The Belief of Her Previous Self

I looked at the ceiling in my usual inn's room.

I just woke up from that dream again, that dream about my family's incident.

Few weeks ago, I dreamt about it every day. It is only until 1 week ago that I stopped dreaming about it.

But I guess this dream won't stop haunting me anytime soon.

I get up from bed in order to prepare myself for work.

"Ow!?"

That's my plan but pain runs through my whole body the moment I wanted to get up.

"..."

I tried moving few times but the same pain prevented me from doing so.

"You've gotta be kidding me..."

.....

....

...

I am walking around town like a toddler who just learnt how to walk. The muscle pains are all over my body preventing from walking normally.

I move my body around everyday and I still can get muscle pain. It must be because of yesterday. Maybe I should consider paying for a transport next time.

I am on my way to the guild to take my reward from yesterday's quest. After that, I plan to just go back to the inn to rest. The muscle pain is bad enough that I don't think I can do any quest today.

"Papa! Mama! I want that!"

I heard a girl's voice. I look at my right side and I see a girl with height about the same as mine begging her parents to buy accessories from a wooden stall.

Papa and mama... huh...

After Sylphie left, I tried searching for info about my family. The fact that Graize family, one of prominent Knight families in Brahmastra continent, got attacked should be shocking enough that people make rumours about it.

However, it seems that the news from other continent won't reach here.

Unlike Boorash town near Graize mansion, no one sells newspaper here.

There are two places in this town where I can usually hear the rumours from. The guild and the tavern. This town only has one of them each.

But all news that I heard is usually rumours from this continent or Wilderystal continent. Wilderystal is a special case because it is the only continent in this world that does international trading of their products like mana-powered clock, lamp and other things that improve people's life condition. It is inevitable that people worldwide will know Wilderystal continent to some extent.

Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case with Brahmastra. I never heard a single info about that continent while staying in this town despite people like Sylphie travelling around in this continent.

As I put my utmost effort to walk normally, I see a pair of boy and girl walking on the street. The boy are carrying 2 leather bags of filled with raw ingredients of food. The girl talks to the boy.

"It looks heavy... should I carry one of them?"

"It's fine. Let your big brother handle this."

... their conversation reminds of Millson, Korsch and Victorious.

I wonder what they would think after knowing what happened to the ones who got attacked. No matter how much of a jerk Korsch is, it is unrealistic to think that he won't be shocked by the news.

I'm also worried about Millson. Despite his antics, he really cares his family. I know it after living with him for years. He is the only male in my family who regularly helped me take care of my mother. I can't imagine how anguished he would be once he knows the truth.

As for fa-, I meant... Victorious... I still don't know how what that guy will think...

And then I also think about Kaina. I still hope that she was able to get out safely.... from the those two.

That guy with Hero System magic... and Nelsia.

I remember that nightmare again. I know that I need to get over this but I just don't know how to do it.

Should I try my best to forget about it and move on with my new life? Or...

"...urgh..."

It's only halfway before I reach the guild and the muscle pain is already at the point where even moving a little really hurts. I might not be able to even reach the guild at this rate.

"Oh my..."

I heard a lady's voice from my left side. I look at the source of the voice and see a middle-aged woman wearing nun clothes.

"Are you okay?"

The nun recognises me as Sylphie's companion from few weeks ago. After knowing that I have muscle pain, the nun casts a recovery magic on me. I've never seen such magic before.

"Rejuvenate"

Based from its formula, its a healing magic but focus on restoring body functions instead of healing wounds. Not only that it relax my muscle, my body become even lighter than usual. I shall remember the formula of this magic because it might be useful in the future.

"There. How do you feel?"

"I feel a lot better. Thank you."

I bow a little at the nun to express my thanks.

"You're welcome. And I would like to say the same to you too."

"Huh?"

"You're the Herb Princess right?"

"Even you know that nickname huh..."

That nickname sounds stupid so I really would like them to stop calling me that.

