Picked Up A Strange Knight Chapter 1

It’d all been the same as usual.

I had decided to let the new hires go home on time after getting fed up with their lack of sense. With the third energy drink of the day in my hand, I stayed behind to do overtime and finish the rest of the work. By the time I got out, the trains were just about to stop running.

It was too much of a pain to cook today, so I just grabbed a bento and drink from the convenience store. The elevator took a minute and a half to travel from the first floor up to mine, and in the s.p.a.ce of that time all sorts of rambling thoughts poured out of my head. I was so d.a.m.n tired today… but guess what, there was still more work to do tomorrow. Just how many days were left until the weekend, seriously? Finally, the elevator doors opened with a startling sound. I dug out my keys while exiting the elevator, taking the left turn that led my esteemed abode. It was all the same as usual.

Yep, except for the blond guy pa.s.sed out in front of my room.

“Wh…?!”

I kept repeating the same bewildered and speechless sound over and over again, and the blond man before me let out a pained groan. I, did I maybe get off on the wrong floor? It sure would be nice if I could pa.s.s this off with such a good and convenient excuse, but when I took a look around… yeah, nope, this was the right place after all. In front of my eyes was the number plate for my living quarters. There was no doubt about it. Right past this man was the door that led to my house.

The heck, what’s with this guy? Why’d he have to pa.s.s out over here? I was already exhausted by that unending overtime, could you seriously not just let me go to sleep? Really, what the h.e.l.l, I don’t accept this… And also in the first place, just who is this guy. Police, should I be calling the police right now? Ah d.a.m.n it, all I want to do is sleep right now, you know…!

“Hey.”

Even when I try to talk to him, the man only responds with a pained groan.

“Hey, everything alright? Can you get up, man.”

I shook his shoulder, and realized that this man’s body was running overly hot. His slightly opened eyes were a pretty blue, and if they opened fully they’d be watery. Now that I looked closely he seemed to be shivering a little, though he probably had a fever. With today being a cold day that seemed about to snow, and the corridor inside not having any air conditioning, even I understood how sorry it would be to be left out in a place like this. If I were to leave him out here, then the worst case scenario is that, come morning, this guy would already have stopped breathing… Though in the first place, even if I wanted to leave this guy here, I wouldn’t be able to get into my own room. From the very beginning I didn’t have the option of throwing up my hands and saying, ‘Well, not my problem’. Might as well do the right thing and help this guy out, I guess.

“Ah, jeez! What the freaking h.e.l.l…!”

While cursing, I forcefully pulled the man’s arm over my shoulder. He looked thin, this guy, but he’s surprisingly heavy, and when I took a closer look—hey, that’s armor, isn’t it, and a sword? Is this some sort of knight cosplay? Jeez, this isn’t an event venue, you know.

“Oi, pick yourself up.”

“S… sor… ry…”

The weakly-returned word was in fluent j.a.panese. A clearly and fully foreign guy speaking perfectly fluent j.a.panese kind of gave me the creeps.

Somehow I got the door open with the key, and I frantically started trying to strip the guy of his shoes, sword, and armor. This guy had some giant rocks dangling from his hip, and I took them off too since they were getting in the way. I then dragged this guy who’d been cosplaying even underneath his armor to my bed. It couldn’t be helped that he’d only landed on the bed halfway when I flung him on. I was tired, too, you know.

I took off my coat and suit, and while loosening my necktie got out the medicine box that just barely had some cold medicine left. I got out a plastic bottle of water from the fridge and went back to the man’s side. I forcefully raised his upper body and stuffed the medicine in his mouth, and when he tried to spit it out I panicked and poured in water. Some of it spilled over and wet the sheets before I could catch it, but, well, I’m not going to be sleeping here tonight so whatever. After confirming that he had properly swallowed the medicine in between coughing, I pulled up the blankets over the futon. The man looked at me with a bewildered face. Somehow he reminded me of a big puppy fluffed up in those blankets, and I ended up laughing in spite of myself.

“Tonight’s special, so I’ll let you stay. Hurry up and go to sleep.”

“I thank you…”

The man whispered his grat.i.tude and gradually fell asleep. Somehow all at once I felt deeply tired… As I went over to the sofa in the next room and laid down, I also immediately pa.s.sed out.

Beep beep beep… The smartphone alarm shrilly sounded. So d.a.m.n noisy. With the usual anger I felt every morning, I tapped the screen of my phone. It was then that I realized that my bed was twice as hard as usual. Looking around, it’s the living room, my small, one-bedroom apartment’s living room. Hey, why wasn’t I sleeping in my own bed? When I finally remembered picking up that big puppy-like foreign cosplayer last night, I slowly got up. My body freaking hurts… yep, today’s definitely a stay-in-and-chill day.

When I opened the door to my bedroom, inside there really was some blond-haired and sparkly dude taking up my bed. His face was pained in his sleep, and I realized that the medicine had worn off and his fever had gone up. When I touched his forehead, it felt so hot that I thought he really might end up dying if this keeps up. With a fever that went on like that, I knew that I’d better take him to the hospital… But. This guy, did he bring his health insurance card with him? Nope, he absolutely didn’t. If you’re not gonna bring your card with you in case you get lost and need to go the hospital, then absolutely don't collapse in this kind of place, you.

