Chapter III - Rocky Road to Duberhaus
It had been a few days since the events of the farm incident, Anna and the group has just entered a massive forest and during their travels, she had been taught how to actually fire her gun. She had yet to hear the end of Mr Shop Keeper's jokes about an adventurer couldn't properly load and fire her gun. Anna had also been learning a lot about the group she had joined. The person what she knew was Mr Shop Keeper was actually named Alex, which was much better than just Mr Shop Keeper. Apparently he was married, but his wife had died a few years before she had arrived in this world. His son, who was named Alberto, was around her age. He was apparently going to apply as a Frontier Scientist, which Anna seemed quite curious about. What was science like in this world? Apparently, according to Alberto, they were supposed to research the creatures of the new world and search for the "Universal Ether." When asked what the "Universal Ether" was, Alberto had just replied with a scoff and went off to do what he was doing before she pestered him with questions. Seemed like he hadn't exactly warmed up to her yet. That, or he just found her annoying.
Today, they had continued advancing, Anna having her gun in her hands. It had been previously loaded, Anna having been told that these forests were full of Natives and Bandits. In the days of her travels, she hasn't actually killed or even shot something before. If she did cause the death of someone, she wasn't sure if she would be able to cope with it. She felt calmed by the fact that she would most likely not even need to fire her gun in the duration of her journey, but both Alex and Alberto had told her that she needed to get blood on her hands one way or another. She didn't understand why, but their main "argument" was that it was to help her cope with the dangers of the frontier.
Speaking of natives, she had never seen natives before. Natives of this world to be exact. She wondered what they were like. Were they like the natives from her world, or were they different? Prying Alex and Alberto for answers, they both replied the same. Apparently they are savages that possessed immense power. She chose not to believe the savage part, knowing how that went for the colonialists of her world. She really wanted to meet one for her own reasons, but Alberto and Alex have been sure to make sure she didn't think of that again. Again, because they were savages and didn't care for sophisticated lives. Heh, she hasn't seen any sophisticated lives before for she had been a city girl for her whole life! Maybe that's what they mean as sophisticated. Not living in a forest and forgetting any tradition.
Just as they were about to clear the deep bush of the forest, she was grabbed from behind, being pulled down towards the ground with a hand to her mouth. This was the end for her. She was getting kidnapped! Trying to resist, Alex gestured to her to hush, crouching down and moving forward. Just as Alex had disappeared into the bush, Alberto had pulled her back behind a bush, muttering something about a dumb girl. Moments later, Alex had returned from whatever he was doing, seeming rather excited. He stood around for a moment, searching for the two, before finding the two hidden behind a bush. He crouched down in front of them as if he was about to go ask them for a few loonies to get some candy.
"You two, there is a deserter camp nearby. I'm not sure how well-defended it is, but from past experiences, I wouldn't count on our chances of just simply going around," he said, turning around to point in the direction of the camp. At least she assumes it's the direction of the camp. Her heart just dropped. A deserter camp. Deserters were bad right? They are military trained people that left to kill people! Right? "Anna, today might be the day that you get blood on your hands. We should be able to fight them off as they only have 5 or so people in the camp," he said, leaning himself on the rifle. What had she just gotten herself into? She should have just stayed in the town. She would be so much safer.
"H-Hey I erm... Think we could just uhmm... wait i-" she said, being immediately interrupted yet again by Alberto's reply to Alex. This man was really getting on her nerves. Has he no respect for her words? It seemed that he was going to be taking lead in this conversation now. Not that she ever lead it in the first place.
"We can get through them. I have trust in our abilities to deal with them," the man said. When he continued the second sentence, he gave Anna a glare. She gulped yet again, feeling slightly targetted. Was she not welcomed? Why did Alberto seem to have such a deep distaste towards Anna? What had she done to deserve his fury?
"I feel oddly targetted by that," said Anna, shifting her position to something more comfortable. Alberto grinned, as if he was proud that she knew he was trying to attack her. What kind of person was this? A man tsundere? Not that it mattered anyway. He can be as tsundere as he wanted, but the real world was not like it was depicted in Anime. No one likes a rude person. "But if you really do think we can fight them off, wouldn't hurt to try. Actually, it will hurt, but we can do it..." she said. She didn't like Alberto, but she did trust a local's intuition.
"Glad I could get you on board. Now, shall we go? Check your rifles, you two," Alex said, turning back towards the camp. Anna and Alberto both gave him a thumbs-up, the two following after him after he took off. Anna softly gasped at the sight. They were only a few feet away from the camp and Anna hadn't even noticed. It was so well hidden. What would have happened if she didn't have the help of these two? She would have most definitely been killed... or worse! The other two seemed so coordinated. They would most definitely work out to be the new craze of her world, especially if they got into the acting industry! "Anna, go with Alba and check the tents and stores. He should be able to take care of you," he said, leaving no chance for argument and disappeared into the core of the camp. She grumbled to herself, wondering why they were so cool and she was just stuck being a side character. This was a damn Isekai! The Isekai person is supposed to be the main character here!
