The Path That Glimmers of Freedom
Volume I: Chapter I
It was noisy.
That was the singular thought that flashed through his mind as his eyes were suddenly assaulted with light, it was not a case of noise being gradual as much as it was a sudden and - somewhat violent - transition between it being silent and it being loud.
His eyes widened, glancing left and right as he found himself surrounded by noise, a cacophony of sounds that made it hard to discern where he even was in the first place. The traffic that flooded his ears was beyond comprehension, or perhaps it wasn't. He had no real way of knowing as he was still acclimating to his senses being mangled by the sudden change.
He stepped backwards, his limbs felt lighter than they had in a long time. The lack of weight to his legs made his movements jerked and irregular, the end result was him slipping backwards and feeling the light rescind from his eyes, his back ached as he thudded against something solid and uneven.
It wasn't as much painful as it was exceedingly uncomfortable to him.
His eyelids rose and fell rapidly, bleeding away the excess light as his vision started to clear, blurred shapes moved across in front of him, varying heights, colours and widths. Some bright like the sun and others dark like the shadows, he had very little idea as to what they were as he moved to cradle his face.
He stopped just short of touching himself, however, and found his vision focused on something rather peculiar. Well, as peculiar as he could find it to be given the last time he stared at it.
A hand.
A pale hand with five digits on the end, the typical appearance of a human feature. He blinked at it, now squinting as he tried to focus his sights more definitively and clear up the blurry shapes of his eyes. Sure enough - after what felt like a considerably unusual length of time - the hand, his hand, started to clear up and reveal itself in more detail.
He twisted it around, wiggling the fingers just to be sure it was actually his.
It wasn't as though he had never seen a hand such as this before, it was just that he hadn't owned one for…
A while.
Time didn't make much sense to him where he had been so he'd just forgotten about it entirely, he lowered the limb and looked around himself. The restoration of his vision would likely mean that the shapes of the world would reveal themselves to him in far greater detail.
Sure enough, that is exactly what they were doing.
He blinked once more, his mind running through every possible theory to try and determine what it was that he was actually seeing.
…
Nothing had changed since he last closed his eyes, the shapes must be real. He could deduce as such from the slight ache in his backside from having tripped over his own feet. A fairly silly mistake - all things considered - but he liked to imagine that his surprise was justified whole heartedly.
Especially considering that the last time he had checked, his body had a few more tonnes on it than it currently had. His head fell down, his eyes roaming over the shape that was his body and found himself raising his brows ever so slightly in bewilderment. The white undershirt, the black vest with matching trousers, dark shoes.
How long had it been since he had seen those clothes?
A long time.
A looong time.
His head returned to its original position, his eyes scanning either side of him as he realised that he was under the shade of something. A quick look revealed the fact that he was in an alleyway, either side of him being two walls made of laid stone.
"...Oh." The small noise came free of his throat, there was precious little else he could do to react in this situation aside from that. He had no real idea where he was…
Unless…
His eyes flew wide, he scrambled to his feet and charged out of the alleyway at full pelt, ignoring the metallic clang as the weight on his left side struck against the side of the building. Stumbling outside, his eyes darted from either which way to see if he could pinpoint where he was.
If he was here, then where was the Holy Grail?
If he wasn't in the reverse side of the world anymore, then that would mean he was back on Earth and the Holy Grail was-
His thoughts ground to a halt, he watched one of the figures walk past him without realising they were being stared at. He found himself blinking several times, watching as their outline retreated into the crowd of people now moving past.
Only one thought sprung to his mind as he watched them vanish.
"...Cat ears?"
He wasn't sure how long he had been walking around, in truth he had been following the flow of people moving through the streets as they went about their business. He hadn't the slightest clue where he was and if he had thought that the earlier sight of a grey haired woman with cat ears and a tail was somehow a hallucination, then he was quickly proven wrong when he saw another one.
Then another.
Then another.
It had gotten to the point where perhaps every third person he spied had some sort of extra appendage on their body, not necessarily cat ears but some other animalistic trait.
To his knowledge, that was not something that humans normally had unless…
His mind drifted to Archer of Red.
She had cat ears and a tail, didn't she?
Maybe this was a case such as that then.
…
Wait, was that not too convenient an answer? It didn't explain the odd sensations that surrounded him nor did it explain why so many people were armed and armoured in a variety of ways. Axes, swords, spears, bows, all manner of weapons and protective gear.
In Trifas, he had to be careful when he moved around so as not to alert people. He would frequently leave behind the sword that Rider had given him for the very reason that he didn't want to alarm them. Apparently there was no such issue here, his left hand resting comfortably on the straight sword mounted on his hip.
His eyes darted left to right as he found himself pulled along with the crowd, he would have broken off but he didn't know where he was supposed to go if he did. None of the surroundings were familiar to him and while they might have looked somewhat similar to Trifas, there were noticeable differences in the construction and the colour scheme.
