Chapter 6: Land of Heritage -Protector-

My name is Riku. I am a dog.

I have long, white, soft fur. My face always makes it seem like I’m smiling and happy, but that doesn’t mean that I’m always happy. I was just born that way.

Shizu-sama is my master. He’s a young man who always wears a green sweater. He lost his home after a series of complicated events, and is now on a journey, driving a buggy. 

Our companion is Ti. She’s a little girl who never talks and has a fondness for hand grenades. She lost her home after a series of complicated events, and became our companion. 

We continued our journey today. 

With our buggy fully loaded with luggage, we travelled looking for a country that would take us in and let us live as citizens there. 

Spring had just arrived, and already, the buds of trees had begun to sprout. A gentle breeze blew past us. While passing through a mountainous region, we saw a single country. 

The country was massive.

As we travelled across a mountain ridge, below us stood huge, ashen colored walls of the country. The walls continued to extend outwards for as far as the eye could see, never seeming to end, almost like gray threads weaving across the mountains. How far did they go? It was impossible to tell. 

“What a large country,” said my master, sitting in the driver’s seat and wearing his usual green sweater. 

“…” Ti, sitting in the passenger’s seat, said nothing, but placed her chin on my head.

The sun illuminated the country’s interior, and it gradually became visible.

The land was mostly covered in mountains, but here and there, there appeared to be a lot of long, thin sticks growing from the earth. 

“Those are skyscrapers, Ti. This country seems to have advanced architecture,” said Shizu-sama. “And between those buildings is a monorail, which is like a railroad with just one track. I think it’s safe to assume that their science is also quite advanced,” he added, though only Shizu-sama, with his inhuman eyesight, could see such a thing.

“Well then, I wonder what kind of country it is?” Shizu-sama said cheerfully, continuing to drive the buggy. 

The path ahead of us began to slope downwards, until we finally arrived at the large castle walls, illuminated by the sun. We followed Shizu-sama to the gate, where he inquired about immigration.

“Ah, in our country, that’s not possible.” The man at the gate flatly rejected it.

“What will you do then? Will you enter the country as a foreigner?”

In the end, Shizu-sama chose to enter.

To be honest, there was no reason for us to enter, but…

“Well, maybe Ti can learn something here.”

With that new reason, we received a permit for visiting the country. Since the country was so big, they had allowed us to stay for quite a long time, ten days total.

Upon entering the country, I quickly realized that the technology was indeed very advanced.

Rows upon rows of massive skyscrapers rose into the air like pillars, and the unmanned monorail stretched through the sky. Fully automatic, self-driving cars made their way across the streets, and store signs consisted entirely of monitors and screens. 

However, since this country had so much land, it didn’t seem to make sense as to why the city was packed so densely together.

Seeing my confusion, Shizu-sama explained. “It’s because everyone wants to live in such a convenient place that the overcrowding happened. Since a lot of people wanted to live in the city, more and more people began moving here, which only caused even more people to want to live here.”

So that’s what happened, huh.

“Because of their advanced technology, they were able to create a city to support all those people. Or is it because they set out to create such a city that their technology inevitably advanced… I wonder which one it was? I guess it’s kind of like the chicken or egg question.”

“…”

I didn’t know whether Ti knew about the chicken/egg paradox, but she continued to remain silent.

Without a doubt, the city was extremely impressive, but after travelling through the wide, open expanse of the mountains, the current scenery felt a little suffocating. It was still early in the morning, so there weren’t many people around.

Because of the massive size of the country, there was a clear distinction between the urban and non-urban areas.

Once we drove through the urban area and went passed the city boundaries, there was nothing but trees and forest land, without a house in sight. And just on the other side of that boundary were the tall skyscrapers. The abrupt shift was quite jarring. 

Shizu-sama, gazing at the towering skyscrapers, tightened his grip on the wheel. “I’m starting to get it now… This country was originally made up of different countries.”

It turned out that Shizu-sama’s hypothesis was correct. When we stopped by a shop for breakfast, we heard a similar such story from the woman who owned the shop.

