"Hey."
"Hey!"
"Are you alright there?"
The pain gradually subsided.
"What's the matter, you look like you're in pain."
"I-I'm alright now."
That was weird.
Maybe that was something important to me.
"Here, have some water."
The guard passed me a drink bottle.
"Thanks."
Gradually more and more buildings appeared. We were nearing the city centre. It was getting pretty late into the after, the sun was just beginning to set and we had around fifteen minutes left until we arrived.
"What just happened?" The guard asked me.
"I just had a little headache, I'm all right now."
"Ok."
A purple and orange aura began appearing around the clouds. It was quite a beautiful sunset. There was still a decent amount of light. We made our way into the centre of the city. There was a huge amount of shops. They had an old London feel to them, with lots of brick and stone buildings.
It was very relatively heavily populated, despite it being pretty late into the night.
"We'll find an inn for you."
Our carriage travelled around the city. I kept an eye out for any inns nearby.
The city was quite bustling.
I looked in the pouch I was given to see how much money I actually had. Shaking the pouch around I saw two gold coins, five silver and two bronze. I still wasn't exactly sure of the value of the coins, but I assumed that it was quite a bit.
"Here's one."
We stopped in front of a relatively large old-fashioned building. It had a big sign that said Adventurers Inn - 1 silver per night.
"How much bronze is a silver coin worth?" I asked.
"A silver coin is worth five bronze and one gold is worth twelve silver."
Oh, I see, it was quite an awkward scaling system but it helped me get a grasp of the value of each coin and how much I had.
"Alright, go inside and see if they have room, if they do, tell us and we'll go."
"Ok."
I made my way inside the Inn.
I was greeted by a young girl, who looked slightly younger than I was, dressed in a long brown collared dress, it looked like it could've been a variation of maid uniform.
"Welcome, adventurer!"
Interesting greeting... I wonder how many times she's said that today
"How many people are with you?" She asked.
"Just me."
"I see."
Why are you looking at me like that? It's normal to be alone...
"I'll go check to see if we have any rooms for you."
She walked towards an older maid, who was dressed in a more proper, dark brown outfit.
After a short conversation, she came back over.
"Yes, we have quite a few rooms. Do you want the standard room or the deluxe room?"
"I'll just have the standard one."
She looked at me disappointingly.
Stop... Is this some marketing strategy or something...? It's hurting my feelings.
"Alright, you can have room five. I'll just go get the keys for you."
I used the opportunity to quickly duck out and inform the guard that I was going to stay there for the night.
"Cool, we'll be going back now."
"Isn't it going to be nighttime?"
"It's ok Alister's been training here and he'll be coming back with us so we'll be fine."
"Alister?"
"Yeah, he's Alfonso's eldest child and only son."
"Oh, I see, is he really strong?"
"He's one of Lucia's guards, so he's basically one of the strongest warriors there is."
"Oh, doesn't he need to be guarding her though, why is he going home?"
"I heard that they've just recently trained a new recruit for the guard team so he can take a week off."
"Oh, that's nice."
"Honestly, I'm not sure why Lucia needs many guards anyways." He said.
"How many does she have?"
"Four, but I'm sure she'd be fine without any."
"What? Why's that?"
"Basically her brother's like the strongest fighter in the entire world."
"Are you talking about Fourier?"
"Yeah."
Suddenly I heard a girl calling for me from the Inn.
"Hey! Get in here, do you want your key or not? I've been waiting here for like five minutes while you've been busy chatting with your driver!"
Whoops, I completely forgot about that.
"Well, I'll be off now," I told the guard.
"Ok, stay safe out here."
I quickly made my way back into the Inn.
The sun was almost completely set, there was only a slight bit of light just barely giving me enough vision to see where I was going.
I walked towards the grumpy girl.
"Sorry, I got sidetracked."
"Whatever, it'll be six bronze." She demanded.
"Wait, but didn't the sign say one silver."
