The Amazing Sidekick

Chapter 4 – Furnace and Rampage

Nozomu widened his eyes, "Or someone like me that can be used as a shield for the Monsters! Yeah, better to hide my ability, or I may be kidnapped and forced to enter one of those caves!"

The Priest spoke with a worried look, "Another good reason why I told the Guild Master to take you in. No one messes with a Guild of Adventurers, unless they want to die. They have a saying, ‘mess with one, you get all of us’, and they always protect their members against another Guild, any kind of Monster, an army or a foreign country."

Nozomu got up and when he was about to leave the room, he asked, "What about the Unicorns? What do we do with them?"

"You can keep them. The Guild Master will for sure be impressed, but you may have to come up with a cover story, instead of saying what you really did to catch them. Unicorns are very low maintenance, they can eat grass or Magic. Suna might need to take care of that, because if it is going to depend on you, they will starve."

Nozomu made a slight smile and went for the door. He then looked back with a puzzled face and Taisetsuna said, "Second door on the right."

Nozomu winked and opened the door. As he was walking along the corridor, the Priest asked, "Suna, do you think he is pretending?"

"I don’t think so. You didn’t notice that he didn’t say one of his stupid jokes? Even his eyes seem different, they have a strange glow, as if he is continuously amazed and surprised by everything. I like him as he is now, he looks more mature and serious than he ever was."

The Priest slowly nodded and cleaned the remains of Nozomu’s treatment. As for him, he was seated on the chair in his room, reading a book and looking at the map of the World. At least, the known part, because there was a big blank space up North and another on the right side of the mainland, as if no one ever went there.

Nozomu was thinking for himself, trying to put his thoughts in order, “||... What happened to me? I got reincarnated or transported to another World? And I am now inside a teenage boy? I hated my teenage years, and I have to do it all over? My family… How much time went by since I passed away? My wife, son, daughter, how are they? I was supposed to get Mia from School! I must learn more about this World if I am going to live here from now on. They use Magic, shields and swords. There are Monsters and Magical Beings. I need to find out how is the technology they use, if any. Let me see, a book about Magic, this one is History of the World, and it has maps. …|"

Nozomu spent the rest of the afternoon reading in his room, and he only came out when Taisetsuna called him for dinner. He sat at the dining table and stared at the food on his plate. Roasted manioc and some kind of meat. He touched the meat with his fork, and the Priest frowned, "What? Too fancy for your taste?"

"No… I don’t know this kind of meat. It’s yellow, what’s this? It’s not chicken, I suppose."

"That’s fish, not meat. You caught it early in the morning. You really forgot everything, didn’t you? Not even the slightest memory?"

Nozomu shook his head while munching a piece of the yellow fish, "Nothing, but this fish is tasty. I read in the History book that there is a theory claiming that the World might be older than what everyone thinks because there are remains of different civilizations, some more advanced than others. While one civilization was better with Magic, another was not and created several devices that could do many things that are now made with Magic, but no one knows why they disappeared or when. We are in the ‘Principality of Khiz’, right? It’s a peaceful country at least, or the Emperor of the ‘Infraluan Empire’ is always trying to increase the borders of his country by conquering the neighbouring countries?"

The Priest shook his fork in front of Nozomu, "My boy, it’s never a good idea to voice out things like that, you never know who could be listening. To answer your question, despite the several tries some years ago, the Empire has fixed boundaries and the countries around made an alliance to prevent further invasions to enlarge the Empire. If their army gets their hands on you, who knows what might happen, maybe the Empire will try again, and succeed. In a Guild of Adventurers, you will always have someone to protect you, just in case a spy of the Empire tries to kidnap you."

"I see. What about you, Priest? After we leave, you will be all alone, right? You won’t be lonely?"

The Priest tilted his head, "You think I will miss your craziness around here? It will feel like I am on holidays! Don’t worry, I have plenty of things to keep me occupied. I have service at the City’s Church, and there is always someone in need of Healing Magic. I may find a new orphan to raise now that I will have two rooms available when you and Suna go live in the Guild. There are two rooms for both of you on the upper level, but you will have to pay the rent for that, of course."

Nozomu nodded, and Suna asked with a worried look, "That means we will live at the Guild? We can visit you sometimes, right?"

"Of course, my dear. My door is always open for you, but you have to learn how to live and earn money for your expenses, like every adult. I did my best to teach you two, and I think everything will be alright."

Taisetsuna Kawa slowly nodded and glanced at the distracted Nozomu Shinchaku, who was eating the fish and the manioc with a puzzled look. He noticed her looking at him, and asked, "What? Do you feel nervous about living all alone? I will be right there, remember? I am not going anywhere."