According to her, this tiny area packed with skyscrapers, which people currently referred to as the “City,” was once a small, independent country.

At that time, the country was fully enclosed by walls, and was the center for technological advances. The people there single-mindedly devoted themselves to building taller and taller buildings, and because of that, their technology improved by leaps and bounds.

Eventually, the country’s neighbors decided that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to ally with the country. One thing led to another, and the result was this huge country.

But even though the countries had merged, the people who originally belonged to other countries continued to live in the rural areas. They had grown fond of their homeland, and it wasn’t so simple just to throw it away.

After a delicious breakfast, we headed off to do some sightseeing.

The City seemed like a city from the future. It certainly showed us the endless possibilities of mankind and their ability to innovate, which was quite awe-inspiring.

However,

“I’m bored.”

Certainly, if one did nothing but look around the City for the entire day, they’d get tired of it.

Shizu-sama asked one of the locals about popular tourist destinations. 

“Well, you could always go to that old town that everyone always visits. There’s a ton of old buildings there, so it’s become a pretty popular sightseeing area!”

The next day.

We headed to the the place the local had mentioned.

On the previous day, we’d discovered that lodging in the city was ridiculously expensive, and therefore ended up camping out in the forest. It wasn’t any different from how we normally lived when we were travelling, so Ti didn’t have any complaints.

The weather was nice today as well.

We drove through the mountains, following the road. After a while, we rounded a corner when it became visible – a single town, which had previously been its own country.

“There it is…” said Shizu-sama in astonishment.

“Mm.” Even Ti spoke, nodding her head in agreement.

“What a splendid sight,” I added, voicing my true feelings.

There, on the gently sloping earth, stood the town.

The town was built from dark, reddish-brown stones. The stones had been carefully cut out from the nearby mountain face, giving the town an almost geometric appearance. The entire town was several hundred meters in both length and width.

There was an area some distance away from the town which had become the designated parking lot. From there, we had an unbroken view of the town.

After parking the buggy, we set out on foot to explore the town. In the direct center of the town, there was a river. To the left and right of that river ran two large roads. 

Having just spent an entire day amongst skyscrapers and monorails, seeing the stone homes and roads came almost as a shock. How many years had these stone structures lay here, I wondered.

From the irregularity and roughness of the stones, as well as the numerous cracks in the walls and streets, it was evident that these buildings had all been built by hand. Some person had carved out each individual stone from the mountain transported it down; one by one, each had been fitted into place until the town had been constructed.

The alleyways between houses were narrow and had no sense of order. They winded around randomly, as if part of a maze.

The town also contained an underground tunnel, which too was open to tourists. Inside the tunnel flowed a river of water.

Before the plumbing system had been put into place, the townspeople would dump their sewage and waste into this tunnel, using it as a makeshift sewer system.

The tunnel ended at the lower part of the town. Near the exit, a little ways inside the tunnel sat a massive, circular stone, about as big as a house. It seemed like a monument of sorts.

“…”

I wasn’t quite sure what Ti found particularly interesting about the massive stone, but she examined it intently.

Finally, after gazing at it for a while, she let out a “Hm” before abruptly turning around and headed back to where we were standing.

For countless people, this town had been and would continue to be a wonderful place to live. For us, it had been a worthwhile visit. 

Actually, apart from us, there were many others from the City who had come to see this place.

At noon, a large bus stopped in the parking lot, letting off a crowd of tourists. Even those people had nothing but praise for this town, lamenting that skyscrapers and technology had caused their own City to lose its beauty. 

When evening fell, the other tourists headed back to the city on the bus. As for us, there wasn’t any lodging in the town, so we couldn’t really spend the night there. We thought we’d end up camping in the forest as usual but,

“Traveller-san, are you not returning back to the City? I can’t bear to see that little girl there being forced to camp outside. You’re welcome to stay the night in this town, if you’d like.”

The speaker was a kind, elderly woman, having caught sight of Ti.

