you receive from being exposed to otherwise lethal-low oxygen. And I should say that the concentrations of hydrogen sulfide required to get this benefit are low, incredibly low. In fact, so low that physicians will not have to lower or dim the metabolism of people much at all to see the benefit I just mentioned, which is a wonderful thing, if you're thinking about adopting this. You don't want to be gorking people out just to save them, it's really confusing. So, I want to say that we're in human trials. Now, and so -- Thank you. The Phase 1 safety studies are over, and we're doing fine, we're now moved on. We have to get to Phase 2 and Phase 3. It's going to take us a few years. This has all moved very quickly, and the mouse experiments of hibernating mice happened in 2005; the first human studies were done in 2008, and we should know in a couple of years whether it works or not. And this all happened really quickly because of a lot of help from a lot of people. I want to mention that, first of all, my wife, without whom this talk and my work would not be possible, so thank you very much. Also, the brilliant scientists who work at my lab and also others on staff, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington -- wonderful place to work. And also the wonderful scientists and businesspeople at Ikaria. was take this technology of hydrogen sulfide, which is this start-up company that's burning venture capital very quickly, and they fused it with another company that sells another toxic gas that's more toxic than hydrogen sulfide, and they give it to newborn babies who would otherwise die from a failure to be able to oxygenate their tissues properly. And this gas that is delivered in over a thousand critical care hospitals worldwide, now is approved, on label, and saves thousands of babies a year from certain death. So it's really incredible for me to be a part of this. And I want to say that I think we're on the path of understanding metabolic flexibility in a fundamental way, and that in the not too distant future, an EMT might give an injection of hydrogen sulfide, or some related compound, to a person suffering severe injuries, and that person might de-animate a bit, they might become a little more immortal. Their metabolism will fall as though you were dimming a switch on a lamp at home. And then, they will have the time, that will buy them the time, to be transported to the hospital to get the care they need. And then, after they get that care -- like the mouse, like the skier, like the 65-year-old woman -- they'll wake up. A miracle? We hope not, or maybe we just hope to make miracles a little more common. Thank you very much.	{ "source": "iwslt2017", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
今日は新しい種類の地図をご紹介しますこの地図は地理を表すのではなく僕の住むメリーランド州のボルティモアに住む人々の関わり合いを表していますそれぞれの点は人を表し線は人々の関わりを表しますそしてネットワークの中のコミュニティは色分けされています僕がいるのはこの右端の緑色の地域ギーク達がいるところです TEDxも同じ所ですね一方ネットワークの反対側には主にアフリカ系アメリカ人達やラティーノ達がいます彼らはギーク達とはちょっと違う事柄に関心がありますそして分かりやすいようにネットワークの緑色の部分を「スモールティモア」と呼ぶことにしましたなぜならそこの住人達はとても小さな街に住んでいるように思えるからです僕たちは同じ人達に何度も何度も会いますがそれは僕達が街を深く広く冒険しないからですそれは僕達が街を深く広く冒険しないからですネットワークの反対側にはヒップホップなどが好きな人達がいます彼らは再開発されたボルティモアの街よりも DMV(ワシントンDC、メリーランド州、ヴァージニア州)一帯の風土のほうが肌に合うと感じています中央には 