Alice stared at Immortal Ethan, who had shown up to her morning board game session, and tried not to feel awkward. After her conversation with Immortal Ethan yesterday, she had realized that Ethan was more interested in her than before. Alice suspected it was because Ethan learned that she had reached her current level in a year, rather than sixteen and a half years. Reaching level 68 in a Class before turning seventeen was really impressive by this world’s standards, since most people reached somewhere between level 40 and 60 in their primary class by the time they reached retirement. But doing the same thing in less than a year was several times more difficult.

However, with an Immortal showing up to her board game night, Alice realized that she had underestimated just how much Ethan valued her levelling speed. He wasn’t just impressed by her levelling speed; he had now crashed the time she usually spent relaxing with her friends for reasons she didn’t quite understand.

She eyed Erkki, Arsi, and Laila, who had frozen like frogs being eyed like a snake the moment Immortal Ethan had entered the room, and surpressed a sigh. Cecilia was a little better, since Alice had updated her on being an apprentice of Ethan earlier, and Cecilia was used to weird stuff happening around Alice. However, even Cecilia seemed nervous when standing in front of one of the most influential people in Illvaria. Alice had let most of her acquaintances know the board game nights were open for anyone she knew, as long as they felt like showing up. However, she had never expected a literal Immortal to show up on a day like this, since she expected Immortals to be off doing more important things.

“So how do we play?” Asked Ethan, seemingly completely unaffected by the tense atmosphere.

Alice cleared her throat. “Ah… well, this is a game called ‘Terraforming the Western Continent.’ It’s set someday in the distant future, when really powerful Mages and [Enchanters] are working to settle the Western Continent, using extraordinary enchantments and Artifacts to drive back the monsters, control the massive quantity of mana present in the region, and turn it into a habitable place for humans to live.” Alice said, trying to settle the tense atmosphere. If Erkki, Laila, and Luka kept gaping at Ethan, Alice would probably die of stress.

Ethan nodded thoughtfully. “Is that so?” He said, looking over Alice’s board curiously. “I don’t think that a desert could exist on that spot. They usually form near mountains. They sometimes form for other reasons, but one definitely doesn’t belong on that spot.” Alice blushed. She hadn’t noticed that mistake. She saw Cecilia stifle a small chuckle, some of the other girl’s tension leaving as an Immortal poked fun at Alice’s game board. Then, Alice cleared her throat again. Even if she was stressed out by the tense atmosphere, having the flaws in her game board pointed out wasn’t the way she had hoped to remove the tension.

“I was trying to create an interesting game board. Since there aren’t any good maps of the western continent available, I made most of it up myself. I may have made a few small errors,” said Alice, hoping Ethan wouldn’t look too closely at the rest of the game board.

Ethan shrugged, giving her a more relaxed grin, as Alice went back to explaining the rules. By the end of it, she wasn’t sure how much information Erkki, Arsi, and Laila had retained. They were still paying much more attention to Ethan than the board itself. However, Alice didn’t want to re-explain the rules, so she hoped they would probably pick it up after a game or two. Honestly, she had only been able to play the original board game twice while back on Earth, and so she wasn’t entirely familiar with the rules yet. She just hoped that she was remembering how to play properly.

After that, the board game began.

Turns passed as the group tried to get back to a ‘normal’ board game session, but Alice noticed everyone but her was afraid to mess with Ethan. Even though Terraforming the Western Continent was a game built around sabotaging each other’s work, almost as much as it was built around actually terraforming the Western Continent and building civilization there, having an actual Immortal sitting at the game board meant that most people were afraid to target him. Laila, who was uncharacteristically prim and conscious of her image, eventually managed to make some awkward small talk with Immortal Ethan during the game session, which got Erkki and Arsi to open up a little bit to Ethan during the game session as well. However, everyone was unusually on edge for the first half of the game, and nobody was willing to sabotage Ethan’s projects due to his Status in real life. This led Ethan to an easy victory during the first game.

The second game was a little less tense. After having an Immortal sit around the table and play Terraforming the Western Continent for a few hours, the others finally started to warm up to Immortal Ethan. Arsi was very happy to talk with Ethan once he got more used to the Immortal’s presence, possibly because Ethan knew a lot about Magic, and Arsi seemed to look up to the man. Erkki, instead, seemed more afraid of messing up and causing Ethan to form a bad impression of him; thus, he refrained from actively participating in the conversation. Laila, for her part, remained uncharacteristically energetic, staying as prim and proper as possible. She was the most unnatural of the three, although part of that was just because Alice knew how much Laila usually enjoyed relaxing and taking things easy. Seeing her try to look energetic and proper just felt wrong.

All in all, the board game session was a fair bit more strained and less relaxed than usual, but by the end of the second game, everyone but Laila had at least started to calm down. Since they were running low on time, Alice decided to end the session there.

At the end of the board game session, Erkki, Arsi, and Laila left the building as if they were fleeing for their lives, which made Alice feel more than slightly amused. Cecilia, however, couldn’t leave, because this was her shop.

After a few moments of hesitation, Cecilia gave Ethan a small, respectful bow. “Honored Immortal,” she said, and Alice could practically feel the desire to be somewhere else radiating off of her friend.