"You see, the herbs that you collected really help this town a lot."

"Huh?"

The nun said something unexpected. That low rank quest contributed a lot to the town?

"You see, a lot adventurers nowadays don't do herb gathering quests anymore. They always say that the reward is too small for the trouble finding herbs outside. Even if they find the herbs, they would rather just keep it for their use rather than bringing it back to the guild."

Well, that is understandable. I also keep some of them for my own potion making. The reward is not really worth for the trouble. If that's the case, then increasing the reward should attract more adventurers, but I doubt that the guild would do that. There is not much need in herbs and potion nowadays when you can use healing magic or ask someone else to do that for you.

They are useful only when you want to reserve your mana. That's why only those who has the job of fighting usually purchase because they want to use their mana for offensive magic instead.

"Those who can use healing magic in this town usually become either adventurer in this town or go outside to have a better profession. And the adventurers here don't help others for free. Which is why we post that quest to the guild."

It is the norm in this world that adventurers work based on profit and self-interest. I'm not much better than them in that regard so I have no intention to judge them. Though that won't change the fact that I cannot get along with them.

"I just completed a quest normally like how an adventurer would."

The nun smiles at pat my head.

"I wonder if it's because both of helped a lot of people despite being a kid... But you reminds me of that boy."

"... Who?"

More like, why would she be reminded of a boy? I'm not tomboyish at all.

"The boy working as Genuma's slave. Have you ever met him? He's a human kid just like you and is also working in Liasr Guild."

"... Ohh.."

She meant that one-armed boy. I also remember my conversation with him yesterday.

"You see. He always go around helping people in town whenever he has free time."

"Hm..."

.....

....

...

I spent few minutes talking with the nun before she went back the church. I can walk better thanks to her.

She told me that the boy has amnesia. I wouldn't really care about that boy if only he is not one of few considerate people from that Guild. It's kinda impressive that he still acts that way despite all in the influences around him.

Yesterday, he went as far as waiting for me to come back just to ask a question.

-----------------------------------------------------------
*Flashback*

"No, never heard of that name."

I answered him immediately after he asked me whether I know the name "Sweet World".

"Why would you ask me that?"

It's quite out of nowhere for him to wait for me and ask me a question. If he was a highschool boy, I would have misunderstood that he had a crush for me.

"Pepprica-san told me that it might be a name of magic so you might know something since you are so knowledgable with magic."

That halfling old man from item shop huh... I indeed spent some time helping him performing alchemy in these past few weeks for quest purpose. I might showed my magic knowledge a bit too much in front of him.

"Well... I need more a bit more of a context.."

"Con... text..?"

He doesn't seem to understand that vocabulary. How bothersome... I just want to wipe my body and sleep already.

"Let me rephrase that. Why would you want to know about this "Sweet World" thing?"

"Oh... actually, this afternoon, master met a travelling merchant. Apparently, master wanted to buy item that will make him stronger."

"... items like strengthening pills?"

Strengthening pills are items that enhance physical ability of the consumer. Its effect is like doping from my previous world. The difference is that it is created through alchemy and its effect is instantaneous upon consuming it.

"Ah, yeah. That's what he always buy when he met that merchant. But today, the merchant offered him a strange looking bottle filled with pink water called Sweet World."

Strange looking bottle...?

"What does that bottle looks like?"

"Uh... the bottle's shape is cylinder and there is a needle placed on top of it."

Sounds like a syringe to me. I can't be so sure until I see it though. That boy continues talking to describe that "Sweet World" further.

"The merchant said that it's a drink to raise the Astral level of the consumer."

".... HUH!?"

I raised my voice out of surprise. Increasing the Astral Body's level of the consumer? That would be a revolutionary achievement.

Astral Body's level has always been the indicator of people's life in this world.

Whether you are born as a talented or talentless, as far as my knowledge goes, increasing or decreasing the level of Astral Body is simply unheard of.

