- (Anna’s POV) –

I’m running as fast as I can through the forest jumping from a branch to another branch while avoiding trees.

As I estimated before, it took me about 30 seconds to arrive to the scene.

I instantly stopped in a bush nearby to quickly observe the situation. One thing I learned in the game, is that you should never jump in a combat too quickly and it’s better to take the time to organize your strategy or else you might aggravate the situation or put yourself in danger.

There is a ‘noble like’ carriage on the road while the mans in armor are trying to slow down the 3 orcs who only have a few cuts but 2 knights are already on the ground bleeding, and a third one is still fighting but he is bleeding at his shoulder while the 2 last knight are behind protecting the carriage.

I only see 5 people in total, so I assume the 2 missing people are in the carriage.

In the game, I was used to only help at the last moment because players only blame you for ‘Kill Steal’ if you kill the monster they were dying to. Well, they respawn in the game unlike reality so maybe that’s why.

But right now, they are definitely not going to blame me for ‘Kill Steal’, right ? They are definitely not winning, right ? Look the injured knight is even shouting something like

“Help the Young Miss to escape, quick” (Captain)

I think this guy is the commander on this small group of knights. Well, it looks like they need some help somehow, I guess.

And while he was saying that, one of the orc was approaching from behind him lifting its arm, preparing to attack him.

It’s at this moment that I decided to act.

I instantly created my plan: I will shoot an ice spear on the closest one while I will kill the others 2 with my swords. I took out my sword and created an ice spear in a fraction of a second and I jumped to the battle while shouting to the knight:

“Watch out behind you!” (Anna)

- (Alice’s POV) –

My name is Alice von Baumeister, I’m 12 this year, and my father is an Earl and the head of Baumeister’s House.

I was going back from the birthday’s party of one of my only friends, Clara, who just reached 12 years old as well! The trip from my house in my father’s territory to Clara’s house lasts approximately 4 days, and already 3 days have passed so I should be back to my house tomorrow.

I was silently sitting on the seat in my carriage looking through the windows with my personal maids, Zoe, sitting beside me, reading a book.

Suddenly, the carriage stopped and the captain from my escort shouted:

“3 orcs blocking the ways” (Captain)

My face frown, and I can feel my body trembling. I saw my maid’s body stiffening for a second then instantly going back to her original calm when she saw me panicking.

“It’s alright, Milady, the knights will take care of it!” (Zoe)

She tried to reassure me by pating my head, but it didn’t work. It’s her that don’t understand the situation!

“A-An orc is classified as a C-ranked m-monster according to the adventurer guild, s-so it means that it requires a p-party of around 5 C-ranked adventurers to kill o-one! And n-now, there is 3 of them, while our e-escort are equivalent to E-ranked adventurer in term of strength except the c-captain that is equivalent to a D-ranked, close to C !” (Alice)

I managed to cry out while still trembling. The horse pulling the carriage are agitated, so there is no way to turn the carriage on the other side to run away in time. The only solution is to run with our foot, but there is no way we can outrun a C-ranked monster! Even less when I’m wearing a dress!

Why did we meet orc in the middle of this Green Forest on our territory ? Only goblin should appear here, nothing higher ranked!

As I was thinking about it, I looked outdoor and 2 knights were already on the ground bleeding, they are still not dead, but they need first aid really fast. The captain, already injured after protecting one of his subordinates, suddenly shout:

“Help the Young Lady to escape, quick!” (Captain)

The 2 remaining and uninjured knights are running toward the carriage. Reading the mood, me and Zoe go out of the carriage to meet the 2 knights. I take a last glance toward the captain when I see an orc behind him ready to hit him very hard!

I suddenly freeze up, I try to tell him to watch out while half crying but can’t manage to make an audible sound, when suddenly I can hear a feminine voice coming from the forest:

“Watch out behind you!” (Anna)

What? Who is it?

Confused, I look where I heard the voice, but I only can see something red moving so fast that my eyes can only see some kind of afterimage.

What’s going on ?!

I blink one time and the next thing I can see are the body of the 3 orcs without heads. The first one has half of his upper body completely disintegrated while the 2 others got their head cut cleanly and falling toward the ground, then rolling on the ground.

