Vending Machine - 132 - Girl Who Fell From Heaven (Patreon)

"Hakkon, you're okay! Eh, a bird is holding you!”

Oi, stop wriggling about in the air.

Ramis was flapping her arms around and pointing at me, apparently surprised to see Kuroyata holding onto me.

"Fri-end"

"Kuwaak!"

I said ‘friend’ as the simplest way to explain our relationship, and Kuroyata seemed alright with it.

"Oh, I see. Nice to meet you, I'm Ramis!"

"Kwaak kuwaak—"

While I do think that greetings are important, they should really not be done while one is floundering about in the sky.

Kuroyata closed the distance and held me out to Ramis who happily grabbed me in her arms. It then flapped its wings and flew above us. [1] Before I could wonder where it had gone, we suddenly moved against the breeze. I think Kuroyata must have grabbed hold of the top of the parachute and was now guiding us towards where our companions gathered.

"I'm so glad Hakkon that is safe. We were lucky enough to return to the Clearflow Lake Floor--"

"O-i"

I increased the volume of my voice to indicate anger.

Just in case the message was still unclear, all the product line-up changed into cans of drinks with the word ‘hot’ [2] in red letters in front of them.

"Could it be, Hakkon... are you angry?"

"Ye-es ang-ry"

"Shu-ut up"

"Ehhhh, don’t be like that, Hakkon. I was really worried about you, and the teleportation circle isn't working--"

The reason why she acted so recklessly was out of concern for me. This made me even more angry. She could have died if any part of her plan had gone wrong. Even someone like her could get hurt if she landed wrong. If she did manage to land safely with the parachute, there were too many monsters in the maze to get out safely, even for someone with her great strength.

I had been reckless, true. If the situation was desperate and I had no other choice, I’d probably do something stupid, but… I can’t get over the fact that Ramis was in danger. Sure, that falling block of ice saved me from the regenerating Lava Demon, but I still can’t get over the fact that Ramis was in danger while doing that.

“So, I broke through the Floor and---” Ramis continued to talk, even kicking her feet in greeting as we approached the ground where Hyurumi and Director Bear were waiting together.

"Now then, let us hear your excuses."

We reached the ground to find a Hyurumi with a smile on her face, but veins obviously twitching at her temple. Director Bear had his arms folded across his chest as he stared steadily at us.

I had been distracted by Ramis’ sudden descent from the sky and completely forgotten about the Lava Demon. Now that I had the mindset to look, there was nothing left of the demon but some scattered blackened rocks at my feet. I think Director Bear must have landed the final blow judging from the claw marks on some of the rocks.

“E-eh? I-I thought you’d be happy to see me?”

Ramis landed with me under one arm, her other hand scratching the back of her head.

“Ramis, The ice block that fell from the crack between floors weakened the Lava Demon, for which we are grateful for. However, why would you jump through the floors? Don’t you remember how worried you were back when Hakkon fell through the floor?”

Being scolded by Director Bear seemed to have convinced her that she had done a bad thing as she shrank down from her cheerful pose.

That’s right. While I am happy that we could finally meet again and grateful that the block of ice fell at just the right moment… I can’t wrap my mind around how that could happen.

“First, tell us what happened after we split up and how the heck you fell from the sky. I’ll decide whether to get angry after that,” [3] Hyurumi said in that terrifyingly calm and matter-of-fact way.

Well, I guess it’s only right to defer one’s anger until one has heard all the details. After all, there’s no point getting angry over something that can’t be helped.

Instead of answering us, Ramis was looking at Kikoyu and the others. She looked a little concerned but refrained from asking about them. Kikoyu seemed to have read the atmosphere and kept her distance, understanding that she was an outsider to this matter.

“Umm, we got lucky and were sent to Clearflow Lake Floor. The Director of Beginner Floor is with me. Anyway, the teleportation circle stopped working so I thought I’d ask Grandpa for help, but he said it will take time to adjust the circle so I thought up my own solution instead.”

So, the Director of Beginner Floor is at Clearflow Lake? That’s some good news. So the only ones unaccounted for now are Mishael, Shui and Hevoy.

Mishael and Hevoy could probably survive any kind of situation, but I’m worried about Shui. Mostly because of her over-reliance on ranged weapons and… her food situation.

“Anyway, Grandpa says that he could probably get the teleportation circles to work. Since I’ll only get in his way, I tried looking for other ways.” Ramis suddenly fell silent as she threw glances at Hyurumi.

“What happened next, Ramis?"

"Um, so, don’t get mad, okay? Remember how the director says that the layer between floors might crack again if hit? So, I went to look at the crack and found a pond over it. Anyway, I was thinking ‘why not just crack the floor and go to the next level?’ and rummaged through Hyurumi’s magic tool box…”

Ah, there’s a weird light in Hyurumi’s eyes. She was also wearing an expression I had never seen before… I should just stay quiet and listen.

