"Dry sound."
A stack of orange and yellow papers fell on a desk full of pencils and books next to a lamp. Behind the desk was a seat, and further back, a cream velvet curtain.
"I keep thinking about that night..."
It was Oriana's first thought when she sat in the seat, looking at the stack of papers in front of her with her frown frowned.
Oriana was still immersed in what happened that night; in fact, it was the night before. She was returning quietly, but she felt a different feeling in that house where Asher was. He felt that there was such a powerful being that no one could defeat him. Then he closed his eyes and sighed; he had come in when his body was frozen and his gaze looked at a fellow in dark clothes, whose eyes emanated a purple glow.
That night, Oriana was speechless and immersed in her thoughts. A feeling he had never felt before occurred to him for the first time that night.
"Shit... Who...?"
His words just didn't come out. The empty face, without expression, like that of a person completely dead in emotion, and such a dark look, was all I had seen of the guy who saw the night before.
"Why... Why am I still afraid…?" I kept thinking about the night before.
"Who was...? They were questions I wanted to answer, but he couldn't do it in the morning.
Oriana wanted to know who that person was who was talking to Asher the night before, but her words simply couldn't get out. She wanted to know, but could not ask and therefore changed the subject in her thoughts and explained to Asher the details of the guild and other matters.
But she couldn't stop thinking about that guy.
What was his name, who was he, whether he was a magician or a gentleman, how strong he was.
It was his questions this morning, but he just couldn't get them out of his mouth and, as usual, he had to check some documents in his office.
The documents were the pile of papers that was in front of her at the time, but she only played with her fingers while looking at the door that was a few meters away. I just kept thinking.
"Touch, touch."
Someone knocked on the door. She was surprised, but then she gave up her thoughts and spoke.
"I passed."
The door opened and Josephine entered the room.
They both looked at each other and Josephine was finally the first to speak.
"I've already left him at the guild."
"Okay, do you have anything else to say?"
"No."
They were short words, but before Josephine left, Oriana spoke.
"How would you feel if you were standing in front of someone so strong that no one could stop him?"
"..."
Josephine looked in her eye before she left, her curiosity flooded him.
"... I would feel fear, despair and I would never stop thinking about him."
"..."
Oriana breathed deeply, shrugged, but then she recovered.
"All right, you can go."
"Clank."
The door closed and again the silence took over the room. Oriana continued with her thoughts.
"That's fear, how ridiculous..." He finally looked at the papers in front of her, grabbed an ink pencil and started writing.
***
— Change of scene.
— Perspective of Asher Frostblade.
I walked with determined steps and finally spoke at the counter.
"Hi, I'm looking for a mission." The woman in front of me answered.
"Of course, first sign this and then leave your mark here."
The woman gave me a paper and an ink pencil. I signed, not without reading the contents of the document. He said a few unimportant things, such as that if he died on any mission granted by the guild, he would not be held responsible. Things like that said most of the paper. It was unnecessary for me, but I ended up signing it.
"You must put your fingerprint here."
The woman gave me a small bottle full of coal. With my thumb, I filled it with a little coal and then pressed firmly on the paper.
"Well, I'il show you the missions available."
Quickly, the woman walked away and entered through a door. I could see little, but there were several people running around with bags, carts similar to the mines, and some women carrying papers.
"It's a big riot in there."
"It is, isn't it?"
A voice spoke right next to me. When I looked at her, she was a tall woman, about six feet tall. Compared to my height, she was definitely on another level. Her face was very beautiful, her hair was blond and long, reaching up to her waist. He wore a suit similar to that of a hunter, but different in certain details. However, there was something particularly different, something humans do not usually have: long, pointed ears.
"She's human, but... their ears are different," I thought as I looked at the woman's ears.
"Mmm, you've never seen an elf, have you?"
An elf. What the hell was that? I've never heard that word before.
"An elf? What is it?"
"It hurts me to say 'what it is', rather 'what it is to be'
"..."
I still didn't understand, but I think I understood what he meant.
"You're too young to be here."
"I have to be a gentleman in six months."
"..."
She looked at me with confusion. Anyone would, a child trying to be a gentleman at the age of ten. Who would believe that?
"To be a gentleman is not easy."
"I know very well."
"Then..."
"Here are the missions available."
The old woman brought in a stack of papers. I looked at one of the papers and basically had this:
[Beat a pack of wolves]
[Cleaning a Grade 8 dungeon in the village of Mirbel]
The list was still on. Each paper had a single mission. I kept searching until a hand held my forearm.
"Why don't you come with us?"
She was the blonde-haired woman who'd been talking before.
"The mission is in the village of Nortil, a distant people, but the mission gives an achievement."
"..."
An accomplishment in that mission. I definitely had to go with them, but I didn't know them and the two people next to this woman didn't even pay attention to their words. I didn't know their names either. Why were you helping me if we didn't know each other? And I couldn't trust her either, especially for the words Josephine had told me not to trust anyone.
Should I go and choose my own destiny, or should I accept?
"You show no signs of having anything on your mind," Encrid said.
