Project: Alternative

Chapter 9: I'm a servant now. Great, right? (Eru)

Ever since I stopped an assassination attempt on Reine, I've been hired to work as her personal servant. There were two reasons why I was hired as a servant.

The first reason was because Reine was grateful for what I did. I was a guest from another world and I had no place to live in or even money. Reine actually offered to give me shelter for free but I couldn't take it since I was not comfortable with not paying. That was why we compromised and I became her personal servant.

The second reason was because of a certain problem. Reine and the other nobles gathered because of an oracle. The oracle said that there were transported people from another world. They should find the transported people and bring them to "the one who commands Reality" to avoid a crisis.

I had a hunch on what was going on. Jun-kun told me all about the Servers and Coders. It wasn't impossible that whoever was in charge of this world would command a person to fix this problem. And "the one who commands Reality" must be someone like Jun-kun who was a Moderator.

But what did they mean by a crisis? Was it bad that we were sent to this world? From what Jun-kun told me, every Server was different from one another. If that was the case, my body could be different from the residents of this world. Reine said that she couldn't sense any mana in my body so that was one major difference.

Right now, I was watering the plants in Reine's mansion. Reine would tell me that I shouldn't work hard but I refused her suggestion. I was living in her home so I need to earn my keep. And besides, I was hired as a servant so I had to work as one otherwise the others would find it to be unfair.

"You. Reine. Call", a maid walked towards me.

"Thank you", I replied.

I was also learning this world's language. It was a language similar to English and the letters were not like Japanese characters where there are multiple readings and such so it was easy. However, I was still having a hard time trying to learn how to pronounce the words.

"Did you need me for something?" I asked Reine when I entered her study room.

She spoke in another language. I received a strong headache but it died down after a few seconds. No matter how many times I've experienced it, Soul Talk really gave me a huge headache.

"Reika. I called for you to ask about what the oracle told us", she said.

"What do you want to know?" I asked

"Do you have an idea on what they meant by "the one who commands Reality?" I want to hear your opinion."

"It could be a god or something, right?"

I couldn't possibly tell her about Coders. Jun-kun asked me to keep their existence a secret. I was sure that he would want to have the least number of people who knew about Coders.

"Possibly... Some gods have powerful magic that could warp Reality but if that's the case, why not just simply say "gods" instead of "the one who commands Reality?" It would give less confusion", Reine said.

"I don't really know. There might be someone who could twist Reality to their desires", I replied.

"If there's someone like that, they must be really powerful."

She got that right. Jun-kun looked really strong. If he wanted to kill me when I fought him, I would've died for real. Reality could be broken down into codes and I was pretty sure that by following that logic, he could "delete" things. The thought of disappearing because of a simple command ran a shiver down my spine.

"Are you busy today?" she asked.

"Not really. Why?"

"I want to learn more about your world."

I spent the next two hours talking to Reine about my world. She was curious about Japanese culture so I told her everything that I knew. One thing she liked was the honorifics we used in our language. It took me time to explain the difference between "san", "chan", and "kun."

"We also call acquaintances using their last names. People who call others using their first names was a sign that they were close. Nicknames show that two people are really close as well", I explained.

"So if I was in your world, I would be calling you Eru?" she asked.

"Well... If we were close, then you could call me that."

"But I thought you only called people by their last names if you weren't close?"

"Yeah? If you call me Eru, that means we were close."

"I'm confused. Even if I called you by your last name, it meant we were close?"

"Wait... What do you mean by last name? Eru is my first name."

Reine's eyes widened.

"Really? I thought your first name was Reika since you said your name was Reika Eru."

Oh. I see what was going on now.

"In my world, we introduce ourselves with our last names first before saying our first names. Reika is my last name while Eru is my first."

"I see... So in other words, my name would be introduced as Pavolia Reine in your world?"

"That's right."

I see... Reine was her first name. That means I've been calling her first name all this time? If this was Japan, I would've been called a creep for calling a girl acquaintance using her first name.

"Do you prefer if I call you Reika or should I start calling you Eru?" Reine asked.

"What is common in this world?"

"In this world, we call people by their first names. It is a bit rude to call someone using their last names."

"If that's the case, then you can switch to Eru. I've been calling you using your first name so it would be fair if you switched."

"Okay then."

Somebody knocked on the door of her study and when it opened, a man in armor entered the room.

He spoke in a foreign language and handed Reine a letter. After that, the man left.

"What's that?" I asked.

"I am currently the one in charge of looking for all the transported people and so I instructed all of my connections to look for people who spoke a weird language. The man from earlier is one of my agents and he said he found someone who fit the bill", she answered.

Reine began reading the letter.

"I see. We found one person who fit the bill", she said.

"What are the details?"

"There's a black-haired girl who appeared in a village one day. She didn't speak their language and when they found a mage who could do Soul Talk, she claimed to be from another world."

"I see. What's her name?"

"She said her name is Oozora Subaru, a person who was from a country called Japan."

Reine continued reading.

"Eru... We'll be leaving tomorrow. Be prepared", she said.

"Wait. Two of us are going to go? Why not send a servant?" I asked.

"This is a situation that requires me to do things myself. The world would be in a crisis if I didn't gather the transported people. And I want you to come along so that we can truly confirm that she was from another world and not just an insane woman."

I see... It made sense.

Reine then told me to go and prepare for the journey tomorrow. It would be great if she was someone from the same world as me. I wanted to hear someone speaking Japanese without the help of magic.

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A/N: I'm back from a break. And now it's time to start off with Eru's POV again.