The person that talked earlier was visible again and she is walking toward us slowly with a smile on her face, probably to avoid frightening us, but it looks like she is looking at me. She is a very beautiful girl and approximately 16 years old, she has raid hair and is wearing expensive looking cloth.

I can’t help but looking at her open-mouthed, then at the orcs’s corps, then at her again, then at the orcs’s corps again.

I looked behind me and saw the same expression on my maid’s and the 2 knight’s face. The captain that nearly got smashed by an orc earlier stared at her awe eyed.

“…” (Alice)

“.…” (Zoe)

““…..”” (Knight1 & Knight2)

“…….” (Captain)

“””“………………”””” (Everyone)

Then the beautiful onee-sama started talking with a beautiful smile.

“Hello everyone, how are you~?” (Anna)

“”””………….”””” (Everyone)

- (Anna’s POV) –

After killing the 3 orcs instantly, I start to walk toward those 5 people, and I was welcomed with many different types of expressions on their face.

Well, it can’t be helped, after all, I did KS their prey, so they might be angry right now ~

Just kidding~, I’m not that dense, I know that I did something outrageous to their common sense.

But it can’t be helped right ? It was this, or this middle aged was would be dead.

Actually, I was surprised by one thing, I didn’t even flinch while looking at this blood. I still killed 3 living beings so, as someone living during modern time on Earth, it wouldn’t be surprising if I wanted to puke right now. I guess the millions of monsters that I killed in game helped to ease my mind, right~ ? Well, even if the game wasn’t at the same level as the reality, it was pretty close, you know?! I also killed several thousands of people when there was a PvP event, well they respawn back to the church, so I guess it’s fine, right ? hehe

Well, whatever, let’s try to talk to those people. I wonder who would hire those weaklings as escort! Hello?! It’s real life, guys! Don’t put your life at risk like that! Alright?

In the game, orcs were pretty strong monster for beginners because of their thick skin and strength, but they were easily killable once you have learnt how to control your mana. Usually, you could easily fight back an orc after approximately 1 years of training in game.

Well, let’s forget about it, they are still looking at me strangely, I look at this girl from closer. Ohww! She is too cuuuuute! You can’t even imagine! When a blonde little girl around 11- or 12-years old look at you with eyes full of awe and respect while wearing a beautiful dress, it’s so cute!

I finally understand when they said CUTENESS IS JUSTICE! I can’t help but smile!

I finally arrive in front of the group, and the knight from before joined them aswell and blocked my way to the cute girl. He finally started to talk.

“W-Who are you?!” (Captain)

Oh? It looks like he is a bit wary of me. Well, it can’t be helped, I just killed 3 orcs that no one here could beat, so of course he would be wary of me; even more when I approach his ‘Young Miss’ with a creepy smile.

I cough a little, then I answer him:

“My name is Anna, may I ask what are yours ?” (Anna)

He tensed up, then he answered

“My name is Copernic, I’m the captain in charge of this escort for the Young Miss, Alice-sama” (Captain Copernic)

“Pleased to meet you! Don’t worry, no need to be wary of me, I don’t eat people~!” (Anna)

I tried to make a joke to change the mood, and it looks like it worked, they all started to relax.

Then, the girl who I assume is Alice came closer to me.

“It was amazing, Anna-oneesama, how did you do that? Can I one day become like you ?" (Alice)

Wow, how to answer to that, first ‘oneesama’ ? So, she already considers me like her older sister ? Not that I mind though~ ! *cough* *cough* Well, about how I did it, let’s just answer the truth, they already saw everything anyway.

“I only used my mana to strengthen my body, then I created an ‘Ice spear’ while running toward the first orc, I dropped the ‘Ice spear’ toward the first orc, then I jumped toward the 2 others orcs to slice their throats” (Anna)

I answered bluntly

She looked at me with eyes full of amazement, I wonder why, it’s not like I went all out, half of the forest would be devastated if I did, hehe~

She suddenly remembered something that I also actually forgot:

“Wait, we first need to give first aid to the injured!” (Alice)

She ran toward them and started giving orders. I was also a bit curious about what they would do to treat such wound. The wound itself doesn’t seem too bad, they are only bleeding, but it needs to stop fast.

“Zoe, bring me some bandages, they should be in the carriage!” (Alice)

She then muttered to herself, but I heard it clearly.