2つのコミュニティをつないでいるものが見えますスポーツですねアメフトチームのボルティモア・オリオールズやレイヴンズがありオリンピック選手のマイケル・フェルプスもいます有名なアンダー・アーマー社もボルティモアにありますスポーツに関心のあるこのコミュニティだけがネットワーク両端のコミュニティを結びつけていますサンフランシスコを見てみましょうここではまた違った様子が見られますメディア、政治、ニュースなどのグループはボルティモアなど他の都市でもよく見られますが特に目を引くのはネットワークの上半分を占めるギークや技術者達ですそれにも増して分かりやすいのがツイッター社の従業員達ですギークの隣下のゲーマー達とギークの間にいますね反対側にはヒップホップの集団が広がっていますご覧のようにサンフランシスコで起こっているという緊張状態― 街が高所得者達に向けたものになりつつある事だとか新興テクノロジー会社が新たな富や転入者を流入させているという不安は現実のものだと分かりますこの図でそれが確認出来るのです LGBTのコミュニティはギークのコミュニティやアート、音楽のコミュニティとも親和性がそうあるわけでは無いようですそれでこういうことが起こるわけです [ツイッターを追い出せ] 誰かが数週間前に送ってきたこの写真はサンフランシスコの地で今起こっている現実を見せつけますこんなマップを見るとそれが分かることでしょうこんなマップを見るとそれが分かることでしょうリオデジャネイロを見てみましょう最近数週間かけてリオのデータを集めましたこの街について目立ったのは誰もが本当にどうも色々と混ざっているんですここはボルティモアやサンフランシスコとは違いとても多様性の高い街です政府や新聞社、政治家、コラムニストといったグループがやはり見られます TEDxRioは右下ブロガーやライターの直ぐ隣ですそれから様々な音楽に興味のあるじつにバラエティに富んだ人々もいますジャスティン・ビーバーのファンまで細かく可視化されていますその他のボーイ・バンド、カントリー・シンガーゴスペル音楽、ファンクやラップスタンダップ・コメディドラッグやジョークに特化した一帯すらありますすごいでしょう? サッカーのCRフラメンゴチームのファンもここにいますこのようにスポーツや市民活動芸術や音楽に関する人々の広がりが見られるのは同じでもその散らばり方は全く違っています僕にはこれが私たちが考えるリオつまり多文化で多様な音楽の息づく街の姿を良く表しているように思えますこうしたデータが私たちにはある訳です信じられないほど豊富なデータが街々について手に入ります今まで入手できたどんなデータよりも豊かかも知れませんではそれで何が出来るか? そうですねまず最初に人種による分離は社会的に構成されたものだと理解することができますそれは私たちが選択した結果であってそれを選択しない道もあるでしょう更に考えてみれば私たちがしていることは宇宙望遠鏡を街へ向けてまるでそこが広大な高校のカフェテリアであるかのように皆がそれぞれどんな席を陣取っているか覗き見ているかのようですそろそろその席順を引っ掻き回してやる時かも知れませんそれから他に分かってくるのは人種という括りは多様性の幅を非常に狭めてしまうことですこのマップ上にはあらゆる人種の人々を反映させていますが人種だけに目を向けても多様性のある社会を育てることの助けにはあまりなりませんだからもし多様性という観点から社会の難問を解決しようとするならばその多様性の捉え方をまず改める必要があります最後に私たちは街を新しく形作る為の介入策を創造することが出来ます私たちにそうしたことが出来る能力があるのならそれを実行するのが私たちの責任ですらないでしょうかでは街とは何でしょう? 道や建物が集まった地理的な領域だと言う人もいるかも知れませんが僕の考えでは街はそこに住む人々の関係性の集積ですそして私たちがこうした関係性をありのままに描き出すことが出来るようになればひょっとしたら私たちが望むような街づくりを実現出来るのではないでしょうかありがとうございました	Today, I want to show you a new kind of map. This is not a geographic map. This is a map of the relationships between people in my hometown of Baltimore, Maryland, and what you can see here is that each dot represents a person, each line represents a relationship between those people, and each color represents a community within the network. Now, I'm here on the green side, down on the far right where the geeks are, and TEDx also is down on the far right. Now, on the other side of the network, you tend to have primarily African-American and Latino folks who are really concerned about somewhat different things than the geeks are, but just to give some sense, the green part of the network we call Smalltimore, for those of us that inhabit it, because it seems as though we're living in a very small town. We see the same people over and over again, but that's because we're not really exploring the full depth and breadth of the city. On the other end of the network, you have folks who are interested in things like hip-hop music and they even identify with living in the DC/Maryland/Virginia area over, say, the Baltimore city designation proper. But in the middle, you see that there's something that connects the two communities together, and that's sports. We have the Baltimore Orioles, the Baltimore Ravens football team, Michael Phelps, the Olympian. Under Armour, you may have heard of, is a Baltimore company, and that community of sports acts as the only bridge between these two ends of the network. Let's take a look at San Francisco. You see something a little bit different happening in San Francisco. On the one hand, you do have the media, politics and news lobe that tends to exist in Baltimore and other cities, but you also have this very predominant group of geeks and techies that are sort of taking over the top half of