Jun stared blankly at the knight standing in front of her holding a sword dripping with blood that asked her a question. In English. On a magical world that probably didn't have an England. Unless they were a lot better at colonizing places than her high school history books said they were. But then they would have magic and America would never have won independence. Nope. Probably not the British. But English?! Why would the knight speak English?! Why would Shiori speak English?! Was any of this even real?! What's going on?!

Somewhere between Earth, the afterlife, Merinthia, and the magical talking cat, a wire or fifty got crossed, and now Jun's brain was short circuiting. It had taken a while to catch up to her, but for some reason it was the knight asking her a question the first time they met that finally did it. How did she understand him?!

A light nudge against her side brought her out of it, and she turned her head to see Shiori pressed up against her and staring curiously at the knight. The cat's voice whispered into her ears. "Calm down. Just answer the armored idiot as simply as possible."

"J-Jun... m-my name is Jun..." she stuttered, her eyes wide as she followed her Master's lead. She trusted that Shiori wouldn't steer her wrong. "A-and this is my Master Shiori!" she nearly shouted, gesturing nervously towards the black cat.

Shiori stared at Jun for a moment then glanced at the knight in front of them and let out a loud meow. The knight stared at them for several long seconds, his sword twitching slightly.

"Your... master...?" the knight replied, his voice tinged with confusion. He took a deep breath before rattling off several rapid-fire questions. "Why are you out here? Were you the one that cast those spells at the goblins? Where did you get that weapon?"

Jun considered what to tell the man. Could he sense lies? Would he believe if she told him the whole truth? Maybe just a part of it, a sliver of truth? Shiori said to keep it simple. Simple was easy. She could do simple. Jun felt Shiori's whiskers tickling against her arm as her Master nodded along as if the cat could read her mind and agreed with her thoughts. At this point, she wouldn't be surprised if the cat could read her mind.

"I was... born in the forest. I cast those spells. I found this weapon in the cave we lived in." Jun kept it short and simple, truthful, but not all of the truth. It was something she'd gotten good at in the last couple years of her past life. Keeping secrets, telling half truths instead of lying outright. The religion she'd grown up with had left its mark, abhorred lies, among other things. Even if her experience told her that her former religion was woefully wrong about what came after death, Jun still carried its teachings with her, for better or worse. Here, it taught her how to lie without lying.

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Gareth felt his eye twitching as the strange girl answered him. Her appearance had already been surprising, but he hadn't expected a black house cat of all things to appear next to her and meow after the girl introduced her pet to them as her master! Her next answers had been even more ridiculous, for as short her answers were. Born in the forest? There were no known settlements anywhere in the thousands of miles of untamed forest. Just dungeons, ancient ruins, and dangerous monsters. Finding the war spear in a cave was slightly more plausible, as powerful relics could sometimes be found in the forest. Confirmation that the girl casted those spells in front of her though made her dangerous, though less so now that she had confirmed her ability. The way she'd said 'we' however...

Gareth relaxed his grip on his sword slightly, letting the tip of the weapon drift towards the ground. As improbable as her minimal story was, her appearance gave off the story of a lone girl, perhaps the daughter of isolated hermits, who impossibly raised her in the forest. Expeditions had been known to survive for months at a time in the forest with some difficulty, so it wouldn't be impossible. But none of this was anything he could verify out here. It might be best left to the kingdom officials in the city, or the academy staff, to deal with this girl.

Gareth nodded to himself. That course of action would make the most sense. Bring her in and make figuring her out someone else's problem! It should be safe enough anyways, she had helped them out.

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Jun watched as the knight mulled over her answers for a minute. Her heart was still racing from having a sword drawn near her, but "Thank you for your help with the goblins, but I'll need to ask you to come with us." The knight's voice was firm as he stepped away from her. Shakily, Jun got to her feet and Shiori jumped on her shoulder to rest.

Jun nervously looked at the rest of the humans as the knight moved over to them. A fierce argument broke out between the five of them in hushed whispers. The cloaked man made angry hand gestures and repeatedly threw suspicious looks at her through narrowed eyes. The warrior woman seemed to nod along as he gestured violently, while the knight held firm. The other man wearing clothing reminiscent of a preacher made pleading gestures and kept looking over at Jun with a mixture of kindness and embarrassment before quickly looking away. The final woman, the archer, had simply walked away as the party continued to argue and rushed over to Jun, a smile on her face.

