episode_0005

“Heuk… Heuk…”

Lily, barely catching her breath from running through the forest, looked around after finally calming herself.

She had just come here to gather herbs, never imagining that a low-level demon would suddenly appear.

“I only just awakened my skill this time… and it’s still only at the normal level. How am I supposed to defeat a low-level demon without even a weapon…”

Of course, she could defeat a low-level demon with a normal skill, but Lily, who had just become an adventurer yesterday, was still a novice adventurer who knew nothing.

Since their parents passed away, Lily and her twin sister, Louis, had been barely making ends meet with odd jobs. Recently, after Lily awakened her skill, she could finally become a proper adventurer and earn a steady income.

After registering as an adventurer and passing the test, Lily, who received the same level, planned to start with the simplest herb gathering quest and gradually move on to easier and then more difficult tasks.

However, what she overlooked were unexpected situations that could arise, such as monster attacks.

Although the monsters attacking her could be defeated after being hit a few times with her skill, “Mutan,” Lily, who grew up without proper professional training in the rural village, had no knowledge of monsters.

So, having to evade the fierce monster she saw for the first time in her life, she had no choice but to flee.

After running full speed for about ten minutes, she reached not the entrance to the village, but the entrance to a cave nearby.

Seeing the sun setting in the distance, she realized that even if she were to leave for the village now, she wouldn’t make it before the entrance closed, so she resigned herself to staying overnight inside the cave.

As she slowly advanced into the cave, expecting another monster to appear, Lily was suddenly surprised to see a bright light flashing from inside the cave.

“Huh…! Is that a person? Is someone in there?”

The bright and vividly glowing interior of the cave was much brighter than the light emitted by fireflies in the grassy area near the neighborhood.

“Th…there…is someone…!!”

As a beginner, Lily didn’t yet have the knowledge to approach quietly.

– Thud

Then, there was a sound of something falling inside the cave.

“Th…there…! There’s something…!”

Lily, determining that something was deep inside the cave, crouched down against the cave wall, holding her breath.

Slowly making her way deeper into the cave, Lily soon saw a woman collapsed in the center of the deepest part of the cave.

“A…a person? She’s collapsed!”

“Excuse me! Are you okay?!”

Lily quickly ran to the woman and checked on her condition.

“There are hardly any signs of battle, why did she collapse? Magic exhaustion?”

Judging by her robe, the fallen woman seemed to be a sorceress.

Deciding that she had collapsed from exhaustion while practicing magic in the cave, Lily moved her and sat her against the cave wall.

She had pink hair that reached her shoulders and was wearing a high-quality robe suitable for nobles from some distant region. Her face looked small and cute, almost like her twin younger sister.

After a few minutes, the woman who had collapsed weakly groaned and opened her eyes.

“Ugh… Where am I…”

“Uh… Excuse me! Are you awake?!”

*Flash*

After successfully casting a teleportation spell, I looked around.

The scenery in front of me was just the interior of an ordinary cave. However, I knew exactly where this cave was located.

“I did well to set the coordinates for this cave just off the entrance of a village on the outskirts of the Raifen Kingdom. If someone suddenly appears in the open field, it wouldn’t be as suspicious.”

However, contrary to my expectations, someone was inside the cave.

“Th…there…is someone…!!”

To conceal my identity, I pretended to be collapsed with my eyes closed.

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

[Owned Skills]

Unique – Heart Demon Eye LvMAX: Can see the opponent’s status window. Additionally, can grasp the opponent’s thoughts and current state.

Unique – Deceiver LvMAX: Can modify one’s own status window. This skill cannot be dispelled by dispel magic.

Legendary – Sixth Sense LvMAX: The caster can sense the presence around them. Even with eyes closed, they can survey their surroundings.

Legendary – Feebleness LvMAX: The caster weakens the selected target’s abilities by 90%. (Duration: Until the caster cancels the skill casting)

*****

So, I first cast Feebleness on myself, then activated the Sixth Sense skill with my eyes closed and modified my status window with the Deceiver skill.

