He looked around to see if anybody was around. Sensing nothing he turned his attention back to the book. Confusion spread all over his expression. He didn't sense anybody while he was asleep. On top of being a light sleeper, he couldn't sleep well. The whole time he was on guard in case someone arrived. The rock hard floor didn't help in giving him a decent rest. The only reason he fell asleep was because he hadn't slept for a long time. He stood pondering the options available.
If this isn't suspicious I don't know what is. Just by taking a glance at it I have a bad feeling. The book looks semi old even though there's nothing written. I'm more surprised by the fact that it hasn't deteriorated by the time I found it. Not going to even mention how creepy this whole situation is.
Making sure the book actually had no contents he flipped to every page, only to be greeted by the pages containing nothing. He closed it, putting it inside his tracksuit.
Luckily I have a pocket inside my tracksuit. As much as I want to throw this away, I don't want it to suddenly appear out of nowhere. I could've already messed up by picking it up. You never know with these fantasy worlds.
He sighed before ultimately deciding to keep it, for now. Taking a better look at himself he saw that his clothes got slightly dirty. Not minding, he wandered around asking questions to the inhabitants. He noted that they were much more friendly than last time. Taking a better look, he fitted right in with the people living here. Well, except with his dark black hair, of course. In fact his tracksuit wasn't even that expensive, if he remembered correctly he bought it from a one of the many local stores. Meaning that the materials were not the best out there though he understood the struggle so he frequently went there.
"Hey, there. Do you by any chance know where I can buy stolen goods?" He asked a random person.
"Yeah, near the end of the slums there should be Old Man Rom's loot house."
"Thanks, live strong."
After asking some more people around, he arrived at some sort of loot house. He knocked on the wooden door as he waited for a response. Nothing, it was completely quiet. He tried one more time but the same thing happened. Aware that he wasn't going to get a response any time soon, he gave up.
I can keep going without food and water for a few more days. I cannot afford to spend my money carelessly. Should I ask about the book I'm currently holding? No, that's a stupid idea. I have no idea of the history, culture, etc. For all I know there can be some crazy cult worshiping a witch that uses these books as their sacred texts.
He gazed at the dazzling sun, he did it until he couldn't handle it anymore. Perhaps the reason behind the strange action was to confirm that he had really spent the night in another world. It isn't easy to accept the reality of being isekai'd.
The thoughts of his family were being subconsciously pushed as far away as possible. Was he running away instead of facing it? Was he truly that slothful? Nevertheless if he did address his problem in his current state nothing good was going to come out of it.
Like any normal person he started seeing tiny, random placed pigmentation. As his sight adjusted, he kept at what he was previously doing. That is, when he felt something he couldn't put his finger quite on.
Some unexplainable thing conveyed the feeling of...annoyance?
Although he tried to brush it off to no avail. As a matter of fact it actually got stronger by each passing second.
Another thing that bothered him was the final shade of color hadn't disappeared. Normally it should've been gone but no, it still was here brightly shining as it even followed him.
Huh? Am I imagining things? Have I finally gone insane?
Denying it over and over he nevertheless quickened his pace trying to lose it. What else could he do? Not too long ago he woke up to find a mysterious eerie book. And now he has to deal with this flying orb chasing him?
What does it want?
He pondered, digging his nails into his skin.
Shit, I'm panicking. If I want answers I'll have to confront it. Good luck to me. Hah...who am I even talking to?
His habit of talking and thinking to someone else who isn't there occurred whenever he deemed necessary. It greatly helped him calm down, that's why he usually used this trick when he was interrogated by the police.
Asking for valuable information, which he indeed gave but subtlety to ensure his family's safety and for the officers to arrest them. Fortunately he never got caught. Although on some occasions he was going to serve time it got reduced for his cooperation. That's how he walked as a free man that one time he got caught by the authorities
Back to his predicament, he immediately stopped himself and came to an abrupt end. He specifically chose a spot where it was devoid of people. He didn't want anybody to listen to their conversation. Though he could have very well dug his grave by being alone with a mysterious being.
He calmly turned around facing the dot floating in the air. Moments after he did, the feeling of annoyance got replaced by one of satisfaction.
"Finally." the voice rang through his head.
"Huh? Can you communicate with me telepathically?"
"Yes."
He found himself bewildered at the revelation. Sure, he knew he was in a fantasy world but he never witnessed anything supernatural. Making it hard to believe there was any. Frankly it takes time to get adjusted to the new rules of this world. Things that are normal here won't be back in his homeland. If he never thought it was possible yet here he is experiencing this phenomenon.
"I know I may sound ignorant but I'll still ask. What exactly are you?"
"Lesser spirit." Surprised the spirit answered
There are spirits in this world? This one said it's a lesser one, so maybe there's levels of spirits? In addition, what do they even do? From what I know spirits are the souls of the dead people who come back to visit on a specific holiday we celebrate. Either the orb is a spirit of a dead person who is still lingering around or a soul that has been a spirit since the day it was born.
