Arc 1 - Chapter 3: Stranger, Witch and Cat (3/3)

"Let's get back to the subject. I apologize for what I did, I wasn't trying to harass you, I was looking at your body because I noticed a deficiency, you could think of it as a kind of examination."

"Deficiency!?" Yu was about to have a small crisis inside himself again. "What's wrong with me? I have a beautiful face, my legs are long and my stomach is flat. Is it because I have no muscles?" To be seen as lacking and criticized, if he was subjected to this any longer, he would start biting his nails.

"You don't have a core, that's what I'm talking about," Rie said. She calmed Yu down. "The core is an organ that generates mana and regenerates itself, even if it's on the verge of being destroyed, it will heal, but if it somehow gets destroyed, it will kill you because it's right in the center of your chest. I never thought I would see someone without a core."

When Rie realized that Yu didn't know what a core was, she gave him an explanation about the organ.

He was both relieved and offended to learn that the deficiency was from this world and not from him. Being missing in the new world was stressing Yu out.

"There is no magic without mana, is there?"

The core had to be something like a soul. On Earth, people didn't have organs called cores, and since Yu had come here through a portal and not reincarnated, he didn't have a core in his body, but unlike a core, a soul was not a physical concept, so he was able to obtain a soul.

Yu's question surprised Rie and Neko. In this world, even ordinary people knew that mana was the fuel for magic. While Neko muttered to herself about Yu's ignorance, Rie decided to be understanding.

"Yes. The core produces mana and the magic user casts spells using the mana produced as fuel."

"Got it, thanks."

He had seen in the games that there was no magic without mana, he just wanted to make sure that in this world mana was had the same system as in the games.

"If I could cast spells on top of my high intelligence and impressive charisma, I would be a being capable of upsetting the balance of power. In order to maintain the balance of power, the world has prevented me from casting spells."

He could not cast spells, nor did he have fighting skills. To survive in a fantasy world of monsters and magic, he had to either be cautious, think at least ten times whenever he had to act, and calculate all the possible consequences of his actions.

Or he could make some friends and be protected by them. His ego didn't like the idea, but he knew he needed protection to survive.

"But I've never been good at making friends."

Apart from his sisters, there were few people he was close to but he didn't see them often.

"What happens now?"

The three of them fell silent and waited for someone to speak.

"What am I going to do, say 'nice to meet you, so goodbye' and go on my way?" He didn't know where to go or what to do. "Now that I think about it, I was like a parasite living with my older sisters."

Everything he needed to live was provided for him by his sisters. Food, home and love were all provided by them.

They even gave Yu his pocket money, apart from the scholarship he received. In return, Yu wanted to show his older sisters that they were not wasting their time and to prove how great his little brother are, so he always returned to them with high grades and made sure to improve himself in different fields.

"I wanted them to be proud of me, I wanted more attention."

When he stayed at the orphanage with his older sisters, the orphanage provided for his needs. Except for the part-time job he had found in the last few months, he had never had to work and stand on his own.

But at the time, his pride was not hurt by the fact that he was in the hands of others because they were not strangers. The orphanage was a state institution and his sisters were his family. He didn't mind being fed by them.

It was different to look after these people he had just met, he didn't know them. Rie was a beautiful girl and Yu wanted to spend more time with her and get to know her, but she was still a stranger.

"And how am I going to get out of here? I can't fly up, if I try to find my way through one of those tunnels I'll die at the first threat. I need them to stand beside me and protect me."

The realization of his weakness felt like an atomic bomb had been dropped on his ego. Even though he wanted to get to know these people he didn't know, being dependent on them was getting on his nerves.

"Only because I have to... I'll make an exception just this once for this beautiful girl." He closed his eyes and made up his mind. "Now how do I get to the 'let me come with you' part?"

He didn't want to voice his request directly. "Well, what if I say something fait accompli, like asking 'what do we do now?' But then I might be met with 'when did we become we?"

As the silence continued, Yu's mind was also filled with different thoughts.

"Since she revived me, shouldn't she care about me a little bit? After all, she gave me something important to her. At the very least, she won't want me to die in two minutes and make sure I didn't waste the life he gave me." Once he had convinced himself that Rie would care about him, it was time to ask her for help.

"Well, I don't really have anywhere to go. Can I hang out with you?" Yu Valarfin was embarrassed to ask for help, so much so that he unconsciously lowered his head and bit his lip.

"Not at all, go your own way, shoo away."

"Neko! Mr. Valarfin is already embarrassed, your rudeness has gone too far." Rie grabbed Neko's ear and pulled gently. Because Neko punished by her mother, she gave Yu a hateful look.

"It's not like I'm ashamed, it's just that I'm not used to it..." now he started to play with his fingers. "It's my first day here and I don't know anything about the city, even if it's just for today you can help me."

