I had more than one reason to not reveal I was from the other world.
By reading the bulletin the wagon merchant had given me as part of the payment for the Earth coins, I discovered that the Kingdom of Ceratris had adopted a hostile stance towards Earth's inhabitants. All borders had been closed, with the only exception being the border with the Theocracy of Elênis.
Obviously, however, it would be difficult to patrol the entire perimeter of the kingdom, especially where there were beastial habitats, so I imagined there must be many blind spots offering passage.
'The man Cleus spoke about, the one who arrived here at High Mine village by car, must have gotten through one of those blind spots that were left unprotected.'
And, of course, the issue of closed borders was the least of my worries.
The bulletin also stated that the king had decreed that all people from the other world found in Ceratris should be detained and handed over to the kingdom's soldiers to be imprisoned. If they offered too much resistance or showed signs of aggression, and capturing them was no longer possible, the order was to kill them to eliminate the threat.
'And Ceratris is still considered one of the most peaceful kingdoms on the Continent of Salvation. Perhaps I should be grateful the order isn't for immediate execution.'
I frowned apprehensively.
I had been lucky that the inhabitants of Ceratris and the two mercenaries in the tavern concluded I was an álfr descendant wanting to play the mercenary. If they had truly suspected I was from Earth, things wouldn't have been easy for me at all.
I stored the bulletin in my inventory bag and analyzed my clothes. It was better to dress like a true inhabitant of Mundus as soon as possible.
...
I went down to the lower floor of the inn and asked Neidi for water to wash myself, and she promptly said she would go to the well to fetch a bucket for me. I accompanied her. On the way, we talked about the origin story of the village, and my theory that it had formed from miners' families was confirmed. I was also informed that the number of inhabitants in High Mine was around two hundred and something.
I took the opportunity to ask her about where I could buy clothes, using the excuse that I only had one change of clothes left after being caught by surprise by the fusion. She helpfully told me about a neighbor who sewed and had made the clothes that Neidi herself and her family wore.
I added to my mental to-do list to visit this seamstress the next day before returning to my parents' house, inside the safety of the protections around the temple. After that, I went up to my rented room with a bucket of water.
As soon as I reached the room, I set the bucket of warm water on the floor. The wooden floor creaked. I closed the door and the wooden window to ensure my privacy. Then I grabbed a towel I had brought with me inside my Infinite Inventory Bag.
But when I was about to take off my makeshift shirt, with my hands already on the opening of the garment, I had a sudden feeling of being watched and froze mid-action. First, I looked at the small closed window in front of me, through which the dim evening light entered through thin cracks. I couldn't see anything there, but the hairs on the back of my neck were still standing up.
So, I quickly turned towards the door behind me. For a moment, through the keyhole, I managed to see a shadow that immediately moved away.
Drawing a kitchen knife from the inventory bag at my waist, I reached out and opened the door in an instant, much faster than I could have at any other previous moment of my life.
In the narrow corridor illuminated only by a small lantern hanging on the wall, I managed to discern a figure trying to quickly move away. Before he could, however, I grabbed him by the arm and pushed him against the wooden wall with impressive ease.
The boy—I recognized him as Jura, Neidi's son—widened his eyes so much I could see the white of his sclera all around his iris. The damn brat was trying to spy on me while I bathed!
I got irritated instantly and, even knowing he was a child of at most eleven years old, considered threatening him while pressing the kitchen knife I held in my right hand against his neck. However, I dismissed the idea in an instant. Instead, I crossed my arms and let the sharp blade remain visible while staring at him. The boy was already terrified enough.
Before I even began questioning him, he started shedding tears and trembling.
"Forgive me, please forgive me and... and please don't tell my mother."
Before responding to anything, I analyzed him for a moment. Was it the first time he had tried to spy on a woman bathing? Or was it just the first time he had been caught in the act?
There was still a third possibility: he could be a talented little actor. Though I highly doubted that, considering how he trembled and cried.
'If that were the case, this brat would win an Oscar on Earth.'
"Why were you spying on me?" I asked, staring at him.
He averted his gaze to the floor, keeping his head bowed before me.
"I'm... I'm sorry, miss" he replied.
"I've already heard your apologies. I asked why you were spying on me."
His cheeks were already a little red, but at that moment his entire face turned red, as if he were changing his skin color.
"It's because you're... an álfr descendant." He spoke the last part in such a low voice I almost didn't hear it.
And I almost didn't believe I had heard it anyway, so I questioned him again.
"What did you say?"
"It's just that when I told Merlon there was an álfr descendant here at the inn, he said I was very lucky and that I'd be a big idiot if I didn't see you bathe at least once." The boy spoke everything fast, all at once, and with renewed confidence now that he was shifting the blame to a third party. "He said it would change my life."
I stayed silent for a few seconds while absorbing the new information. I was genuinely impressed by the sheer audacity being narrated to me.
"Who is Merlon?" I asked, but I quickly realized that wasn't even the most important issue. "And you thought it was okay to spy on me because of that?!" I added, irritated.
"I'm sorry!" The boy cried again. "Please don't tell my mother!"
I sighed.
"How are you going to compensate me?" I asked.
"Co...compensate?" He stammered, not understanding.
"Yes, you not only just ruined my bath—even when this inn is run by your family—but you're also asking me the favor of not telling your mother about your... misconduct." I controlled myself at the last second before swearing. "How do you intend to compensate me for all that?"
"I... I... I can pay you!" he replied.
I raised an eyebrow. Did this boy even have money?
"How much?" I asked.
"I have one nickel tiélviam here!" The boy rummaged in his pants pocket and handed me the coin after a few seconds. I automatically took it in my hand and looked at it, half disbelieving, half wanting to laugh. Because, what would I do with a nickel tiélviam? Buy a slice of bread?
