Crossover (Arc 2: Dragonar Empire)
Chapter 6: General Halfer
A beautiful boy lay on a worn-out bed inside a house made out of stone. There were pieces of furniture around the room where he slept, but most of it was too old and worn out as well. The boy had long cyan hair; he wore a long-sleeved shirt with two buttons unbuttoned, revealing his collarbone and a glimpse of his strong chest. He also wore long black trousers, and a blue suit uniform was neatly placed on a chair. This boy was none other than Kuro, but the place where he lay was different from where he fell.
Kuro woke up and immediately looked around his surroundings. “Hmm… where… where am I?”As soon as he saw that it was different from his home, he perked up and scanned his surroundings thoroughly. All he saw were a few worn-out pieces of furniture and a square window on the wall.
‘This… where is this? This is a complete 360-degree change from my home!’
He looked at the window on his left and saw houses similar to the one he was in. People were engaging with others, and no modernity was visible at all. However, in the distance, he could see a castle similar to those in movies, though a bit old as it seemed to be made of bricks. The decoration, however, had a hint of modernity.
After a quick comparison, he surmised that the place might have poor governance. But, never mind that; his house was clearly not the one he was in, and there was no castle near their property!
“What happened? Where could I possibly be? I… I lost consciousness… and I can't remember what happened next!”
Despite being fully awakened, he still felt dizzy and couldn't clearly remember anything after he fell in the living room. He tried his best to recollect the memories, yet it was as if there were no memories at all. Then, a swooshing sound was heard inside the room.
“You are awake…”
Someone spoke near the bed where Kuro lay. When Kuro turned around, he saw a tall black-haired man with a crescent mark on his forehead and golden eyes. He wore black suit and trousers fitting to that of a butler. His facial expression was calm and composed, emitting an aura of professionalism. For some reason, there was a hint of familiarity, but he didn’t know anyone who looked like him. More importantly, how did that person even get inside the house without entering the door?
“Master, you must be very confused right now. Allow me to explain things concisely. At any moment, the kind woman and her child who saved you should arrive and consult you. Worry not, I mean no harm to my master,” he placed his right hand on his left chest and politely bowed his head, like a real professional butler.
“Master? Me? I don’t even know who you are… Wait a minute… That crescent moon on your forehead looks very familiar…!!... Impossible!” The way things were happening was very unexpected, yet he tried to maintain calm.
The sooner he got flustered, the sooner he would recompose himself. In this kind of situation, he practiced himself to always be calm no matter what happens. Being irrational would only endanger his current situation. But by the way things are looking, he couldn’t search for any reasonable answer to how he got into his situation. So, even if it is kind of impossible, he included fictitious ideas to somehow patch the clues he got from momentarily observing.
So, when he integrated his own knowledge with what he observed, the conclusion was that he transferred to another world. The conclusion he had was definitely unbelievable, unless he was dreaming. Nevertheless, he didn’t disregard the conclusion but asked himself another question to prove his conclusion—how?
Then, this man appeared in front of him, and there was a sense of familiarity; he also saw that particular crescent moon somewhere. He remembered the cat who always rested on the armchair—Crescent.
He was now confused; he could somehow accept that something made him travel into another world. But he couldn’t accept that the cat he had taken care of since he was a little baby was a grown man after all.
“Master, if what I think you are thinking is correct, then I could verify your thought. I am indeed Crescent, your cat,” Crescent gently smiled.
There was a brief silence inside the room.
“If you are indeed Crescent, then tell me what I usually bring inside my room from the kitchen as midnight snacks?” he chose the tried and proven method of confirmation. But of course, being cautious for the possibility of having his mind read, he consistently thought of blueberry muffins, which he randomly decided.
“On weekdays, you usually have tart or cake as your midnight snack, depending on the cake or tart you chose. You would also have a fruit juice or milk as well. On weekends, it would either be cookies or pies. Usually, pies are chosen depending if you are in a bad mood or not, which is usually due to your brother’s rants and teases. Yesterday evening, you had a chocolate mousse that you made on the day before. The amount you ate was only two-thirds of the original amount, for Mr. Richard had seen and eaten one-third of it. You also had warm milk as your drink,” Crescent answered in one go. No flaws were found, and he answered confidently.
“That—that Richard!! So, I was right that he was the one who ate my personally made chocolate mousse! I will definitely find a way to make him repay his debt!”
Crescent remained indifferent to how Kuro reacted. He was used to it anyway, so there wasn’t anything to be surprised about. When it comes to sweets, he knew that it would always come first unless something more important was at stake.
By the time that Kuro relaxed, he looked at Crescent. ‘This cat is really handsome! He had a cold appearance but not apathetic like that food-thieving bastard.’
“Wait… if you are a cat, where are your ears and tail? Don’t cats who can transform into humans can transform into their demi-human state as well?”
“Indeed, I can, however, it would be inappropriate to show it to you right now since it will only reduce our remaining time left.” As a cat who always saw his master holding two or more furry stuffed toys every time he came down from his room to the living room to watch TV or when Crescent was always dragged by Kuro all the way to his room to cuddle the cat whenever Kuro decided to sleep a bit late, he naturally knew the love of his master for furry pets.
“I will briefly explain the situation later. I am well aware that this situation is quite unbelievable, but please don’t let this butler do something like punching or pinching you to ask if you are dreaming or not. I’d like to maintain my professionalism. Based on my observation, we have landed in a world where dragons exist.”
