Red Light (1)

"I wasn't able to get another invitation to the marriage ceremony, my apologies," Miss Margrett lowered her head.

A few days had passed since the stalking incident. At the kitchen table, with the klin running hot, we were folding paper flowers.

"No, it's alright.." Prune then turned to me.

"Um, it's alright if I give you mine right? I think you two should go," Nine said, referring to Liliath and I.

"I thought you're the one invited, not me?"

"I will have to agree with Noel. It's impolite to leave the invitation to another," Liliath said.

"If anything, I'll just spend the night accompanying Prune."

"If that's alright with you," Nine nodded.

I turned to the silver haired girl in question, "Okay with that, Prune?"

"Will Miss Margrett be attending too? The marriage?" she asked.

"I am obliged to," Miss Margrett smiled wryly.

"Besides us, you also called some other people to help with the decorations, right?"

"I believe the four of you should suffice, and I heard Gabriel-chan is joining too? I feel that there's no need for additional helpers. Preparations for the venue would be done in the morning and afternoon before evening."

So it's an evening party then.

"We could just come back here and have an early rest couldn't we?"

"Are you alright with that though, Noel?" Prune asked.

"If Liliath is fine with it, then no problems. Besides, I can spend that time reading manga. There's a few I plan to read."

The wonderful thing about the BookReader widget is the fact that I could practically read any manga that had been released prior. It's just as good as my previous manga reader app.

"We'll bring back some good food if we find any," Nine said, completing another paper flower.

"Sure, just don't get caught."

The paper flowers were also for the wedding. We didn't need to make a lot, it serves as an auxiliary for some parts.

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"Noel," Nine called out.

It was an early morning. The time currently was 4.50 am. Nine and I had just finished a set of sit ups and pushups.

"Why is this red.." I didn't need to ask Nine what he meant by that, I also saw it.

Of the 21 daily quests. Two of them had a red font.

"What does this mean?" Nine wracked his brain.

Liliath placed two warm cups of tea on the table. Prune was still in the shower.

"Noel, here," She passed me the third cup.

"Thanks," I took a sip, an odd bitter flavor with hits of vanilla. I passed it back to her and she drank from the same glass. Nine took a sip of his. There was scarcely any reaction from him, I couldn't tell what kind of tea he got.

"Could be some sign? Is there a chance this was listed in the manual Unknown gave us?"

"Let me check."

I skimmed through the index section of the manual and turned to the page that contained information on the daily quests. There wasn't anything here highlighting what a red text meant.

That asides, the two quests in red were:

Heal an injured person with magic. 30P

Have everyone step into the castle ballroom. 50P

Are there any relations to the two?

I wonder if it's like some sort of timed quests? These two quests weren't red yesterday, I'm pretty sure.

"There's nothing here," I said.

"I have a bad premonition. This could be another flag couldn't it?" Nine said lazily.

"The possibility is there," Liliath twirled her fingers around her hair. Which made me realize how her velvet hair was growing rather long. It now reaches past her shoulder blades. Same goes for Prune, probably.

Speaking of things growing long-- I checked my nails.

Yeah. It's not just their hair, our nails too.

How do people deal with this? Is there a nail cutter sold out there somewhere? I'll ask Miss Margrett about it later during breakfast.

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Purple-blue leaves blew in our surroundings. Black bark of the trees contrasting the light colour of snow. The sky above was grey, the sun and sky shrouded by thick clouds, snowflakes trickled from above.

The weather wasn't too good. It was getting darker by the minute.

Nine swung his sword, tearing through the slime.

Pachic.

The core broke, goo melted to the ground.

"Okay, we have another one, two more to go," Nine said.

There's a daily quest that tells us to 'kill 5 slimes in one hit each. 50 points'.

"It's kind of weird how the same monsters appear every time. I don't think it's normal for an ecosystem to have so little variety right?" I asked.

"I don't know. Have you seen the purple skunk, mammoth butterfly or the nut-job bird?"

"The hell is that?" Are you sure those are accurate names?

"I think it's because we're focused on the few monsters that have to be subjugated since the other animals here aren't of value," Nine took the core and washed it with water magic generated by the system.. not via inherent magic.

It has been more than a week since we started training in Bleu's domain, our sword skills are improving slightly? But we still can't cast magic properly. It's those few same elements every time we try-- no choice but to rely on the system at times.

"Don't you think smile goo could sell for something?" Nine poked the ground with his sword.

"No idea."

