My hundreds of hours of playing video games have prepared me for this very day! Demi swore to herself with fiery resolve.
It seemed to be a very particular sort of game-based world at that.
This was a farming game world, and Hollyhope Fieldcraft was the Harvest Goddess.
(And the Goddess of Life, which was admittedly a more impressive title in any context apart from a farming game.)
While Demi was considering this, the goddess clapped her hands together.
“Are you thirsty?” she asked cheerfully. “I’ll make some tea! I have some delicious snacks. Ufu fu fu. ~ I’ve been preparing for this all week!”
They had been talking things over for some time and Demi was beginning to feel both parched and peckish, but she did her best to wave Hollyhope off, concerned that the goddess was about to become even more distracted than she had been thus far.
“No, no, it’s fine!” she attempted, but Hollyhope had already trotted into her sweet little kitchen and was humming happily.
“I’ll just be a minute,” she called. “You can keep asking questions.”
With a half-hearted sigh, Demi got to her feet to follow Hollyhope.
This goddess certainly does things at her own pace, doesn’t she? she reflected absently.
It was probably good to remain philosophical in this situation, she decided. Hollyhope was her only source of information about this place, and she doubted it was wise to antagonize a goddess, regardless.
Demi was, as a rule, a nonbeliever, but she was also a rationalist. Just because her own world didn’t have anything approaching a godly figure did not mean that other worlds might not have such. What the word “goddess” might mean was surely dependent on the circumstances of that particular place.
And when in Rome... she thought as she lingered in the open arch that divided the quaint breakfast nook from the somehow even quainter kitchen.
As Demi was thinking things over, she stopped to lean against the obverse side of Hollyhope’s magic whiteboard. There was a very cute ideographic depiction of a farm surrounded by a forest on it, an illustration that occupied all of the space on the board. Naturally, it was upside down.
Distracted by her own thoughts, she did not recognize immediately that the whiteboard had obscured a bookshelf that was standing against the wall behind it, just beside the entrance to the kitchen.
Without even realizing what she was doing, Demi’s eyes began absently sweeping across the books on the shelf in front of her. It was subconscious reflex, something as natural as breathing, and she wasn’t even properly reading the titles as her eyes moved over the letters...
Until she did.
She felt a little jolt inside as she brought a fingertip up to touch the spine of the first in a neatly ordered sequence of similar-looking books, both eyebrows raised.
“The Shadowstep Alchemist,” she read aloud, her eyes round and curious.
This was—
This had to be—
There was no mistaking it.
The size, the shape, the sense...
It didn’t matter in the slightest that this was some sort of fantasy farming game world.
Demi had held enough of them in her own hands to know what it was.
She pulled that first book off the shelf to look at the cover, the color rising in her cheeks as she turned to look at Hollyhope.
“This is a light novel, isn’t it?” she asked, her eyes shining. She looked as if she had just discovered a holy grail that did not require summoning servants as a prerequisite.
“Fu fu fu fu. ~” The goddess laughed, covering her mouth with a dainty hand. “Indeed,” she confirmed. “That is what it is.”
Hollyhope’s own cheeks were rosy, and as their eyes met, the goddess straightened her spine, puffing out her chest a little and looking—
Well, she looked quite insufferably smug.
I suppose she’s proud of the fact that she owns all of them? Demi wondered. I mean, I know that I would be deeply proud of such a collection.
There were at least three dozen of them, after all.
Still slightly confused by the goddess’s reaction, Demi looked down at the book.
A whole series about alchemy and I haven’t read a single one of them! she trilled to herself as she looked at the book in her hands. Today is a wonderful day! This world is splendid. It gets an A++.
“Wait,” Demi said, her fingers tensing on the book as a new thought took root in her brain. “This is a fantasy world with magic, isn’t it? Does that mean, does that mean this world not only has magic, but it also has alchemy? Alchemy with a cauldron and everything?” she asked, so overwhelmed by the possibility that she rose up on her toes and began bouncing in place.
Hollyhope blinked. This was apparently not the direction she had expected the conversation to go, but she recovered herself quickly, leaning her cheek against her hand.
