“Chief! I heard something happened. Are you alri-?” (Com)

Com burst into the tent as me and Leon were talking. The corpses of the two ninja wanabes were already taken care of and though I didn’t feel like negotiating too much I needed something done for me and this was my best bet at getting it done. There aren’t too many people who can laugh off my temper.

“Oh! Com, you came. Come have a sit with us. We were just negotiating.” (Leon)

“Pfft!” (Kenos)

I couldn’t hold it in. Wow. This guy’s actual nickname was Com. I wasn’t the only one calling him that. That is hilarious. Com didn’t say anything afterwards just walking off to behind Leon and joining the other two men there. Leon looked at me a bit confused but he kept his signature smile up while we continued talking business.

“Well aren’t you in a much better mood now?” (Leon)

*Ahem*

“Anyway. Back to our discussion.” (Kenos)

I wasn’t in the mood to joke around still. Not with the guy who almost killed Lily and Cal for their stupid test. The test itself was simple and effective and I had to admit it was the fastest and most efficient way of finding out both my abilities and whether I’m a spy or not. I mean which spy would kill the two assassins and almost kill the leader himself. There’s no way that would end well. The fact that I stopped even though I was able to kill him also proved me not an assassin either.

“Right. You said you had two requests in turn for your help. Go ahead!” (Leon)

“First. After this is done I’m going to need safe passage through the Beastlands and into the elven country.” (Kenos)

“Right I did get a report that said you were just passing through. That can be arranged. We aren’t on bad terms with the elves since unlike the humans at least they don’t take our women for their own pleasure or our men to do all the heavy work for them.” (Leon)

So slavery doesn’t exist in the elven country? Well I guess that’s a bit of a stretch as a conclusion to his statement. I guess I’ll find out what he means sooner or later. So the first one will be doable. But that’s not the one I’m concerned about. The first one I could do myself. But for the second I’ll a lot of manpower which I do not have.

“So what about the other one?” (Leon)

“… I want you to find something out for me.” (Kenos)

“Oh? Information is it? Sure what’s it about.” (Leon)

“Five years ago… No more accurately any time between now and five years ago… there should have been a human girl that passed through the Beastlands. The girl should have looked around ten back then with brown hair and green eyes. I need to know what happened to her. No. In fact. Any information on her. Any at all!” (Kenos)

“Uh… okay now that will be a bit hard. Anything else you can tell me about this girl?” (Leon)

“She should have had someone with her. Probably another human. Older. From what I understood he was a commander in the human country of Astrain.” (Kenos)

“Well. I’ll try. I won’t promise you anything though. It’s possible that they might’ve avoided all interaction with us beastkin as hard as that would be here in the Beastlands. And even if we did chances are… guess you know that though huh?” (Leon)

“Just do it.” (Kenos)

“Sure okay. I’ll try.” (Leon)

“And-“ (Kenos)

“Relax! I’m not stupid enough to lie to you. In the first place having you here will be a huge help. Since we beastkin don’t have as many people that can use magic. Having a powerful mage here will help for sure.” (Leon)

“So you’ll help me find information on this girl and put in good word with the elves for me as well as transport across the Beastlands.” (Kenos)

He nods.

“And in exchange YOU will work here and help us out for a while. You’ll need to wait here anyway for that information.” (Leon)

I nod.

“Okay so next let me explain in more detail what we’re here for.” (Leon)

I could already guess what this place was. They were so close to the border and stalking out possible routes between here and the human countries.

“We’re called the Protection Front. Our mission here is to keep watch on the entrances to the Beastlands and in case of invasions warn the clans beforehand and in case of any other kind of intrusion we are to prevent them from entering the country in whatever way we find appropriate.” (Leon)

“ Well then you’re not doing your job correctly with me being here and all.” (Kenos)

“Hey, I’m flexible about these things.” (Leon)

“So. Is that all?” (Kenos)

“That’s all about our operation here. There are a few other camps run by other people since this is a joint effort of the different clans but there’s nothing you need to know about those. For now at least.” (Leon)

“Okay. So then what’ll my job here be.” (Kenos)

“Well. A few things. Work around the camp. Helping the other mages with their projects. Clearing out a few dungeons who are resistant to physical damage.” (Leon)

Oh dungeons of course. Maybe there’s a slime dungeon that’s giving them problems? Dungeons in this world are pretty much just like monster nests. It’s not like in novels where there are dungeon hearts which are alive or something. Let’s say there’s a cave where there’s a huge amount of goblins… like the one I cleared out. That’s a dungeon. There aren’t even any bosses or some shit… well sometimes there are.

“Is that all?” (Kenos)

“Sure. I’m not gonna overwork you or anything but you might find that you will have more responsibilities than a normal soldier. At least it’ll keep you busy right?” (Leon)

Truly the hardest thing for me to deal with here would have been boredom. Then again when I’m not busy I can always help the girls train. Well… Lily train. All I can do for what Lily is training in right now is offer really bad advice.

After he explained that we stayed talking for around another half an hour, discussing sleeping quarters, responsibilities and safety precautions. I wouldn’t be able to stay together with the girls the entire time I was here. Or so Leon thought since he didn’t know what I am. In truth the clothes they were wearing were enough for me to always be aware of what is going on around them. So I wasn’t that worried.

Afterwards we were given three badges of a shield with the hilt of a sword sticking out from the top of it which apparently would prove our association with the Protection Front. I don’t know how much it’ll help since we’re human. Leon himself will issue an order to every troop in the camp to not do anything to us. I’ll try to hold myself back to not kill anyone too but I make no promises.

On the other hand Leon couldn’t promise us a personal tent so instead I asked for an empty space somewhere around the camp. Com was tasked with escorting us there since he was most familiar with us.

