“Mana Wave!”

The magical wave of force blasted apart the giant leaf pile, sending a colorful storm of leaves dancing around me. Ohh, that feels pretty good!

I had already spent most of the morning practicing some magic by myself. After an hour or so of trial and error, I was able to refine my control over the Mana Wave spell to waste less mana and gradually improve its area of effect. My invisible, magical leaf blowing powers could extend about a hundred and eighty degrees in front of me, but with my last bit of remaining mana, I wanted to push that even further.

“Mana Wave!”

My cloak nearly flew off my back from the sheer force of the spell. I could feel the wave radiating even behind me a bit, clearing most of the forest floor around me. At full strength, this powered-up Mana Wave might just tear all my clothes off! But still, I sat down and caught my breath with the satisfaction of achieving my goal here. Maybe I could even make an attack out of this technique…

At first, I was motivated to ‘level-up’ one of my own spells after witnessing what Viela could do with her new Flame Orbs spell yesterday. Then, there was the fact that things with our party just got far too… awkward.

Even though no one said anything after Alice and I returned last night, Viela and Freya both looked like they knew what happened—at least, if their smug grins and amused winks were any indication. When Alice and I woke up in the morning and remembered all the things the two of us did together in the nude, we couldn’t even look at each other without turning red.

Oh God, it was one thing getting lost in the heat of the moment, but now…!

I felt like my body had made a full recovery from the whole ‘astral plane incident,’ but how was I supposed to face Alice like this? Especially with these overly cunning animal spirits who kept grinning our way!

Thankfully, I managed to excuse myself for some private magic training outside our cave instead of going with Alice and Freya for herb gathering. Now, I had to brace myself for an awkward lunch with Viela and Titania back at camp.

The fox spirit still gave me a wink and a self-satisfied smile whenever I looked her way, but the lancer was as aloof as ever. I had noticed Titania stealing the occasional wary glance at Alice for the past few days—or now that I thought about it, every so often since the very start of our party’s journey. But now as were sitting down, munching down on bread and more leftover raptor meat, I caught her awkwardly glancing my way.

“What is it?” I had to ask her. “Is there something you want to talk about?”

A hand instantly went up to anxiously rub the back of Titania’s neck. “Um, I guess, kind of…”

I gulped. “So, does it have anything to do with Alice?”

Titania damn near choked on a bit of bread she had been chewing. I thought so…

I really hoped she wasn’t going to ask about all the intimate details concerning our ‘outing’ last night, but I had my suspicions there was something bigger going on. “Well?” I asked again.

Even with all her armor and muscles, Titania looked surprisingly fragile when she blushed in that moment. “Well, I don’t really know how to bring this up, but… you could say I’m interested…”

It was my turn to start choking. Of all people, she’s interested in Alice? Damn it, this is the most awkward lunch of my life! Why did she have to bring this up now?!

“Beryl, you’re pretty close with her, aren’t you?” Titania asked, still blushing.

The mental image of us scissoring last night played on repeat in my mind. “Yeah, we got pretty close… I-I mean, I don’t know! We’re just party members and, uh, spellcasting comrades?”

Titania tilted her head at that last part. “Actually, I meant to ask… How much do you know about her?”

I wanted to ask why she was asking! If Titania was really attracted to the cute young witch I just got all intimate with, could this get any more awkward?!

“Okay, let me think,” I started after a deep breath. “I met Alice in the capital city, probably just like you. She loves plants, and alchemy, and magic. Oh, and she recently came to the capital from her hometown so she could learn magic, or try studying at the Magic Academy, or something. Wait, don’t you already know this?”

Titania fell silent for a minute, scratching her chin while lost in thought. “So she didn’t tell you either…”

“Uh, tell me what?”

“Did she… Did she ever tell you that she’s from Gadea? That she’s a native of this world?”

…Huh? “Why would you even ask that? All things considered, I thought that was already pretty clear.”

Suddenly, something in her straight up snapped. Titania clapped both hands on her armored thighs and leaned toward me. “The thing is… I don’t think that’s right!” she nearly shouted. “I think she’s hiding something from us!”

The awkward tension in my body instantly froze over. “Hold up, what are you even suggesting? Shouldn’t that go without saying that she’s from here? Like, if you were traveling, you wouldn't expect locals to tell you that they’re locals. That should just be obvious, you know?”

