After I agreed to join their party on the journey to the capital, all of the people dispersed. The magicians set up barriers. The knight collected the corpses of their dead brethren in one spot. When I inquired about it, I was told they would be stored in a magic coffin the size of a fist, which in actuality holds much more due to magic. They set up tents as I watched from the sidelines. The tents were directly taken out of a magic bag and there was no need for labour as they were ready to use state. I was sitting on a log I cut up from a fallen tree while this was happening.
I was caught up in a lot since I took that walk in the park and wasn’t able to pay attention to details earlier. Now I can relax a little bit. I closed my eyes for some time to recollect what had already happened till now. It’s anyway not like I had any deep attachment to my old world. I loved reading books, playing games, and watching shows on television and the internet. That’s what I’ll miss the most. My parents never cared for me. They thought I was a freak and feared and hated me for it. Reason being I had an abnormal amount of strength and intelligence since childhood. They learned it when I started walking and talking clearly at 3 months old. And it only got worse from there. They were quite rich and we lived in a nice house. When I turned ten, they abandoned me and moved somewhere else. I could’ve found them again if I tried but didn’t. I started working for a guy I met online. He knew I was good at programming and he had his own game development company and security company. I was able to sustain myself because of him. I’m grateful to him. I was abnormal so even kids my age avoided me. So, naturally, I had no friends either. Let’s see what happens in this world. I have no knowledge so I have to learn what I can about it first. I have to learn to use magic too. The natural laws that govern this world and the societal norms and laws too. I seem to have no problem with money for now, as I sensed and heard coins of some sort in the drawstring pouch hanging on my waist. That would at least be enough to pay for food for a day. I’m still wondering why he didn’t give me a weapon after giving me awesome clothes and money. And the name is also weird but I have to accept it.
After thinking about it this much, I conducted my first experiment. The question is, ‘Is oxygen necessary to keep living?’. I held my breath and sure enough, after about 10 minutes I felt like drawing another breath and the inside of my chest felt a little hot. So breathing is required. I decided to extend it and concluded food and water as requirements too. Good to know. I’m seriously getting excited about the smell that wafted when I drew in another breath. Smells delicious.
I open my eyes to see everyone is all cleaned up and wearing squicky clean armours and clothing. The blood splatter from earlier and their wounds are completely gone. Did they all take baths and change in that time? or did they use some sort of magic? I also need to clean up. there’s blood and dirt on my body and clothes. I can also see four tents laid out and the area around covered in a thin veil that’s almost perfectly transparent. it’s like a hollow semi-globe of glass with a little purple tint. There is a triangular pyramid with geometric patterns shining in the same colour in the middle, so maybe that’s a magical device that’s producing the barrier. But if they had something like that, why didn’t they use it earlier? Maybe it’s not strong enough for that particular creature? Let’s find out later.
Among the four tents, one of them is rather flashier compared to the rest. That must be the personal tent of the queen. One of them is used by the maids for cooking and the other two are normal tents. Those must be for soldiers and magicians. It must be separated by gender, or so I think at the moment. The queen is inside her tent. The magician girl from earlier came out of that tent. The one that passed me the weapons mid-fight. I want to ask her if there is a body of water nearby, I need to clean up. But I don’t know her name. How do I call her? She noticed me looking at her. She’s quite the beauty. Almost too cute. I didn’t pay attention because of the tension and she was covered in blood. Pale white skin and moderate proportions, light brown hair and blue eyes. Yep, beautiful. But, isn’t she too young to be in the army? she looks 16-17 years old. She’s coming here.
“I noticed you looking at me. Do you need anything?”
She asked. Now’s my chance.
“Sorry. I wanted to call you but, didn’t know your name. I didn’t mean to stare.”
She’s making an understanding face. But there’s still suspicion. She might be angry or blushing. Two options. Her face is a little red.
“Oh, sorry. I didn’t introduce myself. I know your name but you don’t know mine. I’m Aria. A magician in the army. Nice to meet you.”
She introduced herself. She doesn’t have the same attitude as that dude.
“I’m Kaminaga Akito. Nice to meet you too.”
I also introduced myself. I didn’t talk much with people so, it’s hard. Even more so, when I think about how I’m to travel with them and might have to learn common sense from them. The others definitely have open contempt for me. She didn’t send strange glances at me when I was talking to the queen. She might be my only option for that. Gotta tread carefully here.
“Did you need anything from me?”
She got to the topic. Now I can ask her.
“Is there any body of water nearby? I want to clean the blood and dirt.”