"Can I trust her?"
"Yes, but beware of the gentleman who is after the one who wears a robe and covers his face with a hood."
"You mean the one that looks like a gentleman?"
"Yes, I feel hostility from that guy. Be careful, but with this elf, you can always trust the elves."
He's also talking about that so-called elf. Am I the only one who doesn't know what an elf is?
I looked at the gentleman. He seemed strong, but I didn't know anything about him. Then I looked at the wizard. He was definitely a magician, dressed in a robe and a hood that hid his face. The cane he had seemed to be drawn from a fantasy. Apart from the elders, who else wears a strange-shaped stick and a manna stone floating in it? A magician, that was.
"You can trust them both."
"I don't trust the gentleman," I whispered to prevent the gentleman from hearing my words.
"Mmm, I say the same thing about you. You're wearing a mask and hiding your face."
It was true. I was wearing the white mask, but it wasn't because I wanted to, but because I was forced to wear it. Although I didn't know why, I decided to use it. Maybe for some reason Oriana gave me this mask and so I used it.
"Okay, but what's the mission about?"
I was curious. A mission in which there is an achievement as a reward. Anyone would want to know what the mission is about.
"We're going to the village of Northil. Lately, demon manna has been circulating in that town. Crops and people are getting sick. Our goal is to find out what happens and solve it."
The information was very striking, but something was not right in my thoughts.
A demon, a very popular race in the stories I read in my past life. A being who, although a lower-ranking demon, is as strong as a high-ranking monster. But that race exists in this world.
"Since you have accepted, I must introduce myself and introduce the members of the group as well."
"The gentleman who doesn't usually talk much is called Dik, her name is Clara, she's a second-circle magician, and I'm Alice, an elf."
"Then I'm next. He called me Asher Frostblade."
A knight, a magician and a race unknown to me, an elf. A group of three, no, now it's four including me. But why didn't the other two even look at me or try to stop Alicia from joining her group? Something didn't fit right, but one I couldn't really trust was Dik, the gentleman standing next to Clara, the magician who was right next to Alicia.
"Well, then, we'il go to dinner first."
Well, it was almost 4:00 in the morning. Who wakes up at this hour? Obviously, people from guilds like this and gentlemen. It's only natural that no one should eat anything at this hour.
***
— Change of scene.
We went into a restaurant. It wasn't far from the guild, so Alicia led us there.
We go in and order the food. They had strange names.
[Hazzard roast beef]
[Alacartron Soup]
And the whole menu had strange names. The list went on and on, so I decided to ask Alicia. She was the only one who spoke, but Clara only observed in other directions, while Dik showed a cold expression, although she did look at the menu.
"What can I ask?" I got a question. The names were strange and I didn't know what kind of meat, vegetables or soup these were, but there was something I did recognize.
[Whisky]
It's the booze I used to drink. Its good refreshing taste when it reached my taste buds. All I could say was, "It's refreshing." It was definitely very refreshing.
But I couldn't drink it. It's an adult drink, and I have a child's body, so I couldn't.
"Look, you can order this, it's a simple lunch," Alice said, pointing to the menu.
It was a simple lunch with meat from an animal that I knew well and a lemonade drink. Something simple, but familiar. Although I was curious about the other dishes, it would be better to leave them for another time.
"Why... she doesn't usually talk that much?"
"It's not that, she's... shy, that's all I'il tell you."
I was curious. The only long and entertaining conversation I'd had was with Alice. She didn't trust Dik and Clara just looked at her food plate in front of her. She seemed very cold, but I felt something familiar about her. It was the manna, although it was not the manna of darkness, it was similar.
"A dark manna, perhaps. Darkness and darkness are two different words, but their meaning is the same. But in this case, though similar, it is not as strong as the manna of darkness I have, but it is similar, less strong."
"A wizard of curses," Encrid said when thinking of Clara.
"Cursed Wizard?"
"That's right, his manna looks like ours, but he's weak. It is not a kind of manna that causes destruction like the manna of darkness. This manna of curses is different from ours."
As if Encrid knew what he was thinking, he answered my question. A wizard of curses. It seemed complicated to understand, but it's different from a dark wizard.
"Asher... Won't you eat?"
I looked at my plate of food in front of me, then at Alice who had spoken to me, and I moved my head.
"I was just about to start."
***
— Change of scene.
Getting to Nortil, a town far from the city of Mengrana, would take about a whole week. If this world had vehicles, it would take three days to drive at 100 miles an hour. But in this case, it would be by train.
"I never thought this world would have trains."
I looked at the big train in front of me. It was one of those steam trains that ran on coal. The design of the train was similar to the oldest trains of my past life.
We entered the train and the seats were comfortable, despite having a facade of such an old train. The first thing I thought about was, "It's gonna be an uncomfortable trip." I thought the seats would be tough, but when I tried them, they were just so soft.
"Screaming."
We waited for the train to leave. Finally, it began to move and the sounds of the metal wheels crashing into the steel tracks of the train sounded so loud that it bothered.
"We'll be there in four days," Alice said, and finally the train started moving…