Alberto sighed, gesturing to follow him. She practically shivered in her boots as they slowly inched towards the first structure in their path. A large tent. It was covered in tree branches, tall plants, and leaves. A lot of leaves. She wondered how long this would have taken to set up. She definitely wasn't known to be able to survive outside of the city, but this had to take forever to do right? The moment that they did arrive, Alberto silently crouched down in front of her, gesturing towards the entrance of the tent. He then counted down from five, Anna silently preparing herself the same way that Alex had taught her to. Deep breaths. Just deep breaths. The moment that the countdown reached zero, the two burst through the entrance, finding that the tent was completely empty. Well, empty when it came to humans. There were a bunch of crates. This seemed to be a storage tent.
Knowing better, Anna didn't open any of the boxes, knowing that they were still in danger. Alberto, not exactly caring about the situation they were in, opened one of the boxes, revealing supplies galore. His cold eyes practically lit up with excitement, Anna noticing something around the corner of her vision. Movement? Suddenly, a man, who was hidden behind one of the many boxes pivoted out from behind his cover, raising his firearm, only to be shot by Anna. The kick of the gun was excessive, throwing her to the floor, the gun sliding away. The person that Anna shot dropped to the floor, dead. Hearing the commotion, Alberto slid down beside her, dragging her behind of a bunch of boxes.
Realizing what she had done, she was frozen solid in shock and fear. It was so sudden. He just came out from behind the boxes and just instantly dropped dead. She was a murderer! She killed someone. A man who had a life and even a family. She felt disgusting. Why did she need to do this? Why couldn't she have been left out of this? Why did she have to fire? As if Alberto knew what she was happening, he rubbed her shoulder, the two still stuck behind the boxes, hiding from anyone who might have heard what happened in the tent. She immediately found herself feeling filled with a sense of security. She wasn't in the position to question, nor was she in a position to care. She really just wanted someone there to help her cope with killing someone. They were right. She would inevitably kill someone.
Moments later, the two could hear someone enter the tent, Alberto, as if he knew which direction the sound came from, produced a pistol from seemingly nowhere. It was as if he just grabbed it from thin air. With a click, he pointed it at the general direction of the sound, finding it trained on his father, Alex. The man sighed, standing up to approach him. Everything seemed to pass in slow motion, the two conversing about something, the blood of the person slowly pooling out in front of her, and well, just everything felt like it was happening in slow motion.
The two seemed to have finished conversing about whatever they were conversing, Alex bending over to grab Anna's rifle and Alberto walked to approach Anna, who was sat in the corner like an unused mannequin in a random clothing store. He bent down, grabbing her by the waist, resting her under his elbow, similar to how a butler would rest a towel over his forearm. It was comfortable at least. It was nice to be carried like this. She could just hang and didn't have to worry about tensing up her body so she didn't fall over. Just as she was getting comfortable, Alberto had released her on a stump. Anna seeing what had just happened. There were a bunch of people, maybe 5, tied up together. They had swiftly took control of the situation. It was successful. They definitely had enough to survive for the next few days without having to hunt. Right?
She had gotten up, staggering towards another tree, her legs feeling like jelly. When she did arrive, she just deposited her lunch on the floor. She has never actually seen a dead person before. It thoroughly disgusted her, but... she felt she could get used to it. She had to get stronger if she wanted to survive. This world was extremely dangerous, like the two had said. She didn't want to be a hindrance to her new friends. Having dropped a significant amount of physical sickness onto the ground, she returned to the group, looking much better.
"Hey there, you good? You taught him a lesson about sneaking up on a girl," he said, Anna cringing at what he said. It made her feel really awkward but she humoured him with a forced chuckle. He then threw Anna's rifle to her, Anna nodded to him, glad that her rifle didn't just up and break when she dropped it. "Alex and I are going to be killing the rest. You can stay in the store and check through everything. I've already removed the body so you don't need to see it," he said, giving her a smile and went off, gesturing to Alex to drag one of the captive men, who desperately begged for his life. Anna knew that it was the end for him, but she feels that they wouldn't bless them with life if they were in their situation.
She entered the storage tent, or at least what she remembered was the storage tent, sifting through all the belongings of the now set to die, deserters. Just as she was shifting through everything, she heard a loud bang. Sounded like a gun. Every few moments, she heard another gunshot, which was then followed by another. They were really just executing them, weren't they? Looking through everything, she had found a lot of items that she reckons she could use to better her chances of survival. They had a box of rifles, much like Alex had in his shop, but she found something strange. The rifles she found had nothing to carry a flint shard, rather it look like there was a legitimate hammer and a little hole. Interesting, she was sure to go ask Alberto or Alex what this was. She no longer cared who it was. She had also found some clothing, bags, food, more powder, and of course, money. She was just happy to be able to find the box of rifles. There seemed to be enough for the whole group to own one and sell the rest.
