The more time I spend with Elizabeth, the more intrigued I am by her. She's an incredible warrior, and much stronger than I am at this moment, but it's like she's missing certain key pieces on how to act and interact. For instance, she seems to see no problem with being naked around those of the opposite gender. Primarily me. It could be because I look like a kid to her, but I doubt it.
It's almost like her mind is that of an innocent child, albeit a very powerful one. She can cook, but she always adds way too many spices, or way too few. And when she cuts vegetables, they're always completely uneven in size, like it's the first time she's doing it.
We've been travelling together for about 4 days now. Having finally left the confines of the forest, we head towards the nearby town of Elsvaert. As we cross over the top of a hill, Elizabeth pauses and speaks to me.
"Down there."
She points down into the grassy meadow in the valley beneath us. I sense it, too. Monsters. I count 4 from the mana, but they're not particularly strong. Elizabeth has been letting me kill weaker monsters as a part of my training.
"I can take them," I say.
She nods, her face blank as ever, and I proceed down the side of the hill. As I go, I pull out the small metal dagger that Elizabeth lent me. It's not infused with magic, which is unfortunate, but it has been serving me well. Closing in on the bottom of the hill, I get a visual on the monsters.
It seems I was partially right. There are 4, but one of them isn't a monster.
3 of the creatures appear to be goblins. They are everything that elves aren't. Stupid, ugly and gross in both looks and personality. The only similarity to elves is the pointy ears. They're wielding some rusty swords, which they've probably stolen from humans. I look to the other creature in the valley.
Well, "creature" may be a bit rude.
It's an elf. Hence the comparison.
It's a very handsome young-looking man with blonde hair and pointed ears, wearing a green cloak with leather armor underneath. If the elves here are anything like the ones like the emissaries I met as Number 2, this man is probably a few hundred years old. He seems to be holding his own against the 3 goblins. Not bad, considering all he has to fight with is a wooden pole.
He smacks one of the goblins on the head, causing it to jump backwards with a raspy groan of pain. Another one leaps for his lower leg.
Apparently forgetting the rusted sword in its hands, it bites down on his Achilles tendon. He gives a sharp yell of pain and tries to hit the goblin off his leg with the pole.
"Do you need help?" I ask plainly.
"Argh, what- who?"
He seems startled by my appearance. Or maybe it's just the goblin gnawing at his leg.
"Oh, yes! Please, kid, help me get these things off of me!"
Was the "kid" really necessary? Aren't you in pain?
Well, no matter.
The goblin he hit in the head spins around to face me. Using magic would still be a bad idea for me, but I have always been excellent with weapons. The gods must have decided that my muscle memory was important enough to keep it through all 1600 years of my life. Maybe that's how they pick who to reincarnate me as, since my proportions have remained mostly the same.
The goblin jumps directly at my face. They're even stupider than I remember. This one forgot about its sword, too. I duck slightly to the side and stab my dagger directly into its belly. The monster hits the ground with a lifeless thump. I take a swipe at the second goblin, still facing the elf, apparently oblivious to my presence.
Two down.
The last goblin is hanging on tight to the man's leg. He raises his staff and knocks the goblin directly in the head with surprising force. The goblin's skull makes a crunching noise as the creature falls off of the elf's leg.
It's an uncomfortable noise. For a moment, I'm back in front of the greater monster, crunching down on the barrier in front of me.
"Haaa"
The elf falls backwards to rest on the ground with a sigh. His leg is bleeding a bit, but goblin teeth can't go very deep. he should live.
"Thanks, kid. I owe you one."
You don't say.
I can feel Elizabeth's mana getting closer behind me.
"Why were you trying to fight 3 goblins with a stick?" she asks with a blank face. "Are you stupid?"
For some reason, I feel like chuckling, though I don't do it. I think I'm starting to warm up to this woman.
"Huh? N-no, of course not! I was just on my way to Elsvaert and I got ambushed out of nowhere. Seriously, not a single monster for the entire trek through the forest and then, suddenly, POOF! Goblins! I've never seen anything like it."
Poof? Hold on. A thought strikes me. An impossible thought, but then again...
"Are you saying that you *saw* the goblins spawn?" I ask.
"Exactly! One moment there were grass plains in all directions and the next there were goblins right in front of me."
That isn't possible. It's a well known fact that monsters never appear in the presence of intelligent living creatures. It's been that way for every reincarnation so far, and I even remember reading about it in a book back in the mansion. It shouldn't be possible. It shouldn't be. But there is something weird about this world. It's almost the same as the others, but different in all the wrong ways. Even the people living here seem aware of just how off it is.
I must've been silent for too long, because Elizabeth steps in to continue the conversation.
"It's only a few hours walk to Elsvaert. Do you want to come with us?"
"Oh, yes, please, I would really appreciate that. The Gods know what might happen if more of those monsters show up on my way there."
"My name is Elizabeth, and this is Sebastian."
"I am Vale Synistra."
"Nice to meet you, Vale."
"Nice to meet you," I say, following Elizabeth's lead.
"Ah, even nicer for me to meet you. You have truly saved my life."