I asked. She’s gonna be disappointed to know I can’t use magic. Maybe. She’s got a complicated expression on her face. Can’t tell what she’s thinking though. I feel like I’m losing respect. Not that I ever had any. HAHA.
“I don’t know about that But, I can clean you with magic.”
She offered. I have no other option but to accept her offer. I got up in front of her.
“Please do. I’d be grateful. First time in my life I’ve been covered in blood so, it’s annoying.”
She didn’t say anything but pointed her staff at me and started chanting something. After about fifteen seconds of chanting a small holographic-type circle was generated near my feet and when she recited the name, ‘water wash’ water started coming out of it. It twined around my body and the grime and blood were taken in that water. After I was all clean, the water was thrown out in the back. Magic is neat. Didn’t even take a full minute and I’m all clean. Don’t even need to dry it. I’m not wet. Magic is a handy thing. My now clean silver hair is flowing in the wind. they’re not stuck together with the blood like before. Wait what? How did my hair become silver? It’s that shitty old man’s deed. Curse him. I must have a pretty annoyed expression on my face right now.
While I was thinking about my hair and that shitty old man, she called out.
“Are you dissatisfied somehow? Did I do it wrong? Should I do it again?”
She’s misunderstanding this. I need to clear this up.
“No no no. I’m sorry if it seemed that way, I was just thinking about something else. But magic is a super handy thing, huh? did the work of half an hour in less than a minute. You’re awesome.”
She’s blushing. Must not be good with compliments.
“What are you talking about? You’re the one who’s awesome. Your magic earlier was amazing. I didn’t even sense any mana being used which means maybe your magic is highly efficient and with little to no mana loss. Currently, there’s only one person among the royal court mages who can do that, you know? Compared to that, this cleaning magic is like a pebble in the face of a mountain.”
She thinks I was using magic. She’s got it wrong. I can’t use magic even use magic if I wanted to, for now at least.
“I wasn’t using magic, though. I don’t even know how to use magic. So, between the two of us, you win. You can use more magic than me. HAHA. I have to learn magic as soon as possible. Maybe I’ll ask you to teach me. If you don’t mind, that is.”
Maybe, I shouldn’t have said that. She’s making the same expression my teacher made when I was doing two different subjects’ homework in her class with both of my hands and still answered her question about what she said at the end. It’s like she saw something unbelievable.
“You took down a wyvern without even using magic. fufu. I was sure you were using ‘body strengthening’. I guess I was wrong. And you’re casually talking about it like it was nothing. This is more bizarre than I thought.——–“
I couldn’t hear anything after that as she left the place and went back towards the queen’s tent. She was still murmuring something but I couldn’t quite make out what it was. Maybe I upset her. Even I can’t believe I did that. So, it’s only natural. I can’t do anything about that though, doesn’t matter what it is, I don’t lie. Sorry, Aria.
The sun has set, but the lighting devices they set up are illuminating the surroundings. I had dinner with the soldiers and mages. Aria had dinner with the queen. Aria seems close to the queen. The dinner was delicious though. They also told me they used wyvern meat for dinner, which is a delicacy. Super rare meat. Or so they said. Monsters need a bit of processing before eating them because if lingering mana of the creature can cause sickness if cooked and eaten as is. Mages can remove that mana and then it’s super tasty. It tasted a bit like chicken. Just a little bit, okay? It was tastier and jucier. Maybe I enjoyed it more because my stomach was completely empty. Either way, my first meal in this world had a rare item. After the meal, we decided on the night watch order. I’m on They didn’t ask me but I volunteered, and they assigned me to the second shift with Aria. She came out of the tent during the discussion and it was her idea to partner with me. Nobody objected. And she went back in again. I also went and took a nap. I quickly fell asleep.
After a while, a beautiful voice called out and I woke up. It was Aria. It was our turn to take over the night watch. She quickly generated water with magic and I washed my face to get rid of the sleepiness. And our watch began. We sat facing each other in front of the campfire. The awkward silence persisted for some time. The night was ghost silent except for the sound of crickets chirping and the fire crackling. The other companions in this journey were all fast asleep, tired from the unfortunate events that happened earlier. Suddenly, there was a rustling sound from the queen’s tent. I heard it but Aria didn’t it seems. Then, the queen came out of the tent and joined us. Aria didn’t react too much as if she already knew she would come. I didn’t mind either. She sat down and stared me straight in the eyes, and said.
“Our kingdom is in great trouble right now, please save us.”
And she lowered her head greatly.
