Uuugghhh, this sucks.

Zeigel was laying on his bed trying to force himself to sleep to kill time. Unfortunately for him, he couldn't drift off no matter how long he shut his eyes for.

God, I miss my PC and my phone. I'm bored out of my mind and there's absolutely nothing for me to do here.

He got out of bed and went to the living room to lay down there instead.

"Heyo! I'm back!" Saliza shouted as she kicked the door open.

Zeigel ignored her and continued staring at the ceiling with lifeless eyes.

"What are you doing on the floor?" Saliza asked.

"I'm trying to sleep."

"Wouldn't it be better if you slept on your bed?"

"You see, my body likes to screw me over by making me feel sleepy when I'm in an uncomfortable position so I'm hoping that laying on the floor would help me fall asleep."

"Is it working?"

"Not in the slightest."

Zeigel stood back up and noticed a paper bag in Saliza's hand and pointed at it.

"What's that?"

"Just some stuff from the convenience store."

There's a convenience store?

"You can't be buying snacks Saliza! we barely have enough money for lunch and dinner!" He scolded.

"Oh relax, I only spent a dollar on these and they're necessities, look."

Saliza pulled out two unlabelled bottles of soda from the bag and tossed one to Zeigel.

"These are not necessities!"

"What are you talking about? They are!"

"Ugh, forget it."

Zeigel wasn't in the mood to argue with her and decided that he should just enjoy the nice refreshing drink instead.

He twisted the bottle cap open and poured the liquid down his throat, finding its taste quite surprising.

This doesn't taste like soda at all, it's not even fizzy. Maybe it's fruit juice.

"What kind of drink is this?" Zeigel asked, but he received no response.

Salida silently stared at him. She lifted her mask to reveal a surprised look on her face and blinked several times to confirm what she saw.

"Did you just drink the detergent?" She finally spoke with a voice filled with shock.

"WHAT!" Zeigel screamed in horror. He immediately dashed into the bathroom and kneeled down in front of the toilet to throw up. Saliza kneeled down next to him and patted his back while he threw up.

Once he emptied all the contents in his stomach, he rinsed his mouth several times at the sink to get the taste out of his mouth.

"I know you're a professional weirdo but don't you think doing this was a little too dumb?"

"I didn't know it was detergent! Why didn't you tell me it was detergent!"

"How do you not know it's detergent!"

"I just didn't know okay! Ugh, just forget what I did."

Zeigel pulled himself back into the bedroom and slumped onto his bed. Mistaking detergent for soda made him realize that he needed something to help him adapt to this world. He needed a guide, someone who can teach him more about world.

He can't risk constantly being clueless about everything or else someone might suspect that he's from Earth.

There was one major issue though. Asking someone to teach him about this world would already make him look very suspicious to them. They would be asking themselves how could a 16 year-old not know the difference between detergent and soda. He needed someone who would either pass him off as a mentally disabled person, which he really wouldn't prefer, or someone who knows that he's from Earth and is understanding enough to help him.

As of now the only person he would consider asking to guide him is Saliza, and even then there was still an issue. Since they've known each other for less than a week and aren't very close, Saliza may try to kill him if she found out that he's from Earth.

If he wanted Saliza to help him, he would need to build a lot of trust between them and improve their relationship as much as possible.

I don't know how long it'll take for me to build a strong enough bond with Saliza that'll make her not want to kill me if I told her I'm from Earth. I'm currently her only friend so maybe it wouldn't take too long.

While lost in his thoughts, Zeigel felt a hand on his head. He looked up to see Saliza healing healing his head.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"I fixed it!" Said Saliza.

"Fixed what?"

"I know why you drank detergent earlier."

Hearing what she said, Zeigel felt a chill down his spine, but knowing that 80% of the things she says is complete bullshit, he reassured himself and asked, "Why?"

"You got brain damage during one of our missions. Luckily for you, I managed to figure that out and heal you up. You're welcome."

Yup, she's full of shit. At least she doesn't suspect anything.

"Can I ask you a very, very hypothetical question?" Zeigel asked.

"Sure. Lemme hear it."

"Let's say you have a very close friend, and again, this is all very hypothetical."

"Uh huh."

"If your friend were to tell you that they're from Earth, what would you do? Again, this is all just hypothetical."

"Kill them." She immediately replied.

"...That was quick."

"That's what we're supposed to do right? All Earth people are evil after all."

"Okay but what if your friend tells you that Earth isn't evil? Would you still kill them?"

"Hmmm, well, evil people would lie, so that means they're lying, so I should kill them since they're lying to me. That's the correct answer right?"

Zeigel took a deep breath and rubbed his temples. The chances of her killing him if he told her that he's from Earth seemed much higher than he expected.

"Why are you suddenly giving me all these hypothetical tests anyways?" Saliza asked. "Are you worried some Earth dude is gonna befriend us so that they can betray us? If that's the case then worry not! I'm smart enough to tell who's from Earth."

Sure you are.

"If I ever find any of those villains I'll be sure to beat them up! You'll be safe and sound with me around."

I have my doubts.

"That's nice and all but let's circle back to my question. Let's say that someone from Earth managed to prove that they're not evil. Would you still kill them?"

"I mean, I shouldn't kill evil people so, maybe?"

"What do you mean 'maybe'?"

"I dunno. People from Earth have pretended to be nice before just so they could betray others so it's kinda hard to trust them."

