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Is it Difficult to Use Stealth in Modern Japan? – Part 01

Prologue: The Troubles Awaiting Hikaru the Otherworlder

Hikaru didn’t plan to stay long in Japan, and he didn’t have a specific itinerary either, thinking satisfying Lavia’s curiosity would be more than enough. However, as the camera’s flash went off, he sensed that things might not go as smoothly as anticipated.

“I knew it! There are other travelers from the other world. This is a global scoop!” exclaimed the woman holding an SLR camera.

She turned on her heel and bolted away, briskly climbing the apartment stairs. She appeared to be a resident of the building.

“Um, Hikaru? What just happened—”

“Sorry, Lavia. Go back inside and wait.”

“Hikaru?!”

Hikaru chased after the woman. His Life Detection worked here too, informing him that she had entered a room one floor above. But before he could catch up, the door closed with a click.

“This is bad.”

Given the hefty SLR camera equipped with a flash and her use of the word “scoop,” she was likely some media personnel. Her apartment was a corner unit on the fourth floor, with the nameplate bearing the name Sasakura. It didn’t seem like she had moved in within the last few months, so she must have been a longtime resident.

“I can’t let those photos get out.”

The release of photos with the caption New Otherworlders could lead to unwanted attention. People might realize it was Hikaru, prompting the media to swarm his family for interviews.

I need to delete those photos.

The door was locked. He considered breaking it, but he hesitated. She might call the police while he was breaking the door down. His Stealth had its limitations.

“All right, in that case…”

Hikaru climbed over the corridor railing. Because the apartment was a corner unit, leaning out a bit afforded him a view of the exterior wall of the building. There were lattice windows nearby, and up ahead, two bay windows. He spotted the railing of a balcony further beyond.

He glanced down. The coast was clear, and it was past 10 PM.

Fortunately, Hikaru was in his adventurer getup. Tying a rope to the railing, he jumped, grabbed the lattice window, and hung down. He was on the fourth floor. He surprised himself with acrobatics he wouldn’t have attempted back when he was still living in Japan.

With 2 points in his Soul Board’s Muscle Strength, Hikaru effortlessly climbed the lattice and stood on the narrow space above. Next, he leaped to the roof of the bay window, and without losing momentum, jumped to the next one, until he was right in front of the balcony railing.

He landed without a sound. The rope was just barely long enough. Letting go of the rope, Hikaru peered into the narrow balcony.

Laundry was hanging outside. Hidden behind a plain bath towel was an equally plain sweatshirt and pants. The air conditioner’s outdoor unit wasn’t running.

Though the blackout curtains were closed, a faint light spilled through the gap. Peering inside, Hikaru saw the woman named Sasakura facing a laptop.

A khaki cap sat on her head, and she was wearing a purple down jacket. She had her back turned to him.

For the first time since arriving, Hikaru felt the cold. It was already December.

Upon closer inspection, the balcony window was unlocked—a careless oversight.

Hikaru opened the window, and thanks to Stealth, the woman remained oblivious. He entered, boots on, closed and locked the window, and drew a dagger from his waist. As a precaution, he put on the silver mask he had brought, not expecting to use it so soon.

This felt like a robbery, which annoyed him, but letting the photos leak was not an option.

“Hehehe. I finally got the shot! I told them there were others. I can’t wait to see the look on those editors’ eyes! Now, where do I insert this card again?”

While the woman excitedly extracted a small memory card from the camera, Hikaru, standing behind her, deactivated Stealth and revealed the blade of his dagger.

“Unfortunately, those photos won’t be seeing the light of day.”

“Huh?!”

Startled, she turned around and paled at the sight of the blade pointed at her.

“You’re the otherworlder from earlier! H-How did you get in…”

“Who knows? No need to explain that, right?”

Hikaru snatched the memory card from the trembling woman’s hands and put it in his pocket. He planned to dispose of it later, perhaps by burning it.

“N-No… you can’t…”

“I can’t hand over the photos.”

“But, that’s…”

“Forget that I was here. I won’t appear before you again—”

“Ugh.”

“Hmm?”

“Ugh, uuh, uuuuuh…”

Tears welled up in the woman’s eyes. She whimpered, unable to contain the emotions.

“Uwaaaaah!”

“Huh?”

She started bawling like a child. Tears flowed down her face. She didn’t care that Hikaru was in front of her.

“It’s oveeer! I’m going to live as a stupid, useless journalist forever. Waaaah!”

“Wha… what?”

Hikaru was weirded out. She tumbled off the chair and onto the floor face down, sobbing uncontrollably.

“What is going on here?”

Hikaru was perplexed. He knew Japan had its share of troubles, but he never expected to encounter such a situation.

“Death… Death is the only option left for me!”

“Huh?”

“Waaaaahhh!”

“…”

While it would be best to leave her and run away, Hikaru wasn’t completely heartless.

“A-All right. All right, stop crying. What on earth happened?”

“Hngh…”

And so, the woman—Ayano Sasakura—shared her story.

She said she was a reporter for a major newspaper in the country, Nitto Shimbun. She was being mistreated at work, and she needed to turn the tables with an exclusive news.

Not really my problem.

The more he listened, the more lost Hikaru felt.

---

In the royal castle of the historic Ponsonia Kingdom, the grand assembly room teemed with the kingdom’s nobility. Over the past six months, a series of events had unfolded, including the upheaval surrounding the ascension of a new queen, the ceasefire with the Quinbrand Empire, and the capital’s crisis induced by the Accursed Toxin. Some nobles had evacuated the capital, deeming it perilous, while the majority chose to stay, eager to witness how Queen Kujastria would navigate through the crisis. For many, aligning themselves with the new queen was also a strategic move to secure their own positions.

In short, among the nobles in the grand assembly room, only a small faction genuinely pledged loyalty to Kujastria; the rest were primarily concerned with self-preservation.

Moreover, those nobles associated with the late king and Kujastria’s brother, Crown Prince Austrin, and had engaged in severe illegal activities, had been ousted and punished. The once-crowded assembly room now featured plenty of empty seats.

Despite the circumstances, lively opinions were being voiced on the proposal submitted that day, and the discussion leaned heavily towards rejection.

When nobles opposed something to this extent, Queen Kujastria couldn’t push it through, even if she herself approved of it. The situation would be different if influential nobles expressed their support, but she had few allies.

Margrave Grugschilt, known for his military power, was back at his territory. Duke Golbishop, head of one of the three major ducal houses, was adept at assessing costs and benefits. Anticipating potential losses in this kind of matter, he opted to be absent. A message came that said Duke Jackrune, due to age and the accumulated fatigue from all the crises this year, was bedridden. Duke Nightblaze, present in the room, held the position of the queen’s advisor but remained passive about the discussion. The renowned knight commander Lawrence D. Falcon was present, and as the sword and shield of the kingdom, he followed the queen’s decisions.

In essence, the proposal would be rejected.

“The conclusion is apparent,” Kujastria said. “The kingdom cannot provide support to the Theocracy of Bios.”

The nobles nodded in agreement, as if this was the obvious decision. In contrast, the priest standing in the corner—Leonie, actively handling various tasks at the kingdom’s core administration—quietly lowered her gaze. Ponsonia had borrowed her from the Church’s new leader, Luvain; as such, she was affiliated with the Church.

Hikaru had asked for a priest knowledgeable in sorcery to study the spell for crossing worlds, but as Kujastria wanted to conduct the research herself, she assigned Leonie a significant amount of paperwork to alleviate her workload. The goal was to give Kujastria more time for research. While the workload decreased, a flood of additional tasks left Kujastria with limited time for research anyway.

“That concludes today’s assembly.”