As the lightning bolt was about to leave Noah's fingers, a young girl opened the door.
"E-Eh?"
She was directly in the path of his shot.
"(Stop! Stop!)" he screamed internally, but it seemed the spell wasn't listening. He had only one option left—aim to the side.
"Yah!!!"
The arrow shot from his finger, passing mere centimeters from the girl's head before creating a gaping hole in the wall opposite. Passersby screamed, startled by the sudden attack, some fleeing without bothering to find out what had happened.
"Ah…" Noah muttered. It seemed he had caused yet another major problem. If he was going to run away, now was the time—if this woman learned he had destroyed a wall, only God knew what would happen to him.
"..."
However, he couldn't abandon the girl. He had narrowly missed her, and it seemed the experience had left her quite shaken—she had slowly crouched down, hands over her head, trembling.
For a long moment, he didn't know what to do. Talking to her was out of the question, but trying to reassure her by touching her wasn't an option either. He stood there, silently watching her tremble.
"(Come on! Just a little courage! You can do this!)"
After a long hesitation, he placed a hand on the girl's shoulder in what he hoped was a reassuring gesture. The girl flinched at first, then gave him a wary look.
"H-Huh… I… I don't…" Noah began, but stopped. Instead of using shallow words, he needed to show her he was sincere through actions.
What better way than with a smile? Surely people trusted someone with a nice smile more easily, didn't they? He thought of Chad from the football club at his old school—not only did he have the most generic name on Earth, but he charmed all the girls with his smile.
It wouldn't hurt to try. All he had to do was imitate him perfectly. Yes, lift the corner of the mouth, show the teeth, and don't forget the legendary "Hey!" that melted hearts. Well, maybe he could skip—
"H-Hey~!"
Too late. The girl was staring at him with the same look the cheerleader had given him back when he'd tried Chad's method.
"(Why did I think this was a good idea?)"
The cheerleader in question had avoided him for the rest of the year. Sometimes, he wished his brain would remember these details before suggesting terrible solutions. Screaming into his pillow twice for the same mistake wasn't fun at all!
"Pfft, hahaha!"
The girl suddenly burst into a crystal-clear laugh.
"What… What was that?! H-Hey?! What's wrong with you? Were you smiling or trying to scare birds away? That—oh, 'Hey'! Hey! Haha! Hahaha! M-My sides!"
Despite the spasms shaking her chest, she stood up and placed a hand on Noah's shoulder.
"H-Hey!" she said in turn, before breaking into laughter.
"(Ugh~… I already don't like this girl)," he thought as he watched her mock him, wide-eyed.
He had to admit, though, that he had managed to reassure her… in a way. Mission accomplished?
———
"My name is Kate. I'm a miner working at Station 8 with my father, mother, and brothers."
Back in the room, the girl immediately introduced herself. Kate—a simple name to remember. That made things easier for Noah, but there was still a problem.
"And you?"
How was he going to introduce himself? Clearly, speaking was still not an option. Maybe Doll had no problem with the Muddy Tongues, but there was no guarantee Kate wasn't a special case. If possible, he wanted to avoid making more mistakes in this world. It was becoming a bit too frequent.
He had an idea. He gestured to Kate, indicating he wanted something to write with.
"Huh? You want paper and a quill?" she asked.
He nodded. The girl complied, bringing him a quill and some paper. Writing with a quill wasn't his strong suit, but he wrote his avatar's name, Vasilisa, in his best cursive.
The girl looked at the paper for a moment, her fist on her chin like The Thinker. Or maybe it was his forehead—he couldn't quite remember.
"Um… What's this… What did you write?"
"(Well, my name, what else?)" he thought.
The girl seemed to understand what he was trying to say, but he realized what she meant when he looked at the paper. He could read "Vasilisa," but upon closer inspection, his writing became strange. He saw a V, then an A, but after that, a string of unfamiliar characters until the final A.
"Read?" Kate asked. "Sorry, I don't recognize the other letters. Where are they from?"
"..."
It wasn't a problem. It wasn't a problem. There was another solution he had thought of.
He pointed to the mirror in the room.
"Hm? You want to show me your… status screen?"
He nodded again. It was quite convenient that she understood him without him having to say much. If only she could guess his name that easily.
He stood before the mirror and looked at it closely. He knew how it worked by now—on its surface, his status reappeared.
[Status]
Path: Blue
Level: 0
Health: 100/100
Name: Vasilisa
Age: 14
Gender: X
Class: Noble III
Summary: Young human, daughter of minor nobles from Grmina. Muddy tongue.
