After I displayed brutality, the remaining bandits ran away with their lives. I had little interest in pursuing them, so I let them escape. Their leader was dead, I don’t even know where, so it was not like they were organized anymore.

When there was nobody left to bother me with a fight, I knocked on the door of the community hall. Reylia didn’t hesitate and opened the door. “You already finished?”

“What can I say, they’re just bandits. Gnash handled the only real problem.” The good, decrepit boy wagged his tail happily when I mentioned him. He knew he won himself some delicious snacks later. “It should be safe now. We can either leave or wait for the guild to arrive. What do we do?”

“With them gone, there is no reason to leave. Let's wait for the guild to arrive, and then we can let them handle the rest. ”

“Roger that.”

While we waited for the guild, I got to work on cleaning the mess I made in the plaza. The sight was bloody, to say the least. I ended up cutting the head of more scrubs than I thought and that left its mark on the ground. There was also all the unconscious bandit I knocked out that needed to be tied up. I didn’t bother to heal their injuries, they got into this mess themselves, and wasting what little mana I had left on them would be stupid.

Phyralia was keeping watch just in case, and Reylia was still healing some people inside. Gnash and Tenta were cleaning with me. We threw the dead bandits in a pile to be burned later and tied the ones still alive with ropes. Whatever happened to them was not my problem anymore, the guild could take care of that.

“What a mess you did!” My shadow said. She waved her hand in front of a bandit with a hole in its stomach to see if he was alive. His eyes didn’t move. “Was that much carnage necessary? You could have, like, refrained a little more.”

She didn’t need more mana than what I already gave her, so I didn’t see a reason to cancel the spell. I was already used to talking to myself anyway.

“Refrain for what? They were scum!”

“I don’t know, information? They seemed pretty organized. Maybe they have a hideout somewhere. Think about all the gold they might have in there!”

“We don’t need all of them alive to make them talk.”

“You’re the one wielding Flashbang. I won’t judge myself, if you want to kill them, do so. As long as we get paid properly for it, and we find where they keep their gold, I don’t mind. We need as much money as possible.” With nothing to do, my shadow self played with her illusion of Flashbang by doing spins and throwing her weapon. The display was kinda impressive in terms of useless moves that would kill me in combat, but as a show it was entertaining. That's why I needed her, after all.

When we finished building the pile of corpses, Gnash began sniffing at me. He searched my body with his nose, looking for I didn’t know what. When he located what he wanted, he tried to open one of the pouches on my belt.

My shadow and I looked curiously at each other, not knowing what the dog wanted. I took out the pouch content and found a plague crystal in the palm of my hand. It was from when I cured the woman's disease with my affinity. I totally forgot I had that thing.

I offered it to my dog. “You want it?” He sniffed at the crystal and ate it completely. I heard the crunchy sound of the crystal being destroyed by his teeth. I hope he liked the taste.

After a few seconds, he began salivating with a dark green liquid in his mouth. He looked totally fine, so I wasn’t worried about him. Our plague affinity protected us from any disease anyway. We were immune against that kind of horrible shenanigan. I touched the saliva with my hand and detected plague mana inside it.

With the help of my plague affinity, I discovered that it was a highly toxic venom that would weaken its victims until their immune system was in shambles. Then, it paralyzes them until their body successfully destroys the venom, or until medical attention arrives.

Gnash now had a new plague ability, a very useful one at that. A single bite would mean the end of an opponent, one way or another. The attack needed mana, but it was his only means of using magic. Without other abilities like that one, I doubted his reserve would empty before he got enough time to snack on everyone.

The cleanup finished, I let Gnash guard our prisoners and joined Reylia inside the hall. All the wounds that were in the reach of my healing abilities were already patched up. With nothing to do and Reylia's encouragement, I sat in a corner and let myself fall asleep. It was around midnight, well past the time I usually go to sleep.

My shadow would stay active a bit longer, meaning she could warn me if anything happened when I wasn’t awake. Reylia and Phyralia were still fully awake, meaning I didn’t need to worry about anything.

The behemoth moon gave a beautiful and decent amount of light, but it didn’t have the same effect as morning sunlight. My internal clock was more influenced by the sun than I initially thought. In normal conditions, my body just got extremely sleepy whenever the sun wasn’t around. The only reason why I had been so alert during that night was probably the adrenaline. You can’t really sleep peacefully when your life is at risk.

