"What is wrong with you, you are acting like a child," Groaned Misen in exasperation, as I began restlessly pacing around the top of the carriage, the north gates of the Rustlands were just a few hundred meters away now.
"Screw you, you're not ruining this for me, it's literally been over a month and a half since we left...could you drive faster, we're almost there!"
It was somewhere in middle of August now, this mission had begun way back in the end of June, and I was more than a little eager to get back home.
"I have no reason to listen to you. Just go on foot, you could probably outrun a carriage without a problem," He shrugged irritably.
...he had a point there.
"Cool, I'm going on ahead! You take care of all the reporting and whatever, I'm going home!"
"Huh? Wait, no, I wasn't being ser-!"
"See ya, suckaaaa!"
I sprang off the carriage and shot forward using Lightning Boost and Karma, reaching the gate in less than a minute. I halted and transferred the Karma back into the orb, as the guards pointed their spears at me in alarm. Their expressions eased as they saw my face and I showed them my Identification Card and Student Adventurer Card.
They opened the gates to let me in, and I eagerly rushed in, racing along the rooftops and swiftly making my way to my place. I reached the building, entered, made my way up to my room, unlocked the door and opened it, before walking in and looking around.
A wave of relief washed over me as I took in the familiar sight of my room. It was empty right now, I had asked Persia to look after Persia: The Sequel-...uh, I mean, Pero. I closed the door and flopped down onto my bed with a sigh, taking out the Call Spell Scroll I'd taken with me. I ran my Mana through it and waited, getting more nervous and restless with every passing second.
"H-hello?"
My heart skipped a beat as the scroll vibrated slightly, and a voice came out of it.
"Hey...I-," I began nervously, when the link suddenly got cut.
Huh? What just happened? Am I out of range? No, it wouldn't have connected in the first place if that was the case. Let's try again...
I sat up on the bed and ran my Mana through the scroll again, but...nothing happened. Damn it, what do I-!?...I was interrupted as the door to my room suddenly swung open, and before I could see who it was, I found myself being tackled onto onto the bed, a weight on top of me, tightly wrapping around me.
A familiar scent flooded my nostrils, and I returned the embrace tightly.
"Hey...I missed you so much," I whispered softly, stroking her hair.
"I missed you too, Kuro," She replied gently, nuzzling my neck while hugging me tighter.
"That tickles, Persia!...keep doing it," I grinned, kissing her forehead and grabbing her tail softly.
"You don't have to tell me twice...mind if I stay like this for...a few hours?"
"I was about to suggest the same thing, but..."
"But...?"
"Maybe we should close the door first...it'd be awkward if someone walked past it right now," I replied sheepishly, nodding at the open door.
She hadn't closed it when she burst in here, and there was something unsettling about an open door to me, a closed door was just so much more comfortable and relaxing.
"...now that you pointed it out, it's definitely gonna bother me if the door remains open. But I don't wanna get up either...oh, maybe I could...," She suddenly seemed to get an idea, before turning her head and pointing her hand at the halfway-open door.
Wait, is she trying to...
"Uh, maybe that's not such a good-," I began, before being interrupted as the door slammed shut so hard that the sound echoed throughout the building, "...idea."
"Ow...," She groaned slightly, her cat ears twitching irritably after the loud slam.
The door and doorframe had several cracks, with a few minor cracks on the wall too. She had tried closing the door with a blast of Propulsion...which turned out be overkill.
"Well, that was...loud. Your ears okay, Cat Girl?" I asked with a slight smile, petting her ears as she looked up at me with an embarrassed expression.
"Sorry...I almost just broke your door as soon as you got back."
"Don't care. Do you really think I'd get mad at you after not seeing you for like a month and a half? Stupid Kitty Cat," I remarked, flicking her nose with a smile.
"...this feels weird for me to say, but you probably shouldn't spoil me so much."
"...but I want to."
She blushed and buried her face in my chest, wrapping her arms around my neck slowly. After a few seconds, she peeked up at me, her face still red. I gulped as my heart began pounding the moment our gazes met, feeling my face getting warmer and my heart rate spiking.
She closed her eyes and tilted her head up, slightly parting her lips as her embrace slowly tightened around me.
