Nothing special happened when I signed the contract.

I had been expecting blinding rays or light, or a heavy sense of responsibility towards the upkeep of the contract, but there wasn’t anything like that. The only extraordinary thing I felt was a sharp tingle in my finger, since I had to seal the contract in blood, through a fingerprint. I could see the magical constructs shining beneath the surface of the contract engaging as soon as 

I pressed my blooded finger onto the paper though, so I know it’s a legitimate contract. Apparently, I would suffer soul-grinding pain, were I to go back on my word with it, and from what I could see of it, I didn’t doubt Joan’s word on that.

It would be fairly easy to uphold my word though, since most of the conditions are simple things, like to not cause harm intentionally, or harm the reputation of the palace. Additionally, I would have to keep a series of inventions secret.

Truthfully, my curiosity had been peaked after hearing about the inventions. I’ve always enjoyed creating new things, though I mostly just do it for fun, or to add just a little more of a combat edge to myself.

I’d like to see the fruits of someone else’s ingenuity, whether for admiration, or imitation’s purposes.

Immediately after signing the contract however, the first thing Joan wanted to do was not to purview these secret inventions, but to get a room arranged for my use.

I suppose it made sense. I hadn’t even noticed that I was rocking on my feet with exhaustion until Joan pointed it out. A warm bed and nice bath would do wonders as far as my metal state is concerned. I think I’ll take the bath first though. While it is true that my clothes were in pristine condition, even after spending three weeks in that forest, I reek fairly badly. I suppose it’s a little bit too much to expect the creators of my wondrous set of clothing from Ascension Island to have added in an air freshener of sorts. It’s already fantastic that they were able to change shape s completely. Hell—I had been using them as nightclothes when that teleportation grenade had been thrown in my window. They were super comfortable too.

Anyway, Joan took me to a section of rooms off to the side of the palace. I swear, we must have walked for at least fifteen minutes, before reaching it.

“And if you need anything, just talk to this woman, alright? Her name is Bea, and she’ll be looking after you for however long you stay here.” Said Joan, after having called over a willowy young woman, with dark brown hair and large cats ears wearing a classic maid’s outfit. There was also a tail gracefully swishing around in the air behind her. Really, she was cute. It was a tad unfortunate then, that I wouldn’t be able to talk to her, though. 

What with the language barrier and all.

Bea bowed towards me while smiling. I noticed that she didn’t take her eyes off me, maintaining a constant vigilance.

I smiled back awkwardly.

Joan, off to the side, smirked.

“You are worried about the language barrier, aren’t you?”

I nodded.

“The thought occurred to me. How is a maid supposed to help me, if she can’t understand me?”

“There is no need to worry over it. Though, I wouldn’t call Bea a maid—How about I let her explain?”

Bea nodded, and saluted Joan.

“Yes, Madam Overseer.” Said Bea in perfect English. “My full name is Samantha K. Usinger, a member of the palace’s elite blackguard forces. However, most people just call me Bea.”

I turned back to Joan, flabbergasted.

“Is she—I mean, Are you reincarnated or something?” I addressed Bea at the last moment, instead of Joan, well aware that it was rude to talk of someone as if they weren’t there.

Bea cocked her head to the side, a curious look on her face.

“Re-carated? What does that word mean?”

“Reincarnated. It’s when a soul’s body dies, and passes through the great cycle. However, what Kai is asking, is if you have retained the memories from one of those earlier lives.” Explained Joan, in English.

Bea still looked a little confused after hearing Joan’s explanation though.

Great. Joan probably just introduced a few principles which would drastically alter Bea’s outlook on life. It’s hard to look at things the same way, knowing that life doesn’t end after death.

Joan kept talking, though.

“And, if I might answer some of the questions that you are surely thinking, Kai—No, Bea is not a reincarnated being. I simply had all the more important support staff, and combat members, learn English. Mostly, it’s to provide that little bit of extra security to any orders they get, and to our communications. It’s been frustrating this kingdom’s enemies for centuries, since the scant amount of information they are able to intercept from us is in a language completely and totally incomprehensible to them.”

I nodded appreciatively.

Teaching your most loyal and important retainers another language is certainly a good idea. Even more, I was sure that anyone who happened upon a blurb of text in English would be utterly incapable of translating it.

The reason for this lie in the fact that the roots of English are unfathomably far away from those of any other languages found around the universe.

I mean, think about it.

