—"Dammit, you're too reckless,"

"Yes yes, I'll be more careful~"

"You better! I don't have your ridiculous Aether, after all."

Two voices bickered among each other deep in the woods.

Two children, no older than five or six.

A boy with silver hair and blue eyes, with his oddly pointed ears.

And a girl with hair and eyes as golden as the sun, who bore two peculiar cat-like ears.

That boy was me, of course.

My arm had received a rather deep cut from my careless actions, while fighting a monster, and Sophinna had taken on the duty of healing my wound.

It has been about four days since the two of us left the town of Renant.

We purchased a map, and as Sophi suggested, we stole quite a bit of Ophryss's money, before leaving Renant.

We've probably been marked on her "Enemy for Life" list, but that's fine. I don't intend on seeing her any time soon—I don't want to kill her, considering the possibility of more powerful people coming after me. I might have to anyways. We haven't run into people yet, so it's possible that we'll have company expecting us at Ocen.

When I asked Sophi about her, it seems that Lady Ophryss was a noblewoman who forcibly inherited her parent's position, and made connections with some criminal groups to maintain her power.

—As you might expect, this world's societies seem to be quite patriarchal, so she put considerable effort into being respected, despite being a woman.

Though, being someone who doesn't care about a person's race or gender, I didn't really notice that until later.

Anyways, yesterday we encountered our first monster, but I managed to take it down by avoiding its movements. Even if my Agility is under a debuff's effect, my Wind Magic speed buff is enough to counteract it.

Sophi says that my speed is ridiculous, and she wonders how I could use wind magic so effectively.

I considered telling her that it's thanks to my Aether Perception, that even allows me to modify a spell of mine that I already cast, meaning I can apply a half-baked buff, and then polish it later—but I decided to keep silent about that. For most people, once they construct and activate a spell, they can't modify its flow and structure, because they can't perceive it anymore.

Aether Perception seems to be much more useful than I first anticipated.

Anyways, after a few monsters, I learned that Sophinna had Divine Affinity, and could use healing magic—well, I expected her to have Divine Affinity, but I didn't think she could use magic.

Well, I didn't pester her on the subject, and we continued our days like that.

If the map is to be believed, we should arrive in Ocen within the next few days. However, it seems that a lot of the monsters here are of a higher caliber, so I've had to put more effort into striking them down.

But I'm also receiving damage on my end.

Which is the result for our conversation just now.

"Your pretty smart though, so why isn't your Intelligence higher?" I asked.

"Tigerkin don't gain as much Aether from our Intelligence as humans—we're not a race designed for Magic after all," She said. So she has a lot less Aether than me, huh?

But I was hoping to find out how she's so smart.

She's a child who was kidnapped when she was younger, and made into a slave. Her education couldn't have gotten far, and somehow she knows two languages quite well, even though she shouln't have speak much in the last couple years.

Well, it's not like this relationship of ours is built on honesty or anything.

I get her home, she gives me something, and that's about it.

"Come on, let's get going," I pulled myself up, and began to walk.

"Don't think it's ok to just leave this here," Sophi said, looking back at the corpse of the large, bear-like monster.

"I don't know how to skin it, and its body is magic resistant, so it won't enter my bag," I said with a shrug.

"That's exactly why you should skin! Magic Resistant fur will sell well, you know? If not that, you can have it made into a better cloak than those rags,"

"Hah. Well OK, show me how to skin a giant bear," I demanded.

"... I can't... Blood makes me queasy."

"Basically you're telling me to learn on my own?"

The answer was of course—Yes.

At least I gained the Skinning Skill...

I wasted several hours trying to skin that beast.

In that time, several more monsters came searching for the smell of food.

They were all crushed of course, but it was a great waste of time.

In the end, we camped out by the bear's body after I skinned it, and we cooked the meat.

I was never queasy about blood or anything, but the sensation of gooey flesh and fat on my hands is really gross.

I want to wash my hands, really badly.

Anyways, the two of us decided to sleep in shifts tonight, with myself acting as the first shift. This has been the routine since we started this journey.

Ever since coming to this world, I'm surprisingly easy to wake up, so it's no problem as long as Sophi can wake me if she hears anything.

After all, I can't stay up all night, even though I make up 100% of our combat ability.

I could hear some monsters during the night, but none seemed to really approach.

I wondered if they realized they couldn't win if they attacked?

Thinking about it, that made sense—this bear must have been the big-bad in this area, so avoiding what killed it was probably the wisest thing these monsters could do.

When it came to switching shifts, it seems that no monsters came in the middle of Sophi's shift either.

