“Ba… Barett…”

“It had been a while.”

“You idiot!” Mimiyat ran up to him and tackled him down to the floor.

“OWWWW! Can’t fix that one as easily,” he said with a surprisingly flat expression. Remy couldn’t decide whether he was joking or not.

“You idiot! Idiot! What are you doing!?”

“Mimiyat, calm down.”

Atilia came and pulled Mimiyat away, while Remy assisted Barett back up.

“Sorry I didn’t say anything to you. Once I went into demon territory, I had no means to contact you.”

“Then don’t go!”

“Mimi…”

“Do you know how worried I am!? How much I missed you!?”

“Sorry.”

“I had been looking for you for ages! Going from city to city! Job to job, just to look for you.”

“Sorry.”

Are you sure you’re not fired because of sleeping at work?

Remy thought, keeping that to himself.

“Please… come back…” Mimiyat looked incredibly exhausted, her face wet with tears.

“... Alright.”

“Barett.” Mimiyat hugged Barett. Barett patted her back, allowing Mimiyat to get all of the emotions out.

“But let me pick that thing up first,” he said after some time had passed. Mimiyat let go and nodded, looking toward the stairs.

“That… thing?”

Barett motioned them all to follow after him. They went up the inn’s broken steps, heading to the second floor. To Remy’s surprise, the second floor looked much better, unlike the first floor that barely held on.

“It took a lot of work to sneak into demon territory without getting caught,” Barett commented as he led the four of them deeper. Remy stopped to take a look at the empty rooms. They all had numbers on them. Out of curiosity, he pushed one of the doors opened, revealing a damaged inn room. It still had all its various furniture, the bed, and the wardrobe. While not perfect, the furniture did look like it escaped destruction.

“You maintain all of this?”

“My cheat allowed me to fix a lot of things with a few simple taps.” He showed them his golden hammer.

“I wanted to fix the entire inn if I could, but if the demons went by and saw it, they'd feel suspicious.”

“But you’re fixing the entire second floor. What the heck were you even thinking?” Mimiyat cut in, looking better compared to before.

“I didn’t do any repairs to the exterior, and it’s not like the demons float.”

“They’ll still feel suspicious.”

Barett stopped in front of a room at the end of the hallway. He opened the door, revealing yet another normal-looking inn room, but this time filled with various food items inside. The blanket was messy, and the small furniture like chairs and decorations like potted plants were all over the place. It became obvious that this was the only room that was used in the entire place.

He stepped inside and opened the wardrobe, pulling something out from inside before showing it to the group.

“... What is this?” Mimiyat leaned in closer. A long, wooden stick. A literal wooden stick. Nothing special, no weird colors. Brown. A stick in its most basic form. Around thirty centimeters in length, and five centimeters in diameter. Its mere existence felt out of place. It didn’t have any scratches on it, the wood was as good as new.

“This is what I believe to be a magic weapon. Your mother’s magic weapon.”

“Mom’s? My mom’s?” Mimiyat pointed to herself.

“When I heard of her death after returning from the Urkon Maria, I remembered something she said to me, and rushed back here.”

“You idiot! You didn’t even come to her funeral!” Mimiyat glared at him, tears began forming in her eyes. Remy never heard anything about Mimiyat’s parents until this point. He slid closer to Atilia and whispered, “Her mom died?”

Atilia, in turn, slid closer to Louisa. “Her mom died?”

“I… never heard anything about it.”

Mimiyat and Barett didn’t seem to notice their little conversation, however.

“I’m… sorry… I was so overcome with grief that the obvious didn’t cross my mind. Even though I could and should have attended the funeral first, I instead made my way all the way here on foot, taking months to arrive back in this place.”

“You… urgh…”

“I truly am sorry.” Barett looked down on the ground, his expression finally changing, now with a hint of sadness on his face.

“If only… if only I could speak with her again. With your mother, with your father. They have done countless things for me, yet…”

“I… I… shit…” Mimiyat looked down as well. Remy couldn’t say anything, keeping his head down as the mood dropped. Atilia looked between the two. She stepped closer and took the hands of both of them, Mimiyat on her left and Barett on her right. They were surprised by the sudden gesture, but didn’t resist when Atilia pulled them closer.

