—A Few Hours Later—
Hashing things out with Mirellia and Aultcray, the three of us came to an agreement on the rehoming of potential refugees. Due to the mass migration of people to my territory, if we did take in refugees, they would take up residence in the vacant homes the migrants left behind. In addition, the Crown would have the local lords ensure that all vacant homes were in livable condition so the refugees were not placed in drafty, decrepit homes. With arrangements in place, I returned home so Ciri and I could head out immediately.
“Sorry about the wait, it took a bit longer to negotiate things than I anticipated.”, I chuckled walking out into my backyard, “The Royal Family is on board with bringing refugees into Melromarc. Are you ready to get going?”
“Yes, I am ready.”, she acknowledged with a worried expression, “Cole, I only spent maybe a day or two in that world. It may take me a few attempts to get back there again.”
“Haha, that is alright.”, I assured her, “The best part of adventuring is the journey to one’s destination.”
Laughing at my comment, Ciri conceded that it certainly was more fun being out on the open road. Taking a deep breath to collect herself, she focused her magical power and began to open a portal for us. Watching the portal fluctuate as it formed I could see Ciri was having issues connecting to our destination. Realizing that she might not be able to lock on to a specific location as she was not that familiar with the world, I suggested broadening her spell’s parameters.
“Do not focus on any specific location, just the world you want to go to.”, I advised her, “It is okay if we end up somewhere random, we can get to our destination on foot.”
“Alright…I will try.”, she said, attempting the spell again.
This time her spell connected normally, however, neither of us was sure if it was the right world. Opening up into a generic-looking forest, Ciri asked if she should try again. Shaking my head, I told her we could walk through here and look around.
“The biggest thing here is ensuring you can survive the environment.”, I told her, checking the atmosphere for breathable air, “We look good to go, let us get moving.”
—Unknown World—
Stepping through the portal together, we were immediately hit by a wave of Demonic Aura. Taking up a defensive stance Ciri drew her silver sword and began looking for enemies. Sensing countless threats around us her initial instinct was to jump back through the portal, but I stopped her from doing so.
“Calm down, there may be a lot of enemies but all of them are small fries.”, I chuckled using Radar Pulse to confirm their numbers and where they were, “As long as you stick close to me, they will not bother us.”
(AN: Moving forward I am going to use the proper name for Cole’s ability to locate enemies and sources of energy. I did not recall it had a proper name till I began playing the game again.)
“Are you certain about that?”, she asked, seeing a few goblins a ways off from us, “They look pretty eager to fight us.”
“I am very certain of it. Our focus right now needs to be figuring out what world this is.”, I stated preparing to expand the range of my Radar Pulse to locate any nearby settlements, “The sooner we figure that out, the sooner we can-”
Just as I was about to send out the pulse, both of us heard a woman scream off in the distance. Startled by the sudden noise, many monsters around us bolted for shelter in their homes. Knowing that the scream was definitely from a human woman, the two of us took off running toward the source of the sound. Feeling the ground beneath our feet begin to shake violently as we cleared the first few hundred feet, whatever was generating the shakes had to be quite large.
Hearing another scream ring out from the forest, this time much closer to us, we picked up the pace wanting to find her before the monster did. Not wanting to be the reason for their death, Ciri told me to go on ahead to intercept the monster without her. Assuring me that she would be right behind me, I launched myself and turned myself into a cloud of smoke to avoid the upcoming thicket of thorn bushes. Reforming myself on the other side, the source of the screaming ran right into me.
“Ouch!”, the woman cried out falling to the ground as the shaking got more violent, “Damn it, that thing is almost here!”
“Sorry about that, what exactly is chasing you?”, I inquired as I offered her my hand.
“It is a Minotaur!”, she said in a panic, “We need to go now before it-”
Before she could finish, the hulking creature barreled into view full of rage. Looking into its bloodshot eyes I saw no signs of intelligence within the beast. Letting out a crazed roar as it caught sight of us, the woman let out a shriek as she shakily latched onto my leg. Lowering its massive head the minotaur charged us with raw abandonment hell-bent on crushing us.
“Bad move, Buffet!”, I stated calling him what I would turn him into.
