Brickwork (FIN)

Kirk Thompson

Age : 21
Height : 189 cm
Weight : 85 kg
Blood Type : O
Sex : Male
Birthday: April 21

Bio : The male protagonist of the story, known to be quite lazy to do things in addition of his likelihood to slack off whilst given the tasks. He was known to be quite stupid because of his laziness and his unwillingness to learn things he doesn't find interesting, but at certain times he would act clever enough in his own way.

Known to be a happy-go-lucky person and mostly level-headed; he likes to take things easy., although sometimes he could also be pretty contemplative about things people might never expect of him to think about. He has a great passion for freedom and enjoying life to its fullest, and that motive was the one who brought him through so many adventures.

Carla Sutherland

Age : 20
Height :178 cm
Weight : 54 kg
Blood Type : AB
Sex : Female
Birthday : September 15

Bio : The female protagonist of the story, she had quite the diverse amount of talents and expertise which made her already a famous adventurer from an early age. Coming forth from the renowned Sutherland family, she began her adventures upon the age of ten with her father. At a first glance, she might appear to be a person who can do anything, but in reality, there's still some things whom she needed one's assistance with.

One noticeable thing about her was her somewhat rude personality, that may appear as a bit arrogant and conceited for some people. She also finds herself hard to trust people whom she just met, or even people that were quite close to her, which made her to keep so many things pent up inside her. At times she might also act self-righteously if things didn't go her way, but soon after she would keep her actions in moderation whenever her actions went overboard.

Her personality were something I couldn't really put my finger on, with multitude of somewhat complicated emotions that couldn't just be categorized into various traits alone. But if I were to put it simply, she's the type of an iron-willed protagonist with motives and ideals they wish to pursue no matter what, she's also the kind of person who highly values pride and dedication, like a perfectionist of some sort.

Underneath her tough-framed personality, sometimes she might also act clingy just like a spoiled kid, and letting her expertise and ambitions aside, she's pretty much a childish person. Many other words could be said about her, but I think that's all for now.




- Under Construction -




= Under Construction -

"Yawn...." I was awakened by the feel of morning breeze on my face. Scent of mountain air emanates from the surroundings, feeling my lungs with lots of vitality. Where is the tent? Carla must have put it away while I was asleep, leaving me snoring in the open with just a thick carpet as a cushion between me and this rocky lands.

"Get up already, you lazy bum."

"OUCH! Damn it Carla, you don't have to kick me like that...I could get up by myself you know."

She lands a hard kick towards my sides the moment she came close by, it sure hurts like hell...thank goodness none of my ribs were broken, I swore with that power my bones will crack away! Why couldn't she act more gentle like a girl should be? She's totally a brute, it's a miracle and tons of good luck in my hands that I could survive adventuring with her for so long.

"Hmm...did you say something just now?" forming a scary crackling sound with her fists, she stares down at me with such a scary expression. I stayed silent while my body trembles hard. Honestly, I couldn't say anything other than my usual response...

"Nothing, ma'am."

Oh yeah, let me introduce myself. My name is Kirk Thompson and I'm just starting out as an adventurer, just starting on my first step towards adventuring about six months ago. There's still a lot for me to learn, even with reading all those books in the library about how do we survive in the wilds there's none of those things that made their way to my brain. You can say I'm just an idiot for studying, I can only understand it while experiencing it firsthand.

My level of understanding about being a full-fledged adventurer pales in comparison with my partner, Carla Sutherland. Even though she's one year younger than me, she really knows a lot about how to explore this unknown lands full of danger along with fending off dangerous monsters, she's a seasoned veteran that starts adventuring by the age of ten.

Although she just went out with her father occasionally at that time, a girl that young an age is really great to be able to survive in such harsh environment. Even more, her father was one of the legendary adventurers widely known in Federation...to gain some special trust at such young age from a credible person...at first I couldn't say how lucky I am to have such reliable partner.

By the way, I'm turning 21 this year, so she should be 20 for now.

We first met at the tavern on Truce Village, my hometown. I was just running errands by delivering crates of wine my family had made when suddenly there's a commotion....



"Brave people of Truce! Hereforth I, Carla Sutherland, hath come to pledge for your assistance. I'm currently searching for the renowned Seeds of Knowledge, whoever possess it will have one of their precious wish granted. And if they have partners, each one of them will also be able to make a single wish along with the adventurer. So, what say you?"

I was delivering the crates of wine through the back door after pushing my cart which was filled of these crates around. Huff, I might be useless at many things that involves using my brain, but for physical labors like this I seem to have extra strength and stamina even when compared to the physically fit males in this village.

Pacing back and forth towards the wine cellar, working around with the house master to transport and organize the wines, I moved quickly with caution while handling these crates. Once I get a very harsh scolding from my parents for breaking a single crate of these wines, I don't want it anymore...it's really painful.

For some reason, I hate being with my family...they're so harsh towards their own son, I'm their own flesh and blood! I might be an idiot who graduates from high school with terrible grades...barely make it towards every grade...always have a hard time studying the complex things but somehow I made it through.

I want to leave this town and go adventuring, living a free life exploring the unknown places I've never been to. This is my lifelong dream ever since my father beat me up real bad and my mom doesn't let me have any food for the whole day, I was crying in helplessness, having no friends to help me out...only family members that keeps torturing me each and every day.

After breaking out in a sweat as I delivered the last crate, I heard a shouting voice from the door and there she was...a very cute red-haired girl dressed in cowboy outfits. I heard from the patrons that her name was Carla Sutherland, a renowned adventurer, the youngest daughter of Federation's legendary adventurer Arthur Sutherland.

Though it's really strange that nobody wants to be her partner, each and every men in this tavern refuses to go on the journey with her. Eventually her eyes were laid out towards me...I swallowed down my saliva, getting stared down by this beautiful girl. Me, who never had any luck with girls before, got his heart jumping with joy as she approaches me.

"You seem to be a strong young man, can you fight?"

My face heats up in embarrassment as she stares at me with eyes full of interest, as I tried to back off she continues on moving closer...until my back hits the wall and all I could do is just look at her visage closing down on me.

"I don't like fighting but I'm good at doing physical labors, it's my everyday job." opening my mouth with an awkward manner of speech, I honestly spoke about my abilities. She nodded in interest while continue striking on the next question, one which decides the turning point of my life. For better or for worse, I don't know.

"Hmmm...I find you to be an interesting individual, would you like to go on the adventures with me?"

"Gladly, I shall accept it. But I still need to notify my parents first, lest they will be worried sick about my sudden disappearance."

I lied about my current condition of being tortured regularly at that place, both mentally and physically. Not telling her how much I want to escape this prison, giving her the impression that I came from a refined family.

She awaits for my decision until tomorrow afternoon, meanwhile I went back to my house and told my parents about my will to go adventuring. They instantly burst into wild anger and my father readies a wooden stick to punish me for no reason...the simple mention of 'Carla Sutherland' as my partner instantly changes their upbringing.

The usual word "You're a piece of trash, a total disgrace to our name!" changes to "You make your family proud, go on your journey safely...we believe you will cherish the family name with honor." they suddenly treated me like I'm a blessed kid, giving me lavish food for lunch and dinner...lots of food and useful items for the upcoming adventure.

I don't really understand this but now I know how two-faced and corrupted they are...it makes me sick just like when they treated me like garbage.

By tomorrow morning I've met up with Carla, bringing up a bag filled with resources for our upcoming adventures. With a bright smile she said..

"Let's go!"

There's still a lot of things that happened but...to make long story short, that's the starting point of my adventures with Carla.

Now after explaining a bit about the first meeting between me and Carla, let's get back to explaining other stuff. All these past 6 months of our adventure were mostly spent traveling around cities and exploring natural terrains just like we're currently doing before, taking a long hike over the mountains until we found a suitable resting place before nightfall comes...that's just one example though.

Traveling around the lands of Federation, it seems our search for the Seeds of Knowledge had so much hard time since not many people know some clues about their whereabouts.

Usually after having no clues while exploring around the cities and asking for information, we go around the forests and other places outskirts the city, the elves and gnomes around that area knows a lot more than humans living in the cities, even the seasoned adventurers doesn't seem to have any clue about that item...which I find as a strange thing.

After just a month of questioning the townspeople with no results, Carla gave up on them, only stopping by for a moment to stockpile our foods, items, and repair or purchase new equipments.

We spent the remaining five months questioning the elves, gnomes, fairies, and other dwellers living around the areas near the cities...sometimes we have to cross tough terrains while doing so, on occasions we even ran into monsters but Carla could finish all of them by herself...she had a very powerful weapon with her, which is shaped like a rapier.

To tell you the truth, we've been in and out so many cities but I forgot most of their names since our experiences in it weren't that notable and we just moved out to explore another places after just one or two days staying in. But I could name out a few cities where we got such a great help that we could eventually reach the current place we're in after only 6 months.

After conversing with other adventurers, there's a few who has stories about people searching for the seeds of knowledge...some even searched for 10 years and still haven't found it..and they were seasoned adventurers who uncovered myriads of treasures in such obscure places an untrained adventurer wouldn't ever find. It might be because I'm with Carla, she's truly a genius even though she had a foul personality. Though at certain times she acts so cute that my heart melts every time she goes that way.

About the important cities we're traveling on, we got our first real progress after stumbling upon the Elven city Roswell Dale, which is populated with overgrown rainforests and crystal clear lake of celestial waters. We got the crucial information from one of the forest elf elders to went west ahead towards Houndtoll, city of adventuring orcs.

A veteran Troll Warlord told us to went north towards Necropolis, then he advises us to visit an Orc named Rusk who herds strong Behemoths, they are extremely powerful beasts which is popularly used by Orc and Trolls, both as war animals and merchant transports around this area. They're versatile enough to travel around relatively rough terrains like those leading from Houndtoll towards Necropolis. Furthermore, there's an enormous area of cursed blight grounds near Necropolis in which our withered white horses will die upon first steps on it.

We came to Rusk and traded our pair of white horses which traveled with us for all these months. There we got a pack of powerful behemoth of an excellent breed, Rusk said it's a bonus because he's impressed with our determination to find the Seeds of Knowledge. He told us that he once searched for it as long as five years long but still haven't found it and wishes us best of luck on our travels.

It took a few weeks of travel before we reached Necropolis because the Behemoth is relatively slow compared to the White Horses. Still the trip wasn't as bad as we expected because he's really tough and could go on the whole night while we're sleeping at his back. And while we're resting, he could hunt down for his own food and water before coming back to us after several hours passed.

Reaching Necropolis with the Behemoth, terrifying atmosphere fills up the air, I could smell the scent of death from everywhere. Both of us freaked out when bunch of Skeleton Warriors came out all of sudden, though we're relieved when the Wraith commanding them came forth from the back and said they're just out patrolling. Then it leads us to the Revenant Warlord which is also a veteran Necromancer, he told us about the location where 'Seeds of Knowledge' lies.

It's somewhere deep in the mountains of Grimgnaw, located in the center of Federation lands. Since there's the Alaves peaks between our closest route to it and the Grimgnaw Mountains, he advises us to head for the Death Valley which is located just several kilometers outskirts of Necropolis, and fetch an overnight ride with the Bone Dragon. Carla also considers this way to be the fastest option.

The trip towards the Death Valley only took about a few hours while riding on the slow-paced behemoth. Though the creepy atmosphere that overshadows us makes this few hours a trip feels like a few days, we would like to reach our destination as soon as possible.

Carla often clings onto me whenever she saw a ghost wandering around during our travels, we weren't attacked whatsoever...thank goodness. By the way those undeads look really hostile it ignites the feeling of fear within us, we felt really uncomfortable hanging here, we certainly aren't suited being in this kind of places for a prolonged moment.

When we finally reached the Death Valley, both of us felt like kissing the grassy terrain...seems like the effect of being in the area full of cursed blight grounds really torments our mind. The dark elf which is guarding the gate looks at us with a confused expression towards our weird acts.

There we asked about the nearby place to stay the night since it's getting dark outside, he recommends us a nearby motel and both of us shared a room because there's only one room left. Carla slumps into a deep sleep as soon as she touches the bed, meanwhile I asked the motel owner about this Bone Dragon Transport. It kind of surprised me at first that this owner was actually a young girl about my age, she's taking over her father who's been sick for years. A young dark elf girl managing this place...that is cute in one or more ways.

After getting some information about the transport, it seems that this kind of transportation is wildly popular all over the world because it could virtually transport you anywhere...though the price is damn high, we might even need to trade our valuable goods for a trip towards the Grimgnaw Mountains.

Though I got really surprised when I woke up tomorrow morning after having a good night sleep, Carla already got us a Bone Dragon Transport waiting. She said it's quite a long story on how did she get it, firstly the vendor wants this rare-breed behemoth in addition of the precious necklace she wore in her neck. But then for some reason she blurts out her father's name towards this person.

End of story, we get to ride this Bone Dragon towards Grimgnaw for free. It appears that the summoner of this dragon has some enormous gratitude towards Arthur Sutherland when he saved this summoner's entire family from the onslaught of vile inquistors many years ago.

After an overnight trip with the Bone Dragon towards the Grimgnaw Mountains, we've arrived where we are now in the present few days later. Where I got kicked hard as soon as I woke up.

"Hmm...did you say something just now?"

"Nothing, ma'am."

Okay, we're back to this part again. That's quite a long explanation to give some backgrounds about what we're actually doing all this time, I hope that I've done it clearly enough...actually this one was just a brief summary on what we've been doing all this time because there's so many things happening it would take too long to describe it in detail.

"Hey...what did you just say, ma'am? I'm younger than you damn it! Just call me milady or something you dolt."

I thought she's going to hit me again. Man, it happens so many times I lost count on how frequently I've got beaten up by her over some stupid reasons.

"Okay okay...I'm sorry, milady."

"Sheez, you've always been giving me a hard time during our adventures."

That was supposed to be my line, Carla. Though I'm afraid to say it to her because she'll whack me off real good, I don't really hate this side of her though...her abusive attitude at times does feel similar like what a caring big sister did to her useless little brother. In this case she's younger than me so I absolutely have no idea on how to put it hahaha...

After finishing up with her angry words, she goes back to doing her own stuff, I probably shouldn't interfere right now since she often told me about my presence making her starts screwing things up. Meanwhile I also did my usual thing while sitting in the same carpet I used to sleep earlier, reading.

I took out a book from my bag, and start turning out the pages...it's about an adventurer which finds himself traveling into another world after entering out a peculiar building, a tower which rises up towards the heavens. Within each floor there's different sets of worlds and he must solve every quest given to him to reach another level, the quests doesn't have time limit in which they must complete it, as long as the flag to activate it hasn't being triggered.

There's also side quests which is optional for them to complete, finishing up side quests will grant them valuable abilities and items they could carry on to the next floor. Finishing the main quest also gives a special reward by itself. I often think of side quests as a bonus venture for diligent adventurers which often reaches the top of their fame and prosperity as they seek far beyond the scope of average ones.

Ah, this novel is so exciting to read...I wonder what kind of challenge will await him as he and his partners rose into another floor?

Mmmm...what is this delicious scent? I turned around towards the smell and saw Carla stirring up a large bowl fired up by the bonfire. This is definitely the scent of a potato soup with assorted foods thrown out to it! I like eating vegetables and prefer them over meat, and definitely potato soup is one of my all time favorites. What else, there's a fish and chicken fillet thrown in with an addition of other vegetables which is often used in salad meals.

Beside her there's a rice cooker with steam coming out of it, I found it strange how this device could activate by itself when there's no electricity as its power source.

"Ah, the smell of potato soup in the morning. You sure know my favorite foods, Carla."

"S-shut up! It's not like I'm cooking this for an idiot like you...that's because we didn't have any more foods left other than these ones. It's all your fault that you've letting that boar go away last night...I want to eat boar stew...I WANT TO EAT BOAR STEW! Damn you Kirk."

Cute...she's acting really HNNNGGGG-- just now with her innocent blushing face. Her motion of shaking her head left and right while denying the sincerity of her actions...my face feels like it's going to melt away. At the second thought, I don't mind you being a brute anyway...it makes me somewhat feel close to you and in that way we could have something we can relate to each other.

I can't have casual conversations like this with girls other than Carla because they feel so distant...they act so refined and their topics of conversations were just something outta my world. This girl is different, her reliable disposition made me feel comfortable, and she's a nice person to talk too...the feel when I'm near her is totally different than any other girls. Might be because she's strong and independent, exactly the type of woman that I admire.

"Well...I think you're acting really adorable just before."

"WILL YOU JUST SHUT YOUR MOUTH ALREADY?" she shouts on top of her voice it freaks me out so much I almost jumped, then she continues on with a really low voice I could only make it out barely "...I'm freakin' embarrassed damn it, you stupid man."

"Uh...if you say so then." I went back to my usual sitting place to read again but it doesn't take long before she called me again when the breakfast's finally ready.

I ate the soupy food poured into a bowl with lots of excitement while nibbling on the rice. On the other hand Carla seems depressed, slowly eating her food without any interest at all...she might want that Boar Stew so much she began to lose interest in any other food. By the way, it's her own cooking so wouldn't she at least eat it...come on, it's freakin' delicious why don't you at least enjoy the breakfast a little?

After finishing up our respective breakfast, we start cleaning up the cooking apparatus. It's mostly me who's doing the cleaning job because she already done her share with cooking our breakfast. Then we sat here at the nearby rocks to view the panoramic scenery unfolding before our eyes.

Clara turned out towards me and said "Hey, after you finished resting up...please find us some food for lunch okay, go explore the nearby forest and take care not to get lost...the pathways gets really tricky sometimes even for me."

"Roger."

After resting by lounging over the comfy rock, I went forth towards the forest entrance. She bids me farewell and wishes me best of luck on my errands.



Uhhh....

"Damn it, it seems I got lost." deep down in the forest, with minimal amount of food and water for me to survive. I forgot to told Clara that I can't read maps and I didn't bring any compass with me for this trip since I figure that it would be a short and easy one, just a simple food gathering in a nearby place.

The pathways to reach her usual food gathering place is damn complex it really confuses me how she's able to traverse her way through these paths. If I recall, I've already went back and forth around the same place for so many times already.

What am I going to do know? I wandered aimlessly around the forest, having no weapon to guard against the monsters that could appear anytime, I just given up any kinds of hope and just ran without thinking.

Uwaaa...please somebody help me...I want to get outta this forest soon.

"The spirit of the forest calls for you, o brave young adventurer."

W-whose voice is it?

I instinctively followed the direction of the voice, thinking this might be my only chance to survive in this dangerous environment.

"The spirit of the forest calls for you, o brave young adventurer."

After following the direction of the voice, which echoes in a lengthy duration...I found myself going towards a brighter area of the forest. Alright, it seems I will finally find the way here...

"Ooops....gyaaaaahhh!! Damn, that hurts"

It seems I've tripped over something that feels like a log...lying flat face-down the grounds. I tried standing up, scrubbing the dusty dirt on my pants and clothing, my eyes were glued on the incredibly vibrant spectacle before me. A building that looks exactly like how that novel describes, it's a work of a really well-planned brick formation. With the brilliant composition of finest quality materials used on creating this towering skyscraper, enormous in size and height...this seems to be the building that challenges the heavens, a masterpiece of brickwork on the pinnacle of conventional architectural design.

Finally satisfied looking at the beautifully crafted structure, I looked around the area and realized that I already got out the depths of this dangerous forest...safely arriving in a clearing area surrounded by thick overgrown trees. Ouch, the pain from tripping over that log hurts a whole lot. I sat myself down the nearby rock and rolled my pants up, massaging the injured section until the pain finally subsides.

It might take a long while to heal the pain. In addition of that, my ribs were also injured from the fall earlier...it's quite a heavy one considering the grassy areas around here weren't thick enough to absorb some of the impact between me and the hard terrains.

"Here's a lotion for your injuries, young man." this time a somewhat hoarse and heavy voice calls out to me, I raised my face to see an old man with a tough build his hair has a mixture of black and grey colors, he's probably in his mid 50's. His beard and mustache were formed neatly, from a glance his appearance looks like a veteran cowboy with his stylish leather jacket and durable jeans made from a thick animal hide.

"I'm fine really, gramps." at a second thought the injuries doesn't seem that bad at all to need a healing lotion like that, I just have to massage it and it would be fine quickly. As I tried to stood up and stretch my body around the gramps stopped me with such force with the palm of his hand...

"No-no-no, don't try to stand up yet...your knees are bleeding. Here, let me disinfect the wound first..." he took out a handkerchief and poured some of the lotion to it, then he touched the parts that's being poured with the lotion on the parts in which my knee had been scrapped, I see that the wounds weren't that deep but...

"AAAAAAHHHHH!!!" I screamed on top of my voice as the lotion-coated handkerchief comes in contact with my bleeding skin. Why does it hurts a lot when the scrapped parts aren't that deep?

"Let me explain to you because you seem to be unfamiliar with the ecology of this land. Since young people like yourself tend to be reckless about their surroundings, listen up carefully." as he said this, he pulled out another handkerchief from his pocket and did the same thing, pouring out the lotion towards it and placed it against my skin...then after a while the handkerchief gets quickly drenched with a foul-smelling liquid, the old men started putting on his pair of gloves quickly. Lifting up the two handkerchiefs and swiftly thrown it towards the faraway ground.

To my surprise, the handkerchief starts burning up all of sudden as it hits the ground, a great firestorm comes before our eyes but it's swiftly blown away by the breeze. How could a slow breeze like that just doused the fire away? I just can't understand it.

"You see lad, bleeding yourself over stupid things like that is one of the worst things to happen in this forest. In the air around this area, there's a saturated concentration of dangerous bacteria around which invades us humans through our open wounds. They multiplies really quickly and if we're too late on stopping its growth, the muscle joints in the infected area will stop to function and that place will soon become a breeding ground for that monstrosity. Meaning we have to amputate this part before it spreads..."

His expression turns damn serious while he proceeds with his lengthy explanation, my body trembles in fright when he start telling me about this pathogenic bacteria phenomenon...

"Hiiii...please stop gramps, it's too scary...I don't want to get my feet amputated."

Realizing me being enveloped in fear, he gently pats my head and changed his tone into something gentle...although its also a bit hoarse sounding like his usual voice.

"You scaredy-cat boy, there's no need to amputate your feet...there look, you're fine now." he points out towards my knee to show me that the bleeding has stopped and the wounds has closed down, though the pain from before is still apparent.

"There's still a bruise on my ribs..."

"No sweat lad, we'll just have to go to my place...only a short walk away. There's a lot of healing lotions and bandages. Okay go rest your hand on my shoulders or back, I'll help you walk your way through."

I stood up and rest my hand on his back as told, he's actually taller than me in addition of having a strong build and physique which is hard like metal. Both of us walked towards a medium-sized cabin on the other clearing just beside the skyscraper tower.



"There...there, this much should be enough." gramps has done bandaging the bruised parts of my torso, he's done it so skillfully that I don't feel the pain anymore on my ribs. I could also move a bit more without support, the lotion seems to be speeding up the recovery of my wounds in addition of completely killing the monstrous bacteria.

"Thanks a lot, gramps. I don't know what will happen if you weren't there at that time..."

Knowing there's such a dangerous thing floating around in the atmosphere, I felt really fortunate that coincidentally, there's a savior nearby when I was tangled up in an invisible danger.

"Whoa, don't sweat it. And ye don't hafta call me gramps, my name's Regulus and all the young folks call me that. What's your name, young lad?"

"My name's Kirk, sir. Sorry I can't call elderly people by their names."

He pats my head again, this time he put some power to it, and gave me such broad smile it shows his whole teeth.

"Ya know kid, ye remind me o' my little grandson. He's really modest just like ye. Speaking o' which, what brings you here into such an obscured place Kirk?"

"To tell you the truth I'm seeking for an item called 'Seeds of Knowledge' while traveling from my hometown to here, I also have a partner with me but we've got separated recently while I'm getting lost in this forest just now. And then---"

"H-hold on...did you just say Seeds of Knowledge? It's located inside this magnificent tower, though I must warn you...the adventures inside that place are extremely dangerous. Are you still willing to take this opportunity even with such grave risks?"

"I don't know myself, though I feel that there's no turning back anymore by the time I reached this point."

"Then I would hold you back any longer, go forth and conquer that place, Kirk. May you have best of luck during your endeavor."



He bids me farewell and I slowly walked in front of this building's entrance. Strengthening my resolve, I finally made my way inside it. What kind of dangerous adventures that awaits me, to the point it made the old man upset?

I will probably find out soon enough

"I must warn you...the adventures inside that place are extremely dangerous. Are you still willing to take this opportunity even with such grave risks?" the words said by Old Man Regulus just some moments ago echoes inside my head, am I really doing the right thing by just barging inside this place recklessly? I don't know myself, hopefully by continuing on this adventure towards the end will eventually lead me to the righteous answer.

Damn, I forgot to bring my backpack containing all the supplies I need...and that novel, I don't remember the contents word by word but I can tell that I'm starting to get inside the shoes of this adventurer protagonist.

Before my sight there lies only a view of pitch black darkness. Walking a straight path for several minutes, I still haven't seen any light coming out. Huh, is it really everlasting darkness I'm experiencing, or is my eyes just trying to play tricks on me? Hold on, my instinct tells me to think outside the box...just like what Carla said in the past. If you can't think outside your usual pattern and habit on a crucial time...you'll be considered a dead man the moment you're alone, the world of adventurers are really harsh but I must say that adventuring with Carla is really fun despite all the hardship.

No, it's not the time to be reminiscing about this stuff like I'm nearing my own death! Wait, I felt some metallic object on my jacket's pocket. Taking out that object with my right and, I felt the structure of it...the object's material definitely made from Aluminum / Iron alloys with an extra Stainless Steel coating in order to prevent rust. Circling my fingers around the edges, it gives me the clue that it's shaped like a small rectangular the surface was divided about one-third from the other end by some light metal...hmm...it must be a lighter, just what I needed at this stressful moment, and the dividing points must represent the tray's opening point.

Rotating the lighter with my fingers, now my thumb gets placed against the tray sides with my hand holding it. Utilizing a gentle movement, I made an upward stroke against it and a fancy clicking sound of the tray opening was made. This is a really classy lighter, though I don't smoke so I haven't had some intention of using it often. And for daily ignition stuff there's some portable torch that could also serve as a flamethrower...great for smoking off those Trent and other plant monsters. It's Solar-Powered so we refrain to use it at night to light our bonfires to keep most enemies away when we're sleeping.

Hmm let's see, where's the fire gear? I traced my hands along the surface which got it's tray opened up earlier and my thumb finally touched something that kinda rolls a bit if you slowly and gently moved your finger in it, this must be the switch. I moved the lighter as far as possible from my face, my thumbs on the gear and the rest of the hand holding it to stay below the dividing point. Then with a touch from my thumb, moving the gear down with a swift motion, a flicking sound was made and the fire which I just ignited finally comes to my view.

But why is the rest of the surroundings still pitch black? It defies the law of science and even simple logic! There must be something weird going on since this world has many absurd fantasy elements. Stepping forward a few steps, I swung the burning lighter downwards...now there's something burning in front of me and all of sudden, a bright scenery unfolds before me.

"Awww...hot...hot...hot!"

Did I just hear a cute voice just now? It's somewhat high-pitched, I guess that voice belongs to a girl. Still keeping my eyes close from the sudden exposure of light, I let myself relax for a bit, letting itself adjust to the new environment. Then as I opened up my eyes...



The feel is totally different in here, it feels like I've been warped to another dimension. What lies beyond me is a forest surrounded by brilliant light spheres floating around the trees, some of it passed through my body...leaving me with a feel of warmth and happiness. Currently I'm standing upon a clearing amidst the forested area, it seems like I just heard something burning up and someone's screaming...

Did my ears also played tricks on me? Wait, I could feel someone's presence just around here. There's some voices of few girls talking here, I tried to search where the voice is coming from...

"Uhhh...how did that man figured out my genius trick...he burned me down, so mean.."

"That's what you get for staring too close towards that handsome beast of a man."

"Yeah yeah, you should give up falling in love with a human. We're meant to serve our godmother for eternity...not as bad as it sounds since we can have fun all we want, tee-hee!"

Uh, why does they pick such an obvious place to hide? They're talking right in front of me! There's some three girls with weird hair colors and shiny pair of wings chatting on some weird topic that I don't understand at all...yes they're really cute but where's the owner of that voice I heard earlier?

Hmm...it must be this girl.

"Hey miss." I pointed out my finger towards the fairy girl who's standing in the middle of these group of girls. She's really tall for a fairy, probably about the same height as an adult woman...her two friends' height are just the same as her chest, they look like a teenager with youthful looks...this woman also had a really innocent appearance that seems totally unreal to my sight.

"Y-you're that man from...n-no...have we ever meet before?" her cute voice rings like a melody to my ears, even while screaming. For a while I stared at her whole appearance, her silver hair mixed with glittering glow of assorted colors on it...her dark grey eyes that reflects the color of rainbow.

Most of all, she's well endowed...so yeah...I think the thin silk clothing really brought out her childlike charm about.

"I doubt so, though I seem to heard that...beautiful voice just earlier. Never would I've thought that the owner of this voice would be so...Loli-licious."

Oh darn it, did I just said the wrong word?

"Thank you, sir. Although I don't understand what you mean by...what you say...Lily-li...no...I don't like doing that stuff with other girl..."

Hey...hey...hey, what do you mean by Lily-Licious either? I don't understand it at all!

"..." yeah whatever, I can't get my mouth to say another word.

"Rose, m-my name. S-s-s...I hope we'll meet again...now i must go." stuttering about and trying to cover her adorable blushing face, she bids me a farewell so shortly after we just met. Speak of the devil, it seems like something was burnt up...but which object?

FLASH!

"Arrggghhh!" suddenly, a pillar of light unravels from the ground, enveloping the three fairies in the form of a circle. The next moment a 'SWOOSH' sound was formed and they disappeared into thin air along with the light.

What the heck was that? I couldn't even feel their presence anymore!

"FIRST QUEST - Trial of Fairies Successfully Completed, reward : 500 Gold."

An eerie voice that sounds almost robotic echoes outta nowhere, so this adventure is going to be like some RPG game eh? This will be interesting, now let's explore this forest with light spheres...all I have just now was my adventurer instinct to guide me.

Let's keep going. Rose, eh? It's a befitting name for her beautiful appearance, I had a feeling that I'm going to meet up with her again soon.

My mind gets filled with thoughts about Rose during my ways of exploring this forest, her alluring beauty envelops my entire mind with disorganized imaginations about being in a garden filled with beautiful flowers. Kind of inspire me to write the most cheesy love story with embarrassingly stupid lines.

I also have many questions in mind : what the heck were the fairies doing in that clearing? Surely it's a wonder how did I actually end up in a place like this. There must be someone who sets up a kind of illusion-generator mechanism to mislead the adventurers from getting closer towards their respective goals.

From the clearing there's only one way out, which is the road I'm taking right now. If the pitch blackness was only a spell meant to blind my path, so I would end up in an unknown place devoid of any clues, why does this forest road feels much different than the ones I walked out earlier? That dark tunnel has a flooring with structure similar to dungeon floors, got that assumption based on the hardness of the rocky floor brushing against my durable animal-hide boots.

"So I just completed my first quest without ever knowing what it is...heh." I giggled in disbelief, reminiscing what happened just earlier. Talking out loud in the middle of forest when there's absolutely no one around except of some enchanting spheres of light beside me. I just followed where are they heading for, and out of curiosity I caught some of the lights and quickly let them go shortly after. It interests me how am I able to hold a sphere of light in my hands, how are they supposed to consist of visible energy particles concentrated in a palm-sized sphere.

The only time I've seen those spheres was during the period of Burning Phoenix Festival held in Amarok. The Indians gathered various light spheres of assorted sizes, shapes, and colors from the nature, concentrating it all towards a summoning circle carved with complex symbols and diagrams that kinda represent some anagram of a certain mythological theme.

So I just wondered, did they currently have a summoning ritual nearby? In that case I should hurry up and go there. Many people would be gathering around and hopefully I could find some valuable information regarding this place and how to get myself through it.

Burrrpp...

"Shit, I've gotta get some grub soon. Damn, although I just ate earlier..."

I don't know how many hours had passed since then, Carla must be worried about me for disappearing so long. Taking a closer look on the forest, there's no edible stuff that I could find within my sight. Wait a minute, I think I did put some food inside my jackets' pocket...

Voila, I peered into another one of my pockets and found a chocolate bar, still neatly wrapped. Yum yum, nothing beats a delicious treat during my time of hunger, though I must resupply my inventory with nutritious foods soon.



"DAMN IT, I'M SO BORED OF WALKING FOR SO LONG!" venting my frustration, I screamed out loud in the forest and kicked the nearby tree stump with all my might. Ouch, damn that kind of hurt...it's much better because I kicked it with the sides of my feet rather than the front.

THUD!

The sound I'm hearing comes from the stump, sure this one's different from the sound when my feet kicks it. A loud banging sound comes forth and the stump opens up, there seems to be someone climbing the ladder towards the surface.

"Yawn...Estrella, please don't wake me up so early...huh?" an elf girl comes out from the hole, she wore green clothing, from her hoody jacket, leather pants, though her thin shoes has a brown color. She had a refreshing-to-look orange hair, being tied back forming a cute ponytail, with lush green eyes that brings about the presence of a forest when I stared at those gems. And it seems she's rather flat for a girl...

"Good...morning?" awkwardly waving my hands towards her when she's pretty close to me. I also formed a stiff smile because of this feeling of guilt of disturbing her...wah I feel so lucky being able to meet many cute girls during my adventures!

"Morning mister, can you please not stare at me like that...it's disgusting."

"Ahahaha...sorry sorry..." I placed my hands on my head and started rubbing it to hide my feeling of embarrassment.

"No it's okay being a pervert too, but I'm a guy you know. Why are you drooling over some other guy, mister? Could it be that you..."

Seriously, 'she' is a guy? I can't believe it, how can someone this cute is actually a guy!

"S-S-SERIOUSLY? I thought you're really a girl when I saw you the first time!"

"What are you saying, I'm a girl?" then he took out a hand mirror from his pocket and stared at his own reflection, shortly after he turned towards me with a heavy blush "I...I've never seen a cute girl staring at me so close..."

This guy...he really enjoys his feminine appearance eh, I wonder how much has he abused that kind of appeal.

"I KNOW IT, you're a friggin narcisist. Okay jokes aside I'm kinda lost in this place so can you give me directions to the nearby town?"

"Sir...I-it's not like I like fantasizing about my appearance or anything..."

Answer my question will ya...



After getting him to sober up from his delusion, I tried asking him a few times again about the means on getting to the city until he finally agreed...

"Ah sorry about that, since I'm also going to the city for some errands, feel free to accompany me in case something went amiss. You look like a tough one, mister."

"Nah, I don't really fight except for protecting myself and those in need." trying to act cool, I decided to play it off by making a solemn posture while saying cool words.

"Whoa you're so cool mister, I bet you are popular with girls! By the way, my name's Lucian and if you got a chance to, please introduce me to one of the girls you know...umm...I want to find a girlfriend soon...it's really lonely without cute girls to cheer you up."

Whoa, so he really got desperate and start fantasizing about his feminine appearance because he's so damn lonely without much contact with girls.

"Nah, I know that feeling to much...to tell you the truth I'm not popular with girls at all since I used to be an errand boy, what kind a girl finds an errand boy cool? They all want a boyfriend who's a hunter, warrior, and lastly..adventurer. Well, even as an adventurer girls tend to avoid me hahaha."

Lucian eh, the name had a somewhat masculine and childish feel mixed to it. He eyes me with interest then starts talking again with consoling words.

"That doesn't matter sir, someday you'll find your special person too. Ah, time's running out...let's get going."

"Uh, okay. Lead the way...Lucian."

So, me and this tempting Trap went for the nearest city around here. I wonder what kind of stuff do they have here, I'll definitely find out soon enough.

Going through this forest along with the light spheres floating around the air, I obsessionally took a brief glance at my companion Lucian who's walking beside me. He seems to be going for an errand today towards the nearby city, and since I'm also heading out the same way he finally agreed for me to tag along. Sometimes I forgot that he's actually a guy given that I'm actually...kinda mesmerized by his girlish appearance, that green-colored forest elf clothing made it even more irresistible.

"He's a guy...he's a guy..." that's the word I muttered a lot of times during my travel, it's really unbearable that I almost collapsed to the ground when we reached the city gates.

The city entrance has the letters 'Avalon' carved on the gate's entrance. Taking a brief glance from outside it, the city seems to be populated with plantations too just like any other elven cities. But something about this city seems a bit different, the spiritual energy in this place really overwhelms me...

"We're finally here, Mister. Here's Avalon, Ancient City of the Elves."

"Uhh...yeah...I see." I was too engrossed on staring at his face that I kind of let his words flow by through my ears. Even more that he's finally taken of his hood, revealing a really long blond hair that shines beautifully like gold.

"Sir?" he took a glance from below me with enticing eyes...damn it, must not look below. Okay there, I'm a straight man...he's a guy and I'm not into guys, basically I'm going to tell you that I don't have a homosexual side in me...

But he's so cute damn it.

"I see both of you get along well." a wise-looking old man with an unusually natural perverted look in his face waves toward us while standing beside the gate.

"Elder!" averting his glance from me, Lucian waves back at the old man which seems to be the head honcho...but this city is so big...there might be several leaders right over there.

"Ah it's you I see, running errands again for Estrella? And who might be this fine-looking young man, is he going to apply for the Royal Guard position? He's not too shabby to say the least." the old man eyes me with curiosity, perhaps he's trying to judge the extent of my abilities. Well I'm only just a simple idiot who happens to be very lucky because I got such a reliable partner like Carla during my adventures.

"Nope gramps, I'm just some adventurer who got lost along the way."

"Oho, so that's how it is! Adventurers are more than welcome for me, I used to be one long time ago...ah lots of sweet memories. Oh yeah Lucian, you may go now...thanks for bringing this man to us."

Us? Did he meant that there's many more people like him in this big city?

"I'll be going then Elder, take care." the delicious Elf Trap runs through the entrance with an innocent smile on his face...meanwhile why am I ended up with an old geezer like this instead of a cute elf?

"If you scrutinize even further by looking at my ears, you can tell that I'm not an elf, just a human like you. How about we go inside the city for a change, I'll show you a sanctuary for adventurers right over!"

Man, why should I scrutinize the face of some old man like you, pops? Though I'll make do if you brought some cute girl over.

"Fine...fine, lead the way then." I think there will be more eye candies by the time I get to the place. Wow, I want some female adventurers in bunny costumes hahahahaha...



Avalon, the ancient city of the elves. In the streets you can see various kinds of elves...many of them are really cute that you'll never get tired of looking at them. Even I thought that some of the elven males here are androgynous...no there's a lot of potential Trap Elves in here! Walking down this sunny street gives me a really refreshing feel with abundance of the greeneries around.

The air is so revitalizing to the body and soul, and looking at the townspeople here makes my heart go HNNNGGGG because they're really adorable. Honestly I did enjoy taking rounds around this city district, the elder told me there's many districts in this big city and I really want to went through all these some other time!

"You're a healthy fellow, Mr. Adventurer."

I know, and please don't ruin my glorious moment with your punchline Mr. Elder...

"Ahaha, yeah I suppose. This is such a lively city isn't it?"

"Oh don't play dumb with me, I know lots of places where they offer those kinds of 'eye-candy' services...as a regular patron people even gave me a huge discount when I enter those places...so how's it? Huhuhuhuhu..."

SMACK!

"Cut some slack will ya, you perverted geezer." a well-endowed lady with a brownish hair tied back just landed a chop on the elder's head. The strike seems powerful as the elder grimaces in pain while holding his head while crouching.

Hmm...she's really beautiful and has a sexy body...though her fierce disposition just now reminds me of Carla. This girl also has a really tomboyish manner as I observed her actions while she's reprimanding the elder. Noticing my presence while taking a slight glance around her surroundings, she turned her back around and approaches me while giving a bright, carefree smile.

"Oi, so you're the adventurer that Lucian mentioned about? He gets all fidgety when speaking about you...saying 'ah he's so cool' whatsoever. Now that I think about it, you're one sexy beast ain't ya pardner?" she pats my shoulder a few times while she talked, just like an older sister patting her younger bro. Her shapely yet tough build are really interesting to feast my eyes on...and I quickly averted my sight from her after a brief glance, fearing that I will get beat off...

"I-uhh...yea."

"Oh by the way, I don't mind you staring at my body like that...you're pretty handsome so I let ya pass for now. So you must be Kirk huh, my name's Estrella...nice to meet you." she offered a handshake to me and I gladly accepted it, her handshake is filled with vigorous energy that awakens a dormant part of my desire to adventure...she must be an experienced adventurer to say the least.

"She's my granddaughter, isn't she a fine lady? While I'm retired for now she currently holds the position as the Guildmaster of this district, one of the youngest ones in our family's history to top it off. Meanwhile she and Lucian are..."

"Cut it out, you old geezer. I'm not into younger men, besides it's not appropriate to call him a boy considering his really girlish appearance you know.."

After a series of playful moments between the grandpa and his granddaughter, the Elder comes inside a large house building with few towers in the rooftops.

"This is our guild." she points out towards the building I'm looking right now "Please come in, we'll give you tons of helpful clues to aid in your adventures."

"I'll gladly take in your offer Ms. Estrella."

"Just Stella is fine, and make yourselves at home...Kirk."

I followed her inside the building, filled with curiosity. At least the first steps on uncovering the mysteries of this world will be revealed.

A thick scent of aromatic cappuccino fills up the lounge where I'm sitting out, this guildhouse has a really nice interior just like in these modern coffee shops. Walls coated with light-brownish-tone of maple wood, with various decorations like medieval-styled paintings, sculpted animal heads, various gun models, I don't know if they were just models or an actual gun. On some of these models I could see the famous Mauser and Remington shotguns, in addition of the renowned Desert Eagle and Dragunov Sniper.

"I guess the owner is not too fond of auto or semi-auto weapons eh?" scanning the walls around me with my eyes, I took a brief glance towards Estrella who's sitting on the sofa across me, separated by a hardwood table with artistic wooden carving atop of it.

"There's the AK models right on another corner of this building, particularly grandpa's room. What owner are you talking about anyway? This guild is owned by my family to say the least." reaching out elegantly to the table, she took out the cup of coffee along with its tray, slowly bringing up the cup closer to her mouth. Before taking in the first sip, she inhaled the strong smell of Arabica beans with a faint seasoning of Almond cream and sweet, skimmed milk.

I know this taste since I've ordered this flavor before, Cafe' Au Lait. With the 1:1 ratio between the coffee and milk, differing from my bitter-but-extravagant tasting single shot espresso, no cream, nor sugar whether its brown, white, or corn-based. Meanwhile, I already downed my share of coffee while she's still enjoying her own, still half-filled to this point. She must be quite a connoisseur when it comes to enjoying her treat.

"Ah I see. The coffee here is great, I love tasting many different kinds other than Cafe' Latte. On the last one I came to I ordered that one, man it's too sweet! They didn't understand about not putting more than one tablepsoon of sugar did they? Ha! What a trauma...I swore I'm lucky not to get diabetes from it..."

"Hahahaha...you seem to be quite enthusiastic while talking about coffee, Kirk."

"You bet I am, it's been a routine for me to visit each one of these places during my adventure, oh boy it offers such a relaxing time."



So different from way back

"YOU GOOD FOR NOTHING SON, GET UP AND WORK, YOU LAZY PIG!"

Maybe I'm not their real son after all, and they all just seem to diss me because I'm stupid, but I have to strongly disagree with them about the lazy part. I've worked ten times as hard compared to my older brothers who just seem to dawdle around, and yet what did I get? When that point goes across, I soon lost my cool about a year ago, starting to take a closer look on whatever guns I can find.

Someday I might use them to murder my own family, all of them. They're just ridiculously evil bastards who deserved their places in rotten graves. Thanks to all of your slave-driving that I've grown big and strong, to the point it brought me to the point of pity about rising my fist to beat down their withered fat asses. Never had I tasted a single slice of meat other than the day before I left with Carla, no I didn't ate the meat at all.

Only the delicious Potato Soup, that's probably the only reason I kept staying here and work as long as I couldn't go on by my own. Even if vegetable dishes the only thing I ate, and they're mostly untouched leftovers...they did taste great. Due to this nutritious meals I've grown healthy and vigorous enough for adventuring...should I actually thank them or diss them towards the end after all?

Probably neither of those.

When did the first time I ever ate a slice of meat? Possibly at the first town I stopped with Carla, on one of the restaurants here.

It was a meat dumpling. Truly delicious, though I still prefer the vegetables over that.



Speaking of meats, a scent of grilled steaks came in wafting from somewhere, followed by two pairs of footsteps coming inside the building. One of them was loud with a vigorous feel in it, and the other was quite serene. Estrella quickly downed her cup of coffee in one go, grinning mischievously at me for the reason I didn't know, there she goes to welcoming two men standing in the doorway near the guest lounge.

"Good afternoon lady, we're currently having some barbecue on the front yards. Feel free to join in will ya." sounds of heavy armor rustling echoes throughout the building as this person came closer to her.

"I'm not hungry, perhaps our new guest would like to join you?"

A big man with black, spiky hair wearing a silver armor plating and thick leather pants came into clear view. With a piercing glance he looks back and forth between me and Estrella "So this is the new guy Lucian's talkin'..." he said again, putting his palm on the chin while doing so, scrutinizing me from head to toe. "Doesn't look too shabby he is...eh, nice too meet you sir Kirk.."

"Err...nice too meet you too...uh..I pass, I'm kind of vegetarian myself."

"...though it seems you might need some guidance, feel free to consult me whenever I'm available, ha!" kind of ignoring what I said earlier, he continues on his previous sentence and quickly goes back outside.

Taking a look at his normal ear, I could assume that he's human just like Estrella.

While I'm a bit distracted from noticing the other man who walked in, I finally had the chance to take a closer look at the other person while the big armored man walks away.

"He might not look like it, but he's actually shy towards strangers...not to mention, a bit delicate. By the way his name's Leon." with a somewhat soft, composed voice, an elf about the same as my height came into view. He wore a simplistic explorer's outfit with those jacket containing lots of pockets. His shoulder-length blond hair kind of reminds me of someone...

"Ah, pleasure to meet you, my name's Kirk."

It looks like I'm able to hold a decent conversation with this man, he seem to emit a friendly aura.

"Kirk, this is Elrond and he's an expert about exploration and adventuring in general. You could probably learn a lot of things from him."

"That's an overstatement, Stella. And even if gramps said to do so, it's all up to him whether he'll take the guidance or not."