Still, back on Earth, I never really got that tired. It never mattered if I slept during the day or night, I just did it whenever I was tired of playing, watching videos or being miserable.

Here, it was different. The demands of my internal clock were getting more and more tasking on my body for whatever reason. When I woke up in this world, I felt like sleeping at night was better for me, but the effects were much more tame then.

At that point, I had been in this world for almost a year, around 9 months more or less. I didn’t even know when my birthday was and didn’t care anyway. As long as I knew my approximate age, I was fine. When I met Lavanda I was fifteen and turned sixteen a month or two later. The goddess didn’t mention anything specific about my body or condition, except that I was a pure elf. At least it probably meant I didn’t have to worry about it.

I thought it might be because of my most prominent affinity, my plant affinity. These were my last thoughts before I drifted into a deep sleep. Too tired to think more.

---

Shadow Emery

Without the need to sleep or even the feeling of wanting to rest, I stayed up and played with Gnash. I wasn’t able to pet him, which was a shame, but seeing him trying to catch me was fun enough to pass the time.

Thirty minutes after Emery had gone to sleep on a bench, we got news from Phyralia that the guild reinforcement finally arrived. I let Gnash with Emery and followed Reylia and Fany outside. Mizuko stopped before us and let down a cute little hydra that immediately tried to cuddle me. I almost wanted to cry at my inability to hug him as he passed straight through me. He looked confused for a second until I pointed toward the hall. Reylia was kind enough to open the door for him.

On horses, a group of ten knights in armour dropped off their mount and took a look around. Their sight stopped at the big pack of shady-looking people tied up in the middle of the village centre. They were a hard sight to miss, with some of them still bleeding from their injuries.

Fany looked a little confused, but still greeted and thanked them for the reinforcement, even if it was a little late. They wore some kind of insignia on their shoulder that I didn’t recognize. When they took off their helmets, they revealed heads resembling something between lizards and dragons.

Even Fany was surprised. Apparently, they were from a delegation from the neighbouring country and were on their way to the capital. They made a stop at Dawnriver for the night, planning to take up the road tomorrow morning. Before they knew it, the city guild asked for their help on a bandit attack on a village near the dungeon. They didn’t say who it was, but the one in charge of the delegation accepted the guild offer and sent the ten knights in front of us to help.

The guild staff lacked strong adventurers, A-rank and higher, that could take up the task of clearing bandits, hence why they asked for help to clear the village from the bandit presence. A few groups of actual B-rank adventurers were on the way to handle things once the knight had cleared the village. Needless to say, everything was already finished when they arrived.

With the village already safe and the enemies captured, the only thing left to do was to wait for the adventurer to arrive. Their task would be to help get the village get in order for the next day. Even if I doubted what they could do, I didn’t have a say in the matter, they were already on the way.

The captain of the knight presented himself as Ostrak. His scale colour was a rough-looking grey, and he didn’t have any horns on his head like some of his subordinates. Some of the knights had red, blue and even green scales and hairs, with some colours being more flashy than others. Only the girls had hair and horns, while all the men only had horns. I couldn’t really tell how old Ostrak was by simply looking at his face, I had never seen his race before. The only thing I could base myself on was his rather commanding voice and the absolute respect he got from his troops. My best guess was that he was around forty, maybe fifty-year-old, at least by human standards. Again, no idea if his race could live longer than humans. Reylia was kind enough to whisper to me that they were Dragonborn.

When he asked us how we handled that many bandits, Reylia and Fany's head creepily turned in my direction, I almost blushed when the knights began staring at me too. I wished they could have spared me from their curious glare, the real culprit was currently sleeping inside the community hall.

I told them how me and my friends were close when the village got attacked and how it was us who sent a demand for help at the guild. Honestly, I had expected the bandits to be stronger than that. Even if I was an A-rank adventurer, this was basically the first time I battled other people to death. As such, I didn’t really know I was strong enough to mop the floor with them.

Ostrak approached until he was standing in front of me. I was a little intimidated by the fact that he was at least three heads taller than me. He had to look down to even look me in the eyes. From the way he eyed me, I could tell he knew there was something magical about me, even If he didn’t know I was an illusion.

“Even if this isn’t my country, as a knight who lives to serve, I thank you for your assistance. Because of your efforts, those who live here will see another day.” Ostrak offered his hand for a handshake.

“Well, that's awkward! Sorry, I can’t shake your hand, I’m just a shadow. The real Emery got tired and is sleeping right now.” I admitted.

