Chapter 3 - Make Your Bed

It was little Paula who welcomed me into the house with a bright smile on her face.

"Welcome back, Kaze-chan. Where had you been? You know, I was waiting for you to come back."

She started questioning me with a playful look the moment I entered and closed the door. Honestly, if it was not for all the thinking I had done in the time I was at the City Centre, I would have been stumped by her questions, not knowing any context behind what was happening.

"Hmm, I wonder why Paula-sama would have need of me? What, do you want more Valberries to eat?"

While I was pondering, sitting there for hours, I had taken my current situation in my mind too. I had to think of how I would act now that it was only me here. At that time, I decided that I will keep acting like Kazemaru of past. Since not many people really knew Kazemaru, except the landlord and his family with whom he had contact daily, I decided that there was no need to worry about anyone else other than them.

"Well, it's not like I always want to eat Valberries. Adolf wanted to hear a new story, so that is why we were waiting. You just told the same old story this Sunday at the statue that you told us last week. Not that I didn't like it, but I wanted to hear something new!"

Kazemaru's memories told me that he never stopped practising as a Hanashika. When he was in Sumeru, he often told stories in Grand Bazaar whenever he had the time, and it was not one of the days of Nilou's dance. Since he came to Monstadt, he would go to the City Centre every Sunday, and children would gather in front of him as he would sit on his mat. Then, he would tell a story in traditional Rakugo style.

"I see, so that's how it is. Well, I can understand you getting bored."

I told her as I walked into the place I had started calling home.

"But, not now, okay? Today, I'm extra tired, so I will sleep early. But since tomorrow evening is a Sunday, I will tell a new story to everyone. What do you say?"

"Ummm, but I wanted a story now."

Hearing our talk, Adolf, the real reason behind this conversation chimed in. For his age, he was not a small child. Even at 8, he was as tall as his elder sister.

"Well, I promise I will tell a completely new story tomorrow, okay Adolf? What do you say?"

"Ahh, well, it's not like I can do anything. If Kaze-chan wants to sleep, it's not like I can stop him."

Hearing him call me the same nickname as landlady and Paula, my brows twitched involuntarily. It seems like there was some bad blood between Adolf and my nickname.

"Imagine if you were to wake up with a pink moustache tomorrow morning, it would be so tragic. Just who would do such a sad thing to little Adolf?"

Hearing our bickering, Mr. Alois, my landlord started chuckling. He patted Adolf's head in amusement, though that only caused the little boy annoyance, it seemed.

Seeing this, the landlady finally chimed in.

"Enough chit-chat everyone. Dinner is ready, so quit the quarrel."

Both the children then finally stopped bickering with me and I was about to sit one the table when -

"Ah, Kaze-chan, please wash your hands first, then you can come and sit."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot."

I gave her an embarrassed smile and walked to the wash basin to wash my hands. Once done, we all sat down and had dinner. It was landlady's special chicken stew for this Saturday's dinner, it seemed. Kazemaru's memories told me that the landlady was really good at making stew, so it was a special dinner of the week whenever she made stew.

As I ate the food, I could not agree more. The consistency of the gravy, the texture of the meat, and the incredible flavour brought by the perfect blend of spices made the dish very delicious. At this point, I could almost imagine my soul having a foodgasm on the inside. I wonder if that's what the Emiya household and Saber felt, whenever Shirou cooked for them.

I could not stop eating this delicious food, and as an Asian, my appetite for rice seemed to have carried over to Teyvat as well, because I could not stop myself from asking seconds, and thirds, and fourths, until I was sure that if I ate more, my stomach will burst.

When I was done, I looked up at the landlord who was looking at me with amusement in his eyes. This made me realise that just now, I was eating like a dog that has been starved for weeks. I could only rub the back of my head in embarrassment as I looked back at him with an awkward smile.

The landlord let out an audible chuckle at that. And now, even the landlady was not silent anymore.

"Oh, Kaze-chan should have more. Here, give me your bowl, I'll refill it."

At this, I was certain that both these husband and wife were trolling me. I looked at them with my eyes begging for mercy, hoping they will forgive my transgressions.

