Chapter 85: Welcome to new world
1763 Words
Looking to me directly to my eyes was an unknown boy. He looks young and ages not far from mine.
“A mermaid?”
A mermaid? Me?
“... Umm… Probably not…”
He turned his glance to my lower part, especially to my feet.
I then realized how wet my clothes are and slightly revealing my skin. Embarrassed, I immediately hug my body and turn my glance away from him.
He pulled up the net to the ground. I get out of the net and squeeze my clothes to release water. The black-haired boy approached me and hand over a towel.
He can’t look me in my eyes for a moment and blushes.
Maybe he also realize the terrible thing he did to a maiden like me.
“Umm… I never saw you in this city before. Where did you come from?”
He asked.
He's asking me? I have never seen such an intelligent NPC. This man looks like a real human. The water also feels like water in the real world. The sunlight feels hot. I never felt this sensation in a fantasy world online before. His face is also a bit red. Is he flustered? NPC that can convey little emotions… This one is unique. Or maybe, he's a player just like me. This is an event after all.
“Would you mind not staring at me like that… It's embarrassing…”
The black-haired boy muttered and turned his back away from me.
“S-Sorry… May I ask where are the other players?”
“Other players? Players? Are you playing a game?”
“Eh?”
“Eh?”
Seems like we’re both lost.
But I don’t feel like he's lying either. The way he dresses. He looks like a normal country boy. I’m the one to talk. My clothes right now are duller and wet.
All I remember is sitting in that fountain earlier. And then rubbing my eye’s I wake up here.
I stood up straight and stare. I then rub my eyes non-stop.
“Pff… What are you doing? You’re funny…”
“I can’t log out… Maybe this is the way to log out.”
“You're eyes are red now… Hahahahaha.”
He said and laugh.
“This is not a laughing matter. Just give me the mission and let me finish the event already.”
“I don’t have any idea what are you talking about… Log out? Event? Where did you can from?”
“I came from the earth.”
“Earth… Never heard of it… Is that continent?”
“Earth is the earth you know… It's a big ball of land floating in outer space.”
“...”
He's a loss.
I didn’t even know why. What should I do now? I thought and made a deep sigh.
The black-haired boy then turned his glance down. He gets a knife a tears part of the tower. He crouched down in front of me.
“Are you trying to peek?”
“Nope... Just don’t move.”
That reminded me that my knees are injured earlier. It's still bleeding and started to sting. The warped the cloth around my knees and tightly tie it.
“This is the only thing I can do for now, but we still need to disinfect it.”
I see, he is a nice man.
I turned my head around and realized that I’m beside a huge country. Tall walls and a city inside of it. The city inside wasn’t like the modern age. More like a city from middle-aged Europe.
“Where is this place?”
“Seems like you’re not from this place… This is the country of Stella. This is the place where I live.”
Country of Stella.
“... I don’t know where you came from but it seems very far away. I studied the map in the library before, but I never heard this earth continent before.”
“Earth is a planet.”
“Doesn’t ring the bell.”
“I have nothing to go…”
“...”
“I don’t know what happened but I suddenly woke up in this place. I then got washed out on the raging water and then got caught by you. I don’t know what I should do to go back home.”
“No family… No one to rely on… I guess we're the same. Don’t worry, the house I’m living a still has another person in it. It's not big, but you can live there for a while.”
“R-Really?”
“It's fine… We’re the same after all. I also don’t have a family. My parents abandoned me. My big brother died on the battlefield. It's only me right now.”
After my clothes dry out.
I take his offer and followed him inside the city. On the gate, there are guards in the post. They turned glance to at the black-haired boy and said:
“Shun… Nice work for today. But who is this girl? I never saw this girl before.”
“I caught her in the fishing net.”
“Caught her… Then it's a great catch… She looks so cute. Anyway, foreigners can’t just step their foot in the country. They need to pay for the fee.”
After hearing the guard, I became nervous.
The black-haired boy turned glanced at me and asked: “Do you have any?”
I silently shook my head at him.
“Don’t worry I knew it… I’m not expecting anything from a girl that washed away on the river.”
“Well… T-Thank you.”
Then, why did you ask me?
We don’t have a proper introduction yet. But this young man is called Shun. Shun took one silver coin from his pocket and filled up a form. He turned his head on me.
“What’s your name?”
“Ah… I’m Kishimoto… Kishimoto Kaede.”
“Kishimoto? How strange? Can you write it on this form?”
Shun passed the pen and the form to my hands. I take a look at it and never understand what’s being told. The writing was different from my world. Its not Katakana, Hiragana or Kanji. This is not even an alphabet.
While holding the pen. My hand is shaking.
I don’t have any choice
I write my name normally in kanji.
This leaves the guard in confusion. The same with Shun.
“This is strange writing… Maybe you came from a different continent. If that’s how you write then It's fine…”
He put a stamp on the paper form and hand it over to me.
“... As long as your not a resident yet or an adventurer. You're having this form. This will become your identification for now. This form is important for foreigners because it requires d in many things. Especially in adventurer registration. Understand.”
I nodded in reply.
“I understand.”
We get through the guard and then enter the city. Colorful houses and people wearing armors walked on the street. The street is busy. Many people are working on the side of the streets. Stalls of sellers calling customers all around the place.
Shun lifted the basket where the fish he got. He goes to a place that seems to be the marketplace. He sold the fish to the seller and then got the payment from it.
“Nice work Shun… I’m waiting for this since this morning. What makes you so long?”
Asked the old man seller.
“I helped Mister Oak in the farm. He's not feeling well. His back hurts a lot.”
“I see… But it's normal, old people like us don’t have much time anymore. Our body started to rust and eventually were going to leave the world.”
“Don’t say something like that… You’re the only one that’s willing to buy the fishes we caught. I can’t have you dying yet.”
“That’s what you’re worried at?! Kids these days truly are selfish.”
“I’m just kidding… Of course, I want you to be fine.”
The old man turned to glance at me.
“Oh… Who is this woman? You finally get a girlfriend.”
“Nope! No, No… She’s just a friend… That’s right, she is my friend.”
“... Well, everyone still thinks of you as a villain. You have a rough time finding a girl to like you. But a piece of advice from me. A young man should find a woman immediately. Don’t be like me. I’m old now. I never experienced such a thing. Now I’m going to die alone.”
The old man said in a weighty tone. Base on his expression. Seems like he's regretting something from the past. The past that he would be able to return.
He slowly averted his eyes and turned his head away from Shun.
Shun looked at him with a little worried. We then turned back away and leave. Strolling on the street for a while I wondered how big the city was.
Without noticing, the busy day was about to end. The sky was covered with darkness. The street light slit up. We walked quite far away from the gate and the market. We came across a mini bridge made.
This place is far from the main city. The house's structure here is different. More like a slump.
While walking I saw a stare from a girl. Her eyes met Shun and they both turned around. Shun was anxious for some reason.
After walking for a while we finally reached the house. It's not big like Shun said. But it's a concrete house. The house walls are covered with moss already and the windows are covered with plywood.
“This place doesn’t look unstable, but this place is amazing. Many disasters already happened and it's still standing.”
“So this is the place your living.”
“Yep…” He turn his body to me and offered his hand.”We don’t have a formal introduction yet. My name is Shun. How about you?”
I already know that and I guess you know mine… But this is essential.
I took his hand and shake.
“I’m Kishimoto Kaede.”
I still don’t know where is this place. But this place is too real to be called a game. I’m not in the Fantasy world online anymore. More likely, I’m transported to another world.
I have to find my way back.
- Writer
