We followed Misha to a house not far away from the graveyard. The inn did not seem to have a name and at that point I was too afraid to ask. I mean, it made sense considering it was the only inn the village had, why bother naming it.

She guided us to a round table, quietly shutting down glances of disgust directed at our group. I realized shortly after that they were actually targeting Raven. Considering this was a rural area it made sense for those people to have a rather ... conservative notion, compared to city folks. Seeing this kinda stung, but since Raven didn’t seem to notice it, so I decided to not point it out.

“Is there anything you’d like to order?” she asked us after we took our places. Me between Aurelia and Raynard, and Shelly and the pastor opposite to us.

I looked around the group not really being accustomed to the local cuisine. Everything I’ve eaten so far was either whatever could be found in the police kitchen or whatever Raven cooked up. (Which, I might add, was quite tasty, if a bit extravagant. Contrary to his usual dress up for cooking which in fact was no dress up at all except for an apron. God bless me every time I left that house a virgin.)

“Don’t hesitate to order whatever you want, the academy will cover the expenses,” Shelly told us.

I hoped to get a clue at what a normal dish to order in this situation was but got disappointed by Raven answering: “I’m fine, thanks.”

“Oh, do you have pork cutlet?” Raynard sounded like an excited puppy.

“Sure!”

“Yeeeeeees.” Gosh, he was too adorable.

“Umm, then I’ll take the same,” Aurelia said.

“Me too,” I quickly added.

Misha then took Shelly’s and Pastor Ignacio’s orders.

“Thank god you ordered first, I have no idea how food works around here.” I turned to Raynard who was sitting to my left.

“Me neither. I don’t think I ever went out for dinner. And my standards are rather high, so I really didn’t want to embarrass myself here.” Aurelia hung her head down with a blank expression.

“Well, at least I am not the only one without common sense around here, haha.”

“Is there anything you’d like to drink?” Misha then again asked. “Tea, beer or simply water?”

“Oh, I’d have your beer,” Raynard responded to which I tried not to let out a surprised “whaaaa?”, but I simply decided to let it play out. Where I came from the drinking age was 21 and I never drank so I can’t comment on how much sense that made compared to other states were it was 18 or other countries where it was below that, but Raynard was probably 14 like me so ... ugh you get my point.

“Um, is that okay?” Misha asked Shelly, who then looked back at Raynard.

“Back at home drinking with my parents and brother was normal, don’t worry about it,” he said.

“Then it’s okay I guess,” Shelly responded.

When Misha left, I leaned over to Raynard and asked: “Okay, quick question, how is it with alcohol here, exactly?”

“Why would you ask?” Raynard gave me an irritated look, to which I responded with how alcohol works “where I’m from,” bearing in mind that Raynard still doesn’t know where I’m from exactly is.

“Oh wow, that’s so stupid, why would you have laws for this. No, here it’s just like, my parents say it’s okay, so it’s okay.”

“Huh.” I simply responded and decided to let the topic rest.

For now.

Honestly ...

I wondered what drinking alcohol was like, so I might have stolen a few sips from him during our dinner.

As soon as Misha delivered us the aforementioned, it was time to talk business.

“So, do you mind if we talk about why we are here while eating?” Shelly asked Ignacio.

“Of course,” Pastor Ignacio said, after which he took a bite of a boiled potato. The hot food made him say a few incomprehensible curses but after a couple more seconds he started talking.

“As I already said in my notice, more and more corpses seem to be randomly disappearing from the graveyard. It started ...” – he waved his right hand around – “I think three maybe four weeks ago.”

“Did anything unusual happen around that time?” Raynard asked immediately, and I noticed his hands were in the same position since the pastor started speaking.

“Um- ... well” – he leaned a bit forward to whisper something to us – “Sasha, Misha’s older sister actually passed away around that time. Her corpse is still buried though,” he said, now a tad louder.

“How many corpses have been missing?” Raynard asked next.

“I think nearly two dozen. I haven’t really been keeping track, they seem to disappear on a daily basis.” The pastor threw his hands up in an irritated manner.

“Can you make us a list of every corpse that has disappeared so far, with every relevant information such as date of birth, date of death ...”

The pastor chuckled nervously. “Oh boy, you’re really eager to get to the bottom of this, huh?”

“... Well, obviously ...” Raynard simply responded, unsuccessfully trying to hide an irritated pout.

“I should be able to do that tomorrow morning.”

“Why would anyone do this?” Aurelia asked. “I mean what use do corpses have? They’re ... dead.” She put her cutlery to the side and looked around our group.

“I mean, necromancy is ... sort of a thing,” Shelly replied.

“It is?” I exclaimed probably louder than necessary.

