Arika, Know Your Enemies

….Or so it should be, but the door flew by and hit Elder before he could even undo the locked door, throwing him off-guard. All three of us would’ve shrieked and revealed our hiding spot hadn’t it been for Elder to use his magic to modify the sound around us to hide us momentarily.

That moment when some Elves stormed around the house and began to search was when I realized— if this is really that Temple cult, that cult seemingly is more dangerous than just being a pointless and scammy Comanet cult.

“That’s no good, Elder…” I could hear a cutesy voice speak out loud. “Hiding the truth about a Blessed One’s descent from the public? Really? What is your objective, hmm~?”

“Haha. What are you talking about? This old man doesn’t know anything about that….”

An elf with green hair, red eyes and some horn-shaped headband giggled as she looked around the house along with a giant striped orange cat on her leash that seemingly is the cause of Elder being thrown with all its power.

The orange cat meowed in our direction, and I trembled in fear. Sure, Rana’s magic doubled with Elder’s magic has been cast to hide us, but as I knew from my previous world— cats are supposed to be sensitive to beings that are unseen, which means the orange cat at least knew we’re there, if cat logic does apply to Cheshires.

The orange cat sniffs and sniffs and it gets nearer to us as I feel like I could hear my heartbeat going faster, only to be slapped by the green-haired elf to submission.

“Kay, what are you doing? Are you trying to find a snack again? We’re just going to get information from this Elder, okay?” The seemingly evil green lady sighed. “What a bad, bad animal…. You should just follow my command, okay?”

My heart boils seeing the scene of animal abuse unfold beyond my sight, that my fear stepped out of the window that I would just jump out of our hiding spot had my body moved faster than Rana grabbing me as she whispered to my ears.

“Lady Arika, no! For now, let’s find a chance to run away, okay? It’ll be bad if you get caught!”
“But—”

Rana was too focused on me that it was out of her ability to control that Rama stepped out of the hiding spot below the table, holding his wand as he knocked out some of the elves in robes that had been searching the house with his fireballs being thrown like some bullets. Then, he stood in front of Elder who was still crouching and coughing in shock as he tried to stand, covering up for him.

“So your Comanet cult is involved in some Cheshire abuse, too? Heh. I know that you’re not a good person at all, Dellney, but this is a new low.”

“Oh, if it isn’t Rama who denied our Temple for years and years despite being chosen by the Mage Hero to have a Cheshire as familiar.” Dellney— I think it was her name— looked at Rama with clear disgust in her face. “Where did you come from… ah, right. That troublesome sister of yours, where is she—”

Without giving any time for Dellney to think, Rama shot another gun bullet-like fireball to her legs in an attempt to stop her, only for Dellney to conjure a magic barrier to stop it from its tracks. Dellney giggled.

“Aww, you forgot about my Protection Magic. Even though I was the one Elder hired for the magic device to protect your house, remember?”

That sounds like a very unlikely choice of magic for an enemy— but that’s not important for now, what’s important is that we need to do something to help! I took a glance at Rana, but she’s shaking in fear as she puts her pointing finger on her lips, asking me to keep silent by her gestures. It seems as if she’s putting all her mana to keep us hidden.

Yet, I couldn’t just stay silent. After all, that Dellney had hurt two things I like from this world of fantasy.

“----A hot older Elf man who’s kind to me, and a big fluffy cat!”

“Huh?! What?!”

I immediately popped out from my hiding spot yelling my deepest desires, holding tight the magic staff I conjured by my hands. I realized how I totally forgot to spout a cool line and ended up yelling about embarrassing things by how Rama facepalms, Elder gasps, and Rana came out from the hiding spot holding her laughter together.

“Pfft— Lady Arika— you’re really a funny person….”

As Rana tried to hold back her laughter that totally messed up her magic, Dellney observed me from head to toe in disbelief. I can only wish it was just her confirming my identity as a Blessed One and not that she finds me a total weirdo who popped out of nowhere.

“Aaargh, forget about it! A–anyway, Dellney, was it? Is there anything you— that Temple of yours need from me, a Blessed One?!” I coughed in embarrassment as I tried to act cool. “As long as you don’t hurt these three, I’ll give it a listen!”

“Hey, don’t just give yourself up that easily!” Rama scolded me, but this is a part of my strategy. I have to keep them off-guard so that I could conjure some magic that could blow them out of the house, and I’m still in the middle of figuring things out with my own magic and I only did one kind of them!

