There was a small gust of wind, bringing the fresh smell of wet grass and mud with it to the others.

A silent forest, much like one in which it was fairly easy to get spooked — like the one from late-night horror movies, a perfect place, as one might think, for a killer to do the deed — the only difference being that it was not night but right about mid-day.

Though the silent rustle of trees and howling wind passing from the different hollow objects didn't make it less spooky.

"Where am I?" — A light voice, belonging to that of a male, sounded in such a place but soon was completely drowned by the rushing wind and the rustling of leaves.

A bizarre scene indeed.

A child — black hair (reaching till his ears), black eyes (albeit fairly dull for a child) — that looked to be in his early 10s, standing all alone in a forest (?) that showed no sign of life in miles radius, such a scene was definitely strange enough for a viewer.

"Hm? Is it so?" — The child nodded to himself while his eyes stared blankly into the void. His bearing suggested that he was seeing something, something that was not visible to a naked eye, but he definitely could see something.

Of course, only the child was able to see it — A screen… like those found in RPG games showing the player's ID and his other statuses.

But there was no such thing on the screen that seemed to appear out of nowhere in front of him, but only a format of the text that seemed to form a coherent message to its reader.

—You have seven tries at random Servant summoning. Feel free to use them.

Even though such a situation definitely demanded some other explanation than just some random message that explained nothing of the child's current situation, he nevertheless seems to understand it.

"So I am summoned to a new world?"

Such a statement didn't make any sense, and if someone else was in the child's position, they would definitely be spooking out thinking that they might have been kidnapped — but not him.

Being summoned to a new world — what an absurd statement, but this was normal for the child. He had seen worse, and being summoned to a new world was definitely not even on the list of worst he had seen in his "long" life.

After all, his previous world was filled with such exotic and eccentric situations that even the destruction of the galaxy sounded normal to the child.

After a second glance at the screen — he was not in any hurry to use the random summon ticket that he had gotten from someone, probably the one who "summoned" him to this world.

Tall trees, rustling leaves, slightly wet mud on the ground — maybe it was raining some time ago? — and nothing else was in sight.

His sight, this time, went to his body — more precisely his small childish hands. He stared at them for a long time, since there was no way to tell the passing of time, he kept on staring at them before he closed his eyes as if trying to gather his thoughts.

Again, he nodded to himself, as if he had come to some kind of decision.

"Not only was I "summoned" to a new world but also was regressed back to my old age? My younger self? Hmm… the better way would be that I "died" and was reincarnated as a kid in this world?"

A baseless hypothesis, but there was no need to confirm it anyway — the child thought and nodded to himself.

It will not change anything, so there was no point in wasting his effort either. He wasn't really a curious type that would want his effort to be wasted — if he knows that anything will not give him the required output, he would rather not do it.

Like the current situation. Even if he knew how he got here, there was no point, so he ignored it — not knowing would not change anything, currently, he would still remain in the same position with the same thoughts.

He would rather think about it another time when the need of knowing the truth arises.

After coming to a decision, his next action was to raise his hand… and just stare at it? He looked confused for a second, before, again, another hypothesis was born — but this one was probably something he cared more about.

"I can't use any of my powers any longer. So I am a "normal" human again? Does that mean…"

Looking around, he spotted a small stick randomly laying under some tree. He walked towards it and picked it up, checking it from all angles.

"This would do." — he nodded before spinning the stick in his hand, pointing the sharp tip, or if it could be called one, towards his other hand.

There was no hesitation in his action, and he "stabbed" himself with the stick — it didn't pierce his hand, but he wasn't trying to do that either anyway.

A small cut appeared on his small hands, and looking at his frail appearance, anyone would feel pity for him, but his attention was on another thing altogether.

"I am not an immortal anymore…"

His eyes were opened wide showing the shock that he was feeling currently. The situation of finding himself in a new world, a new body, wasn't shocking enough for him than the fact that he wasn't an immortal any longer.

But just as the shock and the "joy" came, it subsided right away as the child exhaled the air from his lungs before shaking his head to discard the current thought process.

"I can't be sure until I die, but I can't take chances either." He sighed. "It could be that only my regenerative factor was taken away or maybe it was reduced due to the regression of my age? Or it could be that since my powers are taken away, so is the Star Force? Or maybe my powers are sealed and I can't feel them due to this reason?"

A baseless hypothesis, again… he didn't mind them, but too many of them were also not a situation he wanted to face himself with. Too many hypotheses meant that he had no idea of his current situation, something that could impact his future heavily, he can't have that.

"So… should I try by killing myself?" — the thought came and went as fast as it came. Even if he has no attachment with his life, the thought of doing suicide made him sick. It felt like he was running away, showing his tail to whatever enemy, his life, in this case, maybe.

He was not a coward, so the proposition of trying to commit suicide to know his current situation was discarded as fast as it appeared in his mind.

"But no powers huh… definitely a new feeling after such a long time."

He clenched his tiny hands, over and over, as if trying to get used to his "new" body and the new feeling that came with it.

After spending some more time examining his surroundings, from which he got nothing, he decided to focus back on the screen now — not like he found anything worthy in the place he currently was. There was nothing, no settlement anywhere near, at least till where he checked and till where his sight could reach.

