Fixed a few contradictions, and added extra interactions between characters. Enjoy.

“Bring a girl called Shiina along with me to Ostmont. Are you serious? She got chosen…? Dammit. Even… even if you had expected it, damn it. Was it your plan all along?”

After terminating the telepathy signal from Elanor, I sighed. I don’t know the girl well, only speaking to her for a short while, but, if it’s a girl trained by Elanor, she would end up excellent.

Elanor, after all, had made a vow long ago to never take up an apprentice.

But this ruined the timing all the current plans… Not to mention, I can’t let Elanor attack yet… It isn’t worth losing our strongest strike force…

No doubt she had planned all of this. She definitely could have stalled all of this for 4 years, but she forced all of us to rush ahead by rushing me. I’m sure that she has a plan of some sort, or she is betraying all of us.

It seems that all I can do now is to trust her.

With a sigh, I went down to the stables, and waited.

She arrived about 30 minutes later, on a horse. Behind her was a mechanical round ball thing with a duck bill, and wings, and duck’s legs. And it has eyes.

And the eyes are looking around. I don’t get spooked often nowadays… but that is actually creepy.

“Erm… Hi?” She asked, stopping a bit away from me. I simply nodded and got on my horse. “We’re going to Ostmont. Let’s not waste time. We can reach in 2 days if your horse is fast enough.” And the horse started a steady lope, while Shiina’s horse and pack horse followed along.

We left the village silently, heading towards Ostmont. Behind me, she seemed to want to ask me a question, but I ignored her dilemma for a whole 2 hours, before she finally gathered the courage to ask me. “Erm… Are you fine with Elanor pushing you to escort me?”

“I’m assigned to the same mission overall, so I need to go there anyways. I’m more surprised that you are chosen. Didn’t you just apply to be an adventurer 2 days before?”

“Erm… yes… I’m also wondering about it.”

“…” Should I tell her about it?

No. She might run, and that’s more of a death sentence. The assassins will hunt her down instantly, and with her experience, she won’t last half a day.

At least if I keep her close I can protect her. I’m sure a few people started fleeing already, and the clearing squad is probably sent out to ‘clear them out’.

That includes the guild representative. Not even he has the confidence to survive for long.

Ugh.

“Is something wrong?” She asked, but I shook my head without turning back, “Nothing.”

“Nothing at all.”

I ended up getting worried of his words, and activated Ducky, sending him flying up. Ducky had been with me for a long time. I made it on my 3rd year with Elanor, although he wasn’t this advanced initially, it was the gradual improvements over the years that made it how it is now.

Dusk turned back as Ducky flew up, and stared at it for a while. “Is there a problem?”

“Is that… a… what does Elanor call it again?”

“Machine? Or Robot?”

“The first one. Is that one of it?” He was still looking up while his horse cantered along.

“It is, I made it a long time ago. Its name is Ducky!” I said proudly, expecting to get praised, before realizing that he probably didn’t know how good achievement is. Surprisingly, he nodded.

“That’s… really good… And the tablet as well? You made it yourself?”

“Nn!” I nodded happily. It feels nice to have people being impressed at you. Then I realized that he was still looking at Ducky, “Is something wrong?”

“No… I just thought of something…” He said, pulling a nib (or dip pen) and a notebook, and prepared to write. “I should really get one of Elanor’s pens… Wait, you should have one?” He suddenly asked just before he dipped the nib into an inkwell. I nodded, pulling out a ballpoint pen, one of my inventions a few years back, and handed it over.

“Perfect!” He started writing on the notebook a lot of words as well as a complicated diagram. “Yes… Yes… this will work.”

I silently watched him while he wrote, but after about half an hour, his head perked up and he pulled out a card. Looking through the tablet, I finally realized that there were goblins all around us. One of them jumped out before I can get out my cannon, but the card in Dusk’s fingers burnt.

Then he tapped me in the shoulder, “Wake up. Come on, let’s go.”

“EH??” My mind was blank. Just a moment ago, he was on his horse, but now, he was standing on the ground, tapping my shoulder. “Wait! What happened?”

“Go, go, go! We have little time!” He got on his horse who cantered away, and both my horses followed him. After a bit, I could see from Ducky’s camera, the goblin regained its motion, and it swung the air, falling to the ground with the lack of resistance.

“That is the time spell, Stop. I had to clear the effects with a Time Fix spell.” He said, returning to his writing, “Sometimes I would use Haste, if the enemy is strong, but a Stop is more effective in most cases. Also, use your duck better, I’m occupied here.”

Sorry, but you yourself are quite irresponsible yourself, suddenly writing stuff while travelling…

As if knowing what I’m thinking, he smiled, “I got us out of that situation. Would you prefer your head getting bashed? Now be a good girl and do what I said.”