They only chuckled in response, as if butchers looking down at a lamb that came for slaughter.

-----

I looked at the face in the mirror in front of me, and tried to commit it to my memory. Right now, I had removed my tunic and pants for a tank-top and shorts. I had never been more grateful to a person for designing tank-top and shorts before.

Feeling comfortable in the small room, I looked at the face that till afternoon was owned by someone else till today afternoon.

From Kazemaru's appearance, it would not be wrong to say that he had a moderately good looking face. He had black eyes, and black hair that were short on one side, and longer on the other side as they were swept to the longer side.

What grabbed attention though were his cheeks which were more plump than they should be on the face of a 17 year old teenager. But, looking at them they held a charm that would certainly attract people who liked cute things.

Running my hand through "my" hair, I laid down on the bed only to stare at the brown wooden ceiling above me.

So, this was me now. I was going to live in the body of this person foreign to me, and I will be masquerading as him while deceiving the people that knew him. It made me feel a sense of guilt, but I also knew that if I would not have come, then Kazemaru would have died anyway. If that happened, then his parents, his family would have truly lost him. Then they would never have a chance to seem him again.

I cringed at that thought, and it reminded me of the fact that I had died, and my parents would never get to hear from me now. All because of a dumbass skipping the red light, they lost their child, and now would be weeping for him. The only silver lining in this situation was the fact that they had my elder brother. I was sure he would take care of them.

I rubbed my eyes with back of my hand and felt a slight moisture. I had teared up it seemed. I was missing my parents it seemed, my family whom I would never see again. Well, it seemed like we were fated to die young, me and Kazemaru.

I got up from the weird position I was in, on the bed, and turned off the gas lamp that was lighting up my bedroom and went to sleep, hoping for a good new day.

-----

The clock said that it was 6 am when I woke up, and the light coming from my windows told me that the sun was slowly, and steadily rising up the horizon.

Now this, was going to be a long day. I might have felt excited yesterday about the idea of adventuring, and thought that it will be really cool to travel the world like a wandering Japanese swordsman, almost like Miyamoto Musashi. But right now, I didn't even know the "A" of "Adventuring" yet, so I will have to start from scratch in both that and the swordsmanship.

Now, I did do some Kendo in my previous life, but my main interest was always hand-to-hand martial arts. I used to admire great martial artists and thought of them as a role model, whether it be Bruce Lee, or Muhammad Ali. In fact, now that I thought about it, no one in this world even knew about Muhammad Ali, so if the opportunity presented itself, I could possibly bring his poems to the ears of this world's people and immortalise them here as well. Ah, but of course, that was for later.

For now, my main priority would be to register with the adventurer's guild, and then train this averagely built body to make it stronger and durable. Then, I will also be checking out the Monstadt library for books on swordsmanship, and also try to see if I could find a teacher that would teach me the way of the sword. I wanted to make the right use of Reid whenever required. And the requirement I was certain will come.

Just the fact that I was in Monstadt, with an almighty sword with me, and just around that time when the Traveller was to appear only made this prediction more sure-sounding. From all the rumours that I heard about the Stormterror, it was certain that I will be pulled into this one way or another. And I did not even want to resist it. Playing the game as the Traveller made me sympathise with her, but now that I knew that they are real, that they are going to be here, and that they will be going through all of the challenges that I did as the player, I wanted to help him.

Now, I was not certain, if the Traveller in this world would be Aether, or Lumine, because I played the game as Lumine, while the canon traveller was Aether. But whoever it might be, I will help them in this journey, not because I was kind of heart, but because I was an ambitious man. I wanted to travel this world, meet all sorts of people and experience a full life that I, and Kazemaru both missed out on before.

Done with my thoughts, I started to make my bed following the words of a certain Admiral who taught me to make my bed first thing in the morning. That it will be the first task accomplished in the day, and it will lead to me accomplishing more. And, if in case I have a really bad day, when I come back home, I am met with a welcoming bed that I made in the morning and then sleep while preparing for a better next day.

I have lived by this rule since the first time I saw the video of that gentleman speaking those words, I was going to continue that.

Once done, I went to wash up and got ready to go out. It was finally time to touch some Teyvatan grass.