For one, Trifas had looked…
Calling it nicer would have been somewhat incorrect, it looked as though it had been better cared for. A city cleaned more often, he supposed. That and there was a technological difference but that had presented itself almost immediately.
The lack of telephone devices and cars struck him as being far less important than the animal people currently wandering around.
Even still, he found himself almost enraptured by the alien sights that surrounded him. Everything was far more lively than it had been in Trifas, even during the days he spent outside and walking amongst the city. There was something about this place that just felt far more…
He wasn't sure what the correct word would be.
Captivating?
Perhaps, but that could just as easily be a result of his own ignorance as to his situation here. As it stood, there was precious little information that he had and that also meant that he was just walking around blindly. He would need to ask someone but therein lay the problem.
What would he even ask them to begin with?
'Where am I?'
Well, that would be answered but he suspected that it wouldn't really help him an awful lot in the grand scheme of things. Even if they did answer him, he very much doubted that there was any place on earth that was even remotely similar to this. It couldn't have been the reverse side of the world either, while there was certainly ether in this land it was…subdued.
Greater in scope to that which existed in Romania, but much thinner than the Reverse side.
Either way, he was left to just follow along the group of people in front of him in the hopes that they might lead him somewhere. Asking obvious questions might have earned him some odd looks and he didn't want to needlessly trouble people with such things. He might accidentally offend someone if he did that.
The group broke off, he stopped walking as something entered his line of sight that he hadn't noticed before. His lips drew themselves into a thin line as his brows rose up higher and higher. His head followed them, trailing after his rising eyebrows as his neck craned up and allowed him vision as to what reached into the sky.
It was a big tower.
A very big tower.
It was - without a doubt - the largest building he had ever seen in his life, he was left momentarily dumbfounded by its mere existence that he almost didn't pay attention to the fact he had stopped in the middle of the street with people still walking behind him.
Even if he hadn't noticed his lack of movement, they certainly did.
"Watch it!" A gruff voice called out behind him, soon accompanied by his body stumbling to the side as something barged into his back, taking half a step forwards as a person walked right past him, clad in leather straps and a half cape over their shoulders, a longsword at his hip. "Damn kid." The man cursed under his breath, clicking his tongue and not even sparing him a look.
He didn't so much as pay attention to the contents of the words as he focused on the simple fact he could understand what was being said to him. He hadn't been paying attention to any of the conversations around him, they had been far too muddled for him to pick out specific words very well and, if he was honest with himself, he had been more focused on his own thoughts at the time.
At the very least, it was confirmed to him that he could speak and understand the language. A half second later he realised he had just acted as a nuisance, he internally grimaced as he reached out to the man he'd suddenly stopped in front of. "Sorry!" He called out, then lowered his hand as he realised the man was already out of sight.
His expression turned downcast.
That was unfortunate, hardly the best of first impressions he had been intending to make…but what was done was now done. He could only hope that the man had somehow heard his apology and accepted it.
He was also still standing in the centre of the path, his head darted from left to right before he moved across the street to the edge, the side that hugged the front of the buildings, and leaned against the wall as he watched the flow of people move past him. His eyes turned back to the tower that stretched to the furthest reaches of the Heavens and felt all other noises simply bleed away.
He was still struggling to wrap his head around it.
How did something that tall even exist?
A frown came upon his lips, his head turned back to the streets with a new sense of scrutiny as he examined each person who walked past him. It was slowly becoming more and more apparent that he wasn't anywhere he had been before, nor was he somewhere that likely existed on Earth…at least, the current version of Earth. The version he knew of.
How long had he been in the Reverse Side of the World for?
It couldn't have been so long and yet…yet none of this seemed even remotely familiar to him, admittedly his knowledge of the world had always been exceedingly limited. Only the basics of combat and magecraft had been programmed into him from the moment of his creation, but even still. He was sure that someone would have mentioned something like this at some point in time, there were just so many outlandish things about this picture that lay before him that just picking out one would have been next to impossible.
His left hand came up, scratching the side of his head somewhat thoughtfully as he considered everything he knew against everything he was seeing as of this very moment. The only thing that seemingly matched up was the fact he could see humans walking around. Unless they weren't humans but still looked like humans all the same? He had spotted one or two human looking people with long pointed ears.
Maybe it was a case with the animal people and the long eared ones?
He truthfully had no idea where to start with this. Shaking his head, he stepped away from the wall and resumed following the crowd of strange people.
It wasn't as though he had any other plans at the moment.
With that in mind, he continued his mindless trek down the streets, already forming more questions in his mind that he would most certainly require answers to.
He stared at the building on the opposite end of the street, watching as many of the same oddly dressed people walked in and out of it at regular intervals.
