Confused by the Light

Glancing around the town on the way to Aile’s house, the setting was quite serene, far beyond anything I had witnessed living the city life. Everything seemed so natural and untainted by technology. We even passed multiple hotsprings surrounded by decorative rocks, as well as fields, filled with trees and other such crops. It seemed to be a completely organic and stress-free way of living.

However, I immediately noticed something was off about the town. Maybe I became aware of it due to my constant observations of the general public in my previous life, but the more I looked, the more I realised that there were not many people wandering the streets. Everyone seemed to be confined to their own properties.

I shook my head, as if to reaffirm my intentions to myself.

“This town is merely a stepping stone, there is no need to give it any thought. For now, I need to find out about ‘the equivalence’, which the voice who summoned me asked me to find.”

As soon as I had this thought, as if to contradict my thesis about the town, a man in plated silver armour approached me and Aile, maintaining his posture in this heavy armour due to his large stature. His metal helmet covered most of his facial features, but I could see a vicious stare piercing Aile and I through the eye pieces.

“Benjiro, how goes the job? Keeping a close eye on her I imagine.”

I glanced at Aile’s timid expression, before responding to the man’s confident tone in kind.

“Yeah of course, I don’t need you checking up on me.”

An enthusiastic smile grew across his face, as if he were speaking to an old friend for the first time in years.

“Ha, I see you’re as arrogant as ever.”

This was my current strategy for determining my place here. If I spoke in a strong tone, people would either say “you’re acting the same” or “something is off with the way you’re acting”.

I just had to remember how people characterised me based on how the previous owner of this body acted, then mimic that personality type to the best of my ability. Of course, this false personality would already be meaningless around Aile, for whom I had already claimed amnesia. Therefore, the additional effort would not be required around her.

I nodded my head and continued forward, hoping not to engage in any more conversation than necessary. After all, the more I spoke, the greater the chance he would notice a discrepancy in my actions.

“Hang on a second, Benjiro. Don’t forget about the meeting tomorrow morning. At the usual place.”

“Right, of course. I don’t need your reminder.”

The man brushed past my shoulders and continued marching seemingly aimlessly through the town. He didn’t appear to have a destination based on the slow pace of his marching, but I didn’t pay much attention to him once he passed by me.

Sensing the end of my conversation with that stranger, Aile’s perturbed expression ceased and she leapt ahead of me once more to lead the way.

“So, you do have your memories after all. You knew exactly what that guy was talking about, didn’t you?” she smiled somewhat deviously, as if she were unravelling a brilliant scheme.

“Nope, I honestly have no clue.”

“Huh? But you were so confident!”

“Yeah, it was a necessary act. I’m still clueless here, I’m still fully relying on you.”

I expected her to blush or maybe act bashful about my dependence on her. These words weren’t true, I was confident that I could find my own way without her help. But still, her reaction surprised me.

“That’s awfully bold of you.”

She turned her head away from me and continued onwards without a word. I searched my social knowledge for the reasoning behind her strange actions, but I came up with too many possibilities to settle on one.

It could be anything from a dislike of the previous owner, to a specific dislike of the words I used in that moment. Maybe my tone was arrogant? I had always questioned what made so many people ‘overthink’ in social situations, but faced with a requirement for social interaction, I found myself engaging in the same foolishness.

Eventually, we reached a wooden door, the entrance to ‘our house’.

“Hey Aile, can I quickly ask you something?”

“What is it?”

“I noticed several streetlights on our way here and was curious about how you power them. It isn’t through electricity is it?”

Her eyes widened slightly, as she turned to me, her face painted in disbelief.

“You think we spend electricity on lights?!”

I practically jumped out of my shoes from the drastic change in her vocal tone.

“Electricity can’t be used for something like this, it is almost exclusively used for human enhancements. Besides, thunder magic is extremely rare.”

“Magic…?”

“Those lights are simply the vague emanations of light magic, channelled through various cosmite crystals.”

“Cosmite crystals?”

I always hated not having all the information laid out for me before I started acting and this constant lack of knowledge was starting to feel demeaning.

“You really don’t even know about magic and cosmite crystals?”

“Sorry, amnesia, remember?”

Aile furrowed her eyebrow and grunted in annoyance, before turning back to the door handle.

“Yes, no need to remind me. I’ll teach you about all this stuff later.”

“You’ll really teach me. Thank you so much, Aile!”

“Well, we do have a training scheduled for tomorrow at midday, don’t we? As you always say, we can’t ever miss even a single training, no matter what.”

I threw my hand behind the back of my head and tried to laugh awkwardly to lighten the mood.

“Oh really, I guess I was a pretty uptight guy then.”

She peered her eyes at me aggressively, immediately contrasting my attempt at a lackadaisical and casual approach.

“You’re pretty optimistic and upbeat for someone now wandering an unknown world with no knowledge of how to act or even defend yourself. If you really had amnesia, I’d expect you to feel fear more than anything.”

“Why would I be scared? I get to explore a foreign world and learn new and interesting things that I could never imagine in my wildest dreams.”

“Huh? Seriously?”

“If I really was a serious guy before, then consider this my rebirth.”

I didn’t really believe most of what I was saying, I was quite a serious guy back in my previous life. I didn’t mean to be, but the serious personality bloomed when I wanted to skip the tedious conversations to relax on my own. However, my purpose in mentioning my ‘rebirth’ was to hammer home the idea that I was not the same person she knew from before. However, when I started with this lie, my repressed imagination took over and based on her reaction, it seems I took it too far.

“You do seem like a completely different person. However, whether I like this new version of you remains to be seen. But, for now, I’ll show you around my home.”