Not that I wanted to extort a large sum of money from the boy, but I certainly needed to teach him some lesson.
At that moment, a feminine laugh echoed through the corridor. I rapidly looked to the other end, and there was the red-haired mercenary I had seen earlier in the tavern. This time, she was alone.
She reached us in little time, even when considering how short the corridor was. Her steps were so soft that not even a creak was heard on the wooden floor.
"One nickel tiélviam?" she asked, looking at the coin in my hand. The Etrusko accent heavy in her speech. She then looked at me. "Is that compensation enough for you?"
I shook off my initial surprise at the mercenary's appearance and looked at the coin in my hand and sighed.
"I'll consider it enough for now. But never even think of doing something like this again, whether to me or to anyone else" I said. As soon as he heard my words, the boy shot off down the corridor. When he was about to go down the stairs, the mercenary called out to him.
"Hey, kid, I also know your secret. See if you can get a nickel for me by tomorrow."
He paused for an instant, then ran down the stairs. The sound of his steps thundering throughout the inn. He himself wasn't doing a good job of disguising the commotion he had created.
"I can't believe you actually extorted one nickel from the boy" the mercenary said, turning her attention to me. Her eyes lingered on the knife in my hand for a millisecond before returning to my face.
"Neither can I" I said. "Anyway, this money will go back to his family, since I'll be having at least one more meal here."
She smiled at me, a smile with yellowish teeth, but still quite beautiful.
"You remind me a bit of my younger sister. Pleasure, my name is Katarina." She extended her hand to me.
I shook her hand. She had a firm grip.
"My name is Lilia" I replied. I almost caught myself returning the mercenary's smile without realizing it. In a way, I felt the tension her presence had provoked in me earlier was dissipating. So, I risked talking about what I had been dying of curiosity about since earlier. "Actually... I overheard your conversation. With your companion."
I could glimpse a trace of suspicion cross her eyes, but her smile remained intact on her face, tugging at the whitish scar around her left cheek and chin.
"Is that so? And what did you hear?" she asked naturally. At that moment, I got nervous, afraid that maybe my answer would provoke some hostile reaction, which would very likely be too fast for me to have any chance to react. Considering her profile that the Player System had shown me earlier, the woman before me was probably an experienced assassin, and her attributes and skills were no joke.
"That you encountered people from the other world" I replied, forcing an image much calmer than how I was actually feeling. "What... were they like?"
"Humans, just like you and me" she replied and then smiled again. "Actually, I think humans just like me. You're not exactly human, are you?"
I decided to ignore the question she asked me, pretending to consider it rhetorical instead of ending up having to tell a lie by agreeing with her in order to maintain my unplanned álfr descendant disguise.
"Were they... dangerous?" I asked. Not that I was afraid of people from my own planet. Especially those wandering somewhere near High Mine village, because they were most likely harmless people and maybe even someone I knew. But I needed to find out more about who they possibly were. And, by this point, the armed forces of all countries, or at least the vast majority, should have already taken action. And Brazil wouldn't be an exception, quite the opposite, considering our military power and the country's history.
"Why? Are you afraid of encountering any of them while traveling alone?" she asked, not answering my question.
"I wouldn't say it's fear" I replied honestly after thinking a bit and deciding that lying to the woman in front of me was not an option.
'She is very observant and smart' I thought 'I can't afford to slip up in front of her'.
She moved a little closer to me, which made me unconsciously take half a step back, as if I were prey before a wild feline that could kill me in the blink of an eye. And to be honest, that wasn't so far from the truth.
"Answer me one more thing... do you speak Etrusko?"
I blinked a little confused before answering.
"Yes...?" Half in a tone of affirmation and half in a tone of question because of the unexpected query.
Katarina laughed and gave my shoulder a little tap.
"What a coincidence to find a compatriot here!" Her tone of voice was cheerful. "I knew there was a reason I liked you, even though you seem so delicate."
It was only after that that I realized a small detail. There were no other people who spoke Etrusko anywhere else in the world besides the Etruskians themselves, and therefore the term used to refer to an Etrusko speaker was the same used to refer to an Etruskian citizen. When I answered that I spoke Etrusko, I also answered that I myself was Etruskian.
A slip-up I had no intention of correcting now.
"We can talk better tomorrow morning; I have to go now" she said and then walked away until she disappeared from view down the stairs.
When the mercenary was no longer in my field of vision, I could finally breathe a sigh of relief. I immediately entered my room, locked the door, and plugged the keyhole. I also scanned the room for any other space through which someone could spy on me. When I didn't find any more, I lit the candle that was there.
My attention then turned to the bucket of water beside the basin. Apparently, my "bath" would be with cold water today.
While washing up, now calmly assured that no one was watching me, I began to seriously ponder the situation I was in.
Even though it was something I had considered, which was why I had tried hard not to stand out and to resemble a native of Mundus as much as possible, the current situation didn't make much sense to me. Wasn't the primary purpose of the gods to gain the greatest number of followers? Isolating the inhabitants of Mundus, creating this division and rivalry between the two worlds, didn't seem to favor the spread of their religions.
'Well, there must certainly be some grand plan behind it. Something they'll take advantage of' I thought.
After that, I dried off and put on the comfortable pajamas I had brought with me in the Infinite Inventory Bag. Maybe it had to do with how Katarina had treated me earlier, saying I reminded her of her younger sibling, but that night, lying in the wooden bed of an inn in a fantasy kingdom, my thoughts drifted to my sister and my nephews. And I couldn't help but wonder.
How were they? Where were they? And most importantly, were they safe?