Souma and A Talk about Brinis.

[Flashback: Back at the mansion, before departure.]

"Twixie, Come out," I say.

She ruffles in my hood and flies out.

"What is it Master?" she says.

"You look energetic," I say.

"Well, I just completed my evolution." She says.

"Evolution? Why?" I ask.

"You remember when you allowed me to manage your skills back at the carriage?"

"But you said you didn't evolve…"

"That was a lie."

…So she outright lied.

"You-!"

"Wait! Wait, wait! I just got some new skills so I want to use them!" she says.

"New skills?" I ask.

"Yup. Like this one… [Immerse]"

"What does that do?" I ask.

"Dunno… but it looks cool… let me try…[Immerse]…" she says.

She says the word and turns into light. Then that light travels straight for me.

A bit of trauma comes back from the library…

"AHH! Not again!" I say.

But the light still goes inside me.

"What the hell just happened?!" I exclaim in a loud voice.

"What's wrong Great Velkra!" Comes running Albart.

"Twixie just disappeared! Inside me!"

"Inside… you…?" Albart asks in confusion.

[Master! Master! Can you hear me!]

Comes a voice from within…

"Huh?! Where?! Where are you Twixie!" I say out loud.

[Don't scream outside! You'll freak them out! Calm down!]

"But where are you?!" I say.

"What is wrong Great Velkra?! Who are you talking to?!" Albart looks utterly dumbfounded.

[See?! You're scaring him!]

Albart circles around me to check if I'm alright.

"Please! Great Velkra! Say something!" he says.

Man, he sure is freaking out… he is sweating hard…

I keep looking at him running around me then,

"Don't worry Albart. I'm fine. You can go and prepare for the summons." I say.

"But-!"

I cut him off.

"Albart… I'm fine. Just go do your thing." I say.

He hesitates for a moment and agrees.

"So? What is this?" I ask.

[You see. I just found out what this skill is.]

"What?"

[This skill allows me to completely go inside you.]

You are phrasing that wrong Twixie~

[Oi! I can hear you!]

"Don't read my thoughts! And explain!" I say.

[This skill. Allows me to immerse inside your body. I become a spiritual life form and connect to your soul. I can manage your skills and the skills of every individual under your blessing. It's basically a job for me to manage everyone's skills… so many…]

She trails off while talking. So she is inside my body…

Can you hear me like this?

[Yup]

Then what do you mean by individuals under my blessing?

[You see… when you give someone your blessing, they get connected to your soul. The connection here is called the soul bridge. That's how they evolved.]

So they got influenced because they are connected to my soul?

[Yup]

And now you got an infinite space to live in as a shut-in?

[Yup]

You accepted that so easily…~

[Don't mind the small details, Master~]

I do mind though. If you don't come out often, everyone is going to forget about you.

[That won't be possible. Because I would be interrupting your inner monologue from here!]

You~!

[Ha-ha-ha! You can't get me out!]

I think I should just leave her alone…

[Yup that's fine with me…~]

She really is interrupting it…

[Yup!]

Arghhh-!

[What are you? A pirate now?]

[Present]

See? I knew it.

The moment I appraised him earlier I got to know from his status that he was a. Otherworlder.

I shouldn't be showing that I'm bothered by this.

"I'm not surprised," I say.

"You are not? Then you must have known about this matter." Says Youlias.

"Ah. It's nothing that complicated. It's just a personal experience."

"A personal experience?" ask Youlias.

"Hmm. I'm a reincarnation." I say.

I told them. Should I have told them later? They're talking about this now so I had to say it.

"Re…incarnation?" I hear an unfamiliar voice.

I lift my gaze and see that Souma is putting a hand to his mouth. So he finally spoke?

"Yeah. I died and reincarnated in this world as a dragon." I say.

"Is that true Great Velkra?!" says Albart.

Didn't I tell them? Maybe I did…

"Is it that surprising? It could be for you but Youlias here seems unfazed. Only Souma here is reacting like you." I say.

It should be. It's not like you see otherworlders everywhere.. maybe there are more of them in this world but I won't try to look for them.

"And why are you so jumped? You didn't watch any anime or read any manga before?" I say.

"I-I…" he opens his mouth to say something but stops.

"It doesn't matter. The thing is I was born about one and a half weeks ago. I died in my world and got here in the body of a dragon." I say.

"So? What happened to you?" I say.

Youlias and Albart and sitting in silence as I talk to Souma.

"I… was in Highschool's 2nd year when… I got… wrapped up in the light and the next moment I found myself in the wild at night." He says.

"Then?"

"Then… I spent the night in misery… I was being hunted by many animals but somehow… I managed to survive… then I found a road… just as I thought I had been saved, fatigue hit me from all the run and hunger… and I dropped unconscious at the break of dawn. That's when Mister Youlias found me." he says.

"I see… so the news that you had a personal guard at your service was him…" says Albart to himself.

"I've been here for about 7 years now. I was 18 when I got here." He says.

"What year did you come here?" I ask.

"It was 2020? I guess…" he says.

Huh? 2020? But I got here in 2022? Time dilation?