“It’s really… the Mage Hero Angelica herself…?” Dellney’s eyes widened as she fell to her knees, so with the remaining elves that had surrounded the house in shock. It’s a good time to try what I could do, as I weave my staff and try to do what I have done before— making them all float.

“Elder, Rama, now! Try to do whatever so that the ceiling’s gone!”

Elder immediately knew what I was trying to do, as he tried to modify the house’s ceiling to an open one— but he was a step behind Rama who just decided to blow away the ceiling with whatever explosion magic he had in hand, which we all screamed for.

….Thankfully, it seems like Dellney’s Protection Magic was good enough that it covered all of us from being harmed before she floated away to the sky, scrambling around as if swimming in the sky.

“Okay, what do we do now….?” I turned my head to Elder, who is being helped to raise up by the help of Rana.

“Well. At least we did get attention from the cult. How about questioning them?” said Elder calmly, even when he let out a few worrying coughs. “Arika, where are you making them fly to?”

“I dunno. I thought of the orbit, if that existed in this world… They harmed a fluffy, cuddly cat. I think they deserved it.”

“...That sounds way too much. Either way, we needed a clue from any of them. Could you at least drop one of them?” Elder asked me with that deep voice of his, that I couldn’t refuse. So I decided to drop at least Dellney down back to the world’s gravity— for exact, to the orange cat’s back, as she screamed.

“Now you’ll learn your lesson of not harming animals, especially cats.” I puffed my chest proudly. Both Rama and Rana gazed at each other as if they’re making internal notes of things that would make me angry.

I thought Dellney would be really angry at me and attempted more attacks as she tried to save her underlings, but instead she bowed down to me on her knees once she got back hold of herself.

“Forgive me, o Great Mage Hero Angelica! I will never hit my Cheshire like that again!” she said, still bowing down to me. I confusedly tilted my head, I guess the effect of being a folklore hero in this world is much greater than I expected.

“Good if you understand, but I still can’t trust you.” I crossed my arms after I made my magic staff disappear, and I took a glance at Rama to be prepared to react in time– hope he could catch up with that. “Tell me what the Temple knows and what you want, now.”

“W— we have been seeking for you ever since you came to our dreams!” said Dellney desperately, as she raised her head a little to look at me with puppy eyes. “You said if we took care of those Cheshires, we shall meet later in our life and the Goddess will also give us a blessing!”

“Yeah, yeah. We already knew that from your cult-like site. What kind of blessing did you expect from me? Your own answer is fine.” I sighed, as Rama further pointed his wand to her face. Dellney shrieks in fear as she trembles. Looks like she knew the dangers of becoming an enemy of Rama’s now after that extent of explosion, at least.

“I— I don’t know either! All I know is that we’re some chosen people and that we’ll be rewarded if we get your blessing! My own interpretation is that we’ll become Blessed Ones ourselves, and I wanted that! If anything, you should know better than I am! What exactly are you?”

Dellney pointed at me, all while still trembling. I sighed. What a philosophical question to be thrown around to me. One that still got me confused at times. But at this point, I needed to be honest to avoid getting into more trouble for the elves that had been kind enough to take me in and kept me a secret to avoid troubles such as Dellney.

“Unfortunately, I don’t know much about myself. Call it amnesia or some sort. That’s why I need to know what you saw in that strange dream that led you to make that Temple cult. If you could tell me that, I’ll let your friends stop floating to the orbit” I rolled my eyes, answering it in a way that hasn't revealed my true nature as a human from another world. Seemingly, my answer was well received by the Elder who nodded at it.

“No way… Even though we finally got this far even with everyone laughing at us for what we believe… ” Dellney gasped in despair, as she fell to the ground once again. I thought it’ll be fine to let her go now as she doesn’t seem to know anything either and was just fooled by a dream she saw as prophetic.

“Rama, it’s fine. Get your wand down. It doesn’t look like she is that bad or even knows anything…”

“Fine. If something happens, it’s your fault, though.”

Yet, it seems like I am not that good of a judge for people compared to Rama who clicked his tongue.

“A chance! Take this and remember your purpose to make the Temple rich!”

Suddenly, Dellney threw a stone at me as she screamed some of her true, money driven desires. A light blue colored magic stone, I assume, but to me who doesn’t know much of this world it might as well be a magic bomb, as I tried to avoid it. Yet, it shines brightly before we could avoid it. It blinded us all– to the point where I fainted to a dream of a distant memory.

One that is precious yet forgotten to me.