It was impossible...was it?

Robin clearly remembered her last moments on Earth, taking a shower, calling her brother, and going to bed. There was no way she could have died, but then unexplained deaths were not uncommon.

Biting the bottom of her lips, she reasoned with herself from panicking. Her health was exemplary, frequenting the gym during the weekends, eating three meals a day, and sleeping for at least 8 hours. Therefore, she crossed the idea of reincarnation from her checklist and stood by world transferring.

As for why she was forcibly dragged into an unknown world, the reason remained unknown with question marks surrounding it. She forced the unanswered questions to the ends of her mind, knowing it would create a bundle of anxiety and paranoia.

The evening passed by like a breeze, with Robin checking out the premises. Even after two weeks of her stay, she had holed up in the bedroom, either crying in self-pity or gazing blankly into space.

Now, she took the liberty of checking out her brother’s stash and speculated her brother was very well off in the online world, however upon entering the currency vault, never in her wildest dreams did she imagine the amount of gold and other exquisite miscellaneous piled up high could be enough to squash an elephant.

It was embarrassing recalling her self-deprecating moments, but her mental state wasn’t in the tip-top shape as any realist could get. Only a delusional fool could wholeheartedly ignore the rational panics and denial after being ripped through space and time to land in a mysterious world. Unless they suffered from–

“Master, Ibaraki and Moei have returned,” Dorian announced. As if the timing wasn’t perfect enough, two figures swiftly arrived on the scene from thin air, nearly causing Robin to spill steaming hot tea over her thighs.

A tall demonic man with gleaming red horns protruded from his long silvery white hair, with a fair and delicate brunette with long antlers, paid their respects. They kneeled on the plush red carpet and expressed their unwavering loyalty, placing Robin in yet another awkward situation of placating their exaggerated introduction. The formality would take time getting used to, for the sake of her own ego.

“We should head back to the throne room so that everyone else would be able to know the situation,” Robin suggested.

“As you wish,” Dorian replied with a bow, before leading the three into the throne room.

It took not even five minutes before the throne room was filled with all of her brother’s servants. She recognized a lot of them, especially the SSR ones since she could never summon them. Also, the thin film of golden ambiance given off from their bodies did nothing to hide that very fact. A mini census could be conducted at the amount of SSR characters her brother laid his hands on. She sighed internally in her heart at how lucky her brother was to summon such amazing characters from the seasonal banners and draw pools.

Robin knew firsthand the draw rates were 1 percent for SSR characters, so being amazed about the sheer luck or unimaginable amount of intrinsic currency caused her heart to ache.

It has to be from the money. There’s no way he has this amount of sheer luck, considering his current circumstance...

“Your benevolence, we conducted a thorough investigation on the nearest life sentiment,” Ibaraki began. He handed Dorian a parchment scroll tied by a red string, before handing it to Robin.

“This is a map!” she exclaimed in surprise, dragging her eyes over the fine lines that resembled the human veins trailing over mountain peaks, rivers, and surrounding kingdoms. The scent of ink lingered slightly in the air, and the vividness could be seen making it to be freshly drawn.

“Do you have cartography as your side job?” Robin asked. Only cartographers had the ability to draw maps, thus why maps were always in great demand when scouting for new territories to exploit.

“No, Master. I brought along Titus, our cartographer along with us.” Ibaraki explained.

“Oh.”

For a moment, Robin thought that Ibaraki, a demonic battle maniac had the unusual side job of a cartographer placed by her brother. But upon hearing the familiar name Titus, her questioning gaze subsided.

Titus was part of the “utility” players received upon upgrading their domain to level 15. She almost forgot about him, since Robin had only enough time to check the currency vault.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Quinn didn’t inform me about taking Titus with you.”

Wasn’t Titus stationary just like in the game? How could he move him? But a thought appeared in her mind, washing away her initial notion.

This isn’t a game anymore. This is reality. Which means...no one is limited or completely restricted by a sequence of loops and sequential commands.

“I apologize in advance, but I came to the realization that Master may have wanted a series of records from our trip and a map, thus I took the liberty of inviting Titus along. I was unable to report it to Quinn since I didn’t want to waste any more time on the given mission.” The silver-haired demon explained, his reverence shone through in every single word, allowing a troubled look to flash across Robin’s face.

Despite how he looked or how the description presented him as a battle maniac, Ibaraki was quite astute, so much that she praised him many times in her heart in being able to anticipate what was necessary. If he were to work at her company, he’d be part of the board of directors managing the next project.

“That’s very impressive. I’ll have to thank you, Ibaraki You also have my thanks Moei and Titus.” Robin didn’t forget to leave out the rest of Ibaraki’s travel companions.