"G-gladly sir! I'll take what it gets to become a better adventurer." hurriedly cutting up their conversation, I find myself being driven towards this awkward moment. It all happens so fast.

"Save the lengthy chatter for later on. Okay my name's Elrond and let's go outside the city again...we're in a dire need to unleash your potentials as an adventurer, there's no time left to spare. Ask no more questions, the answer will came up to you in time."



We went towards the forest where I came from. The same clearing where I first ended up, though for some reason...there's something amiss within this place.

"And now, let's begin the basic tutorial." said Elrond with a calm tone

This isn't going to be that easy, so I thought.

Unlocking my potentials as an adventurer? I don't think that there's anything special I had, but let's just wait and see what happens.

"First things first, I don't want you to be clueless on what kind of glimmering potentials you might have, mister. We have things called skills and feats which might aid us during our adventures. Let me give you a simple explanation, explorers rely on their sight in order to spot enemies and traps lying nearby. And speaking of Traps, I'm not talking about Lucian."

In this peaceful clearing filled with flocks of light spheres closing in on us, Elrond the Explorer puffs his chest with pride as he explains the mechanisms of our adventure. Speaking of which I wonder how is he related to the 'delicious trap' Lucian? Does it involve some kind of evil empire that plots to purge this entire world from...mischievous spoons? This was a morbid mystery I can't comprehend nonetheless.

"By the way sir, did you by any chance look good when you're crossdressing?" come to think of it, sir Elrond also looks really girly and in addition of his kind of high-pitched and soft, mellow voice. Though his masculine attire along with his boisterous way of speaking kinda throws me off from this original assumption about him being a potential Trap.

"YES OF COURSE! No no no no...I mean...HEY YOU STOP MAKING ME IMAGINING WEIRD THINGS. Now let's see how these skills and feats will work." after yelling at me with the mixture of embarrassment and anger, he throws out a stone in a random spot, and suddenly a greenish fire sparks from the ground, burning the stone into cradles. The fire itself looks so violent, it makes my feet tremble just by standing around.

"Guuuhhh..." kinda unrelated, but if you ask about my appearance I look just like some ordinary guy. More on the masculine site as I had lots of testosterone running through my veins, lastly I don't think I will do any good at crossdressing.

"And about your type Mr. Kirk, I think you will do pretty well if you shaved that stubble and cleaning it up. I might have some appropriate dress you could use on a regular basis, but since your physique is pretty masculine...there's probably a reason enough not to do it instead. You see, not everyone has a 'Feat' for crossdressing mwahahahahaha..."

By the way, sir Elrond seems really experienced about this huh.

"Sir, is this basic tutorial about dressing up in women outfit? Does it offer you some camouflage as the monsters won't tend to harm women..."

Not the perverted ones though, I really wonder whether this kind of tactic would be effective on warding these beastful creatures.

"Arrgghhhh...no no no! We're talking about how to get around these traps, and not that kind of traps! Anyway, what did you see after I set off that Deadly Fire Trap?"

"Honestly speaking, I did not see anything besides the fire itself. Maybe some images of a half-dressed girl in it, and that angle was top notch."

Sir Elrond cocks his head, and then scribbled on his notebook that he took from one of his pockets "Let's see then, mister Kirk Thompson, you have a 'Dirty Mind' which is certainly a feat."

Dirty mind eh?

"Whoa thank you sir, I felt really flattered by your comp-"

"THAT WASN'T A COMPLIMENT YOU FOOL! But yeah I'm really impressed about your ability on being so carefree and imagining perverted things while we're on a dangerous place like this."

What kind of dangerous place? This just seem like a peaceful clearing with random Traps scattered around.

"Hahahahaha, I also wondered about that too. There's also a rotten coconut between that monkey's thighs by the way." I pointed out towards a weird scenery I came across while scanning around the environment. "Lucian, that's a bold way to say that you're hung like a horse. I don't want to see you get hanged ya hear me!" I wonder how did I suspect the monkey as the cute Lucian, but certainly it is pretty tall for a monkey.

"Yikes, you got him, mister Kirk. That's certainly a superb observation within this environment when camouflaging appears to be easy enough in order to fool the eyes of even an experienced explorer."

"Nah, sir. It's pretty obvious enough that you got a phobia for seeing something that looks like a ballsack."

"Y-YOU SAID IT! YOU SAID IT! I got a major turn-off for crude words, mind your mouth, ya knave."

And I wasn't even trying to turn you on, sire. Or should I say missus, do you want me to turn you on instead, like a lightbulb by shoving my electric taser down your armpits? Nah I don't want to make this noble elf angry. It's my upbringing as a dirty peasant that I tend to spout out some crude words while I'm in my easygoing state.

"And that monkey's obviously not Lucian, sire. I think from my first meetings, that the monkey's movement was not delicate and graceful like he is." ignoring his previous remark, I went on and mentioned his blunder. He can't even differentiate between a graceful elf and a monkey, what a dud master explorer he is!

"Okay okay you got me mister Kirk. You certainly had much exceeded my expectations, and now onto the next phase of this tutorial..."

Wait there's more of it? I want to get back to the guild as soon as possible because I want to see Ms. Estrella's smile. Though sir Elrond also looks feminine, my orientation is still normal. And it's not good either to look at Lucian even though his personality is submissive and he looks delicate as a maiden.

But sometimes deep in my heart there's a saying

"Admit it Kirk, you're a homosexual for beautiful guys on your peculiar taste."

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I should watch out for these bunch of elves if I still wanted to retain my sanity.



Uh, why are we back to the guild? Sir Elrond just said that he had some matters to do himself. But most likely as he's just lazy on tutoring me I think.

"You're already experienced to the point you can take care of yourself, no need to dug up your potentials anymore. Until we meet again mister Kirk."

It's only been about an hour and a bit more since I got outside the city with Elrond. Though it's already time enough for a late afternoon lunch, judging by the current clock at the guild. Miss Estrella bought a tray filled with delicious looking sandwiches that makes my hunger pangs escalate. Meanwhile, Lucian, who's sitting beside me, back from his errand on working in this guild's garden, he's also drooling at the delicious sandwich...wait, he must be looking at someplace else.

"Miss Estrella, your rack is so wonderful."

"BURF!" I spat out the water I'm currently drinking at the table. Stella doesn't really bother about it though, yeah..I'm going to refer to her as Stella from now on because she's also looks about the same age as me, a bit older though to be honest, but that might made her upset.

"Hush! A girl shouldn't be saying such things, even more, a delicate looking one like you..." nice, Stella! Lucian's a girl alright...yup?

"Huuuu...but I'm a boy..." no please don't add that word again, just let me convince myself that you're actually a girl...come on...come on...

Needless to say we enjoyed the meal alot, the sandwiches was really delicious and I ate about three of them. Lucian and Stella gazes at me in amazement, saying 'muscular men does ate a lot aren't they'.

By the way, Stella ate about five of them, and Lucian ate four. So there you have it.

It's pretty strange how sir Elrond already deem me worthy as an adventurer by just a brief observation. I probably should ask his reasoning behind it when I see him again.

"Alright then Stella, I'm going for a short walk outside for a bit. It's not good just to sit there and lay around after you ate." finishing up the last of my last sandwich, I rose up from my seat, leaving Lucian and Stella, both of them still looks completely engrossed in gurgling down their milkshakes.

Staring at both of them made me giggle a bit because they looked like a pair of homely sisters, that also contributes the factor that Lucian really looks like a girl. As I start walking towards the entrance, Lucian stood up and followed me, Stella also did the same too. Though I didn't felt any intention of her leaving this place at all.

"I'm going too." shyly tugging the hem of my jacket with his slender hands, Lucian's cheeks turned cherry red which kinda gives me a mixture of being creeped out, because he's actually a guy and he surprisingly acts girly. Though at some other aspects I'm completely okay with it because he kinda gives me the vibe of a nice younger brother.

"H-hey, finish your milkshake first, I won't be getting far away from the guild."

Ah, my hand suddenly went up to pat his head, brushing against his golden hair. A silky soft feeling runs through my hands, gliding smoothly against the hair surface. There he gently took my hand and raised it, with a determined expression saying 'I'm not a kid anymore'. His lips formed an energetic smile, unfolding another mysterious side of his.

"I'm full already, besides miss Stella could finish two of these without any problem, ain't it right miss?"

Stella simply gave us a light smile. And then she went back to her seat, starting to nibble on both milkshakes at once. It turns out that due to sudden burst of utter curiosity, Lucian skips ahead of me towards the entrance, leaving me out alone with Stella in this dining room. An awkward feeling rose up from my heart while staring at her beauty...until she raised her face a bit to meet my gaze and spoke

"Don't worry Kirk, I'm sure Lucian swing both ways!" with her signature thumbs up, she also gave me a mischievous smile that most likely, beckons an insidious intent.

"HEY! I'M STILL NORMAL!"

I lied. Deep down inside I might had a homosexual side for beautiful guys, though I really really hate to admit it because my tsundere side is catching up. Oi, what's up with that tsundere thingy anyway? This start making less sense at all.

Ignoring all these annoying phrases she'd thrown at me that mostly involving boys' love, I think she might be a potential Fujoshi, which is a slang for a girl who's really crazed about guy-on-guy thingy. Then how would it turn out if she reads a guy-on-guy-on-guy-on-guy-on-guy-on-sheep theme? Will she still be a Fujoshi or will she grew a fascination for sheeps instead? For your information, it's about a casual story about several guys who manages a ranch filled with sheeps, many handsome young guys on there but I'm not interested at all since they look nothing like a girl.

Uhhhh...I gotta start finding a clue how to cure this obsession with Traps and other potential Traps. But as one of my friends said to me.

"When you've already fell down into it, there's absolutely NO WAY OUT."

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

"I'm still normal...I still liked girls...ugghhhh..."

And so on I kept muttering these words in a whisper as I walked through the dining room, ignoring Stella's jibba-jabba, and then found Lucian at the entrance. The spectacle of him playing with his hair, which is tied back in ponytails, instantaneously made me affix my attention to it.

"Shall we go then? There's a place I really wanna show you, Mr. Kirk..." saying this, he took off my hand with a surprisingly great strength considering his small and slender stature, running towards the streets while dragging me around.

It's quite strange how I'm the first one intending to go for a walk myself hahaha...

"Whoa...whoa...hold on a bit, and don't run after you just ate okay?"

Paying a heed to my words, he quickly stopped his tracks while we're just running a bit on the streets. He slowed down his pace but it's still fast enough to consider it as a speedy walk. Speaking of which what on earth made him rush into it so much?



"Hufff...hufff...hufff..."

I swear, all of these walking really tires me out, from going back and forth the forest with sir Elrond, and then Lucian forcefully drags me into this place. I'm outta my breath, my feet also starts getting sore.

"We're finally here, Mr. Kirk...whoa I didn't realize you're already exhausted...sorry..."

With my sight partly blurred out from fatigue, finally figured out that we've walked far enough from the guild, I saw a glimpse of a building that looks like a huge greenhouse. Lucian took me towards a wooden bench near this building's entrance and both of us sat together. Though suddenly after we just sat...

"GULP!"

"Here, some refreshing herb for you."

Lucian...what is this plant...which you just shoved towards my open mouth? I couldn't form any words, now that my mouth is now preoccupied with chewing down this herb. It gives my throat a really refreshing feel, and soon after the soreness in my feet subsides. Though the taste itself is pretty much bitter, just what you expect from herbal stuff.

"Hey this herb makes me feel much better. I wonder what kind of herb is this? I think that I've tasted some of those before..."

"Mint leaves, to be exact. Those on the outskirts of Avalon had the highest quality of these, it reduces your fatigue by half, it also made you regain a major portion of your stamina. Gave a fatigued man an Avalon mint leaf, and they will be completely invigorated."

"Really? That's really great! I think it will really come in handy for treasure hunters and miners who's digging deep down the darkness, when they were damn exhausted and still can't find a suitable place for resting."

"Ahahahaha...you're so silly Mister."

"Hey...hey...hey...how could it be silly? I'm just using my common sense!"

With a feminine way of laughing by covering his mouth with hands, he gave me a playful look, somewhat appeased with my bewildered expression.

"Let me explain it firsthand, if someone took a bit more of these regular dosage, they might quickly pass out. This revitalizing herb is truly strong you know...the dose was also determined by the user's constitution levels as well..."

What...it's also used as a knockout drug? Must persevere...damn it, my consciousness is fading. I don't know is it because of the over-dosage or some kind of placebo effect.

"H-hey, Mr. Kirk...I didn't give too much of those, right? Since you looks strong..."

"How...should...I...know...hey, I'm just kidding by the way ahahahahahaha!"

Turns out that it's just me who's over-imagining things. The herb was pretty much harmless so to say. Meanwhile, seeing Lucian's annoyed face right now really makes me happy because he looks so adorable, pouting his lips like that.

"Geez, that's why I think you're so silly." brushing his blond hair aside, he stood up from his seat, giving out a deep sigh, then turned out to face me again, this time with a serious look. "Since you still looks fine even after taking that much a dosage, please do follow me inside the Greenhouse, I have something important to tell you, sir."

"W-why? Can't we just talk here casually?" besides I like it better here with the gentle breezy wind blowing around.

Lucian then swiftly approaches my ear and whispers in a really low voice, though I can still his words clear enough.

"Don't you feel like someone's been watching us secretly, Mr. Kirk?"

What is the actual purpose of this adventure? I'm sure it wasn't just because I like adventuring, that I decided to grab ahold of this quest in order to find the Seeds of Knowledge. There has been many perilous trips done there and there in order to find out the clue about it, located deep somewhere amidst the Grimgnaw Mountains, but the only real clue I found was located on the novel that Kirk bought somewhere in the bookstores somewhere on the elven city of Roswell Dale.

Ahem, allow me to introduce myself, my name is Carla Sutherland and adventuring has become a part of my daily life since my childhood, as I've been traveling along my father since I was a little child, only for a few years until he has deem me old enough to send me into a boring school. I do skip out classes quite frequently to hole myself up inside the library, it's fortunate enough that the library itself has many assorted collections of useful books which serves as a solid foundation on my future adventures by the time I graduated from all my education at the age of 17.

This knowledge was very useful on getting clues to make my way on, for planning the travels, based on the detailed descriptions of the terrains located on this novel, while the author was describing his travel details before reaching his destined place. I originally want to read this out of interest because Kirk seems to be engrossed enough while reading this book, and soon it also got me hooked because when I read the synopsis, I could completely relate to the Protagonist and their fellows who's been searching for the similar item to grant their wishes.

If you're telling me what kind of wish is strong enough in order for us to undertake such perilous ventures, I guess both of us are just plain stupid. I don't know about Kirk, but I don't really have anything to wish for I guess, I'm just thrilled by the mere thought of a challenging adventure, and even more after I finished reading the whole novel. What kind of places will they end up to, during their progresses? What kind of mythical beasts will they encounter, or maybe they will fight them? It thrills me on how might and magic alone could conquer even the mighty dragons, there I guess it's only a fictional story, but they way it's written was so realistic, I can easily believe what's written to be true enough.

It might sound utterly ridiculous that we got there by just following a vague direction that I interpreted from the novel. But from asking the people I met along the way, I've become convinced enough that we're taking the right path. If only Kirk didn't bought that novel, I could guarantee that our venture would be much longer than expected.



"Yawn...why is he taking so long, that slowpoke idiot..."

It's been a few hours since Kirk went towards the woods in order to gather some stuff. Well, did he actually got lost inside the forest? It's really a bother for me to leave because I can leave all this valuable traveling materials alone, and I'm not strong enough to lift all these belongings too, it might also be a hassle for me to fight random monsters that came up while I'm carrying too much stuff though.

Come to think of it...I've learned this magic a long time ago, which was called the 'Inventory' spell. This one took about 2 Mana Points in order to chant it, I don't know for sure but I could somehow sense how much mana do I have right now, which is around 100, so moving all these objects would be no problem.

I also do know lot numbers of spells and used it quite often along with my precious sword, Fandango, which is shaped like a rapier. There I had this handy blade, buckled firmly into my belt.

Though I prefer not to spend my mana at all during easy fights as it's not that easy to recover it, the Ether potions could only replenish about 100 mana points, and it's really damn expensive while having a good night rest could fill up all of these, and having a power nap would replenish all of it.

So yeah, in order to use that magic while not during battles, I usually close my eyes and imagine a menu with my character portrait and it's status :

Carla Sutherland : Lv 45

HP : 5834/6650

MP : 196 / 950

Gains :

Strength : B

Dexterity : S

Agility : A

Vitality : B

Intelligence : S

Wisdom : S

Spirit : A

Luck : B

Feats :

Genius

Pathfinding

Natural Arcane Lore

etc.

(kind of too lazy to input more)

As you guys have guessed, I might came out as an overpowered character. And for the low usage of MPs, I don't really know for sure. My MP hasn't replenished at all yet...during these last few days...it might be because I haven't got a leisurely rest at all.

Let's see, he's also still in this party too...

Kirk Thompson : Lv 43

HP : 7500 / 7500

MP : 380 / 400

Gains :

Strength : A

Dexterity : A

Agility : B

Vitality : S

Intelligence : A

Wisdom : B

Spirit : S

Luck : A

Feats:

Darkvision

Alert

Critical Hit Bonus

etc.

Geez, his gains and levels are pretty much overpowered too. And it's kind of unfair how he also get experience points while all he does are just hiding behind me as I launched these flurry of attacks.

And I definitely hate this stupid smile in his portrait!

Okay then let's skip all these and went towards 'magic', then I selected 'Inventory' from the list of it, with the cost of 2 MP. I envisioned a circle enveloping the entire area, with all items glowing in red color resembles the objects belonging to me. By the way, Kirk's bagpack doesn't get highlighted so I might have to carry it on my way of search.

"Inventory."

I chanted out the spell and all the camping equipments, and various tools dissipated into thin air, leaving Kirk's bag alone. I walked towards it and picked it up, well this bag doesn't feel heavy at all, even though the content's kinda packed.

And if you're asking, the objects' are going to end up in my item list so don't worry about it.

"Well then, let's go on helping that idiot out."

Saying this, I turned towards the direction Kirk went off too. Carrying his bagpack on my back, I walked swiftly inside the forest.

I'm kinda curious myself about what awaits me over there, hopefully I could finally find the entrance to the place where the 'Seeds of Knowledge' lies.

"Mister Kirk, don't you think that someone's been watching us from the shadows?"

Hmm...come to think of it, I did feel a presence from behind, from somewhere amidst these luster green bushes. Could it be...

"I know Lucian, since you're so pretty it's natural for you to have stalkers."

"Uh..s-sir? But I'm A GUY...you know..."

A guy? I think there's something deep inside my memory that tries to forget the fact that this blond beauty was actually, a boy.

"Guaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh...nooooo...nooo. Please tell me you're lying, YOU'RE OBVIOUSLY LYING...okay I've heard you say it before but I just can't believe this."

"Ummm...it's...so embarassing...mister Kirk...but if it's you...I think that's okay, wanna check? Please be gentle...oh yeah, don't forget that we're BOTH GUYS."

Huh? For some reason I felt chills down my spine when Lucian starts making such an adorable expression, it's like, he's become a completely different person.

Okay Kirk, brace yourself. You are a straight man.

I'm not gay...really!

Definitely, I'm not going to get turned on by beautiful guys.

Even if he's so adorable and completely looks like a girl, like those in front of me.

I repeat again, I'm completely normal...normal...normal...uguuuu...

This is much harder than I thought. Maybe I'm actually a closet homosexual by nature? Oh damn it, really damn it. Please clear my mind and focus, there's actually a number of really cute girls out there, let's see..there's Rose whom I just met right after I end up in this world, she has an ethereal sense of beauty around her. I wanna meet up with her again of course...it's nice to be closer to a girl this cute.

And there's also Carla who's really cute even though she's a brute most of the time, what makes me attracted to her the most is her strong and reliable personality though, it kind of makes me wanna be her younger brother even if she's actually younger than me. But the aspect about she's being a brute still stands, if only she would be more gentle I will be hugging her every day because she's just like a doll when she's acting calm.

Then, the guildmaster, Stella, she has a mature charm around her although she's probably not that much older than me. Her feminine and homely presence she brought about whenever she's there with us that brought about feelings of tranquility and warmth. If only she's not such a Fujoshi, I might easily fell head over heels for her.

Fine then, there's many cute girls out there, no need to be desperate enough and start aiming for a guy instead.

Reminding myself again, I wanna say that, I'm completely normal, and I still like girls. No, don't treat me like a bi, you perverts.

"S-stop...s-stop...okay okay, I'll believe you. Now stop trying to pull your pants down, it's totally indecent."

Oh yeah, why did I think of him as a guy? Stella also said he's a guy, but what really convinces me that he's one is...that one unbelievably big loldongs protruding from the pants. It's kind of creepy how a person this cute and girly could have such a prominent tralala dingdingdong.

"Sir, why do you think just another guy pulling his pants down is indecent? Come on we're both guys there's nothing wrong with..."

"IT'S NOT OKAY IF YOU'RE UNDRESSING YOURSELF IN THE MIDDLE OF A PUBLIC PARK! HAVE SOME DECENCY WILL YA!"

Just like a naughty kid, Lucian forms a mischievous smirk that kind of ticks me off, but on the other hand, my heart starts melting due the cuteness of this playful attitude.

"By the way, I'm still wearing my boxers you know. And what I'm doing is alright compared to the Elder over there who's taking a dump naked in the open."

He points out towards the entrance of the greenhouse, on the soil box there's an old man holding his stance like a kungfu fighter, with his butt positioned right above the soil box. Okay the sight is completely disturbing since he's completely naked...

"Let's go away from the Greenhouse for now, I suddenly feel sick after watching that."

"Please don't take it the wrong way, sir. I think the Elder just wants to pay respect to the nature by being naked, and the poop was also the product of nature you know, it's better than using the magically-enhanced fertilizers. Uh...I think our genius mage would be completely mad if she hears this..."

"Mage? Isn't Stella the one who's taking care of the magical department?"

"Miss Stella used to be one since she's the number one mage in addition of being so skilled at archery. But since she moved up to become the guildmaster, replacing the Elder over here who's taking a dump naked, there's her junior who's right below her in terms of rank who replaced her as the head of the department."

Hold on, my brain freezes after he said, replacing the Elder who's taking a dump naked.

"Hold on, does that mean Stella also going to take a dump naked in the open too? Since she's replacing that old geezer after all."

"Geez, you're so silly, mister Kirk. Miss Stella's going to get mad if she hears that."

Then we walked away from the Greenhouse area without doing anything much. After we walked back for some time, I just realized that I'm pretty much forgotten about the 'stalker' that Lucian was talking about earlier.

When we're at the point where I think, it's close enough to the guildhouse, I turned around and asked him.

"So like, what's the important thing you wanna talk about with me earlier, was it so important that we have to walk all the way to that place?"

The sudden inquiry made Lucian stopped his trail. He giggles a bit, trying his best on holding the laughter that's about to come.

"Pffft...mmm...you know sir...you're just so funny...that I'm feeling like pulling your leg off, I had nothing in mind to tell you though...ahahaha!"

"You...little!"

Saying that, Lucian dashes at full speed ahead, his velocity was so high I could barely keep up with him as I tried to chase him down. Damn, forest elves sure do run fast eh?

"Hufff...hufff...I'm sure get outta breath quickly...damn it, he's good..."

What am I doing really? Standing in the middle of the street trying to catch on my breath, with some of the curious onlookers taking a short glance at me, then moved away back to their original activity.

Then, suddenly I felt a pat on my back, it was strong and heavy.

"Oi, at least I finally found you. Seriously, why are you being such a bother?"

I turned back to see a surprising spectacle in front of me

"Carla..."

"Yeah, it's quite a long story on how I do end up here, Kirk. For now let's get back on the guild...move your lazy arse now."

"Ughh..."

She's being rowdy as usual huh? Though I guess that's what makes her Carla, having her with me somehow makes me feel ease. I don't know how the heck did we met up here but I complied with her request.

"By the way that blond girl who's with you before was really cute. You're really a player, Kirk, I heard you've just been here and you're already hooking up...oh my..."

"Hey, Carla...don't get wrong ideas, Lucian is A GUY."

"Seriously?"

"Yes, let get back to the guild first if you want to clarify...well at least I'm glad to have you back here, Carla."

She stops her walk when she heard my previous lines, with her face blushing...

"D-did you say anything just now? I-it's not like I'm especially here for you...you know?"

"Nah, don't mind it. I'm just saying that I'm glad to have you back, now shall we go then?"

"Alright..."

That's also the part which makes her adorable I guess.

This is Carla, and I'm going to explain to you folks on how did I end up here, accidentally meeting up with Kirk by chance.

Firstly, when exploring the depths of this forested area which Kirk just walked in, I finally made my way throughout the forest in one piece using the map, which I've drawn myself based upon the clues which this mysterious novel holds. I'm following the direction step by step as I read this novel, and that's also the reason why I choose this peculiar point to land from the Bone Dragon ride, because the description of this place bears a striking resemblance to those which this novel described.

Yeah I know this is stupid, but I don't care anyway.

Starting from the parts which was marked as the starting point, I readied my compass and looked around the simple map which I've drawn while imagining the scenery of the adventurer with his friends, with him as the narrator describing the directions they took before reaching the new world. Huh? Come to think of it, it doesn't have any relevance to what's mostly important, does it?

I'm just looking for Kirk, of course. There's no point on rushing towards the new world without him, you know. But well, I've finally drawn to him here by another ridiculous reason...as I finally decided to just follow my instincts and act based on the assumption that by a mere chance, he ended up in this new world, I followed the directions which my map gives me, using the landmark guidances, for example :

Walk ahead on the northeast direction until you've reached a gargantuan-sized tree with bear etchings on it, it should fork the direction into three ways, the left way will lead you into a trap, and the right way is the right way...what...wait a second.

Yes, just when I'm about to turn right from that fork, I heard an eerie voice calling, referring to themselves as 'The Spirit of the Forest'

"Your friend had already entered the new world, go and follow this path if you want to catch up to him, young lady."

"What the? You sound so creepy like a pedophile! Don't tell me that you guys turned Kirk into a lolicon? I just can't believe this, how am I supposed to do if he ends up in jail due to child molestation? I'm so ashamed..."

Anyways I did reply to the voice with these boisterous manner, though as the voice didn't reply back to me, it must be my imagination. But somehow, those vague message conveyed to me ina sudden manner bears a strong tone of conviction which made me sure enough to follow it.

As the rest of this path complies exactly as what's written by the book and my simply-drawn map, I soon find myself in a clearing...with no other ways left, beside a humongous circle amidst it. The circle looks exactly like those in the picture books about the Amarok tribes, it resembles their summoning circle which could be used to summon mythical creatures like The Magnataur and Phoenix.

Hmmm...that's odd, it's definitely written on this book about the group of travelers entering a building which looks like a sky-high tower.

Nah I don't care, I'll just go enter this circle anyway as I'm feeling really hungry right now. Hopefully there will be boar stew right over there!

A blinding light envelops me as I stepped my feet down the circle, I quickly ran ahead towards the center of the circle before the light fully envelops my sight.



"Ah, Onee-chan, you finally awake?"

It was a really sweet voice which wakes me up from this lapse of unconsciousness. Though, come to think of it, why does she addressed me in that term instead of usually calling me 'big sis'?

Opening up my eyes, I saw a figure of a young girl, possibly about 2 or 3 years younger than myself, she has a sweet smile which brought about a sensation filled with innocence, her sparkling green hair falls gracefully as she tilted her head sideways, meeting my glance in such adorable way. Taking a brief glance on her, I could see that she's wearing an oversized robe and a witch hat, which firmly affixed to her head, that kind of looks unnatural when she tries tilting her head.

"Mmmmhhhh...nggghhhhh...uuuuu..." I unconsciously let my voice out, then closed my eyes again, basking myself in this comfortable cushion which seems to be a bed, made with high quality materials that feels so comfy and fluffy. The head pillow which cushions my head seems to be shouting out a suggestive message for me to sleep again.

"Nee-chan, your voice was ...kind of...erotic. Misty likes it...somehow it makes Misty feel really strange...it's all your fault...for making me like this..."

I'm not really her big sister, but it fills me with a sensation of warmth when she calls me that, with that adorable voice which just invites me in towards her grasp. Am I going to end up at her palm anyway?

Oh my, why is it so hard for my eyes to open up...my head feels so heavy with my body being completely withered. Though for a moment, I could feel a hot breath on my face, which sets me into full alert.

I reflexively opened my eyes and pushed my body backwards, there I saw this green-haired girl's face really close to me. She stared up to me so close, I could feel myself blushing hard.

W-why...am I like this...she's just another girl...like me.

"Ehehe...I'm sorry Nee-chan, your lips was just so entrancing, I want to kiss it!"

"Geez! What's with you, trying to kiss people whom you just met?"

"Don't be such a tsun-tsun, nee-chan...I know that deep inside you wanna 'do it' with Misty too...come on...be honest..."

"Shut up."

"Uguuuu..."

Uh, why do I feel bad for rejecting this girl? Even though she's very cute, it's not right for me to be turned on by another girl!



"So your name is Misty eh?"

After things got calmed down, Misty escorts me towards a huge room which resembles a library, with a large area in the center with a large summoning circle amidst it. She said to me that I suddenly end up here unconscious and she had to carry me with the help of a Levitation spell.

"Yup, and I'm currently 18 years old."

"Ah I see...I got the feeling you're around that age but the way you act, it just seem to make you look much younger...and cute too..."

"Really? Thank you Nee-chan, ehehehe..."

"Nah, just call me Carla, we're not that far apart in age after all.."

Oh yeah, we did sat on the sofa, in front of a large fireplace when we talked together. After I did mention my name she giggles a bit, maybe she found my name funny after all.

"Ah..Miss Carla, you have such a beautiful name! Let's see...Misty and Carla...I think we'll make a perfect pair...ehehehehe..."

"Hey, what's with you all of sudden, oi!"

What's with that girl getting clingy all of sudden to me?

Then, a short moment after we talked together again, sounds of footsteps came from the upstairs, there a really beautiful brown-haired woman with a kitchen apron and casual clothing walks to us.

"Ah, Miss Stella..." Misty addressed this woman with a tone that underlies a great amount of respect...

The woman named Stella gives Misty a light smile then walked towards our seats, giving a refined looking glance which fills me up with awe.

"You there, cute cowgirl with red-hair, are you possibly had something in relation with someone named Kirk Thompson?"

To make things short, she gave me a clue about Kirk's whereabouts, and I bumped to him while going out to search for him, end of story.

In the end I told him everything aside from the fact that a girl nearly kissed me. So I just manipulated the story, telling him that I suddenly end up in a place that looks like a library and soon enough, I was welcomed by Stella, who gives me clues about how to found him. Seriously, how could I possibly told him about my run-in experience with Misty? She nearly kissed me damn it...this is so embarrassing, it won't be nice if she actually stole my first kiss...I probably won't be able to go outside again...

Well, i don't want my name to be associated with girls' love. Although I have to admit that she's really cute and I just want to snuggle her...just like a younger sister.

To tell you the truth, I'm the youngest child in my family so I was wondering how will it be to have a younger sibling, particularly a younger sister.

I do have an older sister though. She might seem totally carefree at times, but when push comes to shove, she's a very reliable person, though unfortunately she doesn't have that much a passion on adventuring for us to be together. How I missed her a lot whenever I went adventuring for a prolonged time...I hope she'll be alright.

Then at instant, I felt my drifting thoughts had all but subsided when Kirk gives me a pat on the back.

"Hey, what's wrong Carla? You're spacing out just now." the visage of him suddenly looking upon me from above kinda surprises me, especially since he's tall and big...after all.

"N-nothing, it's just your imagination." I tried to play it off by acting as calm as possible to avoid his suspicion.

"Hmm...okay then." in response to me, he just shrugged his shoulders, exhaling some heavy sighs on our way back to the guildhouse.

"Well, that reminds me...what's up with you? You certainly seem tired, Kirk."

He stopped right away down his path, then began walking to another direction leading to the park.

"Nothing much, I just wanna have a little rest, care to join me for a bit?"

"..."



"Zzzzzz...zzzzzzz...zzzzz...snore...snore..."

Well, he certainly seems tired enough to be sleeping like a log just after he lays comfortably down the stony park bench.

The sounds of the fountain with merry voices of elven kids running about, with their parents watching over them, they occasionally waved back to each other too. Come to think of it, there's many elves in this town, no wonder it's called Avalon huh...it's famously known as the Ancient City of Elves...could it be...

Nah, this is too bogus in order to be just a mere coincidence. Avalon was supposed to vanish during the ancient ages, which happened about 5000 years ago, during the reign of King Damascus, whom was the first person that took the record of the city, Avalon, during his youth.

Then, years later after he had become a young king, he made a visit again to meet up with his elven friends, only to found that the city was all but disappeared. There's only a mountain range so perilous to cross with, and he did not dare to venture any further because he's taken aback by his responsibilities as a king. If in case something happens to him because of this risky attempt, the whole nation would be thrown into despair, so there you have it.

This might be unrelated, but the king himself looks really good on girls' clothes because of his totally androgynous appearance. The Queen herself like to dress her husband up in cute clothing she tailored with. As a matter of fact, she also has the hobby of making these moe clothings.

In the king's record, he wrote about his experience of getting hit on by various elven people when he entered the city. He often got mistaken for a masculine girl who likes to dress up in male clothes. But let's left that aside for now before you got really interested on what kind of Trap he was.

King Damascus named this mountain range as 'Grimgnaw Mountains' which symbolizes his despair of unable to meet up with his dearest friends. I just wanted to clarify about my current hypothesis, should it be true...then I would get completely mind-blown over this.

"Excuse me, ma'am, could I have a minute...there's something I wanna ask." I called out to one of the elf woman who's watching over her kids. As the elves were basically refined people, I must mind my manners and speak with formality.

"Ara ara, I see...so what is it, young miss?" to my surprise, the elf housewife talks so casually it took me aback. Come to think of it, the majority of the elves at Roswell Dale also talks normally just like us humans. And the ones who talks in formal and refined manner were mostly scholars or artists...

"Do you know something...about an esteemed person called...King Damascus?"

"You mean, the princess?"

W-what...did she just said...princess?

"Ah, the Princess likes to call herself that and she tries to tell everyone that she's a guy. Who would believe that statement coming from such a sweet and kind girl like her anyway..."

Hmm...it's getting interesting.

"And yeah miss, just to clarify...the princess doesn't have anything 'down there', as her own little sister actually checked up on it. So her own statement about her being a guy is totally nonsensical..."

What? Hold on a second...let me gather my thoughts first

"Oh by the way...you look very pretty, just like the princess, not to mention you kind of resemble her, young miss. Are you possibly a relative of hers?" with a sparkling eyes, the elf housewife took a glance from my head to toe, even though there's nothing interesting in there

"Sorry...I'm not that beautiful actually, just a normal girl. And yeah, you could say that my family are kinda related as we somewhat shared the same bloodline for generations. Though I'm not really sure if the Princess you're referring to was actually my relative."

"P-pardon...my insolence, your highness! Ah, so you must be from a high-standing nobility, judging from your solemn presence you seem to give. May I see your family insignia, your excellency?"

"Please drop the formalities aside, it's making me uncomfortable."

I took the leather gloves from my right hand and revealed to her a dragon crest with ancient writings below it that reads 'Ragnarok', the symbol is etched to my right hand as a symbol of the Sutherland family for generations; It serves as a powerful insignia that's well known to give the bearer mysterious powers. I don't know myself what does this mark holds...maybe I'll find it out soon as I continue adventuring.

"Ah...I see...I think I can't give any words about it...I'm sorry...please excuse me and my child, your excellency..."

It's kind of unexpected that this is the first time someone seems so shocked by looking at my insignia, all the other people were either impressed or even made a fun of it, saying that's a trendy tattoo.

Bummer, she disappeared so quickly before I could even ask another question. That's so strange indeed.

Meanwhile, Kirk still sleeps soundly in the park bench, giving no care about what happens in this world. For some reason, while looking at his peaceful sleeping face, it releases some of the mental burden that's weighed down in my heart.

Oh yeah, that reminds me...it's been a while since I took my beloved sword to the blacksmith. It definitely needs some repair and tune-up...I hope that I had enough money to pay for the sword repairs while getting a replacement weapon for the meantime.

Meanwhile, I think I'll go look for the blacksmith shop first. Let's see if I could find a trustworthy enough candidate to handle this precious treasure of mine.

Just wait for a moment Kirk, I'll be right back.

In this world, there were many kinds of legendary swords. Most notably, the legendary sword that cleaves evil, Excalibur, which could only be wield by the greatest paladins, this sword could cut anything, including the demon king himself. The legendary blade itself has also defeated countless evil, and put the entire demon race into massacre, a weapon really to be reckoned with, rumors said that this sword was forged by a divine angel with his own blood and soul.

It was said that the angel died right after he finished forging this sword, and the curiosity of his fellow angels turn them all into dispute to who has the most righteous spirit in order to wield such holy sword. The blade was cast away right after by Deus, the leader of Angels, in order to subdue the uprising in the Throne of Skies. And it soon ends up...pierced deep down a sacred stone waiting to be pulled out.

The first one ever to pull this sword was actually a sickly maiden named Medivh, who soon enough becomes the most reliable aide to Grand Inquisitor Alexander, one of the greatest leaders ever to grace the history of this nation under his leadership. This sword also gave the bearer some kind of immortality and the ability to regenerate oneself, making Medivh to be one of the most powerful swordswoman ever lived.

There's also such bloodthirsty sword that could even kill a deity, called the Sinclaire. Only those with the most wicked mind would be able to wield such monstrosity, as most people who tried to touch it got their souls sucked into oblivion for the rest of their lifetime. The rumors within the creation of such murderous weapon still lies in mystery, many people cowers in fear of imagining what kind of being would create such terrible weapon that wreaks havoc throughout eternity? Unlike Excalibur...there's only a few things that this sword can cut, but the effects were absolutely devastating.

It's the only known weapon in this world to be able to destroy the immortal soul itself, making the person cease to exist for eternity, being excluded from the reincarnation cycle...leaving the consciousness into the realm of nothingness with no end. Sinclaire doesn't really harm the physical body, though it will mercilessly shatter the soul and turn every single being with consciousness into havoc even just being near it.

The effects of massive bleeding could be witnessed with Sinclaire damaging those with an ethereal body, such as deities. And unlike Excalibur, the bearer doesn't get immortality at all. Rumors said that, upon their death, the swordbearer will become a part of sword's consciousness themselves, and there's no escape from their fate.

There was one people known for wielding such terrifying weapon, his name's Forbidden. He was known to hate everything that exists, enough to make himself to break into the Throne of Angels, then proceeds to kill Deus, who hath governed the angels since a very long time. Thus there was a tragedy which leads to the 'Time of Empty Throne', moving the entire humanity even further with the deity and angels, and even closer towards the demons that the humans loathed so much.

No one knows what happened to Forbidden, though it's said by a popular belief that he was killed by a gunshot, from his partner, Pendragon, who wield the sword for a brief moment before tossing it again to the pool of holy blood belonging to Deus, whose body had disappeared right on the spot after he's killed in a tremendous fight. The effect of the holy blood rendered Sinclaire's abilities dormant for a prolonged time, this sword oblivion were then sealed inside the deepest recesses no one has ever found until this moment. It's also known by the prophecy that, the next time Sinclaire arises, it will be the time of this world's Apocalypse.

The clash between good and evil, which one shall win...Excalibur or Sinclaire?

I don't know for myself, but I do remember of one sword that's more powerful than both of these combined, which has the infamous title as 'The Sword that Cleaves Homosexuality', that goes by the almighty name of 'Adamantinum Ingot Destruction Sword'

Or in short...AIDS.



"Whoa, this is one insanely powerful sword. Durandal, eh? I don't know you got such an impressive weapon, Granny!"

"Nah, that's just a cheap imitation, little lady."

"Guaaahhhh..."

This is Grandma Homerton, she runs the blacksmith called Homerton's Armory in this town. She's running it by herself now since her husband and son went missing, she still has two of their grandsons living in this town, although neither of them has shown any interest in the art of forging masterful weapons.

"So, how's it going, this sword of mine...I mean."

I probably shouldn't be talking while she looks pretty busy working on the repairs, she just stood there with a composed posture beside the burning furnace, swinging her hammer down like a real pro.

"It might took a while, let's just say about 3 days or so. I could tell that you've been taking care of this blade pretty well, abiding by the law of a true swordman, using these to protect, not for indiscriminate killing."

At a glance, she might not look like a blacksmith, and I was pretty surprised when I came to this place only to see a lone granny sweeping the floor on the entrance. This place were pretty much famous around this area and I was directed towards the same place when I tried asking a few times.

"Ah I see, I do mostly rely on magic to destroy my enemies though, it does help me a lot by raising my experience points to make the fight better. Also, afternoon naps recovers the half of the grand total amount of my MP so it's all okay. The sword's only for self-defense whether enemies came close enough to distract me from using my magic."

She left my sword on the furnace after molding it with a strong looking metal, then proceeds to freely chat around with me

"Carla Sutherland eh, I'm surprised that you, who seems to have traveled very far, would be able to survive by relying on a Steel sword. Here, I molded your treasure with Adamantine, the strongest metal around I could find, free of charge of course."

"Whoa, thanks granny! Though I could say that, my success here was due to having a reliable partner with me, he's actually pretty tough in a fight, although his choice of weapons was totally absurd."

"Yeah I could see that, young miss. Well then, feel free to pick up whether weapon you want to borrow, it'll cost 1000 gold no matter which one."

Let's see, I had about 50000 gold. Let's choose one...hmm...at the second thought...

"Ummm..I'd prefer buying things, and that Revolver out there seems to be pretty decent, is it a magical one? It looks like the gun could be imbued with magical energies as bullets."

Grandma Homerton looks surprised by my offer.

"You have good eyes, little miss. That one would be free of charge, I was originally against selling it because it's my son's memento, but it's nice to see an esteemed adventurer like you to carry it again."

And so I went outside with that Revolver after bidding her farewell.

Well, you say free...but I'll just gave her about 1500 gold as a token of my appreciation. Before, I tried firing the bullets, which I bought a few packs of that costs about 500 gold in total. I bought quite a number of them, then tucked it on my waist holster, now I looked like a full-fledged cowgirl, combined with this outfit I wore. The magical shots were also very powerful too.

Now I think I should go back to where Kirk is, hopefully he's still around.

There's a lot of consideration about when to choose your party members and how to utilize their strengths to your advantage, thus mobilizing them at your disposal to cover each others' weaknesses. It's highly recommended to get those people with highest gains on dexterity as they will most likely inflict critical hits on the opponent, and those with excellent agility should be the main support unit, it will also prove beneficial if those agile party members were also well versed in spellcasting, especially support spells.

Let's see...Carla has both of these characteristics, insanely high dexterity, agility, and also very good at spellcasting, which makes her really overpowered. And then in my case, I got these feat which should be banned...Critical Hit Bonus. Which doubles the chance of myself inflicting critical hits, I also had the Darkvision feat which renders the Blind status ailments ineffective to me, this also greatly increases the advantage while we're adventuring at night.

The Alert feat was also indispensable as it will reduce the chance of us being ambushed by half.

How about Carla's list of feats? Let's see...

Genius : Half the skill point amount to learn level up a skill

(what the hell is this? so that's why she seems so skilled at many things)

Pathfinding : Automatically mark the paths traveled in an imaginary map, making it easier to retrace back the paths in case the entire party member got lost

(it was said that whoever possess this feat will be a legendary treasure hunter, I'm not sure about her though)

Natural Arcane Lore : Half the MP cost for all magic belonging to the Arcane School

(Thunderstrike, Hellfire, and Frost Heaven goes to this category, and I see why Carla's been using them a lot.)

Soon enough, we came to learn some feats which we cannot use, because those feats are banned because of its morbid implications. I think we could still use after we manages to get ahold of the Rule-breaker Sigil, which lifts all the ban on these forbidden feats. Though I don't think getting this would be a good idea yet...

Banned feats - Kirk Thompson:

Wounding Attack : each time someone possessing this feat tries to attack, there's a chance that they will inflict a 'wounding' damage. Upon infliction, the victim will have their HP reduced little by little within each turn until they dies, the wounding damage could only be healed by 'bandages' and 'regen' spell, which is pretty rare in this world.

Meltdown Strike : Null the defense parameters of the enemy as you attack, the enemy's defense will be treated as zero. Costs 50 MP each use.

Sudden Deathblow : Costs 40 MP, has the chance of inflicting instant death upon the enemy.

Truesight : Able to see invisible enemies, automatically activated.

...

So yeah, there you have it. How about Carla?

Banned feats - Carla Sutherland:

Phantom Cloak : Uses 100 MP to activate, the person will remain invisible, in addition of completely silencing the noises they make as long they didn't attack the enemy. Temporary ethereal form given, meaning people can just pass through yourself as if you're a ghost, while in this form the bearer were impervious to physical damage.

Deals triple the amount of normal damage upon attacking the enemy, which results in this cloaking being instantly deactivated.

Other ways of deactivating the feat were simply put by cancelling the Phantom Cloak at will, upon the deactivation, the user will regain 50 MP. Oh yeah, when spotted with the enemies having the 'Truesight' there will be a period of 15 seconds to hide from their sight. The ultimate invisibility feat, the only way to counter this lies in those having the Truesight ability...but if the only one having the Truesight were your friends, it means you'll be totally invincible.

Zen Enlightenment : Regenerate 0.5 MP with each step taken, outside of battles. Both afternoon and night rests will recover HP and MP to its full extent.

Transmutation : Ancient Forgotten Technique used by the Alchemists of the Old Order. Simply put, it uses a certain amount of MP to create various items.

From various potions, support items, to disposable weapons like grenade, bullets, and arrows.

Summoning: Able to summon mythical beasts with enormous power. It's widely considered to be a lost ability originated from the Amarok tribes. The Sutherlands had their guardian, Bahamut, as a default summon. It costs about 1000 MP to summon Bahamut, though the summon will remain for a prolonged time until it dies or it's called back, recovering about half the MP used to summon it. The same also works for all the summoned creatures hahaha..

Every time a summoned creature dies, it took about 3 days for it to be automatically resurrected again, so please do call the creature back before then. On a side note regular curative spells also work for curing the summoned creature. Also, summoned creatures completely are immune to status ailments, so don't be worried too much.

...

Uh, I'm completely speechless over this stuff. Seriously, what the hell? It's like telling people that a single person could beat an entire legions of elite soldiers! Don't you creators of this crazy world know just how powerful Bahamut is? I just can't believe this ridiculous thing ever exists!