"Hi! I'm Sara!" she said brightly with a smile on her face as she stuck her hand out in greeting.

Jun jumped at the warm greeting, only the second interaction she'd had with another human in nearly a month and a half. Nervously, she stuck her right hand out to shake Sara's hand, only to realize she still gripped the not-spear in it. "I-I'm Jun," she squeaked, clumsily shifting the weapon to her left, she gripped the cheery woman's hand in her own and shook, memories of her father's lessons about giving a firm handshake coming to mind unbidden. She squeezed firmly, perhaps too firmly as Jun saw the woman wince at her grip. Sara grinned mischievously and returned the favor, nearly crushing Jun's hand and making it her turn to wince.

Once they let go, Jun couldn't help but limply shake her hand to chase the pain of the handshake away as Sara continued to smile at her. "That was some impressive spell work you did! You really saved us!" As Sara said this, Jun couldn't help but glance at the corpse-strewn battlefield, the fight fresh in her mind. Her stomach roiled a bit, but freshly empty nothing threatened to come back up.

Seeing Jun go green at mentioning the fight, Sara moved closer, subtle redirecting the girl's gaze to her as she did. Her eyes landed upon the black cat resting on Jun's shoulder. The cat yawned wide, showing off its sharp teeth before laying it's head back down, cracking an eye open to watch Sara. She couldn't help the feeling of glee welling up inside of her. The cat was so cute! "What's your cat's name?"

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"She's no—" Jun started to answer but Shiori's voice interrupted her, making her jump and turn to look at her Master laying across her shoulders.

"Tell them I'm your pet. And don't worry, no one can hear me if I don't want them to."

"Her name's Shiori..." Jun mumbled, her ears burning as she blushed awkwardly.

'So cute!' Sara couldn't help but enjoy the sight of the girl in front of her trying to keep down her blush. "Shiori's a beautiful name for a beautiful cat. May I pet her?" She tried to keep the hope out of her voice, but she was pretty sure she failed. Sara couldn't help it, she had a weakness for cute things!

"She may." Shiori's voice surprised Jun again, but at least she didn't jump this time. Feeling too awkward to speak, Jun simply nodded slowly at the woman in front of her.

Sara slowly presented her hand to Shiori, patiently waiting as the cat sniffed her a few times before nudging her head against Sara's hand. Barely keeping down a high pitched squeal, Sara lightly scratched the cat's chin, the vibrations of her purrs telling her she was doing a good job.

Jun cautiously eyed the woman in front of her while she was distracted with Shiori's pet cat act. Sara wasn't much taller than her and had a slim, athletic figure. The woman's clothes were battle worn leather and cloth, with fresh cuts revealing unblemished skin, though the cuts were stained red with blood. Two daggers were sheathed on her hips, and three leather straps wrapped around her chest that she assumed secured the empty quiver she'd seen strapped to the woman's back. Her skin was lightly tanned, and her hair was silver. As Jun studied Sara's face closer, she noticed the woman's features were softer than she'd assumed, the bits of grime from the battle and her silver hair making her look older than she probably was. Her eyes were a deep purple color, and her ears... were pointed. Jun recalled with a start that this world had been described as having many humanoid races, and standing right in front of her was an elf! A real life elf!

A light poke on the tip of her nose made her realize she'd been staring at the elf's ears for quite a while. Blinking, she followed the finger on her nose to see a mildly annoyed Sara smiling back at her, Shiori laying across her shoulders like a traitor! "Done staring?" the elf woman asked, her tone strained.

Shiori's voice whispered into her ears again, tinged with amusement as the cat cracked an eye open at her from the elf's shoulders. "Oh kitten, I forgot to mention, elves tend to be sensitive about their ears!" Her Master was a traitor!

"S-Sorry!" Jun bowed her head down, her face bright red with embarrassment! Sara didn't respond, the silence between them drawing on awkwardly as Jun fidgeted in place.