the network, and there's even a group that's so distinct and clear that we can identify it as Twitter employees, next to the geeks, in between the gamers and the geeks, at the opposite end of the hip-hop spectrum. So you can see, though, that the tensions that we've heard about in San Francisco in terms of people being concerned about gentrification and all the new tech companies that are bringing new wealth and settlement into the city are real, and you can actually see that documented here. You can see the LGBT community is not really getting along with the geek community that well, the arts community, the music community. And so it leads to things like this. ["Evict Twitter"] Somebody sent me this photo a few weeks ago, and it shows what is happening on the ground in San Francisco, and I think you can actually try to understand that through looking at a map like this. Let's take a look at Rio de Janeiro. I spent the last few weeks gathering data about Rio, and one of the things that stood out to me about this city is that everything's really kind of mixed up. It's a very heterogenous city in a way that Baltimore or San Francisco is not. You still have the lobe of people involved with government, newspapers, politics, columnists. TEDxRio is down in the lower right, right next to bloggers and writers. But then you also have this tremendous diversity of people that are interested in different kinds of music. Even Justin Bieber fans are represented here. Other boy bands, country singers, gospel music, funk and rap and stand-up comedy, and there's even a whole section around drugs and jokes. How cool is that? And then the Flamengo football team is also represented here. So you have that same kind of spread of sports and civics and the arts and music, but it's represented in a very different way, and I think that maybe fits with our understanding of Rio as being a very multicultural, musically diverse city. So we have all this data. It's an incredibly rich set of data that we have about cities now, maybe even richer than any data set that we've ever had before. So what can we do with it? Well, I think the first thing that we can try to understand is that segregation is a social construct. It's something that we choose to do, and we could choose not to do it, and if you kind of think about it, what we're doing with this data is aiming a space telescope at a city and looking at it as if was a giant high school cafeteria, and seeing how everybody arranged themselves in a seating chart. Well maybe it's time to shake up the seating chart a little bit. The other thing that we start to realize is that race is a really poor proxy for diversity. We've got people represented from all different types of races across the entire map here -- only looking at race doesn't really contribute to our development of diversity. So if we're trying to use diversity as a way to tackle some of our more intractable problems, we need to start to think about diversity in a new way. And lastly, we have the ability to create interventions to start to reshape our cities in a new way, and I believe that if we have that capability, we may even bear some responsibility to do so. So what is a city? I think some might say that it is a geographical area or a collection of streets and buildings, but I believe that a city is the sum of the relationships of the people that live there, and I believe that if we can start to document those relationships in a real way then maybe we have a real shot at creating those kinds of cities that we'd like to have. Thank you.	{ "source": "iwslt2017", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