"So does that mean I have the chance to learn Carla's feats, as it wasn't being listed at my banned-feats list?"

I think I'm starting to get crazy by talking at the thin air.

"Yes, though it's very unlikely. The banned feats listed were actually those you already learned but can't use it because of the probation. The only way is by obtaining the Rule-Breaker Sigil. Besides your areas of development compared to her are very different, it's almost illogical to assume so."

I've heard an eerie sounding voice from the middle of nowhere, the same as when I first came here, right after I met the three fairies.

I just ignored the voice, honestly believing that I might be getting so stupid that I start hearing things that were actually unreal...

"HEY! Are you listening to me, Kirk?"

"Huh?"

It's Carla. She's staring at me with looks of disbelief.

"I'm telling you that those feats are banned because it's a total hax! Seriously, pay attention when someone's talking to you, Kirk."

"Uh...okay..."

We're still at this park, and it seems that I've dozed off earlier. Then Carla suddenly wakes me up and we got into this talk about theses Forbidden Feats right after. It looks like she got a brand new weapon in place of her usual sword, is it a gun? She might be away for some moments to give me a moment of rest...she might be into an armory to buy her stuff, I might ask her about it later on.

Oh yeah, what kind of stuff got us into talking about things for several minutes? Hmm..as I recall earlier, she was bothered by some elven lady who's terrified by her insignia and we suddenly went to talk about these forbidden feats when I asked the connection between the Sutherland insignia and the possibility of certain feats available for a specific bloodline only.

"Come on, let's go back to the guild, I already let you rest for a while, didn't I?" she then gave me a strong pat on my shoulder, then as she offered her hand to me with a carefree smile, she said "Here...a helping hand to get your lazy ass on this comfy chair."

"Thanks."

"Hey, we actually do help each other alot on way back, so don't sweat it, okay?"

And so our friendly chat continues on our way back to the guild.

It feels so nice and chill while being with her.

Though I won't deny the fact that I'm sometimes troubled by her doings.

Well, that's probably what made this world go 'round, I guess.

"Hey there Carla, let me see your new weapon, it looks pretty fancy and I think it suits you perfectly."

On her holster there's a crimson colored revolver, it seems like the certain gun was originally made by the Damascus metal, though the weapons made by this peculiar metal were mostly colored in a darkened orange. Hmm...I think the metal was named after someone who first found it...was his name King Damascus? I don't really remember about it clearly.

"Here you go, Kirk. Please do handle it with care, don't shot yourself just like the last time you tried fooling around with it."

There she hands me this peculiar gun, which I could observe clearly for now. The barrel's been covered in darkened bloodlike color of crimson while the body and the grip were adorned in lighter colors of red, the sight of it was creepy at first, but as I stared down at it, the weapon itself was pretty much an eye candy with its exotic appearance, a sexy weapon, just like Carla...

"Hmm...what's wrong Kirk, you're staring at it so hard...could you possibly have a peculiar fetish for exotic guns?"

"Puffff! Well of course, every real men does have a degree of attraction to sexy guns!"

Please don't give me that smirk, Carla...I know you want to say something mean again.

"That doesn't sound convincing coming from a man who likes doing it with another man."

Hah

"What the hell was that supposed to mean?"

Seriously, why does people assume that I am somewhat homosexual by nature? Okay I take that back about her being cute, she's really a mean person!

Carla just seem to ignore my reply and just went on running towards the Guildhouse, a bit rushed on top of that. Come to think of it, on that gun there's a little bit of a dragon-shaped etching on the frame that reminds me of the symbol on her right hand.

Suddenly..

BANG!

A loud sound of a door being kicked open. It really makes me jump as I'm standing in front of the door while thinking about perverted things involving girls kissing each other. Peanuts and bananas, also rotten coconuts being thrown away at bunch of hooligans that were causing trouble during a football match by farting too much and shouting out harsh words that made our patrician referee absurdly mad that he starts speaking in a ridiculously poetic dialect while acting queer during the match.

That results in himself being accidentally kicked in the nuts by a random player from the home team.

"I'm outta here."

The renowned adventurer girl Carla Sutherland walks outta the guildhouse, just a few moments after she went inside. On some unrelated note, I do know the fact that she hates pedophiles due to the fact that her appearance is a bit childlike and fluffy and there's quite a number of peeps who likes to harass her, thinking that our moe Carla was actually underage when she's definitely not.

"What's wrong, Carla?"

"No never mind about that, let's go eat out for now, okay? It's my treat."

"But I just ate lunch recently at this place, so I'm full for now harharhar..."

Carla looks perplexed for the moment, then she flicks her finger as she said this to me..

"Ah, so this place also serves you food, eh? If they also had facilities for lodging we might as well stay here. To be honest I don't know what else we could eat or relax, the places around here seems really shady, based by my observation."

What's with that change of heart really?

"You're confusing me. So what on earth makes you wanna go outside the guildhouse right after you enter it?"

"Would you just do me a favor and check it for yourself? I just can't stand the randomness of those people, but if they could provide lodging and decent meal I could somehow live with that."

So you're deciding things just because it's convenient eh. As expected from the Sutherlands, they're natural-born opportunists. Nah, at a second thought, my prejudice might be altogether biased as I only know one Sutherland personally.

"Anyway, sorry for taking you for liking another man earlier. You just seem so affectionate towards that Lucian dude, but that doesn't really count since he's so cute, right? I still have doubts about him being a guy..."

"Well if you look down you could see his prominent tralalala dingdingdong so it's a definite..."

Before I finish my sentence, Carla cuts me off in the middle.

"...what if his loldongs was actually fake? Either he's actually a girl or by he used to have a small one but for some reasons he went to an incident and they decided to amputate it because it poses a life threatening situations...so like, the surgeons had been very disheartened to proclaim of his chances for procreation to be pretty much diminished..."

Guah, as expected from her, she had such a wild imagination and her insights was particularly sharp.

"Miss Carla, if you're asking, my thingy is a genuine licensed product ehehehe...anyway, umm...mmmm...Mister Kirk, how do I look? Do I look cute in this maid uniform?"

What the hell am I seeing? Well contrary to my expectations, Lucian's body is indeed pretty muscular but well...it seems that his feminine charm grew even stronger this way...

"Pssst...Kirk, it is indeed genuine, unlike those that you bought at the Thrift Store."

"Pfffftttt...don't start assuming weird things...and why do you think that thingy could be bought from a Thrift Store?"

"Sorry...sorry, it's just that it could move by itself just like a real thing along with the variety of...ahahaha...fufufufu...expansion of volumes."

My goodness, Carla, why does your madness have to start here and now?

"Ummm...Mister Kirk...how do I look? It's really embarrassing wearing these clothes..."

HOW AM I SUPPOSE TO COMMENT ON YOUR CLOTHING WHEN YOU'RE ACTUALLY WEARING NOTHING AT ALL? AND PLEASE COVER YOUR PRIVATE PARTS LUCIAN! IT MADE ME SICK JUST LOOKING AT ANOTHER GUY'S THINGY, DAMN IT, WHY DOESN'T PEOPLE IN THIS WORLD HAVE COMMON SENSE?

Or I might be just too stupid to realize that this might be the trend? Is it might be an invisible clothing with transparent colors?

"Errr...can you describe something about this kind of...clothing? Well I uh...don't really understand about this design."

"Well if you say so, Mister Kirk. This is the Almighty Emperor Clothes! Only the smart and divine might be able to see the clothing! By the way you have great taste to be able to appreciate its beauty, sir. You might also be a very intelligent person."

"Uh, thanks. I'm not that smart really..."

Please stop moving around, the sight of that dingdong swinging around in the air makes me feel like a trainwreck. And as I dislike looking at another man's dingdong it definitely justifies that I am, by the fact, are a straight man by nature.

"Ah sorry sorry, Madamoiselle Estrella. I shall go to visit Monsieur Kirk since you said that he's a great critic of fashion style." I heard a deep baritone voice emanating from behind the door. It might be sir Leon's voice, he sure do speak like a knight.

"No worries matey. I'm sure no matter what his opinions are, we will sure look like a real man. Ahahahaha.." this confident and easygoing way of speech, this must be sir Elrond.

As the door starts to sprung open, it beckons me with an enigmatic sight, which drove me to a brief moment of enlightenment, that there's some things so terrible you couldn't put the right words for it.

On the doorway, two highly muscular man stood with pride and joy. But the problem is, THEY DOESN'T SEEM TO WEAR ANYTHING AT ALL.

It really makes me wanna faint.

"Hey, it's so small."

And Carla's witty comments just finishes it off.

Seriously, what the hell is this.

"Miss Stella, I've been trying to ask something for a while, do you know something about the 'seeds of knowledge' around here? We've been trying to search for it until now."

On the dining table, Carla tried asking our homely Guildmaster for some information regarding our quest. Well, I don't really know for sure where this world is taking me but I could somehow felt the thing that old man Regulus told me earlier before entering this world through the towers' entrance. Yes, this world is very dangerous to my sanity, though I somehow pondered whether I did have a sane mind to begin with.

"Sorry, I know not what you're talking about, Carla Sutherland. Though it deeply concerns me why you want to go into such lengths in order to gain that certain 'treasure', is that thing really that important to you?"

Carla's shoulders slumped, the atmosphere between her and miss Stella suddenly darkens, the lovely visage of both of them sitting together at the dining table, eating the dinner with such joyous expression, all of that were gone after she decided to brought up the question.

"I see..."

Carla lets out a short remark with a heavy sigh.

In the past I asked her that question a few times, it seems that she tried to change the topic each time I tried to inquire about it. Did she tried to hide something from me?

For myself, I think that, I felt much better off adventuring with her, rather than being kept inside this prison which is my family who treats me like a mere slave, it's been my livelong dream to be completely freed from them. To tell you the truth, even though she's really stubborn and rude at times, she's truly a fun person to chat with, not to mention she's so adorable and caring to me during our travels, it was due to her support while facing perilous challenges that I'm able to get this far.

"There...there, don't be sulking all of sudden, Carla."

Stella reached out to Carla's head and gently strokes her hair. As Stella's sitting beside her in the dining table it's easy enough to stretch her arms out to give Carla a warm embrace, but...

"Get your hands off me."

A sharp retort quickly came from her, that makes Stella hurriedly pulls her own hand back.

"Sorry, Stella. It's not like that I don't want to accept your kindness. It's just, I felt a bit sick now and I want some time alone to clear my thoughts."

Saying this, she went upstairs to where the guest rooms are. Speaking of which, Carla and I will be sleeping in a separate room.

Oh boy, there she goes again...



"So, Monsieur Kirk, are you trying to tell me that, both of you and Madamoiselle Carla came thus far by relying on a novel? That's preposterous! Furthermore, I just cannot comprehend your statement that you originated from the outside world."

"It's not like that, Monsieur Leonard. We do ask for directions, and I found that novel in this city of Roswell Dale, which I think do interest me since the synopsis of their adventures were kinda similar to what my current adventure holds. We, as adventurers, obtained our findings by relying on whichever sound clues could be discover, and putting our trust on our honest feelings as we move forward."

Furthermore, I think the novel's also based by the old historical documents pertaining the adventures of King Damascus in Avalon, this one seems to be an adaptation of some sort. The author's name seem to imply that he's possibly one of the scholar elves who does have much of a passion for historical events, he's definitely a historian for sure, and boy he does explain things so vividly for someone who reads a lot, based on my assumptions.

"Ah I see, that definitely do clear things off. Well then, shall we begin our training?"

"Roger that, monsieur."

The room we're currently in, sir Leonard and I, were adorned in white colors, with walls and floors constructed from neatly arranged bricks, elegantly painted with masterful techniques. This one's located on the topmost floor, in this building having about four floors in total in addition of some tower buildings that can be accessed from the 4th floor. The 2nd Floor works as the guest room, and the 3rd is for the residence area of the guild members. I don't know about the 4th floor yet as we just passed it by.

We're currently in one of these towers, it does seem pretty spacious enough for a simple swordfight training, although we do need much more if we tried practicing archery or something like that. Various weapons are placed on the racks, from the usual short swords into the powerful Bastard Sword, Two-Edged Halberds, and even some powerful looking Two-Handed Hammer and some blunt weapons like a mace with the edge of a black steel-ball. There's a lot of them placed in the corner without much obstructing the area. I do see some light armors and various shields placed in.

"Please wait for a moment before we start, Monsieur Kirk."

He walks to one of the weapon racks and picked up a powerful looking two-handed sword, then he proceeds to take a large towel from his pocket and soon begins to gently polish the blade.

"Ah, okay. Err...by the way it really surprises me when three of you came to us fully naked before..how should I put it."

"Hahaha, Madamoiselle Stella do tricked us again that time. Well, she did make us do crazier things in the past though."

What on earth? So what I've seen before wasn't the craziest thing they've ever done? My goodness, please spare my sanity!

"Well then mon, anytime you're ready. This blade of mine is called 'Zweihander'. I don't usually use them when sparring with an opponent unless I deem that person to be a really tough one. Oh yeah, feel free to pick your weapon of choice."

Sir Leon points his powerful two-handed sword right towards my direction with an intimidating smile. Even though we're just going for a simple sparring, I don't think he'll go easy on me at all. I should pick up something that will guarantee less injuries from this mighty-looking knight.

Hmm...in all of these weapons, I don't really find anything that kinda suits me.

"Hey can I use this instead?" I took of my precious lighter from my jackets' pocket, the same one that made me finally see the light for the first time after entering the tower entrance at the beginning.

The label on the body reads 'Phoenix'

"Monsieur Kirk, are you kidding me? How on earth do you fight a two-handed sword with a mere lighter?"

"Err...it's not just a 'mere lighter' like you say. According to these rumors, Odin created this lighter in order to demolish an entire army of Frost Giants and he greatly succeed. Well it's pretty fun to use and I managed to burn an entire legion of annoying Trents during my adventures using it."

"NO...NO...NOOOO! Please don't...use it, Monsieur Kirk...just use a normal weapon. I really hate to fight opponents with magical weapons like this, at least when I'm not wearing those enchanted armors."

Man, why so serious? Can't you tell that I'm just bluffing about it? Seriously it's Carla's powerful arcane spells that burned an entire legion of Trents and the only thing I did was just using that lighter to burn the entire forest because it's too dense that it made us lost our way.

"Feel free to pick any other weapon as long it's not magical."

Hmmm...

"Well then, I'll take that toilet seat cover lying over there."

"Hey! Couldn't you just pick something more normal?"

...

"I'm sorry monsieur, but I think the usual weapons are too mainstream."

CLANG!

"Not bad, Monsieur Kirk. You managed to block my attack pretty well with that toilet seat cover."

Urrrggghhh...my hands, they're trembling. His blows are downright heavy it sends shivers down my spine in addition of making my muscles felt weary. You may say its kind of a sparring but actually it's an easy going practice when we take turns blocking and attacking each other.

Anyway, what really surprises me is...how the hell did a mere toilet seat cover able to withstand the blows of such massive weapon?

Ah, now it's my turn...

"GAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Wielding the toilet seat cover with both hands I've landed a full swing towards his body sides, while spinning my body around, using the momentum created to increase the power of my strikes further. It lands quite a strong impact as it came contact with Sir Leon's weapon. A loud clanging sound resounds throughout the entire room, I've landed several powerful blows with that weapon of mine towards him and he manages to block it all marvelously without breaking a sweat, he's really a monster for sure.

Again he successfully blocked my strike, none of my attacks managed to faze him. He gave me a joyous smile towards me, while still holding down my attacks with ease.

"You've got a pretty decent stamina, mon. Most people wouldn't stand more than a few minutes when sparring with me, it seems that my blows got their muscles sore quickly, or they ran out of stamina while trying to hold off defending. I wonder why?"

It's been 30 minutes since we started our sparring. Seriously, I'm full of sweat already.

"Hey, sir. Can't we just call it a day now? It's night already and I'm also at my limit."

"Nah, just a little bit more. Personally I think you've already got a decent foundation on fighting, but it seems you're mostly relying on overpowered weapons to solve your troubles am I right? You won't learn anything that way, I do heard a saying that 'true warriors could utilize their skills in order to defeat each and every single powerful enemy by using a simple weapon'."

Where the hell did you hear that? Did you expect someone to defeat a Red Dragon by using a mere spoon?

"...just like what the Great King Agamemnon once said, he walks his talk perfectly by subduing a Red Dragon using a table spoon. Not only that, he could beat an entire legion of elite soldiers with adamantinum weapons just by using that Toilet Seat Cover you're wielding now."

King Agamemnon? Come to think of it, I've once heard that name before. He's known as the Legendary Master of Adventuring, able to utilize every object that he has right now to his advantage. He could also adjust the environment so it will be beneficial to him and be disastrous to his enemies. The King who collected many forgotten treasures of the ancient world, in addition of creating the first World Map ever.

"It's all about delivering all your feelings towards every single blow, that makes you able to overpower your enemies even with a simple weaponry."

Well it might be really rude for me to say this but, why don't you try beating me with a spoon instead of relying on such monstrous weapon? For some reason it made me really pissed off...

"Okay then let us do this one more time."

I'm all fired up.

The sounds of our weapons clashing resounds in this room for another 30 minutes. For that period I'm still unable to land even a single hit on him, and he seems to go easy on me this time with his blows, well before that he seems to be restraining himself a bit, that I managed to go away without any cut wounds. I could guarantee that I might even lost an arm or two if he manages to get really serious.

No, don't compare that overpowered stat I got with my poor performance, I'm not that good in battling actually.

"Can we end this already? I'm damn tired now and if I were to sleep right now my muscles will get all sore by tomorrow. Seriously you're such a slavedriver, sir Leon."

After about an hour of sparring, sir Leon's expression seemed a bit delirious.

"You're...pretty good...Monsieur Kirk..."

He fell down slumped on the floor with his blade beside him right after he finished saying these words. He seem to be unconscious.

Hey wait a minute, was there a greenish aura emanating from his body when I fought him? At first i didn't seem to notice because it looks really faint, but it's apparent enough for me to discern it.

"No way...enchantment spells?"

"Spot on. Leonard sure hates to lose eh? Well he did lost to you in the end even with these enchantment spells embedded while wielding a powerful weapon on top of it, add it up with you fighting fair and square, even with disadvantages as you're wielding that kind of silly weapon..."

"Stella? Since when did you..."

"Save the lengthy talks for later. Follow me, I want to ask you something."



"I see, so that's the reason you left her along instead of rushing towards her and trying to convince her to open up."

"Yeah, miss Stella. That's how it is with Carla, she doesn't like talking about her own personal matters very much, and she particularly hates being around many people."

We're drinking coffee together at the room that's located somewhere on the third floor. After wiping my sweat with the towel that she gave me, we sat there together in order to talk about Carla.

"Come to think of it, Kirk. I've never heard of the Sutherland family, even if you mentioned that they were famously known worldwide. Was it really strange for me to thought about it this way?"

"Errr...I don't know much about it really. I only heard so much about the Sutherlands from the books that I've read, sometimes I thought they're actually a group of fictional characters."

Miss Stella went back to sipping her coffee again, then she gazes at my left hand which is covered in my beloved leather gloves that prevented me from injury while wielding my weapons.

"Well then Kirk, letting that issues aside. Have you ever wondered why Leonard seem so intimidated on fighting you, that he tried urging me so badly to cast upon him the enchantment? A carefree person like you might not notice, but I could read his terrified feelings like an open book."

"I have no clue either."

"Hahaha, I suppose telling anything to you won't be fun. Okay, have a goodnight sleep then Kirk. We'll be off exploring our surroundings tomorrow, hope you and Carla could join us, okay?"

"Roger that."



"Zzzzz...zzzzz...zzzz..."

I see Carla soundly sleeping in the other room. And as I entered my own room...

The same girl I met this morning along with the fairies were standing with her back turned against me, the windows were sprung open, revealing the beautiful scenery of the night.

"Rose, is that you?"

"Ssshhh! Quiet down."

"W-what's the matter..."

"I beg you...please free me from the chains of our cruel Fairy Godmother...I couldn't stand it anymore."

I don't understand what she's talking about.

"Save me...Kirk..."

Saying this, a light pillar formed in her place and her body quickly vanishes inside it just like being sucked inside a vacuum.

"Hey wait! You still haven't explained to me what's going on!"

I quickly dashed towards it, not knowing what will await me on the other side. As my hand came into contact with this light, I felt my whole body gets sucked in with such incredible power.

And suddenly, there's only white.

That night, I saw a strange dream I haven't had before.

A woman so beautiful, brimming with eloquence sat on the throne filled with jeweleries emanating so many sparks of light having highly vibrant colors. The woman's behavior, albeit elegant, there's something about her that somehow gives me chills down my spine. Another interesting feature was her wearing a crown-like hat made of a really soft-looking silk and her facial features that gives me the impression of a woman underwent a plastic surgery to regain her looks.

"Rosaly." with a deep tone of voice, the woman spoke towards a person whose features weren't discernible since only her back were shown to me. The person whose name were being addressed with, she had an exotic-colored hair with the base color of silver, adorned with assorted vibrant colors that seem to float atop of her lustrous hair, vivid colors rendered half-transparent adorning the silver color of hers.

One thing I also noticed was about her wearing a really thin clothing which made my heart race.

No, Carla...please restrain yourself, it's just another girl...you can't be turned on just by seeing a girl with thin clothing!

"What is it, dearest mother?" replied the girl back, it seems she was afraid of that person whom she called 'mother'

"Bring forth the Celestial Sacrifices, it's about time we use them to replenish our youth. So said I, the great Fairy Godmother, to thee."

Gulp...

Sacrifices? The way she said that was really creepy!

"Certainly mother, we've always had them annually. But this time we've got something special that will guarantee our eternal youth for at least ten years."

I didn't like where this conversation was going.

"Who is this youth you speak of, Rosaly?"

The girl called Rosaly flicked her finger, which caused a large screen to appear out of thin air. Even if the direction of this conversation was really unpleasant, what really made me sick was...

"This is a healthy young man brimming with vitality, his name is Kirk Thompson."

It was his visage shown on that screen, he looked so miserable and hopeless, even more with that smile filled with naivety.

Realizing that it was really him, it brought forth a surge of uneasiness so great it finally awakens me.



"KIRK!"

The shock from that dream made me screamed on top of my voice, it really scares me if something were to happen to him. Who else would be more suitable to become my errand boy and usual punching bag? Uh, I'm so terrible...

MUNYU...

Come to think of it, one of my hands seem to touch something soft and squishy, and although it's pretty small in size, the certain object feels really pleasant to touch.

"You're so loud...Onee-chan...and please don't be too rough on my...uuuuguuu...you're squishing it too hard...it hurts..."

Misty? What the hell are you doing here? Are you the type to suddenly cling on strangers you just met yesterday and call them Onee-chan or something? I don't get it, I don't get it at all!

Hmm...she didn't seem to have wear any clothes on, and although I couldn't see her body as it was fully covered by the blanket, it really feels that I'm doing something really really wrong..

"Besides my name's not Kirk, it's Misty-pyon!"

There's something strange happening just now. Could it be...

Anyway, how come I felt so flustered just from the thought of looking at another girl's body? It's maybe due to the conditioning that I've never been changing together with the other girls since my school days.

"Guess I should have more restraint. It's not right for girls to be 'that' affectionate to each other, hence the apostrophe."

I pulled my hand out from her stuff that goes 'munyu'...

"Please don't show any restraint towards me, Onee-chan..."

She held my hand tight just when I'm about to pull it off. And how many times did I told you not to call me that? Oh right, I don't really mention it to her did I...

Moreover, I think her eyes were emitting a red light just now, it's creepy! Are you going to cut something off when you're not feeling pleasant right away?

Well whatever, since she seemed to be quite asleep, although she seems really proactive even when sleeping, I use my other hand to release the hand she use to held me and then having freed myself off, I finally got off from the bed.

"Sniff...sniff...am I not good enough for you...Nee-chan?"

Stop being such a spoiled brat, and stop calling me that. Moreover go put some clothes on! I could clearly see your naked body this way...

And though I did wanna say that, what comes to my mind first was...

"Ah, it's a bit flat."

Maybe I'm not the one to talk because my size were also pretty small.

"Uuuuu...you're so mean..."

Please don't show me that kind of face, Misty. I'm pretty flustered already when I look at your chest. Uh, I felt a bit guilty for making her that way...but I can't just help it since she looks really cute when she's that way.

i kinda want to bully her more.

"Nah, come to think of it, why are you acting so clingy towards the stranger you just met yesterday?"

"We're not really strangers to lov...I mean, take a look at this Dragon-shaped tattoo on my right hand, which is similar to yours, miss Carla. It's said that people with the same symbol are definitely related to each other...just like a family. I also got the feel that you're my long lost elder sister..."

I've had the feeling that you somehow made up the part about people having the same dragon crest were definitely related.

Though it kinda renders me astonished when she made me look at the same dragon crest at her...left hand.

"Quetzalcoatl." without me realizing it, I just read the ancient texts that were engraved below the dragon crest. Nah, the texts and the shape of her dragon and mine are completely different. She definitely didn't belong in the Sutherland family.

There's one thing which bothers me, Quetzalcoatl is one of the greatest patron gods of the Amarok tribes, beside the Phoenix. By any chance, were she actually the descendant of that legendary summoner tribe that still remains as one of the most powerful clans today? We certainly have quite a number of Grand Inquistors originating from Amarok, as that clan were famous for bringing forth people with extraordinary leadership abilities.

If she came with that particular crest, she must be some really powerful summoner, as that crest could only be bestowed upon the chosen ones of Amarok, from what I've read so far actually.

"Huh? What are you talking about, Miss Carla?"

Hah, it seems that she couldn't really read the ancient texts just like Kirk.

"Nevermind about that. It seems our dragon crests were actually different so I'm sure you must be mistaken me for another per..."

As I reached out to her left hand, touching it with my right, and electrical shock burst forth from our hands.

"Kyaaah!"

"Uguuuu.."

I'm not joking, a powerful bolt of lightning just appeared outta nowhere when our hands met, disappearing quickly few seconds after. It's really surprising for both of us.

"What the..."

"Miss Carla, our crests seem to be resonating with each other."

Come to think of it, I felt a warm sensation on my right hand, and for the first time my dragon crest starts emitting a Crimson light, the same also goes for hers. The difference is, her light was that of an Azure color.

"W-what's happening..."

The light keeps on shining for a brief moment, then it's all but gone now.

Uh, that reminds me. I kinda forgot to check up on Kirk today for a bit.

But first things first, I need to sort things out with this kind-of-irresistible girl.

I love hearing stories when I was still a child, even now these tales color my whole world, giving me the inspiration to look towards a brighter future.

Both my sister, who's a few years older than me, and my father, they told me quite a lot of them. My sister often read to me the stories from her favorite books, while my father told me the stories about his adventuring experience, both of them were so fascinating. Though there's one day when I grew bored of listening to my sister's fairy tales.

But it's so hard for me to blatantly tell her about it, since she's so kind and gentle to me all this time. I tried my best to give her the impression that I'm always interested, though all I wanted to see was her smile, that vibrant, joyous smile, just like that of an angel. Nevertheless, as much I wanted to hide this truth, it will come unveiled to her sooner or later.

There's one day when she had stopped telling me these stories. At first, it beckons to me that I made her upset by my pretentious attitude in the past, about my half-willingness to appreciate her efforts. Come to think of it, what kind of things could possibly made me bored of these stories I'm once fascinated in?

"So, Carla. Did you grew tired of these already?"

"N-no...sis, it's really fun to hear your stories...I don't want you to stop."

"It's okay, I understand everything from the start. To tell you the truth, i only read this sweet fairy tales to you because..."

As a children, we need to be filled with delusional thoughts in order to survive. Didn't we thought about an idea of a perfect utopian world where everything will end up well? Though this morbid truth behind our reality might completely ruin our innocence, that's why these fairy tales exist; to sugarcoat all of this ugliness in order to make we turn our heads away and keep on being delusional.

That is, until we're strong enough to accept the reality as it is.

"But why these stories have to be so beautified? I feel that this kind of thing doesn't feel right at all!"

My sister gently pats me in the head as I said this

"Because it's a common knowledge for us to seek something beautiful. It's only natural for us not to showcase something ugly because they're ugly, remember that. For example, would a girl like you do something unrefined like picking your nose in public?"

I don't like this preachy tone of hers.

"Of course I would, what's wrong on trying to be myself? I will spit everywhere and do unrefined things if I want to."

That line seems to shock her as she quietly backed off and stood silent, it looks like she's been pretty upset about things like accepting the reality as it is.

"Sis, I would like to see more of your ugly side. Even if like you say, it's not natural to show your ugliness, I would like to see it...I want to know more of you."

There I said to her, that the true beauty will unravel when she's not afraid anymore to show her ugly side.

Then few days later. It really shocked me when she suddenly came to me and gave me a tender kiss on the lips.

Yeah, it was my first...and I'm still in my childhood.

My first kiss was stolen by my own older sister.

"Carla, this is my own ugly side that you want to see...am I disgusting?"

"Yes."

She's currently 15 years old at that time, I'm just 12 and what's this?

This is the secret that I don't want to tell anyone because it's really absurd and people will just laugh at it.



"Ahhhhnnnnn...that's so cute...so you did kiss your own sister...miss Carla...it's so wonderful...kyaaaaaa..."

What the...why did Misty manage to hear all my ramblings? Did I really said my narration out loud? Furthermore please do put some clothes on, it's so uncomfortable seeing a loli girl that's laughing in the bed all naked!

"W-why did you know all of this, I didn't say anything!"

"Really? Misty thinks you're acting weird just before, while not really being conscious about your surroundings. Uh...Misty's not really comfy calling you with miss Carla, can I call you Onee-chan instead?"

"Errr...sure."

Since both of us had the dragon crests after all...I guess you could...

"Onee-chan, the fact that our dragon crests resonated is proof enough that we're actually sisters. Our blood bonds must be related very strongly in order for the resonance to occur, that's from what I've known."

I don't really understand what she just said earlier. But here's a thing that came to mind...

"Well, if we're actually blood-related to the point you could consider us to be sisters, we must have some similarities in looks, am I right, Misty? From what I've observed, you didn't resemble either my elder sister and me at all. And if you narrow it down to just me and you, the only similarities are our lesser chest sizes."

"Uguuuu..Onee-chan is bullying me again."

Oh well, there she goes again.

"Jokes aside, what time is it? I'll be checking up on Kirk in the meantime since there's something that makes me worried about him."

"Okay, Misty will get the clock for Nee-chan."

Still naked on the bed, she traced the air with her fingers, forming an azure light which has the shape of a circle. The next moment, I saw the circle materializes into an ethereal-looking clock that floats in mid-air.

It's still three in the morning. Damn, so that's why she seem a bit sleepy.

"Wait a minute...the clock is up right there, so why all the trouble for..."

I just realized that in one of the end tables beside the bed there's a desk clock in it.

"Zzzzzz..."

Hey Misty, don't go asleep just when it's convenient!

"Medea...nee-chan..."

Huh? She seem to be muttering something, is that the name of her older sister?

Well anyway, it's not good for her to sleep like this, with her chest fully exposed like this.

I fixed her sleeping position so her head touches the pillow, in addition with fixing the blanket so she won't catch a cold.

"There, that should do this."

Finishing up making the bed, I turned my back to her and start walking towards the door.

"Thank you...nee-chan."

Even if I'm not her actual older sister, hearing these sincere words really fills up my heart with warmth.

"Please make me your slave next...unyuuu..."

No.

At the second thought, I'll take my words back.



I entered Kirk's room, and to be honest, I'm kinda surprised to see the room left empty, with the windows sprung open.

There's the full moon shining gracefully in the sky, which gives me the creepy feeling of a notorious pedophile lurking down the streets.

Where could he be?

Ah there's a note on the desk, it reads.

"To Carla Sutherland, your friend is in our possession right now. Go meet us at the designated place, and come alone, if you want your friend to live."

Hmm...the note doesn't seem that threatening at all, they're not creative either, this kind of message is too mainstream. Though it somewhat bothers me about it, when I saw that dream and found out the fact that Kirk isn't here right now.

CLICK!

The sound of door opening behind me.

It really made me went full alert. And so I pulled my revolver from my pants' pocket, being in position to fire away as I see opportunity.

Yes I made sure that I've got my weapon of choice with me at all times.

"Who's there?" I said, to the lingering presence behind me.

Gotta be cautious from now on as there's no telling what happens next.

Inside this darkness, I felt an overpowering presence behind me, sending cold shivers down my spine. Holding my revolver, be prepared to open fire as soon as possible.

Come to think of it, why did I choose this revolver out of all the melee weapons I've become too accustomed of? And why not the crossbows that I've spent adventuring with for so many years?

I remember clearly before my first time adventuring with my father by the age of 10, there's this big crossbow in which I practiced shooting so many arrows on during my spare time before I began my first adventure. And when we both begin our adventures that started by the time of my school's summer holiday, I managed to shoot down many goblins to death in order to aid my father when he seem to be overwhelmed by these large number of enemies.

Yes, his weapon was a revolver. And he's really fast at shooting these things, the revolver which was imbued by his magical energy as bullets, the rapid fire coming from his gun was so devastating it manages to clear the entire legion of monsters so quickly. It seems my worries were just a mere superstition at all.

I guess I just wanted to become just like my father, whom I admired so much.

"No no, you're spacing out...young lady, that's not a good thing to..."

"!"

I felt the presence of someone in front of me. It made me pull the trigger by reflex, unleashing barrage of shoots just like an assault rifle, imbuing it with my magical energy as the bullet.

Burst of magical rays in crimson colors came forth from the gun's barrel, with incredible velocity it struck down the black shadowy figure that's about to move from their position before they eventually gets pinned down towards the ground. These bursts of light pinned down the captured fellow just like a flurry extremely sharp throwing knives, piercing away at the hands and feet, with few of them impaling the body, making painful sounds of heavily sliced flesh.

After a while, these magical rays start to glow and in one moment it becomes filled with luminosity, my vision gets enveloped in this glimmering light and then a faint sound of explosion echoes throughout the room.

"Haa...haaa...haaa.."

No good, this is the first time I felt really nervous. Damn, I've been adventuring for so long but why did this kind of situation made me lost my cool? My heartbeat escalates quickly along with the suspenseful feeling I experienced at this moment. Faint trails of smoke start to form in front of the gun's barrel and then I start focusing myself to what's before me, by the time the blinding light completely dissipates.

"Noo...did I kill that person?"

There goes a dead figure, fully covered in black clothes, pools of blood starts forming from where the body lies...it was kind of a grotesque spectacle as the body parts seem to be somewhat scattered around.

"Mppphhh!"

"Easy...easy...here's a mint leaf to calm you down."

This voice was far different than the previous one, it was a really calm and shooting voice belonging to a woman. Her slender hand starts caressing my face, then she puts something in my mouth that gives me a revitalizing feel, it really calms me down.

"Uhhh...thank...you...guuuhhh..."

For a moment, I felt my consciousness dissipating for just few seconds, but as I take another look across the room, the dead body along with the pool of blood forming, altogether with the presence behind me, they all seem to vanish without a trace; It's just like all those that happened earlier was just an illusion.

Knock...knock

"Carla, what's with that loud sound earlier? Please go to sleep now okay...huh..."

The sound of door opening.

Stella came inside the room holding a flashlight. She seem a bit surprised about me waving the gun around, it made her drop the object she's carrying to the ground, which she gently picks jup again after a brief pause.

"Err...I...uhh.."

Pat...pat...

"It's okay, just take a deep breath, relax..."

I don't know why, but it somewhat calms me down when she pats my head like that.

Following her suggestion, I took a deep breath, inhaling this briskly morning air that came from the widely open window.

"Now hold it in, feel your whole body being fully immersed in tranquility..."

Yes, my mind kinda seem calmer now.

"...then release it."

Letting out my breath again, now I'm able to gather my thoughts about what just occurred.

"Okay Carla, please tell me everything you know 'bout this, I might be able to help. I am also troubled by the fact that Kirk wasn't here at this time."

"Uh...okay."



I told her everything from when I first found the mysterious note on the desk to the fearsome presence behind me after I checked out the note, the creepy sound of a man in front of me, and the tender, comforting sound of a woman behind, ending it with how I'm spaced out for a brief moment only to find things being reverted as it once were.

"Hmm..what you told me might be true, as there's some gunshot holes right here and there. And you seem sharp enough not to have random hallucinations...but to tell you the truth, I've had no slightest idea about what actually happened, really."

Stella gently plays with her hair as she said this, stroking it while glancing sideways at me, which causes her brownish hair to freely fall towards her sides.

Uh, she looks really beautiful when she acts like this. And it's much different than Misty, as this woman gives me the feel of an adult charm.

"I see, b-but...do you have any clues to where Kirk might be? I...I'm really worried 'bout him."

Not good, why did I stutter when I spoke to her right now. And how terrible I am not to actually worry about this longtime partner of mine!

"Elrond might know the exact location to where your friend was taken. Here, did you see this fairy dust?"

She turned on her flashlight, and moved it over to the notes which I found earlier on that desk, ther I saw a glittering sparkle comprised of assorted colors on the side of the texts.

"Umm...yeah.."

"It truly bothers me to hear the occasional reports of missing people from the city. The captors never left any proof, but this time...the perpetrator must be quite an amateur to left such foolish trace like this. Without doubt, my assumption that the fairies are the one doing all this madness has been proven."

Well, why are you so proud of this when you haven't managed to brought anyone back? This kind of bothers me too...

"P-please help me rescue Kirk! H-he's my precious partner..."

"Don't lie Carla...my guess is that you could care less for a people like him. I think a toughie like him would be alright even if the entire world faces an apocalypse...what I'm really worried about is...about the fate of the other townspeople who's captured by these creatures..."

"I guess you're right. But I felt really bad for neglecting him..."

Pat..pat...

Uh, why did she pat my head again?

"No worries, Carla. We should thank your friend for revealing the enemy's location."

"Errrr...I don't know how to do that, when it's based only by faint clues like this."

"Yes I know, even if you already adventured a lot, there's a pretty unknown method that we use in order to detect the whereabouts of a certain enemy...well just take it easy."

She brought me back into my room and bid me farewell. There I saw Misty sleeping gracefully on the bed, with such a cute sleeping face that makes me wanna cuddle her.

I guess I'll sleep with her again for now.

Please be safe until then, Kirk.

Wear your seatbelts properly.

"Please be safe until then, Kirk. Wear your seatbelts properly."

I heard the voice of a young girl calling onto me, amidst this half-conscious state I am in.

On this state, I've dreamed quite a number of lucid dreams, and I soon become reminded of many events that happened in the past. Yes, it was a dream about things that I've become quite familiar with.

The current state before completely waking up, where you would still remember your dreams vividly. I tried to reach out towards the recollection of my dreams, hoping to find any sound clues for my future course of actions.



Yes, I remember this dream.

Every night, I tried my best to write something in my diary, which I kept at a secret place. At least that's my habit I kept since I was 18 before I met Carla, after graduating from high school in the city I'm living in; the place was big enough to call it a city, though for preserving the traditions they kept calling it a 'village' so that kinda puzzles me.

Before graduating from school, I could care less about my future, since being at school made me work less as an errand boy, these are the good times. Though the summer holidays were so irritating since there's so much work to do right at that time.

People in this 'village' seem to enjoy working, but not me. I'm just working to be fed with modest meals and to get some mediocre wages which will accumulate to the point I could finally left the 'village' and become a free man on my own.

That's my dream, being free from this shackles. I originally want to secretly leave right after my 22nd birthday in order to go adventuring, but it seems the wait was much shorter than I imagined.

It all thanks to her, a girl by the name of Carla Sutherland.

Anyways, upon watching myself in this lucid dream, I saw the past me writing something on the diary, after he finished doing all these routines of self-expression, he turned off the lights to his room and went back to his bed. Before that, he put away the diary, placing it somewhere on the top of a tall wardrobe only he could reach. I figure that nobody would ever realize this secret place aside from himself.

I waited for a bit until the past me starts snoring, then I turned on the lights, and took the diary from the wardrobe's top; slowly flipping on the pages which made me feel a strong sense of nostalgia upon skimming the previous entries.

[Today will mark the first entry of this journal belonging to Kirk Thompson. On the present time of this writing, I'm still 17 years old. Oh yeah, what kind of things do I want to write? I don't know, I'll just write in here that today's test sucks, and I'm possibly the only one who get a bad mark in the class]

Huh...

I didn't know that I already started writing the diary ever since I was 17. And if I recall again, I had multiple diary books which I bought altogether as a spare if in any case the current book I'm writing in finally reached the last page.

Though it's kinda odd since I only saw one diary book in here, which I'm currently holding now.

Let's see what was written recently.

[Today's 20th of May, marking my 18th birthday. The celebration was pretty modest and they let me have a day off from working. Anyways, I will finally be graduating this June,

and since I'm too stupid to go into Metropolis in order to get higher means of education, I might as well stay here, waiting until the right time comes where I could finally leave as a full-fledged adult.

Since all of my obligations towards the school were pretty much finished after barely passing the Final Exam, I practically have nothing more to fulfill, there's only the monotonous routines of never ending work waiting for me, that which I wouldn't anticipate for every break of dawn.

Though there's something that beckons me, inspired by the words of a random stranger whom I met few years ago amidst my peak of depression. He said to me about waiting patiently in order to get everything that I wanted. After talking to him for some lengthy minutes, I came back home a bit late...and surprisingly that is the first time I've ever went back much later...and not being grounded at all.

Recently I figured out something, that every time I went for sleep, I gave myself onto the forces of the universe, taking me to whatever place it want to take me. So I just wished, the next time I tried to sleep, I will wish for the universe to take me towards a better world, when my wishes would naturally came true.

A world where nice things were likely to happen, a place where I could finally attain the freedom which I longed for so much.

It just feels like every day starting from now was just a part of these 'waiting hours' for the moment when I could finally gave myself onto this sleep, drifting and drifting in my dreams toward the places unknown, until I finally reach the final destination, only to be taken further away beyond my miniscule comprehension.

For all the lack of this intelligence, I could only wish for something so absurd and mostly make-believe, things that would gave me an insulting laugh when other people heard of this. This is the secret which I kept only for me and myself, locked in a place that could only be reached within my hands.

I wish for the universe to take me towards the place I truly belong in, where upon waking up would fill me with hopes and dreams. Until then, I shall wait until the right time comes when I shall make a crucial decision which will shape my future.

Although people might think otherwise, I'm not the person who would actually settle for less in life. I'm actually a kind of rebellious person, but the circumstances given renders me unable to act against the tides and just patiently crawl in my darkness, hoping to find this light which will guide me towards the place I'm looking for.

Until then, this concludes the waiting hours for today as I'm going to give myself towards the force of universe by time I laid myself on this bed. It will soon begin again at the next day, and the cycle will repeat itself until the time when a dramatic turn of events will soon unfold.]

A dramatic turn of events, eh?

I closed the diary and put it on its rightful place, on top of the wardrobe.

Then as I tried exiting the room, I find my consciousness disappear, and all that I saw in front of me was just a complete blackness.

Perhaps the forces of this universe was taking me towards my rightful place once again

You'll never know what happens next, that's kind of the things which makes it exciting.

It feels like I've just awakened from this strange dream of seeing my past. The faint-sounding melody which emanates from my surroundings pulled my consciousness altogether intact; it was a beautiful song that I heard, and hearing the owner of this voice singing with all of her heart truly puts my heart at ease, revitalizing all of this weary recesses my soul has.

Yes, I could tell very well that it was a voice of a young girl, humming lyricless notes with a sublime voice which sounds like an ensemble of angelic string arrangements layered altogether. She held upon her vocals with a terrific note progression from low to high notes along with a slow yet steady beat which gives her vocals a sense of tranquility, the level of control she has with her voice, and the intensity of emotions which her voice conveys, it truly blows my mind away.

Whilst closing my eyes, basking in this harmonious vocal melody of hers, I figure myself ending up in a comfy bed, my head resting in a fluffy pillow that's really soft and squishy. There I thought, well this might be the world of paradise I am looking for, this place where much better things will come to me.

I guess I'll sleep again.

"Hey...K-Kirk, please wake up...it's morning already..."

Hmm...this voice, I think I've heard of it somewhere. She does kinda sound like a loli, which definitely qualifies for my loli-licious criteria. Though I think the singing voice were somehow stopped. Could it be...well, my brain doesn't work well at the moment so let's scratch it for now.

"I will wake up if you call me 'Onii-chan'."

"Uuuuuu...this is too embarrassing...I can't do it."

"Then I won't wake up."

"H-hey...please don't go back to sleep..."

This girl is so silly. I already woke up but why haven't she realized the obvious already?

I felt both of her slender hands shaking my shoulder, she must be quite an adult already judging by the size of her hand which my body felt. Though that angelic voice, it gives me the impression of someone much younger.

"P-please wake up Onii-chan...if not...then I'll sing for you until you finally open your eyes"

Sing..for me? Don't tell me that she's the one singing just earlier. Though my eyelids felt too heavy for me to open my eyes, and my body feels really sluggish for me to move around.

"Like I thought, it's too embarrassing for me...ummm...if it's alright, please hear my song once again, Kirk."

T-this is!

Yes, it was without doubt that she's the one singing the song earlier while I'm still half-conscious. Upon hearing her crystal-clear voice, my mind drifts away into another world filled with glimmering sparkles. Her song made me thought of a sparkling ocean with emerald colors, drowning inside it towards the depths of the sea, forever smiling no matter how dreadful my outcome would be, and this melancholic melody of her voice was the only thing I could hear down these imaginary depths of sea I'm immersed in.

"Aaaa...aaaa...aaaaaa..."

Elegantly hitting a high-pitched tone with her voice, she blows my mind once again. It envelops my whole vision with light, even in this state with my eyes fully closed. The light was really blinding to me, and then I realized that I've already closed it...unable to withheld the luminescence before me even further. She continues holding on her pitch, augmenting the time within each powerful release just like a very experienced Opera singer, did she even breathe? How could she sang with such intensity along with such powerful vibrato coming along this level of pitch which would probably ruin the vocal-chords of most vocalists?

There I just realized that I've already opened my eyes, instantly fixating it towards the person right in front of me. I just can't believe what I just saw...

It was Rose who sang to me earlier, and she's still singing to me while standing up about few feet apart from my bed. The visage of hers just after I opened my eyes were instantly burned to my memory; while showered by the majestic morning sunlight from the sides, she reached out her hand towards me while opening her mouth wide, releasing such intensity of vocal harmonies that quickly envelops me in her rapture.

Her appearance just before was much more natural...if the words 'beautiful' and 'innocent' couldn't describe the charm of her looks.

