Religious Studies… In Another World?

What? How? How did Verne-sensei know? And what did he know? If he had intuited that much about my background, he could have figured out… other things as well.

Holy hell, if he knew about Shino, then…

“Hey, no need to look so panicked,” he said soothingly. “I’m not accusing you of anything. Otherworlders may be a rare occurrence, but they’re nothing new. You aren’t even the first I’ve met.”

Back up. Let me hear that one more time, please?

“There are other people… like me, in this world?”

“There are,” Verne-sensei confirmed. “Very occasionally, a person manages to pierce the barrier between two worlds and end up in this one. It always occurs after death. Physical forms can’t exist in the spirit realm, which functions as a sort of space between worlds, so to get to a new one you must first cast your material body aside. For some unknown reason most otherworlders appear on the Fire Continent, located East of here, but a very few end up on our Western Continent as well. Like you.”

I didn’t even know what to ask at that point.

“…How did you find out?”

That seemed like a reasonable enough question.

“There were signs. You seemed confused when I mentioned the Water Dragon, a being who even young children in this world know the tales of. You refer to me as ‘sensei,’ a word belonging to no language that I am familiar with. Not to say I am aware of every tongue and dialect out there, but it still struck me as odd. Even the amazement on your face when you first saw my staff was a dead giveaway. Someone your age should have seen a mage before.”

He had me figured out right from the start!

“Please, don’t tell the others.”

I wasn’t sure why it was so important to me to keep my origin a secret. Was I afraid that finding out about where I came from would lead my new friends to piece together my past crimes as well? There wasn’t necessarily a correlation between the two.

I just didn’t want to be haunted by my past anymore. That was all.

“Your secret is safe with me,” Verne-sensei said. “Now, would you mind getting me a drink?”

I reached out to the spirit within a cup of water at a nearby table. The water began to glow a shade of light aqua, then it lifted out of the cup and zipped over to us, hanging above the floor in the form of a wavy sphere. The guy whose cup it was picked up his drink, and was surprised to find it totally empty.

Verne-sensei smiled. “Very good.”

***

Life at Tomkin’s Tavern and Inn went on as normal. Neither my outburst with the thugs nor Verne-sensei’s revelation about where I came from had a big immediate impact on my day-to-day. I was grateful for that. Big mix-ups would throw off the peace I was fortunate enough to find. I didn’t imagine getting it back would be as easy.

I talked to Verne-sensei about Mister Tomkin’s warning, and he agreed to do our lessons in his room, though he seemed a little dubious about the idea of me needing to hide myself. I assured him it was no big deal. I was like a stage-hand in a kabuki play. Or a ninja.

Wait, aren’t those basically the same thing? None of that made sense to Verne-sensei anyway, so I guess it doesn’t matter.

Klaus and Klara noticed me practicing my magic and started asking me to teach them. I did try, but I wasn’t as good of a teacher as Verne-sensei was, so they never got the hang of sensing spiritual power.

Their mother, Miss Anya, was concerned that learning magic could be dangerous for them, so I gave up. Instead, whenever they asked, I distracted them with party tricks I made up using the basic elemental techniques I had learned. Making rainbows with water, miniature fireworks, things like that. They were so awed that they forgot to pester me about teaching them. Until the next time, when we repeated the whole process over again.

Romy did not let the thug incident go. Her favorite tease whenever Miss Blanche and I were together became, “Maybe I’ll steal him from you so he can smash guys’ heads in at the bar for me when they’re flirting too much!”

I wasn’t sure if I liked it better or worse than her old ones.

I was curious about the story of the Water Dragon that Verne-sensei had mentioned. If children across the continent knew about it, that meant it was a pretty big deal, right? So why was its shrine supposedly never visited? It didn’t make sense to me.

I decided to bring it up on a rainy weekend when he took a longer than usual break from his research. I would have thought that a downpour of water would be perfect for studying a Water Dragon’s shrine, and according to Verne-sensei I was right, but he also hated the rain. Even he had his weaknesses, it seemed.

Since Verne-sensei was stuck inside with nothing to do but review his notes, Miss Anya invited him to join us for lunch. I prepared something extra good, hoping it would loosen his tongue a little. Not that I was worried he wouldn’t talk to me.

Maybe I was trying to impress my teacher a little bit too.

…

And also Miss Blanche. Maybe.

“I’ve been missing out,” Verne-sensei said after his first bite of the fruit tart I made.

“Seiji’s cooking is always top notch,” Miss Blanche agreed.

I puffed out my chest proudly. Validation feels good, it turns out.

“Hey, Verne-sensei?” I said as I sat down. “I was wondering, about the shrine you’re researching. Why did it become so run down? People haven’t forgotten about the Water Dragon, have they?”

