"Iliasport is a port town. That should mean lots of foreign delicacies."
As you could probably guess, this was Alice commenting on our destination. It was quite a long walk, the longest we'd undertaken so far without a stop in a city or village, but we seemed to be getting along better than ever and the conversation was light and breezy like the weather. She still didn't share much, mainly just wanted me to talk about myself, although it seemed it was less because she was interested and more because she didn't really want to reveal too much about herself. The only things that could get her mouth running were talking about food or whatever dumb things I'd done or said recently.
Camping seemed to open her up a little more. Maybe it was fatigue, maybe people just like to talk by a fire. The day had been beautiful and relaxing, with no monster encounters, which I was grateful for because I was still healing. The big talon wound might take a week or more before it stopped hurting. I considered if it might not be wise to stay in Iliasport at an inn(a cheaper one than Sutherland) until I was 100% again. The variety of things to do in a port city should keep Alice from getting bored while I recuperated.
Alice had her honey out again and was licking it off her fingers. Again I found myself staring and tried not to look. "You know, I don't mind if you watch," she said.
"It's not bothering me," I lied.
"Well if it's not bothering you, why are you not looking at me?" I had no good answer for that. "If my enjoying my honey isn't getting to you, then you can just sit here with me and have a conversation."
I complied. She continued to eat her honey and talked. "So quite a couple of days, huh?" she observed.
"Yep," I said. "Quite a couple of days."
"So," she said. "Did all those events jostle any memories loose?"
"Sure," I replied. "Lots of random stuff. But nothing you'd find relevant or interesting."
"We're sitting here by the fire having a conversation. Tell me something you remembered."
Now I knew she was toying with me. I'd learned not to ever talk about any random memories I had because she found most of them indecipherable, uninteresting, exasperating, and of course further proof of my lack of intelligence. I only mentioned things to her if I thought they might be significant. They usually weren't. Now she wanted to just hear random snippets of my past?
"Well," I thought. "It was mainly just references to things I used to entertain myself in my spare time."
"You must have had a lot of spare time because that's most of what you remember," she observed.
"I think that where I come from people have a lot of spare time, so there's a wide variety of entertainments."
"And how did you entertain yourself?" she pried.
"Books, movies.."
"What's a movie?" she asked.
"It's like a play, sort of." I replied. "Have you ever been to a play?"
"I haven't," she said. "But I would love to see one. Maybe we'll see one on this journey. The Travelers Guide says some of the places in Sentora have theaters."
"That would be a good idea", I agreed. "I've not seen one since I arrived here, at least not in a theater. But there are also traveling groups called troubadours who will set up temporary stages and entertain smaller villages as well as the big cities. I've seen a couple of their acts. We might even encounter a group like that during our journey and get a free performance."
She nodded agreement with a mouth full of honey and pointed at me. "Ooh! Especially if you cook for them!"
"I also would go to sporting events, although I don't think they have that here." I said.
"On the contrary," she said. "The Travelers Guide says there's a colosseum where they have gladiatorial contests somewhere. I'll have to look again to remember where."
"Really?" I said, mildly surprised. I seem to recall that where I used to come from had had that kind of thing once. I guess it sorta still did, although I was fuzzy on the details. I had this vision of a very large man body slamming another very large man but couldn't place it.
"Not sure how much I care about seeing that," she said. "But it's a journey, I'll do it once just to experience something unique."
"I also liked to play something called video games," I added. "I know they don't have those here, so I'll explain. It's kinda like a play, but the watcher gets to influence how the story progresses."
She nodded, licking more honey off her fingers. At least this time she was just eating normally(for her anyway), and not actively trying to torture me. "Sounds like you spent most of your time in a fantasy world," she said.
"No!" I objected, feeling that she was judging me. "I had a job! I had friends. I'm pretty sure I had family. Plus I read a lot of non-fiction because I love learning about the world."
"You had a job?" she asked. "Were you a constable there too?"
"I don't know. I don't think so. I don't really remember what I did. Well, I did remember having this one job when I was 16, but I don't know what I was doing when..whatever happened happened."
"Hopefully you start having useful memories at some point," she said. "I am actually interested in where you come from, I'm just less interested in how you spent your leisure time and more interested in things like rockets."
That jogged a memory. "So," I teased. "Are you a spy trying to get information from me so you can learn about where I'm from and then conquer it?"
She gave an evil grin. "What an interesting idea! So, you talked about friends. Did you have a girlfriend?"
"I'm sure I did," I said. "I just don't remember."
"Are…. You a virgin?" she said, teasingly.
"I don't think so."
"How do you know?" she asked.
"Have you ever heard of the term déjà vu?" I asked.
"That's not a word here."
"Déjà vu is the feeling that you've experienced something before." I explained. "Sometimes when I do something, hear something, or smell something, it feels like something I've experienced before, even though it doesn't remind me of anything specific."
