Time to go to sleep, huh.

I got comfortable in my bed and started trying to go to sleep.

...

...

...

But all kinds of thoughts started to disturb me.

And they all led to one conclusion:

My life is boring.

WAAAY too boring.

I do the same thing every single day, week, month, even years aren't all that different from each other.

And the cycle never ends.

It's monotonous.

At this point I wouldn't mind getting isekaid... No...
I would mind, wouldn't I?

Leaving everything and everyone behind is... not something I can do so easily.

Friends, family, my mountain of unfinished personal projects and everything else.

Leaving all of it behind would weigh down on my conscious too much.

...

Well, I can't dwell on all of this for too long. Gotta sleep.

...

I am jealous of Rimuru tho.

...

I ENVY him.

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I thought that today would be a normal day like any other, but it seems like I was wrong in that assumption.

Truly, I did not expect something like this to happen.

A hand? dark mist? shadow? anyway.

It doesn't matter what it was.

But this something carefully placed a child on the pavement.

The said child seemed to be a young girl, even younger than my grandson.

I got off my dragon carriage and walked up to her.

She had long cyan hair and pale skin.

She wore a dark blue fur coat, with a sword on it's side, and a scarf of impeccable quality.

Her clothing was too hot for the current climate but she wasn't sweating, not even a little bit.

She appeared to be sleeping.

Even though her beauty and clothing were that of royalty, for some reason, when I looked at her, I immediately understood that she wasn't. Something about her was screaming at me to not confuse her with royalty.

Nevertheless sleeping in the middle of town can't be good for a child her age, so I decided to wake her up, silently praying that she wasn't a 'sleeping beauty'.

?: "Miss, wake up."

No response.

?: "Miss, please wake up." I repeated in a louder tone

Still no response.

I kneeled and started shaking her.

?: "Miss, I need you to wake up."

'Miss': "Mmm...alright. I'm waking up."

When she opened her golden eyes she seemed to be stunned.

Then she immediately got into a thinking position.

Her golden eyes started scanning everything around her.

At first glance her eyes seemed innocent, and that's because they were. No death, not much suffering, but when they landed on me, I felt as though she could see completely through me, almost like she knew everything about me, and knew exactly what I thought. That made me wary at first, but when I looked deeper, I saw something else in those eyes, and it was the fact that...

Those eyes seemed lost, desperate and refusing to acknowledge the situation she was in. Her eyes and mannerisms while at first appeared calm and collected, when looked deeper into, were ways that a child her age would act.

Her 'scanning' was her desperately denying everything around her, hoping that she could find a mistake that would prove that the scenery around her was just a bad dream.

Her 'thinking' was a jumbled mess, constantly repeating words in her head such as: this is not real, this is just a bad dream and... I want to go home.

Her eyes looked as if they could cry any minute, but no tears came out.

I understood that the girl needed some time to process the situation around her, so I decided to let the silence continue for a bit longer.

...

...

...

After the girl calmed down, I decided to speak up.

?: "Miss I unde-"

'Miss': "It's mister." She - no - he said while raising his palm right in front of me to stop me from speaking.

?: "...I understand. I'm sorry about that." I bowed

'Mister': "Don't worry about it." He said while doing a weird hand gesture that seemed to mean 'drop the subject'. "And also please don't use those kind of honorifics with me, it makes me fell old." He said while scratching his head.

He then stood up and extended his hand out to me.

'Mister': "Name's Cylob, nice to meet you."

I was surprised by such a reaction, but not for long, as there was a person awaiting my response right in front of me.

?: "My name is Wilhelm, and it's a pleasure to meet you as well." I said as I shook his hand.

We both smiled as we shook hands.

But my expression soon turned serious.

Wilhelm: "Unfortunately, I must ask you to come with me."

Cylob: "Huh? Why?"

Wilhelm: "I have some questions I would like to ask you. And while I can see that you mean no harm, you're still quite suspicious."

Cylob: "Do I h-"

Wilhelm: "No you do not have a choice." I said as I put a hand on my sword hilt.

Quickly noticing the danger, the young boy sighs.

Cylob: "Alright, I'll go with you."