Ethan gave Cecilia a small smile, before nodding at Alice as well. “Is this your friend?” He asked. “I recall hiring a [Hidden Bodyguard] for her as well…” Cecilia seemed a bit surprised at that, before she glanced at Alice and seemed to realize why it was relevant.

Alice nodded in response to Ethan’s question. “This is my friend Cecilia, yes. She knows almost everything about me, even from before I joined Illvarian society,” said Alice.

Ethan frowned, before giving Cecilia a closer look. “Is that so?” He asked. “In that case, it is a pleasure to meet you as well, Lady Cecilia. Lady Alice has spoken of you.”

“It’s an honor to meet honored Immortal,” said Cecilia, even though she had already said that earlier today. Alice realized her friend was being unnaturally stiff, and resisted the urge to chuckle.

“Out of curiosity, is this board game from your former home?” Asked Ethan, turning back towards Alice.

“Kind of. I modified it a lot. The game is originally about colonizing a planet near my home world using machinery. But since there isn’t any real usage of electricity in this world, and machines are a pretty foreign concept, I swapped out all of the mentions of electronics with enchantments, magic, and so on. And the western continent obviously didn’t exist back at home, either. But the original game I pulled the rules from did indeed originate from Earth,” said Alice.

“Planets, huh,” said Ethan thoughtfully. “On Luliv, the study of the stars isn’t very advanced, although there are still some [Scholars] who speak of the planets and stars of the sky. I wonder how different they are compared to your home dimension…”

“I figure they’re… probably similar, although the planets of this dimension are a fair bit more filled with mana,” said Alice, shrugging. “I mean, the planet is still a sphere, right?”

Ethan nodded. “It is a very well known fact that the planet is a sphere, yes. While it is very difficult to sail around the world, due to the high mana density of most parts of the planet beyond the central continent, numerous Perks and a few legendary historical voyages have verified this fact. It isn’t exactly a relevant fact in day to day life, but the planet is certainly round. Though I can’t help but wonder if the planets here and in your home dimension really are the same. You mentioned the idea of colonizing a planet, and I can’t help but wonder if the people of Luliv will eventually reach the same level of technology as your home world. I’ve never even heard of someone who thought about colonizing a nearby planet here; the very notion sounds incredibly strange to me. Yet, in the board game we played today, it’s treated almost as if it’s common sense to want to reach out to other planets.”

Alice nodded. “At home, we were starting to run out of space on our original planet. Since we have machines, and there aren’t any monsters to stop human expansion, we ended up taking over most of the planet. Human life improved by a great deal, and most corners of the world were incredibly well mapped out and explored. Although, a rather different set of problems arose from machinery and the endless march of progress, some of which humans on my home world have yet to solve.” Alice shrugged. “I imagine we’ll fix the problems caused by our rapid expansion eventually, but it’ll take a lot more time and research.”

Ethan nodded thoughtfully. “I hadn’t thought much of any problems that might arise from having so many powerful machines and so many weak people. I suppose if something like a car goes out of control, it could hurt the passengers, whereas on luliv, most riders are stronger than the horses they ride and so it’s not really an issue.” Ethan shrugged. “Anyway, I had actually come today with a different purpose. I wanted to speak with Lady Cecilia, although I did get somewhat distracted by the fascinating board game.”

“What do you need from me, Honored Immortal?” Asked Cecilia, doing her best to give Ethan a respectful, if nervous, nod.

“May I ask what level you are in your primary class?” He said. Alice’s eyes widened. It seemed that now that Ethan’s interest in Alice was heightened, he was also interested in investigating her friends, especially Cecilia.

“I’m getting close to 60 in my main class. Being around Alice lets me form all sorts of weird Achievements that boost my levelling speed, so I’m making pretty good time now, even if it’s nothing as ridiculous as her levelling speed. Why do you ask?” said Cecilia.

Ethan frowned, before nodding. “Level 60 by the time you’re physically 16… were you born a Mage?”

Cecilia nodded.

“So you were born with the slowed aging speed of a Mage… In that case, somewhere closer to 18 or 19 years old chronologically? You’re a little slow, but not bad…” Ethan nodded. “Have you considered any ways to level up faster, Lady Cecilia?

Cecilia frowned. “I’m mostly getting Achievements by helping Alice with her research, honestly. She has a lot of interesting bits of research she’s working on, and while I can’t help her with all of her projects, I can help with some of them. Those give me access to better Achievements, which boost my levelling speed, granting me better Perks, which make it easier for me to help out in more experiments…”

Ethan shook his head. “That’s not a bad pace for a regular person, but Alice has a really good chance of reaching immortality. And, at least right now, I don’t think your odds are great. Normally, I wouldn’t worry about it, but especially if you know about Alice’s past, I think it wouldn’t be a bad idea for me to invest in your levelling speed as well.” He paused. “Would you be interested in receiving some help in the future? I won’t take you as an apprentice of mine, because I don’t think you have the potential to justify it right now. But on account of you being Alice’s friend, I wouldn’t mind giving you some assistance, especially if you need things like materials and resources. Your shop location, for example, isn’t in the best position. If you had a more central location, you would have more customer traffic, which would help you level [Merchant] more. Along with [Enchanter], [Merchant] is your primary class, right?”