Since we pretty much camped out in the wilderness everyday, Ti didn’t really mind it. However, in the end, we decided to accept their kindness, and the townspeople set up a makeshift lodge for us in the community center- another quaint, stone building.

Admittedly, the community center was often used for assemblies and meetings at night, so there was a chance of it being noisy, but that was a pretty trivial matter.

As we ate the dinner which had been prepared for us, consisting mostly of wild plants, a meeting began in the adjacent room.

Because the walls didn’t block sound too well, we ended up listening in. A group of men were talking about the future of the town.

As it turned out, although we originally thought that tourism and visitors were helping the town, it was actually the opposite.

The men lamented the grim future, saying things like “I want to move out of this place already! I’m tired of it!” and such. All of them sounded agitated.

As we quietly listened to their conversation, things eventually became clear to us.

Since long ago, the buildings of this town had been made from stone, much like today. They never developed the technology of skyscrapers and advanced architecture, so they didn’t really have a choice.

Then, when they decided to join together with the City to form a massive country, the people of this town rejoiced. “At last, our country will have modern buildings as well! This way, we won’t have to live in stone houses built by unknown people from who knows how long ago! Instead, we’ll live in comfortable, high-tech homes!”

However, the newly formed government of the country created an outrageous ordinance:

To ‘Protect our Heritage.’

In this massive country, there were hardly any historical buildings left standing. Most of their traces had been removed by the development of technology and skyscrapers. That’s why the government of the country had decided that protecting the country’s legacy was a national affair.

Since ‘Protect our Heritage’ had become a national affair, the government imposed numerous laws upon this town without consulting with the townspeople. For instance, the townspeople were banned from constructing skyscrapers or extensively changing the structure and layout of the area.

As according to plan, the ‘heritage’ of this town was successfully preserved, because it was ‘something that ought to be preserved.’ Following the law, even the inhabitants of the buildings were no longer able to repair their homes as they saw fit.

Although other citizens could enjoy things like automated air-conditioning or television, the townspeople were forced to endure the brutal, summer heat and the freezing winter cold while living in these stone homes.

The tourists and sightseers who came to scrutinize and comment about their living condition only added to their misery.

Many residents who couldn’t contain their resentment anymore left the town, and soon, the population began to dwindle. To be honest, the people who left did so out of desperation, not because they wanted to. They had been born and raised in this town, and felt a deep connection to it, but…

“I suppose people have sorrows wherever the are, huh…” Shizu-sama muttered to himself. I agreed, thinking the same thing.

A man in the group spoke up. “I really wish that when no one’s in town, a landslide would just wipe out the whole place!”

That made sense. After all, if a natural disaster destroys the entire town, you couldn’t blame anyone or do anything about it. The national government would probably send relief and aid, as well as send over builders and architects who’d build better houses and renovate the town with the latest technology.

However, the town itself was situated on a gentle, sloping terrain, so unless a major earthquake struck, the ‘natural disaster’ option was pretty unlikely.

Ultimately, the meeting concluded without producing any tangible ideas.

Nor did Shizu-sama or I come up with any ideas either. As the meeting ended, the neighboring room gradually quieted down. 

We were just about to sleep when Ti suddenly stood up. She walked silently to the door of the neighboring room and opened it.

As Shizu-sama and I stared in shock, Ti faced the men in the room, and began to speak without hesitation. “Isn’t that fine then? If that’s what you want-“

Two days passed.

“Is this really okay? Shouldn’t you think about this more carefully?” Shizu asked.

“We’ve had enough! We’ve already made up our minds!”

“Yeah! We’re going through with Ti-chan’s idea!’

“We’ve got nothing to lose anymore!”

The townspeople responded with roudy, agitated cries.

Not even Ti showed any hesitation, saying “It’ll work out.”

Currently, we were underground at the exit of the underground tunnel, near the large, stone monument.

The townspeople had all gathered here, and were currently constructing a large, wooden barrier at the exit of the water channel, which narrowed the flow of water. Water began to gradually accumulate inside the tunnel.

