I sat there; calves splayed to either side of my hips chewing my lower lip. “Ok. Ok Lilyanna. Think. Think. What’s going to happen to the village? Well, it always gets destroyed. Almost always. Better to assume destroyed. Why. Ok, evil empire or godbeam or something terrible looking for… oh no.” I pulled the crystal pendant out from under my dress and looked at it. “Looking for this, probably.” I bit my lip harder. “Do I give it to them? Well no, of course not, I’ll be at the cave… but what if I wasn’t.” I slapped my cheeks. “Get it together Lilyanna. This is insane. Am I seriously going to give the villain the thing they need to end the world because they didn’t get enough love as a child?” I paused. “Well… am I?”
I’d always wondered about this. What would happen if I turned it over? A game over, if it was even possible in the video game world of course. The whole point obviously was the adventure and resistance. But did this count as the real world? I looked down at the swell of my chest, and then pinched my cheek hard. It hurt. A lot!
“Ok. Ok, fine.” I picked myself up off the gravel road and leaned on a nearby fence, dusting myself off. “Ok. Working on the assumption that we are not, in fact, in an elaborate dream realm or kidnapped by the fae or being used as an AI’s science experiment…” I let out a slightly broken laugh. “And who can say I’m not, this is so impossible already!” I slapped my cheeks again, the sting of the pinched flesh grounding me a little. Regardless of how I felt as winding up as an anime heroine-
Which, honestly, I do not want at all!
-it… did not seem likely to lead to any kind of good end to give the guys who want to end the world what they want to end the world with. What did I know? What did I… well what did I know? There didn’t seem to be any kind of helpful voice or text interface popping up after that first system announcement.
“Hey! Voice! System? Access? Level? Status?”
Nothing obvious happened, which made me grumble. “What kind of honeysuckle game world doesn’t even have a tutorial!? I didn’t even get to meet a tsundere goddess or get OP magic powers!” I stopped, and then lifted my necklace to my eyes again. “Or… did I?” I shook my head after a moment. “No, I did not. Even if it’s a world ender, or Holy, or the key to the technodungeon moon city, I don’t know how to use it, so right now it’s only badguy bait.”
I huffed out a angry breath and stomped my foot. “What the honey good is it to know I’ve got a level of Spiritualist if I don’t even know what that means! What kind of video game doesn’t have a tutorial?!”
The sound of distant laughter reached me, and I looked up, catching sight of brightly colored banners in the distance waving in the breeze, and the bustling of figures in what must be my beloved peasant village.
“Riiight. The festival! That must be the tutorial level! And the village can’t come under attack until after that, and the cave of trials sure sounds like the excuse for me to be away… so… so I’ve got a week at least! Right.” I pressed my lips together and nodded decisively to myself. “Ok. Lets… lets go see if anything in this mad world makes any sense. And then see if I can figure out how to escape.”
***
The town was small but lively, and I found that despite the walk I wasn’t even breathing hard or even feeling slightly winded. Apparently, this new body of mine came with some advantages to compensate for the drawbacks.
Of course, given that I’m expected to be hiking to honey and back across a continent, it wouldn’t do for the maiden to need to be carried everywhere. I grumbled mentally.
The village also looked like it pulled out of an anime and brought to life. Brightly colored banners everywhere, the smell of delicious food wafting through the air, the shouts and sounds of laughter and friendly chatter. The center of town was dominated by a picturesque fountain surrounded by small market stalls and rippling colored pennants on ropes strung from building to building. I stopped near one of the stalls to take it in, and the little old lady behind the counter started talking to me.
“Oh, Lilyanna dear! So good to see you! Thank you for helping me in my garden yesterday! Here, I brought you some apples as thanks!” She handed me a large basket filled with apples, which I took, bemused. What? No notification ‘basket of apples-get!’? No inventory notices?
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My otherself took the opportunity to speak for me.
“Oh, thank you so much Mrs. Buxby! You really shouldn’t have; it was no trouble at all! In fact, I should be thanking you!” my cheerful sweet voice informed both of us. It went right on without me. “I love working in the garden and helping make things grow, so it was really like a gift to me!”
The old woman chuckled at me while I rolled my eyes at this other me internally. Really, me? Really!? I could not be more goody two shoes if I worked at it. Which I suppose is good, since I’d never pull off this honey and milk persona if I had to fake it myself.