The crowd had led him here, though some had continued onwards towards the direction of the large tower in the distance, with many of them walking through the doors of the larger stone building. It was admittedly something that looked important, the twin extensions on either side adorned with banners and the half doors at the front of the building gave him the initial impression.
Everything else just fell into place the longer he stared at it.
It was a meeting ground or something along those lines, somewhere that those strangely dressed people would go to.
An odd thought occurred to him.
He might well have considered them strangely dressed, then he glanced down at his own clothes and then at the clothes of the others on the street. Briefly blinking as he thought to himself.
Was he the one who was dressed strangely?
He glanced between his own attire and the clothes/armour of the people who were walking past him. There was a noticeable disparity in style, for one thing he wasn't weathering thick leather straps over his chest or metal pauldrons on his shoulders. Nor did he have some large greatsword mounted on his back.
Looking back up, a complicated expression came across his face as he swivelled his head around to see if there was anyone who wasn't wearing armour or some other form of protection on themselves. When he didn't spot anyone, he felt his frown start to deepen considerably.
If he stood out in a manner such as this, then that meant he would attract the wrong sort of attention. He might end up making people feel slightly awkward in speaking with him if he walked up to them dressed as he currently was. However, these were the only clothes that he had on him.
His head turned back towards the direction of the building, then he felt his eyes widen as he watched the doors swing open. A person came marching out of the doors, those in mismatched armour who had been standing close to her stepped out of the way and let her pass, the pink haired girl moving with clear purpose behind each stride.
A brief pang of relief shot through his body as he took note of her attire, it was exceedingly similar to his own to the extent he believed that they might have been wearing the exact same outfit. Though she had her top buttons clipped up and with a pale grey coloured bow at the top of her shirt, as well as black gloves on the end of either hand.
The relief very quickly melted away as he noticed that she was moving rapidly towards him with an expression that looked a little bit like irritation.
No, it was irritation. Her brows tightened together and her lips curled down in a faint frown as she moved towards him. He took a half step back as she closed in on him, he had been so lost in his own thoughts that he hadn't even noticed the distance she had been rapidly closing between the two of them until she was directly upon him.
Coming to a stop in front of him, she placed her hands on her hips and leaned forwards ever so slightly. It was a strange thing, she was most certainly shorter than him but she gave the impression of being equal to or perhaps above his height. Though that might have been on account of the fact he was currently leaning away from her, though it failed ever so slightly as he felt his shoulders and the back of his head thud against the brick face of the house behind him.
"What are you doing?" Her voice came out with a slight edge to it, an eyebrow raised and her pale pink eyes shining brightly with that similar note of irritation that her face wore, though it was also gleaming with evident confusion at him. Especially when her eyes fell down upon the straight sword of Rider on his hip. "What in the name of-?" She very nearly shouted, then pointed down at the sword on his hip "What are you doing with that!?"
His brain froze for a half second.
He'd been caught up with all the people walking around armed with weapons that he hadn't stopped to consider whether or not he was allowed to carry one as well. He wasn't wearing any armour, so maybe there were only supposed to be certain people armed in public?
By the tone of the woman in front of him, he clearly wasn't one of them.
"...I'm carrying it?" He replied after a moment of silence, then watched as her expression scrunched up in confusion at his words. Did he phrase it incorrectly? He supposed his voice might have come out with a bit more uncertainty than he had intended it to. With that in mind, he put more confidence into his words. "I'm holding onto it for a friend."
"A friend?" The girl raised an eyebrow at him rather dubiously, then sighed and leaned back, pinching the bridge of her nose and shaking her head from side to side. "Of all the things…" There was a note of exasperation in her words, lowering her hand and staring at him with a new look.
"Nevermind that, what are you doing just staring at Pantheon?" She turned side on, her right arm came up and gestured to the building she had just come marching out of.
Was that what the building was called?
"I didn't know where to go."
The stare was back again, was she not expecting his answer? He wasn't sure if he had said something that was somehow satisfying to her. That would be rather unfortunate, she was the first person he had actually talked to since he woke up here. Losing this conversation might mean that he wouldn't be able to find another for some time.
"You got lost?" There was a frown upon her face, though it now contained a slight note of suspicion as she raised an eyebrow at him. "You're new to Orario, aren't you?"
There was a strange feeling about her words, as though she already knew the answer but was just asking for confirmation. There was no need to deny her words though, he was new to Orario(?) at the very least, he knew what the city was called now. Or at least, that's what he assumed it was called.
As expected, he'd never heard the name before in his life, but - once more - he didn't know a lot about the world so there might well have been a city that was called that.
Either way, he had better answer her before she lost her patience with him more than she already had.
"I am, yes." He was new to Orario, perhaps he would finally get some help as to finding out where he was.
The girl in front of him let out a sigh, shaking her head from side to side before she reached out and took hold of his left arm, turning around and moving towards the building once more with him in tow. "Come on then. I didn't know we had any new hires but I suppose it must have happened when I wasn't paying attention."