Every language starts whenever a society of sentient beings become smart enough to convey basic emotions through vocal patterns.

From there, each language is constantly adapted to suit the needs of the people, and it evolves along with them, becoming more and more complex the older it gets, until a certain point. That point is when the language is able to convey everything the people have to talk about.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Surprisingly, the languages on Earth are among the most complex I’ve ever learned, even though the societies found there were much, much younger than the ones you can find here. This is due to the fact that everyone on earth seemed to have a surplus of imagination. There was no magic there, nor any species other than humans. This led them to innovate ways to make powerful tools, rather than rely on personal strength, as is the custom in almost every other world. One thing led another, and the humans of Earth became the most technologically advanced world I’ve yet seen, and the languages match that. Furthermore, the technology on Earth advances at a scary fast rate, compared to everywhere else. 

I’ve been to worlds that have used bronze and iron weapons for the past thousands of years, their technology stagnated due to the presence of magic. 

Anyway, back to the original subject.

English evolved in ways totally different from that of all other worlds, and became hopelessly complicated when compared to other languages. It would be nigh on impossible for someone who has never had assistance in learning English, to translate it to a more understandable language.

To speak a little more on the subject of languages, I will admit that I had trouble learning the first few ‘other world’ languages after dying that first time, and reincarnating in a strange place. To learn the language of my new world, I had to first un-learn everything I had ever known about grammar and speech patterns. After that, things got easier, but it still took me seven years to reach a decent speaking level. My parents had been convinced that I was developmentally challenged, due to the amount of time it had taken me to finally start speaking.

I then found that it had become drastically easier to learn new languages, after that experience, though. This was why I was confident of learning the language of this place in a short amount of time.

So, it turned out that Bea and I could converse with ease, all thanks to Joan. 

The first thing I asked about after Joan left for some other business, was a bath

As it turns out, I was in luck. I had been expecting a little wooden tub filled with lukewarm water for a bath, but that wasn’t the case here.

I had forgotten to account for the presence of Joan, a past inhabitant of Earth. She knew the values and satisfaction of regular bathing, and as such, had installed a large heated bath in the middle of the palace.

I left the only belonging I had with me in the room I had been given, and followed Bea to the bath area. Of course, with the palace being so mind-bogglingly massive, it took even longer to get from my new room to the bath, then it had to get from Joan’s office to the room. This whole place seems a little wasteful to me. I doubt they’re making proper use of more than half the palace, with how big it is, and how empty it seems.

When we reached the bathing area, I could hear gentle and steady splashes of water from inside. It also immediately felt warmer inside, and there were little curls of steam rising from the tiled surface.

From the entrance, the bathing area was split into two sections. There will be no mixed-sex bathing here, I suppose. I don’t particularly mind, either way. One of the side effects of reincarnation multiple times, is a strange sense of detachment from the body. At some point, you just realize that it doesn’t matter. I might have a problem with non-humanoid creatures, but only because they tend to be less versatile.

There were alcoves in the sides of the walls, allowing me to place my clothing there. I then placed some wards on top of the pile of clothing, since I didn’t want anything to happen to them. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to find a better set of clothing, after all.

Interestingly, Bea decided to join me in the bath, which could easily accommodate a few dozen people. And, to think that this is only the female side of it.

Curiously, the sides of the bath itself were a mountainous type of rock, and there were a few trees growing in the area just above the bath. If it weren’t for the tiles on one side of the room, I would think we had found a reclusive and completely natural hot spring up in the mountains.

There were also little streams cascading down from where the trees were, tumbling down the rocks like a natural waterfall.

The whole place had a peaceful feeling to it, one that invited you to just soak in the bath, and relax. I wonder if Joan had personally designed the bath? If so, she had done a very good job.

I sat in the water, unwinding for the most part.

At one point, Bea came over and offered to wash my back.

I accepted, and we talked a bit before swapping places. For some reason, she had a slight aversion to me washing her back, but that was solved by my stubbornness. I think it was a problem with our respective status’s, rather than any dislike on her part.

I felt much better as I put my clothes back on after toweling off. The past three weeks must have taken a larger toll on me than I had originally thought. Bea showed me back to my room, and I went straight to sleep after changing the form of my clothes into a comfortable nightgown.

I have a lot to look forward to tomorrow, and I’ll probably need a good nights worth of sleep to understand as much as I can about the inventions I’ll be seeing.