He should have buried his face in the pillow and screamed because he felt ashamed. If he had known this day would come, he would have practiced asking people for help.

"Now that I've caused you trouble, I have to help you."

"Mother..."

"Shh, Neko. We're the ones who dropped Mr. Valarfin here, it's our duty to help him."

Yu breathed a sigh of relief. For the first time in his life he had asked for help from someone he didn't know and he had gotten it.

"Thank you." It wasn't easy for Yu to say thank you, but when he felt relieved, he blurted it out.

"Then let's introduce you to our other comrade." Rie gestured to one of the tunnels.

"That stupid human is still sleeping."

In Neko's eyes, Yu was the 'stupid creature' and the injured person was the 'stupid human.' He might have ignored her if she was only insulting him. But now she was saying he was inferior to someone else. His patience tested, Yu tried to calm himself by biting his cheek.

As they entered a tunnel, they came across the sleeping boy.

"His name is Sharley, my apprentice, he was wounded by that orange monster over there."

The young man with black hair was lying unconscious. He looked younger than Yu, maybe sixteen or seventeen. Even though he was younger, he was taller and the height difference made Yu jealous.

"But everything else about me is better than this bastard." Except for the height difference, Yu was more handsome.

"But... Why is the apprentice of the probable main female character of my story a man?" After a simple brainstorming, it was clear that there were two possible reasons why he stood by Rie, who was beautiful but ostracized by society for being a witch.

First, he genuinely respected her and saw her as an older sister/teacher and wanted to benefit from her knowledge.

Second and more likely, Sharley loved her. After a bit of think the second reason seemed much more likely to Yu. "This asshole bastard might have even thought like 'Rie is not loved because she's a witch, so if I love her, I'm sure she'll love me too'. What a disgusting degenerated son of a bitch."

He hadn't even met Sharley and he already hate him.

"This boy is nothing compared to me, nothing compared to me in the game of love - why do I think that!"

He had told himself as soon as he came here that he would not see the world as a game, but now he was seeing everything as a game.

"Snap out of it Yu Valarfin, please."

"I understand that you used the sewers, and you must be on a secret mission to have chosen such a dirty way. So shouldn't we move instead of stalling? You must not want to waste time here and get caught."

"I'd rather say we have somewhere we need to get to and we need to sneak into it, rather than saying we don't want to get caught. The former makes us look guilty."

At Rie's answer, Yu looked up and pointed to the hole in the ceiling of the cave, then pointed to himself. Rie had committed one crime by destroying the city road and a second crime by killing Yu.

"Makes you look what?"

"Should we forget such unpleasant events?"

If they were forgettable Yu would prefer to forget them, but how could he forget his murderer?

"Unfortunately this stupid creature is right, we should leave now. Otherwise people will come here soon and the existence of these tunnels will be revealed."

"You are right. Neko, can you take the map? I'll carry Sharley."

"Why should thou carry him? Let this stupid creature drag him after us, I'm not comfortable with my mother touching that thing."

Neko's reaction was so insulting that Yu felt glad that he was not the one who had been subjected to it. Being called that thing was worse than being called stupid creature.

"He looks thin, I can carry it."

"I'd be glad if you could."

"No problem."

He didn't want to carry Sharley because he suddenly saw him as his romantic rival, but he also didn't want Rie to carry her.

"Thank you, Mr. Valarfin. Then we will continue to follow the map. We can destroy the entrance to the tunnel to prevent anyone from following us. Of course, if we need to escape, since we've blocked one of the two escape routes on the map, we'll have to improvise if the other route is wrong."

Improvisation was not Yu's thing. He had learned at an early age to stick to a set program and always planned things in advance. To learn that they were going to act without a plan in a world with monsters roaming over it was a concern for his safety.

"By the way," Yu paused before picking Sharley up and turning to Rie. "You can just call me Yu."

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Yu."

Rie gave Yu a gorgeous smile. Although she was covered in blood, she was so beautiful that Yu felt a star shining right in front of him.

The beautiful white-haired witch offered her hand and Yu took it. "Your hand feels so good! How smooth and soft it is! Marry me! Our children will look even gorgeous then your gorgeous smile!"

"Me too, Rie."

He was happy. For the first time in months he was truly happy, for the first time in months he felt alive. "For the first time in months, my heart beats with a good feeling."

Accompanied by the happiness he felt, he offered a pure smile, devoid of arrogance, full of joy. Yu's smile was as beautiful as Rie's.

"Let me introduce myself to you properly, my name is Yu Valarfin."

He held out his hand to Neko. Although she had annoyed him at first, he was now in the mood to give her another chance. He could make a fresh start with the arrogant girl in front of him.

But Neko crossed her arms and turned her head away from Yu, refusing to shake hands. Yu didn't let it get him down and smiled at Neko.

The stranger from the other side of the door, and the cat who saw the witch as her mother, would follow the witch's request, which they didn't know what it was.