When we got there I started concentrating and waving mana around like it was nothing. It would have been quite exhausting for any normal mage but the difficulty didn’t lie in the amount but in the control needed. Bit by bit stone rose up from the ground turning black and forming walls and a ceiling. When I was done Com just looked dumbfounded because I had just made a house.

“Can all mages do stuff like this?” (Com)

There weren’t any windows, a door, or furniture but I can make those out of void magic later.

“Do you think I’m a normal mage?” (Kenos)

“Good point.” (Com)

Looks like he understood the fact that I’m not. I don’t know how much he understood the situation inside the tent but seeing the two puddles of blood behind me and the four cuts on Leon might have told him something. Maybe he heard something about the assassins too.

“I’ll inform Leon that this is where you will be staying. Your official duties will start tomorrow as we’ll introduce you to the two other mages we have in the camp. Maybe you can help them with something as a start.” (Com)

I nodded and Com simply turned around and left. Now that we were finally alone the girls who were silent until now finally opened their mouths. Though they spoke in human language rather than beastkin.

“So who’s that girl you mentioned?” (Lily)

Of course she starts with that. It didn’t seem like it was out of jealousy or anything. Just pure curiosity.

“Let’s talk later. I need to furnish this house.” (Kenos)

She didn’t look quite satisfied but didn’t argue. She was sure to ask me about it later and it’s not like I was hiding it or anything. I just really wanted to get done with furnishing the house. I’ll tell them about Kate later.

Using void magic the first thing I did was make a thick wooden door at the front of the house. I also walked up to and created a window for each hole I left for one. I could probably make modern-day appliances honestly but I opted not to. I didn’t really care much for revolutionizing science as this word knows it. Instead I created a wooden table with two comfortable sofas on either side. I also formed a fireplace but the wood I made… didn’t burn so we would need some actual wood if we wanted to use it. I formed a big bed in one of the rooms along with a few wardrobes and cabinets in case we wanted to leave different things there though our belongings didn’t include much and I was pretty much done.

Finally. That was a pain in the ass. There were four rooms in the house two of which remained unfurnished but honestly I had no idea what to make of them. Then it came to me… We need a bath and a toilet. And though I decided not to make stuff from my old world I made an exception. I separated one of the rooms in two making a small room with a toilet seat.

Now you’ll be wondering “But what about sewage?”. Well the void can handle that…and no I don’t mean storing it in the void I mean using void magic to dissipate it. So instead of water on the bottom of the toilet there was a bunch of void energy flowing around which I made to erode non-organic matter. Since the toilet as well as the floor were made of void as well they were not affected.

I formed a huge bath in the other room. It would fit around ten people and still have space for everyone to spread out their arms and legs without worrying about the other people’s space at all. The problem was that I would have to make the water myself. I’ll create something to do it for me later. I learned a lot about alchemy in this world and that encompasses a lot more than just making different kinds of potions.

Now I was really done. There was still one room left over but I’ll think about what to do with it later. We also had a basement but that will also wait. Maybe I’ll make myself an underground study or something like that if I ever need it.

Now then the girls were waiting for me on the sofa so I sat down on the one opposite them to which they both reacted by getting up and sitting down next to me. Why am I so loved I wonder? I’m just some madman with power that could potentially kill gods. If anything I thought most people would be scared of me. Is it because I saved them? I don’t understand. Women are one of the things that no matter how much I racked my brain I could never figure out. I could make theories on quantum physics that would have won me noble prizes but women? Nope.

“So are you ready to talk yet?” (Lily)

“Sure.” (Kenos)

First I explained to them the conversation I had with Leon. They probably didn’t understand most of it so I started with that. I explained to them that we’ll be staying here for a while which they accepted really easily for some reason. Makes me feel stupid for feeling guilty over not talking with them about it first. Next I explained what we’ll be doing around the camp and that we’ll mostly be together since they couldn’t speak beastkin yet. Due to that they’ll put more effort into learning the language rather than training until they’re at least decent enough to speak it.

And after all that came the point where I had to talk about Kate. I told them about her. How I met her five years ago when she was in a desperate situation and failed to save her. I didn’t mention anything about dragons, goddesses or reincarnations but instead I told them that back then I was weak and was almost killed by the army trying to save her and that I needed five years in order to be able to move again. It wasn’t a total lie but I left out the details of it.

The girls were quite surprised by all this. Not by the thing about me saving a girl. By the part about me being weak and almost dying to normal soldiers. They asked me how I got this strong if I was out of commission for five years but I could only say that I just did. Even I didn’t know how I became the void’s incarnation. What would you call this? An avatar? I guess that works. Let’s just say that I’m the Avatar of the Void. The manifestation of the void. The void incarnate.

It was weird. I could swear that I was human before. Was I this all along? Or was it that I somehow became this? But how? I can feel that the void doesn’t have a will. It’s not sentient. From what I’ve analyzed so far I am the sentient will of the void. That just doesn’t feel like something that you “become”. It’s something that should either be there or not.

Sighing I decided to let the thought go. I was just running in circles. There was no way to find out how I became what I am. It was like if a math problem stated “Find out the value of x in the following sequence” and the sequence is just x. There’s no way to find it out cause there’s no other information to compare it to. For all we know x could be 1 or it could be 1 000 000.

After I let the thought go I started teaching the girls beastkin once again. Since constant learning could have a negative effect I let them take breaks from time to time during which they trained. It was nice having dedicated students. After the day was done we climbed into the bed so I could serve my role as a pillow for the two of them which were already acting as if this is the natural course of things.

Tomorrow is going to be the day I start working here. As a human in beastkin camp. I just hope nothing too bad happens. Even I don’t want to just cause bloodshed everywhere I go… but.. I hope Leon understand that I will do so without any hesitation if ever I feel like it.