“What should I do, huh…”

As I looked down at the man while scratching my head, I saw the guy’s eyelashes move. When his eyes opened, for some reason the man’s slender eyes looked at me with a wandering gaze. And then, when his eyes met mine, he tried to get up with a speed that I wouldn’t expect from someone sick. But he was ill after all and didn’t have the strength to hold up his body, so he  just as quickly collapsed back onto the bed. Really, what the heck are you doing, mister.

“You have a fever, so don’t move.”

“You, just who are you…!”

“Ha? Is that the kind of att.i.tude you’re supposed to show to your savior? Just whose bed do you think you’re using right now, huh.”

“This… where am I? Where is this?”

“My place.”

“And you are…?”

“Ah? If we’re asking questions, then aren’t you the one who should answer first. Who’re you?”

“… I’m Ilias Garland.”

“And I’m Sakurai Azusa. So? Why’d you have to go and collapse with a fever in front of my place? You live somewhere in this apartment, or?”

“A… partment? The place in which I reside is the knight dorm, but…”

“Oh, a dorm resident huh…”

The man who calls himself the knight Ilias seemed to get annoyed by my vague remark. Hey, it’s because of you that I had to sleep on a tough sofa for the first time, and though I was thinking ‘Hey you, you’re not even going to say “Sorry, excuse me”?’, I also considered that if the two of us got into a fight, there was no way I would win what with the disparity between our bodies. And so, I swallowed the rest of my words and kept my mouth shut. It’s a principle of mine to never start a fight that I can’t win.

“Excuse me, Sakurai Azusa, may I ask which country we happen to be in?”

“Uh… this is j.a.pan, but…”

“Nippon…? I have never heard of it. This is not the territory of Gretia, then…?” 1

“Gre—? No idea.”

“I would like to examine the coordinates of this place. Where is the Position Core located?”

“Ha? What? Position Core?”

“… It’s necessary in order for Transfer Teleportation to work. Don’t tell me, the technology for Transfer Teleportation doesn’t exist here?”

What the heck’s with this guy, did he play too many games? Scary… 2 On my face was an annoyed expression showing perfectly how much I honestly didn’t get his story, when Ilias staggered up and got out of bed. I hurriedly went over and lent him my shoulder upon seeing his uncertain steps, and as I thought, he was still overly warm. I lowered my head in apology. I may have a big temper but at heart I think I still might be considered a fairly good guy.

Because he told me that he wanted to check the things that he had been wearing before, I went to fetch the armor and sword set that I had left at the entrance, with the weird rocks that had been attached at Ilias’ hip held in my hand. I’d thought they’d get in the way of sleeping, so they’d been removed yesterday.

Wanting to know what the heck he was doing, I watched him place the rock in his hand and trace it with a finger. Suddenly, the rock began to shine, and a screen appeared in the air. Coordinates, communications, and letters floated up. Just what was up with all this sci-fi stuff? Even the principle of how the display worked was a complete mystery… While I stared stupidly, Ilias tapped at the letters and coordinates like he was used to it. He inputted some search words, and after a few seconds came an error message. Ilias sucked in a breath, and this time tapped some words for communications. From the numbers typed in the back some kind of call started. Like a phone, the call rang for a fixed amount of time, but in the end there wasn’t any response. The time ran out after a while, and when the stone lost its light the screen also disappeared.

“It cannot be… I’m unable to contact…?”

I took a look at him when I heard that voice filled with despair, and saw that his face had turned pale blue. And so collapsed the idea of a place from another dimension that he had embraced.

“In any case, you’re still overheated with a fever. Just rest for now.”

“But…”

“I’m not so much of a demon as to throw you out in this state, and I’m not cold enough as to hand you over to the police, either, you know.”

Though Ilias’s body was at least an entire head taller to the point where he would have to look down to see me, that anxious figure of his really did look like that of a big dog, huh. Upon thinking that, I laughed weakly and pushed him back down to the bed again. He was surprised when I handed over a tablet rather than medicine powder, and struggled to swallow it down. Meanwhile, I searched for clothes that seemed like they’d fit Ilias. Since I’m a comparatively small guy compared to this giant, I thought it’d be preferable to give him bigger clothes like a sweatpants and top, but it was still a pretty tight fit. Well, it’s better than sleeping in a dress shirt and slacks, at least.

Also, though we’re talking about a sick patient right now, this guy was still some unknown mystery man that I’d brought into my room, so I couldn’t just skedaddle off and head back to work today. Ah, I’ll have to contact the company and tell them my grandpa is in critical condition so I need three days of vacation, please, thanks. Since it’s Wednesday today, that means five whole days of holiday. What should I do from now… while I was pondering that, my belly grumbled ferociously. Ah, that’s right, I didn’t even get to eat yesterday night’s meal.

In any case, Ilias is fine over there recovering on his own. I picked up the uneaten convenience store bento that I’d bought yesterday and threw it into the microwave.

1. p.r.o.nounced gu-ri-ti-a. A more accurate Romanization would be Gritia. (x)
2. Azusa thinks that Ilias is some random foreigner who played so many games that he lost touch with reality and even started going around dressing up like a video game character… (x)