“I´m so done with being alone…” Hannah mumbled, head on a table we borrowed for a few minutes. She was clearly exhausted by the hour or so we strolled through the city. Always north was apparently not the best approach we had, but even then, I couldn’t come up with anything better.
Asking a few pedestrians always turned out to be a failure as well. Either they didn’t know the area in which I needed to go at all, or they were quite honestly experts at lying. They were always telling me to go north, but the problem was that their north was completely opposite of mine. So either all the pedestrians didn’t know better, or I couldn’t pick up lies anymore. And that honestly bewildered me quite a bit.
“Hey Hannah, could you lie to me?” I asked and stared into her eyes.
“You are genuinely the kindest person I ever met.” Her soul flared up like a lit candle and she didn’t want to hold eye contact at all. I still knew how to detect lies and thus, there was only one possible explanation. North and south had switched. That was honestly a horrific thought because I didn’t know anything ungodly which could change the world to such a degree easily.
“What can I bring you today?” A smiling barmaid stepped onto the chair while I was still playing with my compass.
“Uhm … we don’t need anything?” I answered and smiled back at her. I knew how to play the game of friendliness as well.
“You have to order something if you want to stay out of fairness for the others who want to enjoy our drinks as well.” She said, still smiling brightly. Sighing loudly, I looked at Hannah who was in no shape to see me drink and stood up.
“I´m sorry. We were supposed to meet someone here and I didn’t bring any money with me. So if you would excuse us.” I nodded towards the barmaid, stepped behind Hannah and poked her sides. She immediately jerked up and didn’t resist much as I put my arms underneath her shoulders and pulled her up. Still incredibly unsteady on her feet, she somehow managed to follow me out of the bar without bothering anyone which wasn’t too hard as most of their gazes followed us anyway.
Kind as I was, I even held the door open for her which she only noted with a drunk grunt. Was I this insufferable when I was drunk? Surely not? Well, I was more of the crazy type of drunkard which did fell perfectly in line with my normal character so there was that as well.
I desperately whished I wasn’t alone in that situation right then, because honestly, I was lost, a bit thirsty and angry at this compass. I honestly didn’t think my whish would be answered by anyone, but I was pleasantly surprised as some random girl bumped into Hannah and caused her to trip. I naturally caught Hannah immediately, but the damage was already done. Without caring about the other people around her, Hannah turned to the side and proceeded to puke.
In utter amazement, I watched her for a few seconds until my gaze wandered to the blonde girl. She looked incredibly sorry for what she had done, but also didn’t want to face the horrible reality of puke hitting the street.
“I´m so sorry.” She mentioned as Hannah paused, to which I could only nod. Yeah, she better was sorry. At least I could probably guilt trip her into helping me out, which was honestly all I needed. And Hannah certainly gave her a good show in that regard because she only stopped after her stomach was nearly empty which was probably a good thing.
“You don’t have to be sorry. It was our fault for not watching where we went. I always fail to look at my surroundings when I am desperate, so don’t worry about it.” I said while putting the compass into one of Hannah´s pockets and patting her back.
“Oh … ehm, do you need any help?” I had to admit I was quite satisfied by the result of our conversation so far. Or rather, guilt tripping her into helping us was a bit too easy.
“I do … do you know how we can get to the ‘Wandering Inn’ by any chance?” I asked sweetly. Sadly, she was quite resistant to my charms and so my smile didn’t do much.
“Isn´t that supposed to be somewhere else each day?” She asked and scratched her cheek with a slight smile on her lips.
“Huh? Oh, I think the owner called it that because he thought it was funny … it doesn’t move.” I explained and realised she was joking the moment she laughed out loud. She certainly didn’t have my kind of humour though.
“I know. I know. It is around an hour this way.” She said and pointed towards the direction Hannah and I must have come from. A bit bummed out, I placed my left shoulder underneath Hannah´s right and steadied her this way.
“Thank you so much. I didn’t know what I would have done without you.” I nodded towards the girl and made my first step away from her. I didn’t get far though as the girl stopped us for a little while to get under Hannah´s other arm. “You … you really don’t have to help us that much.”
I knew her kind. Always helpful and as kind as one can get. She was the polar opposite of me in that regard and yet, I felt as if we could get along rather easily despite our difference. Well, we weren’t completely different either. Her hair was blonde for once … and that was it honestly.
“I can´t go home at this hour anyway and besides, I cannot let you two go through the city in the darkness alone.” Her green eyes radiated with kindness once more as she said that, even though there was really no reason to worry. The darkness was my friend after all.
“Oh, don’t worry. My sis here is a teacher for magical combat and recent history, so she should be able to protect us from anything there is …” I looked into Hannah´s eyes which didn’t focus on anything at all, and then turned to the girl once more. “Although she will have a few issues right now, so your help is much appreciated. Are you an adventurer by any chance?” I asked and nodded towards her casual clothing which was commonly worn by adventurers who needed a few protectors at their elbows in case of a random attack in the middle of the city.
