Finally! We've reached our goal, Alvis!
『You haven't saved the world yet, master.』
Sweat ran down my face from Alvis' retort. Do I really have to fight to save the world? And that's not what I meant! I mean we've finally found somewhere to settle in! Let's go!
We headed straight to that human settlement by foot. It would take us an hour before we arrive at the entrance.
『Understood.』
「Oh and by the way, Alvis. Can you talk less formally to me? It feels a bit strange when you talk to me with such reverence. You're my friend afterall.」
Ever since I met her, she's been talking to me with so much respect and politeness, it makes me uneasy having a good friend like her treat me so unfamiliarly.
『Understood. Then I shall do as master says.』
I guess it's better that way, but all I did was increase her word count. Sigh.
Putting that aside, I forgot... Alvis, next let's make a protection type skill that erects a barrier on someone whenever they are exposed to danger. I wish Clodwal-san agrees to make the buff permanent.
『I will now start. Please be well while I am away, master.』
Woah... The way she said that was so caring and natural. I loved it. O-Oof... My face is all flushed. Did I seriously fall in love with a skill? I shouldn't let her notice this.
After about 5 minutes, Alvis came back and we're just a few steps close to the village's guards. From what I see in my current distance, there seems to be only two guards.
『Skill Acquisition Complete. Master has received the skill,"Elemental Barrier". The"Skill Creation"skill will now be unavailable for the next 32 Hours.』
There it is, my new skill! And that recharge time is hella long!
The details of the skill flooded to my mind as always. It's just as I asked for. It's able to activate automatically if the target is in great danger to receive the damage instead of them. The skill can be used on multiple people and the buff lasts for 1 year. That's more than enough. So first, let's try it out.
「Alvis!」
『I already know what you're thinking, master. 』
I placed my right hand against my chest and Alvis used the skill at that exact moment. A warm and pleasant sensation entered my body. It was as if taking a nice hot bath after being out in a cold weather all day. My whole body made a faint golden glow for a brief moment signaling that I successfully used the skill.
『"Elemental Barrier"has been successfully executed. 175 out of 10,000 mana points has been used.』
「It seem to have worked.」
With this new skill, I'm able to protect others now and I won't be afraid of any surprise attacks. But, it doesn't mean I can let my guard down. This skill only protects me from a small amount of damage in one cast afterall.
「Hey theres a kid!」
Woah, an ojiisan is coming to my direction. It was one of the guards. Hmm, all the guards are equipped with leather armor and iron swords. Kinda cheap if you ask me.
「H-Hey kid! Where did you come from? Where are your parents?」
So, did anyone think all I did in my journey was walk? Well that's not possible. I already knew this kind of situation would happen the moment I realized I was reincarnated in a child's body so I came up with some dirty ideas. First off.
Alvis, take over and do what we discussed earlier.
『As you wish, master.』
This is going to be fun.
「U-Uwaah!... Okaa-san and otou-san disappeared! P-Please help m-me!.. We were attacked by monsters and they disappeared!」
Hah. I sure hope, they fell for it. Nice acting there, Alvis.
So what I did there was to utilize the main function of the"Auto-Pilot"skill. Alvis' true ability was to take over my body, or in other words pilot it to increase efficiency in all aspects like combat, navigation, academics, and even cooking. Even though theres alot more to that than meets the eye. With this, I can fool people and make them think I was attacked by monsters while travelling and ended up losing my parents. A good background story for this new body if you ask me.
「Th-This can't be... Fojka! go and bring this child new clothes!」
The guard turned to look from behind and called out a sturdy looking guard. The person himself was very nervous and shakened.
Ohh! I certainly expected this way would work but I did not expect I would get clothes as an addition. He looked at me with remorseful and tearful eyes then gave me a hug.
「Don't worry kid, you're safe now. Hey can you tell me the circumstances you're in? Where did the monsters come from?」
Ho, this ojii-san is pretty nice. I best be a good kid to him if we were to live together.
