“....Mila, my name is Mila.”
Picking up a book and quill from a barrel next to him the guard writes in it.
“ ‘Mee-la’, alright miss, and your business for coming to Forswall today?”
That’s the name of the town huh? “Travelling. Was also looking to maybe join with the adventurers guild and make a bit of coin before leaving.”
“I’ll put you down as a wandering merc then, close enough. Alright you should be all good to head into town now. And don’t forget to get identification for you and your pet at the guild.”
“I’ll be sure to do that.”
Nodding to the guard and giving him my thanks, I finally make my way into town. Taking in a deep breath to hold back my excitement I look at the town around me, and I’m thankfully not disappointed. The place looks just like one would expect from a fantasy novel, with high quality stone buildings lining the main street towards what was probably the ruler of the towns mansion, and even the side streets being filled with only some wood here and there while being mostly stone. And the road was paved with stone bricks, tall wood and metal lamp posts spread along its sides.
The main street, while not packed shoulder to shoulder, was still bustling with people, it being the middle of the day. There were stalls on either side with merchants hawking their wares, from food to toiletries, and jewelry and basic arms and armor. In the buildings behind these stalls were what looked to be stores with signs up front, likely having more specialized higher quality products than what was available at the stalls.
“Out of the damn way you filthy peasant!”
Hearing someone yell from behind me to move I dash to the side, barely dodging a fancy looking carriage that looked like a nobles, driven by a smug looking chauffeur giving me the stink eye.
Сука, I’d shoot out your wheels but that’d draw bad attention.
I cross out the idea to shoot up that carriage for now and I continue making my way down the street. I see a short line of people coming from a building with a sign bearing a sword, bow, and some kind of staff.
I guess this is the adventurers guild.
I line up and wait, looking at the people ahead of me.
Lets see, they’ve got a bow and- oh, pointy ears? Sweet, there are elves here. Short heavy armored man with a warhammer, probably a dwarf, and a girl in robes with a staff- oh shit, is she tossing around a flame? Ohhh, that means magic is definitely a thing here! I mean I already figured it was, but this just confirms it!
The line moves ahead again and I finally walk inside the guild building.
*whistle* [Daaaaaaaamn], this place looks pretty good! Smooth stone floors, mahogany looking desks. And ohhh, marble pillars? Man this place must be swimming in money, the whole town too. And oh that’s neat, they have crystals for lighting up the place, probably some kind of magic item. The lamp posts outside probably use the same thing.
A short while later of the line slowly moving I finally reach the desks, being worked by a cute looking blonde elf girl.
Ohh, she looks pretty. She looks kinda exhausted though.
“*sigh* Welcome to the Forswall Adventurers Guild, I’m Elia, how may I help you today?”
“Well hello there Elia, I’m Mila. I’m here to get an identification card for me and my furry buddy here and join the guild.”
She crouches down and reaches around under the counter and I can hear some papers shuffling around, and what were probably a few curses here and there. She comes back up and hands me a few sheets.
“Alright, if you don’t know how to read and write then I can fill it out for you. Otherwise you just need to fill out these registration forms and pay the 1 silver fee. Then I can take them and get your card and tag made for you and your-”
Her eyes drift to Sköll, the 'lil guy looking back and giving a cute 'bork!'.
"-tamed beast. I, I'm sorry but is that a woodland wolf?"
"Yeah, I got him yesterday out in the forest on the way here."
"Oh by the tree, he looks so adorable- *ahem*, sorry about that. Anyways, once these are done I can take the forms to get you and your beasts card and tag made."
I look the sheets over, and they just ask for basic things like 'name, date of birth, etc', although-
Ah crap, I don't know this world's calendar system. Would it be odd or suspicious to ask her what it is?
"Hey uhh, I grew up in a backwater village, like really backwater and no one other than the village elder knew what the calendar system was."
"Huh? Even children know tha- *ahem* (dammit Elia remember to be polite) I apologize again. The calendar system consists of 365 days and uses the standard 12 months like January, February, March…"
Well that's interesting, they use the Julian calendar here? I'm wondering if maybe other people from earth came here long before menand influenced this world. I guess it'd make sense I'm not the only one to end up here.
"Ah, ok, that helps me to remember, thanks"
Looking it over some more I come to a part where it asks for my profession/role.
“Hey uh, I think I have an idea already but what type of roles do adventurers typically have?”
