I was totally thrown for a loop. This was all wrong, no matter how you looked at it. This wasn’t what Celes and I had talked about at all. It was around that time that I came to a realization:
“Ohhh, I get it. Celes totally has a few screws loose.”
It was an immediate answer on my part. I didn’t need any other information, and there was no need for me to think over it again. Why was I able to come to that conclusion so fast, you ask? Well, luckily for you, I had the perfect reason that should be enough to convince absolutely anyone: because she’s Celes.
Perfect reasoning, no? It was airtight; no room for any doubts here.
I’d thought something was off about all this... No one used healing magic when there was someone gravely injured in front of them, no one else was selling healing potions here, and everyone was freaking out over the low- and mid-tier potions I’d used.
Celes had said it herself: “Magic, monsters, and hunters exist.” In my head, I took “hunters” to mean “adventurers.” To be fair, I wasn’t that far off from the mark there. There were beasts in this world ferocious enough to be called monsters, that was for sure. The “magic” part was where my problem lay.
Magic did exist in this world. Celes said it existed, so it must have. However, that was different than the “mages and priests firing off combat and support spells” or “enchanted magic items and healing potions bonanza” image that I had in my head. The hunters and the Hunter’s Guild handled everything from resource gathering, hunting quests, and even escort missions. They pretty much took care of everything the adventurers and Adventurer’s Guilds you’d hear about in stories back on Earth would. But—and this was a huge but (stop laughing)—there was no magic here. I repeat: THERE’S NO MAGIC HERE!!!
The only battles were physical encounters with swords, spears, bows, axes, and all that other good stuff. There was nothing different about the weapons here and how they were back on Earth.
Magic, on the other hand, was said to have been created by an eccentric old geezer in a tower somewhere who had devoted his whole life to researching it. He was finally able to use it when he had become senile and was knocking on death’s door. These consisted of spells like “squirting one milliliter of water from your hand,” and “conjuring a flame about the size of a lit candle wick from the tip of your finger.” Friggin’ magic tricks were more impressive than that! There was no way in hell you could use that as your example to say magic existed here!
Huff...huff...huff...
It looked like there was no magic that could actually be put to any sort of practical use in this world. Like the fire breath that dragons could spew out, for example. Or that dragons weren’t aerodynamic enough to fly on their wings alone, but they still had the power of flight. Or how dragons had such high defensive abilities, which scales alone shouldn’t be able to give them.
Why is it all dragons?! What the hell!
...Anyway, in the midst of all the celebration and revelry, I managed to squeeze some information out of the hunters here. Medical treatment in this world consisted of medicine and salves made from herbs, splints and braces for broken bones, and needle and thread to sew shut any gaping wounds. Magical potions weren’t among those options, of course. So here was my conclusion:
...I really screwed myself over, didn’t I?
Here were all these fantastic miracle medicines that shouldn’t even exist in this world, and the only one who could make them? A helpless little girl with nobody to support her.
I think I may have backed myself into a corner on this one...
Welp, it was time to run away, I’d say.
The next morning, in the main hall of the Hunter’s Guild...
On one side you had the receptionist counters, the dining hall on the other, and a kitchen further in the back. Upstairs was where all the business related rooms were at, which was probably where the big wigs of the place had their offices.
So here I was, in the main hall on the first floor. It was utter chaos, since the mess from the hubbub yesterday still hadn’t been cleaned up. There were people waking up with massive headaches, people laid out flat across tables, and even people still out cold and sleeping on the ground. I’d slept on a bunk near one of the walls, but I had to make sure and get up early to get it all put away before things got busy. All I was cleaning up was my bed. A mess in the dining hall? Nope, didn’t ring a bell.
I was always the type of person who had a strict habit of showing up anywhere at least five minutes before I was supposed to be there, which is why I asked Celes to get me a wristwatch. And not some fancy brand name watch that looked like it could break if it smacked into a pole a little too hard, but an actual, functional, tough watch. This thing could withstand water pressure up to one hundred meters deep. If I dove any further than that, I think I would break before the watch did. It was solar-powered, which meant I didn’t have to worry about the batteries dying or anything. Actually, I might not need to worry about the battery at all. This thing was made by our favorite goddess after all. The time it displayed was synced with the rotation of this world, and of course I made sure it had an alarm as well. There was no oversleeping for this girl thanks to that.