“No offence taken. Our directives were to neutralize the menace, let the adventurers handle the rest, and return as soon as possible. If you wish, we could personally escort you to the city as soon as the adventurers arrive. I do not doubt your abilities to defend yourselves, but it would be our pleasure to give you peace of mind. Monsters roam at night, and I assume you would like to sleep in your own bed.”

I pondered the thought as Fany accepted. Her friend needed serious medical attention and staying here wasn’t an option, she was still using earth magic to reinforce her leg to be able to walk.

To my surprise, Reylia declined their offer, she said that she and Phyralia would stay here until morning to help in whatever way they could. I didn’t really know what more we could do. Before I could say anything, Reylia told me to go with them back to Dawnriver. The real Emery was sleeping and as a shadow, there wasn’t I couldn’t interact with anything. The most I could actually do was just make sure the real me got back in her room safely.

Mizuko would stay with them to be able to go back to Dawnriver when they were finished. The knights had horses, so there wasn’t any problem with me riding with one of the knights. Gnash and Hybry would be with me anyway if anything were to happen. As always, Tenta was hidden in the real Emery clothes, adding another layer of protection.

The real problem was how to transport Emery without waking her up. I was pretty confident that she would be hard to wake up, and I didn’t want to anyway. As her, I knew how tired she was. She really needed that beauty sleep, and I wasn’t about to sabotage myself.

When I shared my concern, Ostrak turned toward his knights. “Entrik!” The knight captain called. As his command, one of the knights stepped forward. “You will carry the lady and escort her to her room.”

“Yes, captain!” The knight walked to me and put his hand on his armoured chest. “Milady, my name is Entrik. It would be my pleasure to personally escort you.” He said with a small courteous bow.

The Dragonborn was about as tall as the captain, three heads taller than me. His scales were black with hints of crimson here and there. With the captain, he was the only one who didn’t have any horns on his head. I also noticed that he was slightly different from the others when it came to his face. He looked somewhat more lizard when the others had faces closer to dragons.

“Uhh, hi, I’m Emery!” I didn’t really know how I was supposed to react.

An actual knight was bowing in front of me, this was like in an old fairy tale. The only difference was that I wasn’t a princess and the knight was a dragon lizard. The fact that he was a Dragonborn didn’t bother me, it was the contrary. His lines were sharp and his movement refined, probably because he was a knight. As a Dragonborn, he felt more exotic than an average human I could see anywhere. With only the knights in front of me to base myself on, I couldn’t say if he was handsome or not for a dragonborn. The only thing I knew for sure was that I was blushing a little, even if I didn’t know why. Thank god the real Emery was asleep.

Ten minutes after the knights, the group of adventurers arrived. There were a dozen of them, about half C-rank and half B-rank. When it was time to leave with the knights, I led Entrik to the real me, still sleeping.

Emery was in a corner of the hall, sitting on a bench with her head against the wall, with Flashbang beside her. A little hydra was nestled on her lap, his three heads cuddling comfortably against the boobs just above him. Sleeping on the ground, Gnash opened his eyes as we approached. Some fearless children were petting the decrepit dog without any fear, contrary to their mothers who had a watchful eye not too far away.

Entrik was a little worried about the reanimated dog staring at him with empty eyes, but I reassured him the dog was harmless as long as he didn’t try anything stupid.

Slightly reassured by my words, he asked me how he should transport the real me. The road was gonna take about 45 minutes on horseback and Emery needed to be as comfortable as possible. Just carrying her on his shoulder like a corpse was out of the question.

I pondered for half a second before I arrived at the only solution. “Princess carry!” I said with a blushing smile. The community hall wasn’t empty, some of the villagers heard me. The women had a cheeky smile, while the children didn’t understand what it meant. For a second I thought I was gonna die of embarrassment. I didn’t know it was gonna get worse.

“What is… a princess carry?” Entrik asked with his hand on his chin. Not only he had me say it, but now I had to explain what was a princess carrying to him! I swear this was above my mana paycheck.

Not wanting to drag this out longer than necessary, I began explaining the very simple way to carry a girl like a princess. At least there was no worry about him dropping me by accident with how strong he looked.

“Keep your right hand just above the knee section and the other around the side of the chest, without touching!” I pointed.

“Like that?” He said as he adjusted his grip to where I indicated.

After a minute of adjustment and an embarrassing view, he was officially princess-carrying me. At that instant, I was so happy to be an immaterial shadow, even if it didn’t lessen my embarrassment. If Emery was to wake up, I didn’t want to think about how red she would be.