This universe moves faster than the one there? So that means… 3 and a half years here is 1 year there?

This is…

"What are you thinking about may I ask?" say Youlias looking curious.

"I see that you're interested. Then let me tell you, when I came here, it was 2022." I say.

"2022…? But it's been seven years since I came here…" says Souma.

"What is this number '2022' you talk about Great Velkra?" says Albart.

"Hmm? 2022 is the count of years. You can consider it the number of years recorded from a point in time." I say.

"Then why?" Souma asks.

"Time Dilation. It's probably that or something else. I read about it in some books. I think it means that this universe moves faster than the one in which we lived in." I say.

Parallel worlds. So many concepts come to mind. But there is no point in bringing scientific theories into fantasy.

"Can I go… back?" he asks.

Hmm…

"Probably not," I say.

"Huh?"

"Come on. Moving between worlds can't be easy. I mean, have you searched for why you came to this world? Usually, there are summoners in situations like this."

"I never thought of that…" he says.

"Youlias, Is there anything like summoners here?" I ask.

"Yes." He says with a heavy nod.

"What?"

"There are Great Velkra. In the Brinis Kingdom." He says.

So that Kingdom comes up again. Honestly, I don't rust that country based on what I heard from Carmine.

"What is Brinis like?" I ask.

"It is prospering. But the biggest factor I find displeasing there is the discrimination against the Magical Races." He says.

Just as I was told.

[I remember that.]

So you finally spoke too?

[I didn't need to until now]

You sound serious…

[Hmm… I want to know more. There wasn't that much discrimination in my time.]

Should I ask them about Fervie?

[…]

I will.

"Is there someone named Fervina in this world?" I ask Youlias.

"Fervina? You mean the legendary Mage?" he says.

"Legendary mage?" I ask.

"Yes. She was a legendary mage alive 1500 years ago. She traveled to many places and researched magic in her life. They say she had a fairy companion." He says.

You wanna come out?

[…]

No answer huh?

"Great Velkra… Could it be…?" says Albart.

Did he figure it out? How?!

"Is the fairy with you her companion?" Asks Albart.

"You're pretty sharp aren't you?" I say.

His eyes shoot open and his jaw falls down.

"Come on. Don't be that surprised. It's the reason why I asked about Fervina." I say.

"There is a legend that Fervina hid her studies in a hidden library somewhere, she even said that it had The Book Of Wisdom, that she made herself. It would accept the successor for her knowledge." Says Youlias.

Better not tell them about that.

"So back on the topic for Brinis," I say diverting the convo.

"Yes. Magical races are treated very badly there. They are hunted, treated as slaves, and discriminated against. Other Kingdoms have mild discrimination but Brinis is the single body that spreads the hate. Diacis could be the only Kingdom that treats them well. That's why you see many Magical races here." Says Youlias.

"But why? Why does Brinis do that?" I ask.

"Their Religion. The Religion of Brinis. They changed the kingdom's name because of this. The religion came to effect about 1300 years ago I think…" he says.

Everyone is listening in silence.

[So that's why. There certainly wasn't a Kingdom named Brinis in my time.]

"They also summon Heroes." Says Youlias.

[…]

There. There comes another fantasy cliché.

"If there is a hero then there should be a Demon lord too," I say.

"Right on mark, Great Velkra. As expected of you. There is one, even now. There have been many Demon Lords in the past. But every one of them was defeated by the famed heroes. The demons came invading 1400 years ago, but were defeated. There is still one Demon lord in this era, the Demon Lord Anikia. She tries to invade several times but fails due to the interference from the hero." He says.

The conversation is straying from Souma's problem.

"So there is only one hero from what I hear from you," I say.

"Sharp as ever. My words can't escape your intelligence. There is one hero. Sasaki Kuro and his party of summoned friends. They truly hate the Magical Race." Says Youlias.

Even the Hero hates the Magic Race? What have they done to deserve this?

[I wonder about that too..]

"So about Souma. It is possible that one of their summonings went wrong and they accidentally summoned him." I say.

"Actually I did hear a rumor about that. They say that a hero was supposed to be summoned. And that is around the time when the Demon Lord came back and Souma appeared. I see… You surely do piece everything together, Great Velkra. My intelligence cannot rival yours." He says.

"Truly." Says Albart.

What is it with this rain of praise?

"I guess it can't be helped now I'm here. I just felt a bit worried about my family. That's why we wanted to ask a person like you about it. But you turned out to be a reincarnation. Come to think of it, May I ask what your name was?" Says Souma shifting the conversation.

"Me? I was Kaneko Fuji." I say.

"A fellow Japanese! I see! But… Fuji?" he says questioning my male name.

"Yeah. I was a male back there. Must be weird right?"

"No no no, it isn't weird. Actually, I was… a girl too…" he says.

"What?"

"I'm saying that I was a girl before I came here. It was a struggle to get used to a boy's body…" he says blushing and fidgeting.

"You were… a girl?!"

[You were a boy?!]

I told you about that Twixie so shut up!

What is with this world's Gender Bending tendencies?!