Equipment: Null; Null; Null; Null; Null;
Skills: Magic (E), Implicit Communication (E)
Slots: Great Lightning Arrow (2/3)
Effects: Human, Living, Muddy Tongue
Affiliations: Froschkönig (Family), @?' (???), Null, Null, Null
[/Status]
"Hm?"
Some things had changed since the last time, particularly in the slots section.
"(Great Lightning Arrow? That was… the name of the spell I cast, right?)"
He realized then. These "slots" actually indicated the spells he could use. The 2/3 must have been an indicator of the remaining uses—he had seen games with this kind of system before.
"(No MP bar, huh?)"
Usually, in this kind of game, you had to rest to recover spell uses. With only three uses, it could become a problem in the future, but he had another issue to deal with: Kate stubbornly refused to look at the mirror.
"Um…"
He tapped on the mirror to get her attention, but the young girl remained steadfast: she would not look. Noah sighed.
"(What now? Is she sulking?)" he thought, furrowing his brows.
"S-Sulking?!" Kate suddenly reacted, visibly red. "What nonsense is he spouting again?! I'm not looking because it's inappropriate! You don't show your status like that to strangers! It's indecent!"
"..."
Noah was a hair's breadth away from deliberately launching a [Great Lightning Arrow] at her but restrained himself. Killing NPCs almost never accomplished anything—except when playing Grand Theft Moto.
He made his status disappear and approached Kate.
"(Hey, you understand what I'm saying, right?)" he thought.
"Hm? Understand what?" she said, turning toward him.
"Ah..."
Indeed, it seemed this Kate could hear his thoughts. A true gift from heaven. If that were the case, then...
"(Kate)," he thought, taking her hand in his and kneeling. "(Marry me.)"
Kate looked at him for a second, her gaze empty and cold.
"Did you hit your head at birth or something? What's gotten into you?"
"(Okay, full verification done.)," he thought as he stood back up.
He extended his hand to Kate again, puffing out his chest to appear more imposing.
"(You see, Kate, I've been searching for someone like you for a long time. Thanks to your ability, I'll be able to—)"
"W-What? This is too confusing. What did you mean about my ability?"
"Hm..."
Maybe he was thinking too quickly. It had been so long since he'd had the chance to give a speech that he'd gotten a little carried away in his excitement. He needed to keep it concise.
"(KATE!!! I WANT TO HIRE YOU!!!)"
"No."
The girl responded immediately. Cold and decisive. Even though he was half-joking, the shock nearly brought Noah to his knees again, but for entirely different reasons this time.
"(So this is rejection? Pain I feel)," he thought, clutching his chest.
He didn't know if Kate had heard him or was just ignoring him, but she carried on without paying attention to his comment.
"You want to hire me?" she asked, narrowing her eyes. "And how exactly do you plan to pay me? Do you know I paid for your medical care because you had almost nothing on you? Do you know how much it costs to call a doctor? What is it? A noble's trend not to use your HP to heal yourself? Ah, but you people have the money, don't you? Meanwhile, it cost me my savings and more!"
"H-Huh..." Noah took a step back as she advanced toward him.
"Do you know what I wanted to do with that money?! There was this ribbon at the market I wanted. I even negotiated the price and set a date to pick it up. The vendor refused, you know? It was only because he knew my mom a little that he finally agreed, on the condition I bring the money on the set day. Do you know what it feels like to go and tell someone you don't have their money yet? That, oh, they'll just have to wait a bit more?!"
"W-Wait... I..."
The red-haired girl planted herself right in front of him, pinning him against the wall. Noah was cornered. He had backed up until his back was against the wall, overwhelmed by the incomprehensible fury his joke had triggered. He even forgot not to speak.
"And that's why you're going to work for me instead," Kate concluded, tapping his forehead with her index finger.
"H-Huh? Ah... er... Okay..."
He agreed, nodding like a good dog. It was only afterward he realized he hadn't asked what the job entailed.
"Good girl, good girl," Kate said with a big smile as she patted his head. "You start right away! Oh, and work hard! I'm planning to get that ribbon in a week! It wouldn't do to embarrass me, right?"
"Yes... W-Wait? Uh... hand... hand—"
"Less talk! Get ready, we're heading to the mine!"
"..."
And that was the moment Noah realized he had been scammed.
"(I definitely don't like this girl. Not one bit!!!)"