The only one who ever carried me like that before was my dad when I couldn’t exit my hospital bed. With how little opportunity I had to leave my room, this felt just a little nostalgic. My brother did try to do it once or twice, but his sticks weren’t able to hold me for longer than a few minutes.

In comparison, Entrik in front of me was lifting me without a sweat like I weighed nothing. I couldn’t see his arms or chest under his plate armour, but saying he was strong was probably an understatement.

He was a knight after all, and I guess a qualified one at that. He was with a delegation from another country. I have seen this kind of thing too many times in novels and anime to have no idea who their delegation leader might be. At least it didn’t involve me … I hoped.

Leading the way with me in his arms, Entrik exited the hall. Gnash was playing the guard dog beside me. Hybry jumped on the real Emery and got comfortable on her boobs. The hydra nuzzled them to make sure Entrik understood that these were his territory.

Just before reaching the other knights, we passed Reylia and Phyralia. They both sent me a cheeky, almost unsettling smile on their lips that gave me chills. Also, I could have sworn I heard them making some comments, even if wasn’t close enough to understand a word of what they were saying.

Entrik quickly saluted his captain and climbed on a horse. The breed was somewhat slightly different from what I had seen in the city, the only notable difference being that the horse was bigger than average. When I tried to climb, my hand just passed right through the mount without any resistance. It seemed I would need to run along the horse instead of relaxing on it. At least Gnash looked enthusiastic about running with me.

I didn’t really understand how my own magic and stamina worked as a shadow, but I doubted I could get tired just from running. The only thing I knew for sure was that I would disappear when the mana Emery gave me would run out. The other thing I instinctively knew was that for me, disappearing didn’t mean death, just sleeping until Emery called on my service again.

Fany was given her own horse to accommodate her and her injured friend. When everyone was ready, we were on our way to Dawnriver.

With nine other knights in the group, including the captain, there was little risk of an attack of any kind. The road during the night was peaceful. I listened silently to the sound of bugs and birds as I did my best to keep up with the horses. They didn’t have any reason to go at full speed, so keeping up with them wasn’t difficult for both Gnash and me.

After fifteen minutes of non-stop running, I was barely a little more tired than before. This experiment allowed me to conclude that the only thing that mattered for my actual energy level was the mana I had left.

With nothing for me to do except run, I chatted with Entrik as I ran alongside his horse. During the conversation, I was curious about him, so that was the first thing I asked.

“My apologies, I’m afraid there isn’t much to say about me. I was born in the ice-cold village where my mother comes from. Not long after my birth, my mother moved in with my father to the capital. As far as I remember, I wanted to become a knight. To my surprise, I made it.”

“You have been a knight for how long?”

“I enrolled three years ago. As soon as I hit twenty, I didn’t waste a second and joined the garrison. My father wasn’t pleased to see me become a knight instead of helping the family business, but he respected my choice.” I thought it was interesting.

I never had the opportunity to do anything other than lay in bed and survive to maybe die the next day. My parents never got angry at me for anything. It was almost unsettling that they were happy as long as I was alive.

“And your mother? Encouraging or disapproving?”

“Not sure. She doesn’t like that I risk my life, but think this is at least a respectable choice. She keeps telling me that as long I come back in one piece, she is happy.” I could relate to that to a certain degree.

My brother told me that whenever Mom and Dad got a phone call from the hospital, they were scared to answer. They hated the thought that any time the phone rang, it could mean that I had died. I guessed they finally received the final phone call by now.

“Enough of that,” I thought. Reminiscing about my life on Earth was a thousand times more tiring than running, so I changed the subject. I was curious about what kind of things he did as a knight.

“There isn’t much to say, I have only been serving for three years. If you want to hear more exciting stories, you should ask the others. They have a lot more experience than I do.”

I ignored his suggestion and pushed him to talk. I wasn’t about to ask a total stranger their life story when I didn’t even know their name. Entrik was a different case scenario, he was carrying me! Learning about the guy holding me in his arms was natural, at least for my sanity.

For the rest of the travel, he told me about monsters he fought, balls he attended and how he joined the royal knight under Ostrak's commands. I wasn’t really surprised by that last part. When I asked him if it was okay for him to tell me that, he answered that it was fine as long as I didn’t spread the information around.