Without further ado, I pointed at the Rafflecia Forest to answer his question then continued sobbing and wiping the tears of my eyes.
「The Rafflecia Forest?... Certainly it's possible that you would get attacked by monsters in such a place during your travels. What foolish parents this child had. We should issue a subjugation team in that place, there may have been a surplus of monsters there lately.」
O-Ouch, that kinda hurt me too, ya know? Well, who would be fine with their parents being insulted. Well atleast it worked somehow.
「This is all we had for now, Captain.」
The guard from earlier came back holding a whole set of clothes. Come to think of it, he has short blonde hair and he doesn't look that fat. But ofcourse, my golden hair is far superior! Right, Alvis?
『I believe inner thoughts are more attractive than outer appearances, Master.』
O-Ohh, is that so. Oh well.
The guard gave me the clothes and I wore it without delay. Finally, clothes! Thank god I wasn't 19 when I reincarnated in this world or it may have been a whole other story and I wouldn't be able to sneak into this place.
「How is it, kid? It looks good on you. You've got a pretty face there too, I bet you'll be a hit to the ladies when you grow up.」
The ojii-san gave me a sparkly wink after his hearty laugh while crouching beside me. He afterwards asked for my name. Come to think of it, I hadn't had an opportunity to introduce myself.
「Y-Yukio Katakana.」
「Yuki-yo?」
He repeated my name.
「Quite a strange name you got there. Seems like you're not from around here, aren't you?」
Yeah, I really am not since I just got here in this world a few days ago.
「Cap, let's bring him to the orphanage.」
Certainly that's what I actually wanted. Thanks person called Fojka. Though I'm fine living with any of you since you seem like good people. Though I don't want to point that out or I would seem suspicious, they'll think I'm an assassin.
「That's a good idea, Fojka.」
And so, the cap called over another guard from his post and asked him to guide me to the orphanage.
「Follow me.」
The new guy asked me to follow him and so I did. A few footsteps after we went inside the town, I can still hear cap and Fojka saying their goodbyes to me. I waved to them as a reply or it would have been rude if not.
There were run-down houses everywhere and the street stalls didn't have much food in them.
「Hey Alvis, cast"Elemental Barrier"on the cap and Fojka-san.」
I whispered, so the guard leading me to the orphanage didn't really seem to have caught a word I said.
『As you wish, master. Range of 1 mile is sufficient. Successfully executed the"Elemental barrier"skill on two targets. 480 out of 9,825 mana points has been used. 9,345 mana points remain.』
As I thought. The skill drains +25% more mana the more people it's used on. Well, it doesn't matter, I'll just hope my max mana increases over time. I'm still level 1 afterall.
This town looked like it's in the state of poverty. Just from looking at people's faces, I can see they're malnourished. This town is in danger no matter how you look at it.
And so, we finally arrived. The orphanage looked run down like any other building we've passed by but it was huge and had a lawn surrounded by a 4 feet fence at it's front that even our whole house can fit in where kids around my age are playing.
「This will be your new family.」
Lowering his head, the guard gave a reassuring smile to me and entered the building. After 7 minutes, he came out with a beautiful nun-looking woman with the most beautiful face I've ever seen even on Earth.
「Hello, I'm Sister Heinly. What's your name, handsome young man?」
The beautiful nun onee-san lowered her head to look a little closer at me to the point our faces were just a few inches away from each other. She smells so good.
Oh god, if I were still in my previous body I would have asked her to be my girlfriend. But right now, I'm 11 years old!
『Hm...』
Oh crap! Alvis is watching, I must remain cool. Cool. Introduce yourself, Yukio!
「I am Yukio Katakana!- Please marry me, sister Heinly!」
And so I kneeled down. The kids stopped playing and stopped to stare at me, the guard laughed and the sister clapped her hands to her mouth. Everyone's attention was on me.
What the hell have I done!
『Master...』
Oh no, Alvis! It's not what you're thinking!