皮肉なことに、イランにおける神政主義の理論が、反神権政治へと導いたようである。政治的に扱われ、自立を大きく制限された神学校を抱える宗教組織は、もはや、政権に政治的合法性を授与する立場にない。また、国の市民社会への宗教分野における支援提供という、因習的機能を果たすこともできない。	With the seminaries politicized and their independence greatly reduced, the religious establishment is no longer in a position to confer political legitimacy on the regime. Nor can it exercise its traditional functions in the religious sphere to provide support to civil society in the country.	{ "source": "news_commentary", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
愛の対象は幅広いですから定義することは難しいですよねジョギングが大好き読書や映画が大好きポークカツレツが大好き奥さんが大好きと言えるからですでもポークカツレツと私の妻の間には計り知れない違いがあります私がポークカツレツを好きでもポークカツレツは私の思いに答えてくれません他方で私の妻によると私は彼女のスターだそうですつまり誰かに望まれて初めて ― 私は望ましい人間になれるわけですこのことから「愛」をより正確に定義できそれは ― 「望まれたいという欲望」だと言えるのです愛に関する果てしない問題とは「どうやったら望まれそれを維持できるか?」です個人としての私たちは社会のルールに合わせることでこの問題の解決を図ってきました性別や年齢社会的地位によって担うべき役割がありその役割を演じることによってのみ社会全体から認められ愛される若い女性は結婚まで純潔であるべき兄弟の末っ子は長男に長男は家長に従うべきというものですでも13世紀に始まったある現象主にルネッサンス時代 ― 西欧諸国においてですがこれが人類史上最も重大なアイデンティティの危機をもたらします近代化です近代化は3つの流れに要約されますまず科学的研究がもたらした合理化の流れこれが技術革新を後押しします次に政治的民主化の流れで「個人の権利」という概念が広がります最後に経済生産と自由貿易による合理化の流れですこの3つが交じり合うことでそれまでの西欧社会の伝統的な在り方をすべて壊し個人にラジカルな結果をもたらしました現代の私たちは自由に誰かの態度・選択・物などを評価したり軽視したりできますでもその結果誰もが周りが持つ同様の評価によって判断されるという事態が起こりますつまり私の価値とはかつては伝統的権威に身を捧げることで確保できていましたが今や株式市場のように値付けされます個人の欲望という自由市場において私たちは自分の価値を日々値踏みしているのですですから現代人はこんな不安に苛まれています「自分は望まれているのか? どんな風に? どれ位の人が私を愛してくれるのだろうか?」こんな不安にはどう対処すればよいのでしょうか? 望ましさの象徴を手当たり次第手に入れますか? 私はこれを収集行為と呼んでいて他にも誘惑という名の資本などがあります事実今日の消費者社会は誘惑の資本に深く根づいていますこの消費形態について現代では物質主義だと言われますでも真実ではありません! 物を買い込むのは他の人達と交流するためだけです自分を愛してもらうよう誘惑するためです物質主義から離れていてセンチメンタルなことと言えば十代の子が新しいジーンズを買ってわざわざ膝の所を破って人気者のジェニファーを喜ばせようとすることです人気者のジェニファーを喜ばせようとすることです消費者主義は物質主義とは異なりますむしろ物質主義に飲み込まれたもので恋愛の神の名や誘惑の資本により犠牲とされるものです現代の愛をこのようにとらえる場合私たちは「愛」を今後どんな風に考えたらよいでしょうか? 2つの仮定が考えられますまずは自己陶酔的な資本主義がさらに強くなるということただ社会・技術革新という予測が難しいものに頼るところが大きいのでどんな形で強固になって行くのか言い難いですでも例えばデートサイトを思い浮かべてくださいお店のポイントサービスに似ていませんか誘惑資本のポイントがつきます年齢・身長・体重学位・年収プロフィールの閲覧回数なんかですこれからは失恋した時の化学治療も出てくるかもしれません恋焦がれる気持ちを落ち着けてくれる薬ですところで MTVのリアリティー番組で誘惑の達人たちは恋の苦悩を病のように扱い自らを“pick-up artists”と呼びます “Artist”とはフランス語でも分かるとおり芸術家 “Pick-up”は誰かを拾うことですが特に若い女性を引っかけることなんですですから若い女性をナンパする達人というわけです達人たちは恋の苦悩を “one-itis”と呼びます英語で“itis”とは体の一部に生じる炎症のことで “One-itis”だと「一人に執着し報われない片思い病」と言うわけですちょっとひどいですよね確かにナンパの達人にとって誰かと恋に落ちるなんて時間の無駄ですし誘惑の資本の無駄遣いになるのでそんなものは病気や伝染病のように抹殺されるべきなのですもう1つ考えられるのは遺伝子情報を恋愛に利用する方法です名刺みたいに携帯しそれを差し出すことで 2人の出会いが出産まで発展するか照合してもらいますもちろんこの手の恋愛競争は他の激しい競争と同様自己陶酔の満足度に大きな障壁を生みますですから孤独や葛藤も顕著に現れます私たちは誘惑の資本の起源である近代化そのものに疑問を投げかけてもよいのではないでしょうかただ私が特に気にしているのがネオ・ナチや宗教団体の反応ですでも事を荒立てない方法もあります「愛」について別の道も考えられるからですどんな道でしょうか? 評価されたいという非理性的な欲望はどうやったら手放せますか? それはご自身の「つまらなさ」を意識することですそう私はつまらない人間ですでもご安心ください皆さんもです (拍手) 私たちは皆役立たずなんです「つまらなさ」を見せるのは簡単ですなぜなら評価されるには他者に望まれる必要があり自分自身に価値はないということだからです私には生まれ持った価値はありません私たちは誰もがあたかも誰かのスターのように振舞いますが実際のところ取り繕っているだけの詐欺行為です道端で無関心を装いながら頭の中で狡猾に人の注意をひきつけたいとあれこれ考えている人みたいです私たちが懸念するこの日常的な詐欺行為の気付きこそが恋愛関係に光をもたらすのではないでしょうか頭のてっぺんからつま先まで愛されたい自分の選択を認めて欲しいからこそ誘惑という厄介なものが存在するのですだから私は誰かに愛されるために完璧に見られたい相手にも完璧でいてほしいそうすれば私の価値に自信が持てるんだと演ずることに囚われたカップルはちょっとした失望で別れることになるのですこの反対は優しさです私は「愛」は「優しさ」だと思います「優しさ」とは何でしょうか? 