Chapter 3: 3

The Boy Named Marius

“So, where are you headed?”

Hearing the boy ask me about my intended destination, I answered, “where am I headed? I guess if I had to give you an answer, the Sanzu river?”

Since I didn’t actually know where I should go, I answered while tilting my head in puzzlement. Seeing this, the boy looked at me suspiciously.

“Oi, you don’t even have a destination in mind? Seriously, where did you come from?”

With a wry smile, I replied, “even if you ask me that, I don’t even know myself. Before I knew it I was here.” 

The boy still seemed slightly suspicious of me, but said “well for now if we stay here we will be swarmed by more slimes, so let’s move to the main road.” 

Saying that, he headed back into the thicket, with me following behind.

After advancing through the thicket for a few dozen meters, a path that was about five meters wide that had been completely flattened by many people walking upon it appeared. It seemed that this was the main road.

Realizing that I hadn’t noticed that there was a road so close to where I was, I became embarrassed about the fact that I had been walking on an animal trail.

Trying to distract myself from that realization, I said in a lively tone, “Hey, come to think of it, we never introduced ourselves to each other. I’m Itoi Mina.” It would be no good to keep calling him boy, and since we met here we might have some fate with each other. I should at least learn his name.

“Itoi1? Even your name is strange.”

“Ah, my given name is Mina.”

“Is that so. I’m Marius.”

“So you’re Marius. Are you a high schooler?”

“High schooler?”

“Uhh… your school?”

“I’m not an aristocrat. I’ve never been to school. I’m going for my adventurer registration now.”

“Adventurer?”

Confused by what the other was saying, we exchanged glances.

“Hey, isn’t there something wrong.”

“Yes, something is weird.”

We couldn’t understand what we were saying. 

Marius scratched his head in confusion, and then asked, “ah, starting from the top, do you even know where this is?”

“I don’t. Maybe this is the life after death, or it’s a dream from a near death experience.”

“What the heck. This is the kingdom called Liliekrone.”

“Where’s that? … Wait seriously, where?!”

Was there ever a place with that name? Completely unsure, I felt my head spinning.

“In the first place, this isn’t a dream. Here,” saying that, Marius pinched my face.

“Ouch!” Before I realized it, he had pinched me and retracted his hand, leaving my cheek stinging.

Like that, he proved to me that this wasn’t a dream.

“Since it hurts, this can’t be a dream, right?”

“I guess you’re right.” I responded. “Then what is this? I was at work just now, and then suddenly I was in a grass field instead of the shop.”

“I don’t know what happened or why, but I’ve heard cases of other people having similar experiences before.”

“Eh?”

“For some reason, some people seem to suddenly arrive in this world. It’s supposedly some sort of unknown magic.”

“Magic? There’s magic!?”

“Enchantment magic is normal. Well, people who can use magic are rare. There wasn’t anyone who could in my village, so I’ve never seen it before. If you meet someone like that, maybe you can ask them.”

“Is that so! Will there be people who can in the place we’re heading to?” We had been walking the whole time we were talking.

“I think so? It’s the largest city in this area, where the count governs the region. He should have some magic users under his employment. They probably aren’t easy to meet though.”

“They’re hard to meet, huh…”

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I had only just gotten the idea from our conversation, but it seemed regrettable.

“Are you also going to that city, Marius?”

“Ah yes, I said before that I was going to register as an adventurer.”

“What exactly is an adventurer?” 

Were they people who explored the frontier, I wondered.

“Adventurers are free-lancers. They primarily suppress magic beasts and gather rare herbs and minerals. Well, they can also be hired as a guard for important people. If you register at an adventurer guild, you can accept various requests.”

“Hmm~, even if you’re young, you’re quite impressive, huh.”

What was I doing when I was Marius’s age, I wonder. I think I might have worked a part-time job to buy clothes I wanted, but I didn’t have much in mind besides playing with my friends.

“Young? Aren’t you also around the same age as me?”

“Of course not! I’m 23 years old.”

“Huh!? I’m 16 years old though.”

“Eh, you’re that much younger?”

I thought he was a high-school senior, but he was even younger than that! The way he talked was quite mature, and he had western features. He was thin, but he was taller than me.

He’s still 16 though!

“It’s very admirable that you’re working at that age.”

“Is it? I think it’s normal. If you didn’t, how would you make a living? On the other hand, since you weren’t working at 16, that really does make you a noblewoman, right?”

“No no, not at all. It’s quite normal!”

“Speaking of which, you said that you were working at a shop right? What kind of work was it?”

“I was a salesperson for clothes. I was about to become an assistant designer, but…”

“So you’re a seamstress! I was wondering why your clothes were so nice.”

“… You called it weird not too long ago.”

Marius apologetically shrugged his shoulders. “Sorry. I don’t know much in the way of clothes. I don’t have the money to buy clothes I like anyway.” 

That seemed true enough. You couldn’t exactly praise his outfit. His shirt was made of rough unbleached cloth that had been worn down by constant use. It was styled like a Henley, with a notch in the center of the collar. Instead of a button, the collar was held together with a leather strap, but it was so worn on one side that it was torn.

He was wearing dark brown pants. These were also quite worn down, with a number of tears around the knees. They were a bit short too.

His shoes were leather boots. They went a bit higher than his ankles. It seemed like they were made from rough leather, and maybe it was because they didn’t fit perfectly, but there was a cord binding them together at the top.

The bag on his back could be called a bonsac. It was a sack that was closed by a cord at the top.

His face was relatively well arranged, and his style wasn’t bad, but because of the clothes he was wearing he seemed rather unfashionable.

If he was wearing nice clothes instead…

That’s it!

“As thanks for saving me, I’ll make some clothes for you!”

“Eh, really? Is that okay!?”

Hearing my suggestion of making clothes for him, Marius widened his eyes in surprise.

“We’ll have to figure something out for the material costs, but you’ll need some proper clothes if you’re going to be an adventurer right?”

“This is the first time someone would make clothes for me! It feels like a bit too much as thanks for just defeating some slimes. I’ll cover the material costs, so can I count on you?”

“Yeah, that sounds good.”

“Seriously, that’s great!”

I didn’t expect him to be this happy at my proposal. It was a little surprising.

At the time, I had no idea that this simple proposal would determine the path I would take in this world.

Notes

Mina introduced herself in the normal Japanese way, with her last name first, causing Marius to be confused about what her name was.
As an aside, in Japanese instead of using a second person pronoun, they usually refer to each other using their names (or some other noun like sensei or otou-san). Later, Marius calls her Mina instead of saying you (and vice-versa.) I cut down on this since it’s not as natural in English.

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