Rachel Vanargand
It really looked like any old alley. Like someone would poke their head out of a window at any moment. It had that kind of lived-in quality. And it stretched out as far as I could see without anything in particular. I thought that maybe it would connect to a different street, but it didn’t. Yes, there was something odd about that. Should I wear my armor just to be safe…?
“…Hmm?”
I could hear footsteps.
Tap, tap, tap.
As the sounds came closer, I wondered if one of the townspeople had come inside. And so I turned to look.
“What?”
A wall had appeared there. Right in front of my nose. A tall, tall wooden board.
“Wait a minute, this wasn’t here…”
I tried knocking on it. It was definitely wood. But it didn’t move at all. But judging from the sound, it didn’t seem too thick. And yet it wouldn’t break when I hit it. My hand dropped to my sword, but then I wondered, what if even the sword didn’t do it?
“I can’t risk damaging it…”
This sword was supposed to be very durable, but this was a very strange situation. And who knew what could happen.
Still, what the hell was happening… I had no way of contacting Daniela. In fact, I had been trying to activate Legs of the Forest Wolf for a while, but I couldn’t create so much as a breeze of wind.
It was as if something were obstructing it.
“What the…”
I turned away from the wall and sat down on the ground. It must be some kind of magic. A spell that trapped wanderers in. I had never heard of such illusions as this, but then again, there was Eve. There were secret spells that the public did not know about. It was very likely that this illusion was no different.
“But if it is an illusion, then why can’t I deactivate it…?”
I didn’t know how it worked, but often you were only trapped because you believed in them, and once realized they were an illusion, you could return to the normal world…
“Maybe that’s just too fantastical…it doesn’t apply here.”
But complaining about it now wasn’t going to get me out of here. There was no way to turn back. The only thing to do was continue on ahead.
“I guess I have no choice…”
I decided to put my armor on first. There was no telling what was up ahead. And so I took out my set of armor and the poncho and mantle from the bag and put them on. The Glampanzer was my weapon of choice. The great sword would be too limiting in this narrow space. But then again, there wouldn’t be much space for an enemy to run either. In any case, I took the Ashikirimaru as a backup weapon.
“Alright.”
There was a possibility that I could be attacked from above. But I wasn’t very good at using Presence Detection over my head, and so I just put on my hood. It should be good enough for blocking arrows.
I wanted to find the person whose footsteps I had heard. There was a possibility that it wasn’t real, but I decided to look anyway. There was only one path, afterall. I would find something even if I didn’t want to.
“The scariest thing would be if I was locked up with no purpose…”
Just being locked away. Not captured, not killed. Just locked up. I could not let such a horrifying thing happen.
“I’ll get you, whoever you are!!”
“Could you shut up already!!”
A window opened loudly from the side. I was just about to run off, when I turned my head to look at the window. It was a young girl. A silver-haired girl in a tank-top who was carrying a bowl and some chopsticks as she glared at me.
“I’m eating right now.”
“…”
“Can you not leave me in peace?”
“…”
“Hey, are you listening to me?”
“Sorry, it’s taking me a minute to process all of this.”
“Hmm, are you a bug?”
“Don’t call me a bug.”
I really had no idea what was going on. Could someone come down and explain this to me?
□ □ □ □
The silver-haired girl was kind enough to invite me into her house. I had to enter through the window, but at least I took off my shoes. A cushion was prepared for me and so I sat down and waited for her to finish eating her bowl of rice porridge. When she was done, she sat cross-legged in front of me and stared.
“…Hmm. Are you from Japan?”
“Uh, what did you just say?”
“Are you trying to play the dense protagonist with me? I asked if you’re Japanese.”
Japanese. I had only heard that word used twice in this world. The first was with Matsumoto.
The second was here. But where was ‘here’?
“Here? This is a space that I created. There are entrances and exits to many places in this world. You wandered in. Into my door.”
“Door?”
“It is magic.”
She said as she picked her teeth with a toothpick. A space that connects to other places. What kind of powerful dimension magic…?
“But, how did you know I was Japanese? Are you Japanese too?”
“You could say that. In spite of my appearance, I was at one time.”
“One time…? Well, now that I think of it, I wouldn’t expect anyone who wasn’t Japanese to end up turning into a silver-haired loli witch.”
“Are you trying to insult me? You are, aren’t you?”
She stood up, not quite angry, but almost there.
“Very well then. I, Rachel Vanargand, will fight you!!”
Bam! She put one leg on the low table. …Rachel Vanargand?
“…I’ve heard that name before. Rachel Vanargand…but where…?”
“Huh? You have?”
“Somewhere… Ah, now I remember. It was the blacksmith from Valdorf.”
Okay I just had a good chuckle at the part when she says “are you trying to play the dense protagonist with me” lmao 🤣🤣