Using Precision Shot to slow down time around me, I fired an intense bolt of lightning straight between his eyes. Frying his entire nervous system in an instant, the deceased Minotaur fell forward as his momentum carried him forward. Crashing through trees and small boulders he came to a rest just a few feet in front of us. Feeling that the ground was no longer shaking the woman turned back to see what had occurred. Seeing the deceased beast lying in a heap before us, she looked back at me in shock.
“You…you killed it so easily!”, she gasped as I helped her to her feet, “Your magic is incredible!”
While she was focused on the Minotaur, I gave her a once over with my eyes. Now that I had a moment to study her better it was clear that she was well out of her depth here. The woman was in a scarlet dress better suited for a formal occasion than monster hunting. Unsure what a noblewoman like her was doing in a place like this, I waited for Ciri to rejoin us before asking her.
“Damn it!!”, Ciri spat, cutting her way through the thicket, “Why could this not be flowers or normal bushes!!”
Stumbling out of the bushes a few minutes later, the poor girl was covered in blood from hundreds of small cuts. Using Healing Magic to close the cuts, Ciri dusted herself off before noticing the noblewoman and Minotaur.
“Damn Cole, you did not save any fun for me?”. Ciri laughed, grateful she did not have to fight the massive beast, “You not going to take proof you killed it?”
“Oh no, I intend to butcher the whole thing for meat. Minotaur steaks are high-quality protein, if you know how to cook them.”, I told her, sending the monster into my pocket dimension, “Alright, now that we have resolved the monster issue, what is a noblewoman doing out here?”
Snapping her back to reality, the woman walked back over to us to speak.
“Were you not sent here because of that brilliant flash that blanketed Roa?”, she inquired with a concerned expression.
“No, we were passing through this area when we heard your screams.”, I told her, “Where is Roa?”
“The Asura Kingdom…do you not know where that is?”, she remarked with sincere confusion.
Realizing where we were now, I almost started laughing at the situation. We had stumbled into
Mushoku Tensei just after the Teleportation Incident that sent Rudeus and Eris on their journey across the Demon Continent. Now that I knew where we were I also knew who the woman was in front of us, Hilda Boreas Greyrat.
‘Shit…I think that Minotaur was meant to kill her and her husband.’, I thought, sending out another pulse looking for any other humans.
Not detecting any humans in the vicinity, I decided to ask her directly about it.
“I notice that you are wearing a ring, was your husband caught up in the event that brought you here?”, I inquired.
“...I do not know, I assume everyone in Roa and the surrounding area was caught up in it.”, she admitted, “Could you please escort me to the nearest city? While I do not have anything to pay you with now, I assure you my family will generously reward you for helping me.”
“Of course we will.”, Ciri agreed, accepting the request, “Right Cole?”
Putting me on the spot, Hilda looked at me with a pleading expression. Knowing that she would not survive the next hour without us, I agreed to escort her out of the Strife Zone.
“Thank you!”, she said, giving us a curtsy, “I swear on the Greyrat name that you will be rewarded well when we return to Roa.”
“So which way is the Asura Kingdom from here?”, Ciri inquired.
“That…that I do not know.”, Hilda said, “Frankly, I do not know where we are to begin with.”
“We are in the Strife Zone.”, I stated.
Watching her face contort with fear, Hilda immediately began to panic. Moving next to me in a hurry she latched onto my left arm tightly. Looking to me for an explanation, I explained the situation to Ciri.
“The Strife Area is a combat area where neighboring nations fight with one another over petty things. There has never been peace here within the past few hundred years…”, I explained telepathically, “Hilda is worried because it is every man for themselves out here. No one sends rescue parties into this place to find survivors, you just assume they died and move on.”
“Should we look for her husband?”, Ciri asked.
“No, in the normal timeline, both of them end up dying here before their family bodyguard can find them. Their bodyguard, Ghislaine, is also out here in the Strife Zone but unlike them, she is capable of fighting monsters and men with ease.”, I told her, “If we play along for now, we might stumble across her as we move toward the Asura Kingdom to the west.”
Taking a quick bearing check with a compass, I pointed toward the mountains to our left and said we needed to cross them to reach her home country. Agreeing to my plan immediately, Hilda eagerly looked forward to returning home…even though there was nothing left to return to.