"Well, since I hate you so much I decided to raise the price."
Surely you can't do that...
"You're joking right...?"
She looked at me sternly.
"Do I look like I'm joking?"
I was being reprimanded by this middle school girl...
You know what, it's fine, I've got a decent amount of money anyways, getting into further conflict with this girl would just be annoying.
"Fine."
I pulled out a silver coin and a bronze coin.
As I took the coins out she snatched them out of my hand and threw the key at me.
I stumbled as I quickly caught the key.
"At least you have decent reflexes."
This girl...
I made my way up the stairs near the back of the reception area. The stairs made a creaky noise as I walked up them.
Room one... Room two... Room three... Room four... Room six... Room seven... hold on, where's room five?
I saw rooms one to four on one side and rooms six to eight on the other...
I walked around, checking to make sure I didn't miss it.
Where is room five?!
I made my way back downstairs.
I'm going to find that girl and complain. I glanced around looking for the girl.
"Wait a moment!" I heard a loud shout from one of the large customers in the bar section of the Inn. He was a sturdy man with a thick beard and looked quite drunk.
"I'm sorry I just need the payment..." The girl was cowering as she spoke to the man.
"Shut up, get out of here!" He continued to shout at the girl.
She's like fourteen, maybe calm down...?
I looked over at the older maid who turned away as soon as I looked at her.
What is this... Did they have no care for each other...?
I still needed to sort out my room.
"I really need to get the money... otherwise the boss will ge-"
The man slammed his jug of beer on the table. Splashing beer all over the table and the two of them.
"What did I say! Go Away!"
A few of his friends started laughing loudly.
Oh boy...
I didn't care much about this, she deserved it anyways.
I'll just sort out my room issue.
I slowly walked towards the girl.
"Please... I'm begging yo-"
The intoxicated man swung his fist towards the girl, just barely missing her face. The swing blew her hair, swaying it a little.
"You know what?! Come here you brat!"
The man suddenly stood up.
"Hey, I think you gave me the wrong room..." I tried to speak to the girl.
Suddenly she rushed over to me and hid behind me, grabbing onto my shirt.
Not this situation again...
"Hey, kid, what do you think you're doing, holding onto me." I confronted her.
"Please, he's scary..."
"I don't forget my grudges, now get off, you're getting beer on me and it stinks."
I hadn't drunk alcohol before but I didn't like the smell of it very much.
"I'm sorry, please just do something."
Ughhh...
"Why are you covering the girl?!" The man was shouting at me.
Not this again... I wasn't protecting her...
I looked around at the people around me. Everyone seemed to be turning a blind eye to this situation.
I don't want to be here.
The man began walking towards me.
Nope, he's way bigger than me, I'm out.
I shook the girl off my back and scurried towards the stairs.
Why is this literally going the exact same way as that other one...?
The girl suddenly fell onto her knees after I left her. Tears were streaming down her face as she looked up at the man who had his hand in a fist.
Ok, maybe I really should do something...
Help her.
Ow, I felt the voice in my head again.
Ugh... but I don't want a repeat of last time. I was basically disabled for an entire day...
The poor crying girl had her hair all messed and covering her face, her tears dripping to the ground.
"Hey, maybe you shouldn't resort to violence... You could get in trouble..." I tried to convince the man.
"Get your nose out of this!"
This wasn't going to be easy.
He held his arm back as if he was going to punch her.
Crap.
I quickly stuck my arm in, pulling her back by the collar of her dress. His hand just barely stopped in front of her face.
"Stop, you'll get arrested by the guards if they catch you doing this." I tried again to convince him.
"Ha, me? Arrested by the guards? Are you joking?!"
I wasn't sure if he was just drunk or if that was actually the law enforcement situation here. Either way, he showed no signs of backing down.
The man tensed up, looking like he was going to charge at us.
Oh no.