*****

Name: Anya

Race: Human

Age: 22

Health: 193847/193847

Strength: 382

Agility: 495

Defense: 253

Magic Power: 1094

*****

It’s too bothersome to adjust things in detail, so I just cast Feebleness once. It seems that Feebleness doesn’t apply to health.

Well, that’s good for me. There’s no chance of being hit from behind and dying.

Then, a young girl who was approaching me emitted an adventurer-like vibe.

Next, I activated Heart Demon Eye to examine the girl’s status window.

*****

Name: Lily

Race: Human

Age: 21

Health: 284/397

Strength: 32

Agility: 54

Defense: 25

Magic Power: 108

[Owned Skills]

Normal – Magic Bullet Lv3: Condenses magic power and shoots it. The higher the amount of magic power, the greater the attack power.

{Current Thoughts}

Huh…? A person! She’s collapsed! Is it magical power exhaustion…?

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Through the Sixth Sense skill, the appearance of this girl was very cute. It made me want to pinch her cheeks.

First, I continued to pretend to be unconscious. Then, I was waiting for the right moment to roughly get up, but Lily suddenly moved me toward the cave wall, allowing me to lean against it and seemed at a loss.

“This is a big problem. I just grabbed the cheapest-looking robe from my closet and now it looks like something worn by nobles in this remote place…”

I thought that once I started pretending, I had to keep going, so I roughly got up.

“Ugh… Where am I…”

“Um… Excuse me… Are you awake?!”

She’s really a kind-hearted friend.

I’m glad it’s Lily who came into this empty cave. I didn’t want to start slaughtering thieves from the beginning.

Wait… Thieves…? Noble in a remote area…? This is a great element to use as a lie!

The first cliché of a fantasy world, the noble’s carriage always gets robbed by thieves!

In this situation, I had no choice but to use teleportation!

Am I a genius…?

“Um… Why are we in this cave…”

“Hmm? Cave? Right. I used teleportation carelessly and ended up in a cave…”

“Wha?! Teleportation?! Using such high-level magic!”

Oh? Teleportation was an extremely high-level magic. Then let’s say I used some kind of scroll.

“Oh, I used a scroll for that. A teleportation scroll. I must have set the coordinates randomly and ended up here… I should have set it for home… Hehe…”

If I act a little absent-minded, she’ll buy it, right?

“A teleportation scroll… Isn’t that incredibly expensive…”

“Of course it’s expensive… But what’s more precious than my life? Wouldn’t you have done the same?”

“What kind of situation was it…?”

“Oh… Well… I was riding in a carriage and got attacked by thieves on the way… But I don’t know where they got it, they bound my escort knights’ feet with a binding scroll… So I just ran away for now… But I accidentally brought a scroll without setting the destination…”

“Ah…”

Lily listened to my false complaints with a very sympathetic expression.

“If I hadn’t stubbornly insisted on going out… I would have just stayed home quietly reading a book. Why… sniff!”

I pretended to cry while emitting a soulful aura.

Lily, perhaps feeling sorry for me, hugged me tightly.

-Hug-

“It’s okay. You’re living well right now. How about writing a letter to your family? Let them know you’re doing well.”

“Ah… th-that’s right…”

“Um… excuse me, but what’s your name?”

“Ah… my name is…”

Wait… does it need to include a surname? Especially since I’m a noble from the borderlands? I don’t know. I’ll just use the name from the comic.

“Annya… Annya Ford. And you?”

“Ah… I’m Lily… I’m a commoner, so I don’t have a surname…”

“Okay, Lily. How about we leave this cave for now?”

After clumsily explaining the situation, I tried to get up and move toward the village with Lily, but a problem arose.

“Um… wait a minute…!”

“Hmm? Why? Can’t we go to your village right now?”

“Ah… it’s almost night… even if we leave now, we won’t arrive in the village right away… and wouldn’t it be safer inside the cave at night than outside?”

Oh. This is a bit of a problem.

Spending the first night in this world with a cute girl in a cave…

I’m scared because I don’t know what might happen…