“Typical roles would be things such as fighter, tank, rogue/archer, mage. And though not as common, gunmen and artificer.”
Gunmen? So they have guns in this world, interesting to know.
I quickly finish filling out the form for me and Sköll and hand them and a silver to Elia who takes them to a room in the back.
After a few minutes she comes back out carrying a copper plate and a dog tag on a string.
"Now, I'll just need a drop of you and your wolf's blood on the tags so they recognize you two as their owners."
Reaching under my vest and taking my utility knife from my inventory, I poke my finger and a single drop of blood patters on the card, seemingly being absorbed into the copper. I do the same for Sköll who protests with a whimper, but I pat his head to comfort him.
"Alright, you are now officially a member of the adventurers guild and your wolf is registered as your tamed beast. Now, would you like an explanation of the guilds ranking system and how jobs and quests work?"
"Sure, it wouldn't hurt to get an explanation."
"Alright, well the guild ranks its Adventurers starting from F to S, F being what you start as and the lowest and S being the highest rank. The only people who are ranked S ranked adventurers are always extremely strong people who are national and worldwide heroes who have saved nation(s) from disasters, and F ranks are frankly no better than a regular peasant doing menial physical labor jobs, only while being a member of the guild.
Quests are ranked the same way, with the ranks indicating the difficulty and what rank one needs to be to accept it.
In order to increase your rank you need to take either a combat test with an instructor or complete a sufficiently difficult enough quest to qualify for a rank up, usually a quest that's 1 rank higher than your own. Technically you could take the rank up test now but normally everyone does a few quests before doing so, especially because if one fails to qualify for the rank up then they will have to pay a penalty fee to the guild and to the client if it's a quest."
Ohh, I can take the test immediately huh? I wonder if I should just try skipping a few ranks. I shouldn't do too well though or else I'll draw unnecessary attention, but I'd rather not spend who knows how long pulling weeds just to rank up. Fuck it, lets do it.
"Well, if it's not too much trouble then I'd like to take the rank up test now."
"Hmm, well you certainly don't look like a peasant, you do look like you'd be able to survive a fight. Alright, I'll lead you out to the training area out back and then I'll go get an instructor."
She lifts up a side of the counter and walks out, heading towards the back of the guild as I follow her. We come out to the backyard which looks just like a normal training area, for a medieval era setting that is.
A large courtyard with Straw dummies wearing bucket helms and wood swords and door shields, some hanging dotted targets and even a few obstacle courses. There were a couple people out here minding their own business, practicing their sword moves and spells.
"The instructor will be here shortly."
Giving a short quick bow she heads back inside, leaving me in the courtyard. Checking to make sure no one is paying attention, I stick my hand behind my back and summon my saber, walking over to a straw dummy and taking a basic stance.
I mever really took any real sword play lessons, I only ever learned enough to make sure I wouldn't accidentally cut myself and how to at least swing a blade properly without losing my balance.
I raise my arms and swing down, only to nearly fall over when the blade meets no resistance and goes right through the dummy and the wood holding it up and bisects it from shoulder to stomach, making it fall onto the ground.
I look around quickly but thankfully no one seems to have noticed what happened. I decided to put a hold on practicing for now and put the saber back in my inventory again when no ones looking.
Well crap, I wasn't expecting that to happen. Either the dummies are supported with styrofoam or the saber is a hell of a lot sharper than I'd thought it would be.
Not too long after that a gruff looking man in leather exits the building, looking around before spotting and heading over to me.
"Are you Mila?" His voice was just as rough as he looked.
"Yup, that's me alright."
"I'm the instructor for your ranking test today. Normally when someone takes a test with an instructor it's just to go to the next immediate rank. But I get a feeling from looking at you that even though you're a brand new F rank, you are far stronger than the requirement for a measly promotion to E rank.
So this is what we'll be doing. I myself am a veteran B rank adventurer and am qualified to promote someone up to rank C. If you do well enough sparring with me then you could be promoted all the way to C rank, but don't feel tpo disheartened if you aren't. I'm a veteran so I won't be an easy fight. Now, if you would?"
He gestures to and walks over to a wide empty patch of dirt, standing on one side as I stand on the other. He draws a weapon from his hip and pulls out an english longsword.
"Now Elia told me you are apparently a marksman. But I don't see a rifle on you."
"Oh, right. Just a moment."
I reach behind me and summon my AK and an extra magazine. The instructor raises an eyebrow when he looks at me.
"Well well, you got a bag of holding there?"