"Okay," she said. "That's an interesting idea. I've felt that myself from time to time. Way to go, where you come from has an interesting new word after all."
"Then there's the opposite," I said. "Although I'm not sure of the term for that. It's where I see something and I'm very sure that I've never seen it before. A good example would be a certain silver haired, blue skinned woman in a crater in the woods. Even though I had little memory of my life from more than two years back, I knew for certain that I'd never seen anything like that before."
She nodded. "I guess that would indeed be a very rare event. So how does this relate to whether you're a virgin or not?"
"I don't remember ever having sex, but it doesn't seem like something I've never experienced. It just seems that I do know what it's like, so I must have done it at some point."
I REALLY wanted to change the subject, and since she was insisting on small talk right now, I sought to turn the tables. "So you've always got me talking about myself, why don't you tell me something about you?"
She put down the honey and went silent. I said, "I'm sorry, if you don't want to-"
"I bite my toenails," she said abruptly.
Say what? I had to say the obvious thing. "You don't have toenails."
"Sure I do!" she said. "In my human form."
"So…" I said. "You change into human form…. Just to bite your toenails?"
She nodded, smiling. Such a weird conversation, and yet I was glad to see what looked like a genuine, non-food related smile.
She got serious then, possibly because now SHE wanted to change the subject from herself back to me. "So I've been thinking. I have a theory on where you came from."
Attempts to change the subject notwithstanding, I couldn't ignore that. "Really?"
"Yes," she replied. "I don't even think you come from this world at all."
"So.." I said. "You think I might be an alien?"
"No, idiot," she replied. "Your world isn't another planet in this universe. I don't think it's even in this universe at all."
"Another dimension, then?" I asked.
"Something like that, I think," she mused. "It would explain a lot about what's different about you, I mean, besides the obvious, like the weird references to things that don't exist here and the strange ways in which you think. I think I know now how you held your own so well against Granberia. It came to me while watching the fight against the earthworm girl and the Queen Harpy. I theorize that in your world humans are stronger and faster than in this one. Not in the class of most monsters, to be sure, but powerful enough to take on weaker monsters and even give stronger ones a fight they didn't expect. You said you don't remember who taught you to use a sword. That's because no one did. You don't actually know how to use a sword at all."
"That can't be right!" I objected, stung again at her criticism of one of the skills I was most proud of. "I've always been able to beat everyone in my village, plus soldiers would give me some pointers."
"Garbage soldiers teaching garbage techniques," she countered. "Think about it. How do you pick up a sword, not remember ever learning how to use it, and then just beat everyone? And not just at swordplay, but at wrestling, at brawling… You even could outrun everyone I bet."
"Sure, but maybe I'm just physically gifted," I said. "No one ever said my ability was superhuman."
"It's not," she said. "There have been humans stronger, faster, better than you. Heinrich, for example. But he had ridiculous amounts of training and practice. You're who you are because you just seemed to appear out of thin air that way. Here, let me see if I can confirm my theory. You don't remember who taught you to use a sword, right?" I nodded. "Who taught you to cook?"
"Simple," I replied. "I learned at that job I had when I was 16. I used to… Oh wow."
"See?" she said triumphantly. "That's why you could parry Granberia's attacks but couldn't mount any effective offense. Your barely acceptable strikes were something she's seen a thousand times before, not much better than anything any other soldier that day was doing. But your ability to just get your sword up to block her, sure, part of that were those leverage techniques which you developed, that's why she didn't just overpower your defense, but also, you've just got astounding reflexes and you're much stronger than you look."
"Wow." I said. "You're really smart, assuming all that is actually correct."
"What really tipped me off was the Queen Harpy. When she first came at you, you should have had no chance to dodge her attack. Not only is she naturally fast as a harpy, but she was enhancing her speed with elemental powers. She has a great command of the wind element. No one who can't also control a wind element, monster or human, should have had even the slightest chance of avoiding that attack. But you did, and since she had left herself open, relying on that speed, you actually managed to score a hit on her!"
She looked down though. "That doesn't mean I'm certain I'm right," she conceded. "it's just a wild theory that fits the facts. But if I am right, your potential…. Would be unreal. Imagine if you actually learned how to use a sword? I even wonder if maybe…. Forget it, I might discuss that with you later."
"Then wouldn't that make it likely I am here for a real purpose?" I asked.
Her expression darkened. "I have little doubt, now. I'm just not sure I'm going to like what the purpose is given the only person likely to have pulled you from another dimension. This isn't just a journey now. I need to keep an eye on you."
"Who would have done that?" I asked.
