Chapter 4 - Why Was I Given an Impossible Mission?

"Ritsu."

"Ritsu."

I felt someone tugging against my shirt. Slowly I opened my eyes, adjusting to the bright light. My body was still pretty sore when I tried to move around but it was significantly better than before.

"Huh?" I said with a yawn.

"How long are you going to keep sleeping for?"

Oh.

"I'll get up now."

Celestia was sitting on a stump from one of the trees beside me.

"It's getting pretty late, do you have somewhere to stay?" The girl asked me.

"Not really, I guess."

"Then you should stay with us. I'm sure my father will thank you."

I thought about this offer. Although my body had recovered significantly after sleeping, I was still somewhat sore and still didn't have any strength in my right hand.

I probably should walk her home, as well.

"Ok, I'll come with you."

The two of us stood up and started making our way through the forest again.

"Do you know which way we're going?"

"Of course I do! I come through this forest almost every day."

"I see."

"Here, follow me, there's a path here."

We walked through some dense bushes before making our way to a little path. It wasn't really a path, more like a clearing in the grass and vegetation made by the excessive walking. The path trailed in a pretty straight line.

We slowly made our way down the path. I was constantly swatting insects out of my face but for some reason, no insects seemed to go near Celestia.

"Hey, why are the insects afraid of you?" I queried.

She pulled something out of her pocket.

"One of my father's friends gave me this artifact, it's supposed to keep bugs away."

She showed me a little blue gemstone that was shaped like a beetle.

Interesting, there is still a lot I need to learn about this new world.

"Can I try it?"

"Sure."

She passed me the artifact.

All of a sudden bugs began flying towards her.

I waved the artifact around a little, then I tried putting it in my pocket. For some reason, even though I was holding the artifact, bugs still weren't repelled by me.

"Am I using it correctly?"

"Yeah, I'm not sure why it's not working though."

"It's okay."

I handed it back to her.

We furthered our way down the path. As I looked back I could hardly see where we had begun walking. For some reason, my body felt tense, like someone was watching us.

"Celestia, are there monsters in this world?"

"Yeah, there's actually a big spider monster in this forest."

What.

I guess she didn't have to worry about it because of her artifact.

"Does the artifact stop the monster as well?"

"I think it does, whenever other people come here, they are almost always attacked by it, but I've never been attacked by it."

"Makes sense, why does the spider attack humans?"

"I think it just wants to eat us."

This was not a very reassuring thing to hear, whilst in the middle of the forest.

Suddenly, I heard some rustling in the trees.

Oh no.

With the sword still in my left hand, I braced myself. This wasn't going to end well if I had to fight again. Two uses of the technique were enough to completely mess up my right arm.

A huge spider reared its disgusting head from between the trees. It was about the size of a car, each eye on its head was about the size of my fist. It was unexpectedly furry, with thick black hair all over its body.

What a predictable development.

It seemed somewhat cautious around us, probably due to Celestia's artifact.

It better not decide that eating me is worth coming close to the artifact.

As I prepared to strike it down, a figure swiftly dashed past.

The spider's neck was cleanly cut. For a few seconds, it looked like nothing happened, before its head just slid off of its body. I little puddle of blue liquid welled up at the wound and splattered on the ground.

What in the world...

Someone began walking towards us.

"Hey, what are you guys doing here?" He asked us. I could see a little of the blue liquid on his fingers.

The two of us were shocked.

"Oh right, I haven't introduced myself. I'm Reid Lichter-Seibert, Knight of the Sword."

Celestia seemed to be especially shocked by what he said.

"K-knight...?"

Was there something special about being a knight?

She seemed to be cowering back with her head down after Reid stated his title.

Maybe soldiers here get a lot of respect... although this person did seem quite strong.

Celestia looked over at me awkwardly.

"Is there something special with being a knight?" I asked her.

"The Knights are the strongest fighters in the entire world, there are only like three of them."

Oh, I see now.

I guess the title of 'Knight' was something quite significant.

Reid walked closer to us. He was wearing a long white coat with two swords. I could see a small glimpse of the blades, one was black and one was white hanging from each side of his hip. They were mostly covered by a brown leather sheath. His hair was a bright shade of red, which reached just over his ears. His posture was imposing, full of confidence.

He didn't even draw his swords to kill the spider monster.

"What are your names?" he spoke with a kind tone.

"I'm Celestia Regas, nice to meet you." She bowed her head with her arm on her chest.

"Nice to meet you too." He replied.

He then looked over at me.

"I'm Ritsu."

"Nice to me you, Rit...su"

He stuttered and suddenly looked surprised for a second for some reason. He returned to his normal demeanour after a brief moment.

"Uh, nice to meet you too?" I replied.

"Anyways what are you guys doing here?"

"We were just going back to Charnin, where I live," Celestia answered.

Reid nodded his head.

"So what were you doing here?" Celestia asked.

"I was sent by the empire because they wanted me to kill the spider, apparently several warriors sent got killed so they thought it was really strong." He pulled out a little sheet of paper from his pocket, "I might roam around a bit more to see if there was something else that was killing the warriors. It was nice to meet you guys!"

He went off on his way.

We had made it to the end of the path in the forest. We managed to get to a dirt road and followed it to the city.

The city had quite an old feel to it. It was like a medieval village, however, it was still rather heavily populated with lots of shops and social activity. On our way, Celestia went over to a meat stall.

"Hey, Celestia!"

It was an old man. He had a pretty large build, with a thick beard and rough skin. His voice was deep and croaky but somewhat soothing to listen to.

"Your father was looking for you all day, where were you?"

"I just went to play in the forest."

"You know you shouldn't go there by yourself."

"Ehe."

He took two meat skewers off the grill behind his stall.

"Here take two, one for your friend over there."

"Thank you!"

She walked back over to me and passed me a skewer.

It was still steaming, coming just off the grill. The blocks of meat were a deep reddish-brown colour, they look quite tender and appetising. This was the first time I was going to eat something since coming to this world.

I bit off one of the blocks of meat from the skewer, the rich favour burst into my mouth, it was really tasty, different to the processed food with heaps of seasoning and additives back in my old world.

Before long we both finished the skewers we were given.

"My house is just over this way."

We walked a bit further, past the main village centre. The path extended off a little bit, it was pretty empty for a little while.

"That's my house."

Celestia pointed at a very large mansion just off the village centre. The mansion was a creamy shade of brown with a blue roof. There was a circle of cleanly groomed bushes with a little fountain in the middle. There was also someone who looked like a guard standing at the entrance

Amazing, it seems they're quite rich.

She walked up to the metal gate at the front of their spacious courtyard.

"I'm back!"

As the guard noticed her, they went inside to inform her father of the news.

His father rushed out the front door of the mansion.

He must've been worried.

"Celestia! Where were you?"

He ran up and opened the gate of his mansion.

"There was this man who was chasing me through the woods and he saved me." She said, pointing at me.

Her father suddenly turned and faced me.

"Thank you so much! What do you want, you can have anything you want!"

"Um, I guess some money and maybe a weapon or armour or something like that..."

His face stiffened as if he was surprised by my response.

Maybe I shouldn't have asked for so much...

"Come in, come in!" He offered.