“Crap, they are bleeding too much, I don’t know what to do, I should have acted faster instead of waiting, I’m so stupid! Now they are dying because of me! Everything is my fault!” (Alice)

She is on the verge of crying while saying that…

Hearing such word from such a cute girl, I can’t help but comfort her.

“Here, here” I started to pat her head, “You don’t need to blame yourself for that, it’s fine, they won’t die, alright ?”

Saying such word, I send my mana toward the injured guards, enveloping them with a light while I imagine in my mind their wound closing. Mhh only 2 broken bones around the shoulder, it shouldn’t be that hard, it could have been worse.

Their wounds are closing bits by bits as I also fix their bones at the same time. It’s quite mind demanding to imagine everything that need to be fixed at the same time, it reminds me why I hate using this magic to heal people, I prefer to use potion as I don’t need to do anything and the effect are the same or even stronger if the potion is made by an expert using good ingredients. And I happen to be that expert, hehe~ .

In the game, most top 100 players have a 2nd role more focused toward crafting. It’s because fighting is good and all, but it doesn’t bring as much money as crafting! And we do need money for better equipment to be stronger, right ? Well, and I happen to invest myself in alchemy, so I’m quite the expert after all those years, hehe~.

The light disappears from them and all their wound are now closed, and the bones fixed! But they will still need to rest, they lost lot of blood.

They were still covered with a lot of old blood so I used my mana to clean the blood, by erasing it without touching the cloth or the skins. Hehe~, I said that I was proud of my mana control !

Alice stared at me with wide opened eyes, it looked like she wants to say something, so I turned toward her.

“Yes? What is it?” (Anna)

“Actually… would you mind h-“ (Alice)

“Milady! I brought back the bandages!” (Zoe)

She started to say something but got interrupted by her maid who arrived with Copernic, the captain.

I see that he is still bleeding to I send a bit of mana toward him to heal his wound, it was only a few scratches and no bones were broken so it’s quite fast to heal him. In a matter of 5 second, I bring back the mana to me and he is completely healed!

Seeing his reaction is priceless and I unintentionally let out a small giggle. Ups~! The maid and Copernic look at the two cured knights laying on the ground and their reaction are even more priceless; I couldn’t help but laughing out loud.

“Hahahahaha” (Anna)

I stop laughing after 10 seconds and I see that Copernic went to his knee, facing me.

“Lady Anna, I apologize for my previous rudeness. Even after saving our life, you still cared for me and those two, and for that, you have my entire gratitude, if there is something I can do to repay your kindness, please let me know!” (Captain Copernic)

After his word he lower his head even more, and it was now touching the ground.

The maid started to go to her knee aswell and start to speak.

“Besides, you also saved me and especially Alice-sama from the orcs, thanks you very much” (Zoe)

I’m really touched for their words, they could have easily told me to go away after I saved them but they even dropped their pride and kneeled in front of me, uh.

I’m a bit embarrassed now, uh. But I have to make them stop prostrating, it’s embarrassing! I smiled while thinking for my next words.

“It’s fine, I just did what any human being would do when they see someone in distress and can actually help them without losing anything” (Anna)

I said while smiling, and I continued.

“By the way, do you have something I could eat, I’m a bit hungry, hehe~. Oh and if you don’t mind, I would like to know if there are any town or village nearby where I can stay, I was a bit lost before I found you to be honest, hahaha” (Anna)

I said embarrassedly toward the end.

The mood is immediately lifted and they both say

““Sure, right away!”” (Copernic & Zoe)

*******

20 minutes later,

I was eating the food Zoe gave me on a nearby rock while the others were taking care of the horses, lifting the 2 sleeping knights, and overall getting ready to leave soon.

They said that I could tag along with them for the rest of their journey because they would arrive to a big town tomorrow, so I happily took on their offer because it’s actually perfect for me.

While I was eating my first meal of this world (well it’s not really tasty but it’s edible), Alice came to me and sat down beside me on another rock. Seeing that she is having some difficulties to start the conversation, I speak first.

“I have a feeling that you wanted to tell me something since you got interrupted earlier, you started with me not minding something, what was it?” (Anna)

“Well, …” (Alice)

She lowers her head, slightly bowing.

“Please help me to learn magic by becoming my teacher!” (Alice)

Well, I was not excepting something like this at all.