An entire week had elapsed and, strictly speaking, not much, and yet everything had changed.
For instance, now Noah would sit most of the day in the library, instead of at the Heroic Lodge. There, housemaids and a butler had shown up to serve him, and he'd promptly told them to fuck off under the idea that the work he did for the king needed to be conducted in secrecy.
Additionally, even though the King had allegedly not distributed the news about Noah, that somehow only made the people more interested in him. Perhaps it was his own mistake, walking to and from the castle flashing the king's proof of "Bein' a cool guy" but he would rather attribute it to the fact that the King had him very publically summoned the first day.
That had attracted all sorts of attention. Some good...
"Thank you for your time, John." Noah smiled politely.
The slightly older blonde man shook his head, amused. "It is my pleasure- nay, my duty to help you out. Ilias must have chosen you to be one of us for a reason, hasn't she?"
"Still. You could have remained a polite acquaintance. But you saw that I needed help, and you came. That must count for something." Noah insisted, shaking his head. To be honest, he did not like to attribute any more to Ilias than he had to.
The two of them were facing off, training swords in hand. Noah had his firmly clasped in both hands, while John, captain of the King of San Ilia's guard, had his held in one, the other remaining free. The two of them were inside the San Ilia barracks, surrounded by a group of other knights who wanted to watch.
"Are you stalling, Noah?" John asked.
"Yes. I do not enjoy the idea of getting my ass kicked in front of a crowd."
"Oh, come now. Every one of us has been made fun of before reaching the level we have. There is no shame in being a beginner." John smiled serenely.
"That does not sound like I will not be made fun of," Noah replied, eyes narrowed.
"Of course you will. It's tradition." And with that same serene smile, 'Ilias' Thunderbolt' John began his assault on Noah.
The good news was, that he was nowhere near as rough with Noah as he feared, and Noah did learn the basics of some defensive swordsmanship pretty well.
The bad news was that once John saw him heal his exhaustion with magic, he took it as all the more reason to beat him into shape.
After that, Noah got really good at clearing bruises from his arms and chest.
Some, just flat out weird...
"AH! PLEASE HELP ME! ISN'T THERE A BRAVE HERO THAT WILL SEE TO MY PLIGHT NEARBY?!" A shrill, female voice called as Noah was walking home with a half-eaten croissant in hand.
He briefly pondered whether it was worth it to investigate, before sighing and shoveling the rest of his food down his face.
The cry for help was coming from down an alleyway, and as he walked with a hand behind himself ready to pull out his weapon, he came face to face with a peculiar sight. Face to legs. A figure was stuck in the trash can at the end of an alley, comically flailing her bare legs and accidentally… or not, actually, since she wore nothing else, flashing her panties whoever was unfortunate enough to pass by.
"...let's just get this over with," he muttered, but inwardly, he was also wary- Amira was one of those odd characters who broke the fourth wall on a semi-regular basis. That was funny in the game, but completely terrifying to deal with in reality.
Picking up the trash can, he used his leg as a lever and lowered it to the ground, at least going through with the effort of not just spilling its contents all over the place. A moment later, with her legs on the ground, the struggling unfortunate lamia managed to pull herself out. "Ah, my hero! And so gentle too-" she swooned, before turning to regard Noah and gasping. "What?! You're not my beloved!"
"I… don't think so, no. We don't know each other." he blinked before something occurred to him. "Wait- didn't Ilias get punched just barely two days ago?"
"Er- yes, I believe so?" The woman's snake head, even upside down, tilted in askance.
"When in the world did you have time to get acquainted with Luka?" he asked, wide-eyed.
"Look, I don't know what to tell you! I sensed the POV's appearance in the city and just decided to get here, but then I realized that this was San Ilia and I got stuck hiding in the trash can!" Amira hastily defended herself.
"...the POV?"
"Never mind that! You're not Luka!" she pointed her toe at him accusingly.
"Why are you even here though?" Noah asked. "The storm is still raging, and the Pope hasn't spoken of receiving visions about him…"
The two of them stared at each other for a moment as Amira sweatdropped. "Let me check my notes."
And with that, she jumped straight into the trash can again. A moment later, a secondary howl of distress could be heard. "OH NOOOOOO!"
"What happened?"
"It appears I have accidentally done a sequence break! How could I make such an amateur mistake…"
"Does that mean that you have the power to move through time and space?" Noah asked.
"Well… it's complicated." her head poked out of the trash can. "Why?"
"I'm not from around here either, and I'd like to go home. Can you help me?"
