"Uhh..." They all stare at me in awe, with mouths gaping widely, clearly showing their disbelief.
"A... Dragon slayer?" Larien repeated, staring at me intently.
"That's right,"
"That can't be right!" Eleric retorts, his face contorted into a frown. "Do you even know who dragon slayers are?!"
Of course I know who they are, since I'm one myself. But, they don't need to know that.
"Yes I do,"
"No, you obviously don't!" Eleric continues, exasperation evident in his tone. "If you did, you'd know that most dragon slayers are extinct! There's absolutely no way one was just hanging around and then decided to adopt a child just like that! If you didn't want to tell us, you could've just said so."
That's rich. If I didn't say anything about it, something gives me the feeling that you wouldn't have left me alone. Besides...
"I never said he was a dragon slayer from all the Dremid legends or anything," I sigh. "I'm a wanderer remember? I've wandered from far away. My foster father is a dragon slayer from another far away continent that you do not know of."
"Whoa," Darius utters, totally buying my bullshit. "Are you serious? So he trained you then?"
"Okay..." Larien hums, staring at me very intensely, most likely about to call out my bs. "Then what was this dragon slayers name? He may be from a far away land, but dragon slayers are very popular. Especially in this age where dragons are very rarely sighted. If even one is alive, then there's a chance we've heard of him, no matter the distance."
Sigh. Why do I keep forgetting that there's a reason why I would want nothing to do with this kid if not for the fact that I'm dependent on him for my future plans. But, when it comes to dragon slayers, I highly doubt there's anyone around with more knowledge about them than me. I didn't get that dragon slayer title just for crapping around.
"Beowulf," I state, with a small smirk spreading across my lips. "My foster father, and the man who trained me... his name is Beowulf. Heard of him?"
"..."
They stare at me silently, with even bigger gaping jaws than earlier.
"Heard... of him?" Eleric starts, wide eyed in disbelief. "Are you kidding? Who hasn't heard of him?!"
"So Beowulf was a dragon slayer after all? I thought it was just a rumor," Darius gasps, as surprised as Eleric.
"Huh?"
"You didn't know?" Darius continues.
"How do you not know?" Eleric adds, scratching his temple. "Almost everyone on the entire continent has heard of Beowulf."
"It is common knowledge that all dragon slayers are extinct," Larien starts, explaining to me in detail. "Not a single knight or warrior has defeated a dragon since ancient times, but about fifteen years ago, a dragon was supposedly terrorizing a small town on the Haspeed continent, and then a lone adventurer set out to eliminate it, but, no one knows how it ends. Both the dragon and the adventurer vanished. The people of the town hailed him as a dragon slayer, but with no proof..."
"And so you're here telling us that that guy... is your teacher?" Eleric retorts.
"It is hard to believe," Larien sighs, rubbing the back of his head. "And I don't suppose you have any proof, do you?"
Okay, not what I was expecting. In my game version of Elrev, Beowulf is already known across the continent to be a dragon slayer, not rumored to be one. And he's the only NPC bearing the title of dragon slayer. In fact, the only way a player can gain that title, is through a quest given by him. Not only that, but he was the youngest of the Seven Kings, the seven strongest NPCs in Kingdom Crawlers.
With the ten year gap already in place between the time Aeolia got here and the time I got here, I figured I'd be able to use Beowulf's youth and the fact that he lived as a hermit to my advantage since I still wasn't sure exactly how much the time difference between each world was, but to think something else is different from the game.
But the Beowulf here disappeared before he was even officially christened with the title of dragon slayer. Wait... is he even still alive? The Beowulf I no would have never gone into hiding without obtaining that honorary title and the privilege of being the only dragon slayer currently in existence. I'll definitely have to look into this later. For now, as for proof...
"I do have one," I say, casually pulling out a necklace I had cleverly slipped on when the weren't paying attention.
"I-Is that a..."
Yes my little baby chicks. Feast your eyes on a sight you might never have seen to your dying days. A legit, totally real...
"Dragon's tooth!"
"Hm? You can feel the residual mana coming off it can't you?" I say, satisfied with their expressions. Now they've totally bought it. Honestly, this is just Cerberus's tooth that was lying around in my inventory. Well technically it is a dragon's tooth, just not the dragon Beowulf killed. "Does this serve as enough proof?"
"I don't even..." Eleric stammers, his jaw still stuck to the floor.
"Wait..." Larien speaks. "This is very important. Knowing you, why did you suddenly decide to tell us?"
I pause for a bit, wondering how to answer the question sensibly without outright blurting "It's all complete crap and I'm using you."
"Well," I begin, watching them catch their breaths in their throats in anticipation. "We're a team now right? I'm not dumb. Eventually everyone will begin to ask the same question. 'How did a commoner get that strong?' It'll only put us in a predicament if you didn't understand why either. This way, we're forming a bond of trust between us aren't we? It'll only be a pain to have to explain this later when the competition has already began, so best to do it now while it's simple."
"Wow," Darius exclaims.
"I never thought I'd hear words like trust and bonds coming from you Alice," Larien chortled.
"Yeah, me neither. It's actually almost creeping me out." Eleric added.
"But still," Larien continues, with a smile on his face. "He's right. We are teammates now after all. It's a done deal from now till we graduate, so I think it's a good idea to get to know each other better since it'll only get harder from here. Don't you think?"
"Go ahead. At this point I'm pretty much an open book," Eleric muses.
"Me too." Darius adds.
Well, that ended nicely. Now I have a mysterious background set up and everything. This over eccentric story might come back to bite me some day, but if I'm right and Beowulf really is dead, then I don't really have anything to be too worried about, and if he's still alive somewhere... I guess I can just kill him if it comes to it, since I'd have to do so if I want to swiftly take over this world in a breeze anyway. So far, I think this plot's coming together quite nicely. Now for the arc.