“Your words are too kind, your benevolence,” Ibaraki replied, kneeling on his knee to express his sincerity.

Quinn however, seemed to be a bit upset as Robin saw her hands slowly clench from her peripheral vision.

Puzzled, Robin could not think of anything wrong.

Wait. Did he just say that he didn’t want to stall his mission for even another second, yet he suddenly appeared in the office from thin air? Could he have left the fact that he purposely not mention to Quinn?

A firm line formed on Robin’s lips. Her praise was now directed at how sly and cunning the demon was. She could be wrong, but she highly doubt it judging from the small smirk appearing on his face and from the irritation emanating from Quinn at her side.

She decided to ignore it for now and turned towards Ibaraki. “What else did you take note of?”

“There was nothing particularly special from the small population of humans. They all carry some form of magical conduit and did not display any form of praise-worthy technological advances that G-Moon03 exhibits. From my observations, magic performed by the residing population were used to perform mundane tasks, while more complicated tasks require heavily on special artifacts such as displacing the landscape or removing large slabs of rocks.”

Robin hummed before voicing out her thoughts. “That's very interesting. I can see why they choose to invest more in magic.” The fact also remained, dependency on one subject would hinder the growth of other subjects.

Robin had often pondered about magic back when she was in middle school. Then in high school where she often daydreamed, but it became more theoretical after she learned about physics, biology, and chemistry.

Magic is an anomaly in the realist world of hers.

Magic brings in an endless supply of potential. I wonder if there is a limit or some kind of natural law and order.

Just like how secular Earth had its own set of laws, Robin hoped that this world's law would be more lenient. If so, it was not impossible to tear time and space to get back home. Yet the very outcome may not be as pleasant, but it didn’t hurt to hope and try.

A grin slowly appeared on her face. A sense of excitement and curiosity washed over her that had not been present for a very long time. Her fingers twitched in anticipation to test and try something.

Robin now had another goal; dissecting the entity called magic.

“Ibaraki please tell me more about your observations.” She paused before continuing, “You mentioned that everyone had at least some sort of capability to use magic. Were you able to gauge the strongest magic user?”

“Yes, Moei had scanned the area and recorded that almost everyone displayed their ability to use magic except for children around the age of 7 and younger. We also felt fluctuations of magic in different frequency, and only 5 displayed cases where their frequency ranged high. If we were to compare them to us servants, they'd be comparably weak.”

“That's amazing. Good job.” Robin praised. The data recorded was very detailed and displayed their amazing diligence that even company managers would praise.

“Another thing, did you take any kind of census?”

“Yes, Master. Moei had been tasked with all recordings.” Ibaraki nodded.

The stoic brunette stepped forward before taking out a gigantic stack of books thick enough to rival an encyclopedia. The books levitated and landed on the side of the throne.

Magic is so useful.

Robin hummed and carefully opened the first book before nearly choking on the number of detailed recordings. When she meant detailed, traces of unnecessary dialogues between the settlers and their actions were recorded that may as well be praised by a historian rather someone who wanted a quick summary. This was not close to a census, but it did reveal a brief context about the people.

Robin concluded that she did not want to read this, no matter how endearing Moei seemed to be serious about her work.

“Moei I'll read them later, but it'll really help if you could summarize a few of my questions,” Robin said as she stacked the book back on the side.

“Understood. From Master’s initial question, Moei has taken a census. There are around 15,000 humans, however, Moei was unable to deduce which were residents or travelers.” Though her face remained stoic, her voice was soft and delicate making her seem like an ideal maiden. Though Robin was slightly stunned at the young brunette speaking in third person, it nonetheless gave off a naive and innocent charm to her.

Well that's a relief. I don't have to be as cautious if the sampling showed that only two of the 1500 people are avid at magic.

“About the 5 people, what level do you think they were in terms of the monsters in Afrein?”

“Moei thinks they are around level 45 slimes,” the brunette answered.

Strangely Moei’s answer brought a mesh of disappointment and happiness stirring in her guts. Level 45 slimes were pretty weak when the max level of every character was level 145 excluding evolution stages.

Hypothetically, the settlers did not pose a threat, which meant it’ll be easier to exploit and find answers quickly than her initial plan to build trust and do all kinds of unnecessary things.

Wait what am I thinking?

She quickly stopped in her tracks and vanquished her thoughts. It started to become muddled with her selfish and impulsive desires. However, it also meant she was starting to regain herself back; back to the same old habits of executing plans that only benefitted her. The impulse to slowly control that temporarily faded into the background started to reappear from the cracks. The trauma suffered upon coming to this world has caused a collapse in her confidence, but slowly it would emerge.

Robin let out a breathy sigh before making up her mind. “I want to go and see this settlement tomorrow.”