There wasn't this assorted array of colors swirling around her hair and body...which made it even clearer to see the vivid brilliance of her silver hair and her pure-white dress which envelops her slender body, it's also the look of her own grey eyes that stares down to my soul, which kept me frozen intact in my place, unable to avert my sight.

When she finally noticed my curious gaze, she quickly finished up her vocals, ending it up in a somewhat anticlimactic way, I noticed her face blushing heavily...was she embarrassed when she finally realized that someone's actually watching her while she sang?

Several seconds of awkward silence had passed before us.

"Errr...uhhh...we finally meet again eh?" I tried starting out the conversation to break off this awkward atmosphere.

"Yes...but...umm...that is...errrr...sorry to disturb you with my voice...again I'm sorry..."

"Why are you apologizing? The pleasure's all on me for hearing such a nice song, to tell you the truth, I didn't expect you to be into singing at all, so yeah...I was surprised hahaha..."

Both of us made a silly laugh, and in my case, it's out of embarrassment that I have no choice but to do it, in order to avert myself from this feeling of wanting to hide out in a dark corner.

"I see, t-thank you very much...K-Kirk.."

She formed a vibrant smile on her lips, which made my heart skipped a beat.

I felt this burning sensation in my face, I guess that it might be partially true that I'm somehow lovestruck at the time we first met up.

No good, I have to keep my focus. Whilst trying to recall about the past events, I just muttered a random thing that came to my head.

"By the way Rose...although we just met a few times, can you explain the reason why you came up to me asking for help before? You know I'm just a random stranger and I don't think that I had any qualities on being a helpful person at all."

And I remember that she came to me asking for a help, and when I followed her, I got through a weird teleportation portal that renders me unconscious, in addition of giving me some pretty strange dreams. One more question, where is this place really?

"T-that is..."

"Well, you don't have to answer right away. But there's something I must know no matter what...where is this place and what kind of help would you request of me?"

Judging from the interior of this room, it looks the exact same as the luxurious modern homes with the Air Conditioners, Plasma TV with a DVD player and gaming console on the desk drawer below the TV. And beside the TV, there's a stack of Anime DVDs just like what I saw along my adventures, being sold at various stores along the way.

At the end table just beside my bed there's also a stack of several manga titles; just by looking from the cover, it seems to be some assorted collection of shoujo manga.

She does love reading these kind of manga, I guess.

...

"Rose?"

"Y-yes!"

"About your previous question...yeah, this is the Fairy Kingdom, and I like your assistance for the task that's concerning the Godmother herself."

What the hell? And how does it have anything to do with me?

Well, let's just hear what she have to say next.

Note : this is an independent POV, meaning the narration told would not affect the actual knowledge of the Protagonists, so well...let's get back to the story

I have to take note of myself that regardless of all my thorough lack of talents whilst devoid of all kinds of motivation, there's one thing that I can assure you about something I'm capable of besides being a completely useless freeloader in all of this tangible occasions within each and every single day I've lived up until now. Within this uneventful days of myself feeling empty and obnoxious as a lonesome teenager without future within the streets of Avalon, there I thought about something which I can do that many others can't.

It all begins within one night of pondering about my boundlessness of stupidity, after the umpteenth time of dropping out from school, being labelled as a dunce due to my incapability to learn. Well, you could see it was obvious that I was grounded. Being told to stay inside this dark, cramped room of mine in the attic, doing things like pondering about my mistakes on how I had been such a disgraceful shame put onto my family, like my entire existence up for now were all had been an unsinkable curse. Well, it's through no fault of my own they should suffer due to my utter stupidity as I'm merely just doing things in whichever way I can.

Why can't they just accept me as I am? I've longed for a family which in turn would accept me as the rightful sons of theirs. Me who couldn't do worth anything, but at least I'm still alive, breathing, healthy, and most importantly, I'm happy regardless of all these shortcomings of mine, in contrast of the genius kid in some school I went to, she never smiled at all, it turns out a year later that she committed suicide in her early teens. Was it due to the notion that beckons her, the longing for petty things such as appreciation?

I could safely said that in one way or another, she had reached upon the stairways of enlightenment. You couldn't truly survive in this world by continuously denying oneself, just to attune towards these standards of normality. That which I understand all too well after all of these years on my isolation, time when I've grown up to be a young adult which in turn would become something I could only dream in this far back of past.

Yeah, I wanted to be an adventurer so much.

And then I realized, within these multitude of shortcomings that I had. I know all too well that I could have bigger dreams and delusions that were much greater than everyone else I know. That to be said, I can't do things worth doing other than dreaming all day about unrealistic scenarios that probably won't happen in my life, ever. But it all struck me down about the power of dreams, because of some of the wildest things I wished actually happens few months to few years in the future. And the rest of my wishes would probably happen sooner or later, it's just only a matter of time really.

At the second thought, what kind of things that definitely inspire me on becoming an adventurer...let's see...

Basically, being an adventurer means you would be able to traverse beyond the scopes that would be considered as acceptable by the society in general. And thus it will made yourselves become free from most of the bounds given in this universe. That's right, being an adventurer means that you will have the chance of a lifetime to obtain your glorious freedom!

Furthermore, it enables you to make out with random corpses you found along the forest path without anyone finding out! That would be a much different issue when you're desperate for it while still being a normal villager, sneaking into a place of burial to dug out some corpse and then make out with it. Well at least in the forest path the corpses will still be flesh without any embalming substances that would be very hazardous to health. And to sum it up, being an adventurer makes it easy to find a random corpse rather than being caught off by the guards and then be sentenced to prison!

It would enable you the right to spy on fairies, with the alibi of gathering information about the current happenings of this magical world, because adventurers would have the reason to do so. Because if you're just a normal townspeople, you would be labeled as a pedophile right away, which isn't a good thing because the people in Avalon generally hates pedophiles that continually aiming for their cute elven sons and daughters.

Also, you could run along with a half-naked werewolf, wearing matching boxers down the celestial beaches. Which signals the intense bonding of manliness, at least it's much better than hanging out with emo vampires of course, but I think emo vampires are especially a good company since well...they're very popular with girls, and he probably had so many girlfriends, it could be even much more than the times I had been kicked out from school plus the times I've been grounded because I'm so stupid.

There's also a lot of other benefits including being freed from the obligation of paying taxes, the liberty of traveling around countries and nations in general without having to carry out bothersome passports, visa or any other things that took damn complex procedures to make, just simply state that you're an adventurer, and they will let you in. Regardless of the country being at the state of peace or war, and even while they're at war, you could also said that you also work out as a mercenary, they would appreciate extra help, in addition of being able to make extra dough on top of that!

It also allows you the liberty to break in the random houses of people in town, without them being suspicious of you suddenly entering their house. Then you would be free to break every single thing inside the house for finding a certain item, and opening a random treasure chest, taking away the item while still could be getting away with it! You could also earn money with the most absurd way possible by randomly smacking the townspeople to get a certain amount of gold. Be sure to turn the weapons' hostility to off, and there leaves you all day without having to worry about having a stable job!

Of course I know a lot about this since I played a lot of RPG games as a kid, and until now RPG games has been my favorite, it allows me to have a more philosophical outlook about live in general by itself. And by that I had become a dreamer with a bright future as an adventurer.

Additional note : these are the excerpt of the old notes from the Elder which could be found taking a dump naked in front of the greenhouse during the present time. It's originally found in notebooks that looks pretty fresh as it was in the lapse of time spanning about 50 years since it's first written. The elder went as an adventurer in the age of 14, the next year after he was dropped out from school for the umpteenth time, and he still wrote on his notebooks during the time. He was married by the age of 17 and got about 3 children, one of them would be Stella's father. The elder's current age is 62 years old, and Stella's currently 22 years old, go figure the approximation of the rest.

By the way, these documents were recently named as Elder Scrolls, because it sounds cool and it belongs to the Elder.

"Carla...Carla..."

It was a similar kind of dream which I had some time ago; I heard my father's voice, calling my name over and over again until I finally realized that he's right there, giving me a smile of utmost sincerity. Though this time, it was me being my current self, watching the scenery that seems to belong in my past, when I was still a kid playing around in the house's courtyard.

"What is it, father?"

The one replying wasn't me, but the past me, a little girl with long red hair that reaches up to the shoulder, wearing an innocent looking white dress that perfectly complements her smooth white skin - if only it wasn't being somehow tainted by the dirt and mud that seem to belong in the same courtyard.

She appears to be playing around energetically around the house with father; who appears just like his old self - with gazes that struck down the heart of whoever has seen it with awe, tall yet athletic stature and a somewhat thin mustache. Compared to my hair color, my father has a blond hair, the same with my sister. I think he told me once I got my crimson-red hair from my mother, whom he didn't really mention much. And every time he mentions something about her, his expression seem to darken a bit, a subtle change of expression which was pretty questionable for people like him who's able to maintain a poker face at all times.

Rumors from the townspeople said that my mother was a part of the demon race. And she disappears as soon as I was born, for what reasons I don't know.

"Do you want to know something...about your mother?"

My father wasn't exactly talking to me, he was talking to the past me over there, still retaining her innocence unlike the present me who often think such perverted thoughts each time she was distracted.

"No need to, father. I know that mother ran away because your ding ding was so small."

I guess the past me wasn't so innocent back then.

"C-Carla...please don't talk about this in a loud voice you know...and I think mine's about the average size...ahahahaha..."

You could say that I was amongst one of the few people who could destroy his composed poker face in some unexpected occasions.



I woke up again this early in the morning. It seems that I haven't managed to get enough sleep for last night, since I've been quite disturbed about the fact that Kirk actually went missing just before.

Feeling the comfy blanket and pillow that gently brushes against my body, I lazily rolled around my bed along with stretching my hands and feet; doing them out little by little, in order to revitalize a certain amount of my energy to finally start my day.

It's not like every day that I felt truly sluggish, since I used to be a morning person, unlike a certain person who's being truly a slacker. All of my previous nights were mostly spent on sleeping inside a tent, with only a thick leather the tent has to provide the comfortable feeling in order for me to sleep tight.

Probably, it's because of the uncomfortable environment that I've been sleeping in mostly, which made my subconscious mind felt obliged to wake up as soon as possible.

"Ahhhnnnn...Misty...please don't insert it into my...so...hard...mmmhhhh..."

"Be quiet Lucian! Stop making such loud moans...besides that, you're a boy aren't you? You should be ashamed moaning like a girl like that, it's really annoying! You'll never get a girlfriend that way if you continue acting that way."

"B-but...I'm s-scared...you're putting it deep inside my...uhhhh...I'm going to break...I think it's bleeding."

"Really...you...and I'm doing it as gently as possible, you know? Aren't you just trying to pull my leg around...huh..."

"Well you shouldn't worry about too much on it...besides aren't you a lesb-"

WHACK!

"So you could try some weird jokes on me and I won't be turned on in the slightest by it, you hear? Lucian you idiot...YOU'RE TRULY A BIG IDIOT!"

"M-Misty...I'm s-sorry...I didn't mean to..."

"You're truly a meanie."

...

...

...

SLAM!

I guess it's me who should feel bad for eavesdropping on them. I hid my face inside the blanket, pretending to be sleeping, because their conversation just earlier were too stimulating for me. I must be making such weird expression on my face right now.

"Miss Carla."

"Kyaaaaa! What's it...what's about?" I truly jumped from my blanket as some creepy high-pitched voice just went through my ears from a really close distance.

"Your sleeping face is really cute."

Hah, I hate this kind of pretentious pick-up lines.

"Yeah I know ri-" due to my irritation I took a glance on the source of this voice...

It was a really cute girl with a blond hair tied back in ponytails, she wore quite a thin shirt and some casual pants which looks really provocative since it truly show her firm, shapely legs.

There's also her slender physique that doesn't seem to have any excess fat, along with her alluring thin waist and flat chest that's kinda...

No it's wrong...it's wrong to get turned on by another girl like this...

"Miss...Carla?" it was her adorable voice which made my heart truly melt. Kinda different from Misty since hers was a bit husky and...wait, isn't this the same voice which I heard earlier...

"You're Lucian...right...you're a...uhh...right?"

"That's right, miss Carla...and I'm genuinely A GUY."

Seriously?

"No way...how can a guy be this...I'm completely defeated..."

Well, it's not like I had that much of a self-esteem with my own looks, and I really didn't care about it that much...

"Mmm...no...no...don't think of me that way miss Carla...rather than being adorable like a girl's..I'd rather be manly like mister Kirk."

Huh, it appears that Lucian's actually a normal guy after all, despite his looks.

"...besides I think above all of these, a cool and laid-back, not to mention a very cute girl like you is definitely my ty-"

"That aside Lucian, what are you doing there with Misty earlier?"

Lucian gets startled out of sudden because I cut his words right down in the middle. Really, you couldn't really judge a book by its cover huh, he seem to be quite an arrogant womanizer when left with another girl who's actually a stranger to him.

"She's just cleaning my ears."

Somehow it made my blood boil, how could he treat Misty who seem to be like a close friend to him, just like that? Even more, poking fun at her when she's actually doing him such a nice favor!

"Go apologize to her."

It's kind of understandable how Misty even got mad from that, especially now I know that she's probably had an interest in him too.

"O-okay..."

This time, it's Lucian who's walking towards the door, and before he finally left, he said these words to me.

"The Elder had figured out where mister Kirk had been held captive. Please get changed quickly, we'll be leaving right away after you finished the breakfast."

Hmm...yeah, we got to start looking for Kirk as soon as possible. But why is it, even though I'm his long time partner, it's me who had the least of concern about his safety?

Probably because he seem to had such great luck upon surviving in the gravest times before.

"Oh...got it...thanks for the info."

Lucian then just nod once then gave me a smile. He's probably quite happy that I'm not the one who would fall as an easy prey to his pick-up lines?

Besides I think he's just poking fun at me. He probably has another love interest...could it be...

Kirk, you definitely should watch your behind by the time you got back with us.

"We must hurry, Carla Sutherland. Your friend Kirk would really be in a grave danger if we don't go out soon." and so the wise elder had said

It doesn't seem really convincing that Kirk had told me about the Elder's outrageous actions such as taking a dump naked in the open. But judging by the way this old geezer made such unreasonable demands, I could somehow believe that.

But still, I've got to finish the breakfast slowly, savoring each and every bite of this delicious meal for this morning, in addition of gulping the milk down slowly. For some reason the food today tasted really delicious, and the milk was also fantastic. Though due to the Elder's enigmatic revelation, it left me with utter nervousness it made me want to hole myself inside the bathroom, taking a dump slowly.

This comfortable feeling I got when I sat in the toilet seat right now pretty much had alleviated some of my nervousness earlier, though somehow the ambient sounds inside this place got me the vibe of anxiety mixed up with a temporary feelings of security, kinda felt a bit hard to explain really. But I guess it's the feeling which really made you want to take a dump.

Speaking of which, I wonder where Misty and Lucian had gone. They didn't seem to be here when I went downstairs for breakfast, even though everyone's actually still enjoying their time savoring their meal. I guess Lucian must have lied by saying that everyone's already done with theirs...but for what reason really?

Well, he may had gone to where Misty might be in order to apologize or something, that's what I figured out so far.

And so I would gather m thoughts upon where still enjoying my tim-

"Carla Sutherland, there you are!"

I felt the toilet door suddenly sprung open regardless of me just locking it earlier. And from the door comes the Elder, shouting aloud with a somewhat perverted face, so annoying it makes me want to shot him.

...

My hands moved on reflex before I could realize it. As my thoughts waver around, there I pulled out the revolver from my pants that's been partially pulled down, with my 'vulnerable' body parts still covered by my clothes. And with a quick aim, I fully charged it with my agitated feelings after being harassed in such deprived manner by this old fart.

"Die."

BANG!

The shot made a really loud sound, and the bullet flew out on an extremely high speed, it managed to pierce this old fart's right shoulder all the way through, and after that the bullet somehow drops down to the floor.

"Uwaaaa...please...don't...kill...me..."

"..." I can't say anything rather than staring in disbelief on how this geezer still have a nerve to do something crazy like this.

The elder slumps down the floor with a horrid expression on his face, just as if his mind was completely broken down. There I could see him peeing his pants down like a baby, along with lots of blood pouring down the floor from his right shoulder.

Serves him right, that teach him not to brag in the bathroom when a lady was taking a dump!

A lady taking a dump...somehow that doesn't sound right, well whatever.

I reached out to the door, and closed it again. Then I shall continue from where I left off...thank goodness he didn't manage to see anything, I would be embarrassed for life if he managed to see my...ah let's just forget about it. That's a really vulgar topic to talk about.

Meanwhile, as I tried taking my time as fast as I could, there I heard the cries of agony from the old geezer just behind the bathroom door. Uh, somehow I felt really sorry for causing him lots of pain like this...

...

It took me a few minutes of emptying my bowels down while enjoying the cries of agony from the elder just like a music. You might call me a bit of a sadist, but to tell you the truth I felt truly sorry every time I hurt someone by chance because of my irregular reflexes.

Hmm...there I go contradicting myself again huh

And so after using the tissues to clean myself off, I tried to pull my pants u-

"C-Carla Sutherla-"

BAM!

This time I aimed for the head and shot it without much of a thought. It feels thoroughly satisfying to see tons of blood pouring down the geezer's head all over the place. Before falling flat down the floor, he just went unconscious with his eyes fully open, just like witnessing such a terrifying sight unfolding before him.

D-damn it...he's really seen everything down there...I felt so ashamed...

And then I quickly pulled my pants back, fastening my belt again. There I start checking out on the elder...

Thank goodness he's still alive...uh...what am I supposed to do now?

"Good work, Carla. That will teach grandfather how to respect the fine ladies much more. It's been a while since someone managed to give him a good beating like that."

"S-Stella? B-but..."

"It's okay. Just this much won't even kill him, he already went much worse than this but he's still able to come back to life regardless of that."

Saying that, I saw Stella's expression darkens as she came inside the bathroom and started tending to her grandfather's wounds.

"I...uh..."

"If it's okay with you, go ahead to where your partner might be with Elrond and Leonard, they are basically very capable adventurers that won't slow you down...Carla."

"Though there's still lies one problem...miss Stella..."



Me and Stella walked outside the bathroom, leaving the Elder behind after Stella had already done the necessary first aid. It still surprises me how she's able to close the heavy wounds, stopping it from bleeding further in a matter of few minutes...she's amazing...

"That's why I told you it is a serious problem...huh?" before I could finish my sentence, my eyes were glued to sir Elrond and Leonard who had been staring down at their empty plates, trembling from some kind of unknown fear. It looks like they already finished eating but why the heck did they kept on staring down their plates?

"Gentlemen." Stella clapped her hands together a few times to get their attention, and both of them who's sitting in the table simultaneously turned their heads around. And as their gaze met up with mine, they immediately turned back to Stella with some kind of shiver running down their expressions.

"And so this fine lady want you to accompany her to save Kirk Thompson. Though as she's the only lady around, can she trust you refined gentlemen to act courteously toward this lady?"

"Y-yes...ma'am!" both of them shouted out in unison and nod their heads down several times. There I also noticed that when Stella points out to me, these people didn't seem wanting to make an eye contact with me.

Well...that's pretty rude of them.

"Well...Carla, did you eventually find these people to be trustworthy after all?"

"Let's see...I heard sir Elrond is an excellent cartographer and explorer, he would be very helpful on guiding us toward our destination."

"T-that's correct, milady. I shall do my b-best to give some assistance." sir Elrond's expression brightens up a bit as I mentioned his merits

"And for sir Leonard, I think he's a very tough fighter, he would be a reliable guardian to us all, protecting us from harmful attacks while we can focus on doing things we can do best."

"I shall provide my assistance, mademoiselle."

With the brief formalities aside, the three of us finally agreed to go on a journey together in order to save Kirk.

I still felt really sorry for the elder though.

Meanwhile, I remember one very important thing during my childhood.

I was one of the people who hated losing the most, on how my feelings of pride truly hurt me when something happens outside of my high expectations.

A cold, dark room with an enormous sound of thunder echoing from faraway. On it there's a little girl crying over some thing she couldn't accomplish no matter what.

"It's okay, Carla. As much the Sutherlands were a proud family, I will still be proud of you no matter who you are..."

"Sniff...sniff...but I...couldn't do any good at this kind of stuff...why..."

"No matter how talented a person might be, they will always have things they're good and bad at. These things complemented each other to make us truly human."

Yeah, I remember back then during my early childhood, I was always being inside the spotlight by acing in all of the subjects, until it came to that lesson...

I was really bad at the crafts, I couldn't even make a decent paper airplane at that time, and I couldn't even tie my own shoe until few years ago. That was the part Kirk was always making fun of me about, aside from my small chest and me being a brute, also when he accused of me of being a natural lesbian magnet in addition of me being completely okay with it...

Yeah, I finally figured out that I had so many flaws.

Back then, at the class, I tried my hardest on making the papercrafts, but eventually always failed in the end. I truly longed to run away from the class as fast as possible when the bell rang; the entire class had always given me the cold stares because they hate me when I got all the credit from answering all the questions on the other subjects.

I've always thought they were going to ridicule me because I'm finally doing bad at one thing many others could do pretty well. So I just ran outside, straight towards my home before anyone could manage to say anything to me...as soon the bell finally rang. And there I was...holing myself in my room crying over what I thought to be a silly thing right now.

And then because of my father's consoling words, I finally made my resolve to go back to school by the next day.

"Ummm...Carla...if it's okay with you, I can teach you how to do the crafts."

Then it truly surprises me how the entire class, contrary to my expectations, had become warmer upon seeing me nearly tearing up before the class ends.

"Don't worry about it Carla...no I'm sorry...but your crying face just yesterday, looks so cute and adorable...it makes us want to cuddle you."

Life was filled with surprises you won't expect, and so I thought again.

As you have guessed, even with their help, I still haven't been able to do the usual crafts properly. All of the miscellaneous work goes to Kirk during our adventures. And then I wondered how am I able to make it thus far by adventuring alone before I met him.



"Are we there yet? Not that I'm complaining about us already walking pretty far, but isn't it about the time we get to encounter something interesting for the least?"

And so that's what I said to both sir Elrond and Leonard who's leading the way while I closely trailed behind their backs. What kind of gentlemen would left a woman behind while they're just pretending to walk ahead without giving a heed to my presence!

"Well I think it's around here...somehow..."

"What do you mean somehow! It seems more like we're just circling around the similar place over and over again!"

That was truly a surprise that these kind of clueless speech would come out from sir Elrond, who was holding the kind of detailed map he was drawing earlier on. It truly sends me out to a shock that it made me blurt out my own punchline to this stupid situation.

"I am sorry, mademoiselle Carla, but Elrond is actually terrible at directions, although he's very good at drawing things and setting up traps. The master of exploration was actually the title given to us two because of the combination of our abilities and such..."

"Shut your trap, I'm in no mood for lengthy pretentious talks."

"Guaaahhh."

Sir Leonard doesn't seem to be the kind of person who's able to comprehend maps, are these people just kidding around with me? Or are they're being such a sexist that they won't hand the map over to me because they firmly believed that women can't read maps?

...

...

...

This is getting really irritating, I kept giving them angry stares from behind to pressure them on giving the map to me. But they doesn't seem to comply with...

On impulse of anger, I pulled out my revolver again, quickly aiming at Elrond's left shoulder, pulling the trigger before anyone could realize the intensity of my killing intent.

BANG!

It perfectly pierced through his left arm, it caused a shock enough to made him drop his map down the dusty forest ground, in addition of making him fell down the floor, squirming and whining like a pansy.

"Arrrggghhhh...miss Carla...what are you doing?"

"Whoops, my hand just slipped. Oh my, what should I do? My hand keeps on trembling, and if you won't ever hand the map to me I'm not sure what would I blow up next...fufufufufu..."

"Hiiii...!"

Somehow, hanging out with these bunch of utter fools during my current journey made me realize how important Kirk really is, as my partner.

I still do question whether I could view him as a romantic interest or not. Or might I possibly became unable to be attracted to someone of the opposite sex? That is the thing which I couldn't really fathom.

Oh well, let's just continue the journey.



After I obtained the map, things started to become much easier and exciting as I'm able to quickly glide through the environment, discovering many unknown territories inside this area. The map was pretty detailed enough for me to clearly figure out the routes which had the least likehood of encountering powerful monsters, in addition of getting a clear idea on where the random treasure chests would pop out.

Yup, I got ten bottles of Megalixir and five bottles of Ultra Ether from the treasure chests just by relying on that map alone.

Also, it does seem that these two weren't too shabby for a fight, they handled most of the monsters by themselves while I focused on the back, shooting the targets and healing their wounds.

...

"Oh no...not this kind of puzzle again."

I saw both of their expression turn into pale white as we finally arrived to a some kind of entrance.

'Pathway to the Plastic Wonderland'

It was a humongous stone labyrinth, based on my observations alone. I took an overhead view by jumping up towards the nearby tree and there I saw that the pathways around it were extremely complex.

Damn it, not even my lifetime of experience could figure out how to get past this.

Wait a minute...I saw the crest on my right hand glowing for some unknown reason,

...

"It's no use, miss Carla...we.."

"Will you guys please shut your mouth? I'm trying to concentrate here."

Still sitting atop this tree, I concentrated my intense feelings on this crest, causing it to spark a crimson colored light.

Then I muttered the incantation.

"Please come forth...Bahamut, destroy the annoying blockade quickly."

Soon after, the Legendary King of Dragons - Bahamut, came flying from nowhere and wrecked the entire labyrinth with his Supernova Flare, clearing the path for us to go through this place with no problem.

Guess getting through this place weren't really a bother after all.

Fairies, a mythical creature brimming with innocence; having childlike appearance similar to a little girl, with fluttery wings on its backs, their bodies emitting light in wondrous assorted colors which seems richer than the rainbow itself; their appearance was just like the girls in their adolescent period, wearing exotic silk clothing which reveals a portion of their pure white skin - it sends shudders down my spine to witness such beauty upon meeting them at the first time.

Even though they look youthful, their physique were much different than a mere adolescent girl; they're surprisingly well endowed despite their small build. One of the fairies just before, aside from Rose, had a pretty developed chest area along with having an hourglass figure, albeit the physique was pretty slender; it's definitely not what you witness everyday among the adolescent girls.

But what truly differentiates them for all of us mere humans, was their deeply philosophical way of thinking and their highly perceptive self; they were very capable of seeing through our true colors of heart within the first glance. It's a very well known legend that only the innocent and pure ones could see the fairies, because as they already judged these people worthy enough to reveal themselves in front of them.

Fairies, they were rumored to be a creature who were completely isolated from the knowledge pertaining the guys in general, as it was told that they mostly isolated themselves from the outside world and were forbidden to have any contact with any of the guys around. If they managed to fall in love with a man, they will be forever banished from the kingdom. Well yeah, it struck me one question since there's only girls amongst the fairies, from what I heard - how did they reproduce by themselves? Is it possible for them to procreate by having girl on girl relationships amongst them? That kind of prospect truly made me curious.

Yuri for the win.

And yet there's another question, as it was unheard of that they will be banished for loving another girl, were lesbian relationships had became legal? That they could love another women outside their own race? Having hot, steamy relationships similar to a master and slave in addition of...

Woo-hooo! It made me stimulated just by the mere thought of it!

Long live Yuri.

Hey, I'm not thinking about both bondage and Yuri at the same time, okay? So please clear your perverted thoughts out!

That's only what I heard from the people, I've never met the fairies myself, not until recently. Though speaking by experience, these two fairies I met along with Rose seems pretty much like a simpleton; I guess that legend were either just a mere blasphemy after all, or the times had already changed; even the fairies had lost their dignity as well.

Hope it weren't caused by something like a Yaoi doujinshi, well I won't really mind as long one of them were actually a Trap.

Because you know, when these kind of folks who didn't really know men at all got suddenly subjected to something like Yaoi, I think the results might be pretty much disastrous.



"You guessed right, mister Kirk, the outrages that happened in this Fairy Kingdom were pretty much caused by Yaoi manga and doujinshi."

"Don't read my mind all of sudden!"

"I...I'm sorry..."

"No, I don't really mind. Well at another note, did they allow inter-racial girl on girl relationships in here? And if that's the case, have you ever done it with another girl, Rose?"

"Huh...that's..."

Her face starts to blush heavily, it made me want to imagine her as a some kind of shy class rep with glasses and braided hair who got really embarrassed when a troublesome classmate of her asked her about perverted things. And then someone would kick me from behind because...

"Ooooryaaaa...!"

There's a loud yelling sound which is a bit high-pitched, a kind of half-baked battle cry if you're asking me, and it comes from behind...

"Whoops..."

I managed to dodge that flying kick at the last minute by rotating my body around. And if I'm not mistaken, I think I saw a glance of a cute girl who's wearing a maid outfit, and that girl was trying kick me.

"Ah..."

The girl in maid outfit trips over the flat ground as Rose also managed to dodge it gracefully.

"Ouch...aww...that hurt..."

Well then, as I managed to get a closer look at her, she looks really cute with a shiny black hair tied up in twin-tails. The maid uniform also fits her perfectly, and even though her chest was a bit flat, it doesn't stop me from staring at her; I couldn't resist feasting my eyes upon her legs; that black lace stocking with the exotic-looking high heels truly adds up to the point, she's really a top-notch looking maid.

"Stop looking at me with those eyes...you perv..."

Please scold me more, maid-san. I think I'm going to get addicted to you yelling at me like this...ah why am I such a masochist for beautiful girls? Now that I think of it, I think it's not that bad if Carla beats me up regularly, but her blows were damn ferocious despite her adorable looks.

"Hey...Jasmine, is this the right way to treat a guest like that?"

For the first time, Rose opened up her mouth to reprimand the maid girl.

So her name's Jasmine eh? It sounds adorable and it kind of suits her.

"B-but...that shady-looking guy starts to sexually harass you like that." saying this, the girl called Jasmine points out at me.

It made me felt uneasy on how she suddenly points at me, but I got lost in thought while I'm immersing myself looking at her hands, the black latex glove she's wearing right at this moment really made my imagination went wild!

"Oi..J-Jasmine-chan? Would you mind if you point just a bit...lower, yeah...right there...just below my stomach."

'I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT! AND FURTHERMORE IT'S SO DISGUSTING HOW YOU CAN ASK FOR IT SO BLATANTLY!"

Hey, I don't know that she's also perverted too. I'm actually want to show off this belt with the Tiger-shaped emblem in it, I kind of won it in some prestigious fighting tournament at the Orc's Capital – Houndtoll. Contrary to many of the humans here, the Orcs were honorable fighters, and they won't strike their foe down before they can stand up firmly.

One of my acquaintance from that area, Rusk, told me that not all of the Orcs were chivalrous, the ones participating in the fight were those of a noble blood, belonging to the distinguished tribes who held the chivalrous spirit in high regard. These fighters were extremely tough, I only had won against the previous champion by the stroke of luck.

"Kirk? You seem to be spacing out at the wrong time."

This time, Rose placed her hands on my forehead just like I'm having some kind of fever.

"N-no it's nothing really."

"Guuuhh...he's ignoring me when it's convenient."



And so, after clearing out all the misunderstanding, it seems that Jasmine originally wants to take us to where Fairy Godmother resides. But things took turn in the wrong way and there you have this kind of events happening.

We came towards a big mansion-like place called 'The Fairy Kingdom Host Club', and there Jasmine knocked a few times on the sturdy-looking double door.

"Jasmine here."

"So the guests had arrived? Oh right, let us welcome them in."

As soon the door opened, Jasmine quickly disappeared inside the place, leaving both me and Rose in front of the door.

"She's actually a kind of a shy girl, isn't she?"

"What are you talking about? Jasmine's A GUY..."

What...the...hell?

Don't tell me that my worst nightmare is going to happen, and furthermore this is a HOST CLUB on top of that.

Okay then, first things first – I was definitely freaked out to find that this place is filled with cross-dressing guys; they're so cute you couldn't really differentiate them with your usual girls, no...in my eyes they were even much cuter, though I don't know why...I seem to be attracted to these Traps even more than normal girls, there must be something wrong with me.

No...nooooo...I'm not a homosexual...I just like them because they're cute to the point I could really care less about gender. Wait, am I contradicting myself just before?

Ah nevermind, let's just change the embarrassing topic.

Even though the fairies who came up with this place's idea called it a Host Club, since the customers were mostly served by good-looking guys....

"WHY AM I SURROUNDED BY THESE ADORABLE MAIDS!"

Whoa, I suddenly found myself sitting in a luxurious seating just like in a high-class bar, with all of these beautiful maids around me; there's two on my left and right – each of them started massaging my arms and shoulder, not to mention there's another three maids in front of me; two of them sat a bit further from me, giving a seductive flirtatious look which sends shivers down my spine; making me felt warm and fuzzy inside, then the last one stood there with a somewhat embarrassed look, pouring the milk into our glasses from the pitcher

It's Jasmine-chan by the way; how he tried his best not to spill any drop of milk to the table really brought upon a smile to my face. But what truly makes me happy was the sincere smile of satisfaction he showed me after he successfully done his job.

Anyway, since I didn't like alcohol that much, I originally suggested that we drink milk instead in order to stay healthy, and there you have it.

....

By the way, I just can't believe that all of them are guys! After I just went inside this place with Rose, these cute-looking 'girls' - hence the apostrophe, all of them just eyed me with a look that's so filled with awe and then all of them bowed in unison as I paced forth towards the main hall. Please someone give me proof that they're basically gu---

"Hyaaannn...m-mister Kirk...please be gentle....."

Huh? Where am I touching? I think my hands just wondered a bit since the way they massaged my shoulders were a bit ticklish and then....

"Kuh...uhhh...I'm sorry! I didn't mean to."

"Tee-hee...do you want to start on me first, Mist...no..I mean...Master?"

When I finally realized where my hands were touching, it somehow made me died on the inside. Well not that much actually...

Yeah, it manages to stray inside the skirt of one of the maids, and in the surface of this satin panties tracing against my fingers...

I felt a really big bulge in it, which fills me up with such shock.

Did each and every Traps over here actually had oversized ding dings? This is madness!

"B-but...you're a guy...and I don't swing..."

"Yes we are, it's not just me...all of us here as well...are genuine guys. Hey there folks, please raise up your skirts so he could finally understand..."

All of the maids around me stood up and raised their skirts as were told by the one that's sitting beside me. I could clearly see that there's some kind of erroneous cylindrical object that's really large in size it would tore the underwear apart if it were actually a normal girls' underwear – but for some reason it manages to keep the ding ding in place.

"Hey Jasmine, you haven't raised your skirt yet...he wants to see it – you know."

"No way! That's sexual harassment...why are you guys so lewd anyway!"

"We're already lewd guys from the start, didn't you realize it already? We all who were gathered here are basically bunch of weird perverts, anyway...go lift your skirt already!"

The one who were still sitting beside me, and giving all of these orders seem to be the one upholding the authority in this moment.

Jasmine's face starts to blush heavily due to embarrassment, I felt bad for him – it does look like bullying from my own perspective, seeing as he's the youngest one over here and his seniors are giving him such mean stares.

"N-no...I c-can't..."

Certainly he seem to be the cutest one I've ever seen so far in this place, not to mention his somewhat reserved personality really makes me want to encourage him all the time.

But...

"Kyaaah!" letting out a girly scream, Jasmine suddenly trips on the floor; furthermore the high heels he currently wore sure did make things troublesome to maintain his balance...

THUD!

He fell flat out with his legs spread, showing off everything in this broad daylight.

And then I realized something.

"It's...really.....huge...."

"NOOOO! DON'T LOOK...DON'T LOOK!"

Damn it, why did I got somehow turned on by this?

Then I realized that I still haven't pulled my hands out from that other maid's skirt.



Sigh....

I sure ended up in troublesome situations over and over again, it feels like the abundance of my life energy had been rapidly drained by the recurring circumstances since I ended up in this world.

Don't ask me about what happened right after that incident, with the Trap Maids earlier, it had lingered in the part of my memory which I seriously want to forget.

That aside, at least the food which they served in here were truly delicious; I even asked for seconds many times already until my stomach hurts alot. And here I am now, spending my time in the restroom due to myself being overly greedy whilst getting these 'free-of-charge meals', wait a minute...I haven't even asked whether they would charge me anything for trudging in their hospitality.

Even more, the way they acted so kindly to me all of sudden...it was truly suspicious! They must had some kind of insidious ulterior motive, to offer something which I couldn't refuse no matter what!

Yes they want to enslave me through all of these glorious moments of pleasure, but for what? I'm just an useless lazy bum with no qualities at all...so what would they...?

Ah! They must have learned about my partner, Carla, and they were using me as a bait to lure her out. But, even if they wanted to use her...what reasons are strong enough in order to go all the way on taking me away like this?

That's the kind of thing which I couldn't even figure out, or I might had just been overthinking things. Well yeah, let's just pretend that it's only my imagination, better not act suspicious, since I won't know what possibly happen if they suddenly acts hostile towards me.

Speaking of which, if you're asking about Rose, we parted ways before I went to the main hall. She told me earlier that she's going to...

"Gyaaah!"

A rapid sound of knocking on my bathroom stall, damn it...who could it be? It totally scared the heck out of me, intruding upon my private time of serenity like this. Don't tell me they were already...since there's Fairies all around here after all, they possibly had already found out about my hidden motives!

Uhhh...what should I do....what should I do?

"Kirk, it's me Rose. The Godmother wants to see you right at this moment."

Phew....

I have never been relieved as ever while I heard her voice, so she wants to take me to the Godmother, eh? That person must be the head honcho around here, maybe I could ask one or two questions pertaining the Seeds of Knowledge while I'm at it – a person that influential should know something about it.

That aside, Rose, why do you barge into the Men's restroom all of sudden?

"Kirk, the Godmother wants to see you please follow me."

"Okay."

I decided to play along for now, seeing as I remembered that I got some few tricks up my sleeve that would come in handy even if my opponent were some hordes of fairies armed with powerful spells.

Then as I tried to turn on the doorknob, there something which doesn't feel right.

It seems that I had forgotten about some of the mechanics because all of them felt really boring in order to get over again, just like that cliched Quest Notificator which I kind of turned off while I'm trying to access my menu.

"Access player menu?"

I answered Yes when the pop-up window starts appearing in front of me, and the time suddenly had stopped while I was still tinkering with the customization of my own gear.

Oh cool, didn't realize that I could stop time.

Meanwhile, let's review some of the quest that I encountered along the way. It's kind of weird that I already cleared Floor 1 all of sudden, what kind of blasphemy is this?

Okay, I'm going to open up the list of quests which made me able to clear the first floor:

FIRST QUEST - Trial of Fairies

Description : burn an entire fairy clothing using your lighter, mission completed

Reward : 500 gold

...

Oh yeah, that was the first time I've heard of that creepy voice and I somehow managed to turn it off by accessing the settings. And I also set the BGM volume to zero since I didn't like hearing these creepy background music in the middle of nowhere while I was strolling through the forest.

Though, there's one other fabulous thingy I got which is about the battle modes. If you're pretty familiar with the RPG games there were two modes : Active and Wait. I personally always use the Wait configuration because when it was set to 'Active' the enemies would keep attacking even if you weren't ready to deliver your move at all, the results were pretty much disastrous from what I've heard, many adventurers had died while attempting to play it tough by enabling the 'Active' configuration.

Moral of the story, don't be stupid and use 'Wait' at all times! You wait for as long as you like and the time will always go on forever while you're in battle mode, and your turn will always be there unless you've managed to slip by and do some battle actions. For example : setting up traps, attacking the enemies, using battle-related items such as Hyper Potion, Elixir, Antidote, Ether, and many more of these.

Anyway here's some of the useful glitches which I could use to my convenience:

It appears that you can even sleep for hours while you're in the battle mode to revitalize your stamina, and the monsters won't even attack you! That was a strategy suggested by Carla Sutherland, my partner, when we're being stuck in a dungeon without any secure area to rest whatsoever. And it appears that the most secure way was to rest while we're at battle mode! Furthermore, it conserves a whole lotta lot of our time by mostly cutting out the resting time - that which we could use for experience grinding instead.

Also, attacking the monsters while you're still sleeping on your own accord won't really end your turn. The enemies HP, even though they're reduced to zero due to your bad sleeping habits, they just kind of freeze into place until all of the party members had woken up.

Anyway, we just kind of screwed up once by switching it into 'Active' mode, because there's some monsters who held rare items, and they were smart enough not to engage the adventurers with the 'Wait' setting.

The first monster which came to us was...that infamous...

Red Dragon.

Luckily, Carla and I managed to kill that monster off, mostly due to Carla's crest support ability which enables us to do high damage to Dragons regardless of their level of resistance towards our attacks. Just as expected from that girl who had the mighty Dragon King Bahamut as her default summon!

Anyway, few days after that incident happened when we barely managed to slay the Red Dragon, it seems the battle mode options pretty much had changed; there's no 'Active' option anymore. Only 'Classic' and 'Auto', the 'Classic' setting was pretty much the same as the old 'Wait' mode, though for 'Auto'...

I've heard of these before, it seems that mode allows the party members to quickly retaliate from a kind of attack pattern using a certain kind of algorithm that has been programmed before by the leader. It might prove very useful when someone's adventuring with large groups of people, though I heard the programming was kind of complex and there's only two of us here as a party...so we didn't use it at all.

The 'Auto' mode uses the similar kind of 'Wait' system with taking turns, and it greatly reduces the number of casualties after it was successfully implemented.

Yeah, I lied just before. There's no longer any Active and Wait anymore, only Classic and Auto, so there you have it.



Okay then, let's check the other quests...what kind of things made me able to clear the First Floor? There must be a some kind of trigger which would lead to the opening of this gateway.

Floor 1 Clear Condition:

None, just proceed through naturally and you'll eventually made it towards the second floor

Bonus for completing Floor 1:

Obtained skill : Meteor – Kirk Thompson, Meteor is a powerful combination attack to decimate even the most wicked of enemies. It was treated as a non-elemental attack, which occasionally causes Stun, Paralysis, and even Instant Death on occasions.

Lifting the ban to the Summoning ability for Carla Sutherland, default summon – Bahamut is now ready for disposal.

Truesight is now applicable for Kirk Thompson, the player with this ability can spot hidden traps, and even the sneakiest invisible enemies or many more things which would make you freak out at the first glance!

...

Hold on! Isn't this a bit too much for just clearing Floor 1?

Well, I think now's not the time...let's just check for the other details.

...

Floor 1 Side Quests:

Meeting up with Carla again – Completed

Bonus : Partner Link System Activated, the Inventory which your partner gets will automatically be shared with yours in your Item screen.

...

So that explains why there's so many Megalixirs in my inventory.

Hmm...so what should I do in order to clear Floor 2? That's what I'm currently wondering up until now...

...

Conditions on Floor 2 Completion:

- Obtain the knowledge pertaining Seeds of Knowledge from the Fairies

Rewards : it's a secret

Side Quests

(hidden)

...

That's pretty vague, but that's basically what I'm going to do next, gathering some information. Though it's kind of odd how I've basically end up in the right place over and over again.

Oh well, I think I'll just close the menu after reminiscing for quite a lot of time already.

And so here's my last thoughts before I finally closed the menu to return back to my adventures again.

"Did you remember something about yesterday? It's was also the first time we met up, you know."

"Yeah, I remembered being enveloped in complete darkness, then I turned on my lighter and..."

"Kirk, the object you've been burning up was actually my clothes...you see, I had to quickly cast up my magic in order to create an illusion of my earlier clothes. Though that doesn't change the fact that you're practically seeing me naked...it's so embarrassing."

You doesn't seem to be embarrassed, Rose, seeing as you talked about it so nonchalantly and such.

Not replying to her words earlier, I continued following her down the corridors of this mansion-like place, until she suddenly stopped in front of a certain door.

"Are you ready to see the Godmother, Kirk?"

"..."

I stood silent as we reached the chamber of this so-called leader of the Fairy Kingdom.

First things first, I wonder what kind of person she was. As far as I heard, it was said by Rose that she had so many troublesome stuff which might need some serious help even from the likes of me.

"Shall I take that as a no?"

"...well...uh..."

For some reason I seem to be quite reluctant on seeing this influential person, then I remembered that I at least must ask for the clues pertaining the Seeds of Knowledge before I moved on.

"Kirk?"

"As I hated shockingly frightening surprises, can you tell me beforehand what's the troublesome thing about the Godmother? I need some time to think about it you know, and please stop being so vague!"

"Uhhh...you're so mean..."

"Shut up! You're the one who brought me all the way here without my consent, that's the same way as kidnapping! Don't you know how much trouble you had-"

...

Did I just hear the sound of fairies giggling?

"Ah, they're at it again."

"Typical lovers' quarrel, uh-huh."

Who the hell are the lovers?

And it seems that these fairies are currently invisible to my eyes, wait...as I just learned the 'Truesight' feat, it's should be easy enough to discern them even when they're basically hiding themselves.

Hmm...that voice sounds somehow familiar, very familiar and before that I've gotten used to hear that voice already. So this must be...

"Rose."

"Uguuu...you caught me again."

I have to admit that was a some kind of spectacular ventriloquism; how she could produce voices like that which seem to come from far away. without even moving her lips at all; it successfully distracted me for a moment.

"Kirk, first of all, please understand that you're in a good company. Even though our ways might be questionable, we had our own reasons we couldn't really reveal to strangers."

So, I am a stranger to you now, huh?

"The way you say it, makes you even more suspicious, Rose."

"Listen there! When you're distracted for a moment there, I might do things that might endanger your life, you know. Even when you slept earlier, that would be a perfect moment to..."

So that's what you're planning to do all along. Yeah, the established connection between me and Carla for a split-second moment just some moments ago had given me a broad idea of what's going on; the Partner Link System actually weren't just some thingy where we could share our loots together in one inventory.

At first Carla seems both surprised and happy when he heard my voice again for the first time, she said she's going to my rescue soon enough, and I'm glad that someone like her could easily venture through the tricky routes with ease – as expected from someone of the Sutherland heritage.

"Spacing out at time like this...FOOL!"

It was an incredibly fast swing from that which I could discern as a some kind of bladed- weapon she kept hidden all the time, aimed towards my neck in a deadly upward arc.

I knew this was going to happen sooner or later.

Realizing her strike beforehand, I managed to jump out of her attack range. That goes for my 'Alert' feat eh, it made me escape from countless surprise attacks either from the monsters or even the Assassins and Bounty Hunters after our head.

"Guh...it can't be..."

From where her strike went, it managed to form a cluster of bluish fire that stays afloat in mid-air; each of them stacked together, forming a deadly-looking firewall that made me unable to get in range to attack her.

"To be able to dodge my attack, which made so many people lost their lives, as expected from someone like Kirk Thompson. I guess it's my worst of luck that made me have to face a monster such as you."