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As soon as the trip started the young boy immediately started 'thinking' again. To distract him from bad thoughts, and to satisfy my curiosity, I decided to ask him some questions.

Wilhelm: "May I ask where you're from, boy? The clothes you wear don't seem to be from around here, are you from Kararagi perhaps?"

The boy seemed startled by my sudden question, but quickly regained his composure.

Cylob: "Umm...I'm not sure where I come from either, to be honest."

Wilhelm: "? What do you mean by that?"

Cylob: "Well, you see, I'm not actually human."

Wilhelm: "You're a demi-human?"

Cylob thought for a moment and then answered.

Cylob: "Yeah, and I'm the last of my kind."

I looked at him with wide eyes.

Wilhelm: "...I'm sorry for making you say that."

Cylob: "Don't apologize, it's not your fault. It's just...The reason I don't know where I'm from is because I haven't socialised with your kind much, so I don't know what you called the location I was in." He explained with a nervous smile.

Cylob: "You might have noticed it, but... I don't need to breathe and I don't sweat, that's two of the quirks of my kind."

I see...so he really wasn't breathing. I thought it was just my imagination but I guess it wasn't.

Wilhelm: "...Do you know how you got here?"

Cylob: "Changing the subject, eh? Well, can't blame you about that. *sigh* To be completely honest, I don't know how I got here myself. One second I was falling asleep on my bed, while regretting my life choices, and the next thing I know, I was being woken up by a kind old man in the middle of town."

Wilhelm: "I see..."

Cylob: "That's a pretty weird question tho, did you see how I got here?"

Wilhelm: "The only thing I saw, was a shadow carefully placing you on the pavement. And as you know, the general populace doesn't have a good association with them."

Cylob: "A shadow..." He whispered, more to himself more than anyone else.

Then, for no reason, his head turned to a random direction with a serious expression.

No, that would be a lie. A reason was there. Someone was crying out for help, and Cylob could hear them. He looked extremely nervous.

Wilhelm: "Don't worry, I'm sure the knights will help whoever is in trouble." I reassured him.

Cylob: "A-ah? Y-yeah, you're right! I'm sure he'll get some help!" He put on a nervous smile, seemingly trying to hide something.

'He'? I understand that he's a demi-human, but just how good is his hearing? To me it seems like all of his senses are extremely enhanced, combine that with the fact that he can't run out of breath, just how much potential as a fighter does he have?

Wilhelm: "How much skill with the sword do you have?"

He looked at me with a dumbfounded look.

Cylob: "...Well that came outa nowhere. And to answer your question: none. I only got the sword recently, and I've never practiced with a sword before."

...

I want to - no - I have to train him.

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Wilhelm came back.

The only problem is the fact that he brought a gir- sorry - boy back with him.

Apparently, a shadow brought the boy to the Capital, and I have to confirm that he's not a threat.

Along with the regular procedure, Wilhelm wanted to ask the boy some extra questions, so this was going to be quite the long interragation.

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Author's note: Cylob, right now, thinks that his soul has been transfered to a different body, and he obviously doesn't know the name that his new body was given before his arrival. This is also the reason why Cylob 'technically' doesn't know where he comes from.

?: "Come in."

The door opens up and the nervous boy comes in. I gesture him to the seat in front of me, and he sits down.

He's looking at me as if he knows everything about me...I shouldn't take him lightly...

But he is nervous...maybe something else is hiding behind that 'all knowing' look.

?: "There's no need to be so nervous."

'boy': "I know, but when I meet people of such high stature and in such formal settings, I can't keep calm no matter what I do, especially if it's the Crusch Karsten." Truth.

Crusch: "That's understandable. But you don't have to worry. Unless you try to trick me, even if you have bad intentions I'll settle for the minimum amount of punishment."

He looked at me with a blank face that screamed: That wasn't reassuring AT ALL! It was kind of funny to be honest.

Well, at least that made him less nervous.

?: "And dyon't you try to lie! My lady can see when you're lying, so if you try, you wyon't be forgiven!"

The boy immediately got nervous again and his golden eyes wavered a bit.

...I see it now...in that split second it was a...lost child's look, wasn't it?... I should wrap up this interragation as fast as possible.