He didn't think that he was in some jungle though since it didn't give the same smell like that of the jungle nor was it as dense as jungles would be.

Though deforestation was a thing in my world, not sure about this place — a small useless thought that passed from his mind before he focused back on the screen.

Summoning — he wasn't unfamiliar with such a term. He has heard of this term many times in his past life and has used the same word many times too.

The thing that caught his attention the most was the "Servant" part.

What did the screen mean by the word "Servant"? This word could be interpreted into many different meanings. And if it was attached with something like "summoning", the child could think of hundreds of things.

Angels, Devils, Demons, Monsters, Demi-Humans, etc.,

He could name hundreds of things that matched the description of "summoning a Servant", if not for the way "Servant" was highlighted in the message.

It meant that it held a special meaning, something that normal summoning didn't have.

"If…" — a long-forgotten memory hit the child, making an unconscious smile appear on his face, "If that is the case, then this might not be that boring."

He raised his hand, blankly staring at the screen, before thinking of summoning a Servant, wondering if that is how this will work — "Oh!" — It worked!

A magical circle bloomed below his feet, extended to the diameter of five meters, releasing an intense light — "This…" — instead of anything appearing out of the magical circle, the child felt as if his body was being rejuvenated before headache hit his head, a piercing pain as if someone had stabbed on his head.

It didn't make him groan, instead, a thoughtful expression appeared on his face.

Soon, the intense light of the magical circle died, but the child stayed in his position — a hand holding his chin, his eyes narrowed a little, and him being drowned in the sea of thoughts and assumptions that kept on hitting his head like a stick on a drum.

Time to time, he would nod to himself, while other times he would again become thoughtful — the same process repeated for some time before he finally released the air from within his lungs that he held without knowing himself, an unconscious act of him as he was deep in his thoughts.

He looked at his side, towards the tree towering himself before he raised his small hand and pointed his finger at it — Fire Arrow — A small flame appeared in front of his finger before it was extinguished right away.

"I see… Star Force has fallen all the way back to zero…"

Star Force — Like Mana, an energy that was released from the Earth, Star Force was the energy that was released from the stars themselves. It was the source of energy that the child used in his "past life" and something that he had thought he lost just a second ago—No! He indeed had lost it but gained it again just now.

"But immortality is not there any longer… it changed to "eternity" huh…"

Just now, when he tried to summon a "Servant" — instead of summoning one, the child felt unknown… or not… memories forced into his mind. And with it came the powers that he had thought he lost—No, the right way to say it would be that he was given something like that of powers from his past life but different at the same time.

The only addition would be — "I am in the DxD world…" — A small smile couldn't help but creep over his face when he said it, but it soon was suppressed by him before he again refocused back on the screen which now showed six tries.

An unknown and yet a familiar feeling arose in his heart and body, something that he thought he might not experience in his life — Servants… he now knew what it meant, and to say that he was not excited by the prospect of it would be a lie.

'A living gacha! Why would I not be surprised?'

Taking one deep breath to calm his excited heart, he raised his hands once more and the already etched circle on the ground once again released a blinding brilliance.

The child eagerly waited for his first rol—Servant.

Soon, the light started to die out revealing a hazy silhouette of a person which soon became clear to him — She wore beautiful green clothes, clad in verdant green. Her cold sharp eyes held a beastly glint.

Her hair was stretched long and unkempt, and it was completely lacking in silkiness that would be found in those of noble birth — a beautiful beast in human form, that might be the correct way to describe her.

The most eye-catching though would be two things (?) or animal ears — like that of a wolf — over her head and the long stretched tail on her back. If before she was compared to a beast, she looked like one now — the best way to describe her would be a breathtaking beautiful demi-human with a beastly gaze.

"Are thou my mas—ter…" — she didn't finish speaking before her eyes landed on the small child in front of her, who was looking at her with a dull appearance.

He wasn't wearing anything or if the thing he was wearing could even be called clothes — it was just a rag, and that too tattered from many places, showing most of his skin, and the small cut on his arm added more to his miserable appearance.

To anyone looking at him, their first thought would be — what a poor child, he must be living a hard life, and the scenery of deserted forest didn't help much in this regard.

"Are you alright, child?" — as if in an ephemeral dream, her cold looks vanished and the overbearing aura of the beast around her subside to almost non-existence.

Instead, now her face held deep worry and care of the child in front of her.

"I am alright, thanks for asking." The child nodded before looking at her with the same dull face, but his excitement was already at the peak within his mind. "What is your name?"

Hearing his reply, the woman stopped the hand that was approaching to check his health before a small sweet smile appeared on her face — "I am Atalanta, also known as Chaste Huntress. I am a Servant of Archer Class, it is nice to meet you."

Her manners, it would be hard for one to associate her with the same woman who gave looks enough to kill someone with it and the pressure enough to make one easily piss their pants — instead, she looked like a neighbor's Big Sister who would also give you a candy if you see her.

"Noah…" A small pause, as if he was thinking about something, before he nodded. "...Noah, that is my name."

A sad expression appeared on Atalanta's face before she crouched down, at Noah's level, who looked at her with confusion before she opened her hands and tightly hugged him.

