“... Now, when you meet a widowed nobel you are to offer your condolences but avoid talking about this until you get more acquainted. If you act overly familiar from the start you will make them feel uncomfortable. You have to earn their trust first. Talk about their interests, praise them, make them feel safe. Once you have their hard earned trust, treat in like a delicate flower. Shower them with compliments but not too much, it will make them suspicious and trust is very hard to repair. Do you understand?”

I look up from my notes and give Erica a quick nod. Satisfied Erica continues. There is no room for slacking off in here. From the moment I stepped into the lounge where I was supposed to have my lesson I realized one thing; Erica is fucking spartan when it comes to education.

First thing she did was giving me a pile of notebooks, saying only “you need this”. After my confusion settled down, I decided to take a seat in one of the comfortable-looking chairs standing in the lounge. Then, the lesson started.

Erica spat out information like a gattling gun, only stopping ever so often in order to catch her breath. She only took questions when she asked for them, if I said something without her permission she would give me a cold glare, causing me to go silent.

Despite this she was a good teacher, explaining everything thoroughly and with an easy to understand way of speaking. But if I stopped listening for even a second I would regret it later. Every now and then she would suddenly stop and tell me to repeat what she just said. Failure will lead to another intimidating glare and her writing something down in a notebook of her own. I have a bad feeling about that notebook. Ah, I don’t have time for an inner monologue right now! I need to focus!

//You have obtained Higher Focus level 1!//

Not now!!! But thank you.

---------------------------------------

“And that concludes our first lesson” Erica says while clapping her hands together, “the next one will be the day after tomorrow but I want you to re-read your notes as often as possible”.

She flicks her hand and suddenly a cup of tea appears in it. Really, where does she get it from? Is it another kind of teleportation spell? But I didn’t senaste any mana being used.

“How do you do that?” I ask, curious. “Just flicking your hand and things appear, is it a spell?”

“No, it’s a skill I was born with” Erica answers before taking a sip of tea. “Beings born under special circumstances or have a special connection to the goddesses are sometimes born with rare and unique skills”.

“Really? That’s amazing!” I exclaim while cursing in my mind. Such cheat characters. I nearly died and they get such skills, it’s unfair! Well, at least I got Appraisal from the start. Come to think of it, Taro is the “champion” of Chreshna and he had these skills that makes me drool just thinking about them. I wonder how he’s doing. Our familiar bond is still intact but because of the distance between us I can barely feel it. I guess we are enemies now considering he is on Chreshnas side and I am the supposed enemy of the entire world. Sigh, how sad. Hopefully I will not meet him anytime soon. But what if we do? I should consult Erica.

“Hey, Erica, let’s say I met the champion of Chreshna, what would I have to do?”

“Hmmm, well, first a minor duel would be in order” she says while staring up into the ceiling. “During the duel you would show him, or her, some of your strength, but not all. Let them guess. Before any of you could lay a critical hit you would separate in a dramatic manner, leaving them with a sour taste in their mouth. After that you will avoid seeing each other face to face, just sensing each. Then, a final battle. You will fight and pretend to lose, but really, you would hide until the next champion appears and you start it all over”.

“This sounds… very… planned” I comment. In the novels I read in my previous life they often played out just like that.

“Well of course, nothing happens by accident, my dear lady” Erica exclaims. “But we need them to think that it does. Secretly we work in the shadows, waging war in order to protect the world”.

“People will die…” I mumble. Erica sighs and for a second I see a pained expression on her face.

“Yes, you are right, a lot of people will die. Both soldiers and innocents. And we hate it. We find no joy in it, nor pleasure. But it has to be done. If we do not become the target of all their hatred and fear they will direct it towards each other. And if they do that nothing will be left”. Once again Erica sighs and this time she puts her hand on her forehead. She looks so… tired.

“You know the dullahans guarding the castle? They used to have heads. They used to smile, cry… But they can’t do that any longer. Once they were soldiers, fighting on different sides. They fought fiercely for what they believed in until… they saw the true nature of the war. It was not for the sake of them or their loved ones, no, it was all because of the goddesses pride and greed. They realized they were mere dust in their eyes”.

“W-what happened? I ask with a stuttering voice. I’ve got a bad feeling about this. “Didn’t they try to warn the others?”

“Of course they tried. But no one listened. Heretics. Traitors. That’s what the people responded with. Not even their loved ones believed them. The goddesses had entered their minds and manipulated them into submission. So… they were sentenced to execution. On that day, thousands of heads rolled”.

… This, I, that is sick. Those men and women, all killed? Their families turned their backs on them? I cannot believe it… That, it is, no…

Suddenly a hand lands on my shoulder and I look up, seeing Erica’s red eyes staring back at me.

“That’s why when you arrived, they were filler with such excitement” she says, giving me a small smile. “They returned to life because they were filled with such will to protect this world. So when the news of your arrival reached them they were filled with hope, a reason to fight! To them, you are the only one capable of this duty you have been given. You are the one that can save the world. Therefore they will support you with all their might!”

“Wow… I-I don’t know what to… What if I fail? What if I am not strong enough?” I stutter. Tears start gathering in my eyes. Erica bringa her hand to my face and wipe them away, smiling gently while doing it.

