((Damn, that's the guy who saw me naked. How am I to look him in the eye? And what if he has a wife and she gets jealous? What am I supposed to do???))
Gertrude is able to see the conflict in Cecilia's face, so she smiles warmly and tries to calm her.
"Don't worry, dear. I can see you're embarrassed, but there's nothing to be ashamed of. Mutt is not a bad person, nor someone who would take advantage of you just because you were there."
Her words were able to get through to Cecilia, but she wasn't yet fully convinced.
"I would say that on the contrary, he is sometimes too righteous. I assure you that he didn't even pay attention to that detail. And he has already forgotten it."
Cecilia finally nodded, swayed by the woman's gentle words. When in doubt, it's always good to defer to your elders. That was a motto that Cecilia carried close to her heart.
Soon, Mutt came back from the kitchen, properly cleaned.
"So, I'm pleased to make your acquaintance. I am Mutt, the hunter of this village."
"The pleasure is mine. I am Cecilia."
"Uncle Mutt is really awesome. He always hunts delicious animals for us."
Marya butted into the conversation, prompting a gentle pat on her head from Cecilia. It made her even happier than before.
Cecilia saw no hint of embarrassment or guilt in Mutt's gaze. And even less any sign of deception. Cecilia could now understand Gertrude's words. This is a simple man who could be said to be too righteous for his own good.
Cecilia had a passive technique that allowed her to sense any ill intentions directed towards her. It didn't work in players, of course, but it used to work in NPCs. There was a skill check, but, at Cecilia's level, it was improbable that a random village hunter would beat her.
If the techniques still worked like in the game, that is.
Mutt took the remaining seat, at Gertrude's side, looking happy.
"When I found you in the middle of the forest yesterday. At first I thought you were a faerie. To my surprise, when I got closer, it was a woman. I'm really relieved to see you well and unharmed. Do you know what happened for you to be there?"
Cecilia shook his head, then answered calmly.
"No, I have no memories about how I could have ended up in that place."
Cecilia looked at Gertrude, who nodded knowingly. The exchange of glances by the two women was enough to convey what they wanted. Cecilia could relax, because Gertrude wouldn't spill the secret about her being from the Age of Players.
"Mutt, on another note. How is your wife?"
"Oh? Margarete is well, thank you. The baby is due to come any day. That's the reason she's been cooped inside the house all the time."
"My, my! Shouldn't we send for the doctor, then?"
Gertrude was really talented at steering the conversation, but what really caught Cecilia's attention was the meaning behind these words.
((Send for a doctor? Because a baby is coming? Wait, the woman is… PREGNANT? Like, has an actual baby inside her belly???))
The reason for her to be so shocked about it was that in the game, although NPCs, and even players, could have 'children,' they never got actually pregnant. The child would just spawn in the world, as would any other entity. There were no literal birth mechanics.
"My cousin Brett already went to Trollhodd to call for him. He shall be coming back the day after tomorrow."
"Let's pray that the birth only comes after that day, then."
"Will it be a boy or a girl, Uncle Mutt???"
Marya chirped with her usual joy, loving to be able to be in the adult conversation.
"There's no way to know before they are born, Marya. But, boy or girl, be sure to treat them well, okay?"
"Of course, Uncle Mutt. I will dote on them and be the coolest auntie ever!!! Ohhh, Griselda's belly must be enormous. I wonder how the baby will come out from it."
((Huh? The child already knows the basics of birth?))
"Do you want to watch the birth, Marya? I can send to call for you, if the doctor allows."
"Of course!!! Yaaaaaay!"
Cecilia looked baffled at Gertrude, who was watching the banter while nodding with a beatific smile on her face.
"That will be good training for you."
((Huh? Training?))
Cecilia was a bit baffled by what had just transpired, but Gertrude again switched the gears of the conversation to another matter.
"Cecilia here will stay the week with us, but she needs some sort of job. Do you have something that she can do?"
"Hm, a job… Do you have any profession, lady?"
Cecilia's profession in the game was 'priestess,' but that didn't mean that she was an actually functional member of a priesthood.
She and her friends had created a deity who was officially added to the lore of the game by the devs. But it wasn't something she dared to say out loud.
Because said deity was a goddess of death, of course. Their guild was called Dead Nerds Society, after all. A bunch of edgy teenagers with a penchant for the Gothic side of the spectrum, all of whom had disabilities and lived in hospitals.
The severe disability was the hard requirement to be in the guild. They had to justify their name, after all. It was a safe space where they could find other people who shared the condition of only being alive through the help of machines.
But she couldn't just say that she was a priestess of Ephemerys. She had no way of knowing if the goddess is still known and what their perceptions about it are.
Ephemerys faith used to be big in Drakestadt, because of the guild's influence, but that was five centuries ago.
But she was also an adventurer, which was less of a profession and more of something all players were because of how the system of the game worked. Registering in the adventurer's guild was one of the first quests of the game, an unskippable one.
But she remembered there being adventurer NPCs as well. So that could be a possibility…
"I am an adventurer…"
"Ohhhhhh!"
"So cool!!!"
Mutt sounded impressed, and Marya was under the impression that anything that Cecilia could say or do would ever be cool. In the meanwhile, Gertrude just kept smiling. She probably had already figured that out.
"Then you could help me with hunting! If you are an adventurer, then you would probably make my life a lot easier. And that would make the lives of everyone here better. After all, the only meat we consume is from hunting."
"Huh? You don't have livestock?"
"Livewhat, now?"
"Huh?"
((What, even the concept of livestock doesn't exist in this world? Well, now that I think about it, only players were able to tame animals in the game.
No, but NPCs could tend to tamed animals, and the offspring of tamed animals would be tamed from birth.))
Mutt was confused by Cecilia's word, not to mention Marya. Gladly, she had Gertrude.
"I know what Cecilia is talking about. You mean tamed animals, right? Now, we don't have them. We live too close to the forest. Any cattle would be easily swept up by the monsters there.
I have one chicken in the inn's backyard, which is the source of our eggs. And that's the only tamed animal in this village."
"I see…"
((That was unexpected. NPCs really have it hard without players around.))
"Oh, that reminds me. There have been a lot of monster attacks lately, and that has affected hunting. Just today I had to fight two goblins to get the hares. So I hope that you're strong enough to deal with that as well."
((Now we're talking. Hunting and monster cleaning. That's exciting.))
"No problem. I can do it."