I wasn’t getting plastered like everyone else last night, so I had plenty of time to think things over after I finished my intelligence gathering mission. My conclusion: I needed to get the hell out of here!
My plan was to get up first thing in the morning and clean up my bed, say thank you to the scary receptionist, then pretend to wander about town before making my escape... But, unfortunately, things weren’t going to be that easy for me. It looked like someone had painted a big target on me after what happened last night. Just as I was finished taking care of my bed, I ended up getting caught at the same time.
“So you must be Kaoru, girly!”
I was too late...
There were five men in total who had come for me, all working under the orders of some baron dude. The apparent leader of the group looked to be at least somewhat capable, but the other four looked like random thugs from off the streets with leather armor and swords. It looked like they were the “group of thugs that call themselves guards who are working for an influential person” you heard about so much in these types of stories. It seemed they’d managed to grab hold of some people last night who weren’t completely smashed and asked them all about this town. Information was money, which meant information was life...or something like that.
Anyway, there was a baron, who acted as the governor of this town and a few other villages, and he was trying to get together the money he needed to move up in the world by levying heavy taxes on his territories. Your real stereotypical, small-time aristocrat type. Naturally, it seemed like the people hated his guts for that, but I couldn’t really imagine a stereotypical aristocrat that was actually loved by the commoners they ruled over.
Excluding the title of “Knight,” which couldn’t be passed down to your children, barons were the lowest ranks in the aristocracy. They were pretty much the lowest rung of the nobility ladder. Now, if I remember right...the guy had a wife, two sons, and a daughter. I guessed that, after he heard about the incident last night, he must’ve seen this as his chance to make a fortune and move on up in the aristocratic world. I bet he was jumping for joy when he told his lackeys to come after me... But sending five thugs to deal with one little girl was totally overkill. I guess you could say that was to make sure I wouldn’t be able to get away, and just in case any of the hunters got in their way.
“Can I help you? My mother always told me never to talk with strangers, and especially not to go places with them...”
“What the...” The man who looked to be the leader of the group practically had his eyes popping out of his sockets. “The governor’s calling you, so be a good girl and come with us!”
“But I don’t live here, you know. I’d follow the orders of the governor where I’m from, but why do I have to obey some person who has nothing to do with me? This governor or whoever doesn’t mean a thing to me. In fact, they’re a total stranger—a stranger who’s trying to force a girl to come to their house. And they’re not even going through the trouble of doing it themselves either... They’re just making their underlings do it for them.”
It looked like my comment had the blood rushing to the man’s head.
“Y-You little brat!”
By the time he noticed, the hunters were beginning to gather around us.
“Tch, just hurry up and come with us!”
“Ahh!”
The group of men grabbed my arm and forcefully dragged me outside. Even if the hunters wanted to stop these guys, they were all technically soldiers working directly under the governor. If things went south, not only could the people who tried to help me end up killed, but their families could be targeted as well. They could only stand there and grind their teeth as they watched us go.
Right then, it looked like I couldn’t exactly make a run for it at the moment... At least it didn’t seem like I had to worry about them trying to kill me or do other horrible things to me—for now. Then until I could find that window of escape, I thought it was time to start messing with these guys...
The corners of my mouth curled up into a smile as I thought that.
“Ah, wait, Mr. Soldier! Please don’t touch that!”
I made that request to the leader of the group as he kept his grip on my left arm. I was being surrounded on all sides by the other four men after I obediently began walking along with them, which was also the reason why the leader didn’t have such a tight grasp on me.
“What, this? Actually, what is this...”
The leader looked at me curiously.
I showed off my watch. “It’s very expensive, and worth at least ten gold coins.”
“What?! Ten gold coins?!”