He suddenly started storming at us. I quickly grabbed the girl under her arms and dived out of the way of his path of attack. I was still holding her, the two of us were now on the ground, I could feel my arm getting wet from her tears and the beer that was splashed on her before.
Goddammit, this was not going to end well.
For god's sake.I was lying on the ground, with the girl still in my arms. The man had pushed over a table and some chairs, sending them flying into the wall. No one else decided to help in this situation.My clothes were beginning to get stained by the smell of alcohol.Also, it was at this moment when I realised, the voice I was hearingwas my own voice.It likely wasn't just me thinking to myself, however, because the morals and decisions andthat the other me was making were slightly different to my current thoughts.
Ow... my neck was quite sore. Some strands of hay were stuck to my clothing and now my clothes had a smell of livestock alongside the alcohol. I looked over at Chloe who had hay stuck all over her hair and was drooling as she slept. "Ritsu?" Chloe looked around for me after barely waking up. "Yeah, I'm here." Turns out the stables were not a very comfortable sleeping area. The two of us gradually pulled ourselves up. "So where are we going no
We made our way over to the quest board. There seemed to be a lack of quests on the board with only a little bit of the massive board being covered. Most of the quests were S rank. [Quest - Kill Cahrles Agassi Reward - 125 gold coins Rank - S] I wonder who Cahrles Agassi was? I looked all over the board, searching for an easier mission. Eventually, I saw a B ranked mission. [Quest
Let me ask you a question.How does someone fall in love?We've all seen romanticisedlove at first sightall over the media.But that simply doesn't exist right?If I got you to walk down a long road with people standing on either side, would you suddenly fall in love with any of them?No, right?You can consider them pretty, you can consider them attractive, but in the end, that's just an appearance.There's no secret connection between two people who've never met.So how does someone fall in love?
It felt as if only a second had passed since the fight.It was always weird, how it feels when you pass out. The time between passing out and waking up is instant, but you never know how long it's been.I looked around the room. It was a shabby little room, the bed I was laying in was no larger than I was in length. There was no blanket on me, nor any covering, I was just laying there, still, in the clothes, I was in when I passed out.Oh yeah, I got sliced in the face.I touched the middle of my face, feeling what had become of the injury. There seemed to be some bandage or something. It stung a little when I touched it.No one's here?
I made my way inside the big farmhouse."Who are you?" Asked a short girl with her hair tied up in two fluffy pigtails."Um, I'm a visitor?"She thought for a little while. Suddenly, she seemed to have come to a revelation."Are you here for Lily?"Not this again..."No... I mean, I guess, kind of?""Oh, but I don't see any other reason for Master to take in another boy.""What?""Never mind."
Three years ago.Over four hundred people were slaughtered in a small village.The perpetrator? Reid Lichter-Seibert, the Knight of the Sword.*"Everyone, get the children away from here!"Huh?A young Lily rushed over to her mother who embraced Lily and her sister in her arms. Her father had left the house a few moments prior and had not been seen since."Lily, if they come into the house, protect your sister."Tears were rolling down her mother's cheek as she pulled herself away from the two of them."I'm going to look for your dad."Lily held her sister as tightly as she could, her sister was around two years younger than her. The three of them were all crying as her mother left the house."No! Mom!"She didn't turn back.Her mother had left so that Lily and her sister could have a better chance of surviving.If nothing else, she would
The fight had lasted no longer than ten minutes up to this point. "So you want to kill Lucia." "Precisely." "Well, I'm afraid I can't let you do that." * "Devil Sword, Fifteenth Form, Tehillim!" Reid's sword strikes were becoming exponentially more powerful. The strike was push Fourier off of where he was standing. Fourier's cape fluttered from the wind of the blow. "Hey now, if you don't start trying soon, you may just die." Reid swung his sword around in front of him a few times. Neither of them had been injured, the two of them had little patches of dirt and smoke on their clothing, but no injuries on their bodies. "Devil Sword, Sixteenth Form, Mishlei!" Reid forced his sword down towards Fourier's neck. The power of the attack had nearly doubled from the last one. Fourier positioned his sword perpendicular to Reid's and held his hand of the blade. The two swords clashed with each other and sent a gust of wind shooting off in every direction. Fourier was struggling a littl