Realising my blunder I nervously answer "Uh haha, yeah. It's pretty convenient."
Crap, that was too close, that could have become a problem. I need to get an empty bag to avoid that happening again.
I look in the extra mag and nod to myself seeing the rubber bullets loaded inside of it, also noting a faint barely visible gold halo around the top of it that quickly disappears.
Alright, if I use these then I won't accidentally kill the instructor. Glad there was a sale on them back on earth.
I swap out the mag in the AK and check the sights before holding it facing down in the direction of the instructor.
"Alright, now as soon as this rock I'm holding hits the ground we start."
Trying to stay focused I only nod, and he tosses it in the air.
Alright, he's just using a sword but this is a fantasy world so I need to expect the unexpected. Enhanced speed and reflexes? Is he stronger than a normal earth human, or can he create a ranged attack with his sword with some kind of flying blade of mana?
The continues falling to the ground, and eventually lands with a muted *thud*.
"Graaahhh!"
The instructor charges at me, his sword held by his side pointing up straight.
BANG
But all he can do is manage to take a few steps before a rubber round slams into his chest.
"Ghuh!"
He stumbles back a little, a little shocked at the impact of the round but he just shakes his head as he goes to charge again.
BANG
Another rounder flies into him, this into his forearm close to his wrist nearly making him drop his sword.
"Ghaahh! Y-, but you already just sho-"
BANG
I fire one more round, this time into his helmet making knocking his head back.
"Fuck!"
Disoriented and confused at the high rate of fire, I land a final shot to his chest, making him fall backwards on his ass.
"Gods girl, what in the hell was that? You didn't even stop to reload!"
“I uhh…”
Oh dammit! Why the hell didn’t I think of that! They probably only have things like simple muskets and flintlocks, of course people here would be surprised to see a gun shoot repeatedly without reloading! God just imagine If I had gone full auto. Crap crap crap, I need to think of an excuse!
“Well you see uh, it’s part of a spell.. A unique spell! Yeah, a unique spell that allows me to shoot the bullets I have without needing to actually load them in.”
“You have a unique spell? Well that’d certainly explain what happened, not many would have a unique spell.”
Wait, are unique spells actually a thing? I’d just made that up, but whatever it works out for me in this case, though I’ll need to look into that some time.
With a bit of a pained grunt and stands back up, massaging his forearm as he looks at my AK.
“Well even though I was more surprised by your rifle, I don’t think that even if we were to try again that I’d even be able to get close to you. Honestly you should be getting at least B rank but as I said earlier the most I can give you is a C rank. I’ll go inform Elia about the rank up, in the meantime you should head over to the quests board to look for a job, the work for your rank will be done by the time you turn a quest in to her.”
Still rubbing his arm in pain he walks back inside and I follow suit. I look around for a bit and see what was probably the quest board, a few other adventurers around it. I walked up and saw several pieces of paper showing different quests for things like:
[Missing cat] [Missing Dog] [Stollen Garden Herbs] [Help learn how to cook cat and dog with herbs] and so on. There was another one to investigate the disappearance of the Duke of this areas daughter but It’s an A rank quest. Sköll barks and leans off my shoulder towards something and I see what he’s looking at.
Oh hey here’s a C rank quest, [Capture or Kill bandit group]. Says they’re located somewhere west not too far into the forest. Seems simple enough.
Giving him a pat I go stand in a line for Elias' counter then wait and hand her the paper once I get to the front.
She takes a look and looks at me with a bit of concern.
“A bandit subjugation quest? Um, are you sure? I know you apparently did well against the instructor but, you’re still a new adventurer. I’m not sure if this is…”
“Don’t worry, I’m more than capable of handling it.”
“Well, alright then.”
She writes something down then stamps the paper before putting it away.
“You will have two weeks to complete the quest. If you fail to complete it within that time or decide to give up then you will need to pay a penalty of 1 and a half gold.”
“A half gold?”
“Ah sorry, I mean 1 gold and 50 silver.”
So that’s how the currency works huh? Seems standard for a fantasy world from a novel, 1 gold = 100 silver, silver to copper is probably the same.
“That seems a bit pricy for a penalty though.”
“Normally yes it would be pricy, if these were just normal bandits that were just robbing people of their possessions. But statements from the few survivors and those who’ve escaped them said that these bandits were apparently binding people in chains and killing anyone who resisted. The guild manager suspects that they’re likely to be slave traders (she says that with a noticeable amount of venom in her voice) but without any more definitive proof he can’t just call in for the royal army to send a detachment to take care of this nor can he justify making it a B rank quest like something like this normally would be.”
