"I told you! That was only a possibility!" She shouted, as if offended by what I proposed.

"But it's not all-together unlikely, right?"

Sophinna turned her head away with an irritated expression on her face, as she clenched her hands tightly. She seemed indignant by the fact that I could even think that she might betray me.

"You said it yourself; for safety concerns, Icarus has everyone who—"

"—I know what I told you!" She shouted!

I haven't seen her this angry in a while. I can't even remember her ever shouting at me like this—no, there was at least one point, but...

"Dammit, I know!" She repeated as she turned on her heel, and made her way towards the stairs leading down the tower.

I wanted to follow after her—to tell her it was fine. But she'd probably punch me for patronizing her, even if I didn't mean it like that.

Her situation was a complicated one that I really didn't know how to get around. I can't say it's her fault, but at the same time I hope she doesn't manage to logout.

If she does, there is the very real possibility that I could end up erased.

"—Hey... what did you mean a while ago?" I lifted my gaze over to Sophi, who had stopped just before the first step, but didn't quite turn to look at me.

"About what?"

"You mentioned that maybe the crap I went through was to get you here; why do you think that?"

"Oh, that," I nodded back. Right, I do have a reason for thinking that—however, I don't think I can tell her just yet. "It's a hunch," I said, letting a small smile show.

She nodded, not giving any further comment on the subject, and she descended the stairs. What was on her mind? Did she already predict that "hunch"?

It couldn't be that she also had the same thing in mind, right?

I shook my head of those thoughts—it doesn't matter. If it comes to that and it becomes unavoidable, then I'll deal with it then. For now, this Sophi—the Sophi—is an ally and a friend.

I can worry about the player behind Sophinna later.

—Due to suspicious circumstances, I ended up lodging at an inn that night.

Another two clients came asking for some assistance—one asking for help finding their friend who went out hunting late and hadn't logged out, and another who of all things, needed help finding a good place to hide—I felt a strange sensation.

It was a familiar sensation though.

—This was the sensation of being watched. Glared at by eyes so focused they could practically shoot lasers. A sensation one could only feel in this world, after experiencing it many times.

Unfortunately, I couldn't determine the source of my stalker. My wind tracking spells were being interfered with, and the active city below meant that it was impossible to pinpoint.

I wasn't confident in my fighting ability when I was this sleepy, so I picked an inn close to an army barracks, with good security, and slept calmly, promising myself to rest up for the next day.

Of course, I set up several trap spells around the room to be safe.

When I regained consciousness the next morning, my room was untouched, and the traps all still active. After getting my things together, I decided that I wouldn't bother taking my time.

I told room service I'd be leaving through the window, and before anyone could make an objection, I was already at the window, and kicking off, as I applied a Speed buff to myself.

Perhaps I should have had my guard up.

I only barely managed to block against the incoming dagger that came at me from my flank. The only reason I even saw it was because of the shadow behind it—a person lunging at me with their arm outstretched towards me.

I managed to bring up my arm, and received a gash, as I tried the use magic to blow the other person away. The explosion of wind that formed between us also served to scare away the pedestrians that roamed the streets, too—and yet the two of us managed to land perfectly.

I wanted to say 'as expected of a cat,' but my assailant was no feline.

It was a human boy, seemingly in their mid-teens, about 15 or 16. Quite a young boy. He was dressed in black overalls, and possessed quite the "Assassin" feeling. Or maybe it's more accurate to say he resembled a ninja?

—"Were you sent here by Lady Ophryss to kill me and retrieve Sophi?" I asked, as I tried to use some minor blood magic to stop the bleeding in my arm.

"Not quite," The boy said, in a slightly irritated voice. "I can't kill you just yet," he said with an excited glint in his eyes. Quite talkative for an assassin, huh?

"Then? What do you want?"

—I can't imagine I have too many enemies. On the human side, there should only be Anna Ophryss, and the Baron. If he's a freelance assassin though, he might have been hired by the Desert Witch, or even that one Dogkin merchant with the funny eye. On the other hand it could have been—

...

—I guess I do have too many enemies, huh?

I should try being nicer to strangers.

Yep. That'll be my New-Years resolution. Next year.

"—Hey, are you listening?"

"Ah, sorry, I dozed off there for a mome—" I was cut off mid-sentence, as the irritated assassin flung a hidden knife towards me. It wasn't the dagger he used to cut me, but instead a smaller knife he pulled out of "somewhere". Some to think of it, my arm is feeling a bit.. Weird? Oh shit, was I poisoned?

Just in case, I begin constructing an isolation spell to try to keep my blood-flow contained. If it gets too bad, might have to amputate. I can have Sophi heal me later.

"So, what were you saying again?"

