They're not even halfway to their vehicles when a group shows up just as they kill the monster they've been fighting. Sen and his group notice that they're approaching a bit belatedly, but as they already have their weapons at the ready, they simply form up.
As the other group comes closer for some reason, Sen's group clutches their weapons a bit tighter. Interestingly, the entire group is made up of females, and they seem to be surrounding something in the middle. The two groups stare at each other for a while, before one of the women decides to start the conversation.
"Are you from the UFoH?"
The group looks to each other. They know the acronym is the common term used for the United Federation of Humanity, but they didn't know of the existence of any other groups.
"Well, I guess?" Lynna answers.
"Define I guess."
"Our planet was recently found by the UFoH. We don't even know of any other groups," Julie decides to be the one to explain, while remaining very neutral on the topic of their thoughts on the UFoH.
The woman looks to another one of the people in the group in a confused manner. "What planet are you on?"
Julie shrugs. "I'm unaware if there's an official classification for it, but we've always known our planet as Alpha. We're from the first colony ship, Hope, sent out by humanity. We got sent off course, and colonized our planet."
The woman looks to another of the women, and from behind the line of them, a high pitched voice sounds out.
"I wish to speak with them."
The woman in front lets out a short "I don't believe that would be a good idea…" but is pushed aside as a rather short woman pushes out from behind her.
The second Sen gets a good view of her, his eyes widen. She has short, blonde, slightly curling hair, framing her beautiful features, her regal looking face echoed by the lofty look within her striking blue eyes. Her beautiful looks are slightly marred by speckles of blood across her face and her hair is in a bit of disarray. She's wearing a tight fitting outfit, just loose enough to allow a full range of movement, colored in a pastel blue.
"Alice?" Sen mutters.
Her eyes snap to him with a dangerous expression.
"I'm sorry my lady, I didn't mean to… I mean… I'm sorry, it's a story from a lifetime ago."
Her eyes scrutinize him for a time, lingering on his greatsword.
"How do you know my name?"
Sen takes a step back, not sure what to say. Even if reincarnators exist, this is practically impossible. The odds against something like this have to astronomical unless there's something he's missing. He'd read about rivals from their past life often running into each other, but this is just impossible.
He isn't sure what to say, and simply stands there mute. The woman draws her sword and approaches. Her guards start to move forward with her, but she waves them off. The rest of Sen's group steps back, not sure what's going on, though Julie is looking from him to her with a shocked expression on her face, possibly having figured out what's happening.
The woman goes to attack Sen in a way that's clearly simply testing him, and he waves off the group as they start to tense up, easily parrying the slow blow. The speed of the woman's strikes speeds up in a measured manner, and Sen starts having to treat it a bit more seriously.
He'll parry a blow to the side, only to have her sword twist in the air and come from another direction. He isn't willing to strike back, even if she isn't his lady from his past life, simply due to her appearance. The speed of the blows continues to get faster, and Sen is forced to twist his sword in uncomfortable directions in order to parry the blows.
She'll strike at his leg, Sen stepping back to get his ankle out of the way, only to twist her sword up for a high blow which Sen catches on the middle of his sword. As their swords meet this time, Sen is just slightly overpowered. Even one arm to two, she simply has higher stats. He's forced to step back again to absorb some of the force, but continues his steady defense. Their blows make a constant ringing hang in the air from how fast they're clashing, but the woman never lets up.
They continue this dance for a good ten minutes, Sen only defending, not striking back, but blocking every blow that comes to him in a steady manner. Neither of them use any skills, simply pure swordsmanship.
At this point, the woman takes a few steps back. Sen looks over to the rest of the woman's group to see them in shock over something. The woman who seems to echo his lady's face continues looking at him for a while, a confused, lost expression on her face.
One of the women in the back raises her sword again, stepping in front of the woman who is the spitting image of Sen's lady.
"Who are you really? There's no way someone from a planet that hasn't been training people to enter the fifth dimension can have swordsmanship like that at your age."
Sen isn't sure what to say, until he hears a quiet "Damien?" from behind the woman who'd stepped in front protectively.
Sen instantly snaps to attention, his habit from his past life still not gone. "What is it you wish my lady?" he says in a language he hasn't used in a lifetime. At least, aside from using it to spice up his curse word vocabulary.
The woman, who he's now sure is indeed his lady, pushes aside the woman in front of her in a practically violent manner, and looks to Sen. Sen stands there nervously for a while at attention, his eyes forward, but still seeing her slowly approach him.
She continues to get closer and closer, until she's standing right before him. Sen's eyes waver, then move down to her face, which has a longing expression on it. Her expression holds for a second before changing into one of determination.
Her arms are soon wrapped around Sen's neck as she pulls him down, meeting his lips with hers. Sen freaks out a bit at this point. This isn't proper! His lady can't be like this! She slowly pulls back, and Sen can see the woman who had been protective of his lady has actually dropped her sword in surprise.
"You shall not get away this life," his lady says.
"I… I have a girlfriend," Sen lamely says, worried about Xue, and not sure how to treat his lady. She'd always been completely proper in his past life... well, mostly.
Xue is instantly rushing towards his side at this, and pulls him away. His lady looks from Xue to Sen, before saying something he doesn't expect.
"Bullshit."
They're speaking in a language the others can understand at this point, and Xue apparently takes affront to that, as she takes her turn to pull Sen down for a kiss. This one is much deeper and longer, and Sen can feel her pry his lips open, her tongue nervously going into his own mouth.
She pulls away, and glares at his lady. His lady glares back. Sen isn't sure what in the hell he's going to do at this point.
