“I have some information that will surely be of interest for you. May I take a seat?”
At the deep voice of the abnormally tall, hooded person, a shudder went down Joanna’s whole body. It seemed to pierce right through her brain and her whole being.
It’s so beautiful...but also a bit scary.
Joanna had wanted to ignore the obviously female stranger at first, but now she had her full attention.
How tall can someone be? And she spoke English!
She had almost missed the message between the distracting voice, Joanna’s lack of sleep and the eye-catching appearance of the stranger. Eric nodded to the empty space next to him, to the dismay of Lindsey. Taking a seat, the woman took off her hood, which made Joanna gasp for air. She was probably the most beautiful woman she had ever seen in person and she could even hold her own against the photoshopped models in magazines.
Not just her hair, even her eyelashes are blue! Is that natural? And her ears, they are pointy! What race is she? I never heard of one that looks like that.
When the mysterious woman directed her sharp gaze at her, she not only noticed the glowing eyes with vertical pupils, but also her own mouth opened in awe. Slightly blushing, she shook out of her stupor and focused on Jason, who asked the question everyone probably had on their minds right now.
“Who taught you English?”, he inquired with a suspicious look.
She is suspicious, but you don’t have to play the detective of some thriller, Jason.
The woman obviously thought the same, as she looked a small bit offended.
“My parents? School? Who else?”, she shot back.
“What school here would teach English?”, he retorted.
“The schools back in my and your home realm obviously.”
“I doubt you are from my home realm, I would have known about whatever race you are. So, who taught you about realms?”
At this point Eric cut into Jason’s world of police work. “Stop that, Jason. You are not getting anywhere, just wasting time and we still have to find Paul, remember?.”
He turned back to the woman.
“Excuse my friend, he has a bit of a suspicious streak, especially if he’s grumpy. You said you had information for us?”, he tried to calm the waves, as the stranger really didn’t look all that pleased after Jason’s thorough questioning. At Eric’s sincerity, however, the woman smiled kindly, which made her look even more beautiful in Joanna’s eyes, and she shifted a bit in her seat, which drew Joanna’s attention to the now revealed and barely closed shirt.
Wow, that shirt is like way too small for her. Why does she even wear that? Wait, the cloak and shirt look kind of familiar…
“Hahhh”, the stranger sighed, “No point in further avoiding the issue. Okay, so this may sound crazy, but I am Paul Ray, the one you search for. I survived the fall, stuff happened and now I look like this.” She gestured at herself.
The completely stupefied expressions of everyone around the table basically told the whole story. The first to get their bearings was Lindsey.
“You’re Paul? I hope you know that we’re not going to just believe that.”
“That’s what I feared. Well, I can try to prove myself by giving you some information. Please ask me something you think only Paul would know.”, self-proclaimed-Paul said with a hopeful smile.
“And why would we do that?”, Jason immediately chimed in. “The chances that you are Paul are somewhat slim in my opinion. We have many better things to do besides playing your ridiculous game.”
The collective moans around the table, the stranger included, accurately portrayed what the rest thought about the matter.
“Why the hell would I do that if I were not Paul? What could I gain by trying to make you believe that I’m Paul if I weren’t him? I knew that you were paranoid, Jason, and I knew that that didn’t improve since we came here, but this is just ludicrous.”, maybe-Paul groaned.
Jason wanted to respond to that, but this time Joanna cut him off.
“Let’s just go with it for a while, Jason. Let’s be honest, this is actually the best chance since he disappeared. Okay, my first question: When did we meet?”
Only one real way for Paul to respond to that.
“Pffffthahaha, that fucking question!”, Paul broke out in laughter. “I don’t know, and you don’t either. Never got tired of that one even after twenty years.”
“I don’t need any more confirmation than that. But I don’t think the others will be satisfied quite yet. You do have to tell me later how you suddenly turned out like that.”, Joanna smiled. In all the time they had been friends, the questions of other people of how they met each other had somehow turned into an inside joke for the both of them, so often they had gotten it. The truth was probably a couple days after the birth of the both of them, as they had been living in neighbouring houses and were born only nine days after one another.
“I also want to point out that Paul is still wearing his clothes.”, she added.
