Ch 7

Hearing a very familiar voice while I was lying on my bed playing a game, it felt like it had been a really long time since I last heard that voice.

Right now, I’m at the beginning of the story, where the main character is about to set off on an adventure.

“Come on, the meeting is about to start, and we agreed to get there extra early.”

I looked around the room I was in and saw it was relatively messy, with all sorts of games and gaming devices, both new and old, scattered around.

It was my room on a military base I shared with my sister Norn in my past life. I realized it was Norn’s voice, and I saw her in her military uniform, getting ready to leave.

“Hey, are you listening?”

“Okay, okay.”

A bit annoyed by her pestering, as I had just started the story and was getting comfortable, I put down my game.

As I did that, Norn opened the door to our room after someone knocked, revealing two very familiar faces.

“Hey, you better get going. Y'all always are late coming into meetings.”

The voice was really familiar. It was Patrick, who is another Named pilot like us. Next to him was Emily, His co-pilot and wife.

“Ya, we know. Unfortunately, it’s my turn to be the responsible one this week, and I don’t want to get yelled at by the Marshal.”

“At least it’s a start. You two have been turning into shut-ins lately, especially after you went out of control and got banned from the training room again, just like James and Lupin.”

“Hey, don’t compare us to those two!”

As Emily said that, both Norn and I suddenly shouted at her in annoyance for comparing us to those two idiots.

“I mean, it’s kinda true. You two really like fighting, just like them.”

“Oh, shut up, Patrick!”

We shouted at the same time again, in sync, but this time toward Patrick.

Compared to us, those two are always fighting with each other. Honestly, after a while of dealing with their constant bickering and fighting, it gets really annoying after the first hundred times.

“Oh, please, you are equally as bad”

Those two are lovebirds. When they are separated, they can’t even function properly. And when they are together, they’re often in their own worlds.

“I don’t see a problem with that”

Right now, they are doing it again. Fred began looking deep into Emily’s eyes, all lovey-dovey, and Emily doing the same, like there is nothing in this world but those two.

“This world is meaningless without you”

“I could say the same, dear”

I could practically see hearts in the air sparkling as they began flirting with each other.

Relatively speaking, out of all of the other named pilots in the base I knew that had something wrong with them, they’re relatively tame, so I shouldn’t complain that much.

Speaking of the other named pilots in this base, they are all weirdos that have a screw or two loose. Henry and Kate are extreme shut-ins. Mat and James have muscle for brains. Mia and Noah are straight-up vampires. Kai and Oliver are mad scientists.

Honestly, why are me and Norn are the only normal ones here?

“Anyway, when are you going to see the kids in the nursery, especially Feli?”

“Hmm… maybe tomorrow”

“Oh, look at the time; we better start going, were goi. We're late”

Fred noticed the meeting was about to start in a few minutes, so both of them started running

“Come on, let’s go. We should get going”

We ran, following Fred and Emily to our meeting.

…

…

…

Waking up to the morning sun shining in my face again, like most days, I rubbed my eyes and yawned after getting up from bed.

So… I was dreaming about a memory from my previous life that was before the war. I thought to myself: if Norn was really in this world, is she going on her own adventures like me?

After getting some water from the well and cleaning myself, I went downstairs to order my breakfast, the same one as yesterday, and went directly to the guild.

Unlike the previous days, I’m going in the morning, so there are going to be a lot of adventurers in the building.

When I entered the building, it was already filled with adventurers looking at the quest board or discussing with their party members about which quest to take today.

Seeing the crowd, I thought it was going to be a pain. Let’s hope I can blend into the crowd and don’t get picked on, like in most isekai stories where the main protagonist is starting out like me.

Thankfully, that didn’t happen, and I managed to get through to the quest board. I decided to take an F-rank quest to gather some herbs.

F-rank quests are always non-combat jobs, something along the lines of finding someone’s lost pet, cleaning the town, helping in construction, moving crates, etc.

The quest I decided on was a gathering quest, specifically for gathering bittercress grass, which paid a large copper coin per bundle.

I went to Emma's counter where other adventurers were waiting in line to register for their quests for today.

After accepting the quest, I left the town through the east gate, the same one I had entered through when I first came here, coincidentally enough, and I followed the directions given in the quest instructions.

And after roughly 30 minutes of walking, I eventually reached a meadow where the bittercress grass should grow.

There, I saw other adventurers beside me, probably doing the same quest as me. A group made up of one boy and two girls was working together, along with five more who seemed to be working solo like me.

I chose not to go near them for two reasons. First, to keep my interactions with other people to a minimum; the less, the better. Second, since beginner adventurers come here to gather herbs, most of the herbs are likely already taken.

With that in mind, I keep a good distance from the meadow and look around the surrounding forest for any places where the plant I’m looking for might grow.

Luckily, after about an hour of searching, I found a small clearing that had the herbs I’m looking for.