I tried to be subtle about the way I asked the question. I would have waited until we were alone for magic lessons, but my teacher was very strict about staying focused on the subject at hand while we were practicing. It made sense when you considered how much focus casting magic required.

Verne-sensei put down his fork and looked at me.

“Seiji, the Water Dragon is dead.”

Oops. Casually asking why a deceased local deity isn’t worshiped much anymore was perhaps the opposite of subtle.

“Why do you look so surprised?” Klara asked between bites of fruit tart. “Don’t you know about Mister Water Dragon already?”

“Are you stupid?” Klaus contributed.

Darn kids. I poured my heart into making this food for them, and this was what I got out of it? I oughta—

“Seiji’s homeland is very far away,” Verne-sensei explained for me. “They don’t teach our same stories there.”

I silently thanked my teacher for bailing me out, and swore to the dead dragon god not to threaten any more children.

Klara raised her hand. “Ooh, can I tell it? Pick me, pick me!”

“Go ahead,” Miss Anya told her.

“No fbair,” Klaus mumbled through a mouthful of tart.

Klara stood up and spread her arms out wide, like she was preparing to give the biggest performance of her life.

“Once upon a time, before the world was made, there was an egg.”

Her delivery was infused with just the right amount of drama. She could probably make it as an actress.

“The egg wasn’t hatched yet, so somebody had to watch over it. That person was called The Protector.”

“Wait, where did he come from?!”

“It’s highly contested,” Verne-sensei said. “The Protectorate Church claims he existed before the Genesis Egg. Some believe he was summoned from another world. Others don’t agree that he even exists in the first place.”

I wasn’t expecting a serious answer. I had just been trying to keep the flow of conversation going, like an Osakan comedian. I might have watched one too many manzai comedy shows during free time in prison.

Also, if the origin of this Protector guy was the part that people questioned, did that mean that the rest of the story was real? Cause ‘before the world was made’ is a pretty long time ago!

“Ehem,” Klara coughed. “The Protector took care of the egg, until one day, it hatched, and out came a whole bunch’a dragons!”

“No, it was only four dragons,” Klaus interjected.

“Four is a whole bunch!”

“Go on with your story dear,” Miss Anya encouraged.

“Right. So there was four dragons, one for each emel… emelent…”

“Element,” Mister Tomkin said gruffly.

“Uh huh, what daddy said. There was a Water Dragon, a Fire Dragon, a Earth Dragon, and a Wind Dragon. And they used their powers to make the world, and then they each went to one of the corners and ruled over it.”

Verne-sensei nodded. “Specifically, the Earth Dragon is said to have taken up residence in the Northern part of this continent, and the Wind Dragon in the South. The Fire Dragon supposedly ruled over what came to be known as the Fire Continent in the East, and to the North of that was the Water Dragon’s home. Can you guess what it is called, Seiji?”

Great, a pop quiz. Luckily the answer seemed pretty obvious.

“Is it the Water Continent?”

“Nope. It was the Water Continent once, but it is currently recognized as the Demon Continent, primarily.”

How was I supposed to know that?!

Upon hearing the word “demon,” Miss Blanche paled. She didn’t look surprised, just… sick. Wordlessly, she stood and excused herself to the kitchen to wash her plate.

I wanted to go after her and ask what was bothering her, but this story was being told for my benefit, so I decided to hold out until it was over. Klara continued.

“The world was filled with all kinds of peoples, like humans and elves and angels. But then the Demon Lord came and turned some of the angels into demons. They had a big fight, and then… the Demon Lord killed Mister Water Dragon!”

Did she say… Demon Lord? An honest to goodness Demon Lord, the kind that appeared as the final boss in all kinds of fantasy games? There was no way. No freaking way a trope like that was real in this world. That would be way too… I dunno, tropey.

Not to mention scary. Weren’t those guys seriously bad news?

“After Mister Water Dragon died, the other dragons trapped him there on the Water Continent.”

“Who, the Water Dragon? Wasn’t he already dead?”

Klaus rolled his eyes. “No dummy, the Demon Lord.”

You’re not old enough to have that attitude, young man!

“So then the Water Continent got turned into the Demon Continent, and that’s why no one can ever go there, or they’ll get ripped to shreds by demons. The end!”

What a bleak ending to the story! Especially considering how happy Klara looked about it.

“There’s a bit more to it than just that,” Verne-sensei said, “but she got the gist of it. The Water Dragon was killed in an ancient conflict known as the Great Demon War. Since then his followers have dwindled until they became practically non-existent. It’s hard to maintain fealty to a god who was defeated by a demon and is no longer of this world.”

Alright, that figured. I was still left with the question of why Verne-sensei was so interested in the shrine in that case, but the truth was I most likely didn’t know enough about magic yet to fully grasp his reasons.