"No," she said firmly. "We're not having that conversation yet. I just don't know enough and you jump to conclusions and take rash actions. Maybe when I've figured out more. Besides, although she's the only one I know of who could pull that off, that doesn't mean there aren't others. I've received reports of a lot of weird things going on on the Sentora continent. I'll want to check those out and then I might understand this situation more fully."
"Okay, fair enough," I said. "So you seem to be saying that I could actually take on the Monster Lord? With the right training? Maybe that's why people think that's what I'm here for?"
"You're trying to have that conversation I'm not having with you yet," Alice said, folding her arms.
"Fine, fine, can I ask you about Heinrich then?"
"What do you want to know?"
"He was the last hero to slay a Monster Lord. What I've never really understood is why he did it. The stories just say she was evil, but Ilias followers say that all monsters are evil. Maybe you know what really happened?"
"Why would you think that?" Alice asked.
"Well," I said. "You have a 500 year old book. I bet you have access to a lot of books like that, which probably contain more actual history and less legend."
"And where did you get that idea?"
"I dunno," I admitted. "You just seem a lot more sophisticated than any human I've met so I figure that must have come from somewhere."
"Yes," she admitted. "I do know more about Heinrich than the human legends of that damn cult tell. The Monster Lord back then WAS evil. She only cared about power, destruction, and chaos. Perhaps being defeated by a hero was brought about by herself. Trying to rule by power is a savage act. You should expect to get savagery back."
"That sounds right to me," I said. "So what's the current Monster Lord like? I've heard she's shrouded in mystery, that even most monsters don't know who she is, that she may be the most powerful Monster Lord in history. Is it true that she's declared war on all humanity? Did she really order the Slaughter of Remina?"
"Who knows," Alice said. "Maybe… the Monster Lord has just lost her way… Whether humans should be destroyed."
"Alice," I said. "Do you know the Monster Lord?"
"Yes. I know the Monster Lord. She may be even closer than you think."
She'd been trying to change the subject, but the weight in the air made me feel like this was far more significant even than the circumstances of my arrival here. Could she be suggesting…? Did I dare ask? She stared at me expectantly. I knew she had to be a high ranking monster, but… was it possible? The dangers, the possibilities!
When I said nothing, the moment seemed to pass. "Okay, now we really are changing the subject," she announced. "Time to train. Now pick up your sword."
She spent the next hour giving me more pointers on my form and technique. As with our last training session before we entered Iliasburg and got caught up in everyone's drama there, she ended the training by teaching me a new killer technique.
"I notice you still haven't used the last technique I taught you in an actual fight," she observed. "I know you aren't confident in it yet, but the best way to gain confidence is to use it for real. You have Angel Halo, you're not actually going to decapitate them."
"Okay, I'll try," I promised.
"This new technique I've just shown you is similar," she instructed. "It relies on speed, which you have, but haven't learned to harness properly except to dodge and parry. You need to be just as fast attacking, which takes more practice. That move I taught you is called Thunder Thrust. It's said that Bloody Fernandez mastered this technique, and covered the battlefield with her bloody thrusts. Using this Thunder Thrust technique, she killed her enemies one after another, making a lake of blood."
Why did these techniques always come with such dark histories? I guess that's just war. Is there a pleasant, rainbow-y technique for battle?
"This technique is most effective right at the start of combat," she said. "Don't be like Granberia and start out slow and build up to big moves just because you want to see how your opponent fights. Deliver a lot of damage right at the start, to either end the fight or make them so weak that the fight is all but over. Most of the monsters you face aren't going to be playing games or testing their skill against you. Save that nonsense for the next time you fight Granberia."
"Next time?" she had vowed there would be a next time. "When do you think that'll be?"
Alice shrugged. "With her it could be anytime, even right now. She can teleport to anywhere on the planet, and she's not going to ever give up on fighting you now that you've shown yourself to be a challenge."
"Should I just let her beat me then? Next time?" I asked.
"No!" Alice said angrily. "Don't ever think like that! Don't you remember what she said she'd do once she defeated you? She'd take you back to the Monster Lord's castle to be her plaything for as long as you lived, which might not be that long because part of that play would be doing a lot of fighting. Warriors like you don't grow on trees! She'd never let you go once she had you!"
"But if I beat her, she'll just keep coming back to challenge me again, won't she?" I asked plaintively.
"Absolutely," Alice confirmed. "But it might not be that simple. You can't actually beat her, not yet, maybe not ever. But if she sees the same potential in you that I do, she might not claim you as her prize just yet. She might want to wait and see how good you can get. After all, she didn't get to use her more deadly Cursed Sword techniques on you. If there's any chance at all that you might get good enough to be able to parry or counter those techniques, she may wait until you're at that level. And if you truly, truly beat her…."
"Then maybe it will be over?" I asked. She nodded.
"That's enough for today," she said. "Let's turn in."
I was exhausted, so I had no problem with that.