Yeah.
There's a lot of life-saving going around right now.
After arriving in Elsvaert, we ditch Vale. That is to say, we leave him at a hospice to be healed, and head towards the guild headquarters. According to Elizabeth, the guild is an organization of intelligent beings, like humans and elves, which aims to keep other intelligent beings safe. It's basically your standard adventurer's guild.
Entering the guild, I'm surprised by its cleanliness and apparent structure. There are people milling around, but it all seems very organized. Most adventurer's guilds I've seen are dingy and filled with what you might call "ruffians." We approach the desk and a woman about Elizabeth's age looks up at us.
"Good morning, miss. Sir. How can I help the two of you today?"
She's very deferential and reminds me of a personal secretary, though I'm not sure how I know that. Have I ever even met one? Elizabeth replies to the woman.
"He wants to register."
"Ah, I see."
The woman looks down at me, curiously.
"And might I ask how old you are, sir?"
"Fifteen."
That's a lie, of course. This body is 14, but Elizabeth mentioned that the minimum age to register is 15. I'm lucky that this world doesn't have the infrastructure to verify that. I'm just hoping that my manners are good enough to convince her.
"Very good. And what is your name, sir?"
"Sebastian"
"Your surname, too, if you please, sir?"
"Malt"
"Sebastian Malt. Thank you, mister Malt."
She's marking down my answers on a piece of paper, as I give them. She asks a few more questions, and I am weighed and measured. She copies all the answers down on a second piece of paper, marks both of them with a stamp, and hands one to me.
"Thank you for registering. Please choose your first assignment on the board to your left, mister Malt. Please note that you may only choose F- to H-level assignments, as an unranked adventurer."
"Thank you."
Looking at the paper, I notice that she's written down a detailed description of my appearance. I suppose it's to prevent impersonation. Clever. It is potentially problematic, but I don't think anybody is going to figure out that I'm Stencil just from this. We pick out a quest - sorry, assignment - from the board. Slime hunting.
Slimes are cute, if quite literally brainless. However, they're rather unpopular, since they travel in large groups and tend to get armor all sticky.
Neither Elizabeth nor I care, so we go to the location where they were spotted.
On the way there, however, Elizabeth suddenly stops in her tracks. For a second, I think she's spotted more monsters, but I don't feel any around, so that can't be it.
"Sebastian," she says.
"Hm?"
"I have a question for you."
I pause and look back at her. Odd, she doesn't usually build up her conversations like this. Is she trying to be cautious?
"Who are you?"
What?
"What do you mean?" I ask.
"I saw you."
Saw me where? Doing what?
"I don't understand. Are you trying to be funny again?"
"No."
Alright, this is making me kind of concerned.
"That spell."
What? The barrier spell I used against the greater monster? She saw it, so what? It shouldn't have been anything special. Not to mention, it broke just a few seconds after I cast it.
"The barrier spell? What about it?"
"No."
What the hell does she mean, "No." This is starting to get annoying.
"I haven't cast any other spells. I'm 15 years old. I don't have a large enough mana store for it."
"..."
She just stands still, gazing at me, with that blank expression on her face.
"Nevermind," she says, and keeps going.
What in the world is happening?
"Hold on, where are you going?"
"To kill slimes."
"No, we were in the middle of a conversation. You can't just walk away after being so strange."
"..."
I wait, holding onto her arm to prevent her from leaving. We stand there for a bit, and just as I'm starting to feel like a pleading child, she finally speaks up.
"You made it run away."
Huh?
"No, you cut off its fang and it ran away. You told me yourself, remember?"
"No. I cut off its fang. It also ran away. Both things happened, but they were not related. You made it run away."
Is she losing her mind?
"Earlier today, you used magic, too."
"What in the world are you going on about? I haven't used any magic. I told you, I don't have a big enough mana store."
It seems I let a bit of my annoyance slip into my voice. I force it back.
"I've never seen goblins act like that before," she says.
Now it's my turn to be silent.
"And to appear out of nowhere? That should be impossible."
Sure, but that doesn't mean it has any connection with me. He was probably just lying because he got caught off guard or...
"In fact, I've only seen it twice."
Huh? Twice?
"Earlier today was the second. The first was 5 days ago. At your mansion."
That isn't possible. That simply. Isn't. Possible. The greater monster didn't appear out of thin air. I felt the its mana approaching us, right? Right? Didn't I?
Either way, the appearance of the greater monster wasn't because of anything I did. I know what casting magic feels like, and I've only done it once in this world, which was the barrier spell *after* the beast appeared. I manage to calm myself a bit, and form a retort.
"I can understand why you might think that, but they're just coincidences. I really haven't cast any magic besides the barrier spell. I assure you."
I might be reassuring myself a little bit here, too.
"..."
Elizabeth continues her blank silence, but her gaze feels somehow different now. I'm not sure what kind of feeling it's expressing, but it is, at the very least, less suspicious than before.
"I see. Maybe you're right. Sorry about that. We can go kill those slimes now."
Somehow, I get the feeling that she doesn't actually believe me.