Musical laughter broke the silence suddenly and Jun looked up to see Sara laughing as Shiori jumped to the ground, her latest perch disturbed. "It's fine! I'm not that sensitive about my ears, but you're lucky I'm your first!" Sara winked at her and she felt her ears grow hotter with embarrassment at the flirty elf's teasing.

After a few minutes more of the elf's teasing, the rest of the party finally seemed to come to an agreement and split up. The man in the priest robes moved to sit under a tree and meditate, while the warrior woman and the cloaked man split up and began looting the goblin corpses. The knight who first questioned Jun came over to the two of them, his helmet tucked under his arm to reveal a serious but handsome face topped with sweaty sandy brown hair and piercing green eyes. His sword was sheathed this time, and as he approached he glanced at Sara and gave the elf a slight nod before facing Jun.

"Jun, thank you for your assistance earlier. We appreciate your help, however we can't in good conscience leave you out here alone. Would you be willing to come to the city with us?"

Jun glanced from the knight and Sara to Shiori. The knight's face was impassive as he waited for her to answer and Sara gave her a quick encouraging smile, while Shiori seemed to be ignoring everything and cleaning herself as a normal cat would, but her Master's voice quietly tickled her ears. "We should go with them. Your current goal is to get to the human city and learn from other humans after all, and traveling with them will make it easier to join the city. Humans do tend to be tedious with all their rules after all."

Her Master made a good point. Jun could remember how tedious life on Earth was, how much documentation was required to do anything. When she had first gotten her driver's license, she'd had to provide proof that she had driven for a minimum number of hours, pass a written and practical test, and provide proof of her identity, including a copy of her birth certificate. Enrolling in the community college hadn't been much easier, as she'd had to provide copies of her high school transcripts, diploma, identification, and loads of other documents just to gain the privilege to pay to take courses! It's not like she'd come to this world with any for of identification beyond her status screen that simply said her first name, and her instincts were telling her that sharing all of her skills, traits, stats, and titles would be a mistake. She could only imagine what kind of identity theft scams might exist in a world with magic!

"Okay. I'll come with you," Jun answered. The knight gruffly nodded and left to help the party loot the goblins, while Sara smiled even wider and wrapped her arm around Jun's shoulders and pulled her close!

"Great! Well the sooner we get all this cleaned up, the sooner we can head back!" Guiding Jun around with her, Sara collected her arrows and showed Jun how to loot the goblins by slicing off their ears and putting them in a bag. The work was gruesome and needled Jun's sensitive stomach, but the day's events had already left her partially numb to the morbid task.

As they worked, Jun found a quiet moment to go off into the bushes with the excuse of needing to relieve herself so that she could talk to Shiori and finally ask the questions that had been bothering her. "Master! What language are they speaking?! Why can I understand them? Why can I understand you?! It all sounds like English from my past life!" She quickly whispered the questions to the cat as she hid behind a tree. She hoped it wouldn't be long, because that would just be embarrassing to the newly met people.

"Merinthian Common?" Shiori's voice answered as her Master stared at her, ears flicking. "I forgot that you're not familiar with other worlds and quirks of the universe. No matter, the answer is both interesting and not. Though the knowledge may have been lost on this world. I'll explain while you continue to help your new friends."

Jun nodded and headed back to help, as Shiori's voice filled her ears with another lesson. One, Jun realized with a frown, she wouldn't be able to ask her Master questions about until much later without being overheard!

"The questions you asked have been asked an uncountable number of times by an uncountable number of people. 'English' as you called it is a strange language. Many sentients only realize what I'm about to tell you once they begin to travel the wider cosmos. Language, like all things, evolves over time to adapt to new circumstances. A strange quirk amongst the sentients of the universe is that there is a trade language called 'Universal Common' that is widely used. It is used because remarkably, nearly every sentient planet in the universe inevitably develops a variant of this language naturally. This 'English' as you call it is a variant of Universal Common. The language your new friends use is Merinthian Common."

"Much like how nature seems to love making things with more than four legs, like spiders, bugs, and crabs, the universe seems to enjoy making remarkably similar languages. Each variant has its quirks and differences, but the similarities are nearly always greater than the differences."

As Jun worked, Shiori's lesson caused more questions to pop up in her head, ones she couldn't ask until she had another private moment with her Master.

Jun didn't have another opportunity that day.