It took more or less an hour and a half. A few short breaks and stops here and there, but I eventually reached the sepia-colored brick wall of the Kingdom of [Asparthens] before the sun completely set. My neck hurt every time I looked up at the peak of the ramparts and the towers that support it… yet I always seem to do it like I was obligated to do so.
Following the path home, I looked around to see gray-bricked streets and dusty alleyways left barren.
A little too early for workers and adventurers to have halted activity out in the open… But—eh. This isn’t ever the first time, so maybe I'm just looking into that so much.
After another couple hours of walking and resting, I then stopped at the end of this particular path I walked, leading right to the heart of the main city square.
To the most notable landmark of the area: the tavern-inn, [Adventurer's Taverinn].
This tall building was both my adventuring headquarters and my resting place for several months already. It was the closest thing I can refer to as a home. It even gets bonus points for the wordplay of its name. Really rolls off my tongue and that makes it easy to remember.
I eventually arrived at its entrance and stood before the great wooden doors. With one big push, they creakily parted to introduce me to the bustling dining hall, filled with thick support pillars, round tables, chairs, people on chairs, people on tables(?), just—lots of people in there, in general…
Today's roster includes:
An assortment of Bladewielders, Mages and Sages of different elements, and mmm, oh—various drunken, burly adventurers whose classes I can’t assume based on appearances alone.
Half humans too. Cat-people, fox-people, even the rare avian-kind are here??
Despite the number of Faithful present, I somehow notice the individualistic hints of their mana just by being in the same area as them. Mages have a knack of doing it passively, albeit unintentional. And even though I didn’t know them personally, I could recognize some faces hanging around their spots at this time of day.
No one batted an eye at me. The usual.
Or so I thought…
My gaze met with one of the members of the short-lived party I was just in, a week ago. An average Warrior equipped with light armor, the male leader of the group, offered a blank expression before immediately turning his attention back to his other members, who were in his company.
Sorry sorry. I shouldn't be snooping around nor minding how fast I was let go.
Every single time…
Th-that should be all for my fill of socializing for tonight.
Watching from a distance… That’s enough for me. I've been given my share of harsh reality checks before.
Just stay in your own lane and keep moving along…
I shook my head and cupped both of my cheeks once.
One quick visit to the Receptionist Hall and I should in-theory be stress-free for the night…
That place was a stall in an area adjacent to the huge window at the left side of the whole ground floor of the Taverinn. It didn’t take long to reach due to the fortunate lack of traffic.
"Hi, Ms. Chait!" With a misplaced enthusiasm, I reached up to drop the completed quest papers as prompted on the counter, which literally was the same height as me.
On that same counter was a bell, right at the edge, that I customarily pressed at least once.
"Ah, Ms. Altria! It's wonderful to find you in top condition today," Ms. Chait cheered as she eagerly accepted the papers, having just completed collating a small pile of her other paperwork.
She had a brown ponytail without a single strand out of place, a vibrant face with only the lightest make-up, and only the most welcoming smile. The guild attendant's navy blue uniform was housing cup sizes on the B-range that… maybe was important to notice.
With the lack of people present in the area, I might be the last recipient for the night. I really like her energy dedicated to her role. I wish I could do that too…
Despite all that I knew about her, she never really was someone I regarded as a friend… though she might as well be. She’s the type to be friends with everybody. Sure, we don't normally sit down and talk much, she has her job and I have mine and all, but I was never too tense whenever talking to her.
And that meant a lot coming from someone like me.
She scanned over the papers with her eyes, that glowed the same cyan glint as the text written on the paper glowed right back. Mind magic at work and all that good stuff. Shortly after the mini light show had ended, she turned around her chair and fetched something. She then returned to face me which I responded by straightening my posture.
"Combat data verified. Here you go, Ms. Altria."
She politely handed out a bunch of small bags of [Gilzeron] to me.
"A-Ah, please! As I keep saying, I'm not even that old and important to consider formal. Just 'Lily' w-would be fine," I stammered, accepting the pay, and hurriedly stuffed it into my bag.
This magic bag was attached to my white belt. The bag part was expertly hidden underneath the cover of my cape just for the purpose to avoid looking like some hippie with a belly-bag.
"R-Riiight. I'll try to remember, just Lily~" She shuffled in a wink. "Anyhow, if you’d have any more inquiries or other businesses regarding your adventuring, please do let me know. On behalf of the guild, I thank you for your continued contributions to Guild Taverinn!"
She slightly bowed her head in courtesy, with the usual smile on her face.
"Th-Thank you, Ms. Chait!"
After waving our goodbyes, I slouched and kept my head low on my way towards the stairs, whole in a hurry…
"Oof!" I complained, having bumped into someone face-first.
"Whoa whoa, ye 'lright??" A familiar manly voice above my head spoke.
Taking a step back and shaking my head to recover my senses, I saw him, the Protector of the Stairs, Mr. Friendly-Neighborhood Agitator: Clyde Ironmire…
With a weird accent that I’ve forced myself to get accustomed to, he had short messy orange hair, wore a red, patterned headband, and some light plated armor over his base veteran Warrior garbs. Though an adventurer (and in an advanced class at that), I only ever saw him at the same place and at the same times. The reason why had always been an enigma, and, quite frankly, unimportant to me. The important thing was the fact that this prevented me from freely passing through without some non-consensual conversation.
Not that I'd have the backbone to complain aloud, though…
"S-Sorry, sorry!" I bowed repeatedly.
"Ah—don't worry ‘bout ‘at. Ya must've been in a rush te get te yer room—fer some reason, mmm?" Clyde stared bullets over my head.