優しくなることは愛する人の弱い部分を受け入れることです介護者のような悲しいカップルになれと言っているのではありませんこれは良くないですその反対に優しさには沢山の魅力と幸せがつまっています特に強調したいのが残念なことにあまり使われないユーモアで意図した不器用さが織り成す美しさとでも言いましょうか自らを嘲笑することです伝統的なしきたりではもはや続けられない危機を迎えているカップルには自己嘲笑こそが長い関係を続けるための最良の方法だと思います	It's a hard term to define in so far as it has a very wide application. I can love jogging. I can love a book, a movie. I can love escalopes. I can love my wife. But there's a great difference between an escalope and my wife, for instance. That is, if I value the escalope, the escalope, on the other hand, it doesn't value me back. Whereas my wife, she calls me the star of her life. Therefore, only another desiring conscience can conceive me as a desirable being. I know this, that's why love can be defined in a more accurate way as the desire of being desired. Hence the eternal problem of love: how to become and remain desirable? The individual used to find by submitting his life to community rules. You had a specific part to play according to your sex, your age, your social status, and you only had to play your part to be valued and loved by the whole community. Think about the young woman who must remain chaste before marriage. Think about the youngest son who must obey the eldest son, who in turn must obey the patriarch. started in the 13th century, mainly in the Renaissance, in the West, that caused the biggest identity crisis in the history of humankind. This phenomenon is modernity. We can basically summarize it through a triple process. First, a process of rationalization of scientific research, which has accelerated technical progress. Next, a process of political democratization, which has fostered individual rights. And finally, a process of rationalization of economic production and of trade liberalization. These three intertwined processes have completely annihilated all the traditional bearings of Western societies, with radical consequences for the individual. Now individuals are free any attitude, any choice, any object. But as a result, they are themselves confronted with this same freedom that others have to value or disvalue them. In other words, my value was once ensured by submitting myself to the traditional authorities. Now it is quoted in the stock exchange. On the free market of individual desires, I negotiate my value every day. Hence the anxiety of contemporary man. He is obsessed: "Am I desirable? How desirable? How many people are going to love me?" And how does he respond to this anxiety? Well, by hysterically collecting symbols of desirability. I call this act of collecting, along with others, seduction capital. Indeed, our consumer society is largely based on seduction capital. It is said about this consumption that our age is materialistic. But it's not true! We only accumulate objects in order to communicate with other minds. We do it to make them love us, to seduce them. Nothing could be less materialistic, or more sentimental, than a teenager buying brand new jeans and tearing them at the knees, because he wants to please Jennifer. Consumerism is not materialism. It is rather what is swallowed up and sacrificed in the name of the god of love, or rather in the name of seduction capital. In light of this observation on contemporary love, how can we think of love in the years to come? We can envision two hypotheses: The first one consists of betting that this process of narcissistic capitalization will intensify. It is hard to say what shape this intensification will