Crusch: "*sigh*Don't make him more nervous than he already is, Ferris."

Ferris: "But-"

Crusch: "No buts."

Ferris: "But-"

Crusch: "Felix Argyle!"

Felix put on a sad expression, but I decided it would be best to ignore him.

Crusch: "Now let's get down to business."

The boy audibly gulped, but his eyes showed a completely different story, they held conviction.

Crusch: "First of all what's your name?"

'boy': "Wilhelm didn't tell you? Well whatever. My full name is Cylob Protsav." Lie.

I gestured to Wilhelm, who immediately put a hand on his sword hilt.

Crusch: "I hope you have a good reason for faking your identity." I tried, but...I couldn't glare at him. He was just a lost child after all. Most I could do was put on a more serious look.

He frantically wavered his hands around.

'Cylob': "W-wait this is a misunderstanding! Even I don't know what my name is supposed to be!" Truth.

Wilhelm looked at me for confirmation, but I was too stunned to move. I genuinely doubted my divine protection for a second, but the questions won't ask themselves, so I had to put the issue on the back burner for now.

Crusch: "...Since the matter seems... complicated, to say the least, I'll drop the subject for now. Second question: are you with the witch cult?"

Cylob: "No I'm not. I hate almost every single one of them." He said, glaring at nothing in particular. Truth.

Felix: "'almost'? Why not everynyan?" Felix stared suspiciously.

Cylob: "On special occasions the witch cult mentally breaks someone into joining their ranks, so no matter how much I hate what the person does, I can't hate them specifically." Truth.

Crusch: "And, how do you know this?"

Cylob: "I watched a part of the process once. It was...disturbing, to say the least." The golden eyes wavered again. Truth.

Crusch: "...Understood. Next question: are you a threat to Lugunica? Anything else than a no will be considered a yes. "

Cylob: "No." Truth.

Crusch: "That concludes the necessary questioning. Wilhelm, I believe you had some extra questions to ask, didn't you?"

Wilhelm: "Of course. Thank you for this opportunity Karsten-sama." Wilhelm bowed.

I looked at him, conveying the message: make this fast...for his sake.

He immediately understood my intention and nodded.

Wilhelm: "Cylob Protsav..."

Cylob gulped "What is it Wilhelm?"

Wilhelm: "...would you allow me to teach you the way of the sword?"

Cylob: "...Huh?" He started processing the words spoken to him "...W-wait WHAT!?"

Cylob's reaction was justified, as even I was surprised.

Crusch: "Are you sure about this, Wilhelm?"

Wilhelm: "Yes." He spoke with no hesitation. Truth.

Silence hanged in the room...But then the boy spoke up.

Cylob: "...I'm sorry, but taking an offer like this would make me feel obligated to you, and being chained down like that is the last thing i want right now." Truth.

I was surprised. He had the chance to be trained be the sword demon, but he turned it down. But I understood his position, beacause even though he was a lost child there was conviction in his eyes. He wanted to do something and he wasn't going to let anyone srop him. So to honour that conviction, I decided to make a deal, not treat him as a child that needed to be given everything on a silver platter.

Crusch: "...Then how about you work for me?"

Cylob: "...What do you mean by that?" He narrowed his eyes.

Crusch: "It's simple: you work for me, and Wilhelm trains you as a reward."

Cylob: "But what could a kid like me even do for you?"

Crusch: "Sure, I'm not going to lie, a kid like you won't be able to do much, but either way I don't lose much."

Cylob: "Why are you so sure that you won't lose much?"

Crusch: "That defiance of yours."

Cylob: "!?"

Crusch: "The way you speak makes it clear that even without anyone's help, you'll be fine. You won't be low on food or water, and you'll somehow find somewhere to sleep. Which means that I don't need to pay you any money. So you should be able to help me in small amounts, and in return for your work, Wilhelm will train you."

Cylob: "...Fine, but I want to negotiate the conditions."

Crusch: "Of course."

What an interesting boy.

I tried to give the boy a good deal, but he immediately refused and proposed a deal that would be worse for him, at first I didn't understand why he would do that, but then I remembered the fact that he didn't want to feel obligated, so I agreed to his conditions.