As soon as I could, I followed Miss Blanche to the kitchen. She was still there, standing by a washing tub full of dishes and taking deep breaths to calm herself. That story had really done a number on her.

“Hey, are you alright?”

She turned around and nodded her head slightly. I wasn’t convinced.

I put my hand on her back and rubbed gently.

“It’s okay. You’re gonna be fine.”

Miss Blanche let out a long sigh.

“Thank you, Seiji.”

Now obviously wasn’t the time to bring up the very thing that was making her panic, but I had to know. Why had hearing that word caused such a strong reaction in her?

“It has something to do with the reason you came to the tavern in the first place, doesn’t it?”

Miss Blanche looked up at me. “Yeah,” she breathed.

“Can you tell me?”

“I… It’s a long story.”

“I’m listening.”

…

“When I was a little girl, my family lived out in the country.”

Miss Blanche stared wistfully out a nearby window as she reminisced.

“I think we were comfortable, but I don’t remember it that well. One day, our house was set on fire by a passing monster. I managed to get out in time, but my parents and siblings weren’t so lucky. I was the only survivor.”

That by itself had to be hard, but her story wasn’t over.

“I was taken in by my aunt and uncle, but they already had children of their own, and they didn’t have it in their hearts to love me like one of their own. Instead, they treated me like a servant, and forced me to do work around the house while my cousins played.”

Just like the story of Cinderella, I thought. It wasn’t hard for me to picture Miss Blanche as a European fairytale princess. As an elf, she could even be queen of the fairies.

I was getting distracted. The point was that she was treated like dirt. I highly doubted this story ended with her being whisked away by a handsome prince.

“My uncle owned a lot of books on magic. On the rare occasions that I had time to myself, I would pour over them, though I never understood their meaning very well. I was mostly looking at the pictures, to be honest.”

The image of little Miss Blanche leaning over a magic tome, pink hair bobbing as she turned each page and lit up with wonder with each new illustration was seriously cute.

…And I seriously had to stop getting sidetracked by my imagination of her.

She took one big, shaky breath before continuing.

“My uncle’s interest in magic ended up leading him down a dark path. He became involved with a cult of Demon Lord worshiping black mages. In order to join their ranks and become a black mage himself, he had to complete an initiation that involved… sacrificing a child to their dark god.”

That was worse than anything I had expected. I could guess who the sacrifice was supposed to be.

“How did you escape?” I asked.

“I overheard my uncle and aunt talking about their plans before it happened. They were going to use me as the sacrifice, since, compared to their own children, I was expendable. So I ran away, right then and there. I ran as far as I could without stopping, until I got here. I had experience doing servant’s work, so Master Tomkin offered to let me stay if I would agree to work in his tavern as a maid.”

“The same way he gave me a job.”

“Exactly. That was about four years ago. In all that time, you’re the first person I’ve told about what happened, Seiji.”

I was honored. There was something about sharing a secret with Miss Blanche that felt… intimate.

Maybe that was the wrong word to use, but maybe it wasn't. She had shared a very deep part of herself with me by opening up about her childhood. I had to treat her trust with the proper respect it deserved.

“Oh hey, I’ll be right back!”

I suddenly was reminded of something I had been working on in my rare free time for the past month. I ran to my room to grab it, then rejoined a slightly bewildered Miss Blanche in the kitchen.

I presented the object I was holding to the pink haired elf. It was a wooden carving of a turtle, with detailing as delicate as I could manage. I was a bit rusty compared to my teenage years when I carved regularly, but I thought I did a decent job on it at least.

“This is for you.”

Miss Blanche reached out and took the turtle. She started to softly stroke it as if it were a living animal.

“Oh, Seiji, it’s beautiful!”

I rubbed my now empty hands together nervously.

“I made it myself. Turtles are cool to me, because they have everything they need, wherever they go. They’re free to do as they wish, but they’re also protected by their solid shells. So, if you ever need someone to be your shell, Miss Blanche, you can come to me.”

Miss Blanche smiled at the turtle carving.

“I will, Seiji. I will.”

***

The next time I was able, I decided to question Verne-sensei further about the story Klara had told me. I could tell he was holding something back in his explanation then, and I had a hunch it was something important.

It was in the morning, on a day he was planning to depart to spend the night at the shrine, but before he had set out. He was sitting outside, watching the sun rise. Miss Blanche was there as well, humming to herself as she swept the cobbled walkway leading from the road up to the tavern’s front door.

“Verne-sensei, I’ve been meaning to ask you—”

“It has to do with the origin of species, and, most relevantly to you, the beastkin.”

He answered me before I could even ask the question. Did Verne-sensei have angelic intuition or something?!