「Wh-What are you saying all of a sudden?... B-But we just met... I-I'm still not ready too... M-Maybe when you grow up a little... Okay?...」
Eh?
Did she just agree? She's blushing so intensely... This can't be her first time being confessed to, right? With such a beautiful face?! Unforgivable! And did I just secure a wife?
『...yes you did, master.』
Uhh? Should I be happy or not?
I stared dumbfounded at the skies for a while before sister Heinly held my hand and led me to the orphanage. Her face still flustered from my sudden proposal.
We passed through the hall first which had 4 long tables at it's center with many chairs lined up in each side. Then she took me to a certain room after passing the corridors to the bedrooms and kneeled down to gently clap her hands against my cheeks.
「This is where the head sister resides. Please be respectful to her if you want to stay here. Alright, Yukio? I'll be going now to wash the dishes. I'm really sorry I can't accompany you.」
「I understand, please leave it to me, sister Heinly.」
I nodded and she smiled brightly. Is she like that to everyone? Well, I hope not. It would be a little disappointing if I'm just a common orphan to her. After she left, I turned my gaze at the door that leads to the head sister's room.
It creaked as it was safely swung open by me. The interior was full of flowers, and a stone statue that resembled Clodwal-san was placed in the left corner of the room.
「Welcome, Yukio Katakana.」
There was an old woman sitting on a table chair. She looked to be already in her 70s.
「How did you know my name?」
「I was hearing your conversation from outside.」
So she heard? But her room is almost a hundred meters away from the courtyard where I was in.
Alvis, use appraisal on her.
『Understood.』
Name: Meriele
Class: Priest
Level: 31
Age: 109
Race: Hyuman
Height: 160cm
HP: 225
MP: 980
STR: 52
AGI: 66
INT: 39,751
DEF: 49
Unique Skills:
"Enhanced Hearing C"
Skills:
"Heal"
"Holy Light"
"Cure"
"Strength Up"
"Speed Up"
"Defence Up"
"Light Barrier"
"House Management D"
"Basic Livelihood Magic C"
"Dancing F"
"Charm D"
"Cooking C"
So enhanced hearing senses is her unique skill, huh. Speaking of unique skills. What are they, Alvis?
『Unique Skills are skills that are not gained through hardwork but by birth. These skills are usually special according to race and lineage. In master's case, he is the hero, thus naturally he has an exceptionally legendary skill the moment he was reincarnated,"Skill Creation".』
So it's by birth, huh. Well let's put that aside for now.
「Fufu, let me introduce myself. I am Meriele, the head sister and the director of this orphanage. I have heard that you have lost your parents during your travels in the Rafflecia Forest. I give you my condolences, dear Yukio. Please stay in our orphanage until you're ready to take care of yourself.」
Though it may not seem like it, her words had no ill will but purely by heart. According to Alvis ofcourse.
『Master, you're the only one who thinks she's suspicious.』
I guess.
「Thank you for your hospitality, head sister-sama. Then I shall stay here until I turn at the age of 15. I will surely repay your kindness by that time.」
I've decided to stay here for a couple of years. But that didn't mean I really will stay here. I will go out from time to time to test out my skills and become stronger as time passes. And when I'm done, I plan to become an adventurer.
「The room for boys are in the right side of the stairs when you enter from the corridors leading to the bedrooms. Please make yourself at home, Yukio.」
I nodded in response and left the room. Before checking out the bedroom as she said, I went to the halls and peeked outside. The kids were still playing but some were already worn out so they started to take some rest sitting on the grass.
Seems fun.
Wait, what am I thinking? Did turning 11 actually affect my brain too?
『Answer, negative. Master has always been this way.』
Ouch. Do you think I should make friends with them? I may be able to get myself company in the meantime or else I'll grow up lonely- woah?!
Two pairs of green eyes were looking right through me. Someone appeared on the other side of where I was peeking and blocked my view.