The conversation was pleasant, and I enjoyed it more than I initially thought I would. When we reached Dawnriver, his captain ordered him to drop me at my inn. He didn’t protest, I was sure he would have suggested it even if he hadn’t asked. Not long after entering the city, we separated from Fany and the other knight, who would report to the guild. Entrik would join them as soon as he finished.

The real me was still sleeping peacefully in his arms as we walked along the empty street. It was probably a bit later than midnight, making the amount of people wandering the city close to zero. At least there wasn’t anyone to see me like that. After all, I still needed to change my hair colour back to blond.

Reaching the inn, Clory was behind her desk doing some paperwork. I wondered if she even knew the concept of sleep. She looked a little suspicious when she saw that they were two Emery, one more awake than the other.

“Don’t worry, it is just magic. He's here to drop me off in my room. Reylia and Phyralia should be back before noon.” I reassured her.

Bending over her desk, she glared at Gnash and Hybry. “Understood. Good night, Miss Emery.” She said with a smile after seeing the two good boys.

After walking up the stairs, Entrik searched in the pouch I indicated and took out the key to my room. It was funny how he didn’t know where to look. He tried to avert his eyes whenever they inevitably wandered off toward less knightly locations.

Inside my room, Tara stared at him with her eight eyes as he walked in. She wasn’t on guard, just curious about what he was. I noticed the egg hidden under a heavy blanket on the bed.

When he was about to deposit me in the bed, I interjected and told him to put me in the hammock instead. He looked confused but obeyed nonetheless.

I didn’t know if I could ever sleep in a bed ever again, and didn’t want to try anyway. I had too many bad memories in them to simply sleep carefree in their mattress.

Finally free of my weight, he made sure I was comfortable before taking a step back. “Lady Emery,” He said as politely as ever. “It was my pleasure to help you tonight, but now I must go back to my duty. May we meet again, I would like to know your story now that you know mine. I am sure yours is more interesting than I could ever imagine. Good night.” He smiled warmly before exiting the room.

I was left speechless. “I hope … we meet again,” Was all I could mutter.

---

Entrik

Right outside Emery's room, the knight took a moment to calm himself. Just how did he end up in a situation like that? He knew that as a knight, he lived to serve, but carrying a young woman to her bedroom was a little much, too much for his nerves.

He was happy that his racing heartbeat was muffled by his armour. Otherwise, he would never be able to look at her again. He saw the subtle glance that his colleagues kept giving him during the travel. They would no doubt tease him about it at every chance.

He considered himself extremely lucky that the shadow Emery had been there to distract him from the attractive woman he had been holding in his arms. He trusted his own common sense to not have done anything improper, even if the shadow hadn’t been there. But, he was glad it was finally over. There was a limit to a knight's nerves.

In his mind, Entrik cursed Ostrak to have put him in that situation in the first place. Still, he couldn’t help but be grateful to have met Emery.

She acted with manners, but not too much. Entrik always kept his best behaviour in case there was a noble in the room. It was something that every royal knight learned to do before they could even use a sword. A single wrong word in front of the wrong person could end your life in less than a day. Emery didn’t seem overly concerned about such things, even if it shows that she appreciated it.

Entrik has been instructed in many things to become a full-fledged knight. The art of resisting a charming woman wasn’t one of them. He truly hoped to meet her again one day. At least to learn more about her story. He could tell she was the kind of girl haunted by something. If he could help her in any way, it was his duty to do so.

---

The next morning when Emery was finally awake. She wondered why she was in her room with Hybry cuddling her boobs. Feeling like her shadow self might know something, she summoned her with the help of her shadow affinity.

The shadow Emery didn’t spare a single detail about what happened when Emery was asleep, especially details about Entrik, the Dragonborn. It all ended with both girls blushing heavily. A perfect way to start the day.

 

:

Author here, sorry for the delay on this chapter. Better Off In Another World is becoming quite a big book, and I have a lot of idea planned for the future. I already have three more familiars planned for Emery in the future.

That being said, I am looking into adding a bug familiar down the road. I don't know yet what kind of bug I will base the familiar on, but I am exploring a few prototype that could go well with the story. If you have any cool idea, feel free to leave a comment. 

I like the concept of the Rhyniogatha from ARK Survival Evolve and will probably use it if I do not find other interesting prototype. Small future familiar preview: one of the future familiar is base on one of the creature in ARK Survival Evolve. Have a nice day. 

https://pixai.art/artwork/1682651512122021617?utm_source=copy_web

https://pixai.art/artwork/1682652419868065388?utm_source=copy_web