CH 7

Lakeside town

“Izumikirigo Navel…”

“It’s a name I don’t recognise.”

I heard that all players who log in for the first time, will be transferred to “Windham, the City of Beginnings”.

“Besides, there doesn’t seem to be any players.”

“Even though the starting point right after the beginning of the service, should be crowded with players, who just joined, but there aren’t any.”

“… I wonder if my starting point was shifted, due to some kind of bug.”

If that’s the case, then I can agree that the monster I encountered for the first time, was an opponent that would normally be way out of my reach.

As I was walking, while thinking about such things, I looked up and I noticed a lot of were gazes focused on me.

“Somehow, I’m getting a lot of attention…”

“Ah, a cute little girl, they haven’t seen around here has arrived, so it’s obvious you’d get a lot of attention.”

“Am I cute?”

Crim, who had yet to see her current face, tilted her head.

“… I have a son at home, so is it okay if I take this young lady there with me?”

Seeing him mumbling something, Crim tilted her head again.

“Come to think of it, how should I introduce you to Miss?”

“Ah…”

Come to think of it, we have yet to introduce ourselves to each other. It completely slipped my mind.

“Sorry, if we’re going to introduce ourselves, I should go first. My name is Ludger. I run a small pharmacy in this town.”

“Yes, I am… um, my name is Crim.” (Bersleid: Guess the difference is the same as in the manga… Yup, just looked it up, the ‘I’ used at first is for ‘ore’ (as in the male version of I), while the my used later is ‘watashi’ (used in the female version), that is the meaning behind …)

Once again, Kurenai, alias Crim, used her character name to introduce herself.

“Miss Crim, nice to meet you again.”

I followed him as he led me in a good mood.

Soon we arrived at a two-story house, that looked like a store. It seems to have been expanded from a single floor house. As he explained it in advance, there was also a storeroom-like detachment behind it.

“Hey George, I’m home now.”

“Dad!?”

“Bang”, the front door opened and a small figure jumped out from the house.

“You were supposed to come home in the morning! 　Mother and Juna were worried about you! Why didn’t come earlier…”

The boy called George raises his voice at Ludger, but he soon finds Crim next to him and quickly quiets down.

“Who is this woman?”

He was sizing up Crim, with a suspicious look in his eyes. Seeing that, Crim, who became the target of his gaze, blinked her eyes wondering what his deal was.

“Ah, I was attacked by a monster in the forest. She saved me at that time.”

“Hmm… Heh, there’s no way such thin woman would be able to save you.”

“What kind of attitude do you have towards our guest? Introduce yourself first.”

Saying that, Ludger took the stairs and disappeared into the barn on the right side of the house.

Leaving me behind with the boy.

Crim involuntarily bowed to the boy who she was half a head shorter than her. (Bersleid: Or maybe he is the one who is half a head shorter, couldn’t figure out this one.)

However, the boy continued to stare at Crim, inspecting her, and then he thrust his finger in front of him.

“I don’t believe someone like you defeated a monster!”

“Ah, haha…”

She hesitates to be rude to children, so for the time being she smiles wryly and suppresses her urge with a laugh.

George’s face turned red and started trembling.

I wonder if I made him angry. (Bersleid: I really hate this trope, it is annoying.)

Crim tilted her head, wondering what was wrong. (Bersleid: Aaaand it still continues.)

For some reason, when the young George in front of him turned bright red, Ludger, who just came back from the second floor, gave an astonished expression. (Bersleid: This is three sentences longer than it’s supposed to be.)

“Ah… If you don’t mind, why don’t you be a little friendlier?”

“You’re noisy, dad!!”

After being yelled back at, Ludger shrugged his shoulders and opened his mouth while pointing at the room he just came out of.

“Oh, that girl, she doesn’t have a place to sleep, so she’s going to stay in the empty room in our house for a while. Get along.”

“… Huh!?”

“Look, while I’m cleaning up, you can show the young lady around town.”

Ludger sighed and sent George away with those words.

For a while, George kept trembling, but…

“Hmph, if you want to look around town, you should just follow me!” (Bersleid: Don’t know how to bring the ‘trying to be high and mighty’ out properly, so just imagine it.)

George said angrily and proceeded to walk away.

“I’m not doing this for you, I’m doing this because my father said so!!” (Bersleid: Here you go.)

Around the gate, he turned around and told that to Crim, and continued to walk.

Seeing that, Crim wanted to ask Ludger for help, but…

“Oh, the kid is trying to look like a man in front of you” (Bersleid: “Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo”, Google broke a bit here, and I died a bit inside because of the other translation, so I remade it.)