“Atilia?”

Atilia ignored Mimiyat’s startled words and closed her eyes. A white glow engulfed her, slowly spreading to both Mimiyat and Barett.

“What… is she doing?” Louisa murmured. Remy didn’t have an answer and just stood there and watched.

“Close your eyes,” Atilia said. Mimiyat and Barett looked at each other before doing as told. Some time passed, and the white glow engulfed the three of them in their entirety. The two of them began crying, even Barett. Not understanding a thing, Remy and Louisa decided to head back to the hallway, closing the door from outside. Remy watched the bright sun high up in the sky as he waited for the three inside.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“...”

“...”

“So… how’s the war?”

“You don’t have to force yourself to start a conversation, Sir Remy.”

“Is it that obvious?”

“For one, the fact that we are inside demon-controlled territory already said a lot.”

“You have a point. Speaking of demon territory, though, how come we hadn’t seen any demons so far?”

“The demons killed everyone that didn’t escape. I do not think they have a reason to believe this village in particular had anyone left in it.”

“That makes sense.”

The conversation died down. Remy wanted to know about what the three were doing in that room, but he refused to peek. He didn’t want to bother them. Even if he peeked, he would probably find them holding hands like before.

“How does it feel to be an outworlder?”

“Eh?”

“Sorry, is that question offensive?”

“No, it isn’t. I’m just confused. I mean, it feels… like normal? I mean, I’m just a normal human like you.”

“Oh, is that so?”

Why does she sound surprised?

“Why?”

“Just a passing thought.”

“I’m open to answering questions, though, in case you have something else.”

“If I may ask, what is your cheat?”

“My blessing? It’s Atilia.”

“You call it a blessing?”

“For me she sure is one.”

“I see.” Louisa nodded. “Finding someone with a person as their blessing is quite rare, actually. I only saw two or three from the hundreds of outworlders I met, this is the first time I actually spoke to one of those people.”

“Are we that rare?”

Remy thought that there would be more people with such choices in this world.

“Maybe it’s just me that hasn’t met more of your people. But what about your previous world?”

“Umm… eh, it depends.” Remy shrugged. Remy decided to tell her about the various things and quirks of Earth. The technology, the culture, the wars. Things that he did know, because he didn’t know a lot of it. Now that he left it and would never return, he kind of missed it. He doubted that his life would change had Atilia not come in and changed him, so he couldn’t say that his life would be better if he could return to Earth alone. No matter how he sliced it, the fact that he stood here today was because of her support. Even if he chose a powerful cheat ability, he doubted he would go far outside of Purwa.

“... So your world is a lot worse.”

“Yeah, everything is limited there.”

“Magic is such an integral part of our life that I could not imagine what would happen had it stopped existing. I would not be surprised if everything falls apart.”

“I hope it never came to that,” Remy said with a chuckle.

The two began discussing various things. The stalemate in the front lines, how the world used to be before the war, how the alliance’s navy helped keep demons from crossing through the sea.

“Demon bodies are heavy, they couldn’t swim, and a ship couldn’t hold as many of them as humans.”

“But the demons I saw, does that mean they slipped through the navy’s watch?”

“Could be. We might control the seas, but that doesn't mean we can see every single cubic meter of water.”

“Makes sense… Do submarines exist in this world?”

“Submarines? I believe those are vehicles that could dive under the water?”

“Yeah.”

“No, submarines do not exist here, at least not yet.”

Well, not like having any submarines would help.

Demons couldn’t swim, which meant any demons getting through must use some kind of vessel. Back on Earth, submarines didn’t exist until much recently, while ships had existed for centuries. Remy found it hard to believe that the demons, who couldn’t even build an effective navy, could build submarines.

Though magic, and the fact that it could be used in items, may change a lot of things. There could be a way to create a submarine with magic. Remy found it hard to believe that the demons would create submarines before ships, however. He told himself to remain on guard, as while it was true the demons couldn’t build ships yet, they could do a lot of things. The cow mutant came to mind.

Before his mind could spiral farther out of control, the door behind him creaked open. He looked back, finding Atilia standing there.