Once morning came, we had a bite to eat from the giant bear, and then continued our journey—

"What are you doing?" Sophinna asked me, as I stood with my eyes closed.

"We wasted too much time here. I'm going to make a wind buff for the two of us."

"Isn't it taking you longer than usual?"

"That's because usually, I make an improvised one, and then fix it as I move," I explained, just as I finished up the speed buff, and applied it to the two of us. "This should last an—"

"—Wait, what did you say? Fix it as you move?"

"Right, I have a method to modify my spells after I cast them," I explained. "—Now lets get going. This speed buff has a time-limit, unlike my usual spells," I explained.

"... Fine," She seemed to want to ask how I could modify my spell—thinking about it, this girl is very sharp, isn't she? She knows enough about magic to know that it should be difficult to modify an existing spell.

In actuality, I can only modify spells I created with my own Aether, and only if the magic construct is within range of my Aether Perception. However, few of my spells ever need to leave my range anyways.

For anyone else, I assume that trying to modify a spell they already cast, would be like fiddling with wires while blind. A wrong move would result in catastrophe. Well, it's the same for me, if I try to modify a spell out of my range.

Something simple like "adding" a component to the spell shouldn't be too hard if you can avoid overwriting other parts of the spell, but "fixing" mistakes or rushed work would be near impossible.

Regardless, we covered quite a large distance that day.

It seemed like Sophinna wanted to ask me some questions, but she seemed to hold herself back.

I considered that a blessing, considering I had an idea of what she had in mind.

A few days ago, before leaving Renant, she asked me a question.

She claimed that she spoke in her native language—but that was English.

There should be no reason for her to have spoken English—accidentally speaking in your native tongue shouldn't really be an excuse.

I also highly doubt the language of the Tigerkin is a copy of English—I debated whether that was the case or not, but I've put off confronting her about it.

I've come to a conclusion though—

—This girl must be a reincarnated person as well.

"Hah..hah...ahaa~" thump—Sophi finally collapsed beside a tree, as she continued to pant profusely.

"Jeez, you tire quickly."

"It's not my fault you're some kind of monster—!'ve leveled up a few times, because the EXP is shared, but I can't keep up with someone like you!"

"Ah jeez. If you call me a monster, it'll really hurt my feelings."

"Don't deny it! An Elf with 41 Vitality at age 5—that should be impossible!"

Hmm? How did she know the exact number? Well, that's the number post-debuff calculation. The real number is 204.

Ah, I see—"Hey hey, I was under the impression that it was Thali that saw my stats and reported it."

"R-right, she did report it. But only after she told me to look at your stats!"

"I see," I decided to sit in front of her, and then asked, "So how did Thali find out you had Status Analysis?" After all, she was hiding herself as a timid little girl, right?

"... Thali's treatment towards me often changed," She began to explain. "I think that Thali tried to make me into an obedient pet, like she was with Ophryss. Well before I had really realized that, I let it slip that I had such an ability."

"That's inevitable, I guess. But how'd you get it?"—So-called "Analysis skills" were vital to some trades, but despite that not everyone can obtain them.

If you were a merchant or a crafter, the Item Analysis skill was something you could obtain after reaching certain conditions related to those fields—but without it, you wouldn't know the details and effectiveness of a weapon or the value of a gem, without testing it, or having intimate knowledge of the subject.

A real estate agent, a map maker, or even a noble of some kind, might try to obtain the Location Analysis skill, which is said to without fail reveal a location's name and population.

But then there's the "Status Analysis" skill.

Its existence is known thanks to some history regarding it, but the requirements to obtain it are a complete mystery.

So, how did this little girl get it?

"—Secret," She said.

...

I let out an audible sigh of disappointment. Of course, more secrets. No, this is expected.

Even though I have a soft-spot for children, this person is certainly not a child. Not on the inside anyways.

That skill would be immensily useful, but maybe she can't tell me due to her circumstances.

Her circumstances...

She's some kind of Shrine Maiden, or Priestess-to-be, right?

Before, she mentioned something. What was it?

—I need to go home, and spread a message!

Spread what message? Well, if it was going to be made public anyways, no harm in asking, right?

"Can I ask you something?"

"Maybe," she gestured for me to go on.

"What message was it that you were going to spread when you return home?"

...

"—You don't know?"

"What do you—"

"There's no way you couldn't know!" She suddenly raised her voice. "I know you feined ignorance before, but don't ask me useless questions like that."

H-hey, what is she talking about?

"Feined ignorance?"