No, you're the monster. It made me scared as hell seeing your sinister appearance after you managed to walk past these walls of fire without a scratch at all.

Taking a quick glance at the weapon, it looks like a nunchaku...no...the part she's holding with her hand might seem to be that of a nunchaku, but the other end...it's definitely an extremely sharp bladed weapon with the shape of a crescent moon. The weapon lit aglow just like it was made from pure energy, with strands of light instead of the chains for keeping the blades in place, meaning it might could extend itself without any limits at all, very deadly at both short range and long range.

Guess I'm a total disadvantage for this.

"So, you've pretty much trying to figure my attack pattern, huh? Guess that wouldn't be much of an use since...guuuuhh..."

All of sudden, she starts to slowly lose her footing regardless of being in a flat surface, staggering about whilst desperately trying to keep her posture upright; all of it leads to no avail since she pretty much fell flat out to the ground, losing her consciousness. And with that, her weapon had gone; dissipating into thin air, leaving a trace of a bluish flame that flew up above, going through the ceiling without any problem.

Might this actually be the 'Flame of Heaven' people seem to be talking about nowadays? If that's the case, guess I'm really...really...glad that I didn't have to battle one of the wielders as it would greatly endanger my own life.

...

But wait a second, she wouldn't be losing consciousness, unless there's someone who...

"Mister Kirk, shall we go?"

It's Jasmine.

"Y-you..."

"That's right, no need to thank me. Since we're after the same goal."

He seem to be holding a kind of a projectile weapon relatively unknown to me, which I thought might be the weapon used to render Rose unconscious.

"What goal?"

"I'm a secret agent from the faraway nation. My mission is to assassinate the Fairy Godmother and rob all of her treasures which in turn would greatly benefit my country, at least when they're basically low on war funds."

Huh? Did this Trap Maid had something wrong in his head, or did he read too much Light Novels?

"Nah, the only treasure I'm interested in is the Seeds of Knowledge, I won't really care about the others."

"Okay, I'll let you have that treasure. Our country need all of the gold we can in order to go against Avalon, thanks a lot."

I've got a bad feeling about this, especially when he hurriedly ran towards the door and tried to turn the knob...

"NO, STOP!"

But it's too late.

As soon he turned the doorknob, it triggers a deadly explosion which blew his entire body to pieces

It's all my fault, if I only I had stopped him earlier...

No...I must move forward for him.

Now that the path has been cleared out, time to restock tons of recovery items in my 'bag' section in order to use it directly in battle.

This is going to be a tough fight, as for sure.

Well then, after stocking up a few items on the bag for direct use in battle, I slowly walked towards the debris-covered floors; just beside me, who's standing a bit far away from the door, there lies Rose, who's been rendered unconscious by Jasmine earlier. I felt sorry for both of them, especially Jasmine, since he kind of...sacrificed his life in order to open up the pathway for me.

"Ah..."

There I noticed something that's left of him down the floor; it seems to be his weapon. Now that I look at it closely, it resembles a multi-purpose projectile shooter, meaning you can load various throwable objects like grenades, throwing knives, arrows, and many more, and it would shoot them at an incredibly fast rate. Well, it's kind of useless for me though, since it requires lot of patience and talent to be able to master this complex weapon.

Guess I'll keep this in my inventory as a memento, may his soul rest in peace in heavens above and forever I will cherish this as a treasured item.

'Multipurpose Launcher Obtained'

Carla might be able to use it since she's exceptionally talented and such, though in other hand it will definitely render myself useless, and I won't really have a chance to shine on in this story! So what should I do?

"Beeep...beep..."

It seems to be coming from the Partner Link System, signified by the text bubble with the picture of a mobile phone popping out in front of me; this time I touched it with my fingers, and then I heard a kind of dial tone, which kind of surprised me, even more since right after that, it was...

"Kirk, where are you right now? You got me worried sick! Ahem, I couldn't really contact you last time when you're still inside that restroom. Man, these two guys who were with me earlier was so useless, they just ran away when they saw a Green Dragon, making me have to fight and slay it myself! What a bother..."

"H-hold it right there okay, Carla? Don't talk too fast, I can't really hear what you're saying. I'm currently undergoing a final showdown with the Fairy Godmother in order to obtain this information about Seeds of Knowledge, this will be a tough fight as for sure, please wish me..."

Then I heard a laughing voice from her, still contacting each other through the Link System.

"Kirk, your stupidity is like your usual huh? Anyway, I'll forgive you this time since you had obtained a very unique item. A Multi-Purpose launcher eh? Certainly it's an exotic product, but I didn't really feel like using it right away."

"B-but, it looks kinda complex to use."

"Hey there, if you kept relying on me to give you clues, when will you grow up to be able to become a person I can rely on? Seriously, please use that brain of yours a little. You already used a flamethrower before, right? That could work well when you tried fusing it together with that frightening lighter of yours, the rest was up to you to figure out!"

Fusing a launcher and a lighter? That doesn't make sense at all! Am I getting so ridiculously stupid I'm unable to figure anything out?

"H-hey...what if I kind of screwed up...and die?"

...

"We've already came this far with just two of us, there's no way you will die from just something like this, really. It's alright, I believe you can survive through this."

"Carla..."

"You're a guy, right? And furthermore you had a big and tall posture that could carry on a tremendous weight with ease. Please have a lot more confidence in yourself, I believe you can do it..."

"..."

And then she hung up just like that, before I could even properly thank her.

At this moment, I felt truly pathetic.

She rarely ever encouraged me when I'm with her; it probably means that she's truly worried about me, huh. Then did she ever look at me as a man at all? Or just like a plain little brother that needed to be taken care of, each and every time because he can't just get anything right?

That fact alone kinda reminds me of something about her, something that's been truly difficult for me to put into words.

It's not about my prejudice that she's deeply affectionate to other girls, especially her own sister for the sake of pleasuring the desires of many Yuri lovers out there. How should I put it...at the outside, she looks so mature and competent, though it might be the fact that she has the tremendous lust for perfection, that ultimately her heart won't be open for things about...how to love someone else.

And when the time finally comes, her heart would be forever sealed from the reaches of another man, and ultimately closing in the prospect of becoming a full-fledged woman through the act of baking hot cakes together with another man.

Well you can't really write it as the act of 'that union' right? There's some young kids that had been reading this as of late, right?

"..."

At the second thought, I don't feel like fighting right at this moment, although I already stocked quite a bit of Megalixirs and other potions, in addition of useful items such as grenades and escape ropes.

"Gah...I'm such an useless guy."

Guess I'll go back to that place and go read some Romance manga until Carla finally came to my rescue. Though at a second thought, wouldn't it be filled with homosexual manga titles just to satisfy the delusional minds of young girls?

Wait...at Rose's place just earlier...if I remembered it correctly, I think there's a Yuri manga on the desk.

"Guess I'll go check it soon."

And so, I finally traced back and...

"HEY, GET BACK HERE YOU INTRUDER!"

"Whoops..."

Due to reflex, I went and released a random grenade from the inventory; turning my body around, facing the direction of the target, using the kinetic energy from the propulsion of my hips to propel the grenade forward.

Then I realized one thing.

The grenade I'm holding in before was...the Thermonuclear Grenade.

Me and my stupidity for just randomly picking the grenades without further reading on the effects in the Help System first, in fact I just picked it up because the name sounds cool. But why did I got the feeling that this weapon might be extremely dangerous? Well I couldn't come up with a better reason, than...well I just got the feeling that it's dangerous, when it's already too late to notice.

And so, the old hag wearing gaudy clothes in front of me, whom I presumed to be the Fairy Godmother, gazed in the expression of utter shock seeing that my 'rotten balls' would be thrown right at her face that's already rotten with tons of rip-off make-ups.

Rather than running away, my stupidity finally realizes one brilliance about the integral meaning of 'futility'. So, rather than hightailing as far as possible, or even trying to guard my way through...all that I coudl do is just...

"Cheese!"

That was my last words before the grenade came off; blowing the entire place into smithereens.

...

No, actually the grenade just made a loud pop sound, and that's it.

Though the shocking atmosphere right before that already caused the Godmother to faint on the spot.

"Oh well, guess I'll just head back to Rose's place and read some manga instead."

And probably watch some random anime shows while I'm at it.

Thanks to Bahamut, three of us – me, sir Leonard, and Elrond could get past the ruins by walking straight ahead, but for some reason I felt really bad for the Minotaurs; they seem to kinda lay here motionless – are they dead?

Nope.

Albeit faint, I could see the miniscule movements from the chest area of these labyrinth guards. Now that they already lost their homes, would they actually go by to become a hippie instead?

Whoa, Minotaur Hippies, that's something which you don't see everyday.

"Oi...Carolina, whadaya spacin' out 'ere now! Pardner, ya can't just dawdle alone in 'dis venture missy, that ain't dandy."

"It's Carla."

Believe it or not, I'm currently talking to the same Bahamut I summoned just before. Now he's taking up the mini-dragon form that's about 140 centimeters tall, a lot shorter than me that's about 178 cm, and a lot more than Kirk, with his 190 cm build. Yes, based on his narrations, you might not believe it, but he's actually a pretty big guy.

Sir Leonard and Elrond were really tall too, I believe sir Elrond were about 185 cm in height, and sir Leonard would be about 2 meters tall. At first, you might thought that I might be crazy, adventuring by myself with two strangers having a powerful muscular build like this, but really, I'm doing fine right now, don't worry about me.

"So, Pardner...what will we do now? we're just standin' still right over after just crossin' about."

"Shut the hell up, Bronco, it's not like we could fly or anything."

This dragon was speaking in a baritone voice, along with having a frank way of speaking just like these hardy cowboys in the Wild West Movies. He had violet scales and wings that look powerful and extremely durable, with deadly sharp claws and fangs on top of that; his topaz-colored eyes glanced at me curiously as I awaited for his reply, and he flaps about gracefully in mid air, with his eyes on the same level as mine.

Bronco was actually his nickname, and he actually preferred it to his real name, Rhayader Maverick. And it seems that my father and him were basically long-time adventuring partners, so I could somehow view Bronco as my...uncle, I guess...

That, with the fact that me and Bronco had met up quite a lot when I was a little child, especially during the time when my father just got back from adventuring. This violet dragon seem to tag along with father quite a lot, though it kinda brings about a mysterious feel as why did he also tagged along with me too.

Would this actually be a somewhat hidden message from father? I don't know, I just don't really know what kind of things to make out from this.

"Errr...uhh...sorry there Missy, guess we're goin' to take some kickbacks eh? Gimme the booze "

"Geez...you...with your abysmal alcohol tolerance like this, aren't you just trying to look cool, huh? That's so lame..."

"But.....but..."

From the distance, I could hear sir Leonard and Elrond laughing about at us; it seems that both of them already came to like Mr. Bronco sooner than expected. At first, they seem pretty intimidated when he first appeared as soon as the ruins were completely obliterated by the Bahamut summon.

Well, Mr. Bronco isn't just a normal dragon, after all, he's descended from the Legendary Family of Dragon Kings, which were often refereed to as 'Bahamut'.

By the way, there should be about three forms which a 'special' dragon could transform First, the dragon form – the form which Mr. Bronco took as he single-handedly obliterated the ruins, and then the Mini-Dragon, the form he's currently in. The third one were probably the 'humanoid' form, which enables the dragons to take on the form of a human, which kinda interests me.

Will Mr. Bronco's human form actually turned out to be a middle-aged cowboy with a thick stubble and beard, along with having a terrible alcohol tolerance?

"Madamoiselle Carla, what do you say about ourselves resting in here for a while? We've been walking around for hours, and the terrains around the Labyrinth Ruins were really tough for us...?

The big person whom I refereed to as 'sir Leonard' turned towards me as he said that, and there he pointed out towards sir Elrond, who's unfolds a some kind of carpet, just like those casually used for camping...

"Uh...any Boar Stew to eat?" that was the first words I muttered after a long while without talking to them

Sir Leonard was quite puzzled to my inquiry. So, after looking at our surroundings for a while, he then suggested to me an alternative.

"How about Minotaur Stew in.."

"...no thanks, i'll just eat everything else that's currently available." upon hearing the word 'Minotaur Stew', it sparks an urge to cut his words off right before he finished it. That definitely sounds like looking for some trouble.

I mean...well...that large beast creature, it would took forever just to dice them up and rip their meats off, and we would lose our patience due to starvation before it's even halfway done.

"I see...guess we have no choice then."

Hmm...although sir Leonard said that way, I could clearly smell the aroma of Boar Stew from far away.

Although he has a horrible sense of direction, sir Elrond sure knows how to handle things in his portable kitchen that he did set up in a matter of few minutes.

Now I finally understand why people called him the master of exploration; he has a really good drawing skills for charting the maps that I can't even be half as good of, not to mention his excellent knowledge pertaining the botanical stuff, for example, about what plants and meats were good, and what's bad, etc.

It's a really vital aspect in adventuring.

Beside me, Mr. Bronco flaps his wings in delight. Just like me, he truly enjoys a delicious meal, especially meats and chocolate-flavored desserts.

...

...

...

"Huh?"

I think I just heard some loud voice of wings flapping above my head, but when I tried looking up...there's nothing there. Maybe I'm just tired, which caused me to hear something that actually weren't there.

"Phew, let's just enjoy the meal while I'm at it."

The food should be done in a matter of minutes, but the smell of it already caused my mouth to water.

Guess I should be patient and wait until it's finally ready.

"Say...Elrond...how long does it took for this Boar Stew to finish? I'm getting really hungry now."

Come to think of it, it's the first time I've ever said his name directly like that, and back then we didn't even talk that much. He just sat there behind the stove, adding up various herbs atop the boiled meat which gave a kind of tasty scent...

"About two-and-half or three hours mayb.."

Before he's able to finish his words, my hands flew around by reflex and managed to smash his body, making himself flew some yards down the place he's sitting at.

"DAMMIT! I can't possibly wait that long for the stew to finish."

Damn...it looks like sir Elrond had fainted with my punch, it does seem like that elven explorer didn't have that much of constitution.

"Oi...pardner, that was so unladylike of you to act like that. Besides, based on my knowledge the fastest duration was about 2 hours or more for it to finish...you know."

There goes Bronco floating in mid-air, speaking some words of wisdom...though I would say that he's definitely wrong about that.

"Well...you see, it doesn't take more than 20 minutes while Kirk and I were preparing this, let's see..."

Before this know-it-all dragon managed to cut off any of my words, I paced towards the stove, scrutinizing the details in it.

"Did you find something interesting? Ah, someone of the Sutherland heritage should find this to be easy enough...am I right?"

I started to find him to be irritating, floating around and giving out sarcastic remarks like this. To be said, my father seem to be quite accustomed to this, as the annoying dragon also mocks him a lot during his adventures.

There I decided to ignore him as my stomach was more important than his stupid insults.

"The meat was just put in like that without being washed, did you see that some parts of the water looks kinda putrid? Yeah, that's the bacteria covering the boar meat, part of them died, but I think this won't be sterile enough with this kind of temperature."

I just pointed that out to Bronco, who looks at me dumbfounded, even more that his sarcastic remarks were kinda off mark.

"..and then the pieces were still on large cuts, even three hours would only suffice for the meal being three-quarters cooked, we wouldn't want that."

Monsieur Leonard now came closer to me and Bronco who floated beside me with a curious gaze. At first, I was kind of bewildered by his huge stature, but he seem to show no ill intent, and his gaze were kind of warm and hospitable.

After staring at the stove beneath the fire lit by these cluster of firestones Elrond had gathered, he finally opened his mouth, speaking in a refined baritone voice, a bit loud as well, it kinda surprised me a bit.

"Now you got me curious, mademoiselle Carla. I am hungry as well, and I felt grateful that you punched that bastard Elrond, he's a total slacker and he must had some ulterior motive on slowing us down so he could rest for several hours. So, what kind of method would you suggest to cook this meal?"

I'm just about to explain that to Bronco, but well whatever...

"You see, Monsieur, I think we should put out the fire and change the stove first...we would need a high-pressure cooker which could withstand extremely high temperature, as the one we're currently using is just too fragile. There's some details too, like changing the water and washing the meat thrice using a filter but let's leave that for later, though I could say sir Elrond's usage of herbs was pretty commendable."

Sir Leonard also gave me the same dumbfounded expression, I wonder if he also didn't get what I'm trying to tell him earlier?

"As expected from the daughter of Sutherland, you sure know your stuff, heh!"

This dragon...I really couldn't stand this attitude.

"No, it was partly Kirk's idea too. That aside, could you mind your attitude? I don't like your tone of speaking, Bronco."

"So what, pardner? You want a piece of me huh...I could say wh..."

Quickly I pulled out my revolver, aiming straight at his head. At the same moment I pulled the trigger, the crest in my hand gave out a crimson light that looks apparent enough, even while being covered by my gloves.

Then a lightning spark erupts from the gun, bursting at incredible speed towards him, who at first sight seem to be a terrifying opponent, now appears just like a normal weakling...as the crimson lightning struck him down, rendering him motionless on the ground.

"Headshot."

After firing a deadly shot from my revolver, I took off the glove that's covering my right hand, showing my crest to the insolent dragon who currently just laid there in his weak state.

"Pardon me for being self-righteous, but if you can't watch your tone of speaking, I have the right to recall you back, you understand?"

Then I went to sir Leonard, who just gave me a kind of dejected smile.

"Err...miss Carla, isn't that...a bit too much?"

"Nope, dragons are basically creatures who acts arrogant, not to mention being full of themselves. The masters need to discipline them once in a while or.."

"Are you really the one to talk about those matters, mademoiselle? I'm sorry...well I don't really mean to..."

I see...so that's what I get for abusing the power and talents that I had, which most likely would be the reason why so many people seem reluctant to adventure together with me.

What if...in any case, I would lose my powers one day? Will I be prepared enough to face this humiliation on not being able to fight back against my oppressors? Before that, I just made a resolve..

I want to change, even if his words kinda makes my blood boil...

"Well, you're right. The Sutherlands were primarily known for their arrogance besides their accomplishments, but please remember this, I won't flaunt about things that I can't manage to accomplish, and even I had lots of weak points that I felt too embarrassed to tell everyone about..."

Those clenched fists which I saw earlier was no more, it seems that he already let his guard down the moment I made this unexpected response. Good grief, it's best for me not to make any more enemies out there...

Maybe I should apologize to them later on? Well I don't know about that.

"I see..."

"That aside, please help me out with some things for preparing the meal, it's too much for just one person alone. Of course, you can just refuse..."

"Nah, it's a gentleman's duty to help a lady in need, I'll gladly help."

I'm expecting some kind of blatant refusal though, it's fine actually if he do refuse, seeing that I could just leave them be and gobble up all the portions for myself, which definitely turns into my favor.

...

"Thank you very much, Monsieur."

I tried to say it in a way which won't really sound half-hearted, although I didn't really mean it, though it seems that my words made his face blush.

That was quite unexpected.

He's a good guy, but...if I were to choose someone, I'd rather make do with someone like Kirk. Even though he's a lazy bum and acts like an idiot on many occasions, I like him because he's not pretentious and hypocritical like many other guys out there.

He doesn't rely on things such as 'what a real man should be doing' to decide upon his actions, but instead he said

"I'm doing this just because I want to do it."

Well, I think I'll just rely on sir Leonard for a bit, then cut off ties with him by the time I met up with Kirk again.

Besides the Holy Sword Excalibur, the Forbidden Sword Sinclaire, and the Frightening Blade – Adamantinum Ingot Destruction Sword, or in short, AIDS – there's one more sword that's very famous for its rarity and amazing abilities which was famously known as..

The Sword of Everything, Mistes Cygnus.

Far different from the other legendary swords, one which were crafted through the hands of a holy angel, one who had history so corrupted and dark no one dares to have a knowing of, or one simply made because of the intense hatred towards homosexuality and fruitcakes.

There can be more than one copy of Mistes Cygnus, and it could be forged by a mere human. Even so, they must be extremely skilled as the forging process was well-known to be extremely tricky for the untrained forgers, not to mention there only exist one peculiar metal that's applicable of forging this legendary sword.

We might refer to it as the 'Eclectic Metal', an alloy consisting of myriad number of metals in, from the common Bronze, Steel, Chromium, Adaman, to the rare Duralumin and the unusual Octurus Iron, consisting even the small segment of Moonstone, or Lunarian Rock, and lastly, the holy metal Damascus.

When the metal has blended in perfectly, it will gave out a glow similar to a Rainbow Prism Metal, but the difference is, when you shine upon a light towards the Eclectic Metal, the diffraction would scatter around to 365 colors, whilst Prism Metals only shows the same number of colors that's inside of a rainbow.

So yeah, it's quite tricky.

Mistes Cygnus, by itself, goes by the color of pure white from the hilt towards the end of the blade, and the design was kinda similar to a rapier. By appearance, this sword looks really beautiful, it gets the nickname of 'Snow White', and so the blade was famously known to be wielded by the most gorgeous female knights in history...or the cute boys who looks extremely terrific while cross-dressing...well I don't know really.

Far different than the other legendary swords, Mistes Cygnus was famously known as the blade who could block any attack, no matter how powerful it is, it's also known as the blade who would never break nor be sealed. It's sword that cannot kill, though it serves a mission so noble to protect every innocent life that lies before it.

Nah, for its ultimately brilliant defensive purposes, it's remarkably famous amongst dual wielders, and many other adventurers out there.

Also, the first wielder of Mistes Cynus that made this weapon so popular was none other than our Sutherland family, and that was before our family ever had achieved the popularity that's almost seem like it's too glorified as we're actually just mere humans to go by.

There's about three swords of it scattered across our family, and for the note, it's strange enough that the only notable wielders only seem to come out from the Sutherlands, as there's the rumors spreading about that non-Sutherland wielders instantly died upon their attempts on wielding that sword.

Ahem, if I were to disclose about the legend of the first wielder who brought our family into its glory, it would take plenty of chapters, but let me tell you this...when swords like Excalibur and Sinclaire were able to make you into a ruler of the world, having just Mistes Cygnus alone would ensure your safety until the time you're able to rest in peace like every normal human being out there.

That's just it, let us go back towards our own adventure.

"So...Carla, basically after you stirred some trouble with these people, the lunch went on as usual, like there's nothing happening?"

"Yeah, that's it, the story's quite boring to tell you in detail, to be honest."

It was Kirk's voice, and we're communicating through the Partner Link System, contrary to my expectations, he seem to be doing pretty well, relaxing over here like there's no imminent danger.

Yup, I'm basically recounting about the events that were happening earlier, and the details about myself fighting the Green Dragon were basically left out because the author was too lazy and uninspired in order to come up with a feasible explanation about it.

In short, something prickly and pixelated just flashed on the dragon, and I find it to be pretty offensive, so I just shot them with my revolver. The prickly object that looks cylindrical and pixelated just kinda flew outta nowhere, and the dragon slowly vanished towards thin air just like that.

How about sir Elrond, Leonard, and Bronco? For Bronco, he just disappeared the next moment I realized it, which sent me into panic for a few minutes, then I realized the truth after I checked the menu, which shows that Bronco had returned to the summoning roster, meaning he automatically gets called back when the certain amount of time passes since the last summoning.

As for these two creeps, they just ran away like that...with the map still on my side, with their abilities they might survive for a decent amount of time, but their terrible sense of direction and the inability to read maps would guarantee their certain doom, I mean it.

...

"Hey Kirk...speaking of which, where are you right now?

"Me? I'm reading some manga right over here."

"Geez...please come back soon, all of us got worried sick...well not really, but please do come back as soon as possible..."

"Aren't you curious about what's happening right over there, come on Carla, this is the Fairy Kingdom, there ought to be..."

"Nah, if you're talking about the Seeds of Knowledge, I'll just interrogate miss Stella instead, she seem to know a lot about it. There should be a teleporation portal somewhere, and you'll better go find it in order to get back to Avalon."

"Roger there ma'am, but there's something amiss about the entire Fairy Kingdom...that I find it really hard to describe with words. I want to finish up some business here with the Godmother, and then she might show me the ways to the teleportation portal if things go on smoothly."

"Okay then Kirk, just take your time, I'll be right over here as soon as I can."

With that message, I cut off the communication device, then I start dashing away at much faster speed than my usual.

Time is the essence, they say.



This is the tale of two sheeps adventuring with each other, with the mission of conquering the land of the divine grass. Rumors circulated amongst the cucumbers, which indicates that whoever ate the divine grass would rose to become a god, they will attain lots of knowledge that's more than enough in order for them to evolve into a higher being, an entity that would be worshiped for times to come.

Contrary to what many others believe, it wasn't the desire to attain the ultimate power, nor the desire to become a being that would be praised on worshiped by many others. It wasn't the notion of being continually harassed by rotten cucumbers every time someone tries to take a dump naked in the open, not that either.

It's only the desire to explore what yet to come in this world, the noble dream to reach the high recesses which this lands of living has yet to offer. They won't really wither even after being ambushed by the pack of hungry wolves, as they always call back with the spirit of Kung-Fu fighting that already been taught of them by a giant cockroach, which is commonly refereed to as Master Zai La Shi, which is universally known as the founder of the Cockroach Kung-Fu technique that could withstand the notorious nuclear radiation devices.

The refrigeration devices won't be able to outwit the determination which every people in the cockroach tribe possess, and so, the cockroaches would become a Tai Chi master in addition being able to learn the millions of Kung Fu and Wu Shu techniques that could tame a Dragon. So, a little while later, the sheep becomes an aspiring cockroach which would enable themselves to fight the entire universe with a martial arts fighting videogame in an obsolete console that is Magna Turtle, there ain't no Mega Drive engine that's been sold to rabid sheeps without being vandalized upon a pesky mail order, sonny.

One of the sheep was named Carla, it was a female sheep that took shape of a human being. She was pretty talented, albeit having many awkward moments when she got into various run-in's with lots of cute girls that made so many people fantasize about the potential yuri pairings.

The other was named Kirk, a socially-awkward sheep that also took the shape of a human, while in fact, the true form is that of a gigantic toilet. He wields a toilet seat cover as his blade and shield, and using a lighter to unleash the almighty flames, similar to those of a dragon breath – a luminous flame that could burn everything on its path.

Both of the sheeps were striving to continue on their journey in order to conquer the land of divine grasses, with Carla as the instigator, and Kirk was somehow dragged along the path by her. Along the journey, they met many powerful foes to defeat and few friends whom they could rely on. Kirk was slowly turning from the toilet into a pesky cockroach, and Carla from a cockroach into a yuri magnet.

Alas, there awaits the final journey before both of the sheeps finally reached the Land of Divine Grasses...

Which is called, Brickwork.

This is the beginning of the story which would unravel their true self, a journey of self-reflection by undergoing tons of nonsensical moments.

Here's a resolve made by so many adventurers out there, to fight everything that lies ahead, and becoming the best there ever was, but I was the one who had made a complete opposite decision of what many others do.

I prefer to keep my honesty and tell them what I actually think, as I am the one who refused to fight at the crucial times, becoming the one who refused to learn things even from the experience, a person rejecting the sole truth behind moving on the weary past.

There's still the reason why I fought, regardless of my resolve not to fight; it's about my hunger for freedom, to say my honest thoughts out loud, to decide what kind of path should I walk, ultimately freed from the shackles of slavery for times to come.

That's the reason why I trained myself to be strong, as I have grown over the plentiful of traumatic experiences regarding of the pain about being looked down upon, on not being able to fight back those who endangers my own freedom.

..and that's the reason why I walked back here, to this place.

I must eventually finish everything that I've started, not to become the very best.

I'm only doing this because I want to do it.



Here's Kirk again.

First of all, let's start with the recap from the time I left the Mansion, back onto Rose's place to read some manga.

By the time I headed back, it's still quite crowded with people, and I have to pretend that nothing really happens whilst moving as fast as I can, avoiding their suspicion while I paced through into Rose's place again.

In there, this would be a safe enough place to wait until Carla finally comes, I had a really bad feeling about this at first, but then after a while, my mind starts to calm down whilst watching these anime, in addition of reading some manga and novels that's stacked about...maybe about 1 hour and half had passed since that, judging by the clock in that room.

And that's when I got a call from Carla, there I told her that I've gotta finish my business soon, it's pretty much the reason I came back to this Mansion-like place known as the Fairy Kingdom Host Club.

By the moment I got back here, everything was all quiet; the 'Trap' maids, Fairies, everyone around had all but gone. They're probably hiding somewhere, waiting to ambush me while I'm not looking.

"Just as a precaution. I don't really want to use this, to be honest."

[Stealth Bomb Activated!]

It's one of my indispensable items which proved to be quite useful, that even Carla had given thumbs up for, the Stealth Bomb. It detects stealthy units from few miles away, even when they were equipped with Phantom Cloak, which renders themselves invulnerable and invisible like a ghost. When the detection comes, the bomb will detonate when the target comes close enough; the detonation doesn't made that much of noise, and that's what I find to be really favorable.

The Stealth Bomb has its own downsides, such as the low damage, which made it unable to instantaneously kill off the enemies stronger than the usual grunts; though it could automatically disable their cloaking device which made it much easier to finish them off while I'm on it.

Why am I hesitating myself to use it? Well you know...it's the last one I had left; at least I wanna save it for the next time I have to venture through the dark dungeons...but well, what's done is done; as I don't wanna lose my life right here and now, it's a gamble I must take.

"For now, let's just move forward."

As this place was amongst the ones I had already explored, the place should show up somewhere in my Minimap, and even if the routes were confusing, when I concentrated enough, it will be a piece of cake to get into the shortest route possible, avoiding most of the enemies as well.

No, without Carla, it's not wise to venture on the item collections; she's a prodigy when it comes to that, just look at the item screen...seriously, she had looted so much unknown items out there, to the point I had lost count of it.

...

...

...

"Weird...there's still no enemies around."

Judging by the location the Minimap indicates, there at least should be quite a number of guards standing by...but there's none of them here. Come to think of it, have I done something to make them stand their guard against me?

No good, I must breathe in...

"Hufff...there...done,,"

"Done with your business already, Kirk?"

Suddenly, there's a voice coming from right me, which literally made me jump.

"Phew...don't scare me like that, Carla."



"So I take it we must ask this Godmother person about the Seeds of Knowledge in order to advance onto the next floor?"

Carla's voice sounds pretty composed this time, it's just like...she knows a lot about it already.

"Uh..yeah, I think so. By the way, it's kind of weird for you to jump into conclusion like that? Seeing that I had provided no logical explanation about it."

"That's fine. In fact, I've already traveled far enough to find some anomalies around here. When I tried venturing much further than the Fairy Kingdom...there's a some kind of boundary that couldn't be broken no matter what, I even tried calling out the Bahamut summon to broke it...but yeah, it yields to no avail at all."

So in other words, you must unlock the next Floor before another new area is unlocked, huh? This is truly a bizarre world indeed.

...

...

...

...and the conversation continues on.

We always had a lot of things to talk about, as we've already been together for quite a time.

"Part of it was thanks to you leaving the Partner Link System online, and on top of that, you haven't explored many peculiar places, so I could narrow down the places you've been too."

"I don't think you would find me that fast, to be honest."

"Well, I was surprised of it myself, Kirk."

And there goes her first smile which I saw today.

It was such a nice occasion to meet her again, it feels like there's a guardian angel that will always be there to protect me...even though she also bullied me quite a lot of times hahaha...

All that's left was about this one matter with her, before it's finally safe for myself to move on towards the more crucial ones.

There I made up my mind and finally decided to tell her the truth.

"Carla, I'm sorry..."

"Why so?" she cocked her head in disbelief, seeing that I so suddenly bowed my head in front of her while both of us were walking in some unusually quiet place like this.

"I had used the only last remaining Stealth Bomb on our inventory."

Well, I don't mind being punched that hard by her...as I'm using one of her most favorable items after all. I know full well that she really hates dealing with stealth-based units because, unlike me, she had no feats in order to detect hidden and invisible enemies, in addition of unable to see that far as I did during the night.

Though it's a part of my cowardice...to put her in such position just because I'm afraid of losing my life...what kind of person am I...

"That's fine."

"What?"

Her response was the complete opposite for what I had expected.

"I got about 10 more of them during my way here, that forest amazingly had quite of stock on the rarest items around."

"Ahahaha...I see..."

Thank goodness, looks like I managed to get on her good side for now.

Both of us paced ourselves into the front of the Godmother's Chamber.

At first, I was taken aback; seeing that the doors that once had been blown up were already intact again...

"Stop it, Carla! The door would explode if you do that..."

"It won't happen."

The one replying to me wasn't Carla...but an other voice that I'm familiar about..

"Rose..."

She stood there, with her silver hair let down, and her dark-grey eyes which gave out an ominous feel as I stared down in it.

"The exploding device only detects the presence of a certain breed of homunculus, which means whoever had exploded earlier must be one. Both of you should be safe since I didn't detect any kind of homunculi energy from you guys."

So..Jasmine was a homunculus after all...eh? I felt like something doesn't sound right.

Hearing Rose's explanation, Carla looks up to me in a confused expression.

"Do you know her, Kirk?"

"Somewhat."

She stood in front of me and Carla, hesitating to brandish her energy weapon...but eventually she forfeited the idea by dissipating it back into nothingness.

"Even in my highest potential, it would be close to impossible to defeat both of you...so I will proclaim my surrender right here and now. Just state your wish, whether it's treasure...or else, but don't ever think of coming back here again."

Hearing her intimidating words, Carla shows off an agitated expression, which made her to suddenly speak without much of thought.

"I'm sorry ma'am, but we won't fall so low as to rob you of your valuables...we're just asking about the information regarding Seeds of Knowledge..."

"...so it's you guys after all. Kirk Thompson, if only you had told me this earlier..."

...

"Kirk?"

Carla looked at me with the same confused expression as she did before.

"Errr...you didn't seem like the person who would tell me even if I ask...so..." tried to avert my glance from Carla's intimidating gaze, I continued talking to Rose whilst ignoring the piercing look behind me.

"I see, guess it's a misunderstanding on our parts, well then...please follow me."



Everything seems to happen too fast right after that.

The next moment when Rose opened up the door towards the Godmother's chamber, my sight was completely enveloped in a blinding white light, and I saw so many fairies all around...with a majestic aura emanating from a throne-like place, might she be the actual 'Fairy Godmother'? That to be said, it's so unfortunate that I had not been able to witness such beauty.

All of the entire mansion disappeared in instant right after the light finally dissipates, all that's left was just an enormous clearing with tons of people lying there motionless around the place.

"They're not maids anymore...they came back to their usual outfit..."

With a tone of disappointment in my voice, I took a quick glance of them, but then my opinion was somehow reversed again. At the second thought, they even look like a cute girl even while dressed in their usual male outfit...

Uhhh...not this again...

Anyway, I still vividly remember the message which Rose had given me the moment before she finally disappeared without a trace.

Clutching my fingers together, I closed my eyes to recall forth the voices, the word after word of it, in which still lingers on my mind.



The entire Fairy Kingdom was supposed to be a race that had already ceased its existence since long time ago, with the diminishing amount of Celestial Energy within the land. Before our existence finally ended, we had been instructed by the Creator of this world about the information pertaining the holy artifact known as 'The Seeds of Knowledge'.

Only by passing up the knowledge to the chosen ones, we would be able to move on...and without the supply of Celestial Energy, all of us would continuously feel the excruciating amount of pain within ourselves...

Our Godmother was the one suffering the most, as she were the one entrusted with the information's core. And so, in our desperation, we had devised a plan to alleviate our pain by gathering human emotions, sucking down their memories, especially young human males in order to gather forth the Celestial Energy; it corrupts us to our very core, making us forgotten that our time was limited in this world.

All of us believed that we was immortal, but that was soon proved to be ultimately wrong. We completely had forgotten that we're rapidly dying from the inside as the time keeps passing by, and our minds had gone demented since the beginning of our trial.

So, after everything was done, and we finally managed to move on...please take each of them towards the nearest human village or town. We had done something unforgivable to them...yet we couldn't do anything more to make amends for our mistakes...

I know this might sound selfish...but, please do us a favor in return of gaining the information pertaining the 'Seeds of Knowledge', okay?

It's nice meeting you, Carla Sutherland and Kirk Thompson.



It's supposed to be around late afternoon by now, but for some reason...the sky completely darkens up, and the remainders of light that was once belonged in here...all of them soars up towards the darkened skies, just like countless starts trying to reach up to the heavens above.

"Carla, did you know something about the 'Flame of Heaven'?"

Both of us sat together down the clearing, looking up to the anomaly at the skies above; her eyes were pretty much mesmerized by the glittering sparks of light resembling the arrays of energy particles soaring up at incredible speeds.

It reminds me of the magical fireworks I had seen quite often while I was a lot younger.

"Hey..."

"I know, you don't need to bother me twice."

From the corner of her eyes, I could see teardrops trickling down through her cheeks, albeit faint.

"They say that...the 'Flame of Heaven' was a weapon used by a fallen angel, and even the angels would eventually came back towards the sky...back to where they truly belong to, although they might leave painful memories behind, hurting their beloved person they had formed relationships of - It sounds really stupid."

"Yeah, they're stupid all right."

As I'm saying this, for the first time, I tried patting her head, that which she responded by moving her head closer to me.

"Please don't take advantage of this situation, okay? I...I'm just tired of all of the adventuring for today, of course!"

I heard from Carla that Stella and Misty would be creating a massive teleportation circle across this clearing, in order to transport back the townspeople.

From an incredibly long distance away, I didn't think it was possible.

"That's what they told me on the way, they contacted me after I got into the Fairy Kingdom through some kind of magical technologies beyond my comprehension. Well, they were the sort of person who would perform outrageous things, I suppose."

Then a while later, an enormous teleportation circle covering the entirety of the clearing were slowly formed right below our feet.

"Let's go." saying that, Carla pulled my hand back

She jumped high into the sky, dragging me along just like a feather.

Then, the next moment I soon found myself riding on something...the footing was kind of soft...was it...

"Bronco, I'm sorry for earlier, and yeah...please take care of us."

"Don't worry, that Arthur bastard actually had tried to cut my head once, this is nothing compared to that."

We're currently riding on a large dragon's back onto Avalon.

"Carla...why?"

"Because I didn't want to end up at the wrong places just like that last time."

"Ah...I see..."

Guess I should shut up for now and enjoy the flight journey.

Well, that's quite a long adventure...I guess.

Hunger.

That's probably one of the few reasons why I kept on moving forward. Either it's the thirst of power, wealth, or even knowledge; but there's something even more enticing than all of these combined.

That is, the hunger for feasting upon a wide variety of delicious meal at bay which inspires me to explore the entire world for my journey to be the ultimate gourmet ever lived. Normally I ate so much the things that came to my interest to the point my stomach hurts alot, that's probably one of the reasons why I couldn't venture on lengthy adventures until I am able to control my desires.

Many people believed that I was born with a fragile stomach; one that aches a lot even in the slightest action of 'chewing a bit more than what my internal organs are capable to digest'. My family also regarded me as the most arrogant, foolish, and reckless member of their own very bloodline that had ever lived; before that, my grandfather was pretty much known as the most absurd adventurer ever in our family.

He firmly believed that life is completely similar to an RPG game, and every single thing in life should be treated as it was inside an RPG game nonetheless. I don't even know what does that mean, since I didn't really understand how to operate this gaming consoles anyway. Not only that, I had a hard time reading even the simplest books. Even from a child, I was diagnosed of being dyslexic unable to even complete the primary level of education in my hometown.

I know that I am stupid. When the other human and the elven kids went together to school during my childhood, I was mostly here in my family's adventurer guild; honing my abilities by practicing the little things that I can do every now and then. Picking up my beloved wooden club and start practicing my swings right here and there, hoping that one day I could easily decimate my enemies with some few swings from my club.

Every morning I tried doing marathon runs across the city. Not only it is good for health, but also helps to maintain my stamina on the long run. Along with many other exercises I've done in my childhood, I finally grew up to be a young teenager with a tall and athletic stature, finally able to control my body as I pleased. Back then, I'm able to run faster and hit harder than most people in town that I know of.

Although in my family, I'm probably the weakest one right here and now. My grandfather makes fun of me every time we tried to spar; he easily beat me head on without breaking a sweat during my teenage days. I also had my big sister who's sweet and gentle, though in fact she's an extremely strong fighter in addition of knowing so many powerful magic.

Ever since she was a kid, she's a child prodigy who's able to study and master things easily. I wasn't able to use magic at all since I can't read, but I remember myself able to learn the other things while being taught verbally by my grandfather. For me, learning things by doing were mostly the only thing I could pursue in order to strengthen myself.

Many years had passed since the day I made my resolve to be a man who my family could rely on, and that long awaited day finally came when there's a draft coming in by the King's Decree.



"Sis, even though I'm not cut out to be an adventurer, I will do my best as a soldier in honor of our beloved Kingdom, Avalon."

At the time of the military draft, I was about 19 years old of age, which is about the average age of new soldiers that were drafted at that time. The youngest one were that one 15 year old lad, and that kid was really energetic and motivated; he' s also really talented as a soldier regardless of his small and girlish stature which kinda made me thought for a second, he's more suited to be a cross-dressing maid rather than a soldier.

I barely had passed the examination because of my terrible results at the written test, as I could only read and write barely. Even though I aced all of the physical examinations, it pretty much hinders me from getting a high rank of an elite soldier because I'm pretty much a stupid person, regardless of how hard and fast I could decimate my opponents. Oh, and one more thing; it was the mercy of one commander here who gave his approval to let me in through a 'wild card' system, which is the only reason why I had passed the examination.

Technically, I had failed the expectations of my family by resulting in a great failure with my attempt to enlist as a soldier, but then in one way or another, the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity had shown itself so blatantly in front of me.

Entering through the 'wild card' system means that, I won't be getting the same training program as everyone else due to my lack of literary intellect, but I will instead undergo a special intensive course that would make use of the things I'm fully capable of.

"Hey you greenhorn, from this day on, you will undertook the way of the Barbarian. I am deeply impressed at your intense aura of bloodlust when you decimated several opponents at once even in an unarmed combat during that sparring examination earlier. Regardless of you having learned no martial arts technique at all, you had showcased a rare kind of talent I haven't seen in my entire life. From tommorow on, I will personally train you to become a great warrior. Be wary that my ways might be really strict, mark my words."

Enough of this flashback already. So yeah, I said that words to my big sis after I returned from the examination. It was pretty late back then, even though it wasn't really dark at night; you could say it's still around the evening time.

She gave me a piercing look right at my very eyes, probably trying to figure out whether I am lying or not. Pretty much I believed that my family already had lost hope in me since I'm not really bright from the start.

...but I will prove them wrong.

Even though I'm not that bright in mind, I will become the person with the brightest heart ever.

"Ah...I see that you had passed, Regulus. Grandpa's already anticipating your return since so many hours ago."

That was pretty much the only thing that my big sis said to me before we headed back home. Albeit faint, I could see a trace of smile in the corner of her lips. That alone had caused my entire heart to brighten, seeing as she always looked at me with such expression of pity.

From far away, I could smell a scent of a delicious meal being cooked from inside the guild. All of the working out from the afternoon earlier sure makes me really hungry, hope that I don't eat too much like the last time and the time before that.

"Oh, and one more thing, Regulus. There's only vegetable meals present for dinner."

"S-seriously? You've gotta be kidding me..."

Ah damn it, why today of all times?

Why now on all occasions, that I must I eat up the vegetables which I truly hated ever since I was a kid?

It's probably going to be a really long day, starting tomorrow.

"Hufff...hufff..."

Never before I felt so hopeless in my entire life; the entire feelings of pride and self-esteem had all but gone within this very moment.

Basked in the afternoon sunlight which burns my entire skin, I laid my body down the ground, almost completely motionless; my entire body aches a lot due to all of the overexertion from the training. It's just my first day but I've already been made to do things

which would pretty much be an impossible feat.

"FOOL! It's not time for yer rest, greenhorn. At this rate ya'll be just a dead man walking inside the battlefield, an easy target to dispose of quickly by our enemies. If ya truly wish to survive in this kind of situation, ya better have some balls, got it?"

You can say that, coach...but...well...you're the one who had brought me to the state of near-death like this. If you keep this up any longer I'll definitely die before I could even embark upon my first battle as a soldier. I mean, this kind of exercise was just inhuman, even for someone who already trained his body on a regular basis since childhood.

"GET UP!"

From this blurry sight I acquired due to the mass accumulation of fatigue, I could barely see his visage...carrying a some kind of wooden club that's pretty different from mine. He quickly paced through the training arena towards me; with a pose that's just ready to swing his weapon if I didn't comply to his orders.

I was right, he just brandished the wooden club; with a kind-of-intimidating pose, the guillotine that would etch a grim memory on my life would soon came to me as the club gets even closer to the point it would made contact with...

"Would you please stop this childish nonsense already?" my moment of doom were somehow thwarted, as the loud voice of a middle-aged woman suddenly resounds across the training hall.

Once more, this place were embraced by a brief silence; even the rustling sounds of leaves falling from the trees to the sound of my breathing, all of it had become completely embalmed in a state of tranquility.

"Lizbeth..."

"Honey, please. I'm no longer my young self anymore for you to call me that."

"To me, you look forever young, my dear."

"Oh my, such sweet words won't just make do to condone your actions. Look, you practically reduced this kid into the state between life and death, and you want to do this on top of that? Guess that's why nobody wants to continue after the first day."

...

Hmm...strangely enough, after lying down there for several minutes, I could feel my energy starts returning all of sudden, and my muscles doesn't really hurt that much anymore. Though I just felt like lying down for a while longer for the sake of slacking off, and it seems that there's currently an interesting conversation going; would be such a pity just to let it slide.

"To think that anyone would fall for a blatant lie such as the wild card system. This training place didn't even had any peculiar connection with the army from the start. We'll be facing a bankrupt anytime soon as your retirement funds would be running out, and then..."

"Nope, I will make this kid into a great barbarian hero, the one who would eventually be the pride and joy of this training facility. I can see it...this kid has talent."

"Yet you still won't be able to get the money in order to maintain this place."

"We could still try to go for competitions! I'm sure when we won a lot of them, the government would soon accept our proposal for a funding..."

Sheez...this conversation eventually turns out to be boring after all. I really hate this kind of complex situations that doesn't involve things like food, drink, fighting, or even Tacos. Yes there's still the competitions but I don't feel like participating if it doesn't have a meal coupon as one of the prizes, or better yet, a grand prize.

In short, I didn't see whether this kind of blasphemy was going to be of any benefit to me, it just feels like I've been used like a pawn all this time and it truly leaves me somewhat agitated.

Well, off we go. This place were pretty much shaped like a small Colosseum so it doesn't have that many blind spots in order for me to sneak in. Though as I felt these stupid couple were basically engrossed in their tedious conversation, it might be a good idea on sneaking off to eat some Tacos.

