"....Anna...?", I unconsciously said out loud.
"It is you! Xavier! Xavier!!", she then broke into tears and lunged at me, trying to hug me.
She couldn't though, as her neck was tied to a metal bar in the ground with a collar. It just hurt her and she almost choked.
"Calm Down! wait, let me get rid of that...", I quickly cancelled my shielding spells, and went near Anna. The metal collar was too thick for me to cut.
"Query! how do I cut this metal?!", I asked the guide.
[Query Received!]
[Required FP: 50]
[Answer To query: To precisely cut metal, learn Metal Magic. Learn the spell 'Metal Manipulation']
[Total FP: 100]
I quickly learnt the spell 'Metal Manipulation', and immediately used it to cut the collar. As soon as I cut the collar, Anna lunged at me again, this time successfully, and threw both her hands around my neck, almost breaking my balance.
"Calm down, Anna! tell me what happened first! We're not safe here!", I tried to reason with her, but to no avail. The only response I got was "Xavier! Xavier! I was so scared! Oh, Xavier!" and the sound of her wailing and crying. She got my newfound dress dirty within a minute.
"Fucking hell! Calm the fuck down, Anna! Listen to me! We need to leave! I don't feel safe here! Let's go!", I tried to make her understand, but nothing worked. So, I gave up in the end and did a very embarrassing thing.
I picked her up, all princess-like, and started to run towards the entrance. I had to make sure that she was safe, before I venture out to loot the 'slave auction storage' again. I wasn't going to abandon my plan even for a long-lost friend.
I ran outside the entrance and went inside the carriage, only to get my nose absolutely destroyed by the smell of burnt corpses. 'Shit! I forgot about that... can't let Anna see that mess!'
I gave up on the carriage and ran to a nearby tree with some bushes near its roots. I also casted Silence array, just in case Anna started to cry again. I wouldn't want some kind of monster to reach me because of some stupid girl, even if she was my childhood friend.
I had changed a lot from the me from the past. I was now numb to most human emotions, and honestly, became extremely selfish. I wonder what Anna would think when she sees what has become of the person she knew for so long in the past.
After reaching the place, Anna had calmed down a lot from before. She looked very tired now.
She looked at me again, and smiled. This smile was definitely real. "Thanks, Xavier...", said Anna, still shaking and trembling.
'what in the world must have happened to her, for her to be like this... the Anna I knew was a very strong woman, who knew how to fight, and wasn't afraid of standing up for herself.', I wondered.
'Also... why is she here? in arcadia? was she also reincarnated, like me? or is there something different going on? She definitely looks like the Anna I knew, only her hair is a bit brighter, and her skin looked more smooth... wait, skin...? WAIT! SHE'S COMPLETELY NAKED RIGHT NOW!', I suddenly remembered.
She seemed to still not fully comprehend that fact, and was trying to look at the sky, with her left hand above her eyes, trying to shade her eyes from the sunlight. She looked like she was in a daze, trying to make sense of everything that just happened.
'Holy shit...', she always did have a voluptuous body with all the perfect proportions, but I think she looks even better now... also, It looks like she got her left hand back, which didn't really surprise me, cause I had already experienced something similar, where all my illnesses vanished, and I became healthy. But most importantly... She had Long Ears!!!! She became an elf, which made her look even more cute than before.
I felt my nether regions get tighter. 'Ah SHIT! NO NO NO! NOT NOW LITTLE BUDDY! NOT NOW!! GO BACK DOWN!!!!'
Before I could convince my 'Little Big Brother' to calm down and stay low, Anna had regained her senses back and was staring directly at my crotch.
"uhhh... I can explain....?", I couldn't finish my sentence properly, Anna screamed and quickly tried to cover herself up with her arms and legs. It didn't help much though; it just made her look even cuter.
"Xavier! what the fuck?! what is that?! why are you like that?!", she asked while her long ears were flapping up and down and turned beet-red.
"Let me get you some clothes first, okay?", I gave up on hiding my embarrassment, and got up to go look for some kind of clothes.
"NO WAIT! DON'T GO!!!", she screamed. Her body was trembling again, and I could see her eyes getting watery again.
'She must be extremely scared right now. I don't know what happened to her, but I should at least help her... we're in the same boat, after all.', I thought before turning back to Anna and reassuring her that I won't go anywhere.
But she did need clothes though, so I had no choice but to take off my own shirt and give it to her, so that she can cover up the most important parts at least.
Doing this made Anna even more embarrassed though, and I could tell she was also a bit scared of what I was doing. I obviously didn't plan to do anything questionable to her, even though I was definitely stronger than her at the moment.
I only had pure feelings for Anna my whole life. I had never looked at her in a sexual way before, even though I fully knew how gorgeous she was. I never even got a single wet dream about her my entire life!
I think she was very embarrassed to see me suddenly take my shirt off (or the driver's shirt, I guess). I mean, I did have a better and chiseled-out body than before, and I was naturally quite tall, but still... I never expected her to behave this way...
Also, I burned the image of her tits deep into my retinas, and made sure to never forget about it, as they were the first REAL tits I had ever seen. It was pretty unexpected though... I never thought that the first tits I would see would be of Anna's...