Searching deeper, she found a box covered by a large cloth. She removed it, finding a large chest underneath. Opening it revealed it being full of books. A lot of books. They were all interesting, seeming to be made with a lot of care and love. Being the curious person she was, she grabbed one, opening it for a little read. It was full of pictures, incantations, and recipes. Pictures depicting old men and women dressed in cloaks and large hats, incantations that apparently released a lot of power, and recipes that definitely didn't sound like they could be eaten. Checking through all of the books, she seemed disappointed to find that they were all simply just copies of the book she had found. But, she was still curious. This was a world of magic, like she saw a few days ago. Maybe she had magic and she had to figure it out. She shook her head at this thought, feeling that she wasn't special enough to get magic. She still found the novelty of the magic books to be desirable. Mostly because she just wanted to feel special. In the same box, she found a belt, which also had a pouch seemingly designed to carry a book. She grabbed it, put it on, and slid in the book. She found it to be a perfect pick and simply waited for the two to come back from executing the group. She felt slightly uneasy with how she just allowed them to kill the group, but she feels that it's how they are going to survive in this forest. Kill or be Killed right?
It had felt like hours before the two came in. She had gotten bored, reading the book, trying to understand what she could. She understandably didn't understand anything from the book, but she didn't stop trying. She had even located a scrap of cloth to use as a bookmark to keep her page! But Alex and Alberto did come in, greeting her like they always do. Curiously, Alex hadn't winked at her since the day she was at his store. Was it really not a greeting?
"Hey, what'd you find?" asked Alex, taking a look around at the job she had done. During the time it took for them to finish their job, she had managed to push the boxes to two different sides of the room depending on their potential usefulness to the group. Standing up, she pointed at two different sides of the room.
"Right side is useful, left side isn't so useful. I found some rifles, clothing, food, powder, and money. The rest of what I found were cloth scraps, seeds, letters, and the deserters' unforms. For how many there are, they had a lot of things," she declared, grabbing one of the rifles she had found. It was unlike anything she had seen. Thanking her for her work, the two went to work sifting through everything again. Seemed like they were having fun. Alex finding clothing and things that he could sell at his shop, while Alberto found interest in the guns and powder she had found. There was enough for the group to get a rifle for each of them.
"Anna, catch," called out Alberto, the man throwing her one of the rifles he found. "This is better than what you have right now. More reliable, more powerful," he remarked, Anna catching the rifle. So it was better, but how would she fire it? Without a moment of hesitation, Alex grabbed a bag of what she assumed was seeds, flinging it at her.
"These aren't seeds girl, these are caps. Have you never seen military rifles?" he said, chuckling at her once again. She felt embarrassed, feeling somewhat dumb about how she thought something so unnatural was but a simple seed. "Alberto, take one. They're better than what I have in my shop anyways. Destroy the rest that we can't carry," commanded Alex, Anna nodding.
It had taken hours before they could finally organise themselves enough to get everything they needed. Anna looked like a completely different person. Instead of being dressed in just a wool serge, trousers, and shoes, she was now dressed in a dark green wool tunic, dark green breeches, and tall leather jackboots. She was also given a nice slouch cap, which she found strangely similar to the ones that the Australian Army wears in their uniform. It made her feel cosy knowing that there was something she did recognise. Alex and Alberto hadn't taken much, simply just switching out their guns and collecting more powder. Once they were done with everything, Alberto lit up the remaining objects in the storage, the group immediately running off into the forest. She felt nervous about the fire, knowing that even a simple campfire could start a whole forest fire but she trusted that they knew what they were doing.
"Anna, don't worry. You won't find yourself killing anyone a lot in this field of work. Or at least the work you have gotten interested in. You seem to have taken a fancy into the line of work of Alba, or so he had told me," said Alex, Alberto looking extremely embarrassed by this revelation. "He had also said that he wouldn't mind if you worked with him too! How interesting. He went from dispising you to wanting to work with you so quickly. Wonder what ticked in his mind," announced Alex. Anna giggled like a schoolgirl, finding that Alberto was showing a very adorable look.
"H-Hey Dad what was that for?" questioned Alberto. He didn't sound too happy about what was happening, which had only caused Anna to regard Alberto with a smug face and more childish giggling.
"Don't worry Alby, I'll work with you. I wouldn't survive on my own anyway," she joked, giving him a shoulder pat. Now feeling like a target, Alberto covered his face in embarrassment. "But I'm glad. I wouldn't feel safe if someone in my team hated my guts," she said, trying to comfort the man. It was true. She wouldn't feel safe if her friends didn't like her. Much more if they were trained with guns. Alberto acknowledged this with a nod and the group went off to set up camp somewhere nearby.