In Another World with JUST MONIKA 7 Twins They Were

Monika was still kneeling in the throes of despair as the three of us nonchalantly walked down the streets. The girls were staying a few steps behind, far enough that it might not be obvious we were a group. /"Nooo. That wasn't heroic at all. They totally think we robbed those guys!"/

"Meh, we've still got good ol' Zanac to vouch for us. A guy with nineteen other gold coins in his bag isn't going to bother with an extra silver or two," I mumbled.

/"That's not the problem. What if by doing so we get embroiled in some sort of underground crime syndicate? It's not exactly hard to find someone with a thing on his face. Maybe we should have just beat them up quickly without trash-talking them?"/

Monika looked up and stretched her hands out to the crystal heavens. /"Engaging with the criminal element implies to the viewers we are not above making use of them our own ends! Oh, crime! Oh villainy! Oh my dreams of a cliché heroic fantasy…!"/

Monika, please. Please not my hams. I have only a limited supply of them.

--

We found the Silver Moon inn soon enough. I stared up at the inn sign hanging beside the written sign.

"Crescent and star. Crescent and six-pointed star. Woow," I had to mumble. "Seriously, that's a Star of David, upright and everything."

Monika looked up. She took a deep calming breath and began to speak normally to me again.

/"I'm guessing that doesn't have the same connotations here as back home, of course. Or… your home, at least,"/ Monika replied evenly. /"Well at least it feels somewhat comforting that in one world these symbols coexist in harmony."/

"Excuse me, Mister Zah?"

"Nothing, just… idle thoughts. Forgive me, I do a lot of that. Please just ignore me when that happens."

/"Or this could be a Croatian Inn, I suppose,"/ Monika added. /"The Illyrian coat of arms."/

"But I like kebab."

The girls stared at each other doubtfully again, but followed me inside anyway.

The Silver Moon in was a cheerful-looking place, with a raised first floor after a three-stepped stoop with a balustrade. The wall around the doorway was a welcoming canary yellow. Its first floor was made of stone blocks, while the upper floors were wood and plaster the wattle and daub style. It had low sloping barnlike roofs in warm red tile broken here and there by garret windows for its livable attic. All in all it had four floors.

All its windows were plate glass. But it certainly looked like what you'd expect from a fantasy world inn, not a hotel.

So the first thing I asked the innkeeper, "Do you have kebab?"

"Um… what? I'm sorry sir, I don't quite understand…" She stared doubtfully at me, and then her glance slid off the thing on my face because she thought it might be impolite. "Meals or room, that's what we have here."

"Meat and vegetables, usually whole onions and bell peppers, on skewers roasted over an open fire."

"Oh! That! Of course, would you like to order?"

"EXCELLENT. Yes. I am also interested in staying in this inn, it was recommended to me by a friend." Then I turned back to look at the two girls behind me. "If you have somewhere else to go after this, it's fine. But please do allow me to treat you to a meal here for now."

The innkeeper was a young lady in her early 20s with cherry red hair tied up behind her head in a short ponytail. She wore a yellow shirt underneath a ruddy pink apron. She peered around me to look at the two girls, then up at my face again.

/"The lady is giving you a judging look. She is totally judging you right now. You playa."/

"I guess that would be fine?" said Elze.

--

While waiting for the food we sat at an empty table. For some reason the Silver Moon Inn did not have many customers, or any customers at all really.

So, on the way to the inn we had actually managed to at least introduce ourselves to each other. The girls were Elze and Linse Silhoueska. Twins they were.

Elze had long hair silver hair, with long plaits trailing down on either side of her face reaching down to her chest, held together by diamond-shaped purple bands. Linze had neck-length bob cut hair, but also with shorter plaits to just around chin-length jutting out of a broad purple cloth headband. They had brilliant green eyes.

Monika helpfully put aug reality signs over their heads, like character names in an RPG, because while running I had turned back and muttered "Where's Fistpunch and Shyface?" and she totally didn't trust me to not accidentally call them that out loud if I ever forgot their names.

Thank you Monika.

They sat on the other side of the tablet with Elze with her hands on the table laced together, and Linze with her hands on her lap. Their posture was defensive, but their demeanor confident.

"First of all, thank you for following me this far. I realize it's a show of a lot of trust to follow a stranger all the way this place after a different set of strangers just tried to harm you."

The two girls look at each other for a moment, then back at me.

/"In twinspeak that probably means 'yeah, we can take him',"/ Monika helpfully noted. I could not refute that.

"It's all good. Thank you for helping us earlier. It's good to be able to trust each other, neh?" said Elze, with a smile and slight tilt to her head, sending her long silken silver hair fluttering.

"Mm. Next time, don't hand over the merchandise until you're sure you will get paid and it has been understood that it is in undamaged condition. Get their verbal affimation. We have a saying in the business 'if you break it, you buy it.'"

Then I waved to the empty tables beside us. "Also, if you're going to exchange goods… the best place to do so is somewhere out in the open, like an inn like this one. If they are concerned about privacy and willing to pay a whole gold for things, serious buyers should be able to afford renting a room for a few hours."

I paused and touched my headset. "Actually, note to self: Set up a package delivery business. Before there was Amazon, there was Sears and Roebuck."

