Everything in a sense had been foretold. Though, predicted would be a more accurate assessment. That knowledge was invested to accomplish such a closed minded desire in the end.
All in a book created by that witch.
Was it because it had taken consideration of others' usefulness? Or perhaps its methods simply mirrored its creator?
Regardless, it had accomplished its task in the grand scheme of things.
…
…
…
I wonder…
How different would it have been if that book made a mere oversight…? Perhaps just a different method or not taking certain paths into consideration?
…
…
…
What an intriguing thought…
--
In the city of Lugnica, there was a master thief. Despite her age, she was able to reach a high enough prestige that she'd be well known for her skill and anyone who wanted anything stolen, they'd be sure the young master thief could do the job.
However, despite that title, she was still barely scraping by. In reality, a thief is still a thief. She would never get any high paying jobs from clients since anyone with that much money wouldn't need to still. Why would they if they can just buy anything they wanted?
Overall, the young girl wound up reaching a dead end in this career path of hers. It's not like there was anything else she could've done, she figured. She didn't have anything good to sell to be a merchant, she was constantly discriminated against for living in the slums to even get a chance, and because she wasn't born in the best condition, the girl didn't have anyone to help her.
Even though it might not be the most optimal decision, being a thief was the only direction she could turn to and she just happened to be good at it.
All these thoughts had plagued the young girl's mind as she aimlessly wandered through the back alley ways. The thief didn't have any jobs today and was left bored out of her mind. She figured that an easy target might present itself eventually if she kept on the move.
But time would keep going on and little to no opportunities had presented itself. The best she managed was stealing a single appa while the merchant was too busy occupied with an exotic looking guy.
Initially, she considered taking something out of that bag the exotic guy was carrying around but after some careful thought, she went against it. His black hair looked like someone who came from Vollachia and she knew better than to tangle herself with that kind of trouble.
The girl munched on the appa as she began to head her way back to the slums. With today being a bust, she decided to go check up on a certain old man she knew. She took the long way back since she wasn't in any hurry and mainly to just kill time.
The young thief maneuvered down the alleyways, being greeted by the usual junk lying about, the unfortunate digging through them like buried treasure, and occasionally some muggings here and there.
In fact, she happened to stumble across such a mugging while on her way. There were three thugs, a big guy, a skinny guy, and a midget. She vaguely recalled seeing them around but that's as much as she really knew about those three.
However, the real kicker was who those three cornered. It was none other than that exotic guy from the appa shop. Seeing him in a place like this really made her regret not taking her chances with him earlier. After all, if he was dumb enough to come to a place like this, he was just begging to get robbed.
Whatever, the young thief thought. He's already someone else's prey now and she'd rather not cause any trouble, especially with her fellow slum residents.
"Hey! Outta the way! Coming through!" She announced. Even though she didn't want to cause a scene, they were still blocking her path.
Everyone on the scene stopped what they were doing and immediately darted their gaze at the clearly annoyed girl. While the three thugs looked more startled, the exotic guy had a stupid goofy look of wonder plastered all over his face.
At that moment, the weird exotic guy grinned happily. "Yes! I knew you'd come find me, cute girl that summoned me!"
"Eh?" The girl blinked a few times. Even the thugs were left speechless. Was this some kind of tactic to rope her into this mess? What a scumbag, she thought. "Look, I don't know what you're talking about. You really shouldn't be dragging random people into your problems, ya here?"
Hearing what the girl had to say, all the thugs turned away from the girl and back to the black haired dude, almost as if they're waiting to hear what excuse he comes up with.
"Oh…" The guy finally said. He then chuckled rather nervously as he began to scratch the back of his head. "Sorry about that. Your timing was just so perfect that I thought you were going to be the main female support."
"What are you…?" The girl stopped herself and shook her head. "Look, if you're done making yourself look like an idiot, I got more important things to do."
Just as the girl was about to leave, the guy reached his hand out and continued to plead. "W-Wait! I know my situation doesn't look good right now but you wouldn't just leave a helpless person to the wolves like this, would you?"
The thief glanced back at the pleading boy. Now that she thought about it, she didn't actually have anything better to do in reality. Also, who's to say this guy isn't secretly some kind of big shot with deep pockets. Sure, he may look pretty light now but who knows?
After some quick consideration, she turned her attention back to the three thugs. They don't look too bright, maybe she could end this without putting in too much effort. "Are ya guys seriously trying to mug some broke foreigner? Aren't there hundreds of better targets to pick from?"
The thugs finally snapped out from their confusion once finally being addressed and the big guy spoke up. "Oi! You know that's easier said than done!"
"Yeah!" The midget agreed. "Even if it's just his shoes, that's better than nothing, right?"