She sighs and looks at me again with the same worry from before.
“That’s why I asked if you were sure. This is a C rank quest that’s likely a B rank in difficulty, and since it’s also clearly some kind of slaving operation they're bound to have a lot of people with weapons. Normally this would be done with an entire group but you’re just one person!”
Her head tilts down as she grasps her hand on the desk. But I reach over and place my hand over hers, trying to give her a reassuring smile but remembering I have my helmet on.
“I can promise that this is something I can handle. And hey, it’s unlikely but maybe or maybe not I might get a light injury but I’m fully confident I can get out of this just fine.”
She looks at me and closes her eyes, and with a sigh nods her head.
“Alright, just be careful alright? I’ve seen plenty of other adventurers take on a quest they claimed they could handle, only to be found dead weeks later by another group sent to finish the unfinished job.”
I just give a soft chuckle and wave her off. “Like I said I’ll be fiiiine, there’s no need to worry.”
I walk out of the building, leaving behind a still worried girl.
“*sigh* I’m just so tired of filling out death reports, we don't need more adventurers dying on us.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
____________________________________________________________
I walk down the street, making my way to the gate while thinking about the quest.
Alright, so need to take care of a group of bandits that are apparently actually slavers operating in the forest. Alright shouldn’t be hard at all, Like I mean come on,, I’ve got an AK and they’ve got what, swords and bows? It’ll be easy to take them down but...
I reach the gate and look out to the forest, looking at the forest in the distance.
I doubt I’d be able to actually ‘capture’ all of them, I’ll likely have to, well, kill a few of them. I mean, enslaving people is bad yeah and if they refuse to surrender then I’ll shoot them down but still, I’m not stupid to think it’ll be easy to just take a life regardless.
Sköll seems to notice my worried mood, pawing my helmet and licking the visor. I scratch his ears and shake my head to regain my focus.
Gah, whatever. I’ll have my moral crisis after I take care of them.
I pick up the pace and jog towards the forest, thinking about how I’ll find the bandits.
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
“Ghhhhh BLYAT! Where the hell are these assholes?!”
It had been two days since I’d begun exploring the forest looking for the bandits, yet not a single sign of them. No recent campsites, foot trails, no bodies, nothing. I did follow behind a group of people once to see if they would ambush them yet still nothing. Though maybe that was because they were all adventurers and would put up a fight. And there were two destroyed wagons but the place had been picked clean and there weren’t any trails either.
Still though, I should have found something by now! How am I supposed to find them here? Or wait, what If they’re in an entirely different part of the forest?
The sun had already gone down and night had risen. Any moment now I’d have to get ready to set up camp for the night. After the first night sleeping in this world and an animal possibly almost getting in the cave and mauling me, I’d ended up spending the past two nights sleeping in the trees as there weren’t any caves to barricade myself in.
Being unable to find any clues to the bandits whereabouts for so long I start getting angry but then notice a puddle. I look down at it and lift the cover for my helmet and look at my face, smiling a bit.
I can’t believe it took me that long to notice such a huge change.
I think back to the first of my two days in the forest, when I came upon a small pond and made an unexpected discovery about myself.
____________________________________________________________
It had been dusk for a while and night was almost upon me with the moon barely visible, and I’d spent the day just aimlessly wandering around the forest for any clues to the bandits whereabouts but hadn’t found anything yet. Sköll was running a short distance ahead of me, just happily barking as he ran in circles through the forest.
*sigh* I didn’t exactly expect to find anything on the first day, not like I have a magic waypoint to direct me to the bandits (though that would be nice), but I mean, you’d think there’d be even a single clue.
Sköll starts barking a bit more loudly and I look up, seeing him jumping up and down next to a large pond. He leaps into it as I get closer, only to immediately wade out of the water once he realises he can't swim, shivering on land. I chuckle and take out a small towel, rubbing and drying him off.
“Well how about we camp here for the night buddy? Looks like it'll be getting dark soon.”
It was already gettingNow dried off he barks again, wriggling free from my hands and running around the pond. I sit down and take off my helmet to wash my face, but as I look at the water I drop my helmet in shock.
“W-wh-what the fuck?”