"Dammit, I won't repeat myself again! Where's the ass from yesterday hiding!?"—Why thank you for repeating yourself.

"Ass from yesterday huh? I don't quite remember hiding a donkey any time recently," I say, playing dumb. So he's after that guy, huh? Well it is unusual to get requests to hide people. Not weird, but unusual at least.

"Don't lie! We have intel' that he was with you—"

"—That's enough Sen." I shifted my gaze at a man exiting the inn I just spent the night at. He was a large warrior type, who wore a nice set of steal armor—wait, is he a player?!

The two of them have closely related auras. In fact—there's 4 more (almost) identical auras in the surroundings.

All of them are players?

"I'm amazed—less than half a year, and you outsiders managed to travel from Human territory all the way down here," I voiced my amazement. After all, it took me and Sophi about 5 years. Then again—we were forced to take various detours. And they may have used a method of travel I'm not aware of.

In fact, the warrior seemed to flinch when I pointed out they were "outsiders".

"So you speak Rozian. You're the first since we entered the region." He said. It seemed like I subconsciously switched to speaking Rozian—or the Language spoken in the region of the Human-controlled Rozen Kingdom. It was a fairly large territory, with only a few other outlying languages spoken by humans, so it was apt call it the "Human Language".

Elves on the other hand really do only have one language, because of their longevity, and thus were able to retain a single tongue over the eons.

The Southern Federation is much like the European Union of my old world—in some ways you can consider it a single power, but really it was just a set of loosely bound nations, all with their own languages, with similar origins. I learned the language spoken by Tiger-kin in Iohro, from Sophinna, and thankfully that's enough to get by in many countries—as long as I keep my sentences simple.

"Well, I was born in Rozen Kingdom, after all," I informed the tall man, as the other 4 members of his party showed themselves. Two came out from inside the inn building, and the other two came out from the crowd of people trying to keep away from the fight.

I didn't really pay attention, but there was certainly a large crowd looking at what was going on.

These guys—they clearly didn't care about the authorities in this country—now that it's been dragged out of the shadows, they're being quite blatant with their appearances. Four men, and two women. All between mid-late teens, and mid twenties. (Though, considering they were players, it's impossible to tell) All of them were dressed pretty eccentrically, and were easily identifiable. They probably had an escape plan for when the City Guards show up. Or heck, they probably didn't care about being killed—they're probably on a quest, which is more important than losing one or two lives, what with their immortality.

So why didn't they attack until now? To set up an ambush? Makes sense.

"I've never seen an Elf in Rozen," He said, seemingly interested.

"'course not; Humans and Elves have some pretty bad history," I said with a shrug—or half of one, considering my right arm was numb. "'sides, I'm a halfy," I said, pointing at me ears that weren't quite as pointed as an Elf's and not quite as rounded as a Human's.

"Sorry. I can't really tell the difference," He said. Is he buying time for something?

"Yeah, that's what the Elves think too," I nodded, without really minding it. It seemed the Assassin seemed quite agitated, and wanted a piece of me already.

"Hmm, well I'm sorry. You must have had a tough life, but we can't sit here and idle. My subordinate here already explained to you what we want. In exchange for the information we want, we'll give you the antidote to the poison currently infecting your body." So he really was buying some time, huh?

Still. I can't just betray my Client like that; might be bad for business. Actually, being stubborn about it might even help. Besides, they might not actually give me the antidote.

"This? It's no big issue. I've got a friend who can fix me right up," I said nonchalantly, as I grabbed my loose and motionless arm, and playfully wiggled it around. Yep, I don't feel a thing.

"It'll soon spread to the rest of your body. In fact, it probably already has. We will intercept you if you try to escape," He said, as he pulled his sword from his sheath.

Looking around, I made a quick count of my opponents. A warrior, an assassin, two swordmen, a mage, and a priest.

They seemed pretty decently leveled, so they certainly weren't slacking off in the last 5 months. But how could they have made the trip so quickly? Some sort of travel magic? The guy from last night was probably the same though.

Then—a high speed mount, huh?

"Don't worry about this arm," I said casually, as I contemplated just cutting it off. No, my blood magic still isn't well practiced, so while I can't perfectly isolate the toxins in my blood, I also won't be able to stop the bleeding once my arm is gone. Not to mention, the pain I'll feel from it would be unbearable.

"Anyways, if you want to know where to find that man, you'll have to catch me!" I said, as I let loose an extremely bright light from behind me.

I've yet to really master light magic. I'm still unable to focus light in a single direction, or bend any non-trivial amount of light. However, I can still create a blinding light that won't effect me, if I produce that light from behind me. If it's bright enough, it might singe my hairs, but that's a small price to pay.

As a result, anyone looking in my direction was assaulted with a blinding light.