He got the impression that the girl might have mistaken him for someone else.
"Wait, I don't know-"
"Don't know what to do?" The girl in front of him chuckled as she led him through the doors, he instantly became away from the presence of everyone else in the room. That strange sensation that they exhibited increased tenfold the moment he passed through the doors. Oddly enough, he could feel the greatest source of it coming from beneath his feet for whatever reason.
The room itself was rather spacious, a counter at the opposite end directly in front of him with a wide gap behind it. He could see other people working around back there performing a variety of different tasks…
All of whom were wearing the exact same uniform as the girl in front of him…
Ah.
He could see where the problem might have lain.
"Miss, wait-"
"Miss?" The girl looked over her shoulder at him, raising an eyebrow "Well, at least you're polite, if a little ditzy."
Ditzy? He supposed he would have been but the truth of the matter was that he had no idea where he was and was now being dragged into a misunderstanding. He imagined being somewhat clueless was a given in these types of situations.
"But my name is Misha, got it?" The girl raised a finger and pointed it directly towards his face, close enough that he went cross eyed as he focused on the digit.
"Yes, Misha." He nodded his head in understanding "But there's still something that I-"
"Don't worry." She turned back around before he could ask his question, continuing to drag him through the room to the workspace around the back. From the corner of his eye he could spy a great deal of other strangely armoured people loitering around either engaged with conversations with one another or with people wearing the name uniform as the girl in front of him.
And himself, evidently.
"It's a bit of a slow day so far so there's plenty of time for you to get the hang of everything if you're a little new." Misha continued on, oblivious to his growing sense of unease as she pulled them both around the back of the counter and towards a desk, several books lay atop it along with a great many parchments of paper and an inkwell, quill still inside it. "You'll probably have someone come around to look over your work…"
She paused to consider something, releasing his arm and cupping her chin while humming to herself. Misha was apparently thinking of something important, glancing at him while a strange gleam went through her eyes. He recognised the look, Rider got that same one when he was about to suggest an idea that might not have been the best one in the world.
"I've got an additional workload today left over from yesterday…" Misha muttered quietly, that expression still upon her face before she snapped her fingers "Tell you what, you can help me with that and it will also serve to give you extra training." she placed her hands on her hips, puffing her chest out slightly while a rather proud smile came upon her face. "Pretty smart idea, right?"
"Well-"
"I know." She waved her hand, then glanced down at the sword still mounted on his hip "First thing is first though, you can't be seen running around with something like that strapped onto you." She looked back to him, "When will your friend be coming around to pick it up?"
Probably never.
She must have seen the troubled expression on his face considering her frown returned, he wondered if she might have misunderstood what he was concerned about. "They just dumped their sword on you and then took off?" With a sigh, Misha shook her head from side to side before she reached out towards it "Alright, we can put it in a safe place and then when your friend comes back you can give it to them."
"Yes, but-"
"Trust me, you're not the first rookie that adventurers have saddled their junk onto." Even as she said that, she upholstered the sword from his hip and took it with both hands. Briefly pausing as she stared at the weapon "...Huh. This is actually better quality than I was expecting it to be…" her intrigue lasted less than a second before she shrugged and turned back to him with a stern expression. "Still though, you need to be firm with these sorts of things. If you don't speak up you'll just let adventurers walk right over you."
Her right hand came away from the sword, pointing straight towards his face "Understand?"
"I don't want to be a nuisance though." He said the first thing that came to his mind, she stared at him oddly for a moment, then sighed and rubbed her temples.
"Oh boy…Well, you'll probably end up losing that attitude quickly." She paused for a moment, then frowned at him once more "Actually, you'd do well to lose that appeasing nature of yours. Trust me, being a nuisance to adventurers is the only way you can really keep them alive at the end of the day."
The smile returned before he had a chance to question what she was even talking about "But we've got enough time today to put you through your paces!" she turned around and patted the desk "Sit here and wait for me to come back. If anyone asks what you're doing, tell them that you're Misha's assistant for the day."
He was?
"You need help that much?" He felt the need to ask, that she was looking for someone to assist her with work that badly was rather surprising. He had seen plenty of people around the building that looked as though they might have been able to help her. Besides, he didn't know what he was even supposed to help her with.
Forget that, he didn't even know what he was supposed to be doing right now in the first place.
The smile dropped, replaced by a look of sheer exhaustion as she closed the distance between the two of them and whispered. "Like you wouldn't believe. You'd think that guiding adventurers would be an easy task, but nooooo." she all but whined to him "They always have to make things difficult for you and you can never get anything done in one day unless you're a work freak like Eina."
"Some people are more studious than others." He offered a way out for the pink haired girl in front of him. "I'm not very good at that sort of thing either." She didn't seem to look up at that, so he supposed if it would make her feel better he could lend a hand. That was the sort of thing that should be done, wasn't it?