“As I said sort of. So far, it’s highly theoretical especially considering the ethical implications. Vampires are so far the only known species to be capable of successfully performing a form of necromancy. There have been attempts at trying to replicate it, but it seems not even vampires really have a clue as to how they work.”

“So, vampires it is then?”

“I don’t know man, I don’t think corpses have the best taste?” Raynard remarked. “Not that I’m speaking out of experience though. But as far as I know the corpses must not have been through rigor mortis yet, to be resurrected. Is that right?” He asked Shelly, suddenly unsure of himself. To be honest, I began thinking he might have more information stored in his brain than my Grimoire.

“Yes, that seems to be the one thing the ... ‘necromancing community’ seems to agree on. But just in case, you don’t have a problem with aggressive vampires around here, do you?”

Pastor Ignacio who so far followed the conversation while eating in silence righted himself and held a finger up signaling us to let him finish chewing.

“We don’t have a problem with vampires, but living near the forest isn’t that safe either. In fact” – he looked at a watch on his right wrist – “it’s time soon.”

“Time for what?” I asked, even though I kinda knew there was no point in asking.

Church bells went off not too far from here. In fact, if I remembered correctly the church was just next door. Not too long after that though, the entire room found itself covered in the murmuring of the entire townsfolk that was present at the inn. I also noticed everyone clasping their hands together, so I figured it must have been a prayer.

Our group, except for the pastor, just looked at each other with varying degrees of blinking white guy meme, until the entire room simultaneously got shivers down their spine. Surprised by this sudden sensation I tried not to make any noise.

If I was in my world, I would jokingly refer to this sensation as a message from god, but even after only having spent a couple of days in this one, I wasn’t so sure, if maybe there wasn’t some god after all.

The prayer ended shortly after, and the casual chatter resumed.

“So, I guess that was your first time experiencing our evening prayer?” Misha, who suddenly appeared with a gentle smile on her face, asked our group. “You need something to drink?”

“No, we’re fine,” Shelly answered on behalf of our group.

“Yeah, I don’t trust your beer, it made my skin all tingly just now,” Raynard said.

“Oh, hahaha!” Misha’s eyes widened in surprise before she laughed herself to tears. That’s one way to react to a rude customer.

“Oh god, I’m sorry. That’s probably the first time someone reacted this way to the prayer, haha.” She coughed softly before fully regaining her composure. “No, that was the effect of our evening prayer. Every evening when the church bells ring, the entire town chants this spell to protect ourselves from monsters. That shiver just now was because of the high concentration of magic in the inn. After all, more than a dozen people were using magic right now.”

“Wow, that’s impressive ...” Shelly admitted.

“Yeah, I mean, I already saw you in action today,” Aurelia commented, “but that the entire town was capable of using such a spell is ... certainly impressive. I always thought people outside of big cities weren’t likely to know any magic at all.”

“That’s because I have a teaching license. I got it after graduating from Ataraxia academy around 20 ... 22 years ago.”

“Twenty-! How old were you again ...?” Shelly exclaimed what everyone thought right now.

I would have thought that maybe he was approaching his thirties but ... nope! I don’t want to think about his age right now!

[Pastor Ignacio is around 38 years, 3 months and 1 day old.]

Oh, heh, thanks honey.

[Of course, my darling~(n˘v˘•)¬.]

While I was chatting with the thing in my backpack, the conversation seemed to already have moved on.

“Anyway, it’s getting late. Thankfully the church is next door, so I rarely have to worry about getting home after dark.” As he stood up, I noticed that a lot of people have actually left since the bells rung. I assumed that those left behind were guests at the inn, but I was curious what was going on.

“Is it, like, especially dangerous at night? Or why are most people already gone?”

“Oh, yes, actually. This has to do with how the spell works. The more people who this spell has been cast on are close to each other the stronger it gets. Wandering out alone not only potentially puts you, but also your people in danger. Oh, don’t worry about yourselves though. With all the people at the inn, you should be safe. Although, haha, you are probably capable of protecting the entire village, should it be necessary. Anyway. It was a pleasure talking to you, and I’ll make sure to gather any relevant information by tomorrow. Good night.”

We saw him off, and then decided to get our rooms.

“As it seems we don’t have that much to do anymore, since sun is already down. So I guess we should get our rooms?” Shelly proposed.

Misha, who was standing by our side the entire time talked to her mother at the reception and handed us our keys afterwards. One room for the girls, one for the boys, because you can’t escape heteronormativity even in another world.

Our rooms were upstairs next to each other, and when Raven opened our door Raynard already jumped into the first of the two beds available.

And then I realized oh-no-there’s-only-one-bed.

Raven picked me up and carried me to the bed while I only let out highly enthusiastic squeals.