Hope that all of this training about walking while trying not to make a single noise would paid off. I still had my doubts whether the coach would eventually notice my absence or not, but yeah, at least with his wife around he wouldn't go so far to exert his spartan training on a whole new level...especially when I've already known that I had something I couid use against him in case things didn't go my way...kukuku...

Here we go...

...

...

...

I just can't believe it, they didn't even notice my presence at all until I finally reached the ent-

"Ouch...sorry I didn't mean to..."

Accidentally, I bumped into a figure that's wearing a light suit of armor.

"..."

He looks like an elven general, and he just walked by past me without even saying a single word whilst giving me a kind of icy-cold stare just before we parted ways; looks pretty fishy if you ask me. My gut tells me not to get involved with this guy any more than necessary.

Well, just forget about him. Right now I just want to eat some Tacos.



"Let's just pretend that I didn't hear anything after I went outside."

Well the truth is...I just kind of heard something really unpleasant and loud coming from inside the training place, which makes me even more glad that I actually left before I'm finally stuck on such inconvenience.

That to be said, I sprinted as fast as I could towards the nearest Taco stand; never before I ran this fast, to the point it created tons of dust clouds from my feet brushing against the dirt-stained ground. It was in the middle of summer, so you could expect the ground to be filled with dust and dirt.

Embrace the powerful tacos, and that is my swag.

Though, even if I had said some pretty cool thing myself...

"Why...why..."

The Taco Stand were closed for today, and I totally forgot that today is Sunday. I felt my energy starting to drain at an incredulously high pace; it truly made me shoulders slump, though it's nowhere near the mental damage dealt due to the feelings of utter disappointment...

"Ball!"

Oh yeah, there's a baseball court right here across this Taco Stand, along with some buildings like the Cathedral, the Market, and also various shops and restaurants lined up quite neatly down the artistically-paved stone roads.

I'm right here at the town square again huh?

Since I'm currently looking for something to blow off the steams due to this disappointment earlier, guess I'll just join them for a game if they were pretty short on members.

Then I will just go home. I didn't feel like continuing this kind of strict training for that kind of blasphemy about making me a 'great hero' or something, even more, knowing that I'll just end up being used.

Oh well. That to be said, today sure was a pretty eventful day.

The baseball game held in the town square was called out from my favor, there were already enough players who participated just for the fun of it. Even though I told them that I could win this game for the team who agreed to put myself in, they eventually came to turn my inquiry down just like that.

"Sorry there Regulus, but baseball is more of a team play rather than a showcase of individual skill which represents arrogance. For this consideration I won't let yourself in." thus are the words from the captain of this one baseball team captain while they were having a short break. There were also several of his teammates coming near him, looking at me with a curious gaze, which somehow made me tad uncomfortable. Though I think it's much better as I didn't feel a single bit of resentment coming from them.

I let out a somewhat lengthy sigh towards this empty air around me. The game of sports like this, when I could manage to win big in order to blow off some steam, it's the first time that I had been rejected while I was the one offering my generosity. Last time and time before that, it's mostly just me being asked to play in their team as an ace.

"Well...don't take this out the wrong way chap, Captain just wants a bit of challenge this time. We may had been doing pretty poor with our lackluster performance...but yeah, we want to show them all that even mediocrity will have the chance to shine sometimes. But yeah...you definitely woouldn't understand that, would you?"

You're wrong. There's no one who experienced a greater disappointment of being a letdown other than myself; being completely left out from the rest of my family just because I can't read. From the moment of my birth, I had suffered from a complicated abnormality which renders me unable to decipher any written words. In my mind, I only could thought of that as an abstract symbol, nothing more, nothing less.

So how did I managed to barely answer the written test? Nope, I pretty much lied...I was completely filled with disappointment on my inability to answer even a single answer because I couldn't even understand a single word that was written down the paper. My family, they were filled with intellectuals, leaving me out alone as a complete musclehead with the great handicap of unable to learn and study things normally.

"Hey...I just want to play baseball, it's not about winning...it's about having fun...really I want to have fun..."

I realized that I was desperate enough to find a way of escapism from this pathetic mediocrity of myself by doing things I'm especially good at.

The captain gave me a look of pity; for a moment I could see that he's trying to pat my head by reaching his hand out, but he then quickly resigned the offer because he's probably afraid that I might broke his arm due to my irritation. Yes, I know that he's the team's pitcher, and his hands were the most valuable asset which he needed in order to ensure a magnificent performance. Should they be permanently broken, it would mean the death of his baseball career, even if it's on the amateur levels.

"You know, Regie." the Captain switched to a more friendly sounding nickname to lessen the tension up."The words you've said just now were completely different from the one you had said earlier. Does that mean you had changed your beliefs just to reach out towards any opportunities? Was your past saying 'I will definitely win this match' had all been a blatant lie, after all?"

He pretty much caught me red-handed, but was all that saying to exploit my weakness...were pretty much a scheme not to let myself in? I didn't even do anything that's worthy of such mannerisms.

"Fine, I'll be on my way then." at the second thought, I'd better not play at all rather than playing with someone who looks at me with such disdain. Better off alone rather than putting myself together with a group of people who deem me unworthy to be an equal for them.

From far away, I could barely heard what they were muttering about.

"Captain, with this you would certainly lose the game, you shouldn't do that. Even if we originally approved of your idea, at a second thought...it's best to let him play, he had something he wanted to fulfill in this game of baseball."

"You know, I don't take my words back after I said them; It's a matter of credibility. If only he had kept his own words true...I would definitely let him play. We don't need a people who couldn't even keep his resolve because of a small pressure like th-"

Before he finished talking, one of his teammates had already landed a heavy punch down his face; yeah I was kind of watching that from a distance rather than just leaving straight away.

"I didn't know you're such a pathetic hypocrite, Captain. Before you have the right to lecture others, please prove your words by giving us lots of victory like what you promised earlier! Instead of fulfilling your promise, you just changed your motive to just...'yeah we're just playing for fun, no need to aim high'...and you still dared to lecture others, regardless of that? Yeah sure...I'm quitting this team because I'm tired of losing every time."

Sigh.

For goodness sake, these are just a simple game of baseball, not a championship or some sort. I'm glad that I didn't have to play with these dumbasses.

What a letdown.



Running.

That's pretty much the only thing left in order for me to blow off some steam. A kind of marathon run along the outskirts of Avalon. The rays of gleaming sunlight casts forth a lengthy shadow along with giving me an intense heat, though it doesn't stop me to fully enjoy myself as my irritation keeps on evaporating towards the thin air along with tons of sweat dripping from the forehead to my cheeks.

"I saw you running around this route regularly, young man. A solitary run that's befitting for a lone wolf. One doesn't have to keep up pace with the other, as he's rightfully alone enjoying themselves in the wilderness. I once had a friend, he was a brilliant forest elf, and also the fastest scout the army ever had. No one could run faster than he does. He likes to run along this route, the same way as you do."

It was the elven general whom I met earlier, with silver hair about the length of his shoulder; also the bloodshot crimson eyes, somewhat pale skin, and a slender stature befitting of an elf, not to mention the pointy ears which becomes the trademark of that race.

From the appearance alone, I could presume that he belonged to the Dark Elf heritage, the most sinister and cunning of all elves. Though to be said, I don't see any ill intent coming from him, so I figure that I should just let my guard down before things started to become a misunderstanding.

"Hello there sir, and what are you doing here by yourself, in any case? Certainly you won't just stay there in this midst of nowhere without any reason."

"Good question, but the truth is...I'm just reminiscing about this late friend of mine. If you listened to what I said clearly, you would figure out things without having me say it explicitly."

"Uh...yeah...okay. Also, if you could excuse me..."

"About time you said so, well...get going then, human." the elven general looks at me with a hint of disgust, then he sent me away just like that. I wonder if I already said something that I shouldn't have?

Come to think of it, he didn't say anything about our first accidental meeting down the training hall earlier. Maybe it's the best idea to keep my mouth shut about it, rather than intruding on the matters which was best kept private.

Also, I didn't understand how could you possibly read between the lines at all, since I couldn't even read. At least I know one thing, that I should finish this run quickly and go home.

Yeah, I'm hungry, and I just want to live at peace.

That's all.

As I ran towards the direction of my home, I managed to pass by the training hall which kept me cooped up in pain due to the overly strict training these demonic coach had given me. I stopped for a moment just before I passed by the couple of middle-aged people in front of me, which was none other than the coach and his wife themselves.

"Err..I'm sorry for going off earlier, I didn't really mean to."

Yeah, I figured that I just have to apologize, and my business would be done thoroughly with them. Also, even if it's hard...I have to tell him that I desire no further training from him as I felt that his ways was too strict, and he didn't strike me as a fellow who would accept compromises...

But what just came after that was just...unexpected.

"You don't have to go in this place anymore, in fact, you can't. Feel free to live your life and train yourself with the way you wanted." the coach sounds awfully meek compared to the time when we first met during the examination.

That big man who had told me such a convincing lie, he currently looks so small and frail. It feels like, if I were to push him away, he would fly off in instant...

"There."

With a calm way of speaking to catch him off guard, I delivered the hardest punch I could muster with my right hand, and aimed it directly to his stomach. Even though he's able to reflexively block it, my punch had sent him flying up onto the training hall's interior right from the entrance. He fell down the ground with a loud thud sound; staying there motionless the whole time I was looking, which was about several seconds maybe.

"H-how dare you!"

This time, a swift slap comes flying to my face right from the sides. As I didn't really have a grudge to the wife, I simply dodged it by quickly jumping back from her range.

"It's just payback, he's not my coach anymore so I could do things as I please."

Back then when I was a lot younger, I was told by grandfather to respect those who were generous enough to take their time on teaching me to become a much better person. I felt that it was crucial, as being teached by others were the only surefire way for me to learn something, so it becomes a part of my own decree to respect anyone who I regarded as a teacher or coach, regardless of how their ways would appeal to me.

Whether their ways of teaching might be acceptable or not, it's only a given for me to accept it and move on until our relationship as a student and teacher finally ended, and that is, after I finally learned everything which they had wished to teach me.

Though there would be a totally different outcome if my teacher suddenly gave up on me without any peculiar reason, or when he simply refuses to teach me anything before we even accomplished something worthwhile. I just can't accept that kind of attitude, it's pretty much the betrayal of all the trust I had given to them.

"But, why won't you please listen to what he said first? Why won't you first let him finish all of his words before you finally decided on resorting to violence?"

"Nope, and I just felt like punching him. He deserves it."

Sorry ma'am, but I think you should use your words carefully when speaking with a musclehead who couldn't understand what is the blasphemy called 'persuasive speech' or even every thing which is regarded as 'intelligent'.

"You...knave...you shall pay for this! I won't forgive you..." she then tried to pull a some kind of bladed weapon from her belt buckle..

But it was stopped right before the small blade were unsheathed by a thunderous scream coming from far away.

"Stop it, Lizbeth...do not ever draw the Serpent Dagger. Please calm down."

The Sandwich Lagger? Sounds interesting...

"Okay, it seems that you're already awake, you old fart. Let me hear what you wanna say about all of this me-"

"Oh dear, I already pulled it, I'm really sorry."

Hmm...

...

...

...

...

So that's the Salamich Bagger huh?

It's so unexpected, terribly unexpected. I didn't even have a hunch why it was called the Sapient Ligger at the first place.

Contrary to my expectations, the blade was shaped like a tampon.



"So that's what happened...well okay I didn't understand anything."

Seriously, I didn't understand all of this complex talk filled with blasphemy, but to surmise it up, the elven general whom I met earlier down the training hall, and then the forest, he was basically being overly poetic and melancholic. I wonder if he did compose something about his dead boyfriend?

Ah I see, that's why he wanted to send me off...so he could finally took a dump naked right alone in the forest while reminiscing about his dead boyfriend just to get a load of inspiration. That was the most poetic thing that I had ever witnessed...wait...

What was a poem again?

He is a forest elf and he could shot things quicker than anyone, so that made him the quickest shot. That was brilliant, I might have a talent for storywriting even though I can't write or even read. Is it possible, yeah sure it is...I know yet on the other side, I don't know. Consider it about fifty-fifty when it comes to that matter.

"Like I said Regulus, General Hawk came here to shut this place down by the order of the Kingdom because I can't pay the damn rent."

"Genital Hax? What a weird name for a dark elf."

What is rent? I only know the Kingdom of Avalon. You pay rent? Is it some kind of food so you have to pay for it? What does rent taste like...judging from the old fart's reaction, it seemed to be something bitter. So people like to eat many bitter things nowadays huh, I see...so that's why rotten coconuts weren't a popular product anymore.

"Would you please listen?"

"I'm hungry. If my stomach is empty, I can't think. Give me some Tacos and I'll listen..."

...if I'm feeling like it

The old fart just took out something from his pocket as I asked for some food.

"Sigh...okay...here's my boxed lunch if you want. Ain't got no Tacos here lad, got no money to waste, feeling so damn poor right after I greatly injured myself during the last war. I used to be a strong general with my iron fists...but then a frightening Orc tore my entire shoulder blade...can't even raise my fist anymore, and just merely using my hands seem painful."

Sigh...damn you old man, I just can't take a boxed lunch from a person like you.

"Nah, I had some pocket money with me, guess I'll just eat out at the family restaurant nearby. This will be my treat, so you could reserve that boxed lunch for evening snack if you want. Besides, for a fatso like ya it's too puny to even be called lunch. You need something hearty!"

"Hah...Regulus, I didn't think that you had this side in you."

"Food is a virtue, old man. It's against my beliefs to take a food from the hungry and the poor."

Believe it or not, after sympathizing with this man's lack of eating. I started to intently listen to his life story, and found myself being easily moved to tears on many things he had to do in order to survive in this world.

...

I don't know if he's actually lying or not, seeing as he could tell a convincing lie to me some moments before. Well, even if he actually lied, at least I could listen to a nice yet moving story.

Though all of this serene moment had all changed by the time I heard several footsteps coming into the training hall when both of us spoke together. An ominous presence emanates from behind my back, I know that this person was pretty far away from me...but his presence alone was so intimidating...

"Y-you are..."

It was the elven general, and this time he was accompanied by several knights from the Kingdom's army.

"Well...if it isn't the human, I could say that I am filled with disdain upon meeting such creature of low intellect. The same goes to you, Ramirez. You should go back to your daughter's family in the slums. Your filthy presence is truly incorrigible."

What the hell was this elf talking about?

I don't know but things will start to get heated up right over here...damn it..

First and foremost, I think I left out my precious Club right around here. Without that weapon, I pretty much won't stand a chance against these guys.

"Regulus."

"What now old man?"

"Your beloved club, I believe you called it by the name of Nostradamus."

Damn it old man, when you said that 'magic word' while handing the club to me, you obviously didn't know what will happen. You see, 'Nostradamus' isn't the name of the weapon. When you yell it's true name, it will turn into something even more wicked, like a toilet seat cover or many other stupid things you won't understand.

"No, it's name wasn't Nostradamus, you old geezer."

The club gets filled to the brim with energy, if I weren't able to release it soon, the club would soon turn itself into a Minotaur in order to wreak havoc on every nearby enemies out there. Armors won't help, the monster would utilize explosive attacks from a long range.

"What is it then..."

"Nothing!"

Aw crap...I finally said its true name, now the people who gathered around here was going to be killed by its power. I saw many soldiers gathering right at the entrance, ready to punish those who decided to fight the authorities, and it's currently me who they deem as an offender.

Noooo...please don't...

"Too late."

The club gives off a light so blinding; it formed a gigantic light pillar which stretched itself right to the heavens above.

"General Hawk...that's bad, he's going to summon the Flame of Heaven..we will die if we stay here...please run!"

You can say that, but for a moment I saw the general fainted while standing up, by the moment my club emits this powerful light. Guess this dark elf was just all talk, huh?

All that's well and ends well; the soldiers deliberately ran with their tails between their legs as they were basically afraid of lamps as they do while being faced by angry tampons.

By the way, there's one thing I really hate about this power, despite of it being really flashy and cool to look at.

"Let's go home dear! Tee-hee..."

"Gosh, not you again."

When the true name is called, it would summon a Minotaur girl that's already been with me for a really long time now...you could say she's like a childhood friend to me. If you're asking, she looks just like a human with a pair of formidable looking horns on her head.

Yeah, I lied just before, when you said 'Nostradamus' it does nothing. The club just naturally reacts to my energy when I touched it while I'm not wearing an energy sealing glove, and when it gets outta control...you could unleash a powerful shockwave and it would create a massive explosion upon impact with any objects, no matter if it's real or ethereal like ghosts.

"Who is this cute Minotaur girl...Regulus?"

"My childhood friend...yeah..."

The most annoying thing about her was...she would just stay here for a few days before turning back and I couldn't even use that club which has tons of cool moves because it's currently taking form as her.

Well, at least she's a terrific cook and her body was pretty well endowed too.

"Regi-chan...what are you looking at?"

"Nothing. If you would please excuse us, old man."

So yeah, this time I went home for real, as I were continuously nagged by this girl on the way. But really, her actions and demeanor were just too cute for me to even get irritated at her.

Well, guess being with her again wasn't so bad after all.

From when I was born, I'm having quite a difficulty to understand written words, though I could somehow get them when people taught me verbally. My grandpa said, that there's one part in my brain that's kinda defunct since I was born, and that part was the certain thingy with the task of comprehending the written words.

That's pretty much why I couldn't read.

When I was little, the doctors told me...they could perform a brain surgery in order to fix that defunct part. It wasn't a foolproof method, just a inquiry made upon a mere hunch, that it will have a chance of myself to finally be able to read things.

But, there's a dire risk to take. As the defunct part was located kind of deep within the Neocortex, and it might possibly damage the nearby brain area that concerns my reflexes, such as the ability to move my body at will, as freely as possible – I might lost that ability for my entire life, whilst gaining nothing out of it.

At that time I didn't understand at all, on how the doctors at Avalon couldn't give me a surefire way to fix my brain. When my parents were basically opted to take the risk on performing the brain surgery, it was my grandfather who greatly oppose the idea.

I still remember the words of that time...

"Do you understand the implication of your actions? You would sacrifice the only happiness this children has, just to retain this feelings of arrogance! Just because he wasn't born with an able mind, that does not mean you have the right to treat him like he's a garbage, or even some useless property."

"I for myself, firmly believed that the greatness of a man would not be determined by the depth of his intelligence or wisdom, but merely the kindness of his heart and the power of his personality. You disappoint me, my child, you only wished to raise your children just to make them a property to appease your ego and grant you the appreciation you did not deserve at all. Like this boy's elder sister for example, you already ruined her life, and what's more, her entire humanity!"

"Begone, as I will hereby banish you from this guild! Both of you had been testing my patience thus far, but this is enough, I shall tolerate no further insolence. Leave, and don't ever show your face again, I won't hesitate to raise my hand even if you're actually my own child."

To grandfather, it was a really big crime to rob someone off their very dreams and passion which kept them alive and smiling happily. My parents just left after that, and I, who had only a vague recollection of them, beside the utmostly painful moments of them screaming at me and grounding me all day – for the first time in my life, I felt so relieved.

Grandpa brought forth a new light of hope that's so immensely bright. From that point on, he pretty much had became the person whom I truly respect. He said to me one very important thing.

"Not be able to read would be nothing compared not being able to experience what the goodness of what this life could give you. You had this precious thing that nobody else has, I won't tell you what it is....that's up to you to find it out by yourself. Remember to treasure what you deem to be the most important, and I assure you, in the future you shall grow up to be a great man. I have high expectations of you, Regulus."

Things that I deem to be most important, huh?

Would it be about my fondness for tacos? Yup, that would be a part of my swag.

Still, even if you had put such high expectations for me, grandpa...in the end I ultimately became an useless young man instead of a great man that would be your pride and joy.

My greatest feat would be running around naked in the forest whilst thinking about taking a dump in the open, or even staring at the ceiling lamp for all day long and shutting my whole brain of this certain thoughts about that damn tree who would make even the bravest soldiers peed from their metallic swords.

It's that tree which was shaped like a toilet....well nevermind.



"Well it seems that I went overboard with the government soldiers....there goes me acting out without thinking...sigh..."

"That's so like you, Regulus. Ahahahaha..."

"Hey, don't laugh! You..."

"Umm...sorry. It's just that, I haven't been unable to get out for a while now. So you could say that...I miss you so much."

"I-it's only been three days! H-how could you say something so embarrassing just like that...there you, the townspeople were going to have some weird ideas about us..."

"Like I care about that. It's you fault for acting so distant around me, hmph!"

Her name is Celia, she's a Minotaur girl that's been sealed in my keepsake club since I first got them from grandpa while I was still a kid. She's been with me for so many years now, you could say that she already had become just like a childhood friend to me.

At a glance, she looks like a really beautiful girl with a kind of muscular and well-endowed physique that's so appealing to the eyes. What I really like the most about her was that pair of horns in the side of her head, which made her look really adorable, along with her tied-back ponytail hair that stretches down to her waist.

Her hair was of a mild purplish color and her eyes gave out an exotic gleam of gold, that which I could stare with for long without getting bored. She wore a hunter jacket made of a Dragon hide, kinda dark brownish in color, that perfectly complements her white lustrous skin.

Though her appearance kinda made me feel weird, about that black tank-top that covers her chest to the upper part of her stomach, revealing her bare skin from the stomach to the upper hip, the cloth also further accentuates the shape of her nicely developed chest. From hip downwards, there's also the short pants made from a great quality leather which stretches down to her knee, making the remainder of her shapely legs fully visible. On her feet, there's a pair of lightweight leather boots that looks very durable and convenient for running.

Errr...at the second thought, what's strange...uhh...well...

Forgive me, my eyes kept on fixated to her chest....

"Hey, Regulus...are you thinking of something perverted again?"

"GYAAAAAAH! No...no...no...really....I do not."

"That's okay, it's not like I would condemn you for that, ehehe.....well, since our guild was already close by, I'm going to cook some lunch for you since you haven't eaten anything yet, okay?"

Normally I would just be overjoyed when she wants to cook something for me, she's a terrific cook after all. But then, I kinda felt guilty for thinking such things about her...so I just nod at her.

She took my hand and we once again ran together back to the guild, just like the last time and the time before that; we seem to get along really well.

Still, there's one things which kinda made me felt somewhat resigned every time I met her. There's a fairly limited time in which she could stay in this world, and every time I developed a feeling of affection towards her, she would disappear all of sudden...turning back into my club.

I couldn't describe how much hurt did I felt at that time, when you had someone who were basically so close, but she could only be with you for a very limited amount of time.

She's too good for me.

So close, but at the same time, so far out of reach.

The clashing sounds of two blunt weapons echoed across the guild's backyard; it was the usual place for my training, usually with me and myself alone trying to practice my hard-hitting skills on the straw dummy over there. Even though on the outside, it looks exactly like your ordinary training dummy, it had been magically enchanted by my elder sister, so it could take a lot more of punch whilst compared to a normal one.

My sister's enchantment spells were amongst the most powerful ones in Avalon, and many people truly look up to her. But grandpa told me not to be jealous just because my sis had something that I don't, rather, I should cherish the things that I currently have right now.

If it's just my ordinary day, I'll either be out practicing alone, or even sparring with my grandfather on certain occasions. But as he's too tough of an opponent, I couldn't really learn anything from sparring with him as I quickly got my butt kicked, even when I tried using my full capabilities on that old man.

Because most of the time I relied my practice on hitting straw dummies, I've been getting difficulties whilst hitting moving targets, or even targets that could fought back, so I'm also strongly lacking in my defensive techniques to retaliate against the opponent's attack. That begins when I was still a little boy, when grandpa noticed my problem of not having a sparring partner that could match up with my current abilities.

It's quite a long story, but think of it as the moment when I first received the club which I've been using up until now. The kind of club that would grew in size and destructive power, proportional to the user's strength.

I don't really know how exactly does the weapon work, but I first saw it as a really big weapon with an extremely strong aura when its held by grandfather. After he had said something about bestowing the weapon to me, the club had greatly shrunk in size to the point it looks quite easy even for the little me to use.

I've rarely let others use it, but when they do so, the size just remained as it was, and it only grew by as I used it over time for training and many other things which would yield an increase in my battle abilities. Kinda weird seeing some inanimate object like a club growing just like a living being.

Well whatever...

One day, after about half a year since I received the club, I went out for the usual training at the guild's backyard. Just when I started using it to hit the straw dummies again, the club suddenly gave out a blinding light which soon enough envelops me inside.

To make long story short, that's how I first met Celia.



"Haaaa!"

I vertically swung my wooden sword onto my opponent using all of my might, keeping my knees bent almost perpendicularly with my feet firmly planted to the ground. My sparring partner skillfully managed to parry the attack by carefully shifting her body position to the side; resembling an incredulously smooth turning motion like those of a dancer, then before my weapon managed to reach the area above ground just about her waist, she quickly launched a rapid thrusting attack towards my torso area – that which made me reflexively jumped sideways before striking her blade back whilst turning my body.

To be honest, she almost got me there. As a warrior, she's really skilled and talented, enough to give me lots of hard time when we practice, and it seems she went easy on me a lot just to let me catch on to her bit by bit.

The loud sound of wooden blades colliding together as my sword collides with hers suddenly brought me back from my thoughts. I can't really seem to concentrate when I was sparring with her, one reason probably was because she's really cute...

"Regulus! Don't space out while we're in the middle of training!"

With that one yell which really startled me, she struck my wooden sword using an upward arc of strike, with both of her hands on the sword perfectly aiming for the center point when the grip on my sword's hilt was somehow lessened. It happened so suddenly, and the next moment, I found the sword in my left arm flying upwards to the sky; twirling and rotating beautifully beneath the evening sun, before it fell down towards the ground again.

When the sword finally lands, it perfectly struck the meadowy grounds in a completely vertical pose; deeply stuck in the earth below. I was fascinated enough by that spectacle, to the point I didn't realize that she's currently pointing the wooden sword at my neck.

"Seriously, if you were facing an opponent in the actual battle, you're probably dead by now. Why can't you be serious every time we're doing some sparring?"

"Err...uhhh...that's because...I'm facing such a beautiful girl that it really distracts me, so yeah...you got the picture...ahahahaha..."

Hearing my words just then, Celia haphazardly pulled the wooden sword from my neck. Well, even though it's only a wooden sword, seeing her brandish it towards me felt truly menacing. For a moment, her face was filled with cherry-red color, and she lowered her head down, kinda looks afraid to meet my gaze.

Realizing her acting like this, I also turned my head away from her...I can't just stand this kind of cuteness...it would made my heart melt, if I were to stare at her any longer.

"H-hey." with her irresistible voice, she made me turn around to face her once again "Flattery won't get you anywhere, y-you know...as I'm not cute at all, so..." even though she said that, the way she's twiddling her fingers around in addition of trying her best to keep her gaze from me...

Uh-oh, things started to get awkward.

"Celia, I didn't mean to...I just...kinda carried away..."

"Regulus, you seem to be thinking of me in a different way other than a partner, or even childhood friends on top of that. You've been a good friend to me for such a long time, and I could feel free to show my cheerful and playful side to you...but seeing that you finally started to look at me like this, guess that means we're already on that age after all."

"Nah, recently you've just been appearing less and less...you could say, I began to miss you. Seeing that I'm actually just a lonely guy without any friends, and you're basically the only girl who would talk to me without any kind of restraints, it made me truly happy. Even my sister keeps up her distance from me all the time...and that makes me sad."

Pardon me from acting a bit indifferent when you first appeared, in my utmost honesty, I actually just want to run away from the truth engraved in my heart. Because I didn't want to get hurt by our separation, I tried my best to pretend that we're basically strangers. Though when you showed me that smile and adorable attitude, it truly broke the cover which I set for myself.

"...I'm sorry."

"What?"

It's not like I actually confessed my feelings to her, but hearing these words coming out from her mouth, it truly made something inside my heart to crack open.

"I was originally meant to be your sparring partner, a sealed humanoid from a Magnataur race, an evolved form of Minotaur with much higher extent of intellectual prowess, being highly versatile at combat spells as well as deception and subterfuge without abandoning the great strength, agility, and dexterity our ancestors had. As I was basically born with the purpose of being the master of battles, I don't really understand what you're talking about...sorry..."

"...though if you want me to appear more often, please don't distance your feelings away from me ever again...okay? I don't know why but it hurts...when I think that you might hate me, Regulus.."

Seeing her starting to slump her shoulders with a dejected expression, I hurriedly ran towards her and embraced this girl with every pent up feelings I've ever had during this years.

Then as I started to gently pat her head, I said this to her.

"When did I ever said that I hate you?"

...

...

"That time when we first met, you were basically naked at that time and because I said something about things being small, you got angry right after and told me that you really hate me and do not wish to meet me again."

Uh, things started to get awkward again; she totally ruined the mood, in addition of recalling these embarrassing past moments that I wished to forget.

That backyard from long ago was the same as always; the damp meadows which glistens about in the morning sunlight, whether or not there's the monsoon rain which rained in the early brink of dawn. I usually practiced by taking off my sandals, letting the bare of my feet getting caressed and massaged by the gentleness of nature.

I was told by my grandfather that by practicing quite a lot whilst standing on the pebble grounds down the backyard would greatly improve the blood circulation, which in turn would make me stronger at a faster rate. And yeah, I think there's another reason. My sandals won't be able to keep up after it were being used strenuously due to the intensity of my runs, which was kinda fast, violent, and destructive – that's what some of the friends I made way back on the sports games told me.

So, after I finally got somewhat heartbroken upon seeing about five pairs of my beloved sandals got torn apart because of me overexerting it, I decided to stay barefoot until grandfather gave me a dragon-hide boots as a present – that was when I was about fifteen years old; the boots looks kinda old at first, being filled with dust in addition of its texture that was somewhat fading in color, but the visage of it were quite majestic with the insignia of Avalon's kingdom crest etched on the surface area.

Grandpa said it was a memento from a legendary elven scout', a forest elf that's able to run faster than anyone else. Unfortunately, as far as anyone could run so fast without being caught, he ultimately died in the battlefield in order to protect his best friend and superior – who actually were pretty weak in physique, and that person couldn't run that fast to escape his life. He shielded one shot that was directed to his best friend, with his own body.

The shot managed to pierce through his heart, and even though he's in the brink of death, it's very impressive how he were able to run away with his friend all the way towards the nearest allied base in spite of his own grave condition. Even though he died an honorable death, ultimately saving one's life whilst sacrificing himself, it was pretty certain that no man of his talents ever emerged, even so many years after his death.

"Regulus, I was very impressed with how you managed to run so fast. So I figured...if you could somehow take his place..."

"No gramps, absolutely not. For me, it's the same as stomping upon my utmost respect for the brave hero. Tell them to send it into a museum instead, no one should wore the legendary shoes any other than the hero himself. As he's already deceased, let no one ever use it again..."

I was pretty much absorbed in my very emotions while I said that, which was way beyond my expectations that I could somehow form such bold words.



Celia smiled in a childish way after making me remember all of these embarrassing childhood moments. She distanced herself quite playfully after breaking out from my embrace, just like she's trying to tease me, and whilst putting both of her hands behind her back, she cutely turned her head sideways before finally opening her mouth...

"I haven't asked you yet, but how's the lunch I cooked earlier?"

To tell you the truth, it was really delicious. But I couldn't bring myself to say it right away, as I was fixating my gaze towards the suggestive motion of her pinkish lips. She formed an 'eeeh?' voice after noticing me holding out my reply for quite some moments.

It sounds like she's a bit upset by my slow reaction...

"I-it...was delicious..." I kinda stuttered my words, with the kind of awkwardness I just felt due to myself being so overly self-conscious after saying some bold things to her earlier.

Uh-oh, she might be starting to think that her cooking was bad, because of my hesitant reply...what should I do?

"Regi-chan, do you still think of me as a childhood friend anymore?"

She reverted back to calling me with the nickname she used on me since we're kids. I personally thought that she kind of distanced herself from me by calling me Regulus, and it appears that both of us were feeling the same way about the inability to be with one another for a prolonged time, that which made us both fell apart by each passing moments.

What do I think about her?

"I don't know."

That's the only reply which I could muster right now. It might seem half-assed and indecisive, not to mention pathetic, but still...that's what my honest thoughts told me.

"Hey...what would you say if I were to disappear tomorrow? Not like the usual...but you see...it's kind of hard to put it."

"Please don't say that."

"But Regi-chan, that's what my honest thoughts told me. There should be no secrets between us. I have no true way to tell, but I will presume that you were saying the truth thay you don't know what to think of me..."

"...or do you just prefer for me to say that I would be with you forever even though the reality might actually be the complete opposite of it? Just remember it, the way of life and the way we wanted life to be might be completely different, or even polar opposites."

"Celia, why do you say this? I haven't even said anything yet...mmppph..."

Before I finished my words, she pressed her entire palm down the surface of my mouth to the extent no words could come out of it, only some muffling voices that weren't understandable.

"Say nothing more. The real me lives right here, inside your heart...I know everything. The club was just a medium of manifestation for me to become a material entity."

"I don't understand this, Celia. Please don't talk about all these complicated matters."

"Of course you won't understand. It's because of the curse which were etched to your brain, which renders your inability to read, along with comprehending things your true self would be able to accomplish. Rest assured, that nothing of it was your fault Regi-chan...after all, you were just a victim to your selfish parents."

"What, are you talking about?"

"Oh my...guess I just talked to much, now please just forget what I said earlier..."



"W-what's going on?"

I jumped off my bed as soon as I heard the final words that were said by a girl named Celia. That was quite the lengthy dream I had after witnessing such the multitude of events happening yesterday.

Come to think of it, the days in this world seem to went on for so long, to the point so many chapters could be written about it just for the events that were all happening within a single day.

I looked at the wall-clock in the room I resided in; it's exactly twelve o' clock. The gleaming rays of sunlight slightly permeates the room with its luminosity, that which ultimately reminds me...I must have been sleeping for about more than 12 hours. Since I remembered about going to bed at 8 PM...and...

"Ah good morning, Kirk. It's not exactly morning but I'm glad that you're finally awake at least..."

It was Stella, the young guildmaster that was also an refined, elegant woman, although her tendency for lusting over boys' love could be pretty much overboard. She eyes me with a slight grin on her face, which somehow indicates that I'm missing something, but I couldn't really figure out what it is.

"Err...good afternoon then? If I may ask, why are you looking at me like that, miss Stella?"

She cocked her head sideways whilst raising one of her eyebrows. "Well, for a person that could sleep for three days straight after returning from a journey, you were pretty peaceful."

Wait...what?

"Three days?"

"Yeah, and until now Carla were helping us out within the guild after the absence of these two buffons; Leonard and Elrond. I personally didn't like the sound of their names being called together, but beside the point, she was very helpful, and she could accomplish things much more effectively than both of these people combined..."

"..she should be outside for now, but I'll go after her to inform of your condition, she'll be overjoyed. Meanwhile, the leftovers for lunch were down below. There's a lot of the Potato Soup that you loved very much, Kirk. There's also plenty of rice inside the rice cooker, so please don't worry and just help yourself."

Finishing up her explanations, she bade me farewell before heading downstairs, leaving me completely dumbfounded about what's going on.

So I just slept for three days, huh...

Wait, how was that even possible?

"Burrrrrrpppppp..."

Gah, I guess my stomach needs attention first. So, after spending few minutes pondering about what's truly happening out there, I quickly went downstairs to grab some grub.

Ah, the scent of coffee, for some reason it truly feels nostalgic.

Guess I also have some too.

Outskirts of Avalon down the clearing near the city's entrance, a good place to be practicing my target shooting. I held out my crimson revolver out firmly, pointing out towards the fast moving targets that ran along in a zig-zag motion which made it kinda difficult to shot. One thing I noticed about this gun was about its high recoil which made me unable to keep my shoulders fixated at one position naturally, making me having to use my strength in order to hold back the gun in place.

This made me unable to shot more than three consecutive times on a short time-delay. when things got more than that, the pressure might be too much on my hands and shoulders. But now, I felt like I could soon shot four at a time. Well, since the ammo cylinder could only held about six at once, I guess I could only have the maximum number of consecutive shots at that number, even if theoretically speaking, I could keep going on without suffering much of an injury.

Though I guess...I might have been piling out quite a number of problems that needs to be done firsthand.

"Here I come."

The sly dark goblins came rushing forward on swarms of numbers. They were basically fast and deadly creatures which I attracted down with a kind of mechanism which attract monsters. I got Stella watching behind in case things got outta hand, but I'll try my best to make do for what I could now.

Before the goblins managed to surround me in all directions, they all had gathered in front of me, with the kind of arc in which they formed together, that was proven to be quite beneficial to me. They basically had fallen into my trap by figuring that it was by my own foolery that I had backed down towards a dead end, a giant stony wall, kind of racked down. Must be the shambles of an abandoned outpost in the middle of nowhere.

But that's not the important thing to worry about right now, I must finish what I had started.

"Take this, Scatter Shot!"

Shouting out some cliched lines out right off the bat, I startled the goblins which made them to slow down a bit before they managed to come very close in order to land their dangerous melee attack. In a split-second of the moment, I completely focused my mind on filling the magical energy down the revolver, which made in shine in a crimson red color, just like that of a blood. But the attack wasn't that of the scatter shot, which actually needs no energy buildup at all.

The revolver was fully charged in no time, letting out a blinking red light, a bit more shiny and bright than the usual aura, appearing to be on the brink of explosion. As the goblins managed to march nearer and nearer until they filled my entire sight, I swung the revolver sideways in a counter-clockwise arc from the right towards my left, then an energy curve having that of a reddish color was formed. Without wasting every single second...

I pulled the trigger to my gun after placing it on the midpoint of the formed curve.

"Come forth, Gungunir!"

The charged energy curve expanded as far as my eyes went, spanning through the entire horizontal area which the goblins were standing at. Forming an inverted V shape, the curve soars through the entire swarm of goblins which, contrary to my expectations, were starting to flee by the time they witnessed the crimson aura coming out from my weapon.

Spewing bolts of violent red lightning across many directions, damaging the nearby enemies which were inside its attack range – the energy curve also cuts through the entire goblin flesh all the way, splattering loads of purple-colored blood across the ground, drenching it with loads of putrid stench which made my head spin. The gushing of blood which pours down all the way through like a fountain; that was one of the horrible things which my hand has done for so many times, yet I could never still be truly used to it.

I couldn't bear to describe all of this morbidity that were going by what my one attack did to the swarms of goblins, as there's not just mere blood that were splattered, but also things that were inside their body. Not only that, but the look on their eyes when they were just killed, for a mere thing such as the practice routine in order for me to get stronger...

I wonder how much of these creatures had my ancestors killed? I heard from my father that our Sutherland family were responsible for making many of the once powerful species became forced to hide themselves...just how on earth did they..

"DIE...HUMAN!"

"Eeeekk!"

It all happened so fast. There was a lone goblin down my feet that were just ready to swing its poisonous scythe down my feet. Fortunately, I managed to dodge at the last minute by jumping sideways towards the ground, throwing my body away with full strength, onto the extent it was light as a feather.

Upon the contact with the ground, I rolled my body down, heads first, before getting back on my feet in a crouched position, then I fired down a blind shot whilst turning my body to face the attacker, in case the shot missed, I could reflexively parry the attack with the revolver as long as I keep my guard up and I knew where the goblin was staring at.

To my surprise the shot hit the goblin straight in the head. It was a completely a point-blank critical hit headshot. The tremendous power of the shot caused the head to explode into millions of pieces; spreading out across the ground, in addition of tons of blood pouring down violently throughout the just blood, there was also the remainder of what used to be the insides of a brain, now it was completely wrecked in shambles.



"Good work Carla, your performance pretty much describes my given nickname to you 'The Sutherland's Angel of Death'."

Stella just came out from one of the trees hidden down the clearing, clapping her hands out, she then gave me a double thumbs up and a bright smile. The brownish ponytail hair of hers were blown elegantly by the breezy wind of night, with the pale moonlight shining down her lustrous skin, making my gaze completely fixated by her pinkish lips, which seems to be a bit wet from her saliva.

Noticing my gaze at her, she started to seductively licking her lips in a swiveling motion, that which made me turn my head in a hurry, a motion so obvious that the most dense of people could tell that I'm really embarrassed My heart starts beating so fast, even though it was caused by another girl...no...I mustn't start thinking about weird things.

"A...angel of Death my ass, I nearly got killed because of you telling me to go onto this errand! D-don't tell me you had been hoarding loads of illegal missions again?"

She let out a feminine-sounding chuckle when she seems to be figuring out that I'm trying to change the topic to hide my embarrassment I don't know what kind of ulterior motive she had, but she seems to be staring at me with a kind of weird eyes; that sight which seems to be tempting me.

"No big deal, as long the kingdom officials turned their blind eye towards it. I already bribed many of them, you see. We also were kinda short of money so I figured out that taking multiple errands from the black market won't be a big deal. Well at least we could drive this evil cretins out and restore the order, two birds in one stone."

"You're so evil.."

But that remark wasn't exactly directed to her doings, that could be clearly indicated by my somewhat muffled tone of speaking. Not my usual up to the point, direct sounding tone of speech. It becomes much more clearer that she had attempted to seduce me at some given moments, that which kind of disturbs me, but...it's not like I hate her for doing so.

I just had known of this side of hers after Misty had told me during the dinner, on the day when I just went back from the Fairy Kingdom. But I didn't really expect that the gentle woman who had been like a perfect big sister to me, would actually think like the boss of a criminal organization.

And...she clearly seems to be turned on by other girls...especially if the person of her interest accomplished many things which greatly impressed her. That means my actions just now had put me into her crossfire which might ignite some kind of Forbidden Flag that would lead into serious trouble if I'm not careful enough.

"It's nothing compared to what lots of other guilds do, we just paid the favor to the forest elves that wished to expand their territory by killing the majority of the dark goblins. In addition of that...there's also...ah okay, explain it Misty."

"Osu! Ah, sorry to intrude, please excuse me...Onee-chan."

With Stella's call, Misty started walking towards the heap of goblin corpses scattered throughout the clearing. Seeing a girl as cute as her in midst of this morbidity were actually kind of disturbing, especially the way she walks so nonchalantly as it was the normal thing for her to be in this kind of situation. That was kind of unexpected, why her, on all people, be in this place all of sudden? She seem to be a rather clingy type, the one who people most likely protect while in this kind of situation.

On a second thought, why did I agreed on this errand anyway?

Well I have no clue in the slightest, so to say, or that I kind of forgot on what terms did I agreed on, because I seem to be packing up quite the heat in the recent battle which made me completely forgotten about it.

But well, guess I'll just hear what she has to say next.

Father told me, that there's much more to this life than what could be learned from the books alone. Indeed reading is very important in order for me to garner lots of knowledge in this vast, ever-expanding world, but he told me that, what truly matters is about thinking for yourself, not letting the written words guide your entire life. No matter what kind of pain or adversary which might come across, he told me to face it with a smile.

Don't wallow in regret and depression over the wasted years of time, about the inability to do anything of significance. Being proud of your accomplishments were pretty much nothing, when you compare it towards the ability to be proud of all the shortcomings and many other things which lead you into lots of shame and guilt. By accepting the ugly parts of yourself, the true road of greatness will be opened.

The Sutherlands were one family with tons of distinguished accomplishments, yet the accomplishments would prove nothing to the family members themselves. It only served to bolster their arrogance and elitism tendencies. There serves one truth that, while in the outside we were very distinguished as the famliy of renowned adventurers, on the inside we're just a group with the worst kind of people imaginable.

I have no doubts to say, that the accomplishments I made thus far really serves as a momentary lapse of life that's truly meaningful to me. But I began to understand, that sitting on the past accomplishments will only heighten my arrogance in addition of making my eyes completely blindfolded by the reassurements that...I could do anything, that nothing in this world could possibly made me falter.

It was all wrong. I am nothing but a weak person by nature, the one who finds herself overly comfortable in the company of others. You could say my emotions were somehow unstable, and I oftentimes deeply craved for companionship. To make me feel good with these slender body with...

No, I must not think of something dirty again.

To be honest, I still thought of myself as an idiot, I'm no better than Kirk in this matter since both me and him were basically a bunch of clueless adventurers which happened to be overly lucky.

Oh well, let's go back to the story.



A pale moonlight shone thereupon the clearing; illuminating the kind of morbid scenery that's unfolded before my sight. In midst of the corpses, there stood a green haired girl with a small stature, wearing a witch hat and outfit. Her innocent looking smile gave out a truly eerie feeling about how nonchalantly she acts in this kind of situation.

On a side note, I think I just remembered about things that I had forgotten in the previous chapter.

I waved towards Stella, who kind of averted her gaze from me to stare intently on the adorable witch girl. She turned towards me with a puzzled look, before I finally opened my mouth to break this moment of silence.

"Hey Stella, I think you agreed on letting me in a very important secret that would prove beneficial to my adventures. That's the reason why I helped you out doing the dirty work."

"Oho? Ahahaha, it's basically nothing much. I'll just teach you Alchemy. Normally I would just teach you the basics but because you agreed on helping me out, I will give you an 'extra' next time...fufufu.."

S-Stella...please don't stare at me like that...

"You're weird." that's the kind of way I took it, as she seductively licked her lips again whilst talking to me.

"You don't like it?" this time she said to me in a kind of disappointed tone that also seems playful. She's such a bully, that was shown perfectly by the way she keeps on teasing me.

"N-no...it's just...weird...seeing as we're both girls and..."

"Ah I see, so you actually looked at the other girls that way, ohohohoho...that's kind of moe by the way." saying these, she delightfully approached me, then reaching her slender hands to pat my head, also using it to play around with my short, red hair. Her touch felt so warm and gentle, just like a touch from the big sister to her troublesome little sister...

"T-that's not it...Stella."

For a moment, I kind of felt disappointed about her not looking at me in such a way from what I originally expected. Oh no...why am I thinking of such things?

"Everybody has their kind of preferences, you know? It's not my right to judge someone because of how they loved things."

"N-n-no...no...no...I'm not like that really! W-w-what are you talking about?"

Stella pulled her hands from my head then she started to stroke my cheeks. By each passing moments I could feel my face getting hotter and hotter, along with my escalating heartbeat down the minute.

"You know Carla, my preference is actually more on the straight one, but if you try to seduce me...I won't really mind if we take things further..."

"HEY, STOP SAYING THESE WEIRD THINGS!"

The shock because of me suddenly yelling out at her, caused her hands to suddenly pull out from my cheeks. For a moment, I felt a cold night wind blowing across it, that which made all the warmth of her touch somewhat dissipated.

"Carla..."