Bittercress grass tends to grow in clusters among ordinary grass, making it easy for people to overlook at first. But if you look closely at the blades, they tend to have a crescent moon shape compared to normal grass.

I gathered six bundles’ worth of Bittercress grass, leaving the rest behind so they can grow back, allowing me to pick them again for another gathering quest in the future. Now that I’m done for today, I wonder what I should do next.

Should I go back? No. Looking around the clearing, I realize how secluded this place is. It’s a decent spot to do some training, especially since there’s no one around to see me.

With that in mind, I began my training. First, I focused on some body exercises to start building muscle, then I went for a run to improve my stamina.

After switching between the two and completely exhausting myself, it was now late in the afternoon. I exited the forest and was back in the meadow to find the same group still gathering herbs after the other adventurers had left.

Surprisingly, they had only managed to gather a couple of bundles by the time I came back. Are they really that hard to find?

When I returned to town, I made a quick detour to the inn to wash off all the sweat and grime I had accumulated. After cleaning up, I headed to the guild to exchange my bundles of Bittercress grass with Emma, receiving six large copper coins in return.

Alright then, after that was done, let's go to the library and continue where I left off yesterday.

I went downstairs to meet with Mable, and we quietly read together until it got dark. With the Adventurer’s Guild closing for the day, I headed back to the inn.

So for the next three days, I followed a routine. Each morning, I woke up, took the same quest, trained, returned to the guild to complete it, and then went to the library to read before heading back to the inn for the night.

Steadily, I continued learning whatever I could from books while earning some money. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to pay for another seven nights at the inn.

However, that changed when one of the people from the group I had seen taking the same quest as me for the past few days approached me.

He had brown hair and was fairly tall for his age. I recognized him almost immediately because, while most people had already given up after finding Bittercress grass too much of a pain to gather, his group had stayed persistent and continued taking the quest for some odd reason.

“Hi there, I’m Alex.”

While waiting in line to register for my usual gathering quest, I turned around to look at him.

“I was wondering if I could ask you some questions.”

The moment he asked, I immediately replied, “No,” then turned back around and continued waiting in line. Judging by the shock on his face, he clearly hadn’t expected such a quick response.

“Please wait. I just want to ask where you get all your Bittercress grass. We haven’t been able to find any lately.”

He had a pleading look, but I immediately shut down his question with another “no.”

With a resigned sigh, he said, “I understand,” and started walking away.

As I watched him leave, I noticed a group of four girls approaching us. I recognized two of them from Alex’s party: a robed girl who appeared to be either a cleric or an alchemist, and another who looked like an archer.

However, I didn’t recognize the other two. Both were quite surprising: one was a white-haired wolf beastkin, while the other was a red-haired girl who looked like a mage, given the staff she was holding.

Interesting. It’s uncommon for mages to become adventurers, and judging by her demeanor, she probably isn’t a noble. She definitely may have some noble blood in her, though.

While rare, nobles occasionally have relationships with commoners, sometimes resulting in children who inherit the ability to use magic.

However, I’m more interested in the wolf girl. It’s the first time I have actually seen a beastkin this close up.

Beastkin are people who have animalistic traits in all shapes and forms. They are stronger, faster, and have better senses than a human; however, they can’t use magic.

Looking at her fluffy tail and ears, I had a strong urge to touch them, but I had to remind myself that I needed to limit my interactions with people.

“Hey! Alex just asked you for something, and you just turned him away.”

Scowling at me, the red-haired girl pointed her finger at me, saying that, unfortunately drawing the attention of some of the people in line.

“Lucia, please calm down; it's okay that he doesn’t want to.”

Quickly trying to calm her down, Alex tries to reason with her, but the red-haired girl, Lucia, really has a temper, so she then ignores what Alex was saying and stomps toward me, demanding.

“Don’t you dare talk to Alex like that! So come with us already!”

Saying that, I saw that her shouting had practically gotten everyone in line to turn their heads toward her and me. I quickly looked at Alex and the others and noticed that they all wore troubled, resigned expressions, as if this happened often enough that they were already used to her outbursts.

Well, damn… it seems like they’re not going to be much help, and this is going to—no, it’s already—turning into a scene.

I guess I am on my own then. So, trying to explain myself as politely as possible, the moment I try, this girl immediately lashes out at me. I try again, but the same result.

As I really didn’t want to be the center of attention, in the end, I gave in and said yes, because I wanted it all to end quickly.

“Umm, erg… Thank you. I’m really sorry about that; she tends to be a bit bashful, but she means well”

Sincerely bowing in apology for Lucia, this was the third apology he had made right after we left the Adventurer Guild.

As for Lucia, she simply pouted at us after finally calming down with Alex’s help. Honestly, it didn’t seem like she was going to stop anytime soon, even after I reluctantly agreed.

What is she? A tsundere? Specifically, a really short-tempered one at that.

I sighed internally, trying not to let anyone notice, as we made our way to the east gate to leave town for my secret gathering spot.