Her hand gently rubbed his head while she pressed him further into her bosom — "It is alright. Even if you are left alone in this place, I'll do EVERYTHING and ANYTHING I can to make sure nothing happens to you. You will not be alone anymore."

His confusion soon turned to understand as he realized how he sounded to an outsider's perspective — it indeed looked like he just came up with a name himself, as if he wasn't even aware of his own name. Wasn't that the exact same behavior of someone abandoned without knowing of his own origin? And his appearance added with the surroundings added an extra touch to all of this.

'But this feeling is also not so bad…' He internally nodded at the softness of Atalanta's chest, and of course her warmness…

"Anyway, Atlanta…" After she finally calmed down from her "emotional" state, Noah looked at her face and asked, "Did you get the common knowledge of this world?"

It was an important question.

If his memories served right, then the Grail would provide the common knowledge of the world and the current era to the summoning Servant — but he was not sure about the summoning he did through… the screen in front of him.

He needed some input to make sure which one of his hypotheses was right.

"Indeed. I have the common knowledge of this world, Master. I am quite surprised to see that we are in a new world." — She nodded, but her expression with which she looked at him worried him, but he chose to ignore it.

Anyway, it was in her lore — he dismissed it with such a thought.

"Then…" He rubbed his chin for a while, before asking another question, "Did it provide you with the knowledge of the current place, where we are?"

Atalanta shook her head, "No. It has only given me the basic knowledge of the world and the current era, forces, and nothing else."

"I see…" Noah nodded while in deep thought before Atalanta's voice brought him out of his thoughts.

"Master… are you not aware of the place where we currently reside?"

"No… I was here when I opened my eyes."

"Noah…" Atalanta's face further melted before she again crouched down and hugged him, "Forgive me for saying something so sensitive."

'Hmmmm… This MIGHT get annoying pretty fast…' — it was not like he didn't like getting hugged, and that too by such a beautiful woman, but if she hugged him over and over to comfort you thinking that he is a kid… it indeed could end up getting annoying.

"...it is alright, Atalanta. Just like you, I am also not from this world, and I am not a kid either, so you don't have to worry about it." — indeed. If one were to look at his age, then who knew, he might be the oldest person in this world.

"But that still doesn't change the fact that you are still a child, Master." She said with a serious face, staring at him, "So please leave everything to me, I'll make sure to execute your every command to its end."

Looking at her face that silently said — "I am not doing it otherwise" — Noah became silent. He was quite familiar with women and he could confidently say — I know everything about women that I know nothing about.

He knew that Atalanta had vowed to protect every child, but he didn't know that her… "love" for children would go this deep. To the point that if you are in the body of a child, you would be considered children in her eyes.

'As I've thought, this could be problematic and annoying…' — but, in the end, he chose to ignore it. He can't do anything to change her mind when she is determined to follow it, he can only suggest in the end after all.

And he was sure that even if he harshly rejected her… "love", it wouldn't change her behavior towards him. He could only blame the body in which he was residing.

"Then do as you like it." — 'Take a step back to see the immensity of heaven and earth… or something like that, I don't know, it has been a long time. Does it even fit in this context?'

"Can you scout the place then? At least a settlement around here." — while thinking of a random Chinese Proverb from his "past" life, Noah looked towards her and said.

"Of course, leave it to me."

Atalanta nodded before, in a flash, she vanished. Noah couldn't follow her moment with his eyes, making him realize the fact again that he was back to zero — "Really… It is not as exciting as I had thought it would be."

Shaking his head, Noah looked back at the blinking screen before again diving into deep thought.

Six tries, unknown place, ragged clothes, a child body, new world, new powers — taking in all those facts, he could pretty much guess the identity of the person who could have done all of this.

"Definitely a strong person…" — Leaving his dead-ass jokes aside, Noah again focused on the screen before ignoring it.

"I'll summon them once I am in a more…presentable appearance and place. This is definitely not the best place and I would not want another case like Atalanta."

The only reason he has summoned Atalanta was to get some kind of strong protection, and he was definitely not disappointed — in destruction only, she can easily reach a Satan-Class.

'Can I check her parameters?' — Noah thought before a screen popped in front of him.

Indeed. She could easily destroy a city or two and cripple a country or two — Noah nodded to himself, definitely a force enough to protect him in this godforsaken place where boobs reigned supreme

Once more, he took a look at his surroundings before finding a place under a tree. Walking towards it, he sat down and relaxed. While Atalanta was out there searching for any place civilization, he might as well get used to his… new status.


She was born as a princess of the natural paradise — Arcadia. But even as the princess of the natural paradise, she was abandoned on the mountains immediately after she was born — shunned by her father who desired a son instead.

But she survived — left alone in a mountain, as a newborn, she survived. All of this is due to the protection of Artemis, a virgin goddess who felt pity for her.

Pitying her, Artemis decided to send a female bear, the sacred beast of the goddess, to nature the girl by giving her milk and raising her up.

For all that Artemis did for her, even if it was out of pity, Atalanta pledged her eternal loyalty to her — even going as far as to take a vow of virginity despite the fact that she held great love for children and had wanted one for herself.