I could see my reflection, and looking back at me wasn’t the very masculine and chiseled face I’d been used to. Instead what looked back at me was the image of a rather pretty woman. A soft face without a single blemish on it, perfectly straight black hair that seemed to almost shine in the moonlight, and almost jewel like . I took my gloves off and started checking and feeling everything about myself to see if I was hallucinating.
But it was all very much real, I could feel the new face I apparently had now, the silky smooth hair and even, well...
Making sure no one was hiding anywhere I briefly grab and look down my sweater and pants, quickly looking away again.
I swear I wasn’t looking there for any, well, questionable reasons, it was just the best way to be sure! But…
I look at myself in the water again, hardly even able to believe what I was seeing.
This, this is actually real. I actually became… a girl.
I feel a wetness drip down my cheeks from my eyes as my shoulders begin to shake, quite tears of happiness flowing from my eyes as I held myself there.
I was born as a biological male, but growing up as a kid I never really felt right in my own body. And once I’d reached my teen years and learned more about gender identities I finally realised it was my gender that was the issue, coming to understand that I’d subconsciously wanted to be a girl but just hadn’t known yet.
But my dad, well, I tried to explain this to him but he wasn’t exactly supportive being a man of religion. Or maybe he just couldn’t be bothered to care and do anything to help me, I could never tell with him. But either way I was never able to do anything to transition or make myself feel more comfortable in my own body.
Something presses against my side and I see Sköll pawing at me, a look of concern in his eyes at seeing me cry. I sniff as I wipe my eyes and give him a smile, patting his head as he wags his tail.
“Don’t worry little guy It’s nothing, I’m fine. Come on, let's get ready to sleep now for the night.
____________________________________________________________
I continue staring at the pond lost in my own thoughts until I hear something.
Is that… Is that people talking?
I look around and some distance away I see an orange light through some trees.
A campfire! Is it the bandits?
I get closer to the light, crouched down and trying to remain as quiet as I possibly can but keeping my rifle aimed ahead of me. The faint whispers grow louder and eventually turn into the sounds of a conversation, one that I can barely make out. I can see the figures of people sitting around a fire with several tents around them, but it’s hard to make out any details. Keeping one hand on the grip and a finger on the trigger, I summon my binoculars out to get a better look.
Der'mo! (Shit!) That isn’t good.
Now I was certain I had found the bandits, and now sure that they were definitely slavers. There were about 10 or so people, maybe more, wearing basic leather armor and carrying probably simple iron swords. And in the center of the camp next to the fire were around a dozen people bound together in chains, 7 women, 3 men, and two children. Some were wearing better quality clothes than any peasant with some colour to them, merchants maybe? The men were all humans and the women elves except for one girl who looked to be human. She was wearing a rather frilly blue dress with purple accents and gold lining that was probably worth more than everything the slavers had combined.
There was a clank of wood and boisterous laughter and I look and saw a larger scruffy looking man drinking with some others. He looked more well kept and clean than the others, his blade actually had a shine to it and he was wearing some metal plates. Sköll almost barks and gives me away but I manage to shush him.
I guess that’s the leader. Alright, so I’ve been looking around and cant spot any other bandits standing anywhere else, they all seem to be in the camp. Ok, I could take them on easy but with those people here chained up they might use them as hostages so I need to be careful. Maybe I can wait until some of them go to sleep and-
*slap* I hear the sound of someone being struck and crying out, looking to see one of the bandits, a bald man, standing over the captives, one of the women curled on the ground holding her face.
“Fucking stupid bitch, all I did was get a closer look at your face and then you fuckin bite my hand! If you really can't wait to arrive at the slave market then I’ll show you what's waiting for you when someone buys you!”
He pulls here up by the arm, dragging her towards a tent as she screams and tries to pull away.
The leader just laughs and shouts after him: “Just be careful with her yeah? We still need to sell her!”
I drop my binoculars and grip my rifle, knuckles turning white and grinding my teeth as I look at the bald bastard dragging the woman
Oh fuck waiting for them to sleep.
He’s walking in a straight line perpendicular to me so it’s easy to take aim. I quickly put Sköll down and look at his almost shining head, lined up the shot and pull the trigger.
BANG
A hole appears in his skull and he falls forward, hitting the ground with a thud and the woman he was dragging curling up and whimpering.
“Shit! We’re under attack! There’s a gunman somewhere!”
The leader immediately stands up and draws his sword, a shining claymore, and directs the others to begin searching the outskirts of the camp. I don’t give them the chance though.