“Oh? No, nono. I´m a student at the royal academy … but don’t tell that anyone … please.” So the poor girl wasn’t even supposed to be outside at all? But even then, she did surprise me a little. I always thought the students there were a bit snootier than others, especially because most of them were nobles who always behaved as if they were better than others.
“I swear this will be a secret between us. So you specialise in combat?” If she did have the confidence to back her claim to protect us up, then she surely would study something in that direction.
“I do, but I don’t like hurting others … so I specialise in healing magic and stuff.” So she was more of the supportive type of warrior. Well, I thought it was boring to heal others, but whatever. It wasn’t my life she ruined because of her path in life.
“That’s so cool. I wish I could use magic as well, but I have no talent whatsoever for it.” One look over to my left confirmed I earned even more of her pity and even though I didn’t need it, I was kind of tempted to see how far I could go. She apparently didn’t know what to answer right away and such, a period of silence followed shortly afterwards in which we only walked onwards to our goal.
“Hey, can I ask you a question?” She said just as we passed a rather loud inn.
“Sure.” I said swiftly as there was no need to say no.
“Your sister is an elf right?” The girl looked at Hannah´s and my ears alternatively as the same question others asked us so many times already went through her head. And like these times before, I gave her the exact same story.
“She is not my real sister. Her parents adopted me eight years ago after … you know.” I answered and smiled rather bitterly before averting my gaze altogether. Her emotions were rather different from what I expected though. She didn’t give me a look fool of sympathy, but rather one of sadness.
For a little while, we were both in our own thoughts while strolling through the dark city. I was thinking the whole time how I got there, and who this girl was. I was entirely certain I didn’t know her at all but she still felt a bit familiar somehow. I just couldn’t say which person I knew was similar to her. But even then, I could already guess who this person was. There weren’t too many studying at the royal academy and happened to be in the north eight years ago after all.
But that was only an afterthought so to speak. It was incredibly weird how I met her. The switching of the poles was rather unlikely to happen at all, especially so short after I came back to this world. A simple answer was that there was a magnetic field around me which made the compass useless, but even that was highly unlikely. Hannah was certainly capable of such a feat, but not in this state. The only answer I could think of was that my compass itself was somehow broken.
Frowning slightly, I grabbed into one of Hannah´s pockets once more and retrieved the compass. Let us just say that the compass worked somewhat. It constantly pointed towards Hannah, no matter in which direction I moved it and even tilting it didn’t do anything. Putting it away once more, I let my gaze wander past Hannah towards the girl.
“Hey, did anything weird happen on your way to where we met?” I asked full of suspicion. I was pretty damn sure I was led to her by the compass.
“Hmm … I met a goose on the way and brought it back to the owner. Oh, and I chased after a thief. Why are you asking?” She didn’t seem to realise that she was led to meet me. Well, the ones orchestrating this whole endeavour were subtle enough to fool a person like her easily. Behind my back, I showed whoever was watching us the middle finger even though I could already guess who was to blame. Irminsul. The goddess of life and the one who had the most to gain if I was around that girl.
“Oh, I was just curious.” That Hannah was this drunk was equally suspicious, but not necessarily Irminsuls fault. She could have just picked the right timing to mess with me and Hannah. “Oh, by the way I don’t think I introduced myself yet? My name is Lucy, and this drunk elf here is Hannah. Nice to meet you.”
“We didn’t? That’s totally my fault.” She looked almost apologetic even though I didn’t blame her at all. “My name is Sofie. It’s a pleasure to meet you … although we could have done so under better stars.” Both of us laughed, even though my blood was boiling. Time and time again I was pushed around by the gods but since coming here, they left me largely alone. I hoped, or rather assumed they had all agreed upon respecting my will to be free, but apparently Irminsul didn’t. Especially she though, who still had to justify herself for implying that me, seeing these goddamn reincarnatiors in their old bodies had any benefit whatsoever should know that how explosive I was.
“The stars seem to align perfectly though. Otherwise we wouldn’t have met. Anyways, how did you get out of that catastrophe eight years ago?” I asked swiftly. She didn’t seem to realise who Hannah was yet, but I still wanted to know how much she remembered.
“I … had help from someone who took kindness too far and did everything to safe my life.” She said, avoiding what I wanted to hear the most.
“You don’t look so happy though?” I asked as I noticed how the corners of her mouth curved downwards.
“I forgot everything about my saviour. I owe these people so much, and yet I could neither find them, nor remember how their leader looked like. And that saddens me immensely.” At least Irminsul did everything so that saving this girl was a zero sum game.