But it’s quite problematic that Paul is now so hot. Kinda makes me feel a bit weird. Still, I really don’t mind a beautiful girl in our group that hasn’t a boyfriend already. Not that I would make a move on him, he has to feel unbelievably awkward right now, whatever happened. Except he chose this? Who knows. Just wait and see. Ah, I have to convince the others!
“It does have to count for something if Joanna thinks you are Paul. Okay, then I will be satisfied if you tell me how I met Eric~.”, Lindsey chirped.
“Yeah, not answering that one. I’m gonna hear it anyway after you had half a mug of beer.”, Paul scoffed at the obvious attempt to brag about her boyfriend. Who sat right next to her.
Fuck, he...she? looks almost hotter when she is pissed than when she smiles. Argh, and the chances are also high that he still likes girls... But I just said I wouldn’t do anything until I know more...such a dilemma!
Joanna’s inner conflict was interrupted by the hurt voice of Lindsey and Eric, who supported her out of obligation.
“You’re such an asshole! Why can’t you let other people be happy? You’re just jealous!”, she snapped.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
“Yeah...that wasn’t nice, was it?”, Eric stammered in an unsure tone, not being able to completely ignore his righteous nature.
Lindsey is really okay otherwise, but when it’s about Eric...just plain insufferable. And he just gets pulled along. If they weren’t so cute and happy together the rest of the time…
“It seems to me that you have your answer, Lindsey?”, Joanna strode forth on her path to prove the identity of Paul to the others.
“Hmpf, I guess.”, she sniffed.
“Your turn, Eric.”
“Ehh, well, what is my favourite musician?”, Eric asked.
“Easy, Bruce Springsteen.”, Paul answered.
“That’s correct. Welcome back, Paul.”, he said.
“That’s three people down! Now you Jason!”, she said.
“Three out of four is some statistical significance. But really lacking in sample size. Okay, for lack of more participants, I will also ask some questions. I think Paul should be aware of my license plate number?”
“Which car? Your truck or your bike?”
“First stage correct. Both please.”
“2055AS for your truck and 0128DF for your Ducati.”
“That should be enough. I can at least confirm that you aren’t someone who stole Paul’s clothes and interrogated him beforehand for information. For the matter if you just magically copied the contents of his brain to impersonate him, I will be working on a solution for that question.”
“Already satisfied? I would have expected some more questions.”, Eric commented.
“One can assume that someone from this world, which this individual should definitely be to our knowledge of our own world, wouldn’t think to ask about license plate numbers, simply by the lack of knowledge about cars and licenses. And obviously for the lack of knowledge about the relevance of brands for motorcycles. Or this individual excels in mind reading and bypassed my defences for that.”, Jason stated in a satisfied tone.
He has defences against mind reading? You always manage to surprise me, Jason.
“We managed to convince everyone, Paul! Now you can tell us what happened after you fell down that hole!”, Joanna proclaimed excitedly.
“Yes!”
“Yeah, tell us!”
“Why are you all so excited? It really wasn’t that fun.”, Paul mumbled.
----------------------------------------
Half an hour Paul later was finished with the basic retelling of what had happened to her the last couple days.
“Correct me if I’m wrong but this “Grimoira” basically tried to kill you, failed and now changed your sex instead? And is now still spooking around in your head?!”, Joanna seethed.
I did expect her to not take this very well, but she seems kinda close to completely losing it.
‘She makes me seem like the villain here, but I’m the victim of those pesky gods!’, Grimoira defended herself even though no one except Paul could hear her.
‘You kind of are the villain here, I have to admit.’
‘I have been betrayed!’
“You are right of course, but I would have done the same in her position. So, I can’t really blame her. It would feel hypocritical.”
“Don’t you realize how wrong this all is?! How can you defend her? She didn’t ask you at any point if you were okay with it!” Now Joanna was close to screaming.
“But she always kept her promises. And I think complaining would be somewhat ungrateful.”, Paul said with a serious expression.
‘Aww, how nice of you. I will forgive you your betrayal.’
Joanna now stared at her like she had lost her mind.
“I thought you had just changed physically, but it seems like she also brainwashed you. How on heaven and earth could anyone be grateful in your situation?!”
“I glossed over that point a bit, because I didn’t want to brag about it, but I already received a significant boost in power from her. And I’m pretty sure there is a lot more to come.”