BANG BANG BANG Three more shots ring out, and three more slavers drop to the ground. One a headshot and the other two body shots. Seeing three more of their own drop dead so quickly they begin to panic.
“Boss, there’s more than one gunm-!”
BANG
One of the slavers made the mistake of standing still for too long, and he paid for that mistake with a hole between his eyes. The chaos among the slavers only continues as they run around panicked, unable to find any of the ‘several’ gunmen shooting them down. Eventually only their boss and three others remain, huddled together in front of the captives.
The leader looks around frantically, eyes darting left and right trying to find his attackers. I want to keep the leader alive for questioning and shoot one of the others in the head. Though as soon as I do the leader's head looks straight at me.
“There you are!”
He quickly raises his sword and takes a step towards me, and before I can react fast enough something completely unexpected happens. His sword glows red with energy as he swings, an arc of energy flying through the air and slamming into me before I can move out of the way.
“GYAAHGG!”
I scream in pain, the force from the energy lifting me into the air for a moment before I crash to the ground, rolling back and slamming into a tree.
“BLYAT!”
Fuck fuck fuck! What the fuck that hurts! Am I injured? Oh god did something break? What the hell was that?!
The other two slavers finally see me, sitting up against a tree in pain. They seize the opportunity and charge towards me with their weapons raised high. I blink several times, trying to focus and ignore the pain in my chest and back and see the two getting dangerously close. Struggling and with a great amount of effort I lift and aim my AK and shoot them both down. But as they drop dead they reveal their boss was right behind them.
He was too close now for me to react fast enough in my dazed state as he swung his sword at me right into my helmet, knocking me to the side and causing my AK to fall somewhere on the ground. He stands over me with a look of rage on his face as I just lay there trying to not scream from how the new headache I just got.
“You damn bastard, all of my men are dead because of you! I can't transport this many slaves alone, I’ll have to kill most of them! Do you have any idea how much money I’ll end up losin-”
“Hyaaaa!!”
There’s a yell and running footsteps from behind him and he turns, trying to move out of the way of a sword swing but still receiving a gash across the face that flows with blood.
“Fuck!”
It was the girl from before wearing the expensive looking clothes, panting and grasping a rusted blade. But she backs away and falls on her rear as the leader turns to her, her legs beginning to shake as he raises his blade.
“Fine then, you can be the first of this lot I get rid of!”
Shit, my AK!
In a hurry I focus, golden light flashing somewhere next to me and then in my hands as I grip the rifle aiming up. At this close of a distance I can take a more precise shot and shoot at the handle of the claymore but instead end up managing to shoot most of one of his hands off.
“AAAAAAAAGH!!”
He drops to his knees and grasps the new bleeding stump on his arm with his hand, briefly screaming a bit more as tears come from his eyes and a soft orange glow I don’t notice briefly appears under his hand on the stump.
Everything still hurts, but I manage to ignore it and force myself to stand up, letting out a grunt of pain as I approach the bastard. He doesn’t even seem to notice me as I kick his back and knock him over with a yell from him. I kneel down and summon some rope, not caring to try to hide my inventory at the moment and yanking his arms back. Maybe a little harder than needed as a faint crack sounds out, but then I notice the stump was cauterized.
What the, it should still be bleeding, when the hell did that happen?
How that happened wasn’t a priority at the moment and I tied up his arms to his back and then his legs, making sure he wouldn’t be going anywhere. With the slavers dead and their leader neutralized I finally take a moment to try to catch my breath.
That... that went absolutely horribly. I nearly fucking died because of that energy whatever blade der'mo that guy threw at me!
I spot his claymore on the ground and pick it up, eyeing it for anything out of place.
It doesn’t look special, how did he do that? Was it not the sword but him, some kind of magic spell maybe?
“Uhm.. excuse me?”
A voice brings me out of my thoughts and I look to it, seeing the frilly dress girl from before.
Now that I’m not in the middle of a fight I can finally get a good look at her.
She was wearing her blue and purple dress with its bits of gold, and a silver hair band with rubies across the top of her head of silver hair. Her eyes especially were interesting, a shining red just like the jewels in her hairband. All this went rather well together with her rounded and soft facial features.
Hey now that I look she’s actually kinda cut- dammit Mila! Not the time for that!
“Wh- I uh- I mean yeah, what is it?”
“Well, I wanted to say thank you for saving us and ask if you were okay? You look like you got really hurt there.”