“I´m so done with being alone…” Hannah mumbled, head on a table we borrowed for a few minutes. She was clearly exhausted by the hour or so we strolled through the city. Always north was apparently not the best approach we had, but even then, I couldn’t come up with anything better.
Asking a few pedestrians always turned out to be a failure as well. Either they didn’t know the area in which I needed to go at all, or they were quite honestly experts at lying. They were always telling me to go north, but the problem was that their north was completely opposite of mine. So either all the pedestrians didn’t know better, or I couldn’t pick up lies anymore. And that honestly bewildered me quite a bit.
“Hey Hannah, could you lie to me?” I asked and stared into her eyes.
“You are genuinely the kindest person I ever met.” Her soul flared up like a lit candle and she didn’t want to hold eye contact at all. I still knew how to detect lies and thus, there was only one possible explanation. North and south had switched. That was honestly a horrific thought because I didn’t know anything ungodly which could change the world to such a degree easily.
“What can I bring you today?” A smiling barmaid stepped onto the chair while I was still playing with my compass.
“Uhm … we don’t need anything?” I answered and smiled back at her. I knew how to play the game of friendliness as well.
“You have to order something if you want to stay out of fairness for the others who want to enjoy our drinks as well.” She said, still smiling brightly. Sighing loudly, I looked at Hannah who was in no shape to see me drink and stood up.
“I´m sorry. We were supposed to meet someone here and I didn’t bring any money with me. So if you would excuse us.” I nodded towards the barmaid, stepped behind Hannah and poked her sides. She immediately jerked up and didn’t resist much as I put my arms underneath her shoulders and pulled her up. Still incredibly unsteady on her feet, she somehow managed to follow me out of the bar without bothering anyone which wasn’t too hard as most of their gazes followed us anyway.
Kind as I was, I even held the door open for her which she only noted with a drunk grunt. Was I this insufferable when I was drunk? Surely not? Well, I was more of the crazy type of drunkard which did fell perfectly in line with my normal character so there was that as well.
I desperately whished I wasn’t alone in that situation right then, because honestly, I was lost, a bit thirsty and angry at this compass. I honestly didn’t think my whish would be answered by anyone, but I was pleasantly surprised as some random girl bumped into Hannah and caused her to trip. I naturally caught Hannah immediately, but the damage was already done. Without caring about the other people around her, Hannah turned to the side and proceeded to puke.
In utter amazement, I watched her for a few seconds until my gaze wandered to the blonde girl. She looked incredibly sorry for what she had done, but also didn’t want to face the horrible reality of puke hitting the street.
“I´m so sorry.” She mentioned as Hannah paused, to which I could only nod. Yeah, she better was sorry. At least I could probably guilt trip her into helping me out, which was honestly all I needed. And Hannah certainly gave her a good show in that regard because she only stopped after her stomach was nearly empty which was probably a good thing.
“You don’t have to be sorry. It was our fault for not watching where we went. I always fail to look at my surroundings when I am desperate, so don’t worry about it.” I said while putting the compass into one of Hannah´s pockets and patting her back.
“Oh … ehm, do you need any help?” I had to admit I was quite satisfied by the result of our conversation so far. Or rather, guilt tripping her into helping us was a bit too easy.
“I do … do you know how we can get to the ‘Wandering Inn’ by any chance?” I asked sweetly. Sadly, she was quite resistant to my charms and so my smile didn’t do much.
“Isn´t that supposed to be somewhere else each day?” She asked and scratched her cheek with a slight smile on her lips.
“Huh? Oh, I think the owner called it that because he thought it was funny … it doesn’t move.” I explained and realised she was joking the moment she laughed out loud. She certainly didn’t have my kind of humour though.
“I know. I know. It is around an hour this way.” She said and pointed towards the direction Hannah and I must have come from. A bit bummed out, I placed my left shoulder underneath Hannah´s right and steadied her this way.
“Thank you so much. I didn’t know what I would have done without you.” I nodded towards the girl and made my first step away from her. I didn’t get far though as the girl stopped us for a little while to get under Hannah´s other arm. “You … you really don’t have to help us that much.”
I knew her kind. Always helpful and as kind as one can get. She was the polar opposite of me in that regard and yet, I felt as if we could get along rather easily despite our difference. Well, we weren’t completely different either. Her hair was blonde for once … and that was it honestly.
“I can´t go home at this hour anyway and besides, I cannot let you two go through the city in the darkness alone.” Her green eyes radiated with kindness once more as she said that, even though there was really no reason to worry. The darkness was my friend after all.
“Oh, don’t worry. My sis here is a teacher for magical combat and recent history, so she should be able to protect us from anything there is …” I looked into Hannah´s eyes which didn’t focus on anything at all, and then turned to the girl once more. “Although she will have a few issues right now, so your help is much appreciated. Are you an adventurer by any chance?” I asked and nodded towards her casual clothing which was commonly worn by adventurers who needed a few protectors at their elbows in case of a random attack in the middle of the city.