"I can help you out today."
"Thanks." Misha sniffled, then the sadness vanished as though it had never been there before, holding up the straight sword in her hand "I'm gonna go put this somewhere safe then come right back. Don't move, you'll probably end up getting lost again."
"Probably." He admitted without even an ounce of resistance to her. Getting lost in a place he had never been before and without a guide seemed fairly obvious. Apparently he must have said something funny because Misha snorted as she departed, waving her hand behind her in a parting manner.
With nothing else to do, he moved around the desk and sat himself down in the seat. His eyes flickering towards the documents that lay in front of him.
…
Huh.
It was all written in Romanian. That was a strange coincidence.
Was he in Romania?
He quickly put that thought to the side as he turned his head towards the direction of the main lobby, or he assumed it to be the lobby. It had been a wide reaching room with furniture dotted around for people to sit down on.
Ah, another of the people with pointed ears.
This one around his height, rectangular shaped glasses on her face and straight hair in a shape like a mushroom. He was sure the comparison would have not been a very polite thing to make but that was all he could think of when he saw her. Evidently she soon saw him as she turned in his direction, green eyes flashing with surprise before they narrowed in puzzlement as she walked towards him.
"Good morning." He nodded to her as she stopped on the opposite side of the desk, the woman stared at him for a half second then she looked down at the empty space in front of him with a noticeable frown.
"What are you doing?"
"Waiting for Misha to come back." He answered her as honestly as he could, recognition flashed through her face when he mentioned the name. "She said I am her assistant for the day." which she did, though whether or not he actually was her assistant was still something that had yet to be decided.
"And where is she?"
"Putting a sword away for safekeeping." He answered once more "She said she would be back and that I would help her." A frown came upon his features, a rather troubled one as he looked down at the papers and parchments in front of him. "But I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do to help her."
The woman stared at him for a moment, then exhaled and shook her head from side to side "Of course. You're probably feeling rather awkward just sitting there without knowing what to do while everyone else works around you, aren't you?"
He was, yes. He probably wasn't even supposed to be here in the first place but he wasn't sure how to alert people to this simple fact without making the situation worse than it already was. Besides, it looked like the Misha lady needed help and he had felt like helping her. That was the sort of thing a good person did. Rider had said so as well, just helping people because they asked and nothing more.
"Well, until Misha gets back from wherever she is I suppose I can run through the basics for you." She sighed, moving around the desk and leaning over him to gaze at the parchments. "Ah, these are the returns from the Dungeon on each adventurer."
"Returns?"
"Yes." The girl nodded her head once at his side "The total value of the monster stones that they have brought up and exchanged. Fortunately all the hard work is more or less done, so that works out well enough for you, all that remains is for it to be signed." she paused for a moment, then glanced at him as if seeing him for the first time. "You're new here, yes?"
"Yes." He nodded his head once "Just today."
"First day on the job." A wistful sigh came from her "It must be rather daunting, don't worry. It all falls into place the more you get used to it." she reached out and brought across the first of the parchments. Then stopped moving.
Raising an eyebrow, he turned to look up at the woman by his side and found himself blinking that her peaceful and almost welcoming expression had virtually reversed into an annoyed scowl. "This is dated to three days ago…" Her voice came out as a quiet whisper, however he was close enough to hear it without any real trouble.
The problem was evidently something else as the woman turned her eyes onto the large tower of parchments and then pulled another one off. "This one is as well…and this one…this one too!?" Her voice rose towards the end, causing him to lean away slightly at the volume - and the palpable aura of anger from the woman - of the exclamation. "Has she been letting these pile up all this time!?"
She then whirled on him, he froze when he found himself placed under those sharp emerald green eyes. "She said you were her assistant today, didn't she?"
"Yes."
"Wrong."
"...Oh."
"You're now my assistant." She reached down, grabbing him by the right arm and then effortlessly hoisted him out of the seat, her disapproving from still upon her lips although evidently not aimed at him. "If she thinks she can get the new hire to do all her backlogged work…"
That was surprising, it was also a little concerning to him at this point in time. Would Misha be alright with this amount of work? Besides, he had already said he would help her and he didn't want to back out now of all times. His hesitance must have shown on his face judging by the way the expression of the pointed eared wolf softened ever so slightly as she took notice of him.
"You're a bit too honest, aren't you?"
He felt his lips pull themselves into a thin line, his eyes flickering down to the desk in front of him. Was he too honest? He didn't think there was such a thing within him as deceit, he'd never told a lie to his knowledge so he couldn't be anything but honest. Even still, the words she spoke felt as though they had some hidden meaning to them that he hadn't picked up on. All the same, he shrugged his shoulders in reply to her question. "I don't know. Maybe."
It wasn't a very committed answer, but it was the best one he could offer her.