I tilted my head down and closed the gap between us, our lips meeting...before I teasingly pulled away, smirking at her as she pouted at me with a glare.
"Hey, you're being really mean right now," She huffed.
"Hehe, am I?" I inquired innocently, before letting out an apologetic chuckle as she glared at me and pulled my cheeks.
"Stop being annoying and just kiss me, you jerk," She sighed, grabbing my face so that I couldn't move.
"Well, since you're asking nicely...," I whispered in reply, as she pressed her lips onto mine.
I kissed her back, caressing her lips with mine while squeezing her hips, as her hands ran across my chest. With each passing second, it got more heated and passionate, our lips making out with each other fiercely while we couldn't get our hands off each other, until we eventually had to break apart in order to breathe.
"I...missed...this," She said with a lick of a her lips, as she caught her breath.
"Definitely...," I agreed with a content sigh.
She rolled off of me to my right and snuggled against my right side, I wrapped my arm around her as she rested her head on my shoulder.
"So, hey...tell me about how your mission went, I couldn't help getting really worried and paranoid at times, I'm so glad that you're back safe. Did it go smoothly?"
Hm, how to answer that...
"It's kinda hard to say...I suppose it did go smoothly, but then again, not at all...it'll be easier if I explain everything," I replied, before telling her about everything that had happened over the past month and a half or so.
I started with the initial trek through the snowy area, which was probably the most uneventful and downright peaceful part of the journey. Then I got to the part where we reached Silvland, and Selesa joined our group. I found myself getting pretty annoyed while recalling the week or so we spend making our way through the grassland area to The Empire.
"Wow, you really don't like her, do you?" Giggled Persia, as I got to the part where she used my Confusion needle to feel up her brother, "Despite having the whole past memories thing in common."
"She's annoying as hell, that's for sure...I guess I don't hate her in a 'I wish you were dead' kinda way, more like in a 'would you please just fucking shut up' kinda way. And just because I have that in common with someone doesn't mean I'd automatically get along with them, you know."
I then got to the infiltration part of it. There was a lot to unpack here. I started with how things were while I'd been working in the labs, as well as the people I encountered there. Starting with Dista...
"Huh, the bitch who tortured you is still alive!?...actually, that kinda works out...I wanna kill her myself," Declared Persia with a look of righteous determination.
"Aw, you're so cute when you're protective," I grinned, ruffling her hair as she bashfully glared at me.
I then moved on to the other familiar face I'd encountered, and later gotten to kill...
"So that's where Lehosa disappeared to...you're lucky, who knows how many people would have liked to kill that guy, me included," She remarked with a laugh.
"Well, the moment I killed him was definitely a top five most-satisfying moment of my life...or, well, lives."
I told her the stuff I'd found out about the Dark Magic research and soul research as well. And the stuff about Anima Orbs and dinosaurs that Selesa had found out.
"Woah, so it's actually possible to get multiple Elemental Magic types? And you can also change your Anima if you want to? And...h-hold on, this is a lot to process," She stated wide-eyed, the information struggling to sink in.
Well, I couldn't blame her, I'd been pretty stunned while interrogating Dr Reel about the soul research.
Anyway, next I moved on to the stuff about past memories, how The Empire openly spoke about it and thanks to that, how they were able to advance faster by those with their previous memories intact being able to freely discuss ideas from their old worlds and how to implement them with the magic of this world. I also told her how not-God's 'divine intervention' was just a bluff and he wasn't actually able to directly interfere in the living world.
"When we stopped at Silvland after the mission, I advised their princess to gather all their citizens who had their past memories and reveal that fact to the entire country, and I plan on advising the higher ups here of doing the same. It'll be a lot easier for me to bring up suggestions if that's out in the open, remember how I was almost under suspicion just because I knew what weed was?"
"Huh, that's a good point...I'm so proud of you, Kuro!"
"Wha-...where'd th-that come from?"
"I mean, like...you're literally playing a significant role in changing this world right now, that's really cool!"
Huh, that had never occurred to me. It wasn't a very assassin-like role, considering that it was in the spotlight, but ever since coming to this world, I'd say I've gradually become equal parts assassin and adventurer, maybe even more so the latter now....
"Wow, I guess you're right...huh, that is...that is pretty cool, isn't it? Woah..."
