Bec walked back to town the next afternoon after trying his hardest to keep Crax from going. It was as lively as all the other times he had gone over the years. He loved seeing all of the different shops, foods, people, shows and playing children. After a short walk he reached the shop Yion had told him to go to and looked up at the sky to see that the sun was nearly in position. He was never able to get a good look of what the shop was while he was in Yion's chamber so he peeked through one of the windows and saw that it was a book store.
'Books! I wonder if any of them have anything on magic-maybe even a way to overcome the drowsiness I feel whenever casting a spell that I don't have an aptitude for.'
He was continuing to look at all of the books in the store when he suddenly felt something hit his head. He looked down to find a ball at his feet and picked it up. He turned around to find two boys and one girl with worried looks on their faces.
"Sorry!"
They all shouted in unison and Bec giggled a little bit. They appeared to be maybe a year younger then him.
"It's fine!"
He threw the ball back to them and the boy in the middle caught it.
"Thanks!"
"No problem!"
The three kids ran off and Bec continued waiting for the person who would be his future friend. He sat down outside the shop and waited until he heard yelling and the door to the shop opening fast. A boy who seemed to be the same age as him was thrown out of the shop and landed on his back. The person who threw the boy out slammed the door shut and the boy rubbed his back while he started to get up.
"That sucks, guess I'll have to find a new place to read. Should have bought something every now and then so I could read for free."
He stretched then noticed Bec and walked over.
"Hm, I've never seen you before. You move here or do you just not come out of the house often?"
"I just don't go to town often but I'm outside a lot."
"So you go outside the town then? Where you live?"
"…Outside of town…"
"Hmmm…I swear I know something about the people who live there…Ah! You're a Betas."
"Y-Yes. I'm Bec Betas."
"My parents said something about you guys but I can't remember what it was…Eh, I could care less about what my family tells me to do. So, you do anything fun, Oldie?"
"Oldie?"
"Well you have grayish hair so I think it works, if you don't like it I won't call you that."
"I guess it's fine. Just don't go too far with it please."
"All right! Ah, I never told you my name. I'm Houmard Houlme, nice to meet ya."
He jumped behind Bec and put his arm around him.
"So now what?"
"….I don't know, I was kind of hoping you'd come up with something."
He looked at Bec while they both waited for an idea to come to their minds but they couldn't think of anything.
'Hm…Now that I think about it I haven't brought any games from my world to this world yet so maybe this is a prime opportunity! But what would be simple…' "Soccer?"
"Socc what now? Is that some little known game or something?"
"Uh yeah! There's only a few things we need to get started, now where to get them I don't really know…Oh wait those kids!"
"Hm?"
"There were some kids earlier who had a ball that would work so let's go try to find them."
"Take the lead then, I don't know what they look like and it's not like I can read your thoughts so I'll just let you guide the way."
Bec and Houmard walked around town for a bit looking for the three kids Bec had seen earlier but were having no luck. After searching for nearly half an hour they decided to take a break and sat down on some nearby stairs.
"This town isn't that big so why it taking so long to find them?"
"They're probably moving also so it makes some sense on why we can't find them. At this point we might as well get a new ball."
"Stay away!"
Bec and Houmard jumped up after hearing a call for help and began heading to the source. They reached an alleyway and saw the three kids being attacked by four other people who appeared to be two years older then Bec.
Houmard darted into the alley and pulled a small dagger from his pants. He flipped the dagger around so the hilt was facing away from him. He reached the oldest looking one and put his arm through the guy's legs and slammed the hilt into his crotch. The boy instantly covered his crotch and dropped to the ground while showing visible agony on his face.
The other three turned around and began backing up to keep distance between themselves and Houmard.
"Isn't that the Houlme's kid?"
Houmard appeared to look a little uncomfortable after asking if he was a Houlme. Bec was standing back so he couldn't quite see everything that was going on but something definitely wasn't right.
"That has to be! Get out of here!"
The three people ran off while the last one straggled behind them and were soon out of sight.
"Are you okay?"
"T-Thank you…"
Bec walked over and cheered the kids up again while Houmard put his dagger away. He appeared to be a little saddened as he did so but soon returned to his normal expression and faced Bec and the other kids.
"So, can we borrow your ball? You're welcome to join us too if you'd like."
Houmard asked this before looking at his surroundings more and realized that they didn't even have the ball anymore.
"Ahem…Sorry, guess you lost it…"
The kids ran off shortly after and waved them goodbye before leaving sight.
"So Houmard?"
"Yeah?"
"Why did you look like that when using your dagger?"
"Look like what?"
"You know…Like that?"
"What?"
"It's hard to explain since I couldn't quite read your emotion fully…"
"Haha! I guess I won't try to ignore it since it seems you already know something's up. My family name is famous as we have constantly produced excellent knights to serve the town and kingdom but the thing is that I haven't had much of a chance to actually practice being a knight. Every time I get a chance to enact justice they run off since they know of my family bloodline. I wouldn't have minded this awhile back but now I do since I need to gain skill if I want to fulfill my dream."
"Your dream?"
"To be able to see the Princess! Apparently her beauty is unheard of and anyone who sees her feels as though their life is complete! I wish to see this beauty myself, maybe I'll even get to see a little more beauty that others don't normally get to see…"
Houmard was grinning uncontrollably and rubbing his hands together.
'Noted. He's a little perverted but I think it won't be too bad. Yion said he'd be a good friend for me after all…Now if that's actually the case we'll wait and see.' "If you want you fight against me. I may not be the greatest ever, in fact I haven't picked up a weapon in my life so I'll hope you teach me well!"
"Huh? Are you serious? Thanks Oldie!"
"No problem."
"Shoot! I just remembered I have to get home! Sorry but we'll have to continue this some other time! Hope you understand!"
Houmard ran off with a panicked look on his face and was soon out of sight. Bec had made his first mortal friend and it seemed as though the rather boring time he spent living his days was about to come to end.