“A boost in power, is it? How “significant” could this possibly be?”, she mocked.
If I didn’t know how much she actually cares, I think I already would have snapped at her.
“Plus 50 in every stat and two very strong skills at lv.15”, Paul stated. Which shut everyone up.
‘Haha, they don’t know what to say at even a tiny fraction of my power! Foolish, puny humans!’, Grimoira happily jeered.
‘Don’t insult my friends.’, she firmly said.
‘Yeah, yeah, I was just messing around, and you know that. Why do you have to scold me so?’
‘Out of principle. No looking down on my friends even in joke.’
“Still, even with that I won’t forgive her. Even if she makes you the strongest under the sun.”, Joanna said with a now quite smaller voice.
‘How could she have known my plan?! There has to be a spy in our ranks!’
“The important thing is, are you okay with, well, this situation?”, Eric honed in on the heart of the issue as always.
“I wasn’t that happy at first, but I resolved myself to try and accept it. Mainly because of the benefits and I that doubt that I can actually can change anything about it, but also Grimoira really isn’t that unpleasant company and that it turned out that I cared about my sex less than I originally assumed. I’m definitely not completely comfortable with the change just yet, but it’s less bad than I thought.”
‘You like my company? Ahhh, I’m so happy~!!!’, Grimiora cheered.
“Well, then that answers the question. I can’t really say anything, if you are okay with it.”, Eric closed the issue.
“I have to agree with Eric here. A sound argument. Assuming you actually are Paul.”, Jason voice his agreement.
“I don’t care about someone who can’t leave other people’s happiness alone to begin with.”
Is she still on about that?
“Grr, I guess then I can’t complain here, if Paul is okay with it. Why does have Eric always be so right in such things?. Infuriating.”, Joanna finally acquiesced.
“Actually, about my name. I kind of decided to signify my resolve to accept it by changing my name to a female one after I was done talking with you. I was thinking about “Erynnt”. Any opinion on that?”
“I don’t see why not. Not a name I ever heard of, but it does sound female. And I wouldn’t want to influence you on that decision anyway.”, Eric commented.
“Not really a beautiful name, but whatever.”, Lindsey said.
“You’re still mad at me, huh?”
“As Eric said, not my place to judge, but I do wonder, how did you get to that name?”, Joanna inquired.
‘Also something I wanted to ask.’
“That’s my secret.”, Erynnt said with a wink. Which made Joanna turn away quickly for some reason.
‘Seems like I will have to wait for my answer until I can get a glimpse at your memories.’
“Okay, so what now?”, Jason said. “We finally found someone who is probably Paul, so what should we do next?”
“We still haven’t cleared the dungeon we went to before Pa..Erynnt fell down that shaft, so we could do that.”, Joanna suggested.
“I doubt Erynnt would want to go there again, and I think the rest feels the same, don’t we?”, Lindsey now being cooperative again.
“I mean it was unpleasant, but I’m not particularly traumatised by it. So, I actually wouldn’t mind that. Could also be fun to test my new power a bit.”
“Even if you were a bit traumatised by it, I think it wouldn’t be very healthy to avoid it forever.”, Eric said.
“Okay, but before we do that, I think Erynnt needs some properly fitting clothes. Her current get-up doesn’t look very combat ready.”, Joanna mentioned.
“That was my plan, but before we go on that dungeon dive again I wanted to investigate something in the library. Should hopefully not take that long. Or are we tight on money or time?”
“Looks alright for the moment. We did earn a bit with the things we managed to gather from the dungeon before you fell down.”, Eric reported as the more-or-less leader of their group.
“So, shopping trip, library for Erynnt and then to the dungeon again? That sounds like we leave sometime tomorrow.”, Jason summarised.
“Unless there are no clothes that fit me in this town, except for potato sacks. Or my research takes a bit longer. So, maybe one or two days more if things don’t go like planned.”, Erynnt responded.
“We will see. It’s time for some clothes for Erynnt! I think we can’t take the men on the shopping trip even if Erynnt was male until a couple days ago. So, you want to also go with us Lindsey?”, Joanna naturally decided.
“Yeah, otherwise she will probably end up with the equivalent to a potato sack, if you decide on the clothes.”
“I’m not that bad with fashion!”
“Debatable. Well, if it turns out boring, I can still go back.”