Chapter 20

It took them an entire day on the road before they arrived at Elerina's destination. During the journey, she received nothing but the curious questions from Angen.

“You have that little food? Do you not stock up?”

“I- I was supposed to find some in the wild…”

Since Elerina spent most of the time with them, she couldn't find a chance to go receive food from me. When they saw her bag, all they saw were equipment, and some cans just in case something happened and I couldn't transport any more.

It was way too little for someone that planned on venturing deeper, though.

“Feel free to take some of ours,” Memorus offered. “We have enough.”

“Yep yep. We've make sure to stock up in case we got stuck for months on end.”

“I would rather that not happen…”

Elerina looked around. They had parked the carriage underneath a tree, hopefully to hide it from monsters as they went on their hunt. The town they were in had seen better days.

Most of its buildings had been reduced to rubble, burned and destroyed. They were exceptions, albeit not many. Elerina's eyes gazed toward a large building in the distance, the only stone building I could see in this town, the rest built from wood.

It seemed like it fared better when compared to the other buildings, but that's from a distance. I couldn't tell what damage it suffered from this far out.

“That's your destination?” Memoru asked. Elerina shook her head.

“You want to visit it? If yes, we can wait here.”

Elerina paused for a bit before saying, “Be right back.”

She made her way toward the building. The town wasn't particularly large, but it still took a good fifteen minutes to reach it, even with her pace which is faster than a regular human.

I observed the surrounding as she walked. The action camera only showed me where she was facing to, and the entire time, her head faced straight toward that mansion. This gave me limited information of the surroundings, not that there were much to see other than destruction.

The mansion was built on top of a hill, making it rise slightly above the town. The path in front of it wasn't steep, so she didn't have a hard time climbing. It took another minute for her to finally reach the walls that surrounded the mansion. Moss grew on the stone walls, the metal gate shut tight.

Elerina unsheathed her sword and aimed toward the lock at the center. A single stab knocked it to the floor. She pushed the rusty gates open and went in. Much like the front gate, the two wooden doors were also locked. There was a golden sign with the name ‘Monterez’ carved onto it right next to the door. Elerina reached out and touched that sign. She then turned toward the doors themselves. A single push was all she needed to force them open.

The insides were surprisingly tidy. Sunlight streamed through the shattered windows. Dust covered the floor and furniture, while cracks covered the walls. It was a surreal sight, much like the ones I've seen in video games. After making her way inside, she closed the door and tapped her feet three times on the entryway. She then walked toward the stairs at the end of the room.

The stairs creaked underneath Elerina's weight. She proceeded carefully, not wanting to break them. Some rat-like monsters ran around the place. Their eyes were red, and once they saw her, they turned to strike. Elerina made light work of them. If the bull couldn't resist her, no way these rats could.

Corpses of dead rats were scattered throughout the floor.

“There's more of them here compared to the other abandoned buildings…”

On Earth, such animals are common, but in her world, I had yet to see any monster inside destroyed towns and buildings. If anything, this was the first time I saw them.

“We’re closer to the northern sides, where the demons’ affect on the monsters are stronger. Smaller monsters could push through anti-monster barriers more easily.”

“I see…”

“That said, the farther north we go, the less larger monsters we should meet, since they're focused on the frontlines.”

Eventually, the horde of rats stopped, and we arrived in front of a plain-looking wooden door. Elerina reached out, her hand on the handle. She took a deep breath and pushed the door open.

What greeted us was a large bedroom, twice, or maybe even three times the size of my apartmet. A queen-size bed sat in the middle, with a tall wardrobe on the right, and a large desk on the left.

Some of the furniture had their wood finish decayed, while others remained relatively well. The mirror on the desk had a large crack on it, some of its parts scattered on the floor. From the amount of dust on them, it was clear it had been a long while since anyone last touched this room.

Other than the large furnishings, there were nothing else inside. No decorations, no pillows, nothing. Absolutely empty.

