Hello Language of Melormarc

"Hello" Language of earth

Hello (how's the weather today)? is a part of a sentence that Lukas does not understand

Chapter 4: Twist of fate —

Lukas didn't sleep well. Or more like didn't sleep enough.

Even after hours upon hours of being tutored in the language of Melormarc the day before, he had the misfortune to not being able to fall asleep.

Instead of stupidly wasting time lying in bed, he spread out a sheet of paper and started on a gun design. While he might not be an expert in the field of guns, he had the intellect to see through the workings of a pre-industrial era rifle.

He knew that they had many flaws compared to the more modern ones, but unless he had the the time and resources to conduct research, he'd rather discover more about magic.

Still not feeling the melatonin kicking in Lukas revised his language skills again. He already grasped the basics and the easily mastered the alphabet. Each letter had an equivalent in the Arabian alphabet, except for some as the alphabet of Melormarc only consists of 20 individual letters.

If he forgot something he could swiftly resort to his phone with which he secretly recorded bits of the language lessons. A hurray for technology.

Back to the present, he really felt like shit, and it doesn't help that he was awoken by some knights who, as far as he understood from their body language, wanted him to follow them.

He quickly packed up all his stuff and made his way to the hallways.

"… You tricked me! It was a setup from the very beginning!" Naofumi's roar echoed from beyond the throne room, sparking confusion and curiosity simultaneously within Lukas.

'What's going on? Did Naofumi lose some card games against Myne and is now accusing her of cheating? He wouldn't consult that to a king tho just because of some lost money, right?

One knight a few steps ahead of him announced something when they met the source of commotion.

The enraged Naofumi halted his outburst as his and Lukas' eyes meet. The latter gave a hesitant hello wave with his hand.

"Lukas!", the shield hero collected all his calm that the situation allowed him to "These guys are accusing me of rape! But all what I did was falling victim to theft. Look at Motoyasu, he is wearing my amour-"

"Shut your mouth you lying bastard! And don't listen to him Lukas, there is plenty of proof that point at him being a rapist." Motoyasu swung his spear to point at Naofumi. Besides him Myne was clinging on him like how a leech would, shuddering and looking frightened.

"After us granting your request to involve Lukas, you even dare lying to our friend and your party member? Are you that desperate to dig your grave even deeper?" Itsuki, the bow hero, interjected with disgust.

Ren crossed his arms and remained silent, seemingly in deep thought like always. But his stare of contempt towards Naofumi gave away his stance in this matter.

Oi, oi, what the hell has happened? Naofumi, this is not what I meant with 'loosen her up'. Lukas pinched his nose bridge.

"Ok," Lukas began, slowly feeling through this situation and mustering up his words, "This is a serious matter. We should not jump into conclusions. Like in our world, we have to hear both sides and investigate for any loopholes. We five are modern, civilised people and we know how badly things like this were sometimes handled across history, especially in feudal times."

"Myne's testimony is proof enough." The spear hero knocked the spear's handle on the ground, its echo marking the end of any attempts to convince him otherwise.

Naofumi, seeing his anchor of hope, slung himself against the crowd of guards surrounding him just to make sure to make him heard. "Everything of Myne's story is false. I didn't drink, I went to bed way before her and, of all things, I never touched her!"

The kings stern voice suddenly flared up, most likely disagreeing with Naofumi.

I see… Lukas clapped once to drag some attention back to himself. He was too worried for his doll-matcher to care about the dozens of nobles glaring at him. They couldn't understand him anyways.

"It's a possibility that Myne was hallucinating or dreaming, so we must check for errors in consistency of her story. We can check for traces of alcohol in Naofumi, I think I could even conduct a blood test if you still are in doubt…" Even thou I have no idea how to proof the existence of alcohol in blood. Lukas kept that last thought to himself. While he might not be able now, doesn't mean he won't find a way after some experiments.

"In the worst case we could check Myne herself for any traces of abuse." That was all Lukas wanted to say.

"You're right." It was the first time Lukas saw Ren speaking up in this setting. "We must purge all doubts and if necessary, we have to strip the people involved for a proper investigation."

King Aultcray gave a short remark on which Naofumi reacted violently against.

"What do you mean I used magic to erase all traces of the crime I didn't commit? I don't even know about any spells in the first place." Naofumi gave a tough job for restraining him to the guards.

Myne began to appear more unsettled than before. She literally glued herself to Motoyasu and began whispering something into his ears.

"Lukas…" Motoyasu looked at him with a very complexed expression. "…you dare to conspire with that rapist. I can't believe you would do this."