"But let's say they really proved to you that they truly aren't evil, like they have shown that they're completely pure of heart, would you still kill them?"

"Hmmmm... I guess not."

Yes! She's reasonable enough, I think. There's a chance!

"What's the point of all these questions anyways? All Earth people are evil so it's not like we'll ever see a nice Earth person."

But you're seeing one right now!

"I just have this theory that maybe, just maybe, people from Earth aren't actually evil."

Saliza placed her hand on Zeigel's head again and healed him.

"There! I fixed the remaining brain damage."

"I don't have brain damage Saliza." Zeigel said as he did his best to suppress his annoyance.

"Just think about it. What if the people who came here are the only ones from Earth who are evil. What if most of the people from Earth aren't evil."

"That's kinda hard to believe. They said that Earth declared war on Errale so..."

"But what if!" Zeigel interrupted her. "What if they lied. They must've lied so that when another person from Earth gets sent to Errale, they'll be labelled as enemies and will have no choice but to join them to survive. Just think about it, it all makes sense!"

"I guess it kinda does."

Zeigel rose up from his bed and looked at her with eyes filled with hope.

"It does, doesn't it!"

"But I don't really care. It's all too complicated for me so I'll just stick to my simple plan of killing bad people if I see them."

Zeigel deflated as he heard her answer.

"But don't you worry about killing an Earth person who isn't evil?"

Saliza simply shrugged at his question.

"Meh, that's their problem."

Zeigel deflated even more and slumped back down onto his bed in defeat. He wasn't sure if it would ever be possible to convince her that Earth isn't evil.

Saliza took her axe out of the closet and brought it to the living room where she began wildly swinging it around.

"What are you doing? Don't swing that thing around here!" Zeigel scolded.

"Relax, I'm just doing a little training that's all."

"Do it somewhere else! I don't want you destroying the place!"

"But where else can I do training? I'm pretty sure we're not allowed to go the training grounds by ourselves."

"Reizo said we're not allowed to go into the forest by ourselves, but I'm not sure if that applies to the training ground as well. Maybe you can ask the receptionist about it." Zeigel suggested.

"Good idea! Why don't you join me in training."

"I'm not going..."

But then again, there's nothing to do here. Plus, I can experiment with the bracer at the training grounds and come up with more ways to fend off monsters.

"On second thought, let's go."

The two made their way down to the lobby and found two people handing money over to Jae who was the receptionist with an afternoon shift.

One of them was Barilla, the chef of Vangourmet. The other was a muscular woman with long violet braided hair wearing a black coat and jeans.

"Hey there chef guy!" Saliza greeted.

"Why if it isn't Reizo's trainees." Barill smiled back. "And please, call me Barill."

"So these two are Reizo's trainees?" The woman leaned towards the two to get a better look at them.

"No offence but I didn't think he would pick such an odd looking pair."

Does everyone think I'm weird because I have heterochromia? I'm actually getting kinda offended by it.

"I'm Saliza, nice ta meetcha!" Saliza waved at the woman and gestured at Zeigel. "This guy over here is fu-"

"My name is Zeigel, and not anything else." Zeigel cut her off while giving her an annoyed look.

"I'm Sarhen, the local blacksmith." The woman introduced herself. She glanced at the axe Saliza was holding and continued, "My shop is located right next to Vangourmet. You two should stop by and get yourselves some decent weapons."

"For free?" Zeigel asked.

"Of course not. I have a business to run."

Bummer.

"But we don't have a lot of money." Saliza sighed.

"Then get your trainer to pay for you. That's what an earlier batch of trainees did."

"Sorry to tell you this but Reizo is out of the country and won't return until tonight." Jae added.

"Ah well, guess I'll see you two in my shop tomorrow then." Sarhen said as she left.

"So what brings the two of you here?" Jae asked.

"We were wondering if we're allowed to use the training grounds by ourselves." Saliza inquired.

"I'm afraid not. You're not allowed to go anywhere outside of the country unsupervised."

"Awww." Saliza sighed. "But I'm so booored."

"How about a nice meal to cheer you up?" Barill suggested.

"Free meal?" Zeigel asked, looking a lot brighter now.

"I can't be constantly giving out free food, but I can give you two discounts."

Good enough for me.

"By the way, did the side effect of the stew kick in yet?" Barill asked.

"I think so. Eating the stew gave me a lot of energy." Saliza said.

"Same here. That's the side effect right?" Zeigel asked.

"No, that's not the side effect. It's-"

All of a sudden, Saliza's stomach growled loudly as if it were a rabid dog.

"That..."

Saliza dropped her axe and clutched her stomach.

"I NEED GO TOILET NOW!" She yelled in panic as she sprinted back to her room.

"What about you Zeigel? Are you feeling alright?" Barill asked, sounding concerned and a little guilty.

"I think I should be fine. My DEF stat is higher than hers and I recently threw up."

"Oh dear, what made you throw up? Was it my cooking?" Barill asked, sounding even more guilty.

Zeigel clutched his stomach and answered in a weak voice. "I'm not too sure. You didn't poison us out of spite for trying to get free meals did you?"

"I would never do such a horrible thing. Tell you what, stop by my restaurant later and I'll cook up something to make you two feel better, free of charge. It'll be my way to apologize for giving you two upset stomachs."

"Thanks Barill. I appreciate it."

Hehehehehehe.