Amira stared at him for several seconds, before giving him a half-lidded stare. "Oh, you're one of those. How unoriginal."
"Those what?"
"Nevermind that- are those the guards?" she asked, pointing her head outside of the alleyway. Poor, gullible Noah turned around to check that out and found no one.
But turning back around also saw no presence of the unfortunate lamia.
"...God fucking damn it."
And some were rather bad. Like that one time that Noah had to publically gun down a man, which was... particular.
"NOAH ROMERO!" As Noah was reading up on, of all things, the law system of San Ilia after remembering a particular bit of dialogue from Luka concerning the fact that heroes can supposedly walk into houses and grab things as though they belong to them, he is startled by a sudden voice shouting out his name.
Briefly, he pondered about leaving the seat he's taken at a lovely little coffee shop, something that apparently existed in this world, and much in the same way that back in the 60s they catered to American policemen, only with guards instead. And given the fact that Noah still has recurring nightmares and barely gets more than 5 hours of sleep per night, it's a welcome addition to his life.
As he finally decided to look up from his book, he can see a burly man. He had a large beard, a big, great mace in his hand, and was wearing leather armor. Were he not in San Ilia, Noah might have assumed he was a bandit- and considering what he's reading regarding heroes and their rights above most citiziens, he's not sure that was not the case.
"You called?" Noah asked, not bothering to stand up, despite his muscles tensing up and his brain wracking itself for a getaway plan.
"Ohoho, the bitch boy speaks." The man sneered. "I have half a mind to shut that mouth myself."
"...do you need anything?" Noah replied, putting on a show of looking at the man as though he wasn't worth the dirt beneath him. If you can shake up their confidence, and look confident yourself, then they're less likely to attack you, he remembers from some self-defense video he watched.
"Do YoU nEeD aNyThInG?" the man mocked in a terrible impression of Noah's voice. "Yeah, I wanted to see what kind of man deserves to pass in front of so many mighty heroes who have been waiting in line for much longer than himself. Instead, I see a little sissy boy who is doing nothing except drink coffee and read books while real men are out there fighting with monsters, all the while getting nepotism to make his way into the Royal Guard. I have half a mind to take that ring over there for myself." he sneered as he got close.
"…" Noah briefly looked down at the book he was reading, thinking back on the passage about civil aggression. "Besides the fact that you are doubting the Ilias-mandated word of the King, what are you going to do about it besides disturb the public?"
"Ohoho, I hoped that you would say something like that, sissy boy." the man snarked. "I challenge you to a duel."
Noah sighed because that was the exact thing that he didn't need. This was all that the man needed to do to get to beat him up publically, strictly speaking. Of course, Noah could refuse, but he shouldn't.
...well, considering that Noah was sorta training to learn how to fight, it would be interesting to see how an opponent that wasn't trying to rape him would fight.
"Fine. Waste my time, why don't you?" he muttered to himself, more as a way to try and psyche the man out than anything. Then, he purposely walked over to the bridge that connected the Inn and the Weapons shop. Noah was still fascinated every time he thought about the RPG way this world just seemed to cater to adventurers. "You coming?"
"Are you not even going to grab a weapon, you cur?" the man hissed as he walked up.
"Who says I don't have one?" Noah replied, walking up to the man. "Got all I need right here. So, ten paces, as is customary."
"Indeed. Who knows, when I'm done with you, maybe they'll offer you work at a brothel where little bitches like you belong." The man laughed darkly, and the two of them turned back to walk ten steps away from each other.
Of course, they were also attracting quite an audience, but as Noah's heart began to thunder in his ears, he began hearing them less and less. "Anyone got a coin?" he muttered, and with a nod of the head as a hand he couldn't quite put a face to offered a bronze one, he turned back.
"Please make room. This is going to get messy," he said, clearly but monotonously. "When the coin hits the ground, we begin. That good for you?"
The man spat to the side by way of reply.
Wordlessly, Noah tossed the coin up into the hair. His hands clenched slightly, ready at a moment's notice to draw his weapon. He was going for the surprise factor here.
The man laughed to himself, looking more and more like a wolf just waiting to leap on him. He was salivating, for goodness' sake.
Light reflected off the bronze, the sun's rays shining at the apex of its arc as though Ilias herself was witnessing the spectacle. With Noah's luck, that wasn't out of the question- and even if she wasn't, some other angel probably was. He needed to put on a good show.