Elerina went to the window on the other side of the entrance and opened it up. The wood squeaked, but opened wide nonetheless. A soft wind blew on her face, her hair fluttering. I couldn't actually feel the wind, but I could see her hair flying.

Elerina let out a deep sigh. She leaned on the windowsill, looking below.

Then she shouted, “I HATE YOU ALL!!!”

I was taken aback by both her action and words. She let out a giggle. “I always want to try that.”

“Ye- yeah.”

She turned to me and propped her chin on her right arm. “You look startled.”

“Wasn't expecting a noble lady to do that.”

“Disappointed?”

“Of course not.” I hugged her from behind. “If anything, I'm happy I could learn more things about you.”

“Is that so?”

“Besides, if that's the worse you can do, then you're not ready for life in my world.”

I know someone who would add a curse word to at least four of his five sentences. Sounds crazy, and I myself didn't understand how he could curse so much. I hope Elerina didn't turn into someone like that.

She gazed back out toward the town. “My family used to rule this town. When I was born, the town celebrated it. They have great expectations from me…”

She trailed off, her voice fading. I gently patted her back. I could hear nothing but her breathing.

“... I… Every kid can use magic from a young age. At first, they thought it's because my pronounciation is wrong, or because I'm still young, I hadn't know how to channel the magic energy yet…”

She took a breather.

“You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to.”

Elerina gently shook her head.

“... But as I grow older… as I know more and more magic spells… I still fail to unleash even the simplest of spells… That’s when people started calling me the cursed child.”

She straightened up all of a sudden. This time, with a wide grin, she said, “But that's all the past! I don't care anymore.”

She laughed, and I laughed with her.

“Thanks. We should be heading back.”

“You should. They'll think you're crazy if they see you speaking to yourself.”

“Haha, yeah, they will.”

Elerina made her way down to the first floor, before the entrance. Before leaving the building, she turned around, clasped her hand together, and bowed her head.

She then left the building, heading back to where Angen and Memorus waited. When she arrive, the two of them were… umm… doing interesting stuff.

“Die you hecking lizard!”

“... Just use magic.”

“No!”

Angen was chasing after a lizard. Not the frightening, deadly, monster kind of lizard. It's a regular lizard, the one barely half a meter in length.

“... What is she doing?”

“She… wants to see if she can kill that monster without using magic.”

And apparently, she's terrible when it comes to physical things. She was borrowing Memorus’ shield, using it to chase after the lizard in an attempt to stab it multiple times.

The lizard is still a monster, proven by its red eyes, but it didn't seem that threatening. If anything, it looked like it was the one playing with Angen and not the other way around.

“Is… Angen bad with physical attacks?”

Memorus did a tired nod. “Very… very bad.”

“Shut up! I can do this!” She shouted, bringing the shield straight toward the lizard… and she missed. It wasn't even close. If this was the old me, then I couldn't say I'm confident in taking on that lizard, but after Elerina's training, I should be able to handle it.

“Huff… huff…”

After a few more minutes of running back and forth, Angen was out of breath. The lizard sat there, letting out its tongue, as if making fun of Angen.

“Oh… come here you… little piece of…”

Angen tried chasing after it, but the lizard only moved once she got close. The shield’s bottom slammed to the ground, doing no damage to the lizard right next to it.

“Miss-”

“Just call me Elerina.”

“Ellen.”

Elerina turned to glare at me, which made Memorus even more confused.

“Umm… Elerina…? Can you save her dignity?”

Elerina unsheathed her sword. With a quick slice, she sliced one of the lizard’s legs. The lizard noticed it too late, and panicked as Angen’s frightening eyes glared at it. It could only helplessly watch as finally, finally… she still somehow missed it. She missed an unmoving target.

The two of them stared at her. I was as startled as the two that witnessed it first hand.

“Can't believe she whiffed that.”

“Umm…”

“Angen…”