“Oh? No, nono. I´m a student at the royal academy … but don’t tell that anyone … please.” So the poor girl wasn’t even supposed to be outside at all? But even then, she did surprise me a little. I always thought the students there were a bit snootier than others, especially because most of them were nobles who always behaved as if they were better than others.
“I swear this will be a secret between us. So you specialise in combat?” If she did have the confidence to back her claim to protect us up, then she surely would study something in that direction.
“I do, but I don’t like hurting others … so I specialise in healing magic and stuff.” So she was more of the supportive type of warrior. Well, I thought it was boring to heal others, but whatever. It wasn’t my life she ruined because of her path in life.
“That’s so cool. I wish I could use magic as well, but I have no talent whatsoever for it.” One look over to my left confirmed I earned even more of her pity and even though I didn’t need it, I was kind of tempted to see how far I could go. She apparently didn’t know what to answer right away and such, a period of silence followed shortly afterwards in which we only walked onwards to our goal.
“Hey, can I ask you a question?” She said just as we passed a rather loud inn.
“Sure.” I said swiftly as there was no need to say no.
“Your sister is an elf right?” The girl looked at Hannah´s and my ears alternatively as the same question others asked us so many times already went through her head. And like these times before, I gave her the exact same story.
“She is not my real sister. Her parents adopted me eight years ago after … you know.” I answered and smiled rather bitterly before averting my gaze altogether. Her emotions were rather different from what I expected though. She didn’t give me a look fool of sympathy, but rather one of sadness.
For a little while, we were both in our own thoughts while strolling through the dark city. I was thinking the whole time how I got there, and who this girl was. I was entirely certain I didn’t know her at all but she still felt a bit familiar somehow. I just couldn’t say which person I knew was similar to her. But even then, I could already guess who this person was. There weren’t too many studying at the royal academy and happened to be in the north eight years ago after all.
But that was only an afterthought so to speak. It was incredibly weird how I met her. The switching of the poles was rather unlikely to happen at all, especially so short after I came back to this world. A simple answer was that there was a magnetic field around me which made the compass useless, but even that was highly unlikely. Hannah was certainly capable of such a feat, but not in this state. The only answer I could think of was that my compass itself was somehow broken.
Frowning slightly, I grabbed into one of Hannah´s pockets once more and retrieved the compass. Let us just say that the compass worked somewhat. It constantly pointed towards Hannah, no matter in which direction I moved it and even tilting it didn’t do anything. Putting it away once more, I let my gaze wander past Hannah towards the girl.
“Hey, did anything weird happen on your way to where we met?” I asked full of suspicion. I was pretty damn sure I was led to her by the compass.
“Hmm … I met a goose on the way and brought it back to the owner. Oh, and I chased after a thief. Why are you asking?” She didn’t seem to realise that she was led to meet me. Well, the ones orchestrating this whole endeavour were subtle enough to fool a person like her easily. Behind my back, I showed whoever was watching us the middle finger even though I could already guess who was to blame. Irminsul. The goddess of life and the one who had the most to gain if I was around that girl.
“Oh, I was just curious.” That Hannah was this drunk was equally suspicious, but not necessarily Irminsuls fault. She could have just picked the right timing to mess with me and Hannah. “Oh, by the way I don’t think I introduced myself yet? My name is Lucy, and this drunk elf here is Hannah. Nice to meet you.”
“We didn’t? That’s totally my fault.” She looked almost apologetic even though I didn’t blame her at all. “My name is Sofie. It’s a pleasure to meet you … although we could have done so under better stars.” Both of us laughed, even though my blood was boiling. Time and time again I was pushed around by the gods but since coming here, they left me largely alone. I hoped, or rather assumed they had all agreed upon respecting my will to be free, but apparently Irminsul didn’t. Especially she though, who still had to justify herself for implying that me, seeing these goddamn reincarnatiors in their old bodies had any benefit whatsoever should know that how explosive I was.
“The stars seem to align perfectly though. Otherwise we wouldn’t have met. Anyways, how did you get out of that catastrophe eight years ago?” I asked swiftly. She didn’t seem to realise who Hannah was yet, but I still wanted to know how much she remembered.
“I … had help from someone who took kindness too far and did everything to safe my life.” She said, avoiding what I wanted to hear the most.
“You don’t look so happy though?” I asked as I noticed how the corners of her mouth curved downwards.
“I forgot everything about my saviour. I owe these people so much, and yet I could neither find them, nor remember how their leader looked like. And that saddens me immensely.” At least Irminsul did everything so that saving this girl was a zero sum game.