"Is that why you can struggle to say more than two words?"
They were meant to be nothing more than his curiosity getting the better of him. However this caused the round shining ball to slowly move down in shame.
"Yeah, I'm sorry for that." He quickly apologized, not liking that he made the orb feel that way.
"Okay, let's see. I'll ask some questions and you'll answer them. Don't worry, even a yes or no should suffice. Is that fine with you?" He asked for confirmation as he didn't want to force the circle of pigmentation to do something they didn't want.
"Very well."
"If you are a lesser spirit, are there more here?"
"Yes."
Okay, maybe there's more than I initially thought.
"Assuming there are, why haven't they showed themselves?"
"Don't know."
That's weird, why does this one show up when the others don't? In the first place why did this one approach me? Can they appear out of nowhere and talk to a person?
"Not to sound rude but why did you talk to me? I'm not special, I'm sure there's somebody else you can talk to."
"Felt something."
What is that supposed to mean? Ah! It must be the book. Yeah, that's it. There's no other reason it would talk to me.
"You mean the book?" He pointed to the tiny outline of a book in his tracksuit.
"What's that?" It curiously asked.
"Oh, I thought you were after this."
Taking the book out to show it, the floating color began panicking, moving around violently. Seeing this he cursed what he was holding for possibly ruining his relationship with the spirit.
I knew something was wrong with this cursed object. Nine times out of ten my instincts are correct. What am I supposed to do now? Wait! This might be an opportunity to ask the origin of this object.
"Why?" Not letting him speak, worry filled the voice of the spirit
"Why do I have this? It's a strange story, it suddenly appeared when I woke up. Can you please tell me what this is?"
"Gospel."
"Gospel..." he muttered.
According to his world it shouldn't cause so much panic. The main character wasn't religious per say but his mother did bring him along when she went to church. Those times where he was younger and she was alive, recalling this memory, nostalgia filled him.
"So you do have religion in this place, huh?"
"No."
"What do you mean?" His eyebrows furrowed in puzzlement.
It wanted to warn him about the danger of the book. However being a lesser spirit it couldn't, despising its inability to choose the appropriate words.
"Be wary."
"Be wary of the book, you say..."
He was aware that you couldn't take this lightly. He restrained the urge to do something unreasonable like burning it.
"Don't worry, it's empt—"
His body froze, the first page that was supposed to be empty had something written on it. It felt like his whole body dropped a few degrees. Instantly he closed the book shut and opened it rapidly checking. What he saw was once again the writing in the book. An unknown sensation invaded him. Regaining his composure back he looked back.
"This—yesterday when I found it was empty. Why...does it have something written on it?"
"Understand it?"
"No, I have never seen these letters."
"Really?"
"Yeah, look." He showed it to the spirit who slightly recoiled.
"Can't understand."
"So none of us can."
"Only you."
That's impossible, he couldn't read this. Then it hit him. He doesn't know how to read this world's writing. If he learned how to read then he would understand what the book has. By the words it spoke he is the only one able to understand this text. Like he owns it, a sour expression came onto his face. Or the floating thing couldn't read.
"More importantly. Now, why are you glowing in a certain color? Does it matter?"
He tried to distract himself by asking more questions. The orb understood this so it continued answering.
"My element."
"Hmm, like magic? Are there different types? How many, then?"
I'm pretty confident that there are at least three. Those being fire, water, and earth.
"Six."
"Judging by your color you most likely aren't one of the generic elements."
"Generic elements?" They sounded confused by what he was saying.
"I was talking to myself. Anyways, which element are you?"
"Yang."
"Just making sure, is there a yin element by any chance?"
"Mhm." The spirit nodded or what felt like a nod.
That's five, so what's the last one?
"So what does it do?"
"Difficult explanation." The flying orb sadly said.
"That makes sense. Well, what are you going to do?"
"Hm?"
"I'll be going back to find someone to teach me how to read. I recommend for you to leave, I don't want to drag you into my problems." He scratched his head awkwardly.
"Follow you." It stubbornly said as if it wouldn't take a no as an answer.
"All right, but I want to thank you for telling me what I wanted to know. It helped me a lot in understanding things." He thanked the spirit, and light slowly disappeared.
Is it still here? Yeah, I can sense it still being here. This is troublesome, how am I supposed to learn how to write without being suspicious?
On the bright side, I got to know someone who I'll get along with.
A/N
Back with another chapter! I know it took a while for the next one but the truth is that finished this chapter a few days ago and just now decided to publish it.
So what do you think of the story so far? I'll be answering questions in the author's note so feel free to ask them or you can just message me.
So first up is this one saying that the mc will be edgy.
I don't know what gave off that feeling but no he won't be an edgy mc. That's all I'm going to say unless you want me to elaborate which I know you don't want.
After taking in your suggestions, I have decided to not include Subaru in this fanfic.
By the way I changed the tags.
Thank you for reading.