"This is just as much for her own good. Everyone around here puts in their own level of effort." The woman assured him with a gentle voice, his eyes drifted back towards her and saw the faint corners of her lips pulled up into a small smile. "Besides, I know for a fact that Misha will eventually get it done, but if she ends up drawing you in to pick up her slack then she'll only end up dependent upon you. If you're needed somewhere else, she'll struggle in the end." her hands went to her hips, her head cocked to the side ever so slightly. "Think of this as a teaching moment for both you and her."
A teaching moment for her to do her best by herself? He couldn't fault the logic in the statement. All the same though…
"I would still like to help her with her work." He responded with a look of conviction, his brows furrowed and his mouth set in a determined frown. "She asked for my help and I said I would help her so I can't back away now."
After all, how could he turn away someone who had asked him for help?
The woman stared at him with an odd expression for a few moments, scrutinising him to the extent that he was starting to feel as though he might have said something a little odd. All the same, his answer would not change.
"...Hmph." She made a noise, it sounded like a mix between satisfaction and surprise, the arms coming away from her hips and being crossed over her chest as she stared down at him. "Well, at least I can't argue against that spirit of yours. If you want to pick up the slack of Misha then I can't really force you to stop." she glanced behind herself towards the desk, then back towards him "But this and that are two different matters right now."
She reached up and rubbed her brows, quietly whispering to herself "Still…to make Misha your trainer of all the people, why not me or Rose…even Sophie would have been fine for it." she paused for a moment, her hand moved down her face before it rested underneath her chin, her index finger and thumb pinching it as she narrowed her eyes slightly at him. "Unless…"
He cocked his head to the side in a questioning manner.
"Alright, I'm bac-Eina?" The voice of Misha came from behind him, both he and the woman - Eina - turned in the direction of the speaker and found the pink haired girl staring at the both of them with a hint of surprise on her face. "What are you doing here?" She continued on, directing the question towards Eina as she walked towards the pair of them.
"I was speaking with the new assistant." Eina replied in a voice that lacked any sort of emotion, it very much reminded him of the other Homunculus he had met yet there was something about her words. It was as though she was forcing down her emotions rather than speaking without them. He personally found that a very strange thing to do, though he neglected to comment upon it.
For whatever reason, her words had some effect on Misha that he hadn't been expecting. The pink haired girl suddenly paled as though she'd seen something quite terrifying, then her eyes fell upon him and widened considerably before they darted towards the small mountain of papers than were upon the desk.
Ah. It clicked in his mind why she might be worried now.
Eina had said that Misha was supposed to have done the work that he was sitting in front of.
"R-really?" Misha's voice came out with a slight shake to it, cracking at the first letter that passed between her lips as her salmon pink eyes continually darted between the two of them. "What did you talk about?"
Rather than respond to her, he watched as Eina leaned towards the desk and plucked the top parchment off the tower and then held it up. Her expression was unchanging, for the most part, save the slight spasm of her right eyebrow and the fact her eyes remained closed. Her lips slowly spreading into a smile that didn't look very welcoming.
He wasn't sure quite why, but he found himself leaning away from the woman ever so slightly and retreating further into the comfort of the chair he was sitting upon. He wondered what the reaction of Misha was in this very moment, his pale red eyes darted to the side and quickly noted the fact the girl looked as though she was being stared down by some manner of monster rather than the somewhat kindly woman.
After a few moments of silence from Eina, she eventually relented in her glaring and lowered the parchment down, a long and tired sigh leaving her throat. "Honestly…" Gently placing the paper back down on the desk, she levelled a glare in the direction of Misha that eerily reminded him of the ones Ruler and Rider had given him when he did something reckless or otherwise 'idiotic' in their own words.
"You can't even do your own work and suddenly you're trying to pile it onto other people?" Eina asked with a chiding voice, he found his eyes dancing between the two of them as he watched the conversation unfold before him. All in all, things seemed to be somewhat problematic between the two of them. He couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt as he wondered if this wouldn't have happened had he not been here to instigate it.
"Well." Eina stated in a tone of finality, pointing towards him briefly "For the time being, he is going to be helping me around the Guild while you-" she pointed to Misha "-sort through all these documents that you were supposed to complete days ago." There was a brief pause before she glanced at him one final time, then moved her right hand away from the direction of the rosy haired girl and towards her own face, pushing up her glasses ever so slightly. "Though you appear to have been rather fortunate in the fact that - even knowing you were trying to drop all your work upon him - he still wishes to help you."
He turned back to Misha, then promptly blinked as he saw the girl was staring at him with a wide and almost reverent look. Something that made him feel more than a little uncomfortable as he didn't think he'd done anything to really deserve it. She'd asked for help in the first place, was she not expecting him to do something to help her?
"Now that is settled." Someone - presumably Eina - took returned her grip to his arm and started to drag him away from the girl. "You can come with me while I show…" she paused for a moment, then blinked and turned her head around to face him with a sudden look of shame. "I do apologise." She quickly composed herself, facing him fully and releasing his arm. "In all of this, I have neglected to ask you for your name."