"Huh?" Lukas didn't have any words for that. "Wait, wait, wait, what are you talking about?" Did he reached a point of sleep deprivation to start hearing things?

It took a while until the spear hero responded but he did it with vigour. "It makes perfect sense, why else would you defend a rapist? Only if you have to gain something from it. What has Naofumi offered you? I can give double!"

Lukas saw his inner self scream while dying from the performance of spear guy. I hate it when I must deal with idiots. Oh, how I wish to just leave. "I just want a fair trial. I would gladly leave if you were to give Naofumi the same kind of support as you give Myne. We're all friends, right?"

At least it seemed that his message reached Motoyasu due to him finally looking like he is thinking about this for a moment.

In this moment, Lukas felt two arms enveloping his shoulders. He lost his balance and fell backwards as he was dragged out from the throne room.

He was at his limit. Never in his life as an introvert has, he talked in front of so many people before, dealt with an idiot and his personal space been invaded that abruptly.

Due to his mental capacity almost reaching zero, he served no further resistance.

Naofumi stood alone like a statue, glimpsing at the closing doors, in which his sole ally got engulfed.

Outside the castle walls.

Lukas Weber POV

"(XxxxxxxX) You (XxxxxxX) not welcome (XxxxxxxX)" One of the guards said to me before turning around.

I braced my butt in pain as they disappeared into the front gate after they finished throwing the trash (me) out of the castle area.

The trail definitely stank of conspiracy, but who has to benefit from Naofumi being a rapist? He's a hero supposed to save the world. Is there somebody who wants to see the world burn?

And what about the other 3 heroes? Ok, the 2 others. The womaniser Motoyasu is a lost cause. They are clearly lacking. Ren seemed to be a person who gets straight to the point, so why had he been hesitating? And Itsuki. He remained completely silent. At least when I got to the scene. I think he can't think for himself, only speaking up when there was somebody to fall back on.

Many Passerbys were already taking notice of me, maybe because of my otherworldly attire. Instead of the usual cloth dresses, I wore jeans and a jacked made of polyesters aka plastics. I could put on the leather chest plate hanging on my backpack, but I preferred to not change in public.

While I was unable to really do anything (remember the language barrier?), I waited for any of the hero's to finally come out.

I brought out my iPad to look over the notes I made in my history classes. Maybe there would I find a clue why this situation was happening. Me and my backpack were inseparable since I entered this world, and I would ensure that it would remain like that. I covered my iPad with the Japanese language learning book and while its cover colours were still too flashy, a book looks a lot less conspicuous than a 'magic mirror'.

The unification of Germany, the Cold War, the two world wars, the napoleonic wars… I'm not sure if this might be of any use. Maybe I should rely on my common sense as an educated person of the Information Age.

This is a feudal society. It is believed that the right to rule over the people was bestowed to the king by God. No, I don't even know if this kingdom is a dynasty or if nobles vote amongst themselves to decide a new king. There is no way to know who would benefit from Naofumi's downfall. Shit, I lacked information.

The least the current me can do is to plan in advance what future me can do, so I made a todo list:

Learn how to communicate

Learn more about this world (History, Political Structures, Geography, pretty much most of the subjects in school beyond Maths and Natural Sciences)

MAGIC

'Invent' something and sell the idea to a merchant

Find a solution to protect myself from the apocalyptic waves

Just when I finished my last stroke the thick metal grid gate began to open. Ah, there was the shield hero himself. With a very angry face.

"Hi there." Naofumi didn't even betted an eye to me. I felt a bit panicked, more so when he began to walk away. How should I survive without him? I couldn't join the other heroes' parties. Either I would be left behind or be treated as a porter which was not so great.

I began following him, but I remained behind him. I was a bit afraid of him lashing out against me, which was understandable after seeing the despiteful looks of the people towards him and considering the happenings before. I would totally flee from the face of civilisation if I were in his stead.

(Mister why are you following the shield demon)? A small hand grabbed my sleeve and what I saw was a little girl. I didn't understand her, so I just smiled and waved a goodbye. She remained confused while my heart was pounding from that awkward interaction. While I appreciated that strangers are willing to talk with me, I was absolutely not in shape to engage with them.

I grabbed a wrapped candy from my backpack and threw it toward her. She caught it all the more confused. A small act of generosity might distract me from the tense situation. Ugh, I feel like I am treating a pet for a snack, whatever.

Oh no. I lost sight of Naofumi. He was supposed to... oh he was just being beaten up by the black smith guy in that corner. Wait, that's bad.

H-hello, hello hellohello. I went in between them and tried to diffuse the situation with my best fake smile I could muster.

