- (Anna's POV) -

We are currently in front of Alice’s house. Well I say ‘house’, but it’s more like a ‘manor’ or a ‘castle’. The building is 20-meters-tall and there is a huge garden surrounding it.

After entering the town, the carriage crossed the town for 20 minutes. The town is very ‘medieval like’ with the wooden houses, the market and is surrounded by a huge wall.

The 5 knights accompanying us went to inform the house that we arrived. Now, I can see a butler coming to welcome us,

“Welcome home, Milady” (Butler)

He is helping Alice to get out of the carriage, then he freezes when he sees me inside the carriage.

“Excuse me for my rudeness, Milady, but who is this person?” (Butler)

“She is my guest, please treat her appropriately.” (Alice)

“As you wish, Milady” (Butler)

He bows, then he turns back toward the house to escort us.

At first, I didn’t want to follow until Alice’s house because I didn’t want to bother them, but Alice insisted so I followed. I still have to see if the lord is a good or a bad person, but from what I saw in the town, he should at least be a good lord since the people seems happy and the security seems good (I saw many guard in town). He should also be a good father because Alice told me that her parents never rejected her because of being ‘manaless’. But apparently, it’s not a world where the strong are in power and the weak are poor, even people from the royal family are not powerful mage. Well, it’s quite obvious, you don’t need a fighter as a ruler, but you need someone that understand politics! Alice also told me that she has a 17-year-old brother, but he is currently at the royal capital attending the Royal Academy.

So, we are moving toward the house and once we arrive inside the house, we are welcomed by an army of 10 maids bowing to us.

“”””Welcome home, Milady”””” (Maids)

“Please inform Father that I will visit his office in a few minutes and tell Mother to come aswell. In the meantime, escort Lady Anna to the waiting room and treat her appropriately, she is my guest.” (Alice)

“””Yes, Milady””” (Maids)

Then a maid came to me and bring me to a big room with a sofa at the middle. I sit on the sofa and a maid bring me a cup of tea. Ahhh, so comfortable!~ Alice told them that I’m ‘Lady Anna’ so maybe they think that I’m a noble?

 

********

 

20 minutes later, a maid comes to the room, bows, and informs me:

“The lord wishes to see you, please follow me” (Maid)

I follow her, we walk 2 minutes in the mansion, then she knocks at a door.

“Lady Anna is here.” (Maid)

“Please enter” (??)

A deep voice says so from the other side of the door. The maid then opens the door for me, and I go inside. Inside the room, there is a desk and I can see Alice and 2 more peoples beside her. One of them is a middle-aged man around 35 or 40 years old with blond hair and a small beard, and the other is a beautiful woman with long blond hair and she looks like 25 years old but I bet that she is older. I suppose that they are Alice’s father and mother. Then the middle-aged man speaks to me.

“Welcome, I suppose that you are Anna, please have a sit.” (??)

I sit down on the remaining chair and then he speaks again.

“My name is Roland von Baumeister, I’m Alice’s father, an Earl and the lord of this town and earldom. Beside me is my wife Eleonora von Baumeister and also Alice’s mother.” (Roland)

He coughs one time then he continues.

“I heard what you did from Alice since you met her. She told me that you saved her and her escort from an attack from 3 orcs, that you cured 3 injured knights and that Alice can now use magic thanks to you. Is everything true ?” (Roland)

“Yes” (Anna)

It was what we planned with Alice when we were still in the carriage, I told her that she can tell everything except that I (and now she) can use magic without a catalyst.

“For everything that you did for my daughter, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.” (Roland)

He and his wife are bowing to me while saying so. I had some doubt if he was a good person or not, but now I’m sure that he is. I don’t know that much about this world or the nobles, but I know that if a noble bow to a commoner, it means that he gives up his pride.

He lifts his head again after 10 seconds and he speaks again.