"Ummm...I'm sorry..." when she looked at me like that, which shows a mixture of concern and longing, these words of guilt just flew right down my mouth. But instead of her reaching out her hand towards me again...

Streams of blood came pouring out of her noise, and she fell flat on her back with that.

"Guuuaaaah...m-moe..." she then began muttering some things I couldn't really understand, what is moe? Did she said that unknown word because she hated me?

"Ah Onee-chan, Stellrin said the word 'moe' because she found your reaction to be adorable..ehehe..."

"Please don't read my mind!"

Misty, who had been intently watching this silly conversation, ultimately joined in when the moment was spot-on.

"...err...but...it's kind of disturbing to see both of you flirting romantically in midst of this goblin corpses, Onee-chan."

"You're the last person I wanna hear that from."

Thanks to her words, the warm atmosphere just before gets completely ruined.



"So...Misty, what kind of things you wanted to talk about? Sorry for interrupting your moments for a while because of that silly conversation."

"Umm..don't worry 'bout it Onee-chan, it's kind of...ehehehe...stimulating and fun."

Yes, I knew from the start that this cute girl actually swings that way. Right from our first meeting she was already there to assault my lips mercilessly.

"I see..."

Letting the past issues aside, I stared intently at her down the midst of this corpse field. We have to talk whilst shouting out because our distance were far apart; it kinda makes me uncomfortable.

"Hey Misty, could you please come closer here instead? I don't like standing near these corpses, you know!"

"Ah okay. I'm just about done with my observation anyhow."

The girl that was standing in the middle of a morbid scenery was no longer there. Now she's standing beside me with her usual clingy behavior, that which invokes my sisterly instincts to embrace her.

"Onee-chan...I just want to tell you that...I'm actually a Necromancer."

"W-what?"

That comes to quite a shock for me, I knew that she had the makings of a powerful summoner by that crest on her left hand, but I don't think that a person as cute as her could be involved in such eerie things like Necromancy.

"I know it would be quite of a shock but please hear me out. We got this quest that yields quite a sum of fortune. There's one of our wealthy dark elf client who wished to attain his hands on a powerful Bone Dragon, and yeah...ummm...I could summon that dragon with my mastery of spells, using the heap of corpses right over there as a tribute in order to greatly conserve my magical powers."

"...normally you could tame the summoned creature right after, but that wasn't the case with the dragons, they were basically proud creatures that were hard enough to be tamed even if they were the ones you personally summoned. So yeah, could you give me a hand on taming it?"

Taming dragons, huh? Certainly it's been the specialty of my heritage as the Sutherlands were previously known as the family of dragon riders, although many decided to abandon the ways as raising dragons were really expensive, especially when you compare it to the efficiency you got when you travel by car or even aeroplanes anyway.

At least, being a dragon rider will only be beneficial if you've been adventuring through lots of rough unexplored terrains that couldn't be reached by any normal means of transportation, and you actually adventured through these lands a lot. That perfectly describes the nature of my father, who often traveled to such weird places that couldn't be reached by aeroplanes, cars, and many things else.

Then you might ask, why both of you traveled with a horse and behemoth when you could just buy a car? You know...

Both me and Kirk were too lazy to get a driving license, and there's really a lot of rules that were put in place when you were travelling through cities by cities. When you're just an ordinary merchant, you could just get things done by just driving a car, but for us adventurers, we would need something that's not being overly bound by rules and regulations. Also, cars had a very limited ability to venture down the harsh terrains. That's the main reasoning why we choose to travel on horseback instead.

Travelling through aeroplanes were also a big no, as the officials would pretty much confiscate all of the weapons and equipments we had.

Well, back to the current topic. When you ask me to tame dragons, I don't really have a clue but...

"I'll try to do my best, although I basically have no idea on how to tame them."

"Yay! I know that I could count on you, Onee-chan."

A bone dragon, huh? That was pretty strange, normally one would rather get the usual one instead of the dead ones.

That to be said, I'm interested on how she gonna summon that creature with her necromancy abilities.

"Here I come!" she brandished a magical scepter in which she materialized from within the thin air. Then she opened the palm of her left hand; that which the dragon crest was engraved, towards the sky. A shiny green light emanates from the crest, and at the same time it resonates with the ones on my right hand; the disturbance of power was very strong; it made me filled with nauseating feelings in addition of the escalating headache by each and every minute.

Violent tremors bellowed the ground; enough to make me lose my footing down the grassy terrain. The shiny green light soars up into the beautiful starry skies, with an escalating arc towards the heavens above; forming a pillar of light which soon disappears to nothingness in the night – aside from the white dots of stars and the pale moonlight which shone upon us all who stood there in this very moment.

As if being rebounded by the moon itself, the greenish light bounced back from the skies in a swift downward motion befalling us all. The light poured down on all directions in a strand-like shape, pouring down like the waters from a fountain. It soon envelops the entire area, condensing itself into a wide circular portal which encloses all of the clearing.

"The imagery of you summoning the portal and whatnot were cool, but at the same time if feels pointless, Misty. You definitely will be killed before you even managed to summon a creature, please think pragmatically. "

"Uguuu...and yet I thought that I could impress you, Onee-chan."

"Don't act silly like an anime character, and please drop the 'Onee-chan' already, it made you sound like a weaboo. Just call me Carla or something, you know. Even though it's actually moe, this isn't the right time to be fooling around."

For some unfathomable reason I got somehow irritated by the happenings during the previous parts. Ah right, it seems that I truly had done so many embarrassing things right down the gutter, and upon remembering it, the feelings of anguish keeps on escalating throughout my entire thoughts.

"Ah...well then C-Carla...umm...I will begin the summoning."

Seriously, if this were an anime they might blow off the entire budget down the inefficient flashy portal summoning scene. On a second thought, why I got irritated so abruptly during the start of this part? I don't understand it at all.

"Right, now please don't dilly-dally any longer. I want to quickly return in order to have my delicious boar stew ready."

Thinking about the silly special effects, it seems that I, without even realizing, kinda act stupid by yelling out my special attack's name. The first one were meant as a distraction, but the second one? That was definitely unnecessary.

Misty nodded a few times to my call, then she began muttering an incantation. Upon saying these, she gets enveloped in a green light whilst standing right in the portal's center point.

"Vengeful spirits of the dead, please heed my call. With these corpses as a fruitful tribute, I declare upon thee a new body from within these decomposing flesh. A view of morbidity that's unbeknownst to any other humans, that which were undoubtedly and undisputedly your taste. I have been longing for the assistance of you from the ethereal depths of doom, and from your very spirit of despair shall be..."

"THAT'S TOO LONG!"

I went up to snatch the scepter from her hands and pierced it down the portal. The annoying flashy effect goes by again, this greenish light which enveloped both of us. For a moment there I thought that I'm actually drowning in a sea of energy which suffocates me to the very most; just like being held in a secluded room with a severe lack of oxygen, but then I managed to pull my revolver. Pulling the trigger a few times, I laid about four consecutive shots to the sky, fully charged with my magical powers.

For a moment I could see that Misty was desperately gasping for breath, that which left me deep in despair and worry that she won't make it if things dragged on any longer. Whilst for myself, I nearly suffocated but in the end thank goodness that I could hold my breath for quite decent periods of time.

Also, why did I suddenly decided to cut-off the words of this girl right before she managed to finish her summoning? I did not know for sure, but it seems that something in depths of my heart were speaking to me, that which leads into the change of heart from my previous self.

The crimson blast beam that collided with the green light soon neutralized everything that was enveloping us. From the skies up above, came forth the bone dragon flying; its appearance was both majestic and overwhelming, with the size about the same as Bronco in his full-dragon form. Within the bone body structure of the peculiar creature, emanates an insidious black aura like those of a burning black flame. Strangely enough, I felt no single presence of evil from this dragon.

Soon after, the dragon descended upon the skies with both of his legs bent forward; possibly to reduce the overall impact down the fragile bone body right upon its landing. By the time both of the legs came contact with the ground, violent gusts of wind came blowing by, that which also originated from the rigorous flapping of the wings; with structure that's toughly built; looking extremely durable even though it was entirely made from bones without any skin nor muscle.

Within each second passing, the bone dragon approached me; both eyes glinting from the bone-skull head, giving out a yellowish radiance of color. When both of us were close enough, the dragon lowered its head to the level in which I could gently stroke his head.

"There...there..." as I reached out my hand to pat its head, the dragon suddenly let out a thunderous growl that was overwhelmed with the tone of apparent joy.

"I understand. You wish to be free, aren't you? Ah, one more thing, that girl is my friend, please don't hurt her again."

Misty laid there unconscious down the ground, right after I made the suffocating envelopment of light completely cleared out. She still seem to be breathing, albeit faint , my guess was that her life won't be in danger anymore, though just before I could felt like this fragile life could be completely shattered right at any moment.

People might think that I am nuts by talking to a dragon like this, but I want to make sure that, even dragons deserved its own freedom, and while I looked into the eyes of this resurrected creature; it becomes clear that I wanna at least let it free.

I began to understand that, the dragons could not be tamed, as it was basically sentient, with the intelligence and wisdom that far surpassing most humans. It merely choose its own master, one who were deemed the most worthy of its own servitude and power.

"Now, please go."

With a complete understanding of my words, the dragon solemnly flew into the night skies, disappearing as quickly as he came by. From far away, I could hear the growling sounds with an energetically playful tune which filled me up with happiness on the inside. Then I looked upon the ground to see that all of the corpses of the goblins were cleared out in the aftermath of this summoning...

So that's basically how it goes, huh...

"Carla! What in the world are you thinking? It was our big chance to be exceptionally rich from the offer of our generous customer." this time Stella suddenly went into me with the tone filled with agitation, her refined manner from before had all but gone, right now she's just an upset young woman with all of her patience being sucked out into the gutter.

"All that I had ever agreed on was only about clearing the goblins out, not about taming the dragons, and I only had agreed on it because it's for the sake and goodness of the forest elves. Their people had done me lots of favor during my adventures for seeking the Seeds of Knowledge, and that is the way I'm going to repay them."

I had forgotten all about it during the heat of the moment, but then after I got some time to clear my head, my usual clarity returns again. In addition of that, I also remembered one very important thing, that which made me instinctively snatch the scepter from Misty; letting the summoned dragon go on top of that.

"Yes, you did said that...but still..."

"Stella, I just realized it from a short while ago. Isn't it weird that someone actually wanted a bone dragon instead a living one? Besides, just as you remember, that the trading of the dragons were illegal and strictfully forbidden by the law. To be a dragon rider, one must first and foremostly became a rightful master to it through the display of a personality and character befitting for such bestowment of power. The dragon simply choose its own master, not the other way."

"What?"

"I suggest you stop taking quests in the black market. That one quest was simply quite an obvious trap, when it were seen through one's informed eyes such as yourself, but money could possibly blind even the wisest of person, should one managed to let its corruption to spread upon themselves."

"Carla...I guess you're right, I've been kind of obsessed with money lately, that I had completely forgotten how to look things in a view of clarity."

She seem to be quite disappointed on hearing about the truth, with her shoulders slumped, dejected expression, along with lots of sighing that came forth from her seductive pinkish lips.

"Glad you understand. Someone definitely tried to set off this guild into the path of court martial by doing so, if we did happen to return with the bone dragon at hand, in any case. By the way, why were you stressing so much about the money for? Your guild at the least seem to be quite a decent place to stay, not to mention a bit on the lavish side too."

"The money was for the vacation house, we've been working so hard and even the most passionate adventurers needed to take a hike sometime."

What...vacation house? I suddenly regret having her to ask that.

Uguuuu...I want that bone dragon back again. To hell with the authorities, I just want that vacation house, damn it!

"Gyuuuuuuuhh...Onee-chan..."

Ah, it seems that both of us had completely forgotten about her, who had worked so hard to summon such magnificent creature – only to be let go soon after. That was a wasted effort really. On a second thought, I'm actually glad that we didn't really have to mingle around with the authorities of Avalon as we've pretty much had released the dragon who wanted to be free rather than to serve a master.

But as for now, let's just focus on going back to the guild in order to hold the victory supper; commemorating our accomplishments for today.

The streets of Avalon.

At a glance, it might seem to be just another city when humans and elves live together in peace; a bustling metropolis thriving in both commerce and industrial sectors. I also heard that this city was the center of the military activities; you might say the entire activity of the kingdom was focused on both the macro and micro-management of this place.

The elaborate effort that's put into the buildup of this place was truly astounding. Each and every part that was built in this city was particularly meant for something important, or at least based on my observation. Once again, I took a stroll across the area quite a distance away from the guildhouse to find bunch of human and elven kids hanging around together after seeing the lots of them flocking around a school-like building.

I sat there on the wooden bench in front of the school's entrance, nearby the water fountain that's pouring down the waters whose generates a splashing sound that was just like a music to my ears. The bench areas were divided within the four different sides to the fountain, canopied by the thickly framed trees in order to shield the people sitting by from the offense of this violent, scorching sunlight.

The wooden bench was quite long enough; it's divided into a few parts in every seating by a stainless steel black bar in order to accommodate some people who didn't want to sit adjacent to each other within the long, horizontal rows. Yes I know that might be uncomfortable if I were to be put in that condition, so to say. Still it's quite amazing, that whoever devised a plan about this would went that far beyond both common sense and pragmatism alone.

So yeah, that's the elves for ya.

On a second thought, why did I decide to just wonder around here after having my lunch? I don't know, just wanna kill some time I guess. I did these things quite a lot back during the previous adventures, and this activity often yield me lots of goodies such as the novel which brought me about to this place. Ah, sometimes I thought that it's too good to be just a mere coincidence, maybe it's the invaluable Adventurers' Instinct?

Yes, Kirk Thompson, you might actually be a talented adventurer despite your laziness.

Mwahahahahahahahahaha...

Oh right, I remember what I originally wanted to do here besides just fooling around. Stella told me that Carla was strolling around this place to retain her beloved sword back, and I should go back to see her again in order to discuss things about the search for the Seeds of Knowledge. Let's just see...Homerton Armory, wasn't it? I remember about this place being around...nearby the waterfall plaza, which was the current place I'm sitting at.

"Nah, better go fooling around when she weren't here to boss me all the time."



I decided to just enter the nearby tavern where I could hear some news about the other adventurers; a good-looking one with the sign that's been fully cleansed of dust; the windows that gave a clear enough look of the interior from the outside, along with the sophisticated design that's more on the refined side that would attract more civilized adventurers into the fray. They're basically nice to go along with, and I often got lots of valuable information by exchanging stories with these people.

The interior of this tavern was much nicer than I thought. By the moment I entered this place, I was soon blown away by the fragrant aromatherapy; a mixture of mint and jasmine flavor that wafts across the entire room, in addition with the magical air conditioning device which truly chills me out; both from inside and outside due to its breezy wind blowing throughout the place.

The tavern was divided into several neatly placed seats, with a bar having a gallant looking middle-aged man as a bartender down the room's center. Ones who were mostly here at this moment were the nobles, both humans and elves alike; with the proportion of women and men in a similar amount. It seems more like a leisurely cafe' for high-class citizens to have a nice afternoon chat, rather than ones that would be frequented by seasoned adventurers.

Uh oh, for a moment I was just standing there like an idiot or a suspicious person observing the entirety of these refined citizens. Though it seems that they didn't really pay any heed to me being around, gazing impolitely at them without any hint of courtesy whatsoever.

"Excuse me sir...do you have something to order? We have quite the amount of differing cuisines to cater to your taste, there's also a few tables left to choose from. Or perhaps you just want to do a take-away one instead of spending your time in here?" a young blue-haired elven girl in maid uniform suddenly spoke to me from behind the cashier.

Come to think of it, the staff members were either dressed in maid uniform for the girls, and butler uniform for the guys. Well, this looks much more like a family restaurant than an actual tavern. I wonder if I somehow managed to enter a wrong place?

"Err...miss, this is...a Tavern...right? I'm actually looking for..."

"Indeed it is, we've been one of the longest standing Tavern right during its founding days. But since there's not so much adventurers around, we've been recently redecorating it as a family restaurant or even a leisure cafe with a laid-back atmosphere."

"Why there's not that many adventurers anymore?"

I'm just curious to ask the reason why this thing was happening. I mean, adventurers always come and go along the cities, even more, in a city as big as this.

"I do not know for sure, sir. It seems that, by the King's wisdom, the world we live in are currently shrinking as the time goes. And the peculiar calamity made us separated from our relatives who lived far away from here. It's really sad...but at least we still hold the hope that we're only will be separated for a brief amount of time and they will still be safe and sound until the time we'll finally reunite with them."

That sounds really sad. I remember back at the time when Rose and the others were forced to upheld the secret about this so-called Seeds of Knowledge. Nah, I don't want to feel gloomy by remembering that time again.

"Don't worry. I'm an adventurer who came to save this world, so you could be finally reunited with your relatives!"

Saying this, I puffed my chest with pride whilst hitting it lightly a few times with my clenched fist. For a moment, I'm thinking that I might had offended the decency of many high-class people around here, but contrary to my expectations, they just laughed sincerely at my actions whilst clapping their hands forth. Ah thank goodness that the people around here were much friendlier than I thought; maybe I'm just a bit pessimistic.

"I appreciate your kindness sir, but it's okay really I had already been through it all. Thanks for making a lone housewife like me happy..."

"H-housewife?"

This girl look only about the early twenties, around my age by exact, even much younger perhaps. She could easily pass for a teenager, I could guarantee that...ah yes I finally understood. People in here could marry at such young age, I assume.

"Uhh...nevermind. Even if you do not wish to order something, sir. I guess it's okay for you to stay here for as long as you like...I beg you pardon but I also have a lot of business to attend, so..."

"Kirk!"

From one of the corners in the tavern, far across the window; secluded from view, there is a black-haired boy wearing an eyepatch which really stands out. He waved towards me whilst yelling so loudly, it kind of disturbs the other customers. After I finally noticed him, he finally managed to pipe down, with his hands still waving at me in a roundabout way.

"Ah, guess you have someone looking for you sir. Pardon my lack of manners, then if you would excuse me..."

"Nah, I'm the one who should be sorry for disturbing your work, young miss. Yes, please feel free to do so...I'll just order things right from the table. Nice talking with you by the way."

"Ummm...my p-pleasure."

"Likewise."

After bidding my farewell, I nodded courteously to the lady maid at the cashier. At a glance I could see her face heating up, blushing red in a way I couldn't really understand. From around me, I could also heard some muffled gasps of the female customers. Man, I hope I didn't stir out that much commotion really.

Walking to the eyepatch boy's seat, I saw him staring intently at me. It might only be my imagination, but this boy looks really familiar. I probably had seen him somewhere before but I might be wrong, there's quite a number look-alikes in this world, and one could simply be mistaken for another.

Putting his hands together just below his cutely shaped chin, he finally opened his mouth; revealing a kind of husky voice that were so familiar to me.

"Do you remember about that time...in the Fairy Kingdom?"

the title roughly translates as : 'that's the way life is')

Somebody told me about this.

"Kirk, please don't try to make much sense out of things. Just enjoy the life as it is, rather than complaining how life won't ever turn out as you truly wanted it to be. Seize the day, let the troubles of yesterday be that of yesterday. The same could be said with things that might happen in the future."

At some occasions, life doesn't seem to have a point. It all brought about a sense of absurdity, that everything we had been fighting for has all but for naught. People achieved success because of the stupidest reasons, but you failed horribly even when you had already tried your hardest to please everyone. Then someone comes out of nowhere to destroy your entire life like it's nothing.

I just want to scream to the heavens above, yelling out "What's the point in all this? Why won't you just let me die already, I'm tired of being subjugated to various hardships. Yet many people seem to take it as a given, they're all but mere mindless slaves to reality!"

There I conclude this thought.

Life is pointless, as much as adventuring does.

But it's all fun because I didn't have to think too much anymore; all of it were ultimately reduced into enjoying the day and looking forward to what's right in front of me.

Nothing else would possibly matter, at least for now.



In front of me, I've seen a completely white world; must have been a dream. This kind of state completely nullifies the sense of time that has been keeping me out of shape. I mean, the days went on longer than I thought it would, and the nights seem to go on forever. Things made into a total nonsense as we speak, and that's what makes it really fun.

"Please do not say mean things to me, stop telling me that I'm stupid or I will murder you all."

A young boy comes running from outta nowhere. He completely resembles my childhood self, rather, it's definitely me in the past; back then when I was still a kid. He doesn't seem to recognize me being here, or might it also be that he couldn't see me?

"I want all the people that were bullying me to perish. If only I could murder someone without having to face the consequences, obtaining the power to erase one's existence, then I'll be happy. When I could least made someone else's life suffer without any kind of guilty conscience or any implications, it would make me look like an almighty being.

"I want that power, to erase the existence of this world until it were reduced to me and myself alone. When it comes to a realization, it made me truly happy because I could scream, laugh, and cry as much as I wanted."

"If there's actually a god in this world, he's the one I definitely want to murder first, for setting all these horrible turn of events to me."

What in the world? Is this really what my past self looks like? He doesn't seem to talk like a kid at all. Do I really wanted to murder a god and whatnot, then drink its blood to attain the supreme power that would yield me into doing lots of terrible things to people?

"Do not do that, Kirk. We, your parents, we all truly loved you for what you are...so please, forgive these people."

For a moment, I thought it was me who were being called. But my parents wouldn't actually say these things to me, as they basically only said mean things right during the past time. But what truly shocked me right on the bat was...

That the parents of this boy were not the parents I had in real life, based on the way they spoke alone. Their face were pretty much blank and grayed out; meaning I couldn't truly discern their identity. The boy smiled at the sight of his parents.

"Mom...Dad...I already said all of these bad things to people, will both of you punish me for that? I...just can't be a good boy, not with this kind of treatment which the people around me did."

"You're already a good boy, Kirk."

"Why?"

"At least you didn't lie. Most people would only say good things to their parents like they were just another person to them. Well, come on, let's go home."

"Okay."

In the end, the boy walked along with his mom and dad towards nothingness, and they lived happily ever after.

"You were actually far more selfish than I thought you were. And then I thought it's only myself who used to think that way."

"Carla?"

She was there all along beside me, maybe I haven't noticed her yet because I was too busy gazing on what's in front of me earlier. She crossed her hands together, resting it down her chest, giving me the piercing look from her eyes, the look which stares down at my very soul, rather than gazing at the insignificance that could only be perceived by plain sight.

"Then it was settled. Both of us shared a common ground, we longed to live in a perfect world, but at the same time we couldn't...because we're basically imperfect. Perhaps also far more broken than the others."

"I don't understand."

"It wasn't something to be understood. All of these desires were basically irrational so to say. Why would someone kill regardless of how the rule forbids it? Was it out of pure hate, and also out of revenge...or maybe they basically want to take someone's life just for the sake of entertainment? Either way, these desires couldn't truly be justified, and if we do so...it's merely out from our own personal bias."

"What do you mean?

To my dumbfounded question, she blew off a lengthy sigh. With an expression that was filled with discontent.

"Listen there, if I were to put it simply...no matter how much you tried to rationalize your desires, it all narrows down towards two possible outcomes. Either you want to receive it, or even reject it. Yes, even desires could be directed towards things that you hate too. No matter how impossible or unrealistic it was, the desires would always be there. It's just ourselves who were afraid of it, that we kept on denying the honest feelings which came from within."

I've never seen her act like this before. Maybe it's because she's in my dream or something? What lies before me might not be the real Carla, but actually the version which I want her to be, about her wanting to say things which would truly matter to me, regardless of how she actually acts in reality.

"Guess we just use different words to express our 'dreams' huh.."

"You could put it as a dream, if you want to."

"But...why are you telling me all this?"

It might be a rhetorical question, as this were actually inside a dream which I'm fully conscious of. She might just be saying it because I want her to say it, as she's currently just a mere figure generated within my consciousness.

"Kirk, I could give out a convincing argument about why all the things I told you were necessary, but it's not actually important. Reasons could only make someone agree on the outside...it won't change a thing on the inside. I'm probably the last person to say these kind of things but well, let me say it once again. Life will only be boring and pointless if you tried to rationalize everything. Instead of trying to understand the meaning of your life, just try to remember the taste of your favorite Potato Soup."

"Well, I still can't understand it...I mean...you might say it like the simplest thing in the world, but it's pretty much a big deal for me. You know...I wasn't born into such a powerful family like you. I'm just from an ordinary family, we were basically forced to adapt into such conditions to the point we have to abandon our idealism if we want to stay alive."

There was nothing to be understood, not at all. What matters was about you wanting things and rejecting the others you deem as unacceptable.

Carla? Why are you here in my thoughts?

There's no person like that here, Kirk. I'm merely just a part of your deepest desires manifested into the form that is Carla Sutherland. Isn't she a person who you deem to be an inspiring figure, that made you manifest herself deep within your consciousness/

I don't know.

Just stop thinking too much. All things will become clearer someday when you decided not to sweat the unnecessary stuff.

Okay.

Well then, have a peaceful dream...Kirk.

...

Little did I know that this dream might brought about a new revelation towards an adventure which was unlike what I've ever experienced before.

From this point on, I started to learn more about the things around me, but most of it were about myself.

Life sure is filled with unexpected turn of events.

"Kirk, do you remember back then at the Fairy Kingdom?"

"I see that your voice was pretty familiar, but I actually don't know who you are. Sorry, but I've got no single clue. How do you find out about my name by the way?"

Actually, I think based on his voice alone, he kind of reminds me of Jasmine. Though his appearance was somehow different; let's just say that even though he's pretty cute with a girlish face like that, one could tell right from the start that he's a guy. A completely different matter when you pair him up with Lucian, yeah that blond elf boy was pretty seductive...well nevermind...I don't want to remember that again.

He was probably one of the crossdressing maids that were serving me in the Fairy Kingdom earlier, and that's why he knew about my name. Aside from his voice, I couldn't see him bearing any resemblance to Jasmine, not at all - especially during that part when I saw his body exploding to pieces; he couldn't be alive but there's something that doesn't feel right about the fact that he just charged right through the fray while he told me about himself being an assassin or spy or something...

"Well you know Kirk, you possibly couldn't recognize me after all of the fuss I made you through all this time. Ah, allow me to introduce myself...my name is Juno. You know Jasmine, right? He's basically the homunculus that were created for me based from my own appearance, using that one part from my most valued weapon as his control unit."

"H-hold on a sec, let me get this straight firsthand. How did you control the homunculus? He seems so lifelike, and yet..."

Due to all of my shouting earlier, it seems that some of the customers' eyes were glued on us two with a kind of irritated look. Their glares instantaneously silenced my voice, rendering me utterly embarrassed due to my undignified manner; ah thankfully there's no one who stood up right away in order to cause me some serious trouble. Nobles actually were much different than your everyday thugs; they had things called social tolerance.

Still, I've gotta apologize to them as soon as I had been given the opportunity to do so.

"Oh boy, if only you could talk with a much lower voice, I reckon you would be able to hear all the good stuff."

"Ugh...I'm sorry about that, so please can I hear more things about that?"

"Nah, that part about telling more good stuff was just me pulling your leg, Kirk. It's top secret because we're currently in Avalon's jurisdiction, there will be hidden eyes and ears everywhere concealed within the sight. If I were to expose it, troubles will come after me just like hellfire. Well then, I think I said enough, it's nice talking to you by the way..."

Before Juno managed to get off the chair, I gently stopped him by holding his shoulders with both of my hands; telling him that I meant no single harm, and there's an important thing I wanna make sure of before we finally parted ways.

"Juno, there's one more thing I wanna ask. Was this meeting a complete coincidence?"

"I should be the one asking that. You just came out from the middle of nowhere and I figured out that it will be nice to have a chat...but it seems I am wrong, at least it's inappropriate to have a conversation with a people like you in here. Kirk, I don't know why I get this feeling, but you have a kind of aura which makes people say a lot more things than they were supposed to, including secrets."

An aura that makes people want to say a lot more than they supposed to? Perhaps this might be a kind of bogus hunch...but hey, I've seen it happening once before when I met old man Regulus. It was just our first meeting but he already talked to me like I'm as close as his family member.

"Well, I do not wish to intrude on you any longer bu...hey!"

Before I finished my words, he just walked away from me, making me reflexively reaching out to grab his hand. At first, I felt a sense of guilt since I seem to exert too much strength on grabbing his hand, but to my surprise, he took it just fine without any single cracking sound from the bones.

"Please let go."

"Before that, I just want to say one more thing."

"One more what? Aren't you just trying to hit on me? I don't know that you actually swing that way, Kirk."

"Listen there, why am I would do such things to a guy..."

"But you did."

"J-Juno...you completely misunderstood things, it's not like I..."

"Sorry, but I'm actually into girls."

"M-me too! Don't just label me as a man who loves another man just because he looks girlish or something..."

"You're sexually frustrated, please go get a hobby."

I don't know why but his last line actually does hurt a lot. He just left the building like that, along with lots of commotion going around, especially around the female customers.

"And yet I thought that I could finally see a Yaoi."

Well, I wish I didn't have to hear that finishing line which came out from one of the girls in here.

Actually, what I wished to say earlier was about...whether he did pick this place because he was irritated with the thugs hanging around the other taverns, so he would visit this one instead to avoid trouble, just like me.

Suddenly, I was reminded about something important which he had said earlier.

Something something about a control unit...



After getting pretty much delayed from paying the bill, I hurriedly ran outside in order to find Juno amongst all of the people passing by. To my surprise, he didn't seem to be that far off; moreover, to see him walking in a leisurely place like it's just another peaceful Sunday morning just made things even more suspicious.

Soon after he noticed my footsteps, he turned away towards my direction, and with an annoyed tone of voice, he started to yell out at me.

"Why are you still following me? Can't you tell that I'm only into girls?"

"Ssshhh! Please don't shout, it might cause some friggin misunderstanding to the people around you know. Actually, I had something in mind.. about the control unit..."

At first, he seem to be quite uninterested. He might be thinking that I'm particularly hiding something, based by his way of gazing deeply to my sight, in which I responded back by acting cool like there's absolutely no ulterior motive going around. Short moments later, he finally returned to his composed self, and our conversation restarts to how it was in the beginning.

"What about it?"

"First of all, I had picked up this thing after the explosion, but I'm not going to show this to you yet. Let's make a deal then."

"Tch! You...fine then, you're definitely smarter than you look. So what's in it for me?"

"Let's discuss this at some secluded place, I know of one suitable location for this."

"Well whatever...I won't forgive you if you ever tried to do anything outrageous."

This person sure has a pretty strange character. At one moment he might seem pretty calm, but at the other occasions he's rather easily agitated. Oh well, I just barely knew him so I have no right to complain.

If I recall, the abandoned Colosseum was around here, based on the dream I had about a person named Regulus. I wonder what kind of connection does this man have with that old man? They didn't seem to resemble one another after all, might it be...that this Regulus person was that old man's grandson?

Oh well, enough thinking for now. I got a very important question to ask Juno of.



"So, after your homunculus exploded, I found this multipurpose launcher, might this be the part of your most valued weapon that you were looking for?"

There I had shown him the launcher which I found at the Fairy Kingdom, perhaps this might be the one he's looking for.

"Figured as much that you would say that, but unfortunately, that's not what I'm looking for. The item was shaped like a small core shaped like a ball, and it acts as the entire life energy for the homunculus located inside the body, and when the homunculus dies, the core would pretty much be destroyed. The multipurpose launcher was merely its weapon, not its core. Well, that was a simple-minded conclusion...ah perhaps I was merely putting my expectations too high on you."

"Ugh..."

I horribly failed this task.

And yet I thought that I could get some valuable information to aid my quest on finding the Seeds of Knowledge along with Carla. This Juno person seem to know a lot; it's such a waste that I could not fetch something valuable outta him.

"As for the multipurpose launcher, you could just have it. This peculiar part was pretty common in the Empire, though I don't know if the launcher would have any purpose in Avalon's weaponry or whatever. Oh well, guess I had just wasted my time around here."

"Wait, I have one last question! It's about my quest for finding the Seeds of Knowledge..."

...

Around next week, at the King's castle, a grand tournament would be held.

The winner will receive the King's key, an item that were required in order to cross the outer rim of Avalon. Beyond there, it's all up to you. I heard the legendary item that you were looking for lies far more than that. This is a perilous task, and I'm pessimistic enough about someone as dim-witted as you trying to get through it. Just give it up and enjoy the life as a peaceful citizen – oh yeah, I would be making that a warning for the sake of your own safety.

This would be our first and last meeting, farewell and goodbye.

...

"The King's key huh..."

Why was he warning me not to venture any further on my quest, by the way?

Nah, as if I care 'bout it.

A wise man told me to finish the things that I've started, and that's how you call it a responsibility.

"Kirk should be up anytime soon."

It was around late morning, Stella sat there in the dining table after preparing some leftovers for the sleepyhead that has been out for a few days now.

"How do you know for certain?"

"Let's just call it...a woman's intuition."

"Hey, but I'm a girl too, you're making me sound like I'm different than you or something."

"Listen there Carla." she stood up from the dining table, gently rubbing my cheeks on top of that. "...even though you've got such a cute and adorable face, your personality was a completely different thing. You're following what I've said?" saying this, she released her gentle touch from my face that's now burnt aflame with embarrassment.

"You made it sound like it's a bad thing coming from me."

"Ah no..not that...I'm so sorry, I really didn't mean to say that."

I felt a warm embrace coming from her; the grip from her hands were neither too rigid nor weak, it was just at the right amount.

"Stella, I'm sorry for what I've done to you earlier, and yet you should be able to purchase the vacation house right off the bat if it wasn't for my intrusion. I don't know that the trading of dragons were actually legal around here...and uh..."

"It's okay, no need to cry over split milk. Besides, you had something else you should be doing, right? A vacation house wasn't all that important, and I've learned a valuable thing about the dragon riders, how they upheld the freedom of choices more than anything else. Really I'm grateful that I've seen this side of you."

"B-but..."

"You've been unusually clingy for today, huh? Guess even the strongest ones would act like a spoiled kid at certain circumstances. Fine, just think of me as your big sister in the meantime...okay? There...there...no need to make a fuss about it..."

The embrace lasted for about a few more minutes before I finally went outside the guild. Today was supposed to be the time when my beloved sword should be ready for its usage. Even though the revolver was really great, there was something about it which I couldn't really put my hand on. The weapon doesn't seem to be quite suitable to my tastes; it especially makes every combat seem to be pretty bland after I got pretty much used to the mechanisms of it. Maybe it's because the weapon wasn't especially made for me, that I find myself being quite uncomfortable, albeit slightly.

That's true that the Revolver kills off enemies much faster than relying on the melee weapon such as my beloved rapier, but well, that weapon wasn't originally mine to begin with, so I kind of feel bad using it over and over again. It should finally return to its rightful place, where the all-powerful gun should rest in peace after serving its rightful purpose.

Aside from that, let's get back to the Homerton's Armory.



"Ah, it's you again. So did you enjoy your stay here for the past few days, young lady?"

Grandma Homerton welcomes me with a peaceful smile in her work outfit that's kind of unbefitting for a frail looking old lady. She single-handedly carried a massive-looking hammer with ease like it's nothing to her; for a moment, one might wonder where did that kind of strength comes from that frail and slender body that were pretty much wrinkled due to old age, but when one saw her smile...they probably had also noticed the brimming strength and power coming from it.

After being subjected into a moment of awe by her solemn appearance, that which I didn't seem to notice on our first meeting, I awkwardly tried to form the words with my lips...but none of them seem to come out as I'm unable to get my thoughts straight during the moment.

"Yes." that's all the words coming out from my mouth.

Several kinds of powerful-looking weapons were neatly lined on the room, just what one might expect from a blacksmith with such high caliber as grandma Homerton. On the corner of the room, there was a furnace burning with flames so hot; the heat managed to give a burning feel across my skin from distances away.

Inside the furnace, a rapier sword was there; with its thin yet deadly sharp blades being thoroughly strengthened by the prolonged moment of immersion within the depths of flaming hell. The grip was incredibly reinforced, looking extraordinarily durable, and on top of that, also aesthetically pleasing to the eyes; with few metallic jewels adorning the grip, along with the combination of extremely powerful yet stylish looking metalwork forgery which made up the perceived durability of the grip alone.

"Young girl...your name is Carla Sutherland, if I'm not mistaken?"

"Uh...indeed that's my name...yeah..."

"Have you ever wondered why there's nobody else currently visiting this armory besides you?"

"Huh...I haven't quite noticed yet since I'm basically immersed with the impressive display of high quality weapons around this place. That aside, I can't think of any reason why such a nice place like this couldn't have any more visitors."

"You truly flatter me, Carla Sutherland, thank you for making an old lady like me happy. But yes, what I said before is true. You're the only one ever visited this place since long time ago, since the adventurers stopped coming to this land. Please do not ask me that for a senile blacksmith like me knows nothing. Ah yes...your blade is finally ready. I reinforced it with the Damascus metal since I figure that Adamantinum alone wouldn't be enough, especially for a kind of adventurer like you."

Wait a second. One does not simply reinforce a steel sword with the legendary metals such as Adamantinum or Damascus, so that possibly means...yeah, how could I possibly forgot about that again.

"Grandma, you actually forged a replica of my old sword, right? Still, I don't understand why you could forge such sword with these legendary materials, and with such magnificent design in a matter of days."

"So you noticed about it, that which I kind of expected. You're really the kind of adventurer whom I assumed you to be, Carla Sutherland."

"A kind of adventurer like me...I don't know what you're talking about."

"You're a person who views her weapon much more than just a mere tool for decimating your opponents. To you weapon might look like your dearest friend and partner, and that's why you couldn't get used to using the revolver I lent you few days ago. A replica might not be the same sword as the old, but it bears the same spirit, and your burning spirit of adventuring was the one which made its forgery to be a successful masterpiece in a matter of days."

Ah, so that's how it was. She might have destroyed the old sword in order to release the entirety of spirit power that was contained within it. In order to forge an extremely powerful weapon, there were two ways; the first method involves going to a legendary blacksmith with an unmatched ability unlike any other. It would took several years in addition of many sacrifices along the way, if one wants to forge it from the scratch.

The troubles do not end with this alone after the forging was completed. The weapon, by itself, would attract many people to steal it, to make it theirs, as the weapon's spirit was made from many years of heinous torture and containment, screaming out the thoughts of wanting to be free from merely being used as a tool to satisfy their unknown master.

As for the second method, which was currently used to forge a replica from my old weapon, was considered to be a sound idea. Though the range which the new weapon might be completed using this method greatly varies with each people, it might range from a hundred years to even one day. The more powerful the spirit infused by the adventurer to their old weapon, the easier and faster a blacksmith could forge a legendary weapon from it, and automatically the most powerful spirits would also create the most powerful weapons.

"So I'm not the only one who hears the voice of the weapon I'm using. Yes, this revolver...it doesn't seem to like me, no matter how much I ever got accustomed to using it."

"Then if I may kindly ask, will you please return the revolver I'm sincerely giving to you?"

"That's what I was originally planning."

"Well then, please wait a moment, your blade should be ready for usage after a few moments. I also created a special sheath just to contain its power...please use it wisely."

"I will, and thank you very much for your patronage, grandma. I do not know how much I could repay you for giving me such wonderful weapon."

"Now...now, it's a blacksmith's greatest pleasure to forge the greatest weapons. It was me who should give her ample thanks, of giving an old lady an opportunity to finish a modest work in her late age."

"B-but..."

"Say no more, and after you receive the blade, please go well on your adventures. An old lady like me want to take a long break after doing such task straight without any rest. Farewell then, Carla Sutherland."



The revolver that was with me all this time were now traded places with a new blade. I took off the blade from its sheath a little, and it reveals a golden-colored thin blade with the sharpness which seem able to cut everything, in addition of able to withstand the most powerful blows without giving even a single, minuscule dent.

For a moment, I felt bad on having to use such powerful weapon. Was it really okay for me to wield this? The battles from now on might pretty much be one-sided if I were to unsheathe this right off the bat, but well that's another story. From now on, I just want to made myself accustomed to using this blade.

As a starting point, let's give it a name.

A golden-colored, unbreakable sword with the power to cut almost everything.

"Durandal."

Sounds like a fitting name, although it was much different than the legendary Durandal sword model that was found in the Homerton's Armory. The weapon itself seems to like the name, in which responded by emitting a shining limelight which brought about a feeling of tranquility to my surroundings.

Yeah, on a second thought, I definitely will like this weapon.

After parting ways with Juno in the abandoned Colosseum I noticed one or two things which kinda disturbs my mind. First and foremost, I need to meet up with Carla soon to tell her about the King's Key, but maybe she already did knew of it far sooner than I thought; just what someone might expect from a person like her. The second, there's a thing which truly bugs me...

"Have I already developed a homosexual tendency towards beautiful guys?"

That...can't be. Or maybe I'm just in denial after experiencing firsthand about my sick delusions when I was staring at the nape of Juno's neck, it was quite feminine...but one does not simply find this quality while you're staring at the girls; that somewhat broad shoulders which looks frail and cute, to top it off...while the eyepatch cutie were looking at you with a heavily blushing face, arms crossed together, coyly turning his head sideways in a seductive manner. Then...the finishing line with that kind of husky voice that makes your mouth water with desire tops it off...

"Please don't ever try to hit on me, pervert. I AM ALSO A GUY YOU KNOW, YOU SICKO..."

My fantasies, why did you betray me at the very end? What melancholy! This soul of mine, never it be so heartbroken due to all of this blasphemy! I have a wonderful insight, a muse, to experience the utmost beauty that even a member of the opposite sex couldn't possibly gratify. Yes, it will be a start of a righteously wonderful love that could make even the angels themselves wanting to take a dump naked in the open!

Wait...take a dump naked in the open?

"Damn it, I'd better stop this before I go crazy. Besides, I could only get so far inasmuch with platonic love or I'll end up in a hospital for embarrassing reasons."

Hmm...during my first time strolling around this city, there's a certain place I'm really curious about. It's none other than the Greenhouse, the place where Lucian and I witnessed a tragedy about someone taking a dump naked in the open, moreover, it's the Elder himself who did it. That to be said, let's proceed to the greenhouse because I'm starting to talk about some unnecessary nonsense again.



After walking quite the distances away, I bought an iced tea at the nearby stand to quench my thirst.

From a distance, I took a glance at the majestic building right in front of me. Contrary to most greenhouses I ever came by, the light source merely comes from atop, with the front and rear walls mostly adjourned in a thick-framed metal, looking extremely durable, and within the series of walls therein lies a painting of a forest adorning it, escalating the aesthetic sense of the building.

With the rooftop shaped like the halves of a ball, having the transparent window to focus all the sunlight's energy to the interior, you might say this building was pretty fancy enough by its design alone. The Greenhouse doesn't seem to be locked in this time of day, which means either the Elder or Lucian might be tending things out right over here.

That to be said, I threw away the leftovers of my iced tea after I finished drinking it towards the nearby garbage dump, then I opened up the walnut-colored double door which reveals the interior of this spacious building. You could say that I was taken aback by everything which came to my eyes right after I noticed how beautiful was this panoramic view concealed from the outsiders.

Yes, exactly as you thought. There were couple of girls wearing hunter clothes, that were embracing each other on the second floor, and albeit faint, I could also see some girls far away on the third floor giving each other a tender kiss! The girls on the third floor seems to be wearing a shining armor with a silver color that kinda looks familiar. You know, the view of girls kissing and embracing each other will surely be a more than welcome of a reward as a feast to my eyes, much more than just an eye candy perhaps.

The Greenhouse was divided into three floors, each connected with the stairway on the leftmost and rightmost corner of each floor, including the first one. Different from the first floor, the second and third floor seems to have a large gap down the middle, that were protected with the steel barriers in order to prevent people from falling down.

Well, I knew that the large gap right in the middle was made to ensure the greenhouse had its access of sunlight in the first floor, with facts that strengthened my assumption in which the plants on the first floor were all placed right in the middle of the room, just below the gap. Though, there's one thing which truly disturbs my sight while I was basically trying to enjoy the view of girls' love in the other floors.

In the first floor, right in front of me, there's Lucian and the Elder taking a dump naked down the fertilizer box.

Lucian, please get that large tralala ding ding dong outta my mind, I'm going to have nightmares if you keep that up.



"Phew, at least both of you had managed to put some clothes on and finally stopped whatever nonsense you guys were doing. Huh...where's the Elder?"

"He just left."

Seriously? Leaving just like that without any clothes on...I don't know what kind of disturbances the Elder might cause if he were to run along the town completely naked like that. I hope he doesn't get into any kind of trouble with the authorities for exposing himself too much.

"Ah...I see...well it's kind of awkward with only both of us here, wait...who are these girls on the second and third floor?"

"On the second floor, these girls are the Guildenstern Mercenary Group, particularly notorious for recruiting cute girls who are also excellent fighters, they had one of the deadliest assassins in the entire Avalon, I also had trained in that place for about two years but I soon quitted because they had a strict policy for the male members, though a far more lenient one was applied to me. Basically if you were male, never join that place unless you're a complete masochist. The girls in that place were basically complete sadists, I've had enough of their teasing!"

"If you hated them so much, why did you managed to stay for the whole two years...don't tell me that...aha..."

"Mister Kirk! I'm just an innocent boy, please believe me...I also had serious troubles communicating with girls..."

Nah, I believe you were just saying that just to make me feel better. You know Lucian, with a cute face like that you will soon become popular with the girls in no time...

"Hey, Lucy! What are you doing here with a guy down the first floor? And I thought that you were a completely full-blown lesbian..." from the second floor, one of Guldenstern members shouted down at Lucian; rendering his ears completely red with embarrassment.

"I'M NOT A GIRL!" he replied back with a shouting tone that was completely befitting of a Tsundere character.

Yes, you could see that my assumptions were correct again. It was basically Lucian who were so popular, and he even got special treatments even though he's a guy. Nope...normally you couldn't hide your own gender so expertly in the lair of dangerous assassins like this.

"Come to think of it, you're so bold to reveal your nude body to the open! Nah, let's just say I didn't see anything down there. Whether or not this thing was down there, you shall always be our guild's idol, Lucy. Please come back to play with us again sometime." the same girl who shouted from the upstairs gave another teasing to Lucian, in which he responded by turning his back against them, and moving his head to both left and right directions cutely.

"Nope! And please don't ever bring this matter again!" yes, it was now revealed about his true character. A shy Trap who would act like a Tsundere at given moments...now the dawn of a new awakening has come...not.

I basically knew from the start that you were just being overly modest, Lucian. Damn it...this fact alone really hurts, why someone who wasn't even trying to score with the girls could be so popular?

"Mister Kirk, let us both go outside." Lucian quickly dragged me outside the greenhouse while I was still lost in thought.