“What do you mean?”

“… On the other hand, this young lady isn’t enticed, even a little bit. Look, it will take a while to prepare the room, so please go.”

“Oh, okay!”

Crim hurriedly chased after George. (Bersleid: For some reason, this writer uses a lot of metaphors, and likes to things, so I’m just deleting them, since they have nothing to add to the story anyways.)

“This here is the general store. If you want anything other than medicine, you should give it a visit.”

“This is the weapon shop. The owner of this place is an old man, I’ve only come here to sharpen a kitchen knife.”

“This is the church. If you need treatment… where did you go?”

Continuing our journey, contrary to my first impression of him, George is a very serious person.

Thanks to that, although there were some troubles, we were able to finish visiting the town’s main facilities, and I was able to grasp the general topography of the town.

“Well, that’s that done.”

“Yeah, thank you George.  Thanks to your guidance now I know the rough layout of the town. Was I disturbing you?”

In the real world, Crim’s words and deeds were for dealing with someone younger than herself.

However, she became softer and mor polite by a bit. She was unaware of it herself, though her body, it still looked like a normal girl.

“I… it’s fine, not really.”

I’m worried about George’s blushing and refusal to look at me, but Crim pats her chest thinking, that at least it doesn’t seem like he dislikes her.

“I know you’re not a bad person, so I’m sorry for being mean to you earlier.”

“Haha, don’t worry about it, it’s fine.”

“Okay”, he responds to smile while looking away.

Crim felt a bit warm inside by the thought that he was a good and honest boy at heart.

“But well, it was funny how you ran away from the church.”

“Oh, that is…”

Crim’s face turned blue as she forced laugh.

Yes, it’s bad.

The moment she carelessly stepped into the church, a terrible numbness ran through her body, and his HP began to decrease at a tremendous rate.

I thought I was going to die.

Or rather, if I stayed for one more second, I would have died from a combo of paralysis and slip damage.

The church is dangerous.

That’s right, it hit me where it hurt.

“But… this town is peaceful, isn’t it?”

Crim murmured, as he walked slowly around the lake.

“Even if you look around, you can’t find any traces of war.”

It was still early in the afternoon, and the calm surroundings were filled with the chirping of birds.

“Well, this place is too rural, so it seems that this area didn’t become a battlefield.”

A difficult-to-enter terrain surrounded by high mountains. It would be a suicide to enter.

The only flat area is on the north side, but there is the dangerous “Black Forest” with lots of monsters.

A location that is difficult to attack and does not offer much in return even if it were to be occupied. Certainly, there is no need to go out of your way to advance here.

–But isn’t it ideal for a guy like me who doesn’t want to expand his territory too much, but wants his own area?

That’s right, Crim was thinking, that this place might be good for the area for the wars that would start in the future.

“By the way, George, what are those ruins?”

Saying that, Crim pointed at a dilapidated, ruined log house standing on a hill overlooking the lake.

Overgrown with grass, but if you take care of it properly, you could turn it into a splendid kitchen garden.

“Oh, it seems that some rich man had it built to escape the war.”

“However?”

“He was killed by bandits on the way here, and the rest of it was left unfinished.

“Yeah… I wonder if I can live here if I build it properly.”

From what I’ve seen, it looks like it’s spacious enough, and the view of the lake is superb, and the atmosphere isn’t bad. It looks like it would be a good place to hang out when creating a guild.

“You’re a strange one. There’s nothing around here.”

“Ahaha, that’s not true, I think this place is really good, don’t you think?”

Crim replied to George’s self-deprecating criticism.

“Well, it’s selfish for you to think so.”

George quickly snapped his mouth shut. Contrary to what he said, to Crim, it seemed like he was happy, that he was for his hometown to be praised.

“So, Crim-neechan. Is there anything else you’re curious about?”

“That’s right… Um, could you tell me Abou the castle on that island in the middle of the lake?”

“Ah, that castle?”

In the centre of the lake, where an old-fashioned castle stands, can be faintly seen from here.

I’ve been wondering about it ever since I came to this town.

“That’s… my father said that the first emperor lived there. I don’t know if it’s true.” (Bersleid: Foreshadowing?)

“Hmm…”

“That’s… I’d definitely like to explore it someday.”

At this time, Crim only had some vague thoughts.

(Bersleid: This one was difficult, if the next ones are like this, my translating and editing speed will drop greatly. Though, this one had some content in it, but it was mostly empty talk, wasn’t worth the time spent on it. Hopefully the next chapter steps up the game.)