"Huh? Where am I?" "Alister." In the bright blue open space, Alister sat, facing a goddess of the after world. "What is this place?" "This is the afterlife." "Wait, I'm dead?" "Yes." The memories of his death sudden flushed back into his head. After a moment of despair, his mind was swiftly cleared and replaced with the unyielding apathy that plagued all of the outcomes. "I assumed you've just remembered." She said. "Yes." "Now, you know Rin Takamiya correct?" "Yes, I know him relatively well." "You will be reincarnated in this new world where he is also staying, however, he doesn't have his memories, unlike you." The outcome are known for embracing change. "I see." "Just follow along with his mission and support him as well as you can." "Is that all?" "For the most part." After a little more explanation about the situation and circumstances with Freya, the portal was opened, leading to the new world. "Please do well and support him as much as you can, I'm counting
He gestured for me to make the first move. I decided to take some of my learnings from earlier. I rushed straight towards him, getting up close and personal. Then I dropped my shoulder, baiting out his swing. I managed to see the tiny movement of his arm and deciphered the movement of the blade. In the tiny amount of time I had in between, I began unleashing my form. "Universal Sword, First Form, Unstable Curre-" Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in my stomach. What happened? I was carefully observing all of his movements, he couldn't have possibly hit me. I fell back a few steps and regained my composure. "Don't forget that the opponent will also have abilities just like you, don't rush in unless you know what they are." Ah, that made sense. I had completely forgotten that Alfonso had powers. Based on what I saw, it seemed that first of all, his power was able to deal blunt force damaged to my stomach. It didn't look like it needed and arm or body movements and it was able to be ac
We trained until late into the night. "Honestly, you're improving much faster than I expected." "Thanks, I guess." "Still, I can't rid the image of Rin from my head when I look at you." "I wish I knew what I was like back then, from the way you talk about him, he sounds like some really cool dude." "Really cool dude doesn't even cut it, you were the greatest human to ever roam the earth." "Come to think of it, how did I even die if I was so great, did I die of old age or something?" "I honestly don't know, but I did hear news of your death when I was only seventeen, so something very drastic must have happened." "Oh." It was getting rather dark. The blistering sounds of crickets in the ground was intensifying, the number of mosquitoes and other annoying insects were also increasing. This was a pretty evocative signal that the training session was about to near its end. "We'll train again tomorrow morning. I'm going to have to make you into a decent fighting force before Reid
"What do you mean you have a plan?" I asked. "Our mission is to protect the princess, correct?" "Yes...?" "Reid's mission is to kill the princess, right?" "Yes...?" "The missions aren't very specific." "I suppose." "First of all, I'm pretty sure the mission is to kill the person named 'Lucia Ourania', this means her status as princess is irrelevant. Second of all, I've deduced that Reid does not know what she looks like, from observing him, there is a good chance that Reid's mission is worded differently from ours." "Wait, so you're saying that their might be a way for us both to complete our missions?" "Not exactly, I'm basing it off the idea that neither of our sides know what the reward is, meaning, all we need to do is make it seem like Reid has completed his side of the mission." "How do we do that? Are we going to have someone pretend to be the princess?" "Based off his actions, I'm assuming his mission is not as straight forward as 'kill Princess Lucia'. He's been her