take, because it largely depends on social and technical innovations, which are by definition difficult to predict. But we can, for instance, imagine a dating website which, a bit like those loyalty points programs, uses seduction capital points that vary according to my age, my height/weight ratio, my degree, my salary, or the number of clicks on my profile. We can also imagine a chemical treatment for breakups that weakens the feelings of attachment. By the way, there's a program on MTV already in which seduction teachers treat heartache as a disease. These teachers call themselves "pick-up artists." "Artist" in French is easy, it means "artiste." "Pick-up" is to pick someone up, but not just any picking up -- it's picking up chicks. So they are artists of picking up chicks. And they call heartache "one-itis." In English, "itis" is a suffix that signifies infection. One-itis can be translated as "an infection from one." It's a bit disgusting. Indeed, for the pick-up artists, falling in love with someone is a waste of time, it's squandering your seduction capital, so it must be eliminated like a disease, like an infection. We can also envision a romantic use of the genome. Everyone would carry it around and present it like a business card to verify if seduction can progress to reproduction. Of course, this race for seduction, like every fierce competition, will create huge disparities in narcissistic satisfaction, and therefore a lot of loneliness and frustration too. So we can expect that modernity itself, which is the origin of seduction capital, would be called into question. I'm thinking particularly of the reaction of neo-fascist or religious communes. But such a future doesn't have to be. Another path to thinking about love may be possible. But how? How to renounce the hysterical need to be valued? Well, by becoming aware of my uselessness. Yes, I'm useless. But rest assured: so are you. We are all useless. This uselessness is easily demonstrated, because in order to be valued I need another to desire me, which shows that I do not have any value of my own. I don't have any inherent value. We all pretend to have an idol; we all pretend to be an idol for someone else, but actually we are all impostors, a bit like a man on the street who appears totally cool and indifferent, while he has actually anticipated and calculated so that all eyes are on him. I think that becoming aware of this general imposture that concerns all of us would ease our love relationships. It is because I want to be loved from head to toe, justified in my every choice, that the seduction hysteria exists. And therefore I want to seem perfect so that another can love me. I want them to be perfect so that I can be reassured of my value. It leads to couples obsessed with performance who will break up, just like that, at the slightest underachievement. In contrast to this attitude, I call upon tenderness -- love as tenderness. What is tenderness? To be tender is to accept the loved one's weaknesses. It's not about becoming a sad couple of orderlies. That's pretty bad. On the contrary, there's plenty of charm and happiness in tenderness. I refer specifically to a kind of humor that is unfortunately underused. It is a sort of poetry of deliberate awkwardness. I refer to self-mockery. For a couple who is no longer sustained, supported by the constraints of tradition, I believe that self-mockery is one of the best means for the relationship to endure.	{ "source": "iwslt2017", "missed_lines": null, "inserted_lines_src": null, "inserted_lines_trg": null }