Noah, previously trying and mostly failing to calm his breathing ended up not breathing at all. His vision was beginning to tunnel. Maybe he should back out. Maybe-
*ta-ting*
"Haha! Let's get this started, I'll crush you like the little slime you-" the man suddenly gasped, taking a knee.
Noah blinked. A crossbow bolt was now embedded straight through the man's chest, vanished. He was pretty sure he heard the bone break. Pulling back his crossbow's lever, he shot him again in the thigh- he was aiming for the knee. Another gasp, this time from the crowd as the man fell to the ground with a shout of pain.
...the man was down. Huh.
Slowly walking over to the man, unable to get the sound of blood rushing through his ears out, he grabbed him by the hair. "If what little of medicine I remember is correct, the bolt I shot just punched through your femoral artery. Do you understand that the only person capable of performing miracles in this town close enough to heal you before you bleed out is me?" he asked, a dark snarl coming out of his throat.
With adrenaline-fuelled strength, he flipped the man over on his back, ignoring the shout of pain that caused. He could barely see the fletching of the first bolt, piercing the chest and the lung beneath. With a curse, he realized that this was much more than breaking skin- the man would choke on his blood if he didn't die of blood loss first.
"If you are listening, Ilias, please help." Noah hissed, before swirling his hand, grasping at what little ambient magic he could feel.
Magic ultimately boiled down to three things. Visualizing the effect that you wanted to happen, which required an intimate understanding of what you wanted to happen. This was the reason that magic took so long for a lot of people to learn; you needed a deep understanding of how the world functioned in order to visualize what exactly you wanted to happen. Thankfully, Noah was a college graduate; like it or not, he knew things.
The willpower to make it happen, almost working like a muscle within the mind that demanded that physics be damned, something was going to happen. This was also a blockade for some mages, and apparently something that would be normally diminished upon losing to a monster. Thankfully, Noah also had that in spades.
And thirdly, you needed magic. Picking up on the ambient mana, as humans had none of their own was a matter of needing to both be in an area that hopefully had a decent concentration of it, while at the same time, being able to grasp it. All the handwavey stuff was quite literally grabbing as much magic as you could, like trying to catch the wind with your hands.
"Torrent of white, bless us with your breath of magic and expand my mind! Enhance Magic!" he breathed out. At first, it seemed like it was like any other casting of it, but after a moment, a light briefly blinded Noah and suddenly, he felt like he'd drank 10 coffees and could fight God- though perhaps not that last part. Furthermore, he was reminded of every little anatomy lesson he'd taken and YouTube first aid video all at once.
That delay… it wasn't him at all having managed the spell, was it? Someone else had simply cast the spell on him again- properly, this time. As the gasping man began crying and wheezing, Noah decided that was good enough for him- he felt comforted, to know that he was being guided through this. Even if the angels were not upstanding bastions of morality, they were not letting him down right now. He wasn't ready to take his first life. Grabbing the tail end of the bolt, he jammed his knife into the man's back and yanked, hard, a spray of blood covering his face. A moment later, he managed to do the same with the bolt in the guy's thigh.
"Tranquil winds of life, restore his wounded body!" he commanded, and the magic that was now flooding him instead rushed into the man, as the body knitted itself closed and regenerated.
The man passed out. On shaking legs, Noah stood up and shook his head. "Know your place." he muttered, just to keep up a small bit of appearance as he walked away and retreated to his house. He was left shaking... but it wasn't just fear, and it wasn't guilt at all. What he felt now was... catharsis, and not even a small amount of it.
He wondered what that meant for him.
Even after a good night's rest, Noah still didn't know how to feel about what he'd done the day prior. Trying to break down the event into its individual components;
The first was that Noah was having coffee outside and reading. Not much to do about that except maybe become a shut-in again, but that sounded… unpleasant.
A burly, scarred man approached him, getting up in his space, being obscene, and threatening violence. Strictly speaking, there was little to do about that, but Noah could acknowledge that his de-escalating efforts were... lackluster. He'd basically goaded the man on due to the presence of people watching.
He'd accepted the duel because... social consequences? That didn't sound right, even though it was what was on his mind. Mostly, he'd folded because he felt afraid to do otherwise. But if people could push him around even more easily now, what was even the point of getting said privileges from the king?
Lastly, well, Noah shot him. Twice, but by that point, things had truly gone AWOL. The bolts had gone through the man and come out at the other end, getting stuck only in the armor, which... wasn't supposed to happen. Like, crossbows, in general, did not do that.
So, what was there to learn from this?
Well, the first one was obvious. No firing on humans with what was apparently the equivalent of an elephant gun unless Noah planned for someone to die.