“Now dear, don’t refuse an old woman’s courtesy, take them and be welcome. Maybe I’ll ask you to come and ‘play’ in my garden again, hm?”
I felt myself smile and do a little dipping curtsey to the woman. “I’ll look forward to it then.” I hoisted the apples in one hand. “And thank you. I’m sure Mother and I will love them!”
“I’m sure your mother can make some wonderful tonics and potions with those; they have a strong elemental aura to them.”
Hey what now? My mother makes potions!? Is she a witch or something?!
“Oh! That reminds me, dear!” Mrs. Buxby continued. “Your friend Soriya was looking for you! She said she’s got something to show you! She’s been working very hard on her stall for the festival, you should go and see her. She’s just finished setting up by the fish pond where they’re holding the fishing contest. Just take Melody lane over to the Quayside, then turn right at Mistletoe lane.” She chuckled again. “Her dress is really something to see.”
Really? Well now. Seems like this is the right place for the tutorial level. Thank you mrs random npc.
It was odd, but even thinking of her as ‘random’ seemed… very wrong to me. Like a bad taste in my mind, or hearing a discordant twang in music. She had introduced herself, she clearly thought well of me, and she… she wasn’t ‘just’ an NPC.
I hesitated for a moment, and then said “Mrs. Buxby…”
I stopped, unsure what might be ‘outside’ a topic. But then… I needed information.
“What is it, Lilyanna?”
“Is there… is there someone at the festival that can tell me about class levels?”
Mrs. Buxby’s eyes lit up. “Oh!? Have you gotten a new class level?! That’s wonderful, Lilyanna dear! Did you add to your {Orator}, or have you unlocked something new?”
Well that answers that question. And opens up a whole lot more.
“Uh, yes, I did.”
“Oh that’s marvelous, dear! Yes, of course, the guild proctor is here, just like every year, at his booth. You should go see him! He’s over there, past the fourth alley and up the rise, just past cobbler’s park.”
Does anyone even realize how weird it is that… hang on. That might just be the exact question.
“Mrs. Buxby, how long have you known me for?”
“Oh since you were a baby, the night you arrived on your mother’s doorstep, a little bundle of mystery!”
“And… I’ve come to town often, right? Since I’ve lived here my whole life?”
“Why yes dear, what are you getting at?”
Hm, no confusion there, no repeated dialogue.
“So… Please don’t take this the wrong way, I mean you no insult” my otherself barged into the conversation, apologizing for me. “If I’ve lived here my whole life, and I’ve been to town often, why are you giving me directions to streets that I know?”
Mrs. Buxby blinked at me slowly, clearly confused. “Why… what a strange question dear. I’ve never really thought about it. It’s just… how I’ve always given directions.
Hm. I wonder…
“Could you… try to tell me how to get to-” what’s here, what’s got to be in a tutorial level…? “-the physical contests without giving me specific directions?”
Mrs. Buxby thought about it for a long moment, and then said “The strength contests are over by Old Man Wither’s farm. You know the one, by the old cherry tree-“
She bit down on the inside of her cheek, and as she did, I heard/felt that distinct twang of wrongness to the world, of something off cue, off balance in a very bad way.
“-Oh that sounds so wrong, doesn’t it?! You know the one, up Appleblossom Way, left on Stardust road, and then past Dragon Street.” She sighed in relief and I could feel the tension, that strange sense of wrongness, dissipate.
Well. That answered a few more questions and raised a few more, didn’t it?
While I wasn’t paying attention, my body dipped another curtsey and announced “Thank you again for the apples, Mrs. Buxby! I’ll go see Soriya right away!” and hurried away.
Goodness, I even have a girly run, arms out to my sides like this.
I was starting to get the hang of it though. Both the running in heels and the ‘nudge’ feel of this other me directing me along the picturesque anime village streets. So. Childhood friend huh? I chewed my thoughts while this other me ran to meet her friend. Girl friend, which is not what I expected… but then I’m not playing the hero now am I? No. Mysterious past, mysterious amulet, orphan taken in… no, that’s not the hero’s childhood friend arc at all.
I wasn’t sure if it was me following the directions, or my otherself’s knowledge of the way, or… or even if there was a difference. A deeply uncomfortable thought, given that I bounced in uncomfortably alien ways, even if I was learning how to run in low heels.
I popped out of the narrow alley and was confronted by another large plaza, this one fronting a small dockside quay. by a large pond or small lake. “Oh. Of course there’s a fishing contest.”