Two days earlier, when Ti had suddenly barged into the meeting, she had set out her idea.

“Isn’t that fine then? If that’s what you want, then it’s simple to do. To destroy the town.”

Immediately, voices rang out, saying things like ‘Who is that?’ and ‘Is that really possible?’

Shizu-sama, flustered, quickly followed Ti into the room. “I’m terribly sorry, gentlemen!” he apologized, before grabbing Ti’s arm, intending to drag her out of the room.

“Wait! Young traveller! We want to hear that young white-haired girl’s idea!” An elderly man stopped Shizu-sama in his tracks.

Ti completely ignored Shizu-sama, and explained. “Close to here, there’s a big rock.”

Of course, no one really understood what Ti was referring to, as she hardly had explained anything at all, so along the way, Shizu-sama elaborated on her words to the men. 

In short, the huge, underground boulder was actually a keystone.

The people who had originally built this town had put that stone there. Or maybe perhaps they had discovered that it was already there, and decided to make use of it.

Using the large stone, they were able to construct an archway with smaller stones, relying on the larger stone as a basis for support – a keystone.

From there, using the archway, they built the underground tunnel, then the foundation for the town, and finally the town itself.

Thus, if we were able to shift the boulder, the tunnel system, and therefore the town, would collapse. That much was clear, but,

“Good grief. Is this kind of thing even possible…” Shizu-sama seemed appalled, but ultimately decided to keep silent.

I don’t think anyone could ever understand Ti’s true potential, but it wouldn’t strike me odd even if she were able to find a way to move the rock.

The elderly man, who was the head of the village, on the other hand, was quite the opposite. Kneeling in front of Ti, half-crying, he begged: “Please tell us your plan!”

Ti’s proposal was simple.

If the water flow in the tunnel was blocked, the tunnel would eventually become fully submerged in water. Then, the pressure and force of buoyancy would force the huge stone to shift.

Immediately, upon hearing her proposal, the townspeople had leaped into action. Not a single person opposed the plan.

On the following day, they rejected all tourism requests, claiming that they were doing maintenance and expansion of the parking lot.

Afterwards, the residents moved all the belongings they could carry to the parking lot. 

The day after, they got to work on the tunnel.

As the wooden barrier neared completion, the flow of water grew to a trickle, until it finally stopped altogether.

On multiple occasions, it seemed as if Shizu-sama would say something in protest, but then changed his mind and kept silent.

At last, when the barrier was complete, everyone emerged from underground.

From what Ti had said, it’d take two days for water to completely submerge the tunnel but…

“Guess we got lucky.”

That day, starting from noon, a violent rainstorm hit.

The next day was the third day that we had been at this town.

From the parking lot, where all of us had been camping, we could see the town.

Though most of our view was covered by the heavy rain, we saw the unmistakable sight of the crumbling town.

Once it began, everything happened all at once.

The deafening sound of shifting rocks echoed throughout the area. Almost immediately after, the land above the keystone collapsed, sinking into the ground. Simultaneously, tons of water began gushing out from underground. 

With the city losing its foundational support, massive chunks of land began to cave in, giving way to the immense weight. Waves of water continued to crash through, flowing down the slanted region. 

Ti had predicted everything perfectly.

Perhaps the founders of this town had implemented the keystone as a sort of defense system. That way, if the town ever did fall into the hands of an enemy, instead of being forced to submit to the rule of another country…

If that really had been the case, then we were using this ‘defense system’ in the complete opposite way. How ironic.

The destruction could no longer be stopped. It only took a few minutes for several hundred meters of the town to become unrecognizable.

At last, the final chunk of land still standing crumpled into a heap of rocks and debris.

“We did it!”

“Everything’s destroyed!”

“Goodbye!”

“I’m so happy! Woo!”

“Thanks for everything until now!”

“We’ll finally live in decent homes now!”

There was not a single sad or regretful face in the crowd of townspeople crammed in the parking lot.