“Look, I found this backpack that you said would keep a person safe when falling from a high place. There were also some water-freezing magic tools, I don’t know how many to use, so I just dumped it all into the water, tee hee~”

Ramis giggled with her tongue stuck out cutely from the side of her mouth. To complete the cute look, she even tapped her head lightly with a fist. However, Hyurumi narrowed her eyes even further.

“Do you even know how much it cost… to create those magic tools?”

Hyurumi’s tilts her head to the side, to the point that her head actually rests on her shoulder. With her expressionless face, she looked like something from a horror movie I had seen ages ago.

“Er, um, about 10 silver coins?”

“Oh my~ it’s 10 gold coins,” Hyurumi’s voice started out light and bright, but plummeted into something horrifying.

“I will pay you back as soon as I can afford it!”

Ramis’ reaction was to bow beyond 90 degrees in apology.

“Hahh… fine, whatever, continue your story.”

“Um, so, after freezing the pond, I punched it with all my might. The floor split again and I fell in head first… and here I am!”

"Haahhh..."

I can fully understand the pained sigh from Director Bear and Hyurumi. This was just too reckless.

"Ramis, what if we’re not on the Labyrinth Floor? What do you plan to do?”

That’s right, I could understand it if she was taking some calculated risk and waited for her answer.

“Umm, I kind of have a feeling…?”

So, it was pure intuition.

“Speaking of which, what’s your plan if those magic tools failed?”

“Umm, I believe in Hyurumi~”

“Ugh…”

Hyurumi flushed at Ramis’ obvious faith in her.

“Let us end the lecture here. Ramis, everyone is angry because they are worried for you. I want you to understand that.”

“Un, sorry for making everyone worried~”

“Ou, I’m glad to see you again too, Ramis.”

“Ye-es ye-es”

“It’s great that you’re safe, Ramis.”

Her formerly downcast expression changed, and she broke into a brilliant grin that stretched her lips across her face.

"I'm back, everyone!"

Please read this at kitchennovel dot com ~

“So, Kikoyu-chan really, really wants to meet Mister Field again, right? Yes, yes, I totally understand.”

“You understand, right? He’s a very important person to us.”

After the lecture, the meal that followed was relatively calm. Aside from Ramis and Kikoyu hitting off unexpectedly well, everything else was as usual. The girls chattered throughout the meal and long after.

Knowing that it would do no good for men to get in between girl talk, I decided to relax by the wall with Director Bear, Kuroyata and Botan.

“Aah… I’m really not good with those kinds of talk.”

I had been wondering why Hyurumi, a girl, was in our group.

I couldn’t hear most of what the two of them were talking about, but heavy words like ‘love’ and ‘like’, were being tossed about quite scarily. So, I guess that’s why Hyurumi can’t relate to it.

I guess with her manly and refreshing personality, Hyurumi would find it impossible to cheerfully join in such girly conversation. In fact, I can’t imagine her chatting cutely about love at all.

“Let’s talk about practical matters here. It looks like the magic stone from the Lava Demon is enough to activate the teleportation circle. In fact, I’d say we have more than enough power."

“If we could activate the teleportation circle, could we get to Clearflow Lake Floor?” asked Director Bear.

Even though he was directly in charge of Clearflow Lake, Director Bear had been away from that floor for various reasons. He would want to focus on reconstructing his village soon.

From the way he sat, it looked like he was staring wistfully at the night sky, but in fact, he was staring at the Clearflow Lake Floor. Or, it could just be my fanciful imagination.

"I will thoroughly inspect the teleportation circle this time, so don't worry."

"Aa, I look forward to it.”

The earlier failure of the teleportation circle must have hit her hard as a magic tool engineer. I can see the determination in her eyes to not repeat the same mistakes. I think it should be fine for us to leave the teleportation circle to Hyurumi.

Once we’re back at the Clearflow Lake Floor, Grandpa and Hyurumi could work together and come up with a solution for the teleportation circle issue sooner rather than later.

The talk moved on to which floor we should explore next. We would have to track down the remaining three members who had disappeared. We still have to resolve the issues faced by each floor.

There is still a lot to do, but I am grateful to end up on this floor. We have gained a lot here, the most obvious thing is meeting Kikoyu and the others. Also, knowing that there’s another Japanese person out there who has reincarnated into this world under similar circumstances as myself as a field was a great source of emotional support for me.

Meeting him has become a goal for me in this Other World. I shall wait for dawn, dreaming of that very day.

[Gumihou: Woah, that was unexpected]

[1] Adjust the text for dramatic purpose

[2] Japanese vending machines could dispense hot and cold drinks

[3] Probably Hyurumi, it’s unclear who said that