There was a hint of warning in his voice, telling me that I might not want to hear the rest.

“Go ahead,” I told him. If it was something horrible, I would just disassociate until I learned to live with it.

“Allegedly, when the dragons first created the world, they wanted to populate it, to give it a purpose. The initial wave of beings that were created were molded directly from spiritual power. First among them were the elementals, creatures born from the spirit of the world’s natural elements.”

So there were creatures called elementals out there too. This was sounding more and more like a video game every minute.

“According to legend,” he continued, “The Protector used the elementals as a template to design his angels—white magic beings of pure spirit that helped him to watch over the world. The angels were then eventually twisted by the Demon Lord to become his minions, demons of black magic.”

Miss Blanche shuddered a little at his mention of the Demon Lord, but she seemed alright, so I kept going with my inquiry.

“Okaaay. But that doesn’t tell me anything about beastkin.”

“I’ll get there. The first humans to arrive in our world were summoned from another. We know that much almost for certain. Our spiritual wavelengths don’t match up with anything else across the whole globe. It is taught that the dragons summoned us here, and the angels used white magic to combine humans with animals to create the elves, since there were so many humans that the full angelic legion couldn’t watch over all of them without mortal assistance.”

“Miss Blanche is part animal?”

Like me, I held myself back from adding.

“Distantly, yes. Some elves have more pronounced animal features than her, but they all have characteristic ears that first belonged to a certain species of goat.”

The elf maid’s ears twitched. I hoped she wasn’t mad that we were talking about them.

“However, the same way some of the angels were corrupted by the Demon Lord to become demons themselves, he also used his black powers to transform armies of elves into more primal, bestial forms. This was the origin of the beastkin. Or so it goes.”

“Oh.”

So my race had been created by the final boss to fight for him against the good guys. I could see why Verne-sensei was hesitant to explain all that to me.

There was something odd about the way he said it, though. It sounded like he didn’t entirely believe the stories he was telling me.

“You keep using words like supposedly and allegedly. Do you not think the story is real?”

Verne-sensei stroked his chin thoughtfully, his thumb tracing the length of his thin scar.

“It’s hard to say. The tale of our world’s origin is at the root of all major religions, with some variation. The church that the Holy Empire is founded around believes The Protector to be the one and only god, and would call the dragons powerful spirits or messengers. Draconian zealots pick one of the four dragons to devote themselves to, but acknowledge all the others as divine, and Spiritualists believe that all spirit is godly and worship everything from dragons to jackalopes to the rocks at your feet. All start out from the same basic set of ideas. One has to assume that there’s some merit to it.”

“I can sense a but.”

“Stop using your spirit sense, then. You can admire your maid friend’s butt another time.”

Miss Blanche paused her sweeping as the tips of her ears turned the color of fresh tomatoes.

“Not you too, sensei!” I moaned. “Romy is bad enough on her own.”

“—But, there is little to no evidence that much of the dragons’ tale ever actually happened.”

Verne-sensei smirked at me as he continued to explain.

“It makes much more sense to look at the story as a convenient explanation for the way people see the world. It contains an interesting analog to each of the magical principles, for instance. One dragon for each chromatic element, a Protector who corresponds to white magic, and a Demon Lord for black. Oh, the Demon Lord is objectively real though. He was the leader of one of the opposing sides during the Great Demon War two thousand years ago, and was sealed away by magic on the former Water Continent.”

How come the scariest guy had to be the one who was confirmed to actually exist?!

Verne-sensei went on as if he hadn’t just casually said something that would give children nightmares.

“The tale also explains the affinities of the races, and gives the Holy Empire an excuse to look down on and enslave beastkin based on their black magic affinity and the supposed origin thereof.”

“N-not everyone from the Holy Empire feels that way, though!” Miss Blanche cut in. “I don’t have any problem whatsoever with beastkin. So don’t lump us all together like that!”

“Of course. There are differing opinions everywhere you go. But that’s all they are. Opinions. I myself am more concerned with observable fact. Which is why I am studying the Water Dragon shrine. Rather than assume things about its state based on religious conjecture, I am observing it firsthand and recording my findings. I’m actually almost done with my work there.”

“Does… that mean you’re going to be leaving soon?” I asked.

“I’m afraid it does. You will have to continue your studies elsewhere, Seiji. You are both intelligent and talented. I believe you will make a great mage someday.”

It was a meaningful compliment coming from a respected teacher, but not what I had been hoping to hear.

“Will I ever see you again, after you leave?”

“Who knows? Fate is thus far an unobservable conjecture, but perhaps someday in the future we will encounter each other again and prove it as fact.”

That was a lot of big words, but I understood that his answer was a maybe. He could have said as much by just saying “maybe,” but then he wouldn’t be Verne-sensei.