“How are things?” Remy asked.

“You two ready to depart?” Atilia replied. Remy and Louisa nodded.

“Well, let’s go, then.” Atilia walked out, Barett and Mimiyat walking behind her, looking much better. Mimiyat gazed out of the windows lining the side of the walls, while Barett looked as serious as ever, holding the long stick in his hands. It looked similar to a baseball bat, albeit a bit smaller.

“Umm… if you don’t mind me asking…”

“This?” Barett lifted the stick up, showing it to Remy as they walked back down to the first floor.

“It’s a magic weapon that can transform into any weapon you can imagine. Ridiculously overpowered, if you ask me.” Barett then threw the stick toward him. Remy caught it in his hands and examined it closely.

In his eyes, all he saw was an entirely normal stick. Nothing more, nothing less.

He couldn’t use magic so he handed it back to Barett. Atilia took interest in the stick, and Barett handed it over. Atilia pointed it forward, transforming it into a sharp sword. It had a fairly standard black hilt with a shining silver blade.

“Woah…”

“But that’s not the full extent of its capabilities, is it?” Mimiyat asked, turning her head toward the weapon.

“Something’s weird about the magic on this thing.” Atilia handed it over to Mimiyat. The weapon immediately transformed into a double-edged spear, similar to the one Mimiyat wielded.

“... Yeah, it is weird.” Mimiyat then handed it to Louisa. In Louisa’s hands, the weapon transformed into a large square shield with a golden outline. Louisa handed it back to Barett’s hand, where it turned back to a normal stick.

“... So… it copies whatever weapon we used?” Remy asked.

Atilia shook her head. “Not quite. I don’t use any weapon in particular, and it didn’t transform in your hands… although I guess that’s because you can’t use magic.” All of her magic so far used her hands. If the stick turned into a weapon based on the weapon the wielder used, it should’ve turned into a glove, or maybe a magic wand, but definitely not into a sword.

“Maybe it chose the sword by default?”

“Maybe?”

They began descending the stairs. It squeaked under pressure, forcing Remy to hold on to the railings. One of them even broke under Louisa’s weight, which was surprising as it managed to hold itself together when the five climbed up.

When they arrived back on the first floor, Barett spoke. “No.”

“No?” Remy was so focused on descending the stairs that for a moment, he forgot what they were talking about. The conversation about the magic stick returned to his mind immediately after.

“That long stick can transform into any weapon the person holding it desires. It is said that Mimiyat’s great-grandfather was the one who created it for her great-grandmother to use in hunting.”

Mimiyat nodded to his words. “I heard about that as well. Never saw them do that, though.”

The five of them carefully navigated the broken roads, heading back to the magic carriage. The carriage felt much more cramped thanks to the extra person, although Remy didn’t have much issue with that. It was already much of an upgrade compared to walking. They drove out of the village, heading through the road that they previously used. This time, Mimiyat helped with providing the wind magic, allowing them to go at a much faster pace.

Like the ship, Mimiyat’s magic managed to lift the entire thing up into the sky. It felt much like a maglev train floating above its tracks. Atilia joined in as well, using her magic to push forward. Had Remy and Barett been capable of using magic, the carriage may turn into an airplane.

“So you went back just to take that?”

“Your mother told me to use it. But I accidentally left it behind when we escaped.”

“... And look what we have now, a normal stick.”

“The thing is, I remember seeing her use this weapon in various forms back when I just arrived in the village. A sword, a spear, a bow.”

“She used it to hunt, didn’t she? I wonder if the stories about grandma are true.”

“Yes. I remember-”

Barett stopped speaking all of a sudden. He looked out of the window, toward the right side of the carriage.

“Something’s coming.”

“Huh-”

The road exploded in front of them. Louisa slammed the brakes and turned the steering wheel right, but because they were floating, it did nothing. Mimiyat used wind magic to throw the carriage to the right, bringing it down from the sky. Not long after the front wheels touched down, something else hurled toward them. Mimiyat tried moving the carriage away from it. The thing slammed to the ground right next to them, its shockwave enough to counter Mimiyat’s magic, throwing the vehicle off the ground.