弟子入りが認められたニアは目を輝かせている。これからの冒険者生活にわくわくしているのかもしれない。そんなニアに、俺は先輩としてアドバイスすることにした。「ニア、冒険者稼業は危険だぞ」「肝に銘じます!」だが、実際に危険に直面するまで、わかるはずがないのだ。俺もそうだったし、きっとシアもそうだっただろう。いくらアドバイスしたところで、大した意味はないのかもしれない。それでも、俺は言わずにはいられなかった。「なによりも命が大切だ。いざとなれば逃げるのが大切だぞ」「シアの言うことをよく聞かないとだめだぞ」不安だ。ま。幼すぎる。狼の獣人族の風習なのだろうが、怖いと思う。「シアも八歳で冒険者になったのか?」「そうであります」「ずっと親父さんとペアでやっていたのか?」「ペアもやりましたが、パーティー組むことが多かったと思うでありますよ」「......なるほどなー」シアはセルリスに向かって頭を下げる。「ど、どうしたの、シア」「妹の面倒を見ないといけなくなったでありますよ。セルリスとこれまでのように冒険できないであります」シアとセルリスは互いに呼び捨てで呼び合う間柄になったようだ。そして、やはり一緒に冒険していたようだ。シアとセルリスでは、冒険者としての経験は大きな差がある。だが、戦士としての力量ならば、ほぼ互角だ。ちょうどいいコンビといえるだろう。セルリスはシアの言葉を聞いて、表情を曇らせる。「私が足手まといってこと?」「ニアちゃんの面倒を見るから、私の面倒まで見切れないってことかしら......」「そうじゃないであります。ニアを連れて行くとなると、魔鼠退治とか小さなゴブリンの群れの退治とかが主になるでありますよ......」「それがどうかしたのかしら」「セルリスは、どんどん冒険者ランクを上げないとダメであります。私たち姉妹に付き合わせるわけにはいかないでありますよ」セルリスは真剣な顔でシアを見つめる。「私が足手まといならはっきり言ってちょうだい」「それは絶対ないであります」「絶対なの?」それを聞いて、セルリスは笑顔になった。「なら、構わないわで冒険しましょう? シアも最初のころパーティーでクエストこなしたってさっき言ってたわよね?」「そうでありますが......。魔鼠とかになるでありますよ?」「構わないわ」「折角、ここ十年の最速記録でEランクに上がれそうなのに......」「シア。私を見くびらないで欲しいわ。そんな記録に興味はないの」「でも......」「私は強くなりたいのよ」そして、セルリスは俺を見た。「ロックさんなんて、Fランクなのに、最強だわ」「まあ、ロックさんは......特別というか......ランク詐欺というか......でありますから」本当はSランクなので、まさしく詐欺である。「とにかく、迷惑でなければ私も一緒に冒険させてほしいわ」「......セルリスと一緒に冒険できるなら、本当はすごくありがたいであります」「セルリスさん。ありがとうございます」シアとニアは頭を下げた。「俺にできることがあれば、いつでも言ってくれ。魔鼠退治でもゴブリン退治でも付き合うぞ」「そんな、ロックさんにそんな些事に付き合わせるわけにはいかないであります」「ほかに受けている仕事がなければ、まったく構わないぞ。遠慮するな」「......ありがとうございます。もしかしたら声をかけさせてもらうかもしれないでありますよ」それから、シアはニアに言う。「ニア。荷物はそれで全部でありますか」「はい。姉上」「宿屋に行くでありますよ。急がないと一杯になってしまうでありますからな」「はい、急ぎます!」そんなシアたちを俺は止める。「まあまて。ミルカがもうご飯を用意しているころだぞ。食べていくといい」「ですが......」「宿屋など借りなくても、うちに泊まっていけばいいぞ。部屋は余っているからな」「ですが、いつまでもお世話になるわけにはいかないでありますし。早めに部屋を借りるつもりであります」これまで、シアは基本宿屋で寝泊まりしていたらしい。ニアも来たということで、部屋を借りようと考えたのだろう。「気にしなくていいぞとも自分の家だと思って過ごしてくれ」「もし何なら、うちに来る? うちも部屋の余裕はあるわよ?」シアの気持ちもわからなくもない。俺もゴランの家の居候を、なるべく早く切り上げようと思ったものだ。「部屋を見つけるまでの間だけでも、泊っていってほしい」「がうがう!」「ほら、ガルヴもそうして欲しいみたいだし」ガルヴはシアとニアの周りをぐるぐる回っている。「ありがとうございます。お言葉に甘えて、お世話になるでありますよ」「ロックさん! お世話になります!」「おう、いつまでも居ていいぞ。ゲルベルガさまの警護とか、そのうち引っ越してくるフィリーの警護を考えると、シアがいてくれると心強いからな」「そういって頂けると......。ありがたいであります」シアの尻尾がゆっくりと揺れた。	Nia’s eyes shone brightly as she was accepted as an apprentice. She was probably excited about her new life as an Adventurer. As a veteran, I decided to give her some advice. “Nia. The occupation of an Adventurer is a dangerous one.” “I will keep that in mind!” However, that was usually the case. You had to face actual danger in order to understand it. It was like that for me and it must have been the same for Shia. No amount of advice would have much meaning until then. Still, I felt I had to say it. “You’re life is more important than anything. It’s important to run when necessary.” “And you must listen to everything that Shia tells you.” I was worried. She was only eight. That was so young. Maybe it was according to the beastkin tribe’s custom. But it was scary. “Did you also become an Adventurer at eight, Shia?” “That is correct.” “Were you always paired with your father?” “I did pair with him, but most of the time, I was in a party.” “...I see...” Shia then turned to Serulis and bowed. “Wha-what is it, Shia?” “I now have to take care of my younger sister. I will not be able to go on quests with you like before.” Shia and Serulis had become quite