Cecilia frowned, giving Ethan a closer look. There was a mixture of emotions on her face as she processed Ethan’s offer. Excitement. Confusion. Worry.

“Why are you so invested in my levelling speed?”

Ethan frowned, before sighing. “I’ve just seen too many promising people fail to reach Immortality, especially because they didn’t want to leave their friends or lovers behind.” Ethan’s eye twitched, and Alice wondered if Ethan was also pissed off about Illa dropping her chances of becoming an Immortal to get married. It seemed like most Immortals and near-immortals were upset with Illa for precisely that reason, which made her feel more than a little amused. If she were living in Medieval Europe, high class members of society would be angry if a woman tried to step out of her role in society and become someone important, like a [Scholar] or a queen. Here, people would be angry for exactly the opposite reason. They felt she had potential, and were pissed off that she had abandoned it to marry someone who had little chance of reaching Immortality.

Cecilia sighed. “I want to work towards Immortality on my own. Don’t get me wrong – I wouldn’t mind becoming an Immortal, and I love working with my friend,” she said, nodding in Alice’s direction. “It wouldn’t surprise me if Alice reaches Immortality sooner or later. But I don’t want things to just be handed to me, either. I want to reach Immortality with my own hard work, if I do reach Immortality. And if I don’t, then… I guess that’s just what happens. It might be a foolish point of pride, but I want my actions to be mine alone,” she said.

Ethan frowned, before he nodded. “I suppose you are free to do as you wish, [Enchanter] Cecilia. Let me know if you change your mind.” After that, he turned towards Alice. “By the way, there was one other thing I wanted to inform you of. The first volunteer for your mana baptism observations has come. After some thought, I have let the Ethics Committee for Metsel know of your experiment in advance, so that they may observe the screening process for your experiment, as well as the experiment itself. I think it will be much safer for you if you remain in close contact with them during your experiment, just to make sure you don’t accidentally end up getting into conflict with them. Normally, it would be hard to get a few members of the committee to observe an experiment, but I have a little pull with them.” He grinned. “You’ll probably need to answer a few questions under lie-detection Perks, but you should be fine. They’re ready tonight or tomorrow night. Just let me know when you want to start.”

With that, he left.

The moment Ethan left, Cecilia whirled towards Alice and frowned at her. She seemed to hesitate for a moment, before she sighed.

“You told him?” asked Cecilia. “I mean, he’s an Immortal, and I’ve grown up hearing stories about him and the Sun Knight, but even so… I’ve been questioning a lot of things recently. And while everything I’ve heard about Immortal Ethan is good, telling him about your past still seems risky. Are you sure it was the right move?”

Alice nodded. “He’s the primary defense I have against the Society of Starry Eyes. Doesn’t it make sense to give him as much information as possible, to make it harder for the Society to pick up my real past and attack me for it? The fact that I have no past before the age of 15 in this world is already very strange. If the Society looks a bit into my past, and realizes I popped up near a giant chunk of broken dimensional mana a year ago, they might put everything together. Especially since the Society is actively researching dimensional magic and recording various broken mana floods throughout the world. It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if they eventually put everything together and start coming after me. If he knows more about my past, he can make it harder for people to track down the relevant information. And creating multiple ‘potential’ pasts for me also isn’t a bad idea, honestly. If there are a lot of people I could be, as long as there isn’t a definite record claiming I’m one particular person, it could also give the Society a headache if they investigate my past. Ethan mentioned trying to create a past making it look like I’m an escaped Slave of the Sigmusi Empire, and if I have a bunch of different ‘possible’ identities it could give the Society a massive headache if they try to investigate me. I think that’s Immortal Ethan’s idea; even if it won’t hold up long-term, we just need to buy time for me to level up and get stronger. Making things as confusing as possible until then makes sense.”

Cecilia frowned, but finally, nodded. “I suppose. Just make sure he’s really trustworthy.”

“To the best of my knowledge, he’s fine. I asked Illa about him through a letter, and according to the information she provided, he should generally be acting in my best interests, so long as I’m still on track to becoming an Immortal.”

Cecilia frowned. “Why only if you’re on track to becoming an Immortal? Why does that matter so much?”

“Immortal loneliness. Apparently, most Immortals are afraid of getting attached to people who might die in a few decades.”

Cecilia paused, as if she hadn’t considered that before, and then nodded. “I suppose. If you did your research before telling him about your past, I guess it’s not that big of a deal. But be careful. Even though Ethan is trustworthy, the more people that know about your secret, the more dangerous things could be for you in the future.”

Alice nodded. “I’m being as careful as I can, Cecilia. I just need to keep working hard and improving myself as best I can and stay safe until then. Immortal Ethan is the best chance I have of getting through all of this.”

Cecilia finally seemed at ease with Alice’s decision, so she changed the topic back towards the board game Alice had created for the day. Finally, after spending a few hours relaxing and chatting, Alice also left Cecilia’s workshop. She had an observation experiment to do.