"What about those?" The thief pointed at the thugs' shoes. "If that's the case, shouldn't you just sell yours? It'd be hell of a lot easier than prying it off of someone else."
The thugs stuttered for a moment and started to converse with themselves. "Should we just leave? I don't know if this is worth it anymore." The big thug said.
"Yeah…" Agreed the midget. "Ain't she right about picking a better target? This chum doesn't even look like he's worth the trouble."
Seeing the direction of the conversation, the young thief couldn't help but feel proud of herself from just how easily she was able to derail this situation. However, that thought was cut short as the skinny thug stepped forward and gave the girl a suspicious look.
"What're you trying to defend this nobody for? Don't think I didn't just forget about you almost leaving."
"Hey! I never said I was defending him! I'm just speakin' my mind!"
"Don't give me that, I know what you're trying to do here, missy." The skinny thug took out two knives, most likely to just look intimidating. "You're trying to use those pretty little looks of yours to steal our prey. Listen, we saw him first so go seduce someone else!"
The young thief instantly gave the skinny guy a death glare. Did that jackass call me a whore?! She thought. "Hey! What the hell are ya tryin' to imply?!"
"It doesn't matter. Just back off and mind your own business if you know what's good for you"
At first, the girl was more or less indifferent but now this got personal. She wasn't going to take this lying down. The young thief took her own dagger out, looking as if she was ready to pounce the three. "You're asking for it now, bastard!"
Seeing a fight about to go underway, the three thugs got into position as well. "H-Hey…" The big guy whispered. "Don't you think this is getting outta hand?"
"It's just a little girl and a wuss." Said the skinny guy. "Don't worry about it, this'll be over fast."
Everyone was about ready to throw down. Even the exotic guy looked excited to help the girl as if he thought some kind of power would awaken from this.
However…
No one moved.
The two sides were staying in place taking more of a defensive stance. Since the two sides seemed to have the same idea, neither of them took a step forward.
…
Eventually, the exotic guy broke the awkward silence. "Are you gonna do something or…?"
"Shut it!" Cried the skinny thug. "We're getting to that!"
In actuality, their side was too wary to make the first move. If it was just one person, they'd be more confident but there were two now and they weren't actually sure if there were more of them waiting.
Actually… were they the ones getting jumped? The thug thought. This situation not only was getting out of hand but it started getting fishier by the second. Especially how confident those two looked. They were clearly up to something!
It was obvious to the thug that the girl was only trying to take their target so he tried to tell her off but no one said she was armed. Not only that but the girl showed no signs of fear, like she was ready to rip his throat out at a moment's notice. However, he already talked a big game in front of his chums so he couldn't just back down now.
But what was he supposed to do now? He sure as hell doesn't want to make the first strike and the opposing side sure doesn't seem to be dumb enough to do so either.
That's when he had an idea. A perfect ploy to end this once and for all while keeping his dignity.
The thug pointed behind the duo and cried out. "Crap! It's the guards! Scatter!"
The bluff seemed to work as expected once the girl widened her eyes and looked behind herself. "W-What?!"
That was it. Now he could swoop in and-
"R-Run!" The big thug yelled as he bolted in the opposite direction.
"R-Right behind you!" The midget joined in.
"Grr…" The final thug growled before joining his team in the run. "GODDAMNIT!!!"
At this point, the duo was left alone in the alleyway. The girl soon realized there were no guards and sighed before putting her knife back in its holster. "I figured they were all just talk."
The girl was just about to make her leave but before she could, the only other person there stopped her. "Hey, thanks for rescuing me, miss tutorial girl!"
"Oi! Are you making fun of me or something?! I can kick your sorry ass instead!"
The exotic guy shook his head immediately. "No, I didn't mean it like that! It's just, you never told me your name and that was the first thing that came to mind."
The girl settled down somewhat and clicked her tongue. "Tch, you know you could've just asked who I am like a normal person, right?"
"Yeah, sorry about that." The boy smiled and gestured to himself. "Let me start. I'm Natsuki Subaru, a shut-in with no exceptional skills and also broke beyond compare!"
The girl stared at the boy who introduced themself as Subaru for a solid moment before dropping on her butt and breaking down into laughter. "Pffft! What kind of introduction is that? You really are a loser, aren't ya?"
"H-Hey! I might not look like it now but I can guarantee that my true calling is just waiting for me and I'll be this world's hero in no time!"
"Hahah, get in line." After chuckling a bit more, the girl got back to her feet. "Here, a real introduction goes a little something like this: The name's Felt and before you ask, I don't have something fancy like a family name so just call me that."
"Felt? Huh…"
The girl now known as Felt glared at Subaru's lousy reaction. "What? You got a problem with that?"
"N-No! Not at all, I just think your introduction was very straightforward. Anyways, it's nice to meet you, Felt."