Busted.
I sighed.
Remember. He’s still my primary source for information on the outside world so if he has something, I better suck it up and stay for whatever he's got for me…
"Well… Do you have any n-news for me tonight…?" I asked, hesitating with each passing word.
He chuckled proudly. "Ah! Today's goin' te be ‘bout a circulatin’ rumor 'bout how a certain fallen Priestess' Kingdom spreadin’ it's territory."
I knew what place he was mentioning. I don’t know a whole lot about it, other than that’s where the ‘Demon Lord’ of this-here isekai is home to.
"…I never get quests that far out, so I don't think I'd need to stress myself with that one."
"Ye're an adventurer, although a pint-sized one. Ya never know when ye'd just take any random quest that’d line up with that sort ‘f place…" He crossed his arms, looking quite pleased with himself.
My deadpan stare was all he got as a response.
"R-Right, right. Very dangerous, places like those. So never leave home without any back-up if ye gotta. Speakin’ f home…"
He picked up a different topic shortly after so I stayed for a few more seconds, until–
Zzz…
!!
…I almost fell asleep standing up.
Nope. Nuh-uh. Tired. Can't force myself to deal with this. Not right now. It's getting hard to even understand half of what he's saying at this point on top of exactly how he says things…!
I decided to sneak my way through. Knowing a bit of him, he would have his eyes shut every time he laughed. Fortunately for me, what he was currently sharing was apparently funny (to him).
At the moment he did the thing a second time, I snuck past him and headed upstairs.
Not sorry…
but—actually sorry.
After that relatively quick exchange, I took that one flight of stairs, and headed to the furthermost door to my right. In only a few more moments, I was already inside my more designated safe haven: my inn room.
I shut the door behind me with a leg, undressed my outfit using both hands in one downward motion, slipped into my crumpled pajamas by kicking them up from the floor in one upward motion… before launching myself all the way to bed.
I closed my eyes for a bit, then reopened them to stare at my sepia-toned ceiling and let out a heavy sigh.
Well.
That was basically it.
The end part of today’s episode:
I wake up,
I go out of my room,
I take quests,
I do them,
Fail or clear, I come back,
(Occasionally get jump-scared into conversations I rarely escape from.)
I sleep.
~Lather, Rinse, Repeat~
My progress on ‘self-improvement’ has been rather… slow. I dare admit that to myself right there.
Where exactly am I going with all this again?
I've been at it for months and I don't… have a major goal to do these things besides surviving each day that passes. Maybe I just need some upgrades to my things… Err— well I would, if I’d be able to get any at my current power level!
To get strong, you have to be strong initially…
What a load of crap for a progression system…
It had already been several months since my awful, mysterious arrival to this world. From gaming and living in the comforts of my cozy bedroom, to fighting for my own income now… I still find it crazy remembering how long it has been, and how I'm still doing relatively fine on my own.
Am I… fine?
While I know I still miss people, my memory of them has been slowly slipping away. Proof of it is with each day when remembering yesterday is somehow already a difficulty setting of its own…
I contemplated this, as I took out a slightly weathered notebook from under my pillow. It was a notebook where I've written about everything I’ve remembered thus far: my family, my friends, my past. The purpose of it was to remind myself that I wasn't from here, a stranger in this even stranger world I was sent into.
The initial segment of the notebook had a crumpled page so it opened first without needing me to do anything after holding the cover. It read:
‘I was in my room, playing video games. “Ruler's Ruin”, was the name of the hottest free-to-play MMORPG that just came out. Empty bags of chips decorated everywhere. The window was open so I'd know if it was morning so the sunlight would sting my eyes. Eventually, I ended the all-nighter with a sunrise power nap. And then—that's just how I remember it began…’
But I flicked through pages to read a bit more.
What I remember of my parents, what I remember of my past friends, the background people I come across, my mundane routines to monotony, my past in general and… everything seemed so far behind me after relating my situation then, from now.
Heck, even just reading a sentence from my own records at times would make me question myself for it.
Crazy how the oversaturated ‘isekai’ genre is the very life I’m given now.
Yaaay……
Eventually, all of my memories will just strictly be secluded to this world.
Eventually, even me knowing that I'm not from this world would also just be a forgotten memory…
But–
Do I really want to stay? Shouldn't I just choose this over what I originally had…? I mean I already worked my butt off just to get to this point. However far or small that'd be.
Although–
No internet. No convenience stores. No video-games. No anime… and "anime". All the dread of needing income above all else…
I don't know…
What am I even supposed to be doing with my life here anyway?
I closed the notebook and shoved it back under my head pillow.
It certainly has been a while since I was already, partly, hopeless with finding whatever ways I can take to get back home. I've already tried, thrice. All I was ever given were side eyes.
No one could realistically understand my situation to help me, and maybe—that’s the trope we're following here. There's much that I didn't know. There’s way too much that I don’t know just yet.
But maybe… just maybe. I can still keep trying… A sub goal like that shouldn't hurt.
I buried my face into both of my hands, before flailing them back to rest over the sides of my head.
It would really be a sad existence if all I did was the same routine for the rest of my life, without any sort of development or relationship whatsoever. Another mundane list to add to my notebook…
I tossed myself to my right side.
Should I really care? I'm too… caved in to normally connect with people anyway.
I yawned as the noise I heard from the outside world grew more silent. Darker. My eyelids were getting heavy.
Retrospection is tiring, after all.
"Little by little… I'll find some way to make my living here worth—something. Maybe something more… Maybe." I whispered to myself, closing my eyes and holding my silence.
But
If it were really up to me?
…I just
wanna go
home…
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