"Yeah, thanks. We have to do our best, right?"

Nozomu Shinchaku made a big smile and nodded, making Taisetsuna feel more at ease.

...

After finishing and cleaning the plates, Nozomu went to the stable with Taisetsuna, and watched as she made a Fireball for the red Unicorn and a Wind Tornado for the white one, to feed them.

While brooming the white Unicorn's mane, Nozomu asked, "Did you think of a name for your guy?"

"I thought of calling him Furnace. What about yours?"

Nozomu looked at the curious white Unicorn that was staring at him as if he was waiting, and said, "I suppose Pikachu would be a stupid name. Maybe Rampage would be more appropriate, considering his bad temper. Or White Virus. What do you think, you crazy Unicorn?"

The Unicorn vigorously nodded, and Nozomu repeated the names, watching his reaction. He then smiled and said while facing Taisetsuna, "Rampage it is. You said they could be sold for a bunch of money, are Unicorns that valuable?"

"Yes, they sure are, and yours is the most valuable one, because Lightning Magic is very powerful and rare. If you sell him, you won’t need to work for the rest of your life, and you can have a very pleasant life if you buy a farm."

Nozomu caressed the snout of the frowning white Unicorn, "I am not going to sell him, he is my friend aren’t you, you cute little thing? Yes, you are! Stop frowning at me like that, geez! Mind your temper, will you? You look like you are about to pierce me with that horn, and we both know it will only give you a headache. Suna, you said that Dragons can also be tamed, maybe one day we can catch two of them, and we can use them to fly around. That would be cool."

Taisetsuna Kawa answered while holding the stable door for him, "It sure would, but it is also a lot more dangerous. There are always Adventurers trying to catch one, and some of them don’t return from that kind of Quest. Maybe with you we could accomplish it, but we may need a few years to get a chance of joining one of those Quests."

"Maybe one of these days we will get lucky, and we are attacked by two Dragons like what happened with the Unicorns."

Taisetsuna Kawa answered while entering the main building, "I will pass. Dragons are extremely dangerous and scary for just the two of us to go against one, not to mention two of them. Are you going to your room to read those books? Do you want some company? It’s still early."

"I wouldn’t mind, maybe I have some doubts and you could enlighten me."

Taisetsuna Kawa opened the door to her room and said, "Go ahead, I will go in a moment. I am going to grab a book as well about herbs and medicines. I want to make another Healing Potion just in case you get hurt again."

Nozomu Shinchaku nodded and went to his room while thinking, "|... She is still worried about what happened, I could see in her eyes. She got quite a scare, I bet. No wonder, if she and Nozomu grew up together, she cares for him and probably sees him as family. Me, as her family, I mean. This is a little confusing. ..:|"

When Nozomu was studying the World Map, Suna knocked on his door and entered, going straight to the table where he was and sat on the empty chair ahead of him.

She pointed at the drawing of one plant and said, "See this? This is a very difficult plant to find, but the Priest once told me that he found one in the forest from where the Unicorns came. Maybe we can show this to them tomorrow and ask them to help us find one. We have three days before going to the Guild, that will give us little time to get the plants, let them dry and make the Potion."

She then asked while Nozomu was looking at the recipe for the Healing Potion, "You… are not nervous about leaving the Orphanage? We went to the City several times with the Priest, and we visited the farms around with him, but this time we will be all alone. I am a bit scared."

"I am, but what can we do? We have to leave this nest and find a place for us in society. We can visit the Priest from time to time, but I am sure everything will work out."

Taisetsuna bit her lower lip and said, after a few seconds of silence, "I may need your help with that. Except for you and the Priest, I never had any patience for anyone else. I get easily annoyed and people tend to think that I am rude and mean. You never had problems with talking with people and making friends, but I always preferred to be left alone. Like any other Cat-kind, I guess…"

"Maybe I used to be like that, but I think I am not so amiable right now. I guess I also prefer to be left alone, instead of being surrounded by a bunch of beings that I don’t know. Besides, with your cute face and pretty smile, I am sure you will be just fine."

Taisetsuna stared at him with a red face, "You know, this is the third time today that you said I am cute, and you never said I have a pretty smile. Are you mocking me? Because if you are, I will slap you!"

"What are you talking about? Did you look in the mirror lately? You have a nice and sexy figure, a cute face, big and round breasts, an amazing hair colour, not to mention those yellow eyes of yours! I could stare into your eyes for hours! If I never said that, then I was too stupid for my own good! You may need to be careful out there in the World, you can’t be naive. I bet there are a lot of men that will try to gain some kind of advantage over you or fool you to get you into a bed."