—A Few Hours Later—
Hashing things out with Mirellia and Aultcray, the three of us came to an agreement on the rehoming of potential refugees. Due to the mass migration of people to my territory, if we did take in refugees, they would take up residence in the vacant homes the migrants left behind. In addition, the Crown would have the local lords ensure that all vacant homes were in livable condition so the refugees were not placed in drafty, decrepit homes. With arrangements in place, I returned home so Ciri and I could head out immediately.
“Sorry about the wait, it took a bit longer to negotiate things than I anticipated.”, I chuckled walking out into my backyard, “The Royal Family is on board with bringing refugees into Melromarc. Are you ready to get going?”
“Yes, I am ready.”, she acknowledged with a worried expression, “Cole, I only spent maybe a day or two in that world. It may take me a few attempts to get back there again.”
“Haha, that is alright.”, I assured her, “The best part of adventuring is the journey to one’s destination.”
Laughing at my comment, Ciri conceded that it certainly was more fun being out on the open road. Taking a deep breath to collect herself, she focused her magical power and began to open a portal for us. Watching the portal fluctuate as it formed I could see Ciri was having issues connecting to our destination. Realizing that she might not be able to lock on to a specific location as she was not that familiar with the world, I suggested broadening her spell’s parameters.
“Do not focus on any specific location, just the world you want to go to.”, I advised her, “It is okay if we end up somewhere random, we can get to our destination on foot.”
“Alright…I will try.”, she said, attempting the spell again.
This time her spell connected normally, however, neither of us was sure if it was the right world. Opening up into a generic-looking forest, Ciri asked if she should try again. Shaking my head, I told her we could walk through here and look around.
“The biggest thing here is ensuring you can survive the environment.”, I told her, checking the atmosphere for breathable air, “We look good to go, let us get moving.”
—Unknown World—
Stepping through the portal together, we were immediately hit by a wave of Demonic Aura. Taking up a defensive stance Ciri drew her silver sword and began looking for enemies. Sensing countless threats around us her initial instinct was to jump back through the portal, but I stopped her from doing so.
“Calm down, there may be a lot of enemies but all of them are small fries.”, I chuckled using Radar Pulse to confirm their numbers and where they were, “As long as you stick close to me, they will not bother us.”
(AN: Moving forward I am going to use the proper name for Cole’s ability to locate enemies and sources of energy. I did not recall it had a proper name till I began playing the game again.)
“Are you certain about that?”, she asked, seeing a few goblins a ways off from us, “They look pretty eager to fight us.”
“I am very certain of it. Our focus right now needs to be figuring out what world this is.”, I stated preparing to expand the range of my Radar Pulse to locate any nearby settlements, “The sooner we figure that out, the sooner we can-”
Just as I was about to send out the pulse, both of us heard a woman scream off in the distance. Startled by the sudden noise, many monsters around us bolted for shelter in their homes. Knowing that the scream was definitely from a human woman, the two of us took off running toward the source of the sound. Feeling the ground beneath our feet begin to shake violently as we cleared the first few hundred feet, whatever was generating the shakes had to be quite large.
Hearing another scream ring out from the forest, this time much closer to us, we picked up the pace wanting to find her before the monster did. Not wanting to be the reason for their death, Ciri told me to go on ahead to intercept the monster without her. Assuring me that she would be right behind me, I launched myself and turned myself into a cloud of smoke to avoid the upcoming thicket of thorn bushes. Reforming myself on the other side, the source of the screaming ran right into me.
“Ouch!”, the woman cried out falling to the ground as the shaking got more violent, “Damn it, that thing is almost here!”
“Sorry about that, what exactly is chasing you?”, I inquired as I offered her my hand.
“It is a Minotaur!”, she said in a panic, “We need to go now before it-”
Before she could finish, the hulking creature barreled into view full of rage. Looking into its bloodshot eyes I saw no signs of intelligence within the beast. Letting out a crazed roar as it caught sight of us, the woman let out a shriek as she shakily latched onto my leg. Lowering its massive head the minotaur charged us with raw abandonment hell-bent on crushing us.
“Bad move, Buffet!”, I stated calling him what I would turn him into.