"Sieg."
"Sieg." Eina nodded to him once in acceptance, then glanced over his left shoulder towards the direction of Misha once more. "And do try to perform your duties, else I will have to tell the supervisor of your rather belated workload."
He wasn't sure what sort of face Misha made, on account of not hearing a response, but it must have been what Eina was looking for judging by the pleased smile that came upon her, then she turned back around and continued to pull him along after her. "Now then, Sieg, as this is your first day I shall run through the basics of what it is you are expected to do. I assume that you have already been informed of your duties here?"
"Well, no. I don't-" He wasn't even supposed to be here, he was absolutely certain of that by this point in time. He'd been dragged here by Misha and he hadn't known anyone else nor had he spoken with anyone else except for three people so far. Misha, Eina and he had technically been spoken to by the person who nearly walked over him earlier.
"No?" Eina made a noise, turning around and facing him with a look of surprise "Truly?" she sighed, shaking her head from side to side. "Well…I suppose it isn't too difficult. If this is your first day then you will be taking on the role of either assisting an advisor like myself or aiding in clerical duties." She raised her finger "Most of it will consist of reporting on the adventurers who have entered or left the building, invoices from other services the guild offers and - on occasion - requests from Familia's to investigate locations where they might be able to procure a service. Though the latter option is not very common."
He nodded his head once, that made sense to him.
"Miss Eina-"
"Just Eina is fine."
"Eina." Sieg corrected himself "There's something I need to-"
"Ah, one moment." She raised her hand to stop him from speaking, then led him towards a small door at the side of the counter, leading to a sealed off room. As she pulled it open, he found himself inside a kiosk of sorts, rows and rows of shelves lay behind him with a scale in front of him as well as a small booklet to the left of the desk behind the window.
There was a small gap beneath the frame, wide enough for a person to get their arms through. Within the kiosk was a man, turning his head to face them and raising an eyebrow at the pair. He was a relatively tall person, or at least taller than both himself and Eina, with a matching suit to his own and slicked back brown hair.
"Eina?" He blinked at the woman, then looked to him and frowned in thought "And…?"
"Sieg."
"Sieg." The man nodded his head once at him, then smiled and extended a hand in his direction. "I'm Alfred."
He stared at the outstretched hand for a brief moment, then extended his out to take it in a firm handshake. Alfred pulled it back and looked to Eina once more. "So what brings you here? The reports of today aren't due yet unless…" he winced, a troubled look came upon his face that Sieg couldn't decide was exasperation or acceptance.
"I was just showing Sieg around the guild." Eina explained, further cementing the misunderstanding that was already taking root at the moment. Though Sieg did feel a touch of relief when he noticed Alfred's expression shift into something more comfortable, a short breath left him as his previously tensed shoulders slumped.
Eina, meanwhile, returned her attention to Sieg "This is the kiosk where Monster stones are exchanged for Valis. Each stone has a set value to it which increases the further down you go. We weigh out each individual stone and assign a value to it depending on the weight." she pointed to the kiosk desk, attracting his attention to the contraption currently sitting there with a pendulum type system to it.
A silver basin lay at the bottom of the contraption, a disk behind it with an arm to the left and a set of numerical values lining the face of the device almost like a clock.
"Though for larger monster stones we will typically identify those with sight rather than this." Eina continued to explain, turning to him once more, right hand on her hip while the left was raised up and her finger pointed to the ceiling, though the arm itself remained around level with her head. "It might be considered time consuming work but more often than not there will be one or more members present to assist in the valuing of monster stones. Especially for larger parties, they will often require three or more staff members to assist."
There was a brief pause before she sighed "The Loki Familia is supposed to be gearing up for an expedition soon, which means when they return there's a very good chance it'll be quite a large endeavour to properly value all their returns."
"Loki Familia?"
"Hmm?" Eina looked at him oddly after he said that, he personally didn't know why she did so but he assumed it was more common information than he assumed it to be. "...How new are you to Orario?"
"New."
"Ah, that might explain it." Eina nodded her head up and down, he got the feeling she might not have gotten the general idea how new he was to the city. Though she continued on before he could even think of correcting her. "The Loki Familia are one of the largest Familia's in Orario at the moment, suffice to say they are the second most powerful in the whole city. The Freya Familia being the strongest." she offered him the gentle smile once again "Don't worry about trying to remember all of them, for the most part we offer a comprehensive list of all Familia's and adventurers affiliated with them, the list is updated whenever a new member joins, leaves or…dies."
He felt his eyes widen ever so slightly at the last remark.
Dies?
What sort of place was this?
And Freya?
She was a Goddess wasn't she?