Beyond that... he needed to get better. Confidence would come from reaching a point where a brute with an axe would not make him feel in danger. And for that, he needed to get better at magic. It didn't matter if he tried the normal route of honing his reflexes, the speed of his draw, his physical strength, and all the things that would make someone better if what lay below was pointless. Humans were just atrociously weak.
Too bad what Promestein suggested was absolutely crazy.
Noah had looked through the castle's library and found that the books contained in Merlin's personal chambers were pretty much better explanations of the principles and functioning of magic, or in some cases, direct manuscripts of the ones there.
Try as he might turn the situation over in his head, Noah was forced to come to terms with a realization. In a little over a year, he'd achieved what most mages achieved over the span of their lives. And it was, in a word, unimpressive. He understood that he was missing the raw material; the Heal spell he'd performed yesterday was nothing short of miraculous.
And having checked in with the head librarian, he found it was a kindly old man. Noah had already suspected what the true meaning of Promestein's words was, but it truly took on a disturbing note.
Yet another one of Noah's recent... mistakes? The scientist angel seemed amused while she interacted with him and even pointed him somewhere. With Noah on Ilias' radar, he could see why Promestein had appeared, but now Noah had voluntarily initiated a game of cat and mouse with one of the most dangerous people in the world.
And all because he wanted to get home.
Shaking his head, he pondered on what he'd decided what his approach was to doing this. Briefly, he'd considered commandeering his authority to cordon off the entire section of the library, but it would be hard to then justify why he decided to go in alone and not kill the monster inside. Noah did not like monsters... but to go out of his way to plan how to murder several of them in advance just for a book felt like crossing a threshold that he wasn't sure he was ready for.
No, this required a little trickery.
The San Ilia Castle was patrolled day and night by guards in the hallways to ensure no quackery happened with the king, which was more than a sensible choice. The king nullified those choices by taking in personal visitors, but it still seemed to operate by some principle.
Indeed, while the castle was open to visitors during the day, it was an all but impenetrable fortress during the night- at least, for someone of Noah's relative sneakery and power.
The answer?
Never leaving the castle until nightfall came. He was allowed to be mostly anywhere he felt like, and his presence didn't need explaining most of the time, so it was just a matter of finding a place to lay low in.
"Zzz... zzz... uguh-" Noah coughed hard, nearly falling off the chair he'd elected to wait and sit on due to conveniently being placed in a blind spot on the guard's rotation. "I must've fallen asleep while waiting..."
With a shudder as he found himself deep in the darkness' embrace, he began feeling out for the ambient mana.
"Raging flames, show them your power..." he spoke, reciting the formula he'd found in the book as a mnemonic exercise. "Fire!" he whisper-shouted.
And with the magic taking hold, a tiny flame, not particularly bigger than a torch's, began burning in Noah's hand. It was still more than enough to banish the shadows and cast an eerie light on his surroundings.
And notably, as he quickly tried to reach and grab the lantern into his bag while not touching anything with his right one, as being the spellcaster didn't mean that he had resistance to his own magic, as evidenced by the burning sensation in his right hand. "Ow ow ow ow come on where the fuck is it-" Finally managing to grab the glass container, he quickly opened it and chucked the flame inside, waving his hand in a futile attempt to cool the faint burn on it. "Owwwww..." he whined to himself.
"I would recommend washing it with room temperature water. Of course, not inside the library, as that would be quite damaging to the tomes contained here. However, the most worrisome type of damage is, of course, the possibility of all these books being damaged by fire. Thank you for choosing a caged lantern." A deep, feminine voice informed him.
Noah froze. Slowly but surely, he turned around, pointing the lantern towards his interlocutor. However, the light's radius wasn't enough to illuminate her fully, only showcasing the fleshy, red, massive body beneath and the writhing grey tentacles...
It was all Noah could do to slowly lower his lantern onto the table next to himself. His hand was trembling nearly enough that he dropped it entirely, and that would spell the end of him.
Shit.
It's not nice to disturb the head librarian. P.S. the Amira encounter shall never be mentioned again.
This is an extra chapter, by the way! If you wish to support my writing, you can check me out by searching "Sekaiboija" on the place of patrons where I post five chapters ahead- if you can't find it, the permalink is in my discord server! Alternatively, you can always PM me in private if you wish to commission something written where we can hash out the details. Otherwise, a review is still more than enough, and I can't be thankful enough for it.
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Drink water, stay awesome. Nick of Name, out. :)