You (got lucky) shield (kid), I (don't feel like punching you anymore). The bald smith released his grip around Naofumi's collar. (Take care of him). He patted my shoulder and went back to his shop. I just stood there, unreceptive of anything he said.

"Hmpf, good for you, you were about to die here." The shield hero did not falter his guard. He turned his eyes towards me. "Why did you help me? Did you move your ass to me because you pitied me? Just go your own path, you wouldn't want to befriend a rapist."

That hurt me and really made me doubt my intentions. "We are party members, remember? And most importantly, you're my translator. I was previously kicked out of the castle, and I don't think the people there would treat me well anymore if I returned. You know, me and you are on the same side." And it was true that I pity you, but I don't think letting you know about that will improve your mood.

"Why don't you join Ren's or Itsuki's party then? I bet you would be more of use by kicking some sense into them than by helping a looser like me." Ah, he left out the spear hero. I guessed we both mutually agreed that there was no hope in saving him from his stupidity. I believed I overheard him claiming to be murdered by his ex-girlfriends. And seeing how he was sugarcoating his party members was prove enough that he was not the type who learns from his mistakes.

Naofumi already was a few steps away when I returned from my thoughts. I hastily followed him.

I was a difficult task to push myself against the crowd of townspeople while a path easily opened with every step the assumed rapist took. It wasn't long before I lost him from my sights, but I knew that he was heading straight out of the capital, so I hope to find him there again.

How naïve of me. Of course, it wouldn't be that easy to find somebody who was actively trying to be alone, especially if that certain somebody hid himself in a forest.

I shook my head. Anxiety shot into my face. What should I do now?

Firstly, I want a nap. I didn't even have breakfast. I might be able to pull off a food order with just body language. I guess I head back to town.

A silent growl could be heard from the bushes. I had a bad feeling about this and began to sprint away. A unicorn rabbit stormed right at me.

It was scaringly fast, about as fast as me.

I don't want to deal with some random monster right now. Why can't I be let go in peace?

Just as I left the forest two unicorn rabbit monsters flanked me from two different hills to my sides. I was already close to exhaustion after my run. What are the chances of this being not a trap?

Shit. I was too careless. I thought that there weren't any mobs in close proximity to the city. Or I was just unlucky.

My mind raced. What can I do? No, a battle was inevitable.

I unsheathed my sword out of its hilt and went to the offence. It was better to knock an enemy out of the game before I got encircled.

I turned around by 180 degrees and saw my pursuer about to jump at me to pierce its horn into my body.

I sidestepped and swung my sword like a baseball bat.

+40EXP

A clean hit.

Half of its innards were now accessible to the outside world.

I halfway appreciated how well the sword could cut through flesh and bones.

None of its blood or its digestive fluids connected to me, so I was alright, for now.

It was obvious how their attack pattern worked. Just sprinting straight ahead and ramming its horn into its target.

But it didn't mean they are easy to kill. Especially if there were still two of them.

I must split them apart. I couldn't bet on them making the same mistake in sync.

Submerging myself into the sea of vegetation, I hoped to differentiate their approaching speed.

I had a bigger build, so I had less of a problem to steamroll over groups of shrubbery.

Maybe my plan was successful, because I stopped hearing the unicorn rabbits.

After positioning myself at a spot where I could freely swing my sword, I waited for them to come.

But I heard nothing but the rustling of leaves in the wind and my own panting.

I waited for longer, my breathing already stabilising. It seemed like they had lost interest in me.

Suddenly, I noticed Naofumi's Hp-bar drop in the periphery of my vision. It was so marginal that I reflexively didn't bet an eye on it. Then I shook me.

The shield hero had no attack. He'd be grinded down.

I took a deep breath and calmed myself down. I thought a bit more optimistically. Even with his low attack points, before his enemy could even threaten his health to fall below 50%, Naofumi would kill his enemy two times over.

But I didn't hurt to worry about him, so I continued searching for him.

I took a sip from my water bottle and made use of my ears as I wandered around. He couldn't be that far off as he probably attracted the attention of my former pursuers.

As I captured a faint battle cry, I discovered the direction from which it came, and I hurriedly head to that place.

What came into my sight was a Naofumi covered in many kinds of balloon mobs admits a battle against two unicorn rabbits.

"Really?" I drew my sword again. "And you said that you don't need help."

A/N

Whooo, the end for this chap. What do you think about the switch in POV? For me personally I find it easier to write. And I can always switch back when if necessary. This is the first time I got over 10k words in a fanfic of mine. Sugoidayone? Well, see you.