Using Precision Shot to slow down time around me, I fired an intense bolt of lightning straight between his eyes. Frying his entire nervous system in an instant, the deceased Minotaur fell forward as his momentum carried him forward. Crashing through trees and small boulders he came to a rest just a few feet in front of us. Feeling that the ground was no longer shaking the woman turned back to see what had occurred. Seeing the deceased beast lying in a heap before us, she looked back at me in shock.
“You…you killed it so easily!”, she gasped as I helped her to her feet, “Your magic is incredible!”
While she was focused on the Minotaur, I gave her a once over with my eyes. Now that I had a moment to study her better it was clear that she was well out of her depth here. The woman was in a scarlet dress better suited for a formal occasion than monster hunting. Unsure what a noblewoman like her was doing in a place like this, I waited for Ciri to rejoin us before asking her.
“Damn it!!”, Ciri spat, cutting her way through the thicket, “Why could this not be flowers or normal bushes!!”
Stumbling out of the bushes a few minutes later, the poor girl was covered in blood from hundreds of small cuts. Using Healing Magic to close the cuts, Ciri dusted herself off before noticing the noblewoman and Minotaur.
“Damn Cole, you did not save any fun for me?”. Ciri laughed, grateful she did not have to fight the massive beast, “You not going to take proof you killed it?”
“Oh no, I intend to butcher the whole thing for meat. Minotaur steaks are high-quality protein, if you know how to cook them.”, I told her, sending the monster into my pocket dimension, “Alright, now that we have resolved the monster issue, what is a noblewoman doing out here?”
Snapping her back to reality, the woman walked back over to us to speak.
“Were you not sent here because of that brilliant flash that blanketed Roa?”, she inquired with a concerned expression.
“No, we were passing through this area when we heard your screams.”, I told her, “Where is Roa?”
“The Asura Kingdom…do you not know where that is?”, she remarked with sincere confusion.
Realizing where we were now, I almost started laughing at the situation. We had stumbled into
Mushoku Tensei just after the Teleportation Incident that sent Rudeus and Eris on their journey across the Demon Continent. Now that I knew where we were I also knew who the woman was in front of us, Hilda Boreas Greyrat.
‘Shit…I think that Minotaur was meant to kill her and her husband.’, I thought, sending out another pulse looking for any other humans.
Not detecting any humans in the vicinity, I decided to ask her directly about it.
“I notice that you are wearing a ring, was your husband caught up in the event that brought you here?”, I inquired.
“...I do not know, I assume everyone in Roa and the surrounding area was caught up in it.”, she admitted, “Could you please escort me to the nearest city? While I do not have anything to pay you with now, I assure you my family will generously reward you for helping me.”
“Of course we will.”, Ciri agreed, accepting the request, “Right Cole?”
Putting me on the spot, Hilda looked at me with a pleading expression. Knowing that she would not survive the next hour without us, I agreed to escort her out of the Strife Zone.
“Thank you!”, she said, giving us a curtsy, “I swear on the Greyrat name that you will be rewarded well when we return to Roa.”
“So which way is the Asura Kingdom from here?”, Ciri inquired.
“That…that I do not know.”, Hilda said, “Frankly, I do not know where we are to begin with.”
“We are in the Strife Zone.”, I stated.
Watching her face contort with fear, Hilda immediately began to panic. Moving next to me in a hurry she latched onto my left arm tightly. Looking to me for an explanation, I explained the situation to Ciri.
“The Strife Area is a combat area where neighboring nations fight with one another over petty things. There has never been peace here within the past few hundred years…”, I explained telepathically, “Hilda is worried because it is every man for themselves out here. No one sends rescue parties into this place to find survivors, you just assume they died and move on.”
“Should we look for her husband?”, Ciri asked.
“No, in the normal timeline, both of them end up dying here before their family bodyguard can find them. Their bodyguard, Ghislaine, is also out here in the Strife Zone but unlike them, she is capable of fighting monsters and men with ease.”, I told her, “If we play along for now, we might stumble across her as we move toward the Asura Kingdom to the west.”
Taking a quick bearing check with a compass, I pointed toward the mountains to our left and said we needed to cross them to reach her home country. Agreeing to my plan immediately, Hilda eagerly looked forward to returning home…even though there was nothing left to return to.