The only guild request we took today was to bring back a wintercomb. A wintercomb comes about through a natural phenomenon when this species of Sweetwax tree sap growing in places with high concentration of winter spirits forms this blue honeycomb structure. It usually grows on the outer bark of the Sweetwax tree.

I'm guessing it's some kind of alchemy material.. or forging material? No idea. The person who put up the request said he wanted it fresh from the forest.

"There's none here," Nine shook his head.

This would make it the 7th tree.

I seriously wonder how normal adventures complete their work? We're cheating by pinning Sweetwax trees on the map, walking around to check each of them one by one. I know we can also search for the wintercomb directly but.. somehow it wasn't showing on map. Maybe wintercomb is the wrong name. This isn't the first time something like this happened.

The naming system in this world absolutely sucks.

Nine came to a halt.

"Noel, the red quest is flashing now."

I pulled up the system quest list. Sure enough, of the two, one is blinking.

With a pit-like feeling in my stomach, and by some instinctive feeling, I decided to set [Reincarnated Otherworlder] as my title.

Let's see.. Is there some meaning behind this? 21 quests..

19 heroes plus one high elf and one Regressor?

I checked each of their conditions individually using [God's Eye]. It took me a while to get through the first two.. I didn't understand why they were panicking, but I hit the jackpot on the third guess.

And I couldn't help but say..

"Shit."

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"We're going to get groceries?" Prune tilted her head.

"Would you like to join?" Miss Familia asked with a smile.

"I want to go with Liliath-oneesan," Lucia clung onto me. What a cute creature. I ran my hand across her hair.

"Then Liliath-san will take care of Lucia-chan if that's alright?" Miss Familia said.

I smiled meekly without giving a reply.

The one who clipped Lucia's hair into a bun was I, it should be alright to make a little mess of it right? I found it rather interesting to note how hair bands weren't popular in my world. It was a common sight in Noel's world.

"Prune, do you need a hair clip?" I asked.

"Hair clip? I think letting my hair like this is just fine, it's still winter. But the dandruff is really annoying.." Prune held some of her hair between her fingers and sniffed her hair.

"Dandruff? What's that?" Nataline too started to fumble around with her hair.

Queer. Indeed, the knowledge of the people in this world was lacking. Those white specks on the hair was said to be the mark of a commoner, which was true in a sense however-- it was something you could treat with proper cleaning.

I question if bar soap had the same effects as liquid soap. Both are different things aren't they?

I checked Lucia's hair for dandruff.

Inevitable. It seems even she had some of it stuck to her.

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Special Quest:

[HIGH DIFFICULTY] Serve tea to 100 different people. 1000P (38/100)

RULES: Nine, Prune and Noel cannot find out about the specifics of the task. If found out, the quest will be terminated. Special quests cannot be removed and will be refreshed weekly. Special Quests completed before the week ends will only be refreshed the following week..

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I couldn't believe the amount of tea I would need to complete this, if only I could use the river of tea in Bleu's world…

This quest required a tantamount resolve on my part.

I didn't mind the difficulty as the margin, in context of the point reward, it looked rather grand. Exchanging the points for gold, I could buy 100 times the quantity of tea I did last time.

A worthwhile investment.

38 cups of the served tea included Noel, Prune, Nine, Jennifer, Margrett, the caretakers, church sisters and orphans.

"Can I go?" Ian, the little boy with white hair asked, referring to himself.

"How about I take care of you then?" Prune asked.

"I want to go too!"

"Me too!"

"This humbled frog would like to accompany milady. Ribbit."

The other kids started to voice out their wishes. Many wanted to come along. Prune staggered at the frog's voice.

"Ara.. what should I do about this?"

"If I may, is it alright if I stayed back to take care of them?" I requested.

Taking Prune's position into account, she would be inclined to remove herself from that delusioned blue creature. Her quest this week I heard was to kiss that blue frog. Resulting in a one-sided affection. I praise her for her courage.

"No!" Lucia clung to me.

"Lucia-chan.."

There was another reason to why I had to decline visiting the market. Her Highness Siesta would come visit the orphanage along with the troop of royal knights. As a service, I would make a cup of tea each and have everyone to drink by force. As for Sir Richard.. I'll make sure the tea served would be as 'sweet' as my imagination allows.

Her Highness Siesta wasn't directly involved in the penalty of the quest. Thus, there were no problems divulging the specifics of what I needed to do. She did, after all, give us all permission to abuse her authority.

"Sorry Lucia-chan," I hugged her back.