She was left all alone in the mountain range after her birth, as a child, who had known nothing and couldn't have known either way, if not for Artemis, there wouldn't have been Atalanta today.

Due to her own childhood, Atalanta held a deep love for children. She would help any child in need as a gratitude to her goddess, Artemis, as to how she helped her when she was left alone as a child.

When she was summoned into this… new world, a completely new world than the one she had ever seen or heard of, but the knowledge she was provided with lied less.

Angels, Devils, Gods, Youkai, and all other creatures — they lived on Earth. Such a thing was not possible in her previous world where the Age of Gods and Heroes had ended, the reality shouldn't have been able to handle the presence of such beings, but it was not the case in this world.

This made her think: maybe the Age of Gods has not ended in this world?

The concept of different worlds was not new to her as such thing was quite normal in her previous world, something that every mage, magician, or any other supernatural being was completely aware of — but Atalanta knew, fully knew that this was not the same world; the knowledge given to her said so explicitly.

Of course, she can decide to not believe such knowledge, but she will not ignore the validation of her Master.

Her Master — he was a child. Just like her, how she was left alone after her birth, he was left alone in this world, in this lonely and deserted mountain range.

Even though he had admitted to being an adult, Atalanta still saw him as a child. Even if he was an adult, that still doesn't change the fact that he IS a child now — and she will never leave a child alone, especially, if he is in need of help.

So when her Master asked for her help, to scout the area around, Atalanta didn't shy away from executing the order.

She can't let her Master, who was a child, remain in this mountain range for long — he deserved this world's all luxury as how others did. Not only him, but all children that were in danger like her master did the same, and Atalanta will make sure such a thing happens.

One step after another, she vanished from one place to another, her figure was not seen by the eyes as she traveled at the speed that could easily be considered that of a jet or maybe even faster.

Even though the path in front of her was uneven and rough, filled with different obstacles that would hinder any normal person greatly, Atalanta crossed them as if they didn't exist for her.

Her skill, Crossing Arcadia, ignored such obstacles for her and allowed her to move unhindered completely.

One step after another, Atalanta finally saw something appearing in her vision — even though it was quite far from her current position, it was still vividly visible to the eyes of the huntress.

She abruptly stopped on a tree branch before her eyes fell upon the small animal some distance away, that was moving in the direction of her Master — a harmless animal and she was sure that let alone hurting her Master, this animal wouldn't even be able to hurt any other person.

But…

"Kek!" — a cry that sounded like the desperate wail of a dying animal, it died.

Even if it was not dangerous, she can't let it approach her Master when he is "injured" and all alone in the forest. She had made sure to kill all resemblance of life around her Master, otherwise, she wouldn't leave him alone in this place when there is no one to protect him.

After making sure that the anime was dead, Atalanta again focused back on the civilization that has appeared in front of her eyes.

Since she had already gotten the common knowledge of this world from the… grail (?) — if it can be called one now — and wasn't surprised to see modern technology and architecture.

She was more concerned about any potential object or thing that can be dangerous for her Master, especially, Devils — no matter how much she hears this word or whatever knowledge was provided to her from… the grail, Atalanta still was highly cautious of them.

It can't be helped but their race itself was not considered a race that could be trusted in the least, and Atalanta was not going to change her view just because of the knowledge given to her about this world and the races particularly.

"I wonder if Lord Artemis of this world is as compassionate as the one from my world." — she softly muttered the random thought that came to her mind before focusing back on her task. She has all the time in her life to think about Lord Artemis, she should focus on her current task first as to not let her Master wait too much.

Buildings made-up of stones and concrete, houses made-up of wood, solidified payments, but seeing at the people and the amount that was passing in front of her eyes, while also taking in the sound of footsteps she was hearing, Atalanta determined that this was a Town and not a City.

And while talking about people's clothing and the architecture — matching them with the knowledge she has received, it was a Town in country Japan.

After determining the country and the scale of the "settlement" in front of her, Atalanta again vanished from the tree and appeared on a building in the center of, what she could tell, was a plaza and the building on which she was should be called Clock Tower.

The view of the whole plaza was available from this place and one could see the hustle-bustle of the busy streets, but she wasn't here to see such scenery.

Her eyes scanned the whole plaza, ignoring the weak humans that were swarming it like ants and bugs from her place before she caught a single word on many shoes that held the same word on their nameplate — Kuoh.

She nodded.

— Japan, Kuoh Town — after she found out the name of the place and its destination, Atalanta vanished and ran back to her Master to provide him with the information.

Though she would like to stay there first to make sure no danger is present there for her Master, sadly, she is not an Assassin who can walk "freely" without being noticed nor does she have Presence Concealment of Assassin Class — though she indeed can hide her presence, she is a huntress after all. How can she hunt if she can't even hide her presence first?

"But I can't leave the Master alone for too long." — He was all alone in the forest, and despite knowing that as long as no supernatural entity appeared in front of her Master, he would be alright, Atalanta wasn't willing to take any chances.

He was a child, left all alone in a forest, she can't leave him as such for too long.

And so, with a burst that barely produced any reaction to her, the place where she placed her foot, Atalanta, vanished from the clock tower.