I am still surprised by Wilhelm's desision, but i guess he saw something in that boy that he wanted to nurture.

Anyway, the deal was a 3:1 work to reward ratio. To me, it seemed like he was underselling himself, but i digress, it was what he wanted after all.

...

I guess that's enough joking around.

That boy is definitely not normal.

When Ferris tried to check him while teasing him, he found nothing.

And not as in nothing abnormal, but literally nothing.

No blood, no nerves, no organs, no heartbeat, just... nothing.

It seems like it wasn't just a fluke that I couldn't notice him breathing.

The fact that he saw the witch cult in action and managed to stay alive is also quite intriguing.

I'm gonna have to pay close attention to him for a while.

So as much as I hate the fact, I'm going to have to put a spy on him.

I need to find a good one, as the fact that Wilhelm was interested in him meant that he had to at least have good senses.

*Sigh* That was one tiring interragation.

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I was running, as fast as I could.

Because if didn't go at full speed they would most likely be able to catch me.

After I ran away far enough, I took a little break to catch my breath and regenerate a little bit more.

To think that all this damage would be from one strike...

Even if it was the sword saint, isn't this too much?

Still, fighting him again wouldn't be too bad. I thought with a smile.

It was then that I heard a voice in front of me.

?: "Hello there, wanna talk?"

As soon as i heard the voice I got into a battle stance and looked where the noise came from.

Standing there was a young little girl, not much older than Meili.

?: "What do you want?" I asked.

?: "Like I just said, I wanna talk, Elsa Granhiert."

Elsa: "And why should I talk to you?"

?: "Because if you don't, I'm gonna tell the guards where you're going, and you'll be in pretty big trouble."

Elsa: "And why can't I just kill you?"

?: "You can try, if you want to. But I wouldn't be so sure if I was in your condition tbh."

What the hell is tibi-eich? Whatever, that's not important right now.

The girl was scared, but for some reason she was convinced that she would live this encounter no matter what. So I decided to humor her a little.

Elsa: "If you want to talk to me, than tell me your name at least."

?: "Of course. My name is Cylob, nice to meet you Elly."

Cylob's a pretty weird name for a girl...wait.

Elsa: "Elly?"

Cylob: "Yeah, if I don't distract myself with stuff like nicknames, I'm probably gonna become too nervous to do anything, tbh."

Elsa: "Again with this tibi-eich, what does it even mean?" I mumbled to myself, but the girl still heard it.

Cylob: "Oh right, you don't get it. Tbh means 'to be honest'."

That's a pretty weird way of saying it. Anyway, while I talk with her I can fully regenerate and recover my lost stamina, and maybe she'll lower her guard, so indulging her wouldn't be too bad. Despite, I feel like talking with her wouldn't be too bad.

Elsa: "Well, Miss Cylo-"

Cylob: "It's mister! R! Why does everyone keep messing it up!" He looked up to the sky in an exaggerated tone. Is that an opening? Even if it is, for some reason I feel like it won't kill her- him. That reaction IS funny though.

Elsa: "Heh. Well, Mister Cylob, what did you wanna talk about?"

Cylob: "Well, first of all, have you ever heard of the species by the name of slime?"

Elsa: "No, I haven't heard of whatever this slaim is."

Cylob: "I see... Well, that's all i was gonna ask, you wanna ask me something?"

I was stunned. He was acting as if he was talking to a normal person. I don't even remember the last time someone talked to me that way.

Elsa: "Of course I do, how did you know my identity and location?"

Cylob: "Jeez, do you have to be so practical? Whatever. I saw your actions in the loot house."

He did? I made sure that there was no one strong in the area. How did he slip by? And the fact that he could keep up with me for all this time is not an easy feat.

Cylob: "Welp, my instincts are screaming at me, so you must be almost fully recovered." He turned to the direction of the capital. "Say hi to Mel-chan for me!" He waved me goodbye and ran away. His speed wasn't too fast, but catching up to him would waste too much time.

Tch, and here I was hoping he wouldn't notice... wait, Mel-chan? Does he know about Meili as well? Whatever, it doesn't matter right now, I have to go, I can already hear the guards coming.