Sieg would admit his own knowledge of the divine was exceedingly limited by the names of Freya and Loki struck a chord with him, or perhaps they struck a chord with Siegfried? It was more than likely the latter but all the same, were they groups named after the Gods of Norse mythology?
That was a little strange but he'd seen stranger, all things considered.
Eina, meanwhile, gave him a grim nod of the head. "Yes, it might seem unbelievable given what adventurers are capable of but they can still die." she inhaled, closing her eyes and then exhaling once more. "We can get into that aside, meanwhile there are still other locations for us to see." she glanced over his shoulder towards Alfred "I shall leave you to your work."
"Of course." Alfred replied back to her with a cordial tone of voice "Sieg?" he turned to the voice, raising an eyebrow at the man and found himself blinking at the welcome smile upon the slightly taller man's face. "I look forward to working with you."
"I don't mind helping if you need it, but-"
"Ha!" Alfred barked out a laugh, crossing his arms over his chest and throwing his head back as he cackled "Don't let Misha hear you say that!"
Sieg blinked "Why? I said it to her earlier-"
"Oooooh." For whatever reason, Alfred winced and sent him a pitying look "Rookie mistake there, kid. Don't worry about it though." he gave him a thumbs up "I'm sure it will all work out…probably."
Probably?
"Come on, Sieg." Eina pulled him away, opening the door to and passing through it once more with him in tow. "There are still some other places to see. Besides, it's normally around this time than the Adventurers start filing in so it's best you start helping out before the rush sets in." she paused, looking over her shoulder at him as he made sure to close the door behind the pair of them. "At that point, everyone will be needing help."
"Is the rush bad?" He asked with a raised eyebrow, cocking his head to the side.
"It depends on which Familia has gone down to the dungeon." Eina explained "You can end up with several rushes over the course of the day at any point in time, though normally it occurs around the middle of the day approaching the evening. Sometimes you will get some who emerge from the dungeon during the night but most are sensible enough to avoid doing that."
Sieg nodded his head in acceptance of the answer, then raised his hand slightly.
"Yes?"
"The Dungeon?"
Eina gave him another look "...The large tower in the centre of the city."
"Oh!" Understanding flashed through his eyes as he nodded his head up and down. At least he had an answer for whatever that tower was now. Though that still brought up the question of what type of dungeon it was. Apparently they were going in there and fighting something and returning with stones that could be exchanged for money?
It seemed like a simple enough concept but he couldn't quite wrap his head around it.
"Now then…I suppose the next thing we need to discuss is the clerical duties and explaining the role of an advisor, though you won't have to worry about that for quite a few years if you're fortunate." Eina explained as she turned back around, walking away from him and further into the room. Sieg hesitated for a moment, then waddled after her to catch up. "Still, it would be best to explain it to you in simple details now so that you can be prepared for when you undertake the necessary training to become an advisor."
"Is it difficult?" Eina paused for a moment, then turned back around and gave him a confused expression. Sieg had a moment to understand the question might have been a little vague, then went about elaborating further for her. "Being an advisor. You said I would not have to deal with it for years if I was fortunate and Misha told me to be a nuisance to adventurers."
There was a brief moment of silence, then a flash of mirth came across Eina's face before it vanished. "I won't say she is wrong in that regard and the role of an advisor is only as difficult as the adventurer makes it." A troubled look came upon her features "Some might well listen to what you have to say while others are less than accepting. I suppose it wouldn't be wrong of me to state they get arrogant, new adventurers are the worst offenders for the most part."
Getting arrogant?
…
He could see that causing problems, now that he supposed.
"They get overconfident and feel as though they don't need your advice?"
Eina's resigned nod of the head was all the answer he really needed to confirm that. "If they're smart they tend to lose that attitude, otherwise you really would have to follow Misha's advice and become a nuisance to them until they listen to what you have to say. They might dislike you for nagging them, but if it keeps them alive then-"
"As long as they're alive, then they can dislike you, right?" Sieg surmised with a curious tone of voice. Eina smiled somewhat at his answer before her expression evened out once more. "Are you an advisor?"
"I am." Eina confirmed with a nod of the head, pausing for a moment as she considered what to say next before shaking her head. Clearly not willing or not feeling the need to speak further on the matter.
Sieg paused for a moment, opening his mouth to ask something before he thought better of it and closed it once again. He might not have been very good at reading the room but he could at least tell that Eina was clearly troubled by her role. Or perhaps she was passionate about it? It was hard to tell, there was a sense of conviction when she had told him to be a nuisance to adventurers that certainly showed she cared deeply about her role if it meant keeping them alive.
It confirmed in his mind that Eina seemed to be a good person.
"Now then, come. You can assist me with some of my filing while I explain things to you."
Hopefully it would mean she wouldn't get mad when he told her his circumstances.
AN: Here.
Have another fic.
See ya.
Lack of Sieg fics, made me sad.
Have wholesome Homunculus dragon bean in hero world.