"I heard rumors about a 'Crimson Scholar' living in a remote village, and Li Gan informed me that he had exchange a couple of letters with you," the man named Shiroe said. "If you wouldn't mind, I would like to share information with you."
Demon Queen surveyed the Round Table Alliance representative before her. Is he human? Or… Wait, shouldn't the menu tell us? How do we open it again?
"Ahem." Female Knight's voice cut into her thoughts, jolting her slightly. Their guests just stood at the doorway, unsure what to do during her silence. She glanced at Female Knight abashedly, and Female Knight winked back. "We'll be glad to have you."
Demon Queen curtsied hastily. "Where have my manners gone? Please, come in. We have tea ready for you. Right, Hero?"
"Yup, all ready, Demon Queen!" He gave her his usual confident thumbs-up, then beckoned them inside. "After you!"
After they had all taken their seats at the table, Demon Queen carefully surveyed her guests' positions. The two parties were sitting at opposite sides of the table. She sat in the middle, across from Shiroe. To his right sat the girl Akatsuki, and on his left, Sage Li Gan.
She'd managed to figure out how to open the menu again, and took a glance at their status screens. Shiroe was a Half-Alv Enchanter, which was the same class she possessed. His subclass was Scribe. If he was anything like the people she knew in her own world, this indicated that not only was he literate, he probably kept many records on hand and was thus quite knowledgeable about the world.
One thing she would have to work out in their discussion, however, was this "Half-Alv" race they both possessed. It seemed that among the Adventurer races, there was none like what she had in her own world, and so she had been sorted into a "Half-Alv" where her companions remained "Human." All she had gathered thus far was that the People of the Earth were fearful of Half-Alvs. Hero had reported to her, after their arrival to the village, that some of the villagers had asked if it was truly okay for her to be among them due to her race. (Her name hadn't helped matters much, either, though a village elder reassured her that it was among the "more normal" Adventurer names he had encountered in his lifetime.)
Meanwhile, Akatsuki was a Human Assassin. An Adventurer of the same class had stopped by in the area some weeks ago, and it seemed that true to their name, Assassins specialized in concentrated damage and speed, but were also quite frail. However, in this world, the name "Assassin" did not mean they necessarily worked as hitmen, and so Demon Queen felt no need to be particularly wary of an assassination attempt. Her subclass was Tracker, however, so perhaps she was a true assassin? It sounded like she was good at locating targets, if the name was any indication.
Li Gan, the man who had contacted her, was an Elf. His class was quite unusual; it was listed as Lore Master, which she had never encountered among any of the Adventurers. His status screen was also significantly less detailed than Shiroe's or Akatsuki's, an indication that he was a Person of the Earth.
A Scribe and a Lore Master. There was no doubt that these two were very knowledgeable about this world, and while that was on one hand a relief, it brought another set of troubles. She, Hero, and Female Knight were not of the same world as the other Adventurers that came because of the "May Revolution." They had come to discuss this world and trade information, but her knowledge about this world was severely lacking. There was little doubt that many of the terms they would throw at her would completely fly over her head, and that was never a good thing.
So when Shiroe began the discussion with a question, Demon Queen was completely unsurprised when she found herself digging for an answer.
When the door to the small house opened, and its three inhabitants stepped out, Shiroe immediately began analyzing them from their gear. The man who opened the door wore casual clothes, so it wasn't particularly indicative of his actual capabilities. However, the sword he carried at his waist looked to be powerful gear, even if he couldn't recognize it, and it was clear even from where it sat in its sheath that it was well-maintained. Actually, all three of them wore clothes unfit for the battlefield, so there was little doubt that they had dressed up for the occasion.
After a bit of an awkward silence—the red-haired woman, whose name in this world was "Demon Queen," seemed to be concentrating on something, though he was unsure what—they were welcomed inside. They were led to a table in what would be a dining room, where there were four chairs gathered around it. Right, they probably weren't expecting Akatsuki to come with me.
The man, whose name was "Hero," hastily pulled up a cleanly-cut log and asked Akatsuki if she was alright with sitting on it. She had no problem with it and promptly sat on it Japanese-style, to the slight curiosity of their hosts. The blonde-haired woman, "Female Knight," informed them that she would be brewing tea for them. He took a glance at her status screen, and she was indeed a Chef. She was likely one of many who changed to that subclass after the discovery that Chefs could prepare flavorful food.
Demon Queen stared intently ahead, making him panic slightly in worry that she was mentally dissecting him, only to realize that she was likely looking at his status screen. Nowadays, it was common to be "introduced" by your status screen—you didn't even need to ask a person for their in-world name, or to know what kind of role they played in battle. You just glanced at their status screen.
He peeked at hers in return. Another level 90 Half-Alv Enchanter, with the subclass of Demon King. Very oddly befitting her name, but Shiroe couldn't get a proper analysis of her abilities from it. Demon King was a purely role-playing subclass, granting not a single combat benefit. At most, people with the subclass received gifts from "Papa Demon King" who doted on them, and maybe some mild negotiation bonuses. However, it was nothing particularly noteworthy and was an unpopular subclass as a result. While Shiroe couldn't claim to know every Enchanter on the Yamato server, he was sure that the name of another Half-Alv Enchanter with such an unusual subclass would surely have reached his ears during the game era. Yet he never knew of her existence until Li Gan informed him of her.
He checked Female Knight's status again. A level 90 Human Templar. That was… not a class that existed in Yamato. It was one of the Western European server's exclusive classes and replaced the Cleric class. While he couldn't say that someone from that server wouldn't be on the Yamato server, usually for the 48 hours surrounding expansion pack releases, all players would be forcefully returned to their original game region until each server got their expansion update. It would explain, however, how another Half-Alv Enchanter with such a unique subclass escaped his notice; she didn't even come from the same server.