"Damien!" his lady nearly shouts in a regal tone of voice. Sen instantly snaps to attention again until Xue drags him back from his at attention position, wrapping her arms defensively around his own, her shield getting in the way slightly. His lady gives Xue a smug look anyway, and goes to his other side, leaving Sen with a woman wrapped around each arm, the softness on each of his arms leaving him terribly confused.
The tension is broken by Lynna, who bursts out laughing. Sen looks to her to see her completely bent over, holding her stomach as she simply can't stop laughing.
"Hahahahaha, Sen, you, ahahahaha."
Sen isn't quite so distracted as to not glare at her, and he does so. She simply continues laughing, and looks to the group that had been protecting his lady, to see them all with looks of shock on their faces, their weapons no longer held at the ready, but down beside them as they gape.
The woman who had stepped in front of his lady soon gets over her shock however, and awkwardly picks up her sword from the ground before raising it again. "Who are you, and what did you do to our lady!?"
His lady glares at her, "Stand down! I do believe I have informed you of Damien before." She then turns to Sen. "And do please call me Alice. I've kept my name, and will NOT have you continue to call me my lady."
Sen isn't surprised by this. It's common for parents to not name their children until they've confirmed they're not reincarnated in this day and age. He's conflicted though. His lady had attempted several times in his past life to have him call her by name, and while he would occasionally accept, in most occasions she would simply be his lady.
Xue glares at him as he says "of course my la- I mean Alice."
Alice is giving a smug expression towards Xue again, and Sen simply remains feeling a mix of confusion and guilt.
"I go by Sen in this life."
"Sen…"
Sen nods. Lynna is still laughing in the background while Julie and Jennifer seem to be in as much shock as the women who had been with Alice. Lynna eventually stops her laughter, and asks "So what the hell do we do now?"
"I shall go with Sen."
"Absolutely not!"
"You may try and stop me, but I shall not let him get away again." Alice raises her sword towards her guards.
Sen is a bit lost on this point, if she's important enough in this life to have dedicated guards, her running away with him would be a very bad idea. He's not willing to go against her wishes though, simply due to habit from his past life. He'd put up with some very silly orders at her command.
Alice and her main guard sit there in a staring contest for quite some time. The guard eventually caves, but still tries to protest.
"And what should I tell your father?"
"Do inform him that I've found Damien. He shall understand."
The woman clearly doesn't believe her, but seems to be as browbeaten as Sen had been in his past life, and eventually looks away from Alice. Sen is sure he hears a muttered "I am so dead."
Sen doesn't know what to do. He's sure he should convince his lady to stick with her group, but that is antithetical to everything his past life had stood for. He is her bodyguard, and he still feels he should be the one to guard her, even if she's seemingly spent most of her current life fighting. Eventually, Alice turns around, dragging Sen in the direction his group had been heading originally.
One of her guards actually goes to grab at her, clearly wanting to take her back by force, but nearly loses her hand as Alice goes to chop at it. Sen wonders for a bit why her guards seem to be weaker than her, but shrugs it off as due to the fact that she's only hunting in a C rank area.
The guard who had nearly lost a hand looks to her in shock, and Alice keeps one arm on Sen, her other pointing her sword towards the guards. Aside from the one who had wanted to stop her by force, the rest of them spread out, making a path for her to get through.
Sen and Xue are slowly dragged along, and the rest of the group follows, Lynna back to holding in a laugh. They slowly make their way back to the ship, Lynna letting out intermittent laughs, and the girls only hopping off of Sen's arm long enough to wipe out the monsters they run into.
Jennifer eventually sidles up to Sen's side, though not nearly as close as Alice and Xue, and starts digging for information.
"So I take it you're his lady from his past life?"
"Indeed."
"If you were so into him, why didn't you do anything to him then?"
"I tried! I literally had him guard me in my bedroom as I slept, but the dense fool simply sat there at the door and slept! I swear he was more into his sword than me." She sighs. "I should have been more proactive, but it would simply have been improper. Women being the active one in a relationship is far more accepted in this time however."
Sen blushes. He had actually been quite tempted, especially after she'd driven off a few maids and forced him to be the one to dress her. There was no way he would be willing to make a move on his lady however.
"I would suppose that this tramp was the first one to say something for this relationship?"
Xue bristles at the insult. "Says the woman whose first move is to kiss MY boyfriend."
Alice shrugs. "He's going to be mine regardless."
At this point, Xue lets go of Sen's arm to attempt to pry her off of her boyfriend, but Alice's superior stats win out, and she gives up and goes back to Sen's other arm, pressing herself tightly against him.
They continue to the car in the same manner, and once they reach the gravity car, Sen continues to be sandwiched as they head back to the city. The hours flight sees most of the girls learning about how dense Sen was in his previous life. Even if they all seem a bit annoyed at Alice, their curiosity wins out.
Once they arrive, they hand over ten percent of their crystals that they didn't consume, a good portion of the rest being left to pay for their next gravity car rental.
"Why is it that they don't care about you coming with us into the city?" Julie has to ask.
"It is common for people of the Allied Worlds to sell their crystals to the UFoH, as they do pay better. The UFoH looks the other way, as it is their gain."
The group nods. They're soon headed back to their apartment, and once they arrive, they have a short meal before they each start to head to their rooms. As they go, Alice starts to follow Sen.
"What are you doing?" Xue seems to be very offended.
"Is this not the only room with one person in it?" Alice answers like it's the most natural thing in the world.
Xue grabs her, and drags her over to her room. "Lynna, do you think you could room with your brother for a while?"
Lynna nods while giggling, and heads into the room with Sen. Alice looks frustrated, but makes her way to the room Xue is staying in regardless as Lynna moves her stuff into Sen's room.
As everyone prepares for bed, Lynna interrogates Sen, and gives him a warning that if he dares hurt Xue she will castrate him herself.