"When you pretended not to understand my English!"

"Ah that," I chuckled to myself.

"Hah, good. Let's stop pretending—there's no one around anyways." She said.

Does she think it's bad if the natives hear us talk like this? Well, it makes sense. Did she suspect me to be an other-worlder for a while already? Probably because of my abnormal Intelligence and Wisdom? That would make sense, actually.

But she seems relieved now that neither of us are "pretending" to not be from another world.

Or so I thought—

"Stupid game, dragged us into the same story-line like this. Well, I guess it couldn't be helped considering my goal was sort of derailed."

"Wait what?"

"Yeah, I wasn't supposed to end up a slave you know? Like hell I would sign up for that sort of role. My Luck parameter was tampered with, and someone had soldiers sent to enslave me. I guess the discrepancy was discovered and corrected."

"I... think there's a misunderstanding somewhere. Game? Luck Parameter?"

Sophi however just stared at me with watchful eyes, taking in every bit of my expression.

Slowly, the blood began to drain from her face, as she seemed to mentally call up a window, and scrolled through it.

—What the..? She looks a bit frantic.

And then... Her eyes seemed to stop on a single point, and she glared at it.

In my previous life, this would certainly be odd—but here it's not quite bizarre.

However, her frantic behavior was a cause for concern, especially as she seemed to "say" some words, without letting any words pass. However, I'm not a lip reader. What was she so frantic about?

"Fuck, what were they thinking?"

"What?"

"YOU!" She said, "I can't understand what their intent was with you."

"Yeah, I don't quite follow. Explain."

"Before that. What do you know about this world?"

"... My understanding is that I died on Earth, and came to another world." Simple and to the point.

"And the year you died?"

"Ermm.. About 2014? The year's kinda fuzzy, considering how long ago it was."

Silence.

It was an awkward silence. So awkward it almost hurt.

But it gave me time to think. What was she talking about just now? I thought perhaps I had reincarnated in another world, and that Sophi was the same—it was part of why I didn't try to dump her somewhere and run on my own.

However, she seems to have had a different impression on me—the two of us thought we were "in the same situation", one way or another—but could it be that's not exactly the case? Is that why she's freaking out?

Who is she then?

Didn't she also mention a "game" just now?

...

"So what am I?" I decided to ask. Even if I knew I wasn't going to like the answer.

"..." But no answer came. It looked like she was pondering whether or not to let me know, before finally her lips parted to speak, "An A.I... I think."

"You think?"

She gave me a slight nod, "I accessed your credentials. Your designation doesn't follow the categorization of neither a Player, nor a Seed." Player? So I am in a game? "Designation X-Zero-dash-Zero-Zero-Nine. That is how the system identifies you. But I'm not certain what it means."

X0-009?

Some sort of System ID, huh?

"Who are you?" I decided to ask.

—Again, she seemed reluctant to reveal more information, but she gave in.

"I'm a 'Seed'. An employee at Icarus Tech. Seeds are planted into this world, and given a destiny, in order to push this world towards a desired outcome," she explained. A Seed, huh?

"So this world really is a game?"

"That's correct," She nodded apologetically.

"And I'm an NPC?"

"Maybe."

"What's with your unreliable answers?"

"Like I said, your designation number is all weird. I've never seen that X0 at the start. If you were a normal NPC, depending on who your mother is, that should either be an S2 or S3, followed by a number that represents the Zone you were born in. And then that last part; just a 009. That's too low!"

I think I understand. Roughly.

"Ultimately, you're an anamoly, and I'm stuck with you until I can get someone to log me out."

So she's stuck here too, huh?

Still, what about me? The system recognizes me as part of the game, apparently. Not a Player, nor a Seed?

Was I an AI created for some sort of quest line about an NPC who remembers coming from the previous world? If so, that's a scary though—are my memories real at all? Or was my first assumption correct—that I was reincarnated? Is it possible to reincarnate as a computer program? Or is Reincarnation possible at all?

Well, no, I shouldn't delve too deeply into this line of thought.

I am me. Everything else is a debate for philosophy.

But...

So I'm an NPC now?

Author Notes:

I would have posted this 2 hours ago, but I was contemplating how to have this scene. I had two versions of the scene, and I went with the one that I disliked less. Still, the chapter seems kinda incomplete to me.

What do you guys think?

Anyways...

I mentioned in a comment in the last chapter's thread that I'll be slowing down in my chapter releases, to give me more time to write, and more time for my other stories.

Expect chapters on Friday, (GMT -5) some time around noon.

Feedback and Suggestions are welcome, as always.