Traversing through the forest with overwhelmingly ease, she appeared back at the place where her Master was — calmly sitting on a rock under a tree, his eyes closed as if meditating.

She could feel slight fluctuations of strange energy around him, though she couldn't tell what it was — it was neither Mana, Ether, nor Divine energy, but as to not disturb her Master — he might be doing something urgent and me disturbing him might cause him a backlash — Atalanta decided to stand beside him like a loyal maid, making sure no external faction end up hurting her Master.

It was nothing she can't admit, but she has a great love for children. So, even if her actions may seem excessive to an outsider, to her, it was normal — anyway, they were in an unknown territory where Angels, Gods, and Devils walked like normal human beings, she can't relax easily when any danger can appear at any time.

The whole forest again plumbed into silence with only the sound of rustling leaves and the wind indicated some form of activity. With Atalanta killing every animal around them, the silence was definitely not something a normal person would appreciate — even birds were not given mercy at the hand of her arrow that seemed to appear like a grim reaper's scythe to any living entity around them.

She was a huntress. Who was, technically, born in a jungle and have grown up in one. And so, her moral values were highly different from any normal person or even other supernatural entities.

The concept of "Strength makes might" or "Whoever has the heaviest fist is the winner" was highly engraved within her. She won't say that she despises weakness but neither does she would say that she appreciates weakness.

In a jungle, the weak never had any rights but being the food of the strong — in Atalanta's eyes, what she did might look cruel and unjust to others, but to her, it was the right thing to do.

The weak only has one role and that is to be a food of the strong — and this concept not only applicable to animals but humans were the same to her, excluding, of course, children.

That is why, when she killed — or massacred — a living entity in a miles radius around her Master, she felt no sympathy or any emotional fluctuations. It was like a tiger killing any other animal, either for food or enjoyment, but there was no emotional sympathy attached there.

Soon, the sun that hung in the center of the sky started to sink over the horizon ever so slowly.

The wind had long died down, making an eerie silence descend in the forest, that was now devoid of any light and living — complete darkness where even seeing more than a foot away might cause some strain to a viewer's eyes.

Though such obstruction of less visibility was no problem for the huntress who was used to such dark nights. It was her home turf, as a huntress.

"Nothing much changed. It seems like most methods from my previous world that could be used to increase my strength have been limited? Or perhaps this is due to the difference in the Worldly Laws? I will have to do some more experiments to determine what is "allowed" and what is "not"."

The huntress, hearing the childish voice of her Master — thought the words that came out of his mouth sounded anything but what a child would say in a deserted silence forest — she gazed towards him.

He was holding his chin, slightly rubbing it from time to time, while nodding to himself.

"Is everything alright, Master?" She worriedly asked. After all, her Master has been sitting like that for almost the whole day now.

"Nothing of much attention." He shook his head slowly before looking towards her with the same dull appearance from the morning. Such an appearance, as if a smile was a luxury to him, it pained her to see. But she chooses to remain quiet, scared if she might hurt his feelings — appearance talk has always been a sensitive topic, and even she can agree to it.

"Did you find anything during your… scouting? A city or a town perhaps?"

"Yes. According to what I could gather, from the architecture and the clothing of people, we are in Japan and there is a town, about 10 miles away from here, called Kuoh."

"Anything else?"

"I could feel many, albeit quite… weak, magical fluctuations all over it. There is a high chance that multiple supernatural entities are residing in that town. If you are ever so required, then I can clear them out for you."

"Hmm… No need." Her Master made a thoughtful expression before waving his hand and denied her suggestion, even though she was kind of disappointed. She wanted to see the Devils of this world first hand and might even fight with them, though chances of meeting one might be quite low, they were not null in the end.

After all, Angels won't be chilling on Earth's ground and neither will Gods — so it could only be either Youkai or Devils, maybe some other bizarre entity too.

But maybe her Master saw her disappointment when he looked towards her as he softly said, "No need to be disappointed. If you want a fight, there will be many opportunities in the future. We are in an unknown territory currently, being cautioned is alright. We first need to determine what can be considered our "enemy" and what can be considered an "alley" — a distinction is important in this case or we might end up making everyone around us an enemy with no ally to guard our backs."

Of course Atalanta understood this point more than anyone. Even though she didn't care about the weak and followed the strong doctrine, she wasn't stupid — she also knew that the weak could be used as cannon fodder and strong can be made into an ally, after all, she also had such allies once in the past…

"Though going in blind, I don't mind it either… only if I had held my previous powers. Sadly, currently, I am no stronger than any other kid. So I'll have to depend on you from now on."

"Of course Master! You can leave your protection to me! I'll make sure to fill any person who dares to hurt you with as many holes as I can within their bodies with my arrows!" — It wasn't like she was super loyal to her Master. Just that… he was a child… and she would do what she had just said to protect him.

If it was an adult in front of her, instead of a child, Atalanta was a hundred percent sure that even though she will follow her Master, the will of protecting him till her last breath wouldn't be within her mind — she would only follow him to complete her wish, to save every child in the world, and if he can't be useful in such cause, then she wouldn't mind killing him and choosing a new Master — such was the rule of the jungle and Atalanta was brought up in a jungle.