Kuro pondered, “Dragons? Then the best solution to gather more details is to explore, right?”
Crescent became delighted. “As expected of master! It is really best to explore when we have a chance, but I am afraid that we don’t have enough time anymore. The kind woman who saved you is approaching. If you’ll excuse me.” Crescent bowed again, and suddenly, threads of black encircled his entire body until he turned into a cat. He leaped onto the bed and rested.
‘Amazing, so he is indeed Crescent! At first, I really thought that he was bluffing. Anyway, he had no malicious intent towards me, so it’s still better to work with him even if he wasn’t really Crescent.’ He thought as he looked at Crescent, who pretended to sleep, with amazement.
Then, the door opened, “Ah, you have awakened. I brought bread and soup; please fill your stomach. You have been sleeping for a whole day; you must be quite hungry now.”
A petite woman dressed in a worn-out dress, which similarly looked like rags, with a piece of cloth bundling her hair in one place, entered the room with a tray of soup and a piece of bread. Though her clothes were really old, it didn’t hinder her beauty and appeared to be quite young.
Kuro gently bowed his head and apologized. “Thank you for taking care of me while I am unconscious, and I am sorry for being an inconvenience at the same time,”
The woman shook her head and smiled, “It is fine. You don’t have to be sorry since it is a must to help those who are in need. Besides, it’s not me who you should thank but my daughter. Rosalie! Our guest has awakened; come inside the room and introduce yourself!”
The woman shouted by the door, and it was followed by running footsteps. A girl, whose age should be seven, entered the room. Just like the woman, she also wore old clothes, some were even patched, yet she was still so cute despite it.
‘This must be her daughter. I should do my best to repay the favor they did to me. But strangely…’
“You must be wondering why we never look the same, right?” the woman moved towards the girl and swayed off the dust on her shoulder; she guessed what Kuro was thinking about since she had encountered this scene a lot of times.
Kuro quickly apologized while waving his hands to show denial. “No… I did not mean it the wrong way. It just randomly popped out of my mind, but I held no intent to question your relationship.” However, the woman just chuckled and pinched her daughter’s cheeks, which made the girl ache in pain.
“No, it’s fine. Do not worry about it. My name is Rosanna Xenophil, and this is my daughter Rosalie Xenophil. Yes, we are not biologically related. We found her in the Valley of Roses, inside the Lazurias Forest, while hunting for food. My husband could not bear me any children because he had an unknown illness. So, we decided to adopt her so that we could have a daughter to take care of and treat as our own.” She warmly gazed at Rosalie, full of tenderness and familial affection.
“Ah, is that so... What a lucky fella, and a cute girl too! Thank you for saving me back there, Rosalie! My name is Kuro Takamichi, and I will do my best to repay your kindness!” He walked towards the pair of mother and daughter and crouched to his knees to shake hands with Rosalie. Rosalie stepped back and hid behind her mother’s legs, blushing a little, and softly muttered ‘you’re welcome.’
“She is a shy girl. She will warm up to you later,” Rosanna giggled and looked down on her daughter, who was hiding behind her back and gently pat her head. This replaced Rosalie’s blush with a pleasant look as she enjoyed her mother’s touch. Rosanna suddenly stopped and pondered for a moment; she turned her head towards Kuro, who was gently rubbing Crescent’s head.
“By the way, Kuro, why are you unconscious inside the Lazurias Forest? And you have such strange clothes that you are wearing.”
Kuro fell silent, baffled, and troubled. He didn’t account for this situation because he was busy finding the reason for how he traveled into another world.
He immediately created a fake explanation, which he firmly believed would be truthful enough to answer the unprecedented question. Expressing a troubled sigh, he secretly enjoyed stroking Crescent’s fur, causing the cat to purr comfortably.
Rosanna sat on the edge of the bed, and Rosalie jumped towards her mother, landing on her hips and sitting happily.
Kuro started his fictitious explanation, “Well, I can’t clearly remember anything, but I am a traveler. My head aches whenever I try to remember what happened to me during those days. Maybe something happened to me that day... I don’t really know. I apologize. But I am not a bad person! Believe me; it's just that I don’t live in this place.”
“Ah, did you come from another continent? That must be the reason why your clothes are strange. We don’t really know what the outside world looks like since our continent is protected by a barrier. We can’t go to other continents as we please because the seas are full of powerful beasts! Then you must be a really strong person, considering that you managed to get here all by yourself!”
Rosanna unexpectedly gave Kuro a leeway and support to strengthen his explanation. He had thought of various counter-arguments and even possible refutations if Rosanna ever complained or did not believe the truth he spoke of. He never guessed that Rosanna was so imaginative.
Rosalie, who could only understand a few words, nodded in admiration. She heard that Kuro, who was talking in front of her, was a strong person. On the other hand, Kuro was relieved since Rosanna’s imaginative reply made things easier for him to handle.
Kuro finally noticed the ‘barrier’ from Rosanna’s words. “Hm? Barrier? What barrier?”
‘This barrier, she told that it covered the entire continent and separated them from the outside world.’
“Huh? You didn’t notice that there is a barrier at the edge of this continent’s territory?”
Kuro was very perceptive and noticed her expression, making use of it, “No… actually, when I entered this continent, I never felt that there was a barrier at all. There must be a reason why; perhaps you know it, Mrs. Xenophil?” he used this as a chance to extract some information.
“Actually—”