Felt simply waved her hand as she already began to head off. "Yeah, you too. I've got more important things to do so I'm gonna head now. Live strong."
Before she even took her first step, Subaru immediately reached out for her. "W-Wait! I'm actually new around here and I have no idea where I'm at. Could you let me come with you, please?"
Felt looked over the boy's desperate stance as he pleaded. Giving in, she sighed. "Fine, whatever. I'm not doing much of anything anyways."
"Wait… Didn't you say you had important things to do?"
"I meant that I had more important things to do other than you. Talking to some random nobody isn't really something important, now is it?"
Subaru clenched his chest as his pride took a serious blow just now. "Agh! You don't have to be so harsh. I promise I'm an above average person!"
"I already said you could tag along. But if you do anything funny, I won't hesitate to kick your ass."
The boy flinched at those harsh words and even tensed up. "Eheheh… I-I'll keep that in mind."
"Good! So you said you're a foreigner, right? Where exactly did you come from?"
"Oh right! I'm from Japan."
"Japan? Is that some kind of village?"
Subaru shook his head. "No, it's an island country in the east."
Felt glared at the boy for a moment and clicked her tongue. "Tch, you could've just said you didn't wanna tell me."
"I mean it! I really do come from Japan!"
"Listen, I've never heard of a place called that before and there isn't anything in the east past here. So unless you came from under a rock in the desert and called it Japan, you didn't come from the east."
"Oh right…" Subaru muttered. "Almost forgot this is a different world…"
"Eh?" Felt glanced back at him. "Did you say something?"
"No, it's nothing. I guess my situation is pretty complicated. A-Anyways, where are we going?"
"I'm just gonna check up on someone and see if any jobs came in. We'll see then depending on that."
"Oh? What kind of jobs do you do?"
"Why should I tell you? If you're not gonna tell me where you come from then there's no way I'm gonna tell you what I do for a living."
"Yeah, you have a point there." Subaru immediately stopped in place. He realized this was going to go nowhere unless he opened up a little. Not really having any real reason to hide it, Subaru started, "You're gonna think I'm crazy but I come from a completely different world."
Felt stopped too and just gave the boy a deadpan expression. "Seriously? That's the best you can come up with?"
"I'm serious! I'll even prove it to you!" Subaru immediately reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. The boy wasted no time presenting the said device as his proof.
Felt stared at the small looking rectangle, trying to piece together what I could be. However, she couldn't. She's never seen anything like that in her life. "What's that supposed to be?"
"This is called a phone. One of the many things it can do is take pictures so I'll show you some pictures of Japan and it'll prove that this place exists and that I really do come from a different world!" After his declaration, Subaru fiddled around with it and after opening up a picture, he showed it to Felt.
The girl in question glanced at the picture. It was a pretty unbelievable sight for her. There was Subaru in it, there was no question about that, and he seemed to be in some super busy street and the architecture was nothing she'd ever seen or heard of before. However, she still wasn't convinced. "First of all, I have no idea what any of that is, let alone what a picture is. You said that thing was a phone, right? Why shouldn't I believe that it isn't actually just a piece of junk that only shows weird versions of you?"
"A stingy one, aren't you? Well let me show you this then!" Subaru aimed his phone at Felt and quickly took a picture of her. Afterwards, he immediately showed the new picture off.
Felt inspected the picture of herself and rubbed her chin. It did indeed have her details down to her golden hair and crimson red eyes but… "Am I missing something? How's this supposed to prove anything?"
"This is you, a picture is something that freezes a moment in time and preserves it forever. So this right here is a picture of you and with this, we can always remember what you look like at this very time on this precise day."
"Wait, that's supposed to be me? I look way prettier than that."
"The fact that you can look that good without makeup tells me you're doing just fine. But that's besides the point, this means that the picture earlier was of me in my home country, therefore this is evidence that I'm not making things up!"
Felt sighed. "Well, you definitely don't seem to be lying but what are you trying to pull? Let's say your ridiculous story is actually true. So what do you want from me?"
"I don't exactly have anything to work with right now. I don't have a job, a place to stay, or even any friends to help me out. So what I'm trying to say is would you please help me out?"
The girl silently stared at the boy for a solid moment as if contemplating his request. But eventually, she shook her head. "I'm not in a position to be giving handouts. I live in the slums so I don't really have anything to share without putting my own livelihood on the line. Hell, I doubt you'd even fit in my home. You're better off asking someone else for that kind of help."
"Don't worry about that, I can pull my own weight as long as I know what I'm working with. I have a lot of knowledge from my home country so I could put that into practice and it could help the both of us!"
"Tch, sounds like a scam to me. Whatever, I don't have anything to lose anyways."
Subaru's eyes lightened up. "Does that mean you'll take me in?!"