"I appreciate it." Her Master nodded before looking up in the sky, looking at the moon that hung up there, showering the world with its all glory, before he said. "We lack money for sure…"

He looked down at his tattered robe before sighing, "And I would need money to buy new clothes. Well, I guess, we will use "magically" produced money as our initial use and will look for another source of income later. Anyway, as long as the shopkeeper won't have the money checked for counterfeit, I think we will be alright."

Atalanta didn't say anything but silently stood beside her Master. She, even though held the common knowledge of the world, had no idea of how to make money or how to live a stable life in this world.

"Let's go Atalanta. Can you take me to the town?"

"Yes." She nodded before crouching down and was about to pick him up before he raised his hand in panic (?), "WAIT! STOP!"

"What is it?" She tilted her head to the side and questioned, not understanding the behavior of her Master.

"Just get on your knees and I'll hang behind your back, no need to carry me like some child. As I've said before, I'm an adult in the body of a child, so you have no need to treat me like one."

"But Master, you are—"

"Yes I get it, I am still a child despite being an adult. Now can you get on your knees please?"

Atalanta nodded with a small smile before bending down, showing her back to him that he climbed on with a sigh.

"Good. We can go now." — and with a nod of confirmation from the huntress, they vanished from there, leaving the silent forest in its "initial" stage of loneliness.

As he had thought, Atalanta's behavior was going to get annoying if she kept on treating him like a child.

He had no hate for her nor did he really care how she treated a child, but the fact here remained true that he was NOT A CHILD but an adult in a child's body — but even though she knew this, she refused to treat him like one.

And this annoyed him a lot, but such thoughts and feelings were suppressed right away, making Noah narrow his eyes as he moved at a fast pace towards their destination.

Now that he thinks about it… isn't his emotions getting suppressed whenever they reach a certain height?

No. More like "killed" than being suppressed — Noah thought.

Since the time he has come to this world, every time, whenever his emotions reached a certain height, they would be "killed". It wasn't that evident at the start since he didn't really have any interactions with others, but now…

'If I remember correctly, I did have one such ability back in my past…' — it has been a long time, so it was hard for him to remember everything from the past.

Time was a slow poison that would eat away everything slowly but surely — it was hard for him to remember even the faces of his parents, let alone anything else of less importance.

'Let's not think about such things so early in the game…' shaking himself out of the depressing thoughts that were about to arouse within his mind, Noah concentrated on his memories, trying to remember this one specific skill that he had created back in the past, some time ago.

"Ah!"

"What happened Master?!" Atalanta abruptly stopped before asking him, maybe thinking if something had gone wrong, "Was I moving too fast for your comfort?"

She indeed was moving quite fast, to be honest.

"No, it is alright. Forgive me as I just remembered something, nothing of importance, so you can continue."

"I see… but if you feel discomfort by anything, please make sure to inform me."

Noah nodded before Atalanta continued her sprint.

Emotional Stabilizer — he finally remembered.

Back in the days, when he was still just youth and quite a hot blood, he would always get emotionally rallied up during fights or stuff — he wasn't the brightest star indeed.

So as to remove such a fatal weakness in his behavior, he created this skill. Initially, its purpose was to remove any form of emotion that might, directly or indirectly, end up affecting his decision or fight, but nothing goes the way you want and Noah found it out at that time.

The initial purpose was indeed covered but instead of "remove any form of emotion that might, directly or indirectly, end up affecting his decision" the effects changed into "kill any emotion that exceeds a certain limit and starts to affect the body, for example, heartbeat".

But he wasn't worried at that time thinking "Nothing much changed, I can accommodate to such changes. Since it is working, I'll think about the aftereffects later" — indeed, he wasn't the brightest.

Later, when he knew that this skill was going to fuck up his life way too much, he decided to remove it but he found out that the skill was, like a parasite, attached itself to his body and soul — becoming impossible to remove without hurting his soul and so he lived with later life with the skill.

Though, of course, with time, he started to get more and more control over it, but it still didn't change the fact that the skill was still there.

Noah nodded to himself as they moved from one branch to another, the lights of the Kuoh already started to become visible to his vision.

He thought only for a second or two before discarding the thought about the skill — as long as it wasn't going to get into his way in the future, thinking about it currently was useless.

And even if he thought about it, he had no way of removing it without fucking up his soul — 'Well, at least, I can easily control the skill now and stop it if I want a certain emotion not to be "killed".'

The sound of town, that introduced itself to his ears, distracted him out of his thoughts as he looked up towards the light uptown in front of him — Atalanta had stopped over a high tree, so he could pretty much see the whole town with the help of his peripheral view.

Looking at it, Noah ascertained that the knowledge of the country that Atalanta had provided was indeed true — he had lived in Japan for quite some time back in the past, so one look was all he needed to know that this place was indeed Japan.

After getting down on the ground with the help of Atalanta, Noah looked towards her and her clothing with a thoughtful look and asked, "Atalanta, can you go into your Spirit Form? Your clothing… they might look way out of place."

He had no idea if the concept of cosplay existed at this time, so he could only have her go into her Spirit Form. At least, until they find her some clothes to wear.