close. And they had been adventuring together. When it came to experience on the field, there was a large gap between Shia and Serulis. However, in terms of ability as warriors, they were mostly the same. They were a good team. Serulis heard Shia’s words and her face darkened. “Are you saying that I’d get in your way?” “No. That’s not it.” “So, because you’re taking care of Nia, you can’t take care of me anymore...” “No, that’s not what I meant. If I take Nia, we will mostly just be hunting demon rats and goblins.” “And what’s wrong with that?” “Serulis, you have to keep raising your rank as an Adventurer. You can’t afford to waste your time with us.” Serulis looked at Shia seriously. “If you think I’m just going to slow you two down, just say it.” “Really?” With this, Serulis finally smiled. “I don’t mind, then. All three of us can go, can’t we? You said yourself that you were in a party at first?” “That’s true... But you know that we’ll mostly be hunting demon rats?” “I don’t mind.” “But...that would be a waste. You broke the record of being the fastest person to rise to Rank-E in ten years...” “Shia. Don’t underestimate me. I am not interested in those records.” “But...” “I want to become stronger.” And then Serulis looked at me. “Just look at Mister Locke. He’s only an F-Ranker but he’s so strong.” “Well, Mister Locke is...special...fraud...I mean...yes.” I was actually S-Rank, so it was fraud. “In any case, if it won’t inconvenience you, I would like to join you two.” “...If we can go adventuring with you, that would actually make me very happy.” “Miss Serulis, thank you.” Shia and Nia bowed. “Let me know if there is anything that I can do. I will help with the demon rats and goblins if you need it.” “Oh, no. We wouldn’t ask you, Mister Locke, to do something so insignificant as that.” “I wouldn’t mind, as long as I wasn’t busy with something else. Don’t be so modest.” “...Thank you. Well, maybe will call you for help sometime then.” And then Shia said to Nia, “Nia. Is this all of your belongings?” “Yes, sister.” “Then we will go to the inn. We must hurry, or they will be out of rooms.” “Yes, let’s hurry.” I stopped Shia just then. “Well, wait. Milka is making dinner now. You should eat with us.” “But...” “And you don’t have to go to an inn, you can stay with us. We have extra rooms.” “But, we can’t rely on your hospitality forever. I intend on getting a room quickly.” Up until now, Shia had mostly stayed at inns. And since Nia was here, she was thinking of borrowing a room. “Don’t worry about that now. You should stay here as if it were your own house. “But...” “Or you could come to my house? We have empty rooms as well.” I could understand how Shia felt. I had wanted to get out of Goran’s house as soon as possible as well. “I think you should stay here until you find a new room, at least.” “Groof-groof!” “See, even Grulf wants you to stay.” Grulf was running in a circle around Shia and Nia. “Thank you. If you insist, we will accept your kind offer.” “Mister Locke! Thank you!” “Yes, stay as long as you like. Considering we have to protect Lord Gerberga and eventually, Philly, it would be good having you here, Shia.” “That’s very kind of you to say... Thank you.” Shia’s tail wagged slowly.	{ "source": "manual-fanfic", "missed_lines": 5, "inserted_lines_src": 2, "inserted_lines_trg": 1 }

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