I've always wondered to myself what it meant to be truly dead anyway. Is it when your name is forgotten? When there's no longer any stories or memories left of you. Or is it when your body grows cold.
If it means having no past, present or future then does that mean I'm dead. Quite frankly it doesn't make sense if I'm currently feeling the hot sun beaming on me right now. I feel pretty alive so who's to know.
And to make things worse.
I'm currently being bothered by some random girl who stumbled upon me the exact moment I was given my evaluation. She took immediate interest like a scalper waiting for the next pokemon card drop.
With the revelation that I can use Chordatta and Magecraft, I've basically been the talk of all adventurers. People tracked me down from the corners of the capital and possibly the borders of the country within just a day's time.
I had luckily been able to secure a place to sleep the same day because of my adventure registry but in similar fashion everyone found out where I was staying.
This was exactly the opposite of what I had envisioned for myself.
It was a bit more concise and played out really smoothly: I'd be slowly guided and educated on how to use my abilities from the guild or someone humble and seasoned. And I'd eventually venture out on my own to become a top-notch adventurer. That, or I'd just leave now and learn in the wilderness.
Neither happened; out of everyone who came to me, one was more persistent than the others.
But the most persistent was Claris. Whenever I went, I saw her; each time I turned around, she was right next to me. She was terrible in every possible way.
Even now.
"You thinking about my offer yet? I'm capable of partially, maybe financially, supporting you and your endeavors, Sumire! So come on... join the party, and we'll get you set up with the best teacher they have to offer here in the entire Astaren Province!"
"Ehhh noo, I shouldn't. Actually, no, I genuinely don't want to." I said pretty confidently. She basically hurried me out and made sure I avoided the initial adventurers who wanted to recruit me. But it made me think: if I had just walked around and kinda saw what my options were, then I'd be able to know, but that's kinda messed up on my part. Maybe.
But honestly, I just didn't wanna join.
"Sheesh.. But like—" muttered to myself.
I couldn't do anything against her; I literally had no real way to evade someone who knew their way around town, compared to me, who was still exploring and trying to find a suitable place to stay other than guild lodging.
But even then, nothing is going to be easy so long as Claris is around
"Hey, turn around real quick, Sumire-Chan!" Claris said happily. She had an innocent voice, so I turned around anyway and saw nothing. Of course, I should've at least tried to ask what I was supposed to be seeing, but it didn't really matter. The moment I turned around, frame one, all I could see were two things. Then darkness.
The entire street was staring at me and Claris in shock and surprise, while some of the children had their eyes covered by their parents. And Claris, she was holding the sheathe of her sword and swung it towards my face. After that, I blacked out.
Now, whatever she did to my body while I was blacked out is beyond me.
It was just that, whenever I woke up, I wasn't tied up or blindfolded, but in a large green field with 5 others, one being Claris.
In the distance, I could see the capital. However, it was just a large plain. With little to nothing in it other than some trees every so often.
"Since you didn't willingly join the party, I'm simply just going to give you a free trial so you can get the experience firsthand. Then I'll leave it to you on whether you want to join, and don't think I won't pull this again, as I'm rather confident you don't know your way around town or how to get back." Claimed by Claris rather confidently.
That bitch, using my own lack of direction against me. I'm gonna get her back for this later. I don't know how just yet.. But it will happen. I got up slowly and looked around before openly questioning this strange intervention I've been forced into without my consent.
"Fine fine.. who are those people anyway, actually that's a dumb question. I'm guessing they're your party members. Tweedledee and Tweedledum, along with the Three Musketeers. You're a part of the musketeers, Claris. I'm guessing Tweedledee and dumb joined later." I was referring to a tall blonde and a short, mage-girl-looking person.
One of them would've immediately spoken up; it was the strong, tall brunette dude with a large sword.
"We don't need to take this from her. I don't care if she has all the talent in the world; I still won't allow myself to take it from someone like h—.." He got cut off by some short girl who was also a bit upset at the comment but restrained herself for whatever reason.
"Titus.. She can use Magecraft and Chordatta; there has never been such a thing. I'm surprised the Hansmen haven't scouted her out yet, and we can only imagine what'll happen when other countries and great powers learn she's capable of these things. Not only would Mage's country be trying, but the Hattern Bayard would eventually open their gates specifically for her." This came the small mage I mentioned earlier, upon looking closer I saw she was wearing a generic mages outfit, however, the frilly outfit and corset she was wearing merely highlighted her tiny and cute appearance.
"So wait, even the bayards would try to take her..? I guess she is a big deal." The brunette shut up after the short mage's explanation. I guess I can't address them as a blonde, but Titus now.
Above all else, I kind of remained silent since I didn't really know what I was doing here or if I should've tried to escape, but when it came back to me, I had no way to really escape or get back to where I was, so I just decided to speak up.
"Well, since I'm here.. does anyone actually have the ability to teach me Chordatta or Magecraft at least..? and can someone explain to me who the Bayards are?" I wanted to get straight to the point, since if I tried to work around the issue, I'd simply waste time and energy.
But strangely enough, they all looked at me with surprised expressions as Claris spoke up this time.
"So... wait. How do you not know who the Bayards are?" exclaimed slowly by Claris as she genuinely seemed baffled by my statement.
"I came from a small mountain village far east, we're pretty secluded you see..— It took all of the village's savings to get two of my other friends in Astaren and me, but we got split up in a monster attack, so I'm kind of just on a small search to fi—." She kinda cut me off right there but I wonder if they saw through my fabricated story which I took from an anime I watched a little while back.
"Oh...— I guess I understand," uttered Claris as she was still just a bit confused but tried to shake that off.
It was only then that I noticed a female wearing what seemed to be an actual conductor outfit, but it seemed to have been tailored rather nicely, as her cleavage was in full view for me. At this point I started to zone out from the conversation at hand. But she had the two tails on the back of her tuxedo, while for her waist she had a skirt and lacy stockings with over-the-knee black boots straight from a Power Rangers outfit. She had medium-length hair that came down to her shoulders and was also sporting light green hair strangely giving diversity to the crew, but on top of all that she had really nice makeup on the closer look I got of her.
"I'm Arisa, a certified B-rank, nearly A-rank conductor. I can teach you everything I know about Chordatta Miss Sumire." She had said this with a calming and soothing voice, a nice and light air enveloped her, from my guess she was someone who surely seemed to be a great teacher overall. But the whole situation felt a bit off as a strange figure started walking toward us from a distance.