Astral Body is like an untouchable limb to me. Even with my Overtake, I can't manipulate other people's Astral Body. There is no way for me to use the mana of other people if the mana is still inside their Astral Bodies. On top of that, I have no Astral Body so I never experience how it feels to have Astral Body in the first place.

Ah, that boy is waiting for my reply.

"Umm... I'm sorry. I don't have any idea about that item."

"I see. It's alright. Thank you for sparing your time."

"By the way, can't you just ask that merchant who sell that item in the first place?"

"Ohh... the thing is, the seller never tell master on how that thing was made. And he only sell 1 bottle to him which costs him 400 gold coins."

"... whoa... yeah, I can tell that it will be a very expensive item before even hearing the price."

"So master ordered me to find out anything about that merchant and Sweet World. The merchant seemed to have left the town though, so I thought about asking someone knowledgable about it."

".... did he tell you how to search for the info?"

"No, he just told me to find anything about it by tomorrow morning."

"..."

NOW THAT IS UNREASONABLE. You can't just tell a clueless kid to do something for you without telling them how to do it. To me, it feels like that Panthos guy wants him to fail from the start.

"Well then, excuse me."

The boy is about to leave right after he said that.

"Wait."

"?"

The boy stopped after hearing my voice and look at me.

"What are you going to do now?"

"Well, I will try to look for clues until tomorrow morning."

"It's already this late. How about you just sleep first and continue searching it tomorrow?"

"? No, since my master ordered me to look for clues until tomorrow morning."

"..."

Setting aside on how dumb he looks for pratically saying almost the same sentences twice, it annoys me when he followed that Panthos' orders blindly.

"Look. Most people would have been asleep by now. You won't find anyone else to talk to. So don't you think it's pointless for you to search blindly this late? If you tell that to your master, I'm sure he will understand."

"... no, he will definitely get angry if I sleep instead of doing his order. Besides, I will just fall asleep by myself once I am tired."

He sounded like he spoke from experience. He is other person's slave so I know that I have no right to tell him what to do. However, letting a kid like him wander outside just doesn't sit right with me.

"Then how about this. I'll lend you a place to sleep in the inn. Tomorrow, you can get up early and start your search again before meeting your master. You don't need to tell him that you slept so that he won't get mad at you."

He looks at me as I continue convincing him.

"He definitely won't know that you sleep here. You can rest without anger him that way, right?"

That boy look at me for few seconds before speaking again.

"Thank you..."

"Alright. Then-"

"But I refuse."

"... huh?"

Just when I thought that he would agree to my perfectly acceptable idea, he refused me without hesitation.

"I need to do what my master ordered me to after all. Well then, if you excuse me."

He left leaving me dumbfounded.

*End of flashback*
-----------------------------------------------------------

"Tch..."

I clicked my tongue out of annoyance. Remembering that idiot instantly put me into bad mood.

"This is why males are just..."

Fine, we are just strangers in the end. I am already have enough trouble dealing my own problems. It would be stupid of me to help him when I can't even properly protect myself from the weakest monster in this area.

... he can just spend his life that way for all I care.

I finally arrive in front of the guild.

But when I am about to enter, the door suddenly got opened from inside.

"!"

I manage to avoid the door out of reflex.

Panthos Genuma appear from inside the Guild. He looks at me but he quickly ignores me and walks passed me.

The next person that comes out right behind him is that one-armed boy.

"!?"

However, he got way more bruises than yesterday which is a shock to me.

No, if I think about it. What happened to him is obvious.

He failed to find any clue about that "Sweet World" and got beaten up as a result. I can't help but to arrive at that conclusion after seeing that his wounds.

This is the norm in this world. I know that it would be selfish of me to force my own belief from my previous self into this world.

Even so... I have no intention to stop holding this belief until the very end.

As I look at that Panthos guy and his slave leaving the town, I clenched my right fist out of frustration.

I made my decision on what to do next. No matter how foolish that decision is.