“It’s more than that!” she went on. “Look, there’s something I haven’t told you yet.”

Titania looked away and bit her lip for an anxious minute before speaking up again.

“You’ve been in this world for about two weeks, right? Well, a little over a month ago… there was another Outworlder who suddenly showed up. Everyone could tell because of the way that Gate in the capital’s center fires up into the sky with a beam of light. I was never able to find out exactly who it was, but I’ve always been suspecting that… that new arrival was her. Alice.”

A wave of chills came trickling down my spine. “You can’t be serious. You can’t really be thinking Alice is from Earth like us. You’re joking, right? Please tell me you’re joking.”

Her face told me she wasn’t. “What about this: did she ever tell you how old she was?”

“I think… weeks ago, she might’ve told me that she had recently turned eighteen.”

“That’s it!” she shouted. “Beryl, from what I’ve heard, the Outworlders who get sent here are always at least eighteen. And the day they arrive usually ends up being their eighteenth birthday. That fits perfectly!”

“No, that’s crazy!” I shot back. “You know that could just be a coincidence. That doesn’t prove anything!”

“There’s way more than that. Think back: on our first day hiking when I sang that old French marching song, Alice acted like she even understood it! Don’t you think that’s strange?”

It took me a moment to realize what she was suggesting. “What, just because she offered to find some wild onions for us? That doesn’t mean a damn thing either! Besides, her response was pretty strange, and do you realize how much she knows about herbs in this world?”

“That’s strange, too! Alice acts way too excited about herbs for someone who’s been living in this world her whole life!”

“It’s because she has that book! Come on Titania, don’t tell me you’ve never ‘geeked out’ over some kind of guidebook.”

“That’s even stranger! I’ve been here two years, and I’ve never seen any kind of giant book about Gadean herbs like she has! And beyond that, this mountain range is basically common knowledge for anyone who lives in this world. But when Alice read that entry in the book about murkthistle and where those herbs grow, she acted like she had never even heard about the Dourland before!”

“What?! That’s way too specific! Have you seriously been suspicious of her this whole time over some little thing like that?”

Titania balled up her hand into a fist over her lap. “It’s also basically unheard of for Gadean commoners to be born with magic affinity. Remember the three affinities in this world? If any non-nobles are born with an affinity—and that’s already rather unusual—it’s almost always either strength or agility. Except… Alice has magic affinity, just like an Outworlder who chose it when coming here. Isn’t that right?”

“It’s also basically unheard of for an Outworlder to become a guild master in just two years,” I retorted.

“Come on, Beryl! You have to think that something about all this is just too weird.”

I almost laughed. “Weird? Yeah, a lot of what I’ve seen in this world is definitely more than a little ‘weird.’ But still, this just doesn't add up! If Alice was actually an Outworlder like us, and I’m not saying I agree that she is… why would she try to hide that? What would she have to gain?”

For the first time in a long while, Titania fell silent again. “You already know about the bounty on the Demon King,” she finally said. “For a thousand years of paradise, there are some people who would do all kinds of crazy things to get their hands on that. Hell, from what I’ve seen… there are some people from Earth would even deceive their own party or do anything to get ahead, no matter what or how!”

I found myself gritting my teeth. Thinking back to my first days in this world, I couldn’t help admitting that she had a damn point about trying to get ahead!

Then again, Alice wasn’t like that! She was different! She… She wasn’t…

Crap. For too many reasons, I had to admit that Alice was kind of different.

“But still, I can't imagine she would try to betray us or whatever,” I said. “Do you really think that?”

Titania clenched a hand over her shoulder. “I don’t know. It could be about anything really, not just the bounty on Mao. I’ve met all kinds of people—both in this world and back on Earth. Not everyone is what they seem at first… especially for someone who just got a ‘clean slate’ starting in a new world. Then all bets are off, you know? That’s just the way it is. That’s why I want to find out.”