I later heard that the girls wearing silver armor at the third floor were called the Sylvan Corps; Avalon's elite soldiers squad consisting mainly of exceptional female warriors, each members having a mastery of their own weapon that's unmatched by many others.

But that's another story.

What I'm going to hear from this mister popular who were also a Trap was completely unexpected. To hear what kind of troubles he had, I hope you will patiently wait for the next part because I'm a bit lazy for narrating the rest of the episodes in one go hahaha..

It was the meeting like few days ago; a lapse of moment which seem to be happening from long ago. A blond young man, attractive in appearance, with an older man that were basically looking like a slob; two of them sat together in the park bench near a greenhouse building. The blond young man looks really feminine, from the voice, mannerisms; basically everything from the surface not including that one large thing placed down under.

Though from the inside, he upholds the spirit of a clueless young boy in distress...possibly related to love troubles. It's okay, the master of romantic experience, Kirk Thompson is here to help you out. I have survived plentiful amounts of rejection, and I assure you, that by following my fruitful advice, you too, can be rightfully rejected down the first attempts; satisfaction guaranteed, to the point you possibly want to restrain yourself inside a tightly formed bondage perpetrated by your sadistic big sister in order to avoid cutting your wrists with a knife; symbolizing the melancholy angst of the teenage masses.

Even the boys that were never cried their entire life would soon find themselves crying to their hearts' content after experiencing this melancholy! Oh, even a tough-hearted person such as I had cried alot every weekends...it was a natural thing to do; let's call this manly tears – they have been shed altogether in a downpour motion just like waterfall.

Don't wait any longer! Experience the masterful teachings of the love guru Kirk Thompson to find yourself being rejected in a split-second moment! Experience the melancholy of true man, shed manly tears, and don't forget to restrain yourself from slitting your wrists, jumping off the rooftop, or even any form of suicide. Really, it's not manly at all. The way of a true man involves living with all you've got to the fullest; playing games, and watching a children show whilst shouting 'kaboom viva la geronimo!'

Wait, let's just leave that out.

"Mister Kirk, are you really listening to what I'm telling you earlier? You look just like you're having fun with yourself."

"Errr...I'm sorry that I wasn't being a good listener, really. Please say it again."

"Nah, actually I haven't said anything! I'm just busy staring at your face. Mister Kirk, were you fantasizing about weird things just before?"

"Ugh, Lucian...please cut off some slack will ya? At first you appear to be kind of serious about this matter you wanna tell me about."

"I guess you're right. Well then...you know...I had quite some problems with Misty, she seems to hate me for what I did earlier...you know. I've heard her being overly intimate with miss Carla and I'm feeling pretty jealous, and things got pretty heated up when I called her a lesbian on top of that. I wasn't able to apologize for the next few days...and uh...you seem to be quite experienced with the ladies, mister Kirk...so I figure you could give me a hand on this."

Ah, so that's what really troubles him earlier.

"Misty huh...me and her probably haven't talked much, or even any at all, if I remembered correctly. But I could as much tell her that she's a delicate girl. If one want to be close to her, I figure they should be really sweet and fluffy. That's probably one of the reasons I find her to be avoiding me right from the start, as I basically look like a dirty brute and such."

If I were to tell him the truth, I was pretty offended by her actions. She might be a really cute girl, but her indifference towards people kinda left me depressed. Well, you got some unsociable types of people in all places, I guess.

"N-no...not at all, mister Kirk. You're actually cool and manly! If I were to be born with a tall, muscular and masculine body like that...my life probably would be much better."

"Err...thanks really, what you said wasn't true at all but well...you make a lazy snob like me happy."

But I have to say that flattery won't get you anywhere, Lucian. We've got a more pressing matter to deal with.

Hmm...

Although to be said, I think Misty did seem a bit easygoing, so I guess it's all about Lucian's paranoid tendency towards the ladies which caused this tension to occur.

"Lucian, if you were to speak your mind out. What kind of things made you actually hate you so much? Were both of you stopped meeting up all of sudden because of the things that has been said and done?"

"That is..."

"What is Misty to you? It's the question I want to ask for quite a while now, hope it's nothing personal and such."

"Me and her...go along way back."

How nice...so it's like a quarrel between childhood friends, huh. I'm kinda envious of these two as I didn't really have strong connections to other people since the very beginning. Hmm...what about me and Carla? I haven't thought about it yet, but it seems that both of us were also kind of distant, methinks. We primarily were compatible with each other on the surface, and we bear the similar goals, but aside from that...we probably were just like strangers.

I still had difficulties comprehending her train of thought...nah, more like I don't understand her at all despite being with her for a certain time period. But there lies a fact that I admired her a lot, that much is true. Yet it's hard for me to view her as an equal, since she rarely ever shown any weakness in front of others. What is Carla to me, really? I don't know, perhaps I could view her as a partner...but as a friend? I don't know, I guess both of us probably were made not to care about other people enough to be attached to one another.

Why was I attracted to other people? It might definitely be out of lust, but most of it were pretty much one-sided.

"Lucian, all that I want to say is...just do what you think is right. Normally people would think straight to apologizing, but in your matters...it seems that you were having trouble to associate yourself with other people. You might have been afraid because you possibly view the others as a complex entity, and can't possibly afford to make mistakes in front of them."

"Pardon me?"

"Just be yourself, if you don't want to apologize, don't do it at all. It's simple enough."

To my surprise, Lucian giggled a lot in response to my words.

"Hahahaha...I don't know that you could be unexpectedly mean to others, mister Kirk. And I thought that you were basically someone who gets along with any people."

"Definitely not, I'm just someone who keeps his distance from others just to avoid conflict. To me, when people could freely abuse one another without any hard feelings in retrospect, in that matters only they could be considered friends. Well, you might want to play it cheerfully and call her a lesbian over and over again with a smile."

"I don't understand any of it, mister Kirk. You sure are painfully stupid, aren't you? But it's nice talking to you! Even though your words were basically useless, I felt like you had shown me a way to redeem myself."

"And you're a damn queer, Lucian. Hahahahaha..."

The conversation ends up with a merry laugh.

I never felt this good for quite some time.

Guess that's all about my idealized view of a friend, which made me unable to have any friends for so long, being somewhat self-centered of a person I am. Personally, I had the troubles of fitting in with the people. Though as for now, it seems that my worries won't be true, or that's just what I hoped it for.

Either way, it's about time for me to go back into the guild.

I've encountered some inconveniences during the way back towards the guildhouse. There's people coming over to inquire whether did I belong in a group called the Sylvan Corps or whatever, seeing as I carried around a sheathed sword in my holster. It seems that I have to acquire a permit or something to carry around something around this sword's caliber; at the least I must pass a certain test or something...but I didn't really care anyway.

Funny how nobody ever complains when I was carrying around a deadly revolver around last time. Oh well, at least let me try on this sword's ability by practicing some easy kills down the clearing; there should be several goblins or even the occasional gnolls that were ready for complete decimation. Well, it's been awhile since I actually used a sword as a primary combat weapon, since I mostly rely on my magical attacks to decimate most enemy. How did I defeat these anti-mage monsters along the way, you ask?

Well...I forgot, but it seems...uhh...well...I used to have a powerful crossbow, but it somehow broke along the way during my journey towards the death valley. A vulture with a menacing look suddenly drove towards the direction whilst Kirk and I were sleeping atop the behemoth we're currently riding, and yeah, I reflexively parried the attack using the wrong weapon. Instead of relying on the sword, I used my crossbow, which was not durable enough for defending...it finally broke after the vulture's first charge. Luckily I was still able to pull out my magic attack to completely destroy the monster short moments later.

Instead of throwing the broken crossbow parts away, I still stored it inside my inventory. Come to think of it, I already asked grandma Homerton to fix it before, but it seems she didn't have any clue about how to deal with this crossbow.I really longed to use it after a while; hopefully there's someone inside this place who knows how to deal with it, or better yet, make me another one with a much better quality! Let's just hope the wait won't be that long of a time.

Oh look, I'm already back to the guild again.



"I'm back." thus I said my greetings after placing taking off my boots and placing them on the shoe rack near the entrance.

The place was really quiet during this time. After sir Leonard and Elrond had left us during the Fairy Kingdom incident, the guild gets even lonelier than before. To one side there's the guest room with a leather sofa and bunch of gun models lined up on the walls; with the entire interior of the current floor resembles those of a coffee shop. Strong smell of coffee beans wafted across the scenery, with a lukewarm light illuminating the place even during the times of daylight.

In front of the entrance there was quite a broad corridor which divides the room into two sections, one leading towards the guest room and the other towards the dining hall and the restroom. The stairway towards the second floor could only be accessed from the dining room's side, where from the guest room there's a shortcut to enter the backyard, along with the ones we enter from the dining hall, with the exit door that's nearby the kitchen.

Admiring the poignant scenery this place has, with its elegantly lacquered walls in one corner, and the neatly placed decorations such as the well-drawn maps, weapon models, the results of hunt such as animal heads, and even the exotic artifacts which seem to come from far away being placed on display; it makes oneself wonder about the length of history this guild has.

I at least could afford to ask someone in this guild, probably the elder or...

"Hic...hic...I wanna play hockey inside a tartar sauce za mayo..."

What in the world? Were my ears just playing tricks on me? If it wasn't just my imagination, Stella was rambling about some incomprehensible things; the voice coming from the direction of the staircase. Judging from her somewhat slurry voice, truly delirious on top of that; one could safely assume that she is...

"Ah, good morning Carla."

"Don't 'good morning' me! Moreover...what the heck..."

She's completely drunk! My suspicions were somehow proven when she just came from the second floor, staggering towards the entrance whilst holding a large bottle of liquor. Remember kids, she's a really bad example..don't be a kind of adult like her when you grew up, okay?

When I averted my focus for a while now, she suddenly held myself in a tight embrace; her slender hands clutching on my lower back near my hips. Her well-endowed chest were pressed against mine, which were a bit small and flat in comparison; it makes me somehow jealous.

"Carla...I love you...I want to kiss you..."

As she spoke so closely to my face with a muffled tone that's pretty seductive even for me, I could see that her drunk expression somehow reminded me of a reckless and klutzy person I used to know from way back. Though I didn't like the taste of alcohol coming out from her lips, it made me felt dizzy.

I kind of dislike alcohol, it makes one unable to focus during the most important moments; rendering oneself vulnerable at the given time, or maybe it's just me being an uptight person and such.

"Please go away, you're drunk."

Inasmuch as herself being affectionate and clingy was a nice recourse to alleviate the dull moments in daytime, it still feels weird to take advantage of her situation – so I just pushed her away like that, in which she responded with so little of resistance; breaking the firm embrace of hers with ease. Even with just a gentle push from mine, it made her body moved back few steps; staggering for a short while before she managed to lose her balance.

Just before her body fell down the floor, I managed to caught her body in place using both of my hands. Sigh...that was close...

"Thanks." she said in a weak tone.

It's a good thing she seems to be sobering up.

"Go take a rest. I don't know what kind of stuff would make you this depressed to the point you decided to indulge in alcohol, but I'll be there to listen to your troubles...if you ever need me, Stella. We might have been acquainted for a short time, but you truly reminds me of someone I knew so well in the past. She also likes to indulge in me, so if you want to...you could..."

She gave me a gentle pat to my head, right when I was about to finish my words.

Then, with a gentle whispering voice, she spoke directly through my ears.

"You're a good girl Carla...but it's okay. After all...it's just my way of having fun with life, neither of it came from being depressed about something."

"Now you're making me even more worried. What was it about, really? If it involves me and you didn't wanna talk about it even for a bit, I won't possibly know how to forgive myself."

"It's a s-e-c-r-e-t. But I could say that neither of it involves you at all, Carla. You're more than a worrywart than I thought, but that by itself is cute...ahaha..."

I just can't say no to that smile of hers. Also, the way she gently pat my head whilst playing with my hair truly broke my conviction to find out what she was thinking.

"O...okay..."

"As you had suggested, it's about time for me to take a rest...hope I won't get a hangover from this...guuuhh...my head hurts."

She slowly stood up on her own feet; it was a wobbly stance which indicates that her reflexes were pretty much deteriorated from the intoxication of alcohol, just how much had she drunk to make her like this?

"Please take care."

Seeing as the way she walked truly renders me with worries, I offered my hands to her, hoping that I could somehow help her out.

"No need to walk me. Better yet, please don't walk me to my room...I could do it myself."

The last reply from her really had shut my mouth from muttering anymore words of consolation; completely speechless from the last reply, which altogether with her strange attitude seems to left me with a bad aftertaste. The chilly feeling I had in my back comes together; leaving me stood frozen in place.

"Please don't take this to heart, she's at a complicated point in her life." a man's baritone voice resounded from the direction behind my back; it was a kind of voice having the weight and texture withstanding so many seasons and years.

When I turned towards the voice's direction, there's the Elder standing.

"H-how long have you been there really?"

I couldn't hide my trembling voice upon the inquiry; further embarrassments will occur if he actually had been there right at the very beginning.

"I've just arrived here, miss Sutherland, and I wish to assure you that there is nothing to be embarrassed about. It all concerns the healthy life of young people, but seeing as she were now, my granddaughter's condition might be serious."

So you're actually had been here right from the start...Elder? Oh no...out of all people I didn't want to be exposed for...why on earth...

"We're back! Oh there you are, Carla." it was a very familiar sounding voice which brought me back to my senses; the sleepyhead has finally arrived, none other than Kirk himself. Coming from behind the Elder, he stood up tall with his muscular physique confidently, along with Lucian beside the entrance.

Upon hearing the pair of footsteps coming in, the Elder turned around towards both of them. "Ah, perfect time, alas both of you, Kirk Thompson and Carla Sutherland...finally gathered again in one place! Lucian, you could just go along or do as you please. But as for Kirk and Carla, I really need you to listen to what I have to say."

"Well then, please excuse me gramps.." to the Elder's word, Lucian quickly walked away from our company.

"Did he had some business, Kirk? He seems to be in a hurry..."

My curiosity urges me to land a question at Kirk, in which he responded...

"It's a man's secret."

...using a tone of voice which gets me a bit annoyed.

"That's unfair!"

"Sorry...but even between us partners, there should be secrets we couldn't tell no matter what! Hahahaha..."

"Grrrr..."

"As much as I like to see both of you getting along well, please give some consideration to this poor old man you know...harharhar..." the Elder blurted out into the conversation which started spontaneously between me and Kirk, which caused me to break out into embarrassment. Kirk also seems to feel the same way too.

"S-sorry.."

After both of us said these words to the Elder, we walked towards the dining room; sitting down the chairs lined at the table.

The conversation turned out in a rather unexpected direction when we finally figured out the truth after being subjected to the Elder's clarity.

"Do you want to go back...to whence you came from?"

Thus said the old man, in a rather composed voice.

Once upon a time in Avalon, there was a thriving guild which hosts several great adventurers of the past timeline. Amongst them, a young man was born; at first, he was pretty much a burden to his family since he cannot read due to the defect in his brain happening since the time of his birth – thus greatly hindering his potential to learn the special abilities passed down the family for many generations.

Despite of these shortcomings, he was actually an intelligent man; one who learns quickly; learning with utmost diligence in whatever things he was taught. Most importantly, regardless of his inability to learn in a way normal people does, it does not bring him down in the slightest bit. Laughter was like a best friend to him; even if the laughter doesn't show in his face, one could tell that...when he diligently tries his best, at the same time his heart was laughing with joy.

Normally one would presume he would be drenched in a depressing pain from the peculiar circumstances. Nevertheless, whichever heartache deep within him got pretty much alleviated by the sound of gentle laughter wafting across the air - coming from his very mouth, and from the depths of his heart. This easy-going way of life was the thing which leads him to become one of the greatest adventurers ever lived within the guild. Once upon a time, he was shunned and mocked; later on, he was envied, and being looked up to as a great adventurer of his time.

However, it later on does appear that it was not by laughter alone he managed to attain the greatness he completely deserved. You probably want to add this to the argument, that life, by itself, becomes really exciting when one managed to put on his best effort within each and every day; especially when one fights for the sake of his greatest love. It's not only for just a mere laughter in which he relentlessly fought; it was for a special someone who laughed and cried with him together from the very beginning - at least it did appear so from a certain observer's point of view.

There would be times when laughter alone won't be enough to alleviate the distress of someone. When push comes to shove, one would either fell into depression for a prolonged time, or to be dragged outside it soon after by a special someone. A beautiful and caring woman was there for him, as the greatest driving force which made him the great man he was known for. Unfortunately, they cannot be together for so long, and each moments of separation between them feels like eternity; each of it subsequently filled the man with grief, onto the extent he couldn't stand it anymore.

He seem to be wanting the woman all by himself, no matter what it takes. This turn of events deeply worried his mentor, an elderly man who had been observing him for such long a time. Soon, the young would have to realize that...no matter how much you desired things, they won't ever be one's own possession. It was merely things that were lent to us, not given.

His definition of love was mostly one-sided and selfish, but it's truly understandable. He's still young, brimming with lust and desire, and often blinded by faraway dreams. Regardless of that, one could say that...his weakness and shortcomings were possibly his greatest charm.

One that could attract a strong woman, who wished to find a ragged lost puppy as an object of affection. In the end, they indulged in one another; it was a mutual love, a kind of perfect, harmonious relationship, entwining the entire pieces of puzzle together into a whole picture. Even if both of them cutely denied their affection to one another, the sincerity of their feelings was genuine.

Until all hell suddenly breaks loose, and the girl figured out that the man wasn't meant for her anymore. What was once weak and ragged puppy before had turned a powerful dragon, now the dragon lusted over the woman...not anymore because of his love and affection...

More of a bodily lust; he wants to devour her flesh whole, not in literal manner of course.

The woman didn't like it. So one day she disappeared without any kind of forewarnings.

His sister didn't seem to like the woman from the start, as she viewed her to be one of the adversaries on making her way towards her own brother. The disappearance of that woman she hates brought about a new opportunity for making an approach for her object of lustful affection.

Needless to say, he rejected his own sister; not because it was wrong to indulge within an incestuous relationship. The sister didn't even look at him once when he was just a forlorn youngster, only then after what was once a ragged young puppy turned into a powerful dragon, she became truly infatuated.

After rejecting his sister's approach, the awkwardness and tension grew within him and the rest of his family in the guild; he soon found himself unable to fit in the current circumstances – that which made himself deeply inclined to leave the guild. Embarking upon an aimless wandering in search for his true love.

Few years had passed, yet he haven't even returned back towards this place. His departure yields a cataclysmic loss; both as a wonderful family member and an incredibly dedicated, yet talented adventurer which brought about countless glories to the guild. What was once a distinguished guild within the entire city - all of it came to breakdown upon his demise; the guild never regained its past glory up to this point in the present time, so to say.



"This guildhouse was the certain historical monument which resembles our rise and fall in the world of adventurers by generations to generations. My grandson was the one who sets an incredulously high bar in our achievements, but he suddenly left just like that. Couldn't really blame him...it was that girl who really had teached him to become a great man he was..."

"...I couldn't really blame her either, she probably has her own reasons why she suddenly want to part ways with my grandson. If there was someone whose fault should be placed, that would definitely be mine...if I were to realize this sooner I could try as much as I can to talk things out, but really...perhaps nothing would possibly change regardless of how hard I tried to smoothen things up."

Thus the Elder end his tale with a heartbreaking conclusion. At first I thought it was going to be a completely different story altogether, seeing as he convinced us with the first sentence he brought up – about the way for us to return back. Both of us said no to hearing it, although Kirk sounds a bit reluctant. We've already came this far; it's only natural that we do finish it, so the adventures won't be just up for naught.

"Still, it doesn't seem that the sister's depression was truly logical, methinks."

I decided to break the ice by saying my opinion about the Elder's story.

"Carla...I do not find it to be reasonable either, but I think there's something going on between these two...something that I couldn't really put my finger o.."

"The story sounds familiar, I think I've had a dream about it before; with similar details that was viewed from a different perspective than yours."

Before the Elder finished his words, Kirk nonchalantly blurted out his thoughts loudly; that which made me jump. The conclusion he brought up to was much more intriguing. Normally, one wouldn't dream about the person they haven't met; that's what I used to think.

"Err...uhh...the atmosphere seems a bit gloomy, I don't like it. After hearing your story, I can't seem to find the point that would help us in finding the Seeds of Knowledge." ignoring the couple of things said earlier, I decided to make them get into the point. If this drags on needlessly, we probably won't derive any valuable information at all.

"Carla and Kirk. You probably don't know that an old man like me only tells that kind of stories to the people whom he trusted the most. Please be patient, I will get to the point soon. Well then, if I could continue with the pressing issues at hand..."



The conversation continued for more than a hour, with so many details jumbled up into a single sitting; that which I would refrain from explaining thoroughly, as it basically seems too lengthy. From the Fairy Kingdom, I knew full well that I've obtained the location where the Seeds of Knowledge resides; a place called the Outer Rim. Normally, you would need an item called the King's Key in order to gain passage, but it seems the times had changed; anyone could enter and exit as they liked in the present time.

"From the start of your arrival, I figured that I should tell this to you right away that we must hurry. Powerful adventurers like you had a chance to take on the most intimidating guardians to the legendary item, but I want you to familiarize yourself with the current situation first. Moreover, at the start, I didn't really trust you yet...but after knowing both you and Kirk, there's no reason to doubt myself anymore." so said the Elder.

"Why do you want us to gain it so much? I didn't mean to sound impolite but, what's in it for you and the others within this guild? it's not like I'm saying that you had ulterior motives or anything."

To my reply, the Elder said these peculiar words.

"Not for just me and every guild members from the past to present time, it's also for this world. It's been greatly longing for deliverance."

The conversation ends up with lots of confusion to both me and Kirk. Without further adding the confusion to the readers, let's just say that by tomorrow, we will undergo the journey towards the Outer Rim.

"Kirk, did you said before that you had a similar dream to the Elder's story?"

"Yeah, kinda."

"What was it about?"

"Nah, I'm too lazy to explain about it. Just read the story, I think it was around the section titled : Side Story A."

"Guh...there you go breaking the fourth wall again. What is this, a metafiction?"

"Carla, please do not disturb me, I'm currently preparing for dinner."

"Uhh...okay."

Kirk and I were preparing for dinner at the kitchen inside the guildhouse. To be exact, it's just Kirk cooking for the feast, as I mostly just helped out by fetching him the necessary utensils in addition of cutting some of the ingredients using the kitchen knife and grinding up some big pieces of lofty meat using a meat grinder, also preparing the seasoning by thumping up pieces of vegetables with a pestle down the kitchen mortar; shredding it to pieces which would blend handsomely with the stew prepared.

Since Stella and the Elder were eating out for a change, the charge of dinner were left out to us. Lucian and Misty didn't came along with them because they weren't that good dealing with crowds; especially Misty, that which made her spent her days being copped up inside the basement library. I heard that she usually lived in a nocturnal manner, staying up late every day and slept within the morning, so she mostly just experienced the evenings and nights; which often made me especially worried about her health.

Lucian said, that someone gifted to be necromancers could adjust their biological clock with ease, so she would have no problem staying out late so frequently. That aside, I heard Stella was urging her to stop staying out late just yesterday, as it would greatly reduce her stamina when she was forced to wake up in the mornings. Ah, I see that problem about the bad sleeping schedule still takes the toll even on the most hardcore nighthawks.

Stella might also be suggesting for her to take a change, since I saw her already able to normally summon the undead with her necromancy abilities even during the day. Even if Misty was able to see through clearly during the dark with her extraordinary sight ability; the same with Kirk – I still find it to be monotonous by just staring at the sunset and the night skies each time. I particularly prefer basking myself in the breezy morning air, gazing at the monsoon rain and the break of dawn from my room after I woke up at the early time. An ideal companion would be a cup of steamy milk tea or even a cup of hot chocolate, without any sugar nor creamers.

That was the reason why I pretty much love to get up early, I also like staring at the raining scenery whilst confined inside the walls of my homeplace; wrapped tightly in my blanket whilst reading my favorite books. The raining scenery which shows a mountainous terrain along with the scenery of buildings within the city; it was a perfect moment to adore the nature within each and every moments at Sunday morning, or every day-offs while I didn't have school.

Come to think of it, besides reading books I also like to..

"Carla, please fetch me the whisk. I need these to smoothen the eggs for the omelette dessert. Ah, also that ham which you already grinded...yeah, thanks you were a big help. It's a hassle to do this alone, hahaha..."

"M-my pleasure. But really, I didn't do anything...I can't even cook that well besides the essential stuffs you taught me back then."

I can't really say that I'm terrible at cooking; I think it was at least mediocre, nothing special 'bout it. Besides, my cooking abilities were only around the level of necessity survival – to cook the food that were quite delicious and at least should be edible. I haven't been able to take cooking as my interest as I spent the majority of my time learning about the basics of adventuring; training myself in many aspects so I could easily survive through the most perilous environments out there.

"No worries. Besides, I also want to repay you back for protecting me all this time during our adventures. Don't worry about your cooking, I really love it every time you cooked for me...that potato soup you made after I got back from the hunt about few months ago...while we were still searching throughout the nation...it was truly delicious."

"Uhhh...g-glad you like it."

His words just then made my face somehow got heated up. Never was a man beside my father had ever made me felt like this before. His broad and muscular back, with him diligently cooking dinner, wearing an apron which suits him perfectly; it instantaneously turned this man into a figure of a reliable big brother to me.

A while later, the food was about to be ready. Well, to be honest I didn't know whether it was already well-cooked or not; the smell wafting from the big bowl under the burning cooker was enough to make myself tantalized. Kirk starts humming joyfully as he stirred up the contents of the bowl using a spatula that's coated with stainless steel. The spatula's grip was made with a familiar kind of insulator; might be those of a carbon material, methinks.

"What a nice smell."

Albeit faint, I could hear footsteps along with a small voice coming closer from the dining room; the sense of it was peculiar to those who basically were impatient on waiting for their meal. The voice had a cutely tone to it; sounding somewhat boyish, yet also adorable.

It belonged to none other than Lucian; he gave me a playful smile as I turned back to meet his gaze. A bit curious to inquire about what's going on, I asked him.

"How's Misty doing down there?"

"We've already made up, now it's just like the things going on few days ago had never happened. She should be there in the basement if you want to talk about something important."

"I see..."



Since Kirk had said that the food won't be ready anytime soon, he gave me the time to wander around freely, at least until the food's ready, Until then, he would have Lucian helping him out, since I think the rest of the preparations won't be as difficult as the previous; Lucian seems to be quite handy in the kitchen, so at least he would do much better than myself.

"I'll be there in the library with Misty. Whenever the food's ready, just call us, and please don't gobble up all the food by yourselves, got it?"

Saying this, I descended downstairs from the stairway near the dining hall. The stairway went straight to the library; with the large bookcases stood tall distances away besides the stair leading downwards. In the center of the room, there lis the teleportation circle in which I entered this world from. I wonder if I were to step into it again, I would be teleported back to whence I came from?

"Onee-chan...is that you?" in respond to my audible footsteps coming from upstairs, a young girl's voice resounded from the bottom of the staircase.

Misty was there, sitting at one of the benches nearby the teleportation circle; shining brightly in this room, along with various candles and lamps which gave this room a kind of mysterious atmosphere befitting to a witch's lair. You could say that she's a witch, by the way.

"Sigh...your real big sis might be mad if you kept calling me that over and over."

She was reading this book, with the title written in rune letters. Based on my rough understanding, it's a paperback containing the advanced techniques regarding alchemy. If I remembered correctly, Stella was supposed to teach me that, since I actually did accomplished the job for her, but since I kinda failed to catch that bone dragon, my mind had been filled with a sense of guilt; that which made me unable to ask her ever since.

After our gazes meet for a certain moment of time; she lowered her witch hat down, to the point it concealed a part of her face. With a low voice, she said this meekly...

"Haven't I said this before? My big sis...she wasn't there for me anymore, that was so mean of her to left me behind. Now you were there, please don't leave me ever again...stay with me and become my big sis."

"Sigh, even if you said that...I won't stay here forever you know?"

I slowly approached her seat, and sat beside her; tenderly embracing her small and frail body.

"Don't say that..."

"Well, you could stay with me for as long as you want...only if you're able to go along with me in each and every of my present and future adventures. The journey would be extremely tough...and if you couldn't watch your own back...you'll definitely get killed. It would be much safer if you just stay here and be a good girl."

My statement sends her into an apparent state of agitation. She raised her face, revealing her teary-eyed expression; it had a subtle look of determination, but it's far from enough to entrust her within my care.

"B-but...I'm also an adventurer...I am strong, I surely could be much of a help to you."

It might be pretty insulting to say that, with her level, it would be easy enough for a horde of goblins to defeat her. The resolve she had in her heart was truly weak; it was more of a desire to avoid being hurt, rather than to fight for what she believed in. I definitely couldn't accept her no matter what, even if she's a very cute girl and I seem to be lusting for her to a certain extent.

Regardless of myself being also a girl, being with Misty seems to develop my tendency to become attracted to another girl...I couldn't really put my finger on it. This girl...looking at her weak condition like this, it's just like she was asking to be completely taken advantage of. In short, she wants me to abuse her, and she would be happy regarding it. I didn't like it at all, but at the same time, I was greatly tempted.

Sigh...if she were to say that she's a descendant of a succubus, I would just believe her right away. No other girl would have this much sex appeal...besides my own big sister. It's getting really...really hard to say the words to her...but...here I come...

"L-listen there M-misty...uhhh...I...err...guuuuhh...I don't think you would be up to par with the kind of adventures I underwent together with Kirk. Seeing as your...uhh...err..."

"You don't seem to be that convincing either, Onee-chan." she emphasized the last bit using a seductive tone of voice, sending my face into a complete heat; rendering it heavily flustered.

"H-hey...cut it out..."

Before I finally managed to escape from her clutches, her face came really close to mine; ending up with both of our lips being pressed together. I couldn't really explain how it feels since the deep kiss from her fills me up with embarrassment. She might really be a succubus after all, since her lips tasted so sweet and enticing; a bit filled with cherry flavor mixed with wine, really unusual that a mere kiss would taste that wonderful – it somehow fills you up with a sense of drunkenness.

"You actually do want this, don't you? This means that I have won...you have no right to refuse me anymore...Onee-chan."

She might be much stronger than what she seem to be. It becomes really dangerous on how could she made me fell for her so easily...

"Okay, you win...I guess you can come with us tomorrow."

"Yay!"

It was originally supposed to be just me and Kirk alone going, along with the ship's captain since we're going on a ship towards the Outer Rim.

Later then, I asked Misty about what I originally want to talk about with her; which was about her own big sister. To my question, she replied with a short sentence.

"She was a beautiful and kind girl just like you, but your body was much more softer and fluffy."

At her reply it left me with a fearful aftertaste. I certainly didn't want to find out what she was actually doing to me while I was asleep.

The dinner I was preparing together with Carla, and also with Lucian later on; it wasn't that extravagant at all. At most, it was a pretty modest dinner consisting of a stew with the mixture of many different kinds of ingredients which I hope could blend together; consisting mainly of a balanced proportion between meat and vegetables, also with a various herbs as a seasoning; small dosage of ginger, mint and chamomile to add some flavor, along with the essential curry powder to boot.

It's mostly accounted to my own taste since I like curry. Usually, along with the potato soup as a main dish, it would also be a pleasure to have it with a plateful of rice adorned with curry sauce. Both boar meat, which was Carla's favorite, and the slices of potato that upholds my love for vegetable meals; they were put together inside the big bowl in which the stew was cooked until completion. The meat used was all the minced ones, since cooking a whole slice of it would take too long a time. At some points it was also necessary to grind the meaty thingies altogether until they went ker-plunk, softening up just like that.

About further details pertaining the ingredients and also the food preparation, let's just leave it out because the explanation would take so much unnecessary paragraphs; meaning we won't get the story anywhere if we just focused on the itty bits whilst disregarding the important points.

The number of portions prepared was more than enough to satisfy about four people, although I made lots of extras since I figured that all of us here basically were ravenous eaters; one which would gobble up an entire serving of food for normal people in a matter of moments just to satisfy their monstrous appetite – anyway it's just my hunch, that's all was to it. About the dinner itself, I already explained it beforehand at the very beginning; it was a pretty modest one regardless of our enthusiasm while preparing it.

Though, I'm certainly glad that all of us who partake in the dinner pretty much enjoys the food. It truly made my day, that as a momentary chef, I would be able to grant upon smiles to people who ate my food. For the dessert, I already prepared a large serving of omelette with minced ham and bacon, with the toppings of a grated cheese and grilled mushroom, plus the chocolate pudding and a small creamy milk pitcher as a bonus. There's also several servings of taco ready at the refrigerator being marinated with butter before finally re-cooked within the microwave oven; this might be too much for a single dinner as there's also the black forest cake ready for eating at the fridge.

Meanwhile, I have to tell you the truth; the cherry toppings that was atop the cake, along with a portion of the slim chocolate bar down the cake's main body; I pretty much ate them while nobody was looking. Oh well, let's get back to the story for real this time.



"Thanks for the food." all of them spoke in unison after all of us had finished our portions; along with the extra parts, they pretty much had emptied the whole portions down their digestive tracts.

Since Misty was busy with other matters, and she appears to be a bit clumsy just like Carla, I let her off the hook on the washing stuff. Well you heard that right, even Carla had her own clumsy traits which made her cute. She was especially bad at handicrafts, the least she could do being able to tie her boots properly, but when it comes to using weapons and fighting, it seems like every weapon she end up using would turn out to be very deadly; as long it's not a weapon which requires handicrafts. Heck, she could even hit as hard as a powerful minotaur with only her bare hands alone.

Speaking of which, that sword which she carried on holster...it truly gives me the chills even though it's still unsheathed How on earth did she managed to acquire such weapon emitting a powerful presence like that? That's preposterous. I decided to leave all that matters aside, since I've gotta enjoy what's left of my time today. The Outer Rim, huh? Its name sounds rather creepy and I probably would dislike going to that place.

"Nah, I'd rather not think about it." mumbling to myself in a rather low voice, I continued on cleaning the plates with Lucian. Carla and Misty had some other things down the basement Library; not quite my business to interfere but sure I am curious what would happen if two adorable girls managed to be copped up inside a comfy basement...and things managed to go even more comfortable...

"Think about what?" Lucian's sudden inquiry made me almost dropped the plate down the washing sink; thank goodness I managed to keep my composure and keep on washing despite of that. He appears to be staring at me for quite a while now, with his head tilted about in a manner which makes me go 'hnnngggg'.

"N-no...it's nothing." my ridiculously awkward act might got him the wrong idea; I'm actually kind of scared about going off towards the creepy sounding place like that...

"Mister Kirk, even for a seasoned adventurer as you, going off the adventures to unknown regions sure keeps the excitement going, hmm?"

Ah...I'm somehow disappointed, I thought he would exert his Trap powers on me. Come to think of it, I barely even had any heart-throbbing encounters...and most of the occasions end up with me getting rejected before I could say anything. Seriously...let the main Protagonist of the story become a player once in a while, you damn author! Wait, it seems that Carla actually got a bit more parts than me, and she pretty much stole most of the cool parts...oh...what melancholy!

"Uhh...M-Mister Kirk? Are you...truly...excited...down there?"

Yes, that's it. I'm desperately longing for that word to come from an excellent quality Trap such as yourself.

"Yeah...m-more..."

"Oh my...please don't think of weird things, okay?"

That's the punchline! It truly keeps me going.

"YES...YES...YESSSS!"

"What I mean is...you look truly obsessed on cleaning that one plate...uhh...that was used by Misty earlier. Do you get turned on by little girls to that extent, mister Kirk?"

Huh? This conversation sure had turned into a strange direction.

"L-little girls? But...isn't she actually 17 years old? W-what are you talking about..."

"Nah it's okay, just admit it. I myself got turned on by them too."

Seriously? Guh...I hate to admit it, but while he said these words...there was a sparkle down his eyes, to the extent it renders me completely mesmerized. I really hate to say these words, but I have no other choice so here it goes...

"I prefer you to be my little girl than anyone else, Lucian." way to give some sappy punchlines, Kirk. Yeah, you could say that by this present moment I never felt so embarrassed to the point if I were to find a hole wide enough to fit my whole body, I'll gladly crawl in to spend the rest of my day wallowing in my own insecurity.

To my surprise, rather than being thrown away with a heavy punch, kick, or even a deadly stab to the head, what I got was...

"Please don't run away from reality, mister Kirk. No matter how you put it, I'm still a guy...you know..."

It hurts a lot more than all of these combined, and I prefer not the capitalize the 'guy' part since I just want to pretend that I've never heard it. The damage will be too much towards my fragile heart if I were to take his words in face value. Alright, I'm not gonna lose...time to prepare for a drawback.

"Even if you say that, it's still clear that you're much cuter than any girls out there."

...that which left with a dumbfounded expression from this blond trap.

"Uhhh...errr...this is getting kinda awkward. You see, when you're this cool and manly looking, wouldn't it be easy enough to just hook up with any girls out there? Why did, regardless of you having this much redeeming qualities, in spite of all that, in the end just choose a guy when there's so many beautiful girls to pick? For example, you got such a nice girl like miss Carla by your side. Any guy would go insane just to be near her, you know."

It's true that you didn't meet the girl with such qualities as Carla that often, in fact, it's very rare that a person like her could possibly exist. But...even if you said that Lucian...it's still hard for me to...

In the end, I wasn't able to say anything.

"Sigh...here's one question I've been dying to ask, mister Kirk. Did you actually liked girls at all? Or did you actually use this shortcoming of unable to converse normally with a real girl, that it distorts your orientation like this? Could it be that..."

"I know...I know, stop asking too much questions at one time. To answer it all, I might just be too immature for serious relationships, so please forgive me for what I said earlier, okay? It's not like I want to give offense to you or anything by saying that I like your feminine aspects despite of your actual gender, it's just the words that came straight from my heart, that's all."

After that, there goes a prolonged moment of silence. We continued on cleaning the plates where we left off; it pretty much got stalled due to all the talking we had earlier. As both of us were acting cooperatively, we've finished it up in one go without further dilly-dallying. In spite of that, the cleaning sure took a while longer than what I was originally expecting.

Nevertheless, this conversation might become one of the memorable moments of my life, when you view it in multiple kinds of perspectives.



"Ummm...mister Kirk, as a guy...I didn't expect myself to be happy when you call me that. You see...I'm always nervous when I looked into my own reflection in front of the mirror, so I could somehow understand."

"See? Don't be afraid to admit to yourself that you're a cute person."

"The same as you admitting yourself of being a homosexual?

"Look...Lucian, this and that are very...very different, but if you want to, I could just be a homosexual to you."

"Errr...no thanks."

"Well I'm just kidding, who would ever approach some ungrateful bastard like you, hmph."

"You did."

"Ack...damn, you totally got me there."

The goofy conversation starts out again after both of us were done cleaning the plates and stuff, including all the kitchen appliances; well that's pretty much a hard day's work piled in one go judging by how much things were left in the kitchen sink just before.

Actually, we just started chatting together after I invited Lucian to drink some coffee whilst adoring the scenic view of the night sky; he was the first one to break the silence, the moment when both of us sat together down the terrace chairs, that which canopied by the backyard awnings – looks like it's made from unknown kind of alloy; somehow looks durable enough to shelter ourselves even from the heaviest rainfalls.

You see, there's one thing I'm really curious about him...no, not in that way you perverts. As the night was still young, although it's a bit past the usual child's bedtime, it definitely won't hurt to start another lengthy conversation with him. So to say, in this moment of silence spent by gazing upon the shimmering constellations in this starry night; I have to break this solemn moment with my inquiry, lest I won't get another chance ever again.

"Hey, Lucian."

"Hmm?"

It looks like he's not actually concentrating on the night scenery; his mind seems to be treading on something else, probably there's one or two things distracting him from enjoying the view along with his hot coffee, pretty much left unsipped, even still laid untouched down the table between my seat and his.

If he's actually immersed in enjoying the view and coffee, most likely he won't just reply to my word; basically using a very casual tone that many seems to ignore when they're actually busy with other things.

"Ahem." I cleared my throat by coughing lightly; inhaling deeply using my diaphragm whilst calming myself down in order to avoid myself sounding tad anxious.

After I got completely calmed down, the words just came out from my word smoothly without myself even realizing it.

"Uhh...you said before that you used to be in Guildenstern, right? Do you mind if I were to ask about the real reason which made you leave that place?"

"..."

Talking about this topic might be pretty hard for him, but it's definitely a must for me to ask him, especially if I were to ask him to join the expedition towards Outer Rim. We've got to have partners we could entrust each others' secrets, the one who would be with us to very end.

Since just waiting for him to start speaking out, I decided to cut this straight to the point.

"Was it about Misty? Did you wish to protect her? That's so manly of you to do that."

"I couldn't really say it's because of her...uuhh...h-how do you know that Misty and I once belonged in the same guild before joining here?"

"You once said that words 'we go along way back' while I inquired about her, so I'm mostly just assuming things. It's not about knowing, it's just about being a bit perceptive. So, what about it?"

"Guhh...you're actually much more sharper than what you seem. Fine then...if I were to say, it's not really about Misty which made me obliged to leave together with her. The main problem lies with her big sister...it might be long and tedious of an explanation, so I'm sorry..."

"Go on, I'm all ears."

The conversation about Misty's big sister continued on through the night; it was very interesting so to say. I don't want to spoil the details just yet, but you could say that after he finished saying these words...it felt just like his trust upon me had grown stronger.

By next morning, we should be ready upon embarking for a grand adventure that awaits us all.

Several tools were placed neatly across the dining table; mostly for aiding us with our navigation in the far-fetched oceans. It was the time when all of us had finished our breakfast. Me, Stella, and Misty just stood there, while both Lucian and Carla were discussing about what kind of tidbits we should consider before we start wayfaring down the dangerous waters.

To be honest, I really had no idea about the sea travels, since during of my previous adventures with Carla, we're just sticking out to ground and air travels, with occasional river and lake crossing but that's a whole different matter compared to the wide ocean travels. That aside, I recognized some of these tools in the table; one of them was a sextant, basically for measuring the latitudes and longitudes of our current location. Another would be a compass for determining which direction we're currently facing; an essential item whilst adventuring on either grounds, also a speculum for viewing things in long-distances away.

There's also a kind of stuff shaped in a ball-like structure with a flag thingy in it, probably for determining the direction which the wind blows...I don't know. I only remember this stuff from reading books and playing some games back then. After listening to some bits of conversation between Lucian and Carla, I soon understood various fundamentals about the travel; mostly concerning the division of rations, meaning we couldn't eat as much as we like in the open, lest we will ran outta provisions before we even realize it.

Some other bits was about making predictions for the upcoming storm, measuring the strength of the hull, and how to spot easily missed details which eventually lead to sinking if we weren't careful enough. They also disclosed about how to maneuver the ship safely, outside the areas that often got caught in the violent shenanigans. Well, I think both of them would make a great navigator in the future.

For the food, we could rely on fishing inside the waters, or stopping on the nearby islands to go shop for some cooking ingredients. For the inhabited ones, if we're skillful enough, we could quickly loot the goodness of nature unfolding before us, to extent as much as we wanted; might as well do some hunting for the meat, and other tidbits such as claws, fangs, wings, and everything else we could make use of. When we got towards the nearby dock, we could sell these items for a good price, or if we're patient enough, we could also wait until the number of monster parts were set.

If there's someone good enough at alchemy, quite the amount of nice items could also be made from it. I think Stella and Misty might do the job stupendously since they possessed quite the mastery in the alchemy department. For the handicrafts, such as making some tools outta the materials, I think I could pull it off to some extent; for example, given enough time, I could make a paraglider outta a dragon's hide, or even some disposable throwing weapons or other miscellaneous tools.

For the grenades, I think some kind of general chemistry was also needed, which I'm kinda bad at since I'm rather bad at calculating stuff, and I'm not that good at the combustibles in addition of these grenade contraptions being really complex. Still, if it's only about making the simple fuse dynamites, I could give it a try...well, my ability for making the tools that aids me and Carla in frequent occasions wasn't that noteworthy, it's also about Carla's exceptional abilities at using these simple tools which made us out of even the most perilous pinches.

"Ah, there's still the issue with the water, but I believe we could build a filtration system in the ship later on, so we could finally use running water in it. In the meantime, we should stock tons of fresh waters inside the water gallons." said Carla with lots of enthusiasm, she always seem to be fired up whenever she came towards things that has the 'planning' etches onto it.

"No need to, my grandpa had already thought things through with it. All that we have to do was to concentrate on getting to Outer Rim as soon as possible. It might be a really lengthy destination, since that place was actually very far off from here, but please let us brace ourselves before the travel."

With the reassuring words coming out from Stella, all of us left the guildhouse. We walked in groups, carrying lots of bags containing the necessities for our adventure. The Elder would be waiting in the harbor; sending us away in our travels. I wonder, whether would he be lonely with all of us leaving this place; making him have to tend this place all alone by himself.

Phew, I don't know about that, but let's just say he already got something to liven things up in our absence.



"I would rent this place to some of the Guildenstern and Sylvan Corps members, yeah. Things might get a bit lively, but I assure you, these are refined ladies who who would keep this property intact, and they also knew how to mind their own business. It's true that I myself would be lonely, but at least there would be lots of beautiful girls who will be coming to this old man, yahoo!"

With that parting note from the Elder, we went aboard the ship. Before that, the old man introduces us to the captain of the ship; he's about in his early 40's with a big mustache on his face that sparks the impression of utter manliness, in addition of his stout muscular body and his tall posture. He's even taller than me, it seems, possibly about 193 centimeters tall in height.

After all the introductions had finished and all of us had already went aboard the ship; finally the moment of truth had come when we have to set sail, leaving this beautiful city of Avalon, adventuring onto the harsh waters out there.

Watching the morning sunlight shining above us, we also witnessed the view of the city we used to spend quite a sum of moments in, looking smaller as we drift further into the ocean. Carla stood beside me, admiring the scenery unfolding before us.

"It's been awhile since I've experienced a real adventure beside all this random shenanigans, Kirk. I guess this would be the end of the old page, and soon we would find ourselves turning another new page in our own adventures."

"Yeah whatever, this kind of scenery was about perfect for a morning tea, don't you think?"

"Heh, you never change, Kirk. Oh well, probably a bit. Anyway it seems a good idea, but I actually want to adore this scenery for a while longer."

Both of us stood tall on the deck, admiring the morning scenery within the view of open seas. Basking in the momentary comfort, we awaited for the new adventure that's about to unfold.

No matter what kind of adversaries might we face, I'm certain that we'll make it through, because she would always be there for me in my times of need, as I would do my best to help her.

Next stop, the Outer Rim!

With the sun shining above us, we finally opened up a new page towards a grander adventure.