What really happened three years ago? Was the perpetrator really Reid? Or was it someone else? Who else was there at the time? * "Lily!" A loud voice came from the distance. "No way..." She muttered. She could not believe what she saw. A middle-aged man, running towards them. "I don't understand..." Eventually, he made his way over and stood in front of her. His dirtied formal clothes and caring demeanour. Lily couldn't understand any of it. "Dad, why are you still alive?" "Lily, believe me when I say this, I truly wished for the best for all of you." He was so narrow-minded at the time that he hadn't even noticed that Reid was standing right next to them. As soon as he saw Reid, his expression darkened. After the awkward, confusing reunion between them, Reid finally decided to drop some exposition. "Here's the person who killed your entire village." He said. "What...?" Lily was in utter confusion. Suddenly, Ferren drew his sword and rushed towards Reid, trying to kill
Lily raised her sword and prepared to face the opponent in front of her. She braced herself for a quick decisive victory. He was merely one of Reid's peons after all. However, he had other plans "You better not think of me as second fry, you'll regret it." * Finn stood firmly in the ground, showing no sign of attacking. Somewhat hurried, Lily quickly drew her sword and dashed towards him. "Royal Arts, Blitzing Orchid!" Her sword gleamed with a tint of white as it swung towards Finn. It was her fastest attack, as the sword travelled towards Finn, it suddenly sped up, supposed to catch him off-guard. "Calm down won't you? We're in no rush here." He was already in a defensive position so deflecting the attack was easily, it was all fully within his expectations. "Light Sword, Third Form, Full-Colour Spectrum." Rays of vibrant multi-coloured light was scattered all throughout the area as he swiped Lily's sword to the ground. Her sword smashed into the ground with a clang and
Reid drew one of his swords, the devil sword. He was up against Muichiro and Mal. Lily had confronted Finn, who was the owner of the light sword. The desperate battle would commence. * "Devil Sword, First Sword, Bereshit." Reid thrusted his sword towards Muichiro who was forced to react with extremely minimal time. Reid's attack was extremely fast, the likes of which Muichiro had practically never seen before. He unleashed his Royal Art as fast as he could. "Royal Arts, Itto Raikiri!" He swung his scythe as fast as he could, forming a gigantic cloud of dust, circling the area. However, it was still not swift enough to completely block Reid's attack, receiving cuts on his wrist and arm. Reid advanced upon Muichiro but then was forced to block an attack from Mal. "Royal Arts, Explode." The attack managed to connect with Reid, however, despite how strong it was, it still did minimal damage, doing nothing more than simply soiling Reid's clothing and giving him a slight irritation
"Here they come." Muichiro, Mal and Lily were the last line of defence, the various other guards and soldiers they had at their disposal would serve nothing more than a simple distraction when Reid finally made his way here. They had maybe sixty personnel in total, all armed with a myriad of different weapons and of all different levels of skill. The three strongest drew their swords, every second they bought was another second in which Ritsu and Lucia would be able to make their escape. Everyone in the surrounding area braced for what was about to come next. It all began when a few of Reid's soldier's streamed in, reaching the outer fence of the mansion. They were instantly confronted by the garrison, holding onto the outer fence. Brutal fighting took place, swords were swung, explosions and blood seethed all across the battlefield. The first group of around twenty soldiers who seemed to have mostly consisted of scouts, were quickly wiped out. However, the second wave would prove a
"Musical Sword, First Form, Triplet Rhythm." Powerful shockwaves were sprayed towards Ferren, they came in three waves, crashing into him as he blocked with his sword. His technique was still as clean as ever, rediverting the force of the attacks, cracking the ground beneath him. On his way to find his 'daughter' Lily, he suddenly found himself in a skirmish with one of Reid's soldiers. They were a quite powerful one at that, having access to a unique magical sword. He had just gotten away from Ritsu, who had embarrassed him, defeating him with relative ease after using his advanced forms. Stabilising on the rough ground, Ferren got into an attacking posture. "Musical Sword, Forth Form, Dissonance Score." Suddenly a painful, disorienting sounds protruded from the soldier's blade. This caused Ferren to somewhat lose his balance, almost falling to the ground. Still continuing the attack, the soldier rushed towards him, raising his sword above his head. Just as it looked like Ferre