I can’t refute that, but… that sounds so horrible. I hope that everyone isn’t like that… Well, Mel seemed quite nice.

He continued writing for about 3 hours, before calling us to stop for lunch. He took out a few utensils, before turning towards me, “Can you cook?”

“Erm… Elanor taught me a little…”

“Probably still better than me. I’ll get some meat.” He said, walking into the woods while I prepared. Elanor taught me a little because ‘girls need to know how to cook, else you can’t get boys’.

I refused, since the males at the workshops were… bad? I didn’t like them. Even so, she ignored my wishes and forced me to learn this. Luckily, I was thought to cook without a stove, although it’s much easier overall with Elanor’s appliances.

He returned soon, with a dark rabbit, which I cooked. It smelled and tasted… quite nice? Dusk seemed to like it a lot though, as he threw out comments on how delicious it was, “Damn, this is so good. I’ll clean up, get ready to go.” He piled all the plates and the frying pan I used, and activated a blue card. It burnt out, and the dishes as well as frying pan was cleaned.

What spell was that??? That’s… so convenient… why doesn’t Elanor have any of those cards?

“Come on, aren’t you ready yet?”

“Ah!” I sent Ducky to fly again, and got on the horse, which followed along behind Dusk. “What is that spell?”

“It’s a unique water spell called ‘Clean’.” And, while he seemed to want to say something, I ignored it and cut him off.

“Please teach me how to cast it!”

“I refuse. It’s too troublesome to teach you, even if I can.” He said, scanning the area while still on the horse.

“Eh? Don’t you just need to teach me the incantation?”

That’s then he threw a card that hit my face.

That took out 98 of my shield’s health!

The blue card has a strange drawing on it, consisting of various shapes and words. “This is?”

“A spell card of ‘Clean’.” Ah, so that’s what it is, no wonder I don’t understand anything. What the hell is a spell card… Oh! Elanor shown me a card about 4 years ago! It was a red card similar to this, and when used, it will fire a constant stream of fire for a few minutes before burning out!

“EEHHH??? You are the creator of these cards?”

He looked at me with a wondering face, before cursing slightly, “Elanor. Dammit. When did she? Meh, too lazy to care. Yes, I am.”

“I see…” Elanor told me that the person who made that card researched for about 8 years on these cards, about 4 years ago. By now, it would be 12 years? I have no doubt that it was some knowledge precious to him…

Then… Wait… Elanor said that he will be interested with the Library, right? “Erm… Dusk, if I let you use the tablet for a bit, can you give me some of these cards?”

He turned back, looking at me with his piercing eyes, “Elanor probably has something to bargain with me, huh? What is it?”

“Erm… a copy of all the books in Ostmont library since 2 years ago.”

That’s when he emitted a huge amount of pressure, directed at me. Was I wrong? Should I have used it as a last resort instead of my greed? But… those cards are….

I blacked out.

“Did I overdo it? Damn that Elanor.”

Elanor is just as bad as that ass of a spymaster. I can’t remember his name, not that I really care anyways. That woman has been secretly doing that many stuff behind me. Such an infuriating woman, she should just die.

I don’t deny that she makes really good machines though. The pen works wonders. Even so, sneaking into the library and getting copies of the books, I have no clue how she did it, but that is a really good job. I took the tablet from Shiina’s unconscious body while positioning her so that she won’t fall, and then held the black side of the tablet in front of me.

How do I activate this again? “Open.” Nope. “Open (magic language)” Still not right. Damn.

That’s when the screen blinked open, the words ‘Do you want a basic tutorial on how to use this tablet, Dusk?’ appeared on the screen.

Elanor is surprisingly considerate. Or is it Shiina who is considerate? Very well, I will gladly take this gift. “Huhuhuehehahahahahahahaha!”

Luckily, Shiina was totally out, else it would have been awkward.

Not that I care. It had been about 12 years since I have read these books…12 years huh… It really had been a long time… Drax…

I woke up.

It was already night time though, and in front of me was a plate of roasted meat. I took a warm chunk with my hand and bit into it.

Could use some salt.

Dusk was at the side, reading through my tablet.

Ah. My tablet. Is he sti- gufu-!

I accidently choked on the chunk of meat as I was thinking, and Dusk got up and walked over without looking, slapping my back. “Careful.”

“Ah… Sorry.”

He shook his head, and sat down beside me. He was reading through the books at an extreme speed, flipping though pages after pages and finishing a book within an hour. “Your food is getting cold.”

I took another piece of meat and chewed on it.

It’s hard, and it needs salt.

He kept on reading for some time, even after I retired for the night, and after I woke up. He hadn’t moved at all, but there were a few corpses of various monsters around us.

Even when occupied, he can still sense monsters and fight them without moving. What a stupidly epic guy.