"Noted. But that requires a robust mail system and safe roads. The Pony Express really only worked because of the ability to keep replacement horses and riders on station in depots."

As I took my hand away from my headset, I saw that the sisters were giving me odd looks. Then Elze placed both hands on the table and bowed. "Thank you for your instruction, teacher!"

"Ahaha… not at all. It's good to trust, just hold something back is all."

"Sis, this is why I said you shouldn't have accepted that request. But… you wouldn't listen to me…" Linze spoke up to more directly chide her sister.

Elze deflated. "So I allowed my greed to get the better of me. It sounded a little suspicious… but it didn't feel right to judge people just by their appearances, you know?"

I gave an amused little 'heh'. "I don't know why but I feel like thanking you again for that."

"Ehehee. Nope, I meant nothing like that at all!" Elze hurriedly spoke up, putting her palms together in apology.

/"These are pure children!"/ Monika declared with a raised fist. /"I will protect them!"/

"Are you a merchant, sir?" asked Linze.

"No, I'm just a traveler of sorts. No need to call me sir, I'm not that much older than you, I think." I embarrassedly scratched at my cheek. "What about you two? I don't even know what Crystal Deer are, is that something usually traded? Are you hunters?"

"It's a bit of a funny story, actually…" Elze made a small little laugh. "See, we'd just happened to beat a Crystal Deer on our way here. This isn't actually the first time we've sold an antler, so when word got around we thought we might as well sell the other horn for a higher price.

"I suppose we'll be accepting requests like that through the Guild from now on. Hopefully we'll get wrapped up in less trouble that way," Elze huffed out and slightly slumped on her seat. "That's why we were headed to this town in the first place."

"Guild? What Guild? Merchant's Guild? Trader's Guild?"

Elze raised an eyebrow and tried very hard not to give me an 'are you stupid?' look. "The Adventurer's Guild."

Fantastic. "I have no idea what that is."

Just one guild for all the occupations a murderhobo could get into into? What is this nonsense, n'wah?

"Um. Excuse me, but… how?" Linze asked. "Adventurers are… I mean, a lot of people are adventurers."

"Just take it that I am from very very far away. I know almost nothing about this country, its people, and its customs."

Linze raised her hand again. I bid her to speak.

"But Reflet is far inland. Um, how could you get here and not know about how things are?"

"Magic," I replied flatly. "Extremely irritating magic. Next question?"

Linze nodded. That sounded perfectly legit. "No questions."

"Then I have one. Adventurers and the Adventurer's Guild… is that the sort of thing where you take missions and get ranked and fight monsters and challenge dungeons?"

She nodded again. "Quite so."

"How exciting! What are the requirements to be an adventurer?"

"They are not very, um, strict, you can start from low ranks with less dangerous work. Deliveries, herb collecting, t-things of that nature.. But a lot of it does need some fighting ability, or magic that will help."

"Mmm. Magic. I really want to know more about that too!" Linze raised her palm up again. I sighed and told her "You don't need to keep doing that either. Just tell me what doesn't make sense to you."

"But... but everyone has magic? Not all of it combat useful magic, but everyone has it."

Interesting, +2. "Full Disclosure, where I'm from, no one has personal magic. We had things that might be considered magical tools, but not any innate magic."

She squinted at me, and then looked away shyly. Clearly the girl didn't quite believe what I was saying, but was too polite to call me a liar.

I tapped at my sealed VR headset. "Case in point, this thing on my face. I am for practical purposes, blind. But this device still allows to me see. In fact, it allows me to see better than human eyes – I have vastly improved distance vision, and can see in almost total darkness."

Monika popped in, wearing the triclops glowing green Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Multivision Goggles. /"Yes, this customized VR headset you have is actually very interesting. My camera has an infrared sensor, but it has a distance grade IR illuminator! I'm very impressed, it's very capable for civilian gear."/

Linze's eyes widened. "That… sounds useful."

"So I would like to try being an adventurer for a while."

Elze perked up. "Really? But…" You're already rich, she left that unsaid.

"As I am a traveler, I don't exactly have fixed income, you know. I think it's interesting. What do people in this kingdom care about? What do they fear? Helping people and getting paid for it? That's amazing."

"You don't have adventurers where you come from?" Linze asked.

I wiggled my fingers. "Most of what jobs adventurers could do have already been taken over by the state. That just leaves itinerant workers that aren't respected by anybody. The notion that anyone could just walk in and become a legend… that's not something that can happen anymore," I sighed.

/"Even in the Wild West, that's not exactly a thing that could happen. People on Earth really could really become famous starting from nothing in only three things – politics, arts, or war."/

"Then, why not come sign up with us?!" Elze spoke up excitedly. "We've just only arrived here in this town. We didn't even get to an inn yet, but now we can afford it." She looked around the inn. "We could go at the same time tomorrow!"

/"Player, stop. What are you doing?"/ Monika crossed her arms and puffed her cheeks. /"You just got a girl to proposition you. On your first meeting! Youuuuu….! YOU PLAYAH!"/

Monika that was not on purpose, I swear.

I'm not that baka or that lucky.

--

Chapter end