The soaking rain could hardly dampen their spirits, as their desire and anticipation of a better life overflowed. Everyone had bright, shining eyes.

“…” Shizu-sama silently gazed at the situation.

“All good,” muttered Ti, standing expressionless, a little distance away from the crowd.

If we had been unsuccessful-

This city would have preserved its heritage for decades- no, maybe even centuries. People from all over would be able to visit, learning and enjoying such a wonderful place. In exchange however, the people living her would have to suffer.

Which option was better, neither Shizu-sama nor I knew the answer.

What I did know was that this town could absolutely, under no circumstance, go back to the way it once was.

“Ti-chan… no, Ti-sama! Thank you!”

“Our goddess!”

“Thank you! Thank you!”

“Thanks for visiting us!”

“Let’s call our new town ‘Ti’!”

“Perfect! Thank you so much, Ti-sama!”

Somehow, Ti had become the the messiah of the town.

“Godammit! If it wasn’t against the law, we’d have Ti live here with us forever!”

I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that last part.

From there, the townspeople reported the damage of the town to the government.

With a nonchalant expression, they gave the report as if reading from a newspaper. “Due to the heavy rain, a landslide occured. The town was annihilated. At any rate, since it was an old town, there was nothing we could do. Luckily, due the the quick evacuation, there were no human casualties. The one bright spot in a sea of misfortune.”

As for the government, they couldn’t just neglect the victims of the disaster, so they’d probably get to building homes and shelters right away. It’d be incredibly impractical to use stone and such to build, so the townspeople would likely get the high tech homes that they’d been wanting for so long.

“Ti-sama! Ti-sama! Ti-sama!” The townspeople continued chanting Ti’s name.

Meanwhile, Shizu-sama stood silently to the side. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

I didn’t ask him either, of course.

---

A young traveler named Kino arrived, riding Hermes, a motorrad (Note: a two-wheeled vehicle. It cannot fly) in the middle of autumn. 

The once green trees had transformed into a variety of autumn colors. Just after sunrise, as they two were travelling through such a forest, they rounded the final corner.

“There it is.”

“Indeed.”

In front of them were the ‘historical ruins.’

Kino stopped Hermes in the parking lot, overlooking the historical ruins, and gazed down at them.

Along the surface of the gently sloping mountain was a gaping hole. From within the hole, a strange object was peeking out.

The sunlight couldn’t reach the pitch black object, which appeared to be some sort of architectural structure. They could only really make out a small section of the object, which appeared to have a smooth, curving surface. The rest was buried in the dirt.

“Isn’t it amazing, Kino? That’s a dome. A huge dome buried in the mountain!”

“Yeah. That’s what it says here.”

“Hm? Where?”

Kino pointed to a large sign standing at the edge of the parking lot. She pushed Hermes to the area. 

The sign read:

“This place was formerly an independent country. After the alliance was formed, this was a town.

However, due to heavy rains this spring, a landslide completely destroyed it.

Miraculously, not a single person was wounded or killed.

We began to rebuild, but then, we discovered an amazing thing.

This mountain concealed a huge dome beneath the dirt. It seems that this former town was constructed by people of ancient times to hide the dome.

However, the residents of the town knew nothing about it.

The dome is made out of a material whose hardness is beyond our understanding. Even to this day, we are unable to break through it, but we are certain that we will unravel this mystery.

This winter, if weather permits, we will begin the process of excavating the dome.

Until we finish, this entire region will be declared as ‘Extremely Special Heritage,’ and will be preserved as such.

All trespassers beyond this point are subject to penalty by law.”

“I see. If they’re able to see what’s underneath that dome, they might be able to learn more about humanity’s past.”

“The past… huh. What I want to learn more about is how I can make Hermes wake up in the morning.”

“That’s impossible. Why? Because a motorrad isn’t human.”

“Good grief. One day, I’ll travel somewhere where I’ll find out the answer.”

“Well, I guess that means Kino’s Journey isn’t over yet, hm?”

“If it means I’ll be able to see more interesting things like this, I’ll never stop travelling.”

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