Or is it normal around here? I can’t live in this world, he makes no sense at all.

I took the next shift, but he was sitting there reading all the time, and from what I see, he has no plans to get any rest. I activated Ducky, who had been charging up for the past 2 hours, and sent it up. While fully charged, it can fly for 8 hours straight before running out of the primary battery.

Ducky has 3 batteries, a primary one, which is used while scouting, a war battery, with more power for battles, and it has more capacity compared to the primary battery, but with the huge consumption, it can barely last 3 hours. The final one is an emergency battery, which, funnily, has more overall power than both batteries, but couldn’t be recharged, as it comes in the form of crystalized electricity.

I recorded various scenes while flying it around, watching through them through a screen in my cannon. Elanor tried to add this function to my power suit, but she didn’t have the capability for that, so instead it ended up in my cannon. Through the many types of cameras, I scanned the area for monsters.

As long as we take care of goblins, orcs or other humans, we will be safe, although after Dusk brutally murdered that many monsters, they started to avoid the area. But, after a few hours in, I randomly decided to check the ‘Mana Concentration Vision’, and ended up seeing a huge mass of mana, with a concentration of 8, moving towards the north. With the path they are taking, they won’t reach out camp, but… what is that? That amount of mana is huge! It is almost a tiny dragon!

But I couldn’t see any more useful information through the other visions; there was nothing except for movement using night vision, and using heat vision, there is only a huge mass of heat.

In the end, with no worthwhile information gotten, I gave up, and the night passed slowly with the occasional swipes of Dusk’s finger over my tablet.

“It’s time to go.” I said, getting up and onto my horse. Since I hadn’t set up my tent at all, there was nothing to be stored, and I had cleaned up my dish, as well as the frying pan, yesterday night. So there is nothing left. Oh, except for this plate. Thanks…Erm…

Anyways… It was time to go to Ostmont. I continued leading us along the path, while still reading. I really should get some sleep soon, but 12 years is enough for books to stockpile…

“Dusk! Orcs!”

“[Haste]” I pulled out a spell card and activated it. Instantly, everything around us slowed down, and we ran along at the same speed, while the orcs swung at nothing behind us.

How convenient. Of course, it wasn’t what I said when I was inventing this spell, but those 5 years of research was worth it.

We reached Ostmont by evening, and after showing the guards our entry pass, we were allowed into the huge city.

As usual, Ostmont is over extravagant. The huge castle is all but necessary, and same goes for the church at the side. I entered both buildings before, and they were so empty, not because there wasn’t people, but because it was so huge that it will take the whole city’s residents to fill it up.

Not that there are many residents left… It’s mostly adventurers and nobles now…

I brought… her… to the adventurer’s guild, and after leaving the horses at the stables, we entered the guild hall. Comapred to the castle or the church, this place was extremely packed. We walked through the crowd, with… the girl… holding the sleeve of my jacket, and we reached the receptionist.

“Dusk and …” Taking the chance, I looked at the quest notice I was holding, “Shiina. Reporting for duty.”

The receptionist checked through the list and nodded, “Understood. Shiina, your briefing will be in 5 days. Dusk, your briefing is in 6. Any questions?”

“Why are our dates different?” Shiina asked, standing in tiptoes just to look over the counter. “I thought we were on the same quest?”

“Indeed, you are, but Shiina is on group one, while Dusk on group two. Both groups has different tasks, although you will be tackling the same quest. Was that clear?”

“Oh. Ok.” She said, her face revealing the confusion in her, but still, she nodded. Since there was nothing left to do here, we retrieved our horses.

It was night already, and looking at the gibbous moon, I sighed. It was far too late for Shiina to get a room at this time, not to mention, it is more than likely that all inns are already full. Shiina probably didn’t notice, but I saw the adventurers camping outside.

“You don’t have anywhere to stay, right?”

“Um… I can get a room at the inn?” As expected, she didn’t.

“There won’t be any rooms left. Just take a room at my home.”

“Oh. Okay?” Shouldn’t you be a little more worried? I’m nervous of inviting a girl into my home! Even so, she followed me through the streets, to the library. Beside the library was a mansion, one that is quite large, yet empty. The torches around the house were lit, even when there was no ounce of life inside, and when we entered (after leaving our horses in the stables), I lighted the lamps. Although there seemed to be nobody living here, there was no dust at all, and the room had been aired out just recently.

That can only be explained by one person.

“She’s still here huh.”

“Who?”

“Well, you can take any room that isn’t marked ‘occupied’.” I said, pointing towards upstairs. “Just be careful of the devil, she would probably wake you up in the middle of the night and do something horrible for you.”

I laughed internally while she was frozen, and taking that chance, I rushed up to my room. She was still frozen in thought, or perhaps fear, when I entered the room.