“Ah, yes, we do. After a fashion, at least,” the goddess answered, but Demi had promptly tuned out any words that came after “yes” to suit her own picture of things.
Alchemy, alchemy, magic and alchemy. ~ She was singing to herself. Fantasy worlds are the best! She pulled the light novel to her chest and spun around in place as a way of expressing her feelings on the subject.
When she looked at Hollyhope again she could see that the goddess was smiling fondly.
“Alchemy is just so mysterious and fascinating, isn’t it?” Hollyhope asked, a flush in her own cheeks.
“It absolutely is!” Demi agreed. “Magic is good because it’s magic!”
“And alchemy is good because it’s alchemy!” they both declared together, then broke out into laughter.
“You’re going to be fine,” Hollyhope said with a nod of absolute certainty.
Demi hugged the first volume of The Shadowstep Alchemist to her chest and repeated the words softly. “I’m going to be fine.”
“Besides, if you ever find that it’s just too much, he’ll be there to help you,” Hollyhope said with a warm smile, nodding toward the book Demi held against her chest.
Demi looked down at the cover of volume 1 of The Shadowstep Alchemist with its grim-faced protagonist, a young dark-haired boy with slender, pointed ears. He looked as if he were ready for anything.
It’s true, she thought to herself. Books have helped me through some really difficult times. I look forward to our journey together, Shadowstep Alchemist.
As Demi was leaning back against the whiteboard again, delighting over the book she was cradling, she got a very intense sense of foreboding, something that gave her a jolt as surely as touching the light novel had, only this jolt was decidedly more alarming.
She immediately scanned the area around herself and tried to determine where the most interior wall was, so she could put her back to it. She had been through enough drills with bodyguards to know what to do in case of an attempted assassination: Put her back to a solid interior wall and get under cover. But as she was scanning the area around herself like a startled deer, she got another unpleasant jolt from behind. She wheeled around to lock eyes with a dark shape that had such a menacing and powerful gaze that she was unable to look away from it.
She felt like a mouse staring into the eyes of a snake.
Somehow, she marshaled all of her courage and let out a little shriek, pointing at the shape.
“There’s something terrible hiding on top of your refrigerator!” Demi warned. And indeed, the thing on top of the refrigerator was exuding intense Final Boss vibes.
But Hollyhope was completely unworried. She didn’t even turn to look.
“Leonard,” she chided. “You’re making her uncomfortable. Stop being so grumpy!”
There was a quiet, indescribable noise from atop the refrigerator and the low shape sat up, and although it did not stop staring at her, Demi felt a tangible drop in threat level.
Did that cat really give me a Newtype flash? she wondered, her mind spinning. Twice?
“Just ignore him,” Hollyhope suggested pleasantly. She was currently engaged in hand-whipping fresh cream. “He looks like the biggest stick-in-the-mud grumpy-puss in the whole world, but he’s really as sweet and soft as a marshmallow underneath!”
“If you say so,” Demi answered, not entirely convinced. She was a great fan of cats in general, and cranky, unfriendly ones in particular, but she had never experienced this level of existential dread from any four-legged creature before. “Leonard seems very, very powerful,” she observed to Hollyhope, keeping the cat squarely in her field of vision as she moved fully into the kitchen. No matter how alarming he was, Demi couldn’t help but admire him.
“Ah yes, he is very adorable, isn’t he?” Hollyhope answered, nodding in time as she tested the whipped cream. “I love him to bits. I don’t know what I’d do without him.”
As a way of punctuating this statement, she spooned a little of the whipped cream into a pretty, pale pink dish and with the aid of a step stool, she scooted it behind the books on the top of the refrigerator.
Leonard remained as still as a statue, staring at Demi for several seconds, but at last his desire for fresh whipped cream overcame his stoic fortitude and he disappeared behind the books again, apparently to eat his cream.
Hollyhope then busied herself laying out teacups on a toleware tray. Each cup was delicate and beautifully painted with a design of pink roses and clover.
That seemed to be the goddess’s dominant motif.
With the looming threat of Leonard passed, or at least the sword returned to its scabbard, Demi felt she could move back to their previous topic of conversation, the light novel still pressed against her chest like a security blanket.
“Can you explain exactly why you summoned me?” Demi asked frankly.