"...snap out of it," She waved her hand in front of my face, before pulling my nose.
"Huh? Sorry, that kinda surprised me! I never really thought about any of that, so it never occurred to me."
I then told her about Clari and Aurich Goldway. She was a little quiet after I finished that particular explanation.
"Uh...you okay, Persia?"
"Huh? E-er, it's no big deal or anything...actually it's kinda stupid. Just forget it!"
"No way, there's nothing more annoying that someone about to say something but then changing their mind, so I won't stop bugging you till you tell me what it is, because otherwise it won't stop bugging me," I replied with a grin.
"...yeah, I guess I do get pretty annoyed when other people do that to me. Okay, fine, I'll tell you...don't laugh, okay? Um...I think I'm a little jealous of the fact that you slept in the same room as another woman. I know you said there was a separate room attached to the one you were in, but still...," She mumbled awkwardly, her face turning red.
"Holy crap..."
"Wh-what?"
"You're fucking adorable when you're jealous."
"Wha-!?...sh-shut up!"
I teased her a bit more, before moving on to the final major topic of the infiltration, the Retribution Tier members, with the primary topic of discussion being...Sicario. She was quiet for a while after I finished. Her shoulders began trembling, as she clenched her fists with a furious look.
"So, not only did your old master also reincarnate in this world, but he's one of the higher ups of The Empire, and...he's the reason why you went through your torture and died? I'll...I'll-!"
"Hey, take it easy...it means so much to me that you'd get this angry on my behalf, and honestly, that's more than enough for me. I'm definitely holding a grudge and won't hesitate to kill him the next time I see him, but...if I didn't die when I did, I might have never met you, so...for that, I'm grateful," I whispered in a re-assuring tone, gently embracing her and calming her down.
I finished off my explanation with how the end of my infiltration went, and I briefly explained how the couple of weeks after that went, wrapping up the events of the past month and a half or so with that.
"You know, a month doesn't sound like that much time at first, but a lot sure can happen within that time, huh?" She remarked, letting out a breath after a brief silence following my explanation.
"Yeah, it felt like it was dragging on endlessly at times...well, enough about me, what about you? How were things with you over the past month and a half?"
"Pretty normal, I guess...classes are the same as usual, I've been going on Quests with the others occasionally, and I've been hanging out with Key and Vi in my free time. Ooh, and you're gonna be pretty surprised at how strong Mika has gotten! Not to mention me, I've gotten a lot stronger too!"
"I noticed, your arms feel stronger," I grinned, tracing my fingers across her biceps, before she squirmed away.
"Th-that tickles, stop!" She giggled, trying to grab my hands.
"Let's spar later, 'kay? So, anything else happen?"
"Um, let me think...I don't think so. Oh, Rai and Key got married a couple of weeks back."
"Oh, I see-...wait, what!?"
"Yeah, it started when Key was getting gloomy and insecure about not having a last name, so Rai brought up the fact that she'd have a last name if they got married. They then got all flustered, and after they calmed down, which took like half an hour, Rai proposed for real. And Key accepted, though she stuttered so much that I thought she was having a stroke for a moment there. Oh, this happened while we were all training together in the forest area, so Az and I were there too...it was really fucking awkward," Laughed Persia, as she explained what happened.
"Hold on, I can't get past the whole 'married' part...it's kinda hard to process."
"Well, I guess that's understandable, I was pretty stunned when it happened. Even Az looked shocked, it was crazy," She giggled, before adding, "Oh, by the way, the others are out on an overnight Quest in the forest area, they won't be back till tomorrow evening or the morning day after tomorrow. I was supposed to go too, but I was busy since a last-minute thing came up with my parents and I had to help out at one of their stores.
"Damn, I missed something big...that sucks, wish I'd been there to see it," I sighed wistfully, "And I sure am glad you stayed behind."
"Oh, and most people know about Az's abilities now. He clashed against an S-Rank from Bronztan and incapacitated her within seconds. He isn't happy about his abilities being public knowledge now, but he was able to gain some relief by finally quitting Miss Elina's apprenticeship...that apparently got really messy, but I don't know the details."
"Interesting...maybe now he'll actually agree to duel me, I've wanted to fight him ever since Goldway."
"Oh, yeah, I almost forgot! Remember when we were down in the Goblin maze, and you yelled out a name for your attack? What was it again, Lightning-?"