I took that chance to make my leave, applying a Speed buff to myself before dashing past the group's Mage, and slashing her neck with a wind blade.

I have no intention of fighting 1 against 6, and taking out the Mage is a strategical move to keep them from tracking me. I'd take out the Assassin too, but from this distance Wind Blades lose most of their effectiveness. A shallow cut is the most I could hope for, after a few meters.

So, I made a hasty retreat, with everyone—including the curious onlookers—blinded. I'm sure they understand of course.

Maybe I'll apologize later.

Wouldn't want to make more enemies

The door was flung wide open, and I could see the frantic expression on Sophi's face.

"Dumbass! What were you doing?!" She shouted as she ushered me into her room.

"Ah, nice room," I said, with my arm dangling at me side. It was already beginning to lose its color, and I could barely feel anything from it—so it was some kind of neuro-toxin? I think? Is that how toxins work in this world? Physics seems to mirror my old world, but what about biology?

Ah, my mind was wandering.

"Think you can fix this?" I asked, point at the discolored arm, as she pulled me along behind her.

"Come here," she urged me, as she pushed me into a seat, and placed my arm on a table. "What happened?" She said, as she began moving her hands, guiding magic along her finger tips as she envisioned the flow of Aether.

Even if we fight, I can't see Sophi refusing to heal me in this situation. So of course, I ran to her as soon as I needed to. And, it looks like she heard about the commotion going on with the players.

Did she expect me to be involved?

"Let's see... Last night, some guy—I think it was a player—asked me to hide him. Thinking about it, I didn't pay attention to his race, because he had a hood on and such, but he was probably human."

"A human player made it all the way down here?" Sophi asked,

"That's the thing. This morning, as I was leaving home, I was attacked by an assassin, and then surrounded. Six players—mentioned they were from Rozen. Came asking for where the guy from yesterday was, and I pretty much flicked them off and left."

Sophi seemed to be lost in thought—or perhaps she was just focused on healing my arm.

"So, Seven humans, probably from Rozen. They somehow made it here within a short period of time—" Sophi pondered the information for a moment. "Maybe they're soldiers of Rozen Kingdom, who came by Pegasi?"

"Pegasi...?" I asked. The word sounded familiar but—

"You know? Winged horses? Rozen Kingdom breeds them, and often assign them to their knights,"

"That sounds pretty cool," I said in light awe. "What about dragon riders?" I asked.

"Dragons are... Too stubborn to be tamed. Besides, they're pretty much sentient, and they outlive anyone trying to tame them. Rozen Kingdom has tried, but if I remember right, it sort of backfired."

"What about things like Wyverns?" I asked, looking down at my arm, as it slowly began to regain some of its function.

"They had better luck, but—Wyvern are also rather prideful in their own way. As such, they will only allow one person to ride them in their lifetime—and that assumes you've started training them from a young age. At the same time, they won't allow someone who's ridden on another Wyvern to ride them either. So only some high-ranking nobles with patience have trained Wyvern into mounts."

"Doesn't sound very fun for players, though?"

Sophinna didn't seem to think so, as she shrugged. "If a player wants to ride one, they can buy a Wyvern egg, and raise it on their own. It'll be time consuming, but it's not like it's impossible."

Sheesh. That doesn't sound like much of a game, you know?

"So what do you think they want?" I asked.

"How should I know? Go ask your client, or hide until they're gone," She said, as she pulled the sleeve of my shirt back down, and began to usher me out of her room. As if by miracle, my injury was gone, and feeling had returned. Healing magic is pretty convenient, but I don't have the... qualifications for it. Blood magic is a poor substitute for healing; try building a house without any tools, and all your materials are in their natural form.

"Hey hey hey, can't I hide in here?" I pleaded

"As if! You know they'll probably track you down if you stay here. It'll be a pain if a fight breaks loose in the temple. The Head Priestess will be especially pissed."

"Well, that's true, huh."—actually, wait... "That's a great idea!"

Quickly catching on to what I meant, Sophi glared at me intensely for a moment, before she let out an exasperated sigh.

"Fine—we'll do this the reckless way."

Author Notes:

So, this chapter probably feels pretty out of nowhere. And it kinda is. I used it to give some background, and make some hints here and there, but overall the conflict with the players is minor.

I was considering holding onto this chapter for a while, and not releasing it until I had more chapters ready, but figured that was too cruel, considering my habit of putting things off to the last minute.

On that note, I'm still considering rehashing Volume 1 ("Volume 2" started last chapter), but I don't feel I have the skill to do it alone. I have a few points I want to completely retcon, and ultimately I feel that 50 pages is just too short for a book. I'll work on that anyways.

Maybe.

As always, suggestions and feedback of all kind are welcome.