Though now that Noah took a close look at her clothes, he wondered how in the seven heavens were they not falling down from her body.

She was wearing a corset that held her… swelled up chest within them. He seriously wondered how it was held in place with all those movements that she just made previous to reach their current position — physically, it shouldn't have been possible.

'Hmm… now that I think about it… wasn't most clothes that Servants wore defied physics? Like Ozymandias' spiky metal ribs that'd cut him every time he breathed or bent slightly or Ishtar's bra might take off her nipples if someone bumped her slightly or even Cu Chulainn shoulder guards that seemed to prevent him raising his arms above his shoulders? Guess you can't apply common sense to anime logic."

"I can't Master." Atalanta shook her head in denial, making Noah raise his brow.

"And why is that?"

"Because I am a "normal human" now."

'I would call you anything but a "normal human" though…' such thoughts didn't leave his mouth.

"What do you mean?" — was she summoned as a human? This… might be possible — Noah thought while waiting for her answer.

"It seems that when I was summoned, by some miracle or not, I was summoned as Huntress Atalanta and not as the Servant Atalanta. I am a fully-fledged human with flesh and blood."

"This…" — does that mean she can procreate? Ahem! What am I thinking all of sudden? — he frowned a little before such thoughts were thrown out of his mind. It wasn't time to think about such… thoughts. He had his whole future to think of such things.

'But still… interesting… I'll search for it later.' — making a mental note of it, he looked back at the virgin huntress.

"Then you can follow me, but try to reduce your presence. I'll go and buy clothes for both of us." — he hardly imagined that someone would attack him but having extra protection never hurt.

"I understand Master. As an Archer, don't worry, I can fully protect you from long distances."

Noah nodded before starting to walk towards the town and entered its street sometime later — dim lights had lightened it up as people moved about its streets with different facial expressions; happy, excited, jovial, sad, depressed, frustrated.

No one put any attention towards Noah in particular as if he didn't exist among them. This was indeed a bizarre experience when such a conspicuous child was walking along a crowded street and no one was paying any attention to him.

Presence Concealment — it wasn't a skill but more like an ability that Noah had developed in his long life. It wasn't hard or anything as anyone who had lived and seen enough of the "dark side of the world" could master, even a normal human.

Currently, he didn't want much attention over himself so he tried his best to remove his presence from the world. Thankfully, abilities, unlike skills, didn't take any form of energy as a source to work but worked solely on physical movement and breathing techniques.

Even though his powers were reduced to zero, it still can't take away his years of skills that have been engraved into his very existence — it was like creating him without a soul, seemingly impossible as the created person wouldn't be him then.

He kept on walking towards the direction of the town square, at least, that is what Atalanta had informed him with — and seeing as how the number of people was increasing as he moved in the direction pointed by her, he was certain that he was going in the right direction.

"It is… way too crowded here…" — Noah sighed as he stared at the front plaza, filled with people. He wasn't a fan of crowded and noisy places.

"Are you alright, kid?"

"Huh?"

Turning around with a slight surprise that was completely hidden by his dull appearance, Noah looked towards the woman who called him — she had long grey hair, tied in a bun with small strands falling over her face, that completely matched her grey eyes.

An oval face with a small nose and smooth as jade skin. She was wearing a white office shirt and black jeans and a long black coat dropped over her shoulder.

She looked at Noah with a worried expression, but that was not of importance.

She is not a human — Noah concluded with a single glance. In the first place, a normal human shouldn't have found him who had concealed his presence and only those who used some form of magic should have been able to detect him.

Adding the fact that — 'she is a devil' — once glance was all he needed to determine it.

It was not that he had some special skill to detect the race of someone, but because when he used the first summoning in the forest and got "his" powers back, they had changed to fit the theme of this world — Demonic Power.

Now as the user of Demonic Power himself, Noah could easily differentiate between people who use Demonic Power or not — so of course, he could tell that the person in front of him was a Devil.

'Hmm… even though I've forgotten everything about the plot, the memories would have resurfaced if I met any significant character related to the plot. Since they've not been triggered, then it could only mean that this person is just a random Devil?'

He wasn't sure. All he could remember was that the female-lead should be a crimson-head and the ruler of Kuoh; he had no recollection of someone with grey hair — though if it was silver…

"Yes." — he gave a brief nod to her question, making the worry on the face of the woman increase.

"Are you sure? Your appearance says otherwise though." — she stared at his hand and stated, making the black-haired kid also look down with a confused gaze.

He indeed was wearing tattered clothes, but it didn't mean that there was something wrong, was it? Any other poor kid could be wearing the same.

While thinking such, his gaze landed on his left hand that was wrapped by a piece of cloth but one could easily see the trail of some blood underneath it.

'I see.' — he had no recollection of having a bandage on his arm, but he could guess where it came from — 'When I was meditating to check my body status, Atalanta should have bandaged the cut I'd made before.'

When he had felt the presence of Atalanta beside him, he had cut off all five senses to fully focus on his body, determining its current status. It seems that during that time, Atalanta covered the scar on his hand.

"Hmm… I tripped over a rock… don't worry, it is nothing serious."

"If you say so…" She didn't look convinced in the least. "So… where are you going? Are you going to buy some food? If you want, I can help you buy some."