“Alice has always dreamed to be able to use magic and I did all I could to support her, but I didn’t know what to do… May I ask how you cured her ? Alice refused to tell me anything about the ‘how’.” (Roland)

“Father!” (Alice)

“It’s fine Alice, I don’t mind telling him. I analyzed her body and found out that there was a creature called ‘parasite’ inside her body. The creature looks like a worm and is very small, its size is about 1 millimeter. Its food is mana so it lives inside the heart of a person, and that’s why people can’t use mana when a parasite is inside their body. The purer the mana is, the tastier the mana is for this creature, that’s why it chooses a body where the mana is very pure and dense. But it can only invade a child under 8 years old approximately because an adult body would instantly reject it. Well, it means that Alice is very talented if she was chosen by it!” (Anna)

“I see… so she suffered her entire childhood because of a bug…” (Roland)

He says that while putting both hands in front of his forehead, then he removes them and speaks again.

“However, there is still a few hundreds ‘manaless’ in the country. How exactly did you take care of it? So we would know how to treat it in the future.” (Roland)

“I simply sent some mana inside her body and eliminated the parasite, but it requires a good control of magic. I don’t recommend a mage to do the operation without being extremely confident of succeeding. If there is a slight mistake of only a few millimeters, you might kill the host.” (Anna)

“I see… that’s how it is…” (Roland)

Well, I’m confident that no one else other than me can do it successfully. After all, it’s impossible to do it with the magic system of this world because you need to have a perfect control of your mana.

But I don’t want to see any other children suffering because of this sh*tty parasite!

“If you find others ‘manaless’, I don’t mind taking care of the parasite for them. But please, don’t announce to the world that I’m the one that can cure it. I don’t really need to hide it, so it’s fine if a few people know, but I would like to avoid having too much attention on me.” (Anna)

But I’m not some kind of saint that sacrifice its life for others, I would only take care of it if they are brought to me!~

“It would be extremely helpful, thank you!” (Roland)

I take a look at Alice, she was smiling. Then I look back at Roland, and he speaks again.

“Anna? May I ask where you live?” (Roland)

Here it is, the annoying question, but I knew that it would come.

“I came to this country very recently, so I’m not living anywhere for now, but I was planning to rest in an inn in the town.” (Anna)

“Ohh, are you from a nearby country?” (Roland)

Well, it’s quite problematic, I can’t really tell him that God send me in the character of a game after he killed me with a lightning by mistake, BUT I came up with a perfect lie so it’s fine!~

“Well, about that… I’m actually a fighter and I was fighting a powerful mage that threatened my hometown. But at the moment I beat him and was about to give him the deathblow, he used his last strength to cast a powerful teleportation spell. I ended up in the middle of a forest, and a few hours later, I met Alice… From what I inspected, we are very far from where I lived, so I think we are even on another continent.” (Anna)

With this, I won’t have people trying to find out from where I am. It also explains some of the knowledge that I have and that no one other know, and also it explains why I don’t know anything about this country. Oh, by the way, this world has the same knowledge than the Middle-Age on Earth (the exception is the existence of magic), so there is a high chance that they didn’t discover every continent of this world.

“A teleportation spell?! It’s supposed to be a lost art!” (Roland)

Somehow, he is more interested about this spell than where I’m from, it’s good for me though.

To be honest, I can also teleport, it was pretty useful in the game, I only have to send some mana to a direction and imagine myself being there. But to imagine myself being there, I must have memory of the place, so I can only teleport to a place I already visited in the past. Furthermore, the farther the place is, the more mana it consumes (it’s obvious because the mana sent lose in density because of the distance), but with my enormous amount of mana, I can still teleport to a distance equivalent several countries. However, I will NEVER tell someone I don’t trust that I can teleport, because I don’t want to become a taxi!~

“Well, he sent me here so it means he could use it somehow…” (Anna)

I scratch my head a little bit, then I continue.

“That’s why, I don’t know that much about this country… the only thing I know is what Alice and her escort told me…” (Anna)

“I see, don’t hesitate to ask any question about this country! By the way, you said that you planned to stay in an inn, right? Please let me repay you for what you did by letting you stay in this house for free! If you don’t mind, of course.” (Roland)

Oh! It’s actually good for me! I don’t know yet if I can use my money from my inventory to this country, so I was not sure if I could pay an inn. I don’t want to stay here too long, so I will move out when I buy my own house.

“It would be my pleasure!” (Anna)

He then rings a bell and a maid enter the room.

“You called, Milord ?” (Maid)

“Yes, please prepare a spare room for Anna.” (Roland)

“As you wish, Milord.” (Maid)

She bows, then she leaves the room and Roland turns to me again.