"Y-yeah, I remember, what's your point?"
"Just that almost everyone in the Rustlands now does that...Rai and that Einn guy started what they called a 'trend', and began convincing others to try it. And a lot of people thought it was cool, and now..."
"Hahaha, seriously? That's hilarious!" I laughed, as I pictured it.
"Personally, I find the whole thing really cringeworthy," She replied with a groan.
"Yeah, I found that out the hard way."
"Anyway...why don't we-," She began seductively, running a finger across my collarbone, when suddenly a loud knocking on the door interrupted us.
"Huh, who could that be? And who knocks that loudly!?" I growled irritably, standing up and walking towards the door, unlocking it and swinging it open with a glare.
"Yo, Kuro, whaddup?! Misen told me where you live, let's-!" Began the person cheerfully, before I slammed the door in her face.
"Ragiu...I'm gonna kill that bastard...!" I growled, my eyebrow twitching in annoyance.
"Who is it?" Asked Persia, walking over.
"Hey, you broke my nose with the door, you shit-faced sack of pig cum bastard!" Came a pained cry from behind the door.
"Go away or you'll be lucky if that's all I break!"
"Oh, is she the girl who was in your mission group?" Inquired Persia with a stifled laugh.
"Mhm."
"Come on, let her in, I'm kinda curious to see how this goes," She smirked mischievously.
Yeah, well, curiosity killed the cat and whatnot.
"What? No-!" I exclaimed, before she suddenly pulled the door open with a teasing giggle.
"Finally, I'm in!" Exclaimed Selesa, jumping into the room.
Her nose was definitely broken, and bleeding quite profusely.
"Great, you're in...now leave!" I snapped.
"Oh, you must be Kuro's girlfriend, nice to meet you! You're super cute! You lucky bastard, you seriously scored a cat girl!? That's awesome!"
"Uh...I'm not sure how to respond to that," Remarked Persia with an irritated smile.
"What do you want, you literal bitch?" I inquired with a sigh, grabbing her dog tail and zapping her.
"Owww! Hey, I'm already injured here! Speaking of which, heal me!"
"Hell no."
"But my nose hurts-!"
"You brought that on yourself, bitch. Hm...I'm gonna call you Bitch from now on, I can't believe I didn't think of this before, what with the dog tail and all," I retorted irritably.
"...please heal me?" She asked, changing her tone since she figured out that arguing with me would only make her situation worse.
"Come on, Kuro, you don't have to be so standoffish, it's not like healing her will be a big deal for you," Shrugged Persia, struggling to hide her laughter.
"Aw, you're so nice, Kuro's girlfriend!"
"Thanks, but, um...my name's Persia."
Eventually, I gave in and healed her, biting her forearm after entering Soul-Eater Mode.
"Alright, you're healed. Now get out."
"No way, I just got here! Let's do something fun!"
"Hell no, just leave-!"
"Do you have anything in mind for what you want to do?" Asked Persia with a curious look.
"Hey, stop, you know the whole 'curiosity killed the cat' thing-!"
"Ooh, I know! Let's have a threesom-!"
Before she could finish that sentence, I opened the door, pushed her out, slammed it shut and locked it. Crap, probably should have slammed it...the cracks just got deeper.
"Leave or I'll fry you!" I snapped.
...I opened the door five minutes later and let out a sigh of relief when I saw that she had left.
"Have to say, she caught me off guard with that last bit...she was kidding, right?"
"Definitely not kidding. And that's exactly why I didn't want her in my room," I sighed in reply.
"Well, that was still pretty interesting-."
"Oh, that's right...you're the one that let her in. You've been a very bad little kitty, Persia...I'm gonna have to punish you," I remarked menacingly, taking a step towards, "Now, then, where's your maid outfit?"
"W-wait, I was just h-having a little fun...! No, please, not the-!" She exclaimed, before laughing uncontrollably as I tackled her onto the bed, pinned her down and began tickling her mercilessly.
"Oh, yeah? Well, then this me having a little fun in return...give me a laugh if you're okay with it...cool, you're okay with it, so I'm gonna keep going!"
"N-no f-fair, I c-can't stop laughing...!"