“Oh, well no need to worry. I took a few hits but I’ll be fi- GAH!”
I lift my arm to wave away her concern but immediately bend over hugging my chest and yelling in pain again. She rushes forward and holds my shoulders to prevent me from falling over.
“I knew it, you are hurt!”
“Ghh, I’m alright I just need to res-”
“You are far from alright, you can barely stand up! You need to lay down somewhere!”
She directs me towards the largest tent in the camp that was likely the leaders, and I didn’t have the energy to resist her. She pulls aside the flap to it and we walk inside to find an oddly well furnished interior. Several animal hides covered the ground with a drawer in here, along with a chest at the foot of a basic straw bed.
Well, even out camping in the woods that bastard seemed to be sleeping well for a slaver.
She moves me to the bed, sitting me down as gently as she can though I still grunt as pain flares up in my chest again.
“You took a terrible hit to the head, let's get this helmet off so I can take a look.”
I just sit there looking down as I do my best (and fail) to not constantly groan as she grasps it and lifts it up. As soon as it comes off my hair falls down in long strands and I hear a soft gasp from her.
Why did she sound surprised?
I strain to look up at her and see her hand hovering in front of her mouth,, a slight red tinge visible on her cheeks.
“Is *cough*, is something the matter?”
“I,I uh, y-your face… it’s surprisingly beautiful.” She whispers,, barely even audible.
“What did you say?”
She stammers and shakes her head, slapping her hands against her face before answering.
“I- I mean your head! I was surprised by the lack of injury on it, I thought you might be bleeding. Oh wait, bleeding! I need to check your chest if it’s bleeding too!” She goes to try to take my armor off but I stop her.
“Just give me a moment.”
I close my eyes and with a thought everything I was wearing on my upper body disappears in a gold light and I hear another surprised gasp.
*sigh* Dammit, she’s gonna end up asking questions later, but my injuries are more important right now.
After she manages to regain her focus again she holds me, looking and feeling up and down the front and back of my torso with me occasionally wincing.
“W-well, it doesn’t seem to be too bad. There’s a bruise spot on your back along with one on your chest, but none of your bones feel fractured. Just need a few healing magic sessions and you should be good in a few days.”
I look at her quizzically at the mention of healing magic.
“Healing magic? That’s a thing too here?”
“A thing too here? Wh- well of course it is! Lucky for you I know a little bit so I can try to alleviate some of the pain. Though maybe if I knew some offensive magic instead then none of this might have happened in the first place.”
She whispers something at the end I don’t catch as she places a hand on my chest and back and her hands glow a bright yellow. I inhale as the pain suddenly begins to lighten up, the bruises fading a little bit. A moment later the light fades as she lowers her hands, standing back up. I’m still bruised and it still hurts some to breath but it isn’t as bad as before and is just barely bearable now.
“Whew, alright that’s all I can do for now. I’d spent all my mana trying to keep the others healed when those bastards brought them here all beat up, otherwise I would’ve been able to almost completely heal you.”
She stands up and walks to the tent's entrance, stopping halfway through to look back.
“You just try to get some rest, if somehow there are any left out in the forest then we’ll need you at your best to take care of them.”
She leaves and I sigh, thinking about what she said.
*sigh* She’s right, I need to try to take it easy for the night in case anymore show up. I barely managed to kill the ones here without dying myself, and I’ll need to be ready to do the same to any more that might appear… huh, kill, I.. I- oh, oh god I actually-
With the adrenaline having finally worn off, the weight of the actions I took earlier finally came out and crashed into me like a train. I could feel something rising in my stomach, looking around I saw and grabbed a bucket, hurling into it immediately. A bark comes from outside and look over to see Sköll run inside the tent and up to me.
“Hey buddy, sorry I forgot to get you. Wasn’t exactly feeling too well.”
I pick him up and hold him close as he just wags his tail and smiles at me.
Blyad', I… I actually killed someone, several someones. This *HURL* ghuh, god I mean, I know they deserved it. They were going to sell these people into slavery and one was about to be raped. But that doesn’t change the fact I took a sentient life.
I still feel sick in my stomach but feel well enough to lay down. I look at the roof of the tent and ponder to myself.
Blyad', today did not go how I expected it to. I can only hope tomorrow is a little bit better.
I relax as much as I can and slowly my eyes drift shut, and I finally drift off into a much needed sleep, with Sköll crawling under my arm with a yawn and joining me in dream land.