“Ruth, tell me, why did you decide to join us? Why did you decide to accept this position?”

Her words shock me and for a few seconds I just stand there. Why did I do it? Why did I accept? Well, I guess…

“I have already lost my home once… I don’t want to do it again. I don’t want to lose my friends, the memories I had with them… I want to protect them”.

Erica’s smile widens and her eyes glitter.

“That’s why you won’t fail. Your reason for fighting is stronger than those lousy goddesses! They only fight for themselves while you fight for SOMEONE! That’s what makes us stronger than them!”

… Heh, when you talk like that you sound totally cliche. First Charlotte and now you, why are everybody so nice here? It’s unnatural. Hah, but I needed that though. A little bit of confidence never hurts.

“Thank you Erica” I say, smiling back at her. Right now I feel like everything will turn out alright, no matter how shaky the future might seem.

-------------------------------------------

“Good night, la- I mean Ruth” Charlotte says while bowing.

“Good night, Charlotte” I respond, smiling at her. She waves me goodbye and exits the room, closing the door behind her. When she’s gone I let out a quiet sigh. This have been a long day. It got a little bit tougher than I thought it would, especially emotionally. But I am glad. I experienced a lot of things and I think that a got a little wiser, even if it’s not a lot.

I lay down on the bed and look up into the ceiling above. On one of the many pillows sleeps Babbit, making cute pyuun sounds in his sleep. Hehehe, how adorable!

Hmmm, I wonder how the others are doing. I mean, we have never been separated like this before. I just hope Rowan is not causing any trouble. Please let his common sense defeat his idiocy. Did he get that from me? Probably. I do things on impulse far too often.

Ah, I should probably try to sleep, no? I need to be full of energy for tomorrow. I wonder what kind of quirky characters I will meet. Heh, I can hardly wait. At least now when I’m alone I can get a good night’s sleep.

Wait… I am not alone. They are still here after all, the ghosts that is. It seems Orethons outburst of anger didn’t scare them away. How daring. I am not as bothered as I thought I would be by them. For some reason I get the feeling that they mean well. I just wish they would show themselves as it is kinda uncomfortable to be surrounded by invisible people.

Well, whatever. I won’t let something as trivial as ghosts stop me from sleeping. Ah, there I go, acting abnormal again. Well, when you have experienced as much as I have then something like this is nothing. I close my eyes and soon sleep creeps over me.

No, this is different. I open my eyes and find myself surrounded by darkness. It’s that kind dream again huh? Well at least I didn’t pass out in the middle of the day this time. I look down on myself and to my surprisement I find myself wearing a white dress. This is unusual. Did that perverted smoke thingie from before learn its lesson?

“I am not a pervert, it was just hard to materialize clothes” a deep voice suddenly says.

I turn around and see the smokie thingie but this time it is more concentrated and it kinda looks human. Weird.

“No, it’s not weird, you and I simply got a more stable connection” it says.

Ah! Can it hear my thoughts!? If you can then say “your base are belong to us”!

“I am not going to say that and yes, I can hear your thoughts. It’s not that hard, especially with you screaming so loud in your thoughts”.

Gasp! A telepath! That’s cool. Wait, just who are you?

“Ah, you have heard of me, I’m sure. I am Hariam”

Huh? Say that again. YOU are the god of chaos and balance? YOU?

“Yes, what’s so hard to believe?”

It’s just that I thought, I dunno, you would look different. You just look so… not god-like.

“Would you rather like it that I come back in a hundred years? Maybe then our connection is stronger”

No, no! I didn’t mean to be rude! Please don’t go. Wait, what are you doing here anyway? Aren’t you sealed away somewhere?

“Yes, I am, but before you reincarnated I created a special link between you and me. It allows us to communicate telepathically without them knowing. I have tried to contact you before but our connection have not been strong enough until now”.

I see, so that’s it… But why did you make me pass out like that in the dungeon? Couldn’t you have waited? It was kind of rude.

“Hey, I am imprisoned, I don’t know the time in here!”

You are a god but you can’t tell the time? Ah, I am slightly disappointed.

“I’m leaving…”

NO! I AM SORRY! I WILL BE NICE! DON’T GO!

“Ok, ok, I won’t leaving but please stop screaming! It hurts my head!”

Ah, sorry. Sooooooo, what did you want to talk about?

“Sigh, alright. I have come to warn you about my sister Chreshna. She’s on to you”.

Eh? But I haven’t done anything yet! How could she find me?

“She hasn’t FOUND you, she simply knows about your presence. It happened when you transformed into your other form for the first time. When you did that you released an aura very similar of mine so she realized something was going on”.

Oh, that’s not good.

“Actually, it is. Now she knows that there is something big coming so she can no longer focus entirely on the war”.

So… I did good?

“Yes, you did good”. The shadow that is Hariam comes closer and places his hand(?) on my head, ruffling my hair. Suddenly his form becomes unclear. “Ah, seems time is up. Well, at least I said what I wanted to say. Until later, my dear Songbird”.

Hariam completely disappears and something tugs my stomach, causing me to wake up.

… That was all? No divine revelation? I ain’t complaining but… that was kinda lame and anticlimactic. I expected something... more. I dunno. Ah, I should probably tell Orethon. But not now. I still need to sleep. Good night.