Can you just leave? — he was about to say but he chose not to do so. He might be able to "use" her to get the current status of the supernatural world.

Though indeed he was also given the knowledge of the current world and its forces, it wasn't enough to determine their present condition. He needed more knowledge about the political situation among the Three Great Factions and if the plot had started or not — and using a slight brainwash or some… "unorthodox" method to get information didn't sound all that bad to him.

"No…" He paused for a second before continuing. "Just some clothes for myself and my big sister. We've made some money recently, so we thought of buying some new clothes."

"Only you?" She looked at him suspiciously. "Where is your big sister?"

Do you want to know my date of birth too?

"She is busy with… some stuff."

"Some stuff huh…" She narrowed her eyes a little, thinking of something before her expression again changed back to her smiling one. "Then let me help you in buying some clothes. If you go into a shop with your current appearance, I highly doubt that they would let you in."

Noah's brain froze for a second before it hit him — why didn't he think of it? With his current appearance, it would indeed be a miracle that someone would let him inside of their shops.

In his previous world, the sight of an orphan with tattered clothes and even their whole body submerged within blood was normal — such kids were found in every corner of the forsaken world he lived in.

Such conditions had affected his thinking which automatically discarded the possibility of getting kicked out of the shop due to his appearance. It made him realize that he would probably have to change his old habits or he might end up making a mistake that could affect himself and the people around him badly.

'Let's make a mental note of it.' — he thought he needed to interact with the people of this world more to get a better understanding of it.

"... I guess we can do that." He nodded, making the smile on her face increase.

"I am Cleria Belial. It is nice to meet you…"

"Noah…" He looked at her face with a concentrated look while uttering his name as if he was in autopilot mode.

Cleria Belial… What a familiar name. He had definitely heard of it, that is for sure, but he can't pinpoint it. It was on the tip of his tongue but refused to come out.

"Noah, that is a beautiful name." She nodded before patting him on the head, ruffling his hair, making the black-head frown. He wasn't used to such… intimate contact. "Let's go or the shops will be closed. It is already getting late."


Atalanta stood on a building with her bow out in her hands. Her eyes fully focused on her Master and her senses, like a radar, working to catch any hostile around him.

As an Archer, she was of course gifted with Clairvoyance that allowed her to look at her surroundings with a bird-eye view. It was a perfect skill that a long-ranger like her could ask for since it gave her 360 degrees of view. And with her trained eyes, not even a bug could escape from her.

Her Master was walking down in the streets of an unknown territory, though she was surprised when she saw her Master blending with his surroundings.

As a huntress, of course, she, with a single glance, found out what her Master was doing — Presence Concealment — it was a must skill for a huntress like her and yet her Master, who definitely didn't give of an air of an expert, was able to blend himself with the world with such prescience that even she lost sight of him for a second.

But, thankfully, she was able to detect him right away.

As her Master reached the central plaza, Atalanta right away felt a huge magical signature moving towards him — without any wasted movement, she equipped her bow with an arrow and aimed it towards the person who was releasing the magical signature.

It was huge, definitely higher than other weak magical signatures she had felt during the day.

If she is to put it in a Fate-system, then the person's mana should be around C or C+, but it was still not even close to her Mana that had, after her reincarnation, increased to A and she could still feel her body absorbing more out of her surroundings.

If nothing came out of her reincarnation, then it would be this that her body had ranked up to a level where she would have never dreamed of in the past.

If left alone, then having Infinite Mana wasn't a dream for her… and her Master.

"At least I am not putting any burden on my Master's shoulder." — since she has been summoned, the normal contract that a Master and a Servant has, was completely transformed into something else.

Normally, Master's Mana was required for a Servant to stay in the physical plane, but since Atalanta was completely reincarnated, she didn't need such support any longer. Instead, the contract changed into something like a backup plan for her during emergencies.

She could use her Master's Mana to refill herself back to brim. Other than that, the Command Seals still held the same purpose as before.

"Hm?" While thinking about such things, she saw the person talking with her Master, but soon she started to pat his head. Since she had not received any signals from her Master, Atalanta didn't release the already stretched bowstring.

She relaxed the arrow as she saw her Master following after the woman — "It is alright. For now, just keep on following me while scouting the area in case of emergency."

Hearing her Master's voice through the Servant-contract, she nodded before continuing to follow after him, her eyes though were focused on the grey-haired woman instead. She was ready to shoot her the movement she made any funny move.


[Eternity] — Such beings live outside of the time-space continuum, which normally works on EVERY reality. They have an infinite life-span and they are unaffected by the "poison of time". But having [Eternity] doesn't mean that you are immortal, since all it does is make you free from the constraints of mortals — you are essentially a semi-immortal but only with infinite life-span.

If you are killed, then you are killed — there is no exception — though being [Eternal], your body has also evolved to possess superior genes that make your healing factor increase by a large margin — provided that you have a huge source of energy to back up with your increased healing factor.

Nothing comes out of nothing. You need to have something to make something out of it, otherwise, only nothing will be the end result — same with the healing factor. There has to be a source to fuel it, otherwise, it is just a beautiful vase to be placed in your house and brag about it but with no active use.