"Hm, what was that? I didn't quite catch it," I smirked, as she tried her best to grab my hands, but to no avail.
I eventually let up after my fingers started to ache. She gave me a weak punch on my shoulder with a pout, averting her gaze as I patted her head with a grin.
"Jerk..."
"Sorry, but you brought that on yourself, Cat Girl. So, anyway...wanna make out?"
"..."
"..."
"...mhm."
...
...
The next day, I was called over to the Ragiu mansion, where I met with Erhtaph, Misen, Selesa, Headmaster Raedal Yiserir, Elina, Prince Ocroed Rustlands and King Decorro Rustlands. After copping a bit of grief over the fact that I ditched Misen and Selesa yesterday, I got to explaining everything.
The status of the Blood Crystals and how they were created, the creation of the truth serum, the soul research and its significance to the leader of The Empire, the Karma experiments that were now hardly conducted and the minimal threat level due to the low success rate, the names, appearances and abilities of the Retribution Tier members, the underground chamber where they were manufacturing guns, the human experimentation and torture methods they performed, the poisons and serums they were concocting, the Anima Orb and animal-monster hybrid experiments conducted using animals from the savanna and the dinosaurs from under Platinberg, and everything else we'd seen and learnt during our infiltration.
I also gave them my own opinions and thoughts, like the fact that I was certain that The Empire was at least a few years away from being adequately prepared to launch an attack on one of the three allied nations. I also let them know that The Empire had every intention of betraying Platinberg as well, but that would likely be after they took over the other countries first.
Overall, I did most of the talking, with some input from Selesa while discussing the dino stuff and human experimentation. Misen had hardly any say, not surprising since he'd left after a week...yeah, I was still salty over that.
"So, I did steal a sample of truth serum, but ended up using it...I still have the vial, which has some residue of the serum, but I don't know if that'll be enough...anyway, get this to someone who's skilled with concocting serums and toxins, maybe they can replicate it. On a more positive note, I managed to steal a whole lotta Spell Cards...first off, I'd highly recommend us replacing the Spell Scrolls with something similar to these cards, they're just so much easier to carry around. Oh, I got a couple of spells with the remote activation feature, Eloli, so you're welcome...I'll leave these with you," I remarked, handing her the cards I had.
Namely, the intagibility barrier, remote activation paralysis, remote activation Blood Crystal trigger and colossal barrier Spell Cards.
"Hm, these are very compact...oh, I see, the command lines are inserted in this slit...this is quite ingenious," She muttered with a gulp, a twinkle in her eye...huh, she kinda looked like a geek who just got a new edition of their favorite comic or something.
She was eagerly going through the command lines for the remote activation spells, her eyes widening with intrigue and interest. Now, for the difficult topic...
"Alright, this next thing is gonna be very hard to believe...so wait till I finish explaining, no interruptions..."
I started by describing how the work environment of The Empire had been, the emphasis on a scientific approach and freely discussing a certain factor...reincarnation and memories of past lives. I then got into the meat of it, how a small fraction of the people in this world had memories of their past lives, and so far, they all seemed to be from the same or very similar worlds and time periods, where technology and science reigned supreme.
I informed them that I had my old memories too, and reincarnated here over a year and a half ago, skipping straight to the age of sixteen. Selesa backed me up, since she had her old memories too. There was a long, drawn out silence after I finished, an air of disbelief in the room.
"This is...rather hard to believe. I do not think that you are lying, but even so...," Remarked Erhtaph doubtfully.
"I know, but it makes sense if you really think about it. Before the Quest to Goldway, I knew exactly what the Marijuana plants were and how to use them even though they had only recently been discovered in this world...then there's my unique physical skills and fighting style. Oh, and my spell ideas. Besides myself, I know for a fact that there's at least two other people currently in the Rustlands who also have their old memories, Rai Rumel and Einn Olbaw, and there's every chance that there's more."
After a bit more convincing with Selesa's help, I excused myself and left, after requesting a couple months break from any missions and whatnot, I just wanted to take it easy for a while and not think about any of this stuff.
From now on, things are gonna start changing around here, the gears of this world had been set in motion like never before, the bombshell revelations of this mission was going to rock the nations of this world to their very cores. I was quite curious to see how the next few months unfold. For right now, though...I was just glad to be back home.
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