Are All Cats Tsundere?

Chapter III

Are All Cats Tsundere?

“Ouch!” Enji flinched.

“Let me clean the cut, my lord.” Nilsei pressed a wet cloth to his forehead. He had not realized that he was injured until the girl pointed it out to him. He figured it must have happened when the orc was hit from behind by the first fireball hurled by Silma, and madly swung the tree branch. Some debris must have come loose from the branch, cutting him.

“Done! Silma, would you close Lord Enji’s cut?”

Silma harrumphed in dissatisfaction before coming close to Enji. “This is going to hurt a lot,” she said, trying to frighten him.

“Don’t mind her, my lord. Her magic is perfect.” Nilsei made a waving gesture.

Enji watched the cat-eared girl with apprehension, thinking of torture and excruciating pain. She stood before him and began to chant a spell in a steady voice. Above him, a series of concentric light circles appeared. They looked like designs made with a Spirograph wheel set, like the ones he had seen the girls in his class play with. After a couple of minutes, Silma stopped chanting, and the light wheels disappeared. She let out a deep sigh and sat down.

“It didn’t hurt at all. Did it work?” Enji asked, touching his face.

“Of course, it worked,” Silma snapped at him.

Popa, who had been observing them quietly, grabbed something from a wall shelf and came closer. “See for yourself.” She held a polished copper mirror in front of his face.

Enji squinted into the mirror, but he couldn’t see anything on his forehead, and he didn’t feel the smarting of the cut like he had before. He stood up and, facing Silma, he bowed. “Thank you.”

Silma harrumphed again and looked away from him.

Is she a tsundere? “Did you get hurt when the...” He drifted for a moment, unsure of what to call the creature he believed to be an orc.

“It was just a scratch,” Silma mumbled.

“We call them [spreghts],” Nilsei added. To Enji, it seemed like someone had spoken at the same time as Nilsei and dubbed over what she said with the word ‘orc.’ Instinctively, he touched the collar around his neck. He suspected that the translation worked by substituting this world’s words with ones that he was familiar with.

“Are they common around here?”

“Sometimes they exit the labyrinths and roam around looking for prey,” Nilsei replied.

“Labyrinths! There are labyrinths here!” he shouted. That was another trope of a fantasy world scenario in isekai manga and anime. I hope there is no Demon Lord.

“Like in any part of the world,” Silma retorted. “Had you been hiding under a rock all this time?”

“You should thank him, Sister. If he hadn’t created that distraction, you could have been killed,” Popa admonished Silma.

“Oh, alright! Thank you,” after saying that, Silma turned her face from him and continued to sulk.

Unquestionably, she’s a tsundere. Enji looked at her for a moment, then he faced Nilsei. “I heard you chant something before engaging the orc. What type of magic do you use?”

“That was a spell for body strengthening and speed, my lord,” Nilsei replied.

“I also used a similar spell,” Popa added, as she flopped herself into a chair next to Enji.

Enji turned to Silma.

“I can’t fight on the frontline. My magic is for support,” she said, almost in a whisper, while keeping her eyes from meeting his.

“And the boy? By the way, where is he?” Enji asked.

“Sol is more talented than we. Besides healing, he can also use fight, defense, and tracking magic. He is disposing of the orc’s remains, my lord,” Nilsei replied.

“What magic can you use?” Popa leaned close to his face in anticipation, her amber eyes fixed on him.

Having the girl so close to him, Enji nervously stuttered, “N-no... none. I don’t have any magic. I don’t even know how magic works.”

The three girls stared at him wide-eyed.

“But... you fought the orc!” Popa exclaimed.

“Well... I didn’t exactly fight. All I did was follow Nilsei’s instructions and stabbed it.”

“Still, to fight an orc without magic, you have to be crazy or stupid!” Silma shouted.

Perhaps it was the latter. Enji didn’t voice his thoughts; instead, he shrugged his shoulders.

“My lord, you are so courageous!” Nilsei clasped her hands over her chest.

“My knees were trembling...and I told you before, I’m not a lord.”

“Courage is measured by overcoming your fears, not by mindlessly throwing yourself into danger, my lord,” Nilsei clasped his hands in hers.

Again, it was the latter! Enji didn’t want to pull his hands away from hers, not because he was enjoying the sensation, but because he didn’t want to appear rude. Then he prepared himself to ask the question he wanted answers to the most.

“What magic does the elf girl use?”

“The Long-ear? She is a high mage,” Popa replied.

Long ears? Is that a derogatory term? “What happened to her?”

“Why do you want to know? She is of no concern to you.” Silma scowled at him.

“If she brought me here, perhaps she can send me back.”

There was a long silence after what Enji said. The three girls looked at each other. Nilsei nodded at them.

“Her name is Tona. Her people are the forest elves. Forest elves are good with magic, and Tona is exceptionally good at the advanced type,” Nilsei stated.

“Why was she running away? At least it seemed that way to me.”

“Our mistress, Eithea, bought her from a traveling merchant, who got her from a mercenary as payment. Neither of them knew how powerful Tona’s magic was. It was Galakei who discovered her hidden potential and—”

Enji raised his hand, interrupting Nilsei’s narration. “Who is Galakei?” he asked.

“I thought you knew, my lord. He’s the high mage who was with Mistress last night.”

High mage... so he’s someone important. “Oh. Please continue.”

“There is profit to be made in the kingdom court if you provide a high mage to them. That is why Eithea parted in the morning to deliver her to the mage’s corps.”

So, she’s not here. “Is the kingdom court far? Can I go see her?”

“What! Are you crazy?” Silma shouted. “There’s no way you can just appear at the kingdom’s court and ask to see her!”

Then my hope of returning to Japan is nil. Enji frowned. He was not an expert in anything. He knew of nothing he could utilize in this world to become powerful, like the protagonists of manga and anime when transported. All he was good at was computer programming; useless in a world of magic and swords. Not even his physical abilities were something to bank on. He was decent at running and average in school sports. As for martial arts training, his experience was limited to playing with a stick as a kid. Oh, there is that... He remembered training with the sasumata in middle school to pin down assailants. The school’s disciplinary council had recruited him because he was taller than the average student. Maybe that’s why he was able to use that spear. A sasumata wielder? Go figure!

“Something wrong, my lord?”

“Are you sure there’s no way that I could meet with Tona?”

“Not unless you are a high mage, my lord.”

“And how do I become one?”

Silma got up from her chair and walked out of the room. The other two girls didn’t say anything, so Enji waited. Silma returned with an old leather-bound book and threw it into Enji’s lap.

“If you can use every spell efficiently in this [rotamfe], then you are a high mage.”

Again, he heard a voiceover in his head over the unfamiliar word that Silma had said. It was substituted in his mind with ‘grimoire.’

Enji shuffled a few pages and then, closing the book, he said, “I don’t know how to read any of this.”