“If you have any question, don’t hesitate to ask, I have nothing else planned today.” (Roland)

“Well, I have some money on me, but it’s from my hometown, may I know if it can be used here?” (Anna)

I move my hand inside my pocket and remove it with 5 gold coins from the game in my hand. Of course, I took it from my inventory, but I made it looks like it was from the pocket!~ I put the 5 gold coin on the desk so he can take a look at it.

“Mhhh, no, I never saw this currency, so you won’t be able to use it here to buy something. However, it’s still in gold, so you might find some people interested to trade it to transform it into something else.” (Roland)

“I see, thank you very much.” (Anna)

“By the way, if you are new to this country, you need some kind of identification paper. I suppose that you have nothing, right ?” (Roland)

“Well… no… What do I have to do to get one?” (Anna)

“Well, there is 2 ways to have a legal ID. Either you are born in the country and you instantly get one, either you get a job. Being part of an organization is also considered a job. As for what organization exist, there is the adventurer guild and the merchant guild.” (Roland)

Well, I already planned to join an adventurer guild, and I’m also planning to do some business later so I will also join the merchant guild.

“I see. Since I’m a fighter, I think it’s better to join the adventurer guild for now.” (Anna)

“Alright, it’s a good idea.” (Roland)

Ok, matter settled, let’s try to learn more about the country.

“If I may ask, what is the hierarchy in the country? Who are those that old the most influence? And how do they interact between each other?” (Anna)

“Well, let’s explain this with a number. Number 1 is the highest position and number 10 is the lowest.
1: King
2: Queen, Prince, Princess
3: Duke, Prime minister, Pope
4: Marquis
5: Earl
6: Viscount
7: Baron, Rich merchant, Royal knight, Royal mage
8: Rich commoner
9: Poor commoner
10: Slaves (but slavery is forbidden in this country, but not in some country)
But be careful, it’s not always true; reality is way more complicated than that. For example, a very rich merchant can shake an entire country, so his influence is close to a duke. Another example, a prince that have a high chance to become the king hold way more influence than the others prince.
Furthermore, there is sometime the case where some people hold 2 positions at the same time. For example, the current Prime Minister is also a Duke, the current captain of the Royal Knight is a Marquis, and there are some noble that are also merchant at the same time.” (Roland)

I see, so it’s very similar to the Middle Age on Earth and most Fantasy World that you can see in a novel.

“Thank you very much, it was very useful!” (Anna)

“Do you want to know anything else?” (Roland)

“Mhh, I have nothing else in mind right now, so I might ask later. Also, do you have something like a library here? In order to avoid having to bother you too much.” (Anna)

“You are not bothersome, don’t worry! You may ask any servant from the house at any time to bring you to the library, I will make sure that they know it” (Roland)

“Thank you for your hospitality!” (Anna)

After my word, he rings the bell again and another maid open the door.

“You called, Milord?” (Maid 2)

“Please bring Anna to her room, make sure that she feels at home!” (Roland)

After his word, the maid bow and I start to follow her.

 

*************

 

- (Roland's POV) –

 

It has been 1 minute since Anna left my office.

I’m really thankful to her for saving my daughter, and she even helped my cute daughter to use magic!

I watch my little angel sitting in front of me, she is still smiling! She was not smiling that much before she met Anna, and now she never stopped to smile even for one second since she came back!!

No, I’m thankful to her, but I won’t let her marry my little angel!!~

But, more seriously, I wonder who Anna is. From what Alice told me, she must be a very strong person. I heard that she killed 3 orcs in a matter of a second, healed 2 people at the same time and closed their wound in a few second! It’s not something that anyone can do. She also said that she fought a powerful mage able to use teleportation magic and that she was actually winning the fight, right?

I don’t want to imagine what she could do If I somehow anger her, even thinking about it give me a chill. But on the other hand, she might be somehow worth getting close to, I have a feeling that she will soon be very influential in the country.

And also, her clothes!! I have never seen clothes like this, I can’t even guess in what material they have been made… She is also quite well mannered and have a determined look and the way she was walking is quite refined.

Was she a noble in her country ? Or a princess ?