"Hell no. Like I said, I'm not in any position to be giving handouts and I wasn't joking when I said that you wouldn't fit in my home."
"C'mon, I bet you're just exaggerating."
--
"You weren't joking…" Subaru was in complete disbelief at Felt's 'home'. The girl decided to just take him to her place just to prove it to him and needless to say, Subaru felt like a complete jackass now. It was a shack that looked like it was barely standing and there was no door, what was there was just a tattered cloth that was barely even hiding what was on the other side. When Felt revealed what was inside, there was a very roughed up couch that took up practically the entire shack and a bunch of junk that was piled around and even on the couch itself.
Felt crossed her arms. "Do ya believe me now?"
The black haired boy knelt down and planted his forehead to the ground. "I'm so sorry! That was very rude of me and I promise to be more considerate from now on!"
Felt averted her eyes from the rather pathetic and embarrassing display before her. "Y-You don't have to go that far. You're only embarrassing yourself."
"I'll take any embarrassment for disrespecting the cute girl who went out of their way to save me!"
The girl's cheek lit red as she was the one getting embarrassed. "For the love of- Fine! I forgive you! Just stop it and get up already!"
Subaru got back to his feet as he started to re-evaluate his next course of action. "So my starting position is a lot trickier than I thought. Do you know anyone? Maybe like some kind of guildmaster? Maybe my calling is to join an adventurer's guild."
"I don't know anyone like that. But… I think old man Rom might be able to think of something."
"Rom? Is he your relative?"
"No, I don't have any of those. Old man Rom is the closest thing I have to a family though. He doesn't live with me though, he's usually at the loot house."
"Ah… I see…" Subaru wanted to ask more about the matter but considering how disrespectful he had already been, he didn't want to add fuel to the flame, so to speak. "So this Rom guy, do you think he can hook me up with someone to help with my situation?"
"Yeah, I'm positive he could. Well, assuming that he'll buy into that wild story of yours but also be willing to help some rando."
"Don't worry, I'll work on something to make my situation sound a lot more believable!" The boy grinned happily. "Oh yeah, and thanks for helping me out with this, Felt."
"I already said that I had nothing better to do anyways. But you're at least trying unlike anyone else in this hellhole so I can at least respect you for that."
"Huh? What do you mean by that?"
"Just look around." Felt gestured towards her general surroundings. Off to the side, the duo would be able to see some random beggars, lazing drunkards, and generally people wasting away. "You're broke and you got nowhere to go. Even though I'm still having a hard time believing that dumb story of yours, you're at least trying to do something instead of giving up and burying your head in the ground."
"Oh, that's what you meant. Well, giving up just isn't my style anyways. Especially since I'm in a brand new world! It would be stupid of me if I didn't take this chance."
Felt rolled her eyes to that. "Hey, I still don't know whether or not to believe in that! For all I know, you could also just be insane."
"Cmon, can't you just give me a little bit of trust? You're really the closest thing I have to a friend right now."
"Since when were we on a friend basis? I didn't help you because I was looking for a friend. I did it because I wasn't doing anything to begin with.
"That still doesn't change the fact that I'm thankful that you did so anyways. Think of this as building myself up so I can return the favor to you."
"Hmm… Well, if you put it that way, then I can work with that. Just don't think you can get all buddy-buddy with me, especially if you don't know a thing about me."
Subaru thought over those words for a moment and grinned slyly. "So what you're saying is that I should get to know you more, right?"
Felt flinched at that response but she wasn't mad by it. In a sense, it was kind of flattering. After collecting her cool, she responded, "If that's what you wanna do with your time then I won't stop you. Having someone to help me out in a pinch never hurts after all. But if you do anything weird, I'll kick your ass, got it?"
"Don't worry, you can count on me. If I may ask though…" Subaru glanced back to Felt's home, looking at it sadly before returning his gaze back to the girl in question. "Are you doing alright for yourself? You know, while I'm trying to get myself together, I could give you a hand whenever I can."
Felt shook her head. "I'm doing fine. I know how to take care of myself. Like you, I'm working hard to reach my own goals."
Subaru had his doubts. He didn't really take note of it earlier but paying closer attention now, Felt was a short skinny girl. It was pretty clear that she was malnourished and her torn clothes really added that layer of 'I'm poor and hungry' vibe to her. "You know, you said it yourself earlier. Having someone to help you out of a pinch wouldn't hurt, right? So it's ok to have me help you out of pinches too, ok?"
Felt stayed silent for a good moment. Finally relenting, to a degree that is, she started, "Get your shit together first and then we'll talk."
Subaru nodded. "That sounds like a plan to me. So, are you going to introduce me to Rom now?"
"Yeah, follow me. It ain't that far from here."
Thus Subaru followed Felt's lead, moving his way to the loot house.