Somehow, there was a lingering chill of doubt that I just couldn’t shake off. I wanted to lash out and blame that damn lancer for making me question Alice like this. Alice could be a little eccentric for sure, or maybe a lot… but she was still an undeniably cute and infinitely curious girl I had shared so many experiences with. Except now, I couldn’t help remembering one of the things she had said after I came back from the astral plane:

There’s still so many things I haven’t told you yet…

There were still so many things I didn’t know about her. What exactly was on her mind that she wanted to tell me?

I ended up turning to Viela. “You’ve been surprisingly quiet through all this,” I said to her. “What’s your take?”

Viela let out a heavy sigh—just like she wished I hadn’t asked. “What can I say?” she offered with a shrug. “You two won’t really be satisfied until you talk to her yourself.”

Somehow, the fox spirit could always be the wisest in the room when she really wanted to…

Since I didn’t know how to face Titania at the moment, my eyes wandered to the cave floor around me. I spotted a curious snow leopard cub staring up at me.

“Hey Arwen,” I said with a pat on her fluffy head. “I really missed you. I’m glad you’re… Wait, what?”

I looked around to find a half-naked Freya slumped against the cave wall, sitting down while hugging her bare knees, her other cub Sasha resting beside her.

“Freya, when did you get back? You’ve never come back from gathering this early! What are you doing here? Where’s Alice?!”

For whatever reason, I couldn’t help thinking that the snow leopard spirit looked devastated. With her head hanging down, Freya’s grey eyes were fixed on the cold stony ground below. I had to repeat the question before she answered.

“Alice wanted to continue gathering by herself,” Freya muttered. “She just… needed some time alone.”

“What happened? Did you two get in a fight?”

Freya hugged herself a little tighter and curled her long, snowy tail around her legs. “I don’t know. I thought I could help her…”

Titania shot up and bolted toward her. “What were you thinking? Even if there’s still daylight, you can’t just leave her by herself with dourlings out there!”

“Alice said she could make it back on her own!” Freya shouted back. “I trust her. She’s smarter than you think! I trust her!”

Her voice cracked a little at the end, betraying her confidence.

Titania and I shared an uneasy glance. Maybe this was just a coincidence, too… but at the moment, it didn’t feel like one.

“Freya, you’ve been out with Alice for the past four days,” Titania continued. “How much has she told you about herself?”

No response.

“Nothing? She must have told you something!”

…No response.

I saw a vein ready to burst on Titania’s forehead like she was dangerously close to losing it.

“Wait!” I said. “I have an idea.”

Sighing, I ran over to my backpack, rummaged around in it for a bit and returned with a small dark sheath. I pulled on its protruding hilt to reveal a beautiful, dark blade of obsidian.

“This all might sound strange to hear now,” I began, “but basically… there are humans from a different world who have come to this one, just like Titania and me. I think we all came here to try and slay this Demon King that normally lives in the capital, except he’s a crazy old drunk who gives these obsidian daggers to us Outworlders. You have one too, don’t you?” I asked Titania.

She nodded, a little calmer now. Hers probably wasn’t enchanted by Mao like mine, but she didn’t need to know that much right now…

“These are supposed to be special weapons that can destroy the seven soul fragments that keep the Demon King immortal,” I went on. “Anyways, my point is… have you ever seen Alice carrying around something like this with her?”

When Freya finally stole a glance at my dagger, her lips curled into a frown—for just a second.

“Why would you expect me to know all the things she has in her bag?” she replied. “You should speak with her yourself.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Titania grabbing her lance like she was preparing to head out. Even Viela stood up and stretched her legs, ready to move.

“You know where to find her,” I said to Freya. “Where is she?”

“I already told you! She said she could find her way back!”

Now I couldn’t shake the feeling that Freya was being a little too stubborn, although I couldn’t tell why.

“Freya, I just want to know more about her. And as party leader, I can’t sit back while one of us is out there alone. I know you care about her, too. Please.”

Freya bit down on the furry tip of her snow leopard tail. She sat there growling louder and louder… until she couldn’t take it anymore and stood up with a grumble.

“Alright,” she muttered. “I’ll show you the way, but I’m only doing it because I want to make sure Alice is okay. And you have to carry Arwen!”

Freya didn’t even have to ask. I knelt down and offered her my arms, and the fluffy cub jumped right up.

“Come on,” I said to Arwen after a quick snuggle. “Let’s go find your big sister.”

…Whoever she is.