Perhaps they took a Fairy Ring immediately after the Catastrophe… It wouldn't be impossible for other servers—or should I say continents?—to be in a state of chaos.
Shiroe mulled over possibilities before checking Hero's status to see if it lent anything to his theory. Hero was a level 90 Human Paladin, yet another Western European server unique class. It replaced the Pirate class, or on the Yamato server, the Samurai class. He had the Brave Hero subclass, a Special Title subclass that was unpopular anyways for having rather middling abilities.
Their party didn't seem to have any weapon-attack class, and with a small traveling group of three people, they did not seem to be connected to any other group if they were living in an outskirt village. None of their subclasses provided any substantial benefit in combat. At the moment, none of them were in combat gear so he could not account for any equipment stats. Yet, on more or less their own, they managed to defend a town from a large swarm of monsters without any known help from the group at Choushi. They were at a significantly higher level than the goblins and sahuaguin, but even then, dealing with large mobs would still be very difficult, especially if the intention was to protect a town from being overrun.
Maybe the Western European server had learned some new tricks that hadn't yet been discovered in Yamato? Li Gan was right; this would provide an interesting discussion. But first, he had to make sure his suspicions were correct.
He cleared his throat slightly before speaking. "If this isn't too intrusive, may I ask if you came from the Western European server?"
This was exactly the kind of question I was afraid of…
Western European server, Shiroe had stated. From the world map that had been sent to her by Li Gan, she couldn't remember any such location name. Currently, they were in Yamato, a tiny island off the continent of Eureddo. There was the Land of Wen, to the far west on the world map, separated from Eureddo by a large stretch of ocean. Theoretically, if you headed east from Yamato, you could reach Eureddo as well by crossing the Athirds Ocean.
But "Western European" was completely foreign to her, as was the term "server." The only definition that matched her idea of a server was a person who literally served food or drink, but this was clearly not the meaning which Shiroe spoke of. He asked if she "came from" the Western European server, so clearly it was a region of some sort.
Before she could try and come up with a response, however, Li Gan butt in.
"Master Shiroe and I are very curious, of course, about the strategy you devised to defend this town. As you must know, we People of the Earth are limited in our combat ability. I am capable enough of defending myself from human attackers, but monsters are another realm that I couldn't possibly face up against. But it seems that the three of you here came up with a strategy that repelled a large amount of the demi-humans during the Return of the Goblin King."
Demi-humans. Goblin King. More terms that she didn't completely understand, but the strategy was simple enough for her to explain. Hopefully that could distract from Shiroe's other question.
"The strategy we employed was simple enough. As you may have noticed when you entered, we built tall, thick sloping walls around the perimeter. Those we began building even before the saturation attack of monsters, due to occasional monster attacks in the village. The monsters, unable to cut through the walls, would be forced to climb up," she explained as she gestured with her hands, mimicking the scenario.
"To delay their advance," Female Knight continued, "we poured boiling water down the sides of the wall, causing the monsters to lose their grip. A Sorcerer who took refuge in the village at the time used Fire magic to boil water from the stream nearby when he wasn't helping to fight the monsters himself. Then, with the monsters distracted, Hero and I were better able to take them down. Demon Queen used some of her spells to keep the monsters debilitated longer, or to provide more mana to the Sorcerer."
Shiroe placed a hand on his chin as he muttered to himself. "Hmm… Sounds like a combination of the Freezer and Mana Transfer strategies. A Freezer build doesn't sound like it would be effective on so many targets… However, by distracting the monsters without using up MP for spells, it allows them maximize their spell efficiency… It also puts the otherwise-defenseless villagers to work in protecting the town, as well, leading to an overall increase in efficiency…"
He looked back up, turning his gaze to Demon Queen. "It was certainly an effective tactic, but how did you know that the monsters would be debilitated by the boiling water?"
"It was mostly a wild guess," she confessed. "Well, they screech when they die or are attacked, so doesn't that mean they can feel pain? That was the reasoning I went on. Besides, the force of the water would be enough to at least knock a goblin or two down the walls and reduce their grip on the wall."
He seemed satisfied with the answer, and jotted some more notes down as Li Gan asked another question.
"I've thoroughly researched the magic in this world, and I have been quite curious about any potential new magic from other continents. There are many records of Adventurers undertaking grand quests and raids in search of strong enemies and monsters to fight. Have you heard of any potential new phenomenon occurring since the May Revolution? As a magical researcher of Miral Lake, I'm always researching such phenomenon, you see."
Demon Queen took a deep breath.
Revealing sensitive information about herself, Hero, and Female Knight was dangerous, since she had no idea how the other party would react. But at the rate things were proceeding, she wasn't sure if she'd already tipped that hand.
I don't care what you tell them, Female Knight had told her when she decided to agree to the meeting. Figuring out these sorts of negotiations are your specialty.
Don't worry about the worst that could happen, Hero continued. We'll protect you if need be!
She released the breath that she held, which caught the attention of their guests.
"Master Li Gan… Master Shiroe," she began. "I must admit something. Perhaps you already know this by now. It may be glaringly obvious, even. But the three of us—myself, Hero, and Female Knight—are not from the world which the 'Adventurers' come from."
Shiroe frowned slightly, but it wasn't a frown of anger or disgust; rather, it was one of deep thought and contemplation. Demon Queen wasn't sure if this revelation had sparked something in his mind, but she continued. "In other words, we are completely foreign to this world. We lack basic knowledge that is common knowledge to the Adventurers and People of the Earth. Forgive our naivete, but I'm afraid our knowledge would be of little use."
After a slight pause, Shiroe spoke up. "No, it's far from little use. In fact, that very naivete may be very useful for finding out more about this world."