Upon leaving the exchange hall, Gray and Eliza returned to the inn where a room had been prepared for the two. Thankfully, there were two beds, so no awkward situations arose. Still, there was something that had to be addressed...

"Eliza?"

"Yes, Gray?"

"Are you seriously going to sleep in those clothes?"

...That was the fact that Eliza hadn't changed her clothes.

Granted, the two hadn't gone shopping since most of the stores had already closed for the night, but...

Eliza nodded. "Of course. With no other change of clothes, how else will I sleep? ...Unless you would rather that I-"

"No no, that's fine."

Gray interrupted Eliza before she got any strange ideas. "It's just that... don't you feel uncomfortable in such dirty clothes?"

"No. I'm accustomed to much worse. In fact, these are actually a lot better than my usual attire."

"I... see."

There wasn’t much Gray could say in response to that.

Eliza put their equipment, meager as it was, in the corner of the room and then climbed into a bed. Seeing her do that, Gray decided to do the same, getting into the other bed.

"Good night, Gray."

"Good night, Eliza."

Before he knew it, Gray was asleep.

In the middle of the night, Eliza softly called out. "...Gray? Are you asleep?"

No answer. Or rather, her answer was the sound of soft breathing.

Hearing that, Eliza pulled out a journal from her storage space and wrote something down before heading outside. After closing the door behind her, she raised her hand over it and said, "Shield."

A faint shimmer surrounded the room, indicating that her spell was active. Assured that Gray would be protected while he slept, Eliza made her way out of the inn and leapt into the night.

Once outside of the village, Eliza stopped at the wide grassy plains and said, "Come out."

The moment she did, the air shimmered, and a person dressed in black clothing appeared.

"...Number one. You have disobeyed your orders."

"As I thought," Eliza said. "They still aren't willing to let me go, are they?"

The person dressed in black didn't respond.

"I suppose you are here to try and eliminate me then?"

Again, the person in black didn't respond. Instead, a black and red sword was drawn from a hilt by their side.

"...To even give you a demonslaying blade to fight me... Should I be flattered that they think so highly of me?"

"You know too much."

With just those words, the figure vanished. No, it wasn't that the figure vanished, but that they had moved forward so fast their form couldn’t be seen.

An invisible shadow streaked through the night air, leaving behind only a brief red blur.

There was the sound of air tearing apart, a slight breeze that would sever anything it touched.

Yet-

"...I'm sorry. But I won't die so easily now that I've found a reason to live."

-it was nothing before Eliza's eyes.

The moment that the figure moved, Eliza's eyes changed. Crimson became a piercing blue, sparking with unbridled energy.

A sword cut through the night air. At the same time, Eliza swept her hand.

"!!!"

A silent exclamation. The figure leapt back. As it did, there was the sound of something thudding to the ground.

Black metal, broken shards of the figure's sword.

"...Impossible."

Again, the figure spoke. That word was their last.

In the next moment, more thuds echoed through the quiet night.

Eliza stared at the lump of flesh that the figure had become before waving her hand. With that, the earth opened up and swallowed both the figure and their sword, leaving no trace behind.

Without a word, she left, heading back to the inn.

Gray woke up to the sound of clattering plates.

"Wha?"

Groggy and half-asleep, he sat up and rubbed his bleary eyes.

"Good morning, Gray. I've brought breakfast for us both."

A pleasant voice. The kind that could calm anyone's heart and bewitch countless men.

He stared blankly at the one who had spoken.

A beautiful young woman with white hair and lovely crimson eyes. She was sitting on a chair at the side of his bed, looking at him with a soft, elegant smile. That alone would have been enough to charm anyone, but the fact that the woman wore a soft blue dress that accentuated her figure and beauty drove Gray speechless.

Not only that, but she was offering up a tray of food to him, pancakes and bacon it looked like, that was absolutely appetizing.

Gray blinked and then rubbed his eyes again. "Am I dreaming?"

Waking up to a beautiful woman serving you breakfast like a doting wife... he who only had a few casual girlfriends in the past was thrown completely off balance.

"Ah, it looks like you are still a bit sleepy. Then, here. Some coffee would do you good."

The woman handed Gray a mug of coffee.

The familiar item helped ground Gray, and a few sips let him regain his bearings.

Oh. That's right.

He wasn't at home. Somehow or another, he had ended up in this different fantasy world. As for the woman in front of him, she was Eliza.

Taking another sip of coffee, Gray said, "You don't have to do all this for me, Eliza. Going so far as serving me breakfast in bed..."

She shook her head. "It's fine. I woke up early anyway. And besides, who knows what will happen if I leave you to your own devices? A spider might bite you and cause you to pass in your sleep."

"...You're never going to let me live that down, are you? Almost getting killed by that slime?"

"Of course not. Even a child can kill a slime if they have a stick. For you, a grown man armed with a weapon perfectly suited for slaying slimes to only do so in a panic is, quite frankly, pathetic."

Gray sighed. Getting admonished by a beautiful woman, stranded in a place he knew nothing about, getting served breakfast in bed... he didn't mind the first and the last thing there, but the middle one was concerning.

Gray decided to just work on eating his breakfast.

After a while, he noticed that Eliza wasn't doing anything but watching him.

"...Aren't you going to eat as well, Eliza?"

"No. I've already eaten, Gray. Don't mind me."

It's hard not to mind a beautiful woman staring at you while you're eating.

Though he thought that, Gray ignored her and kept eating. Since she probably wouldn't listen to him anyway, it would be best to just pretend that nothing was out of the ordinary.

Not like he hadn't gotten enough experience doing that already in the past. You tended to get used to stares when you programmed in the middle of a crowded cafe.

After finishing, Gray handed Eliza the plates. Once he did, she put them away and returned to his side.

The two were silent for a while, before Gray decided to speak up. "Judging from your new clothes and my breakfast... did you go shopping this morning, Eliza?"

"Indeed. Since you seemed exhausted, I deemed it best to gather supplies for our coming adventures. In fact..." Eliza handed Gray a bag. "Here. I bought you some equipment for when we go adventuring. Maybe with these you won't be threatened by a lowly slime when we go adventuring."

"Haha. Very funny."

Gray had gotten used to Eliza's jabs at that point and simply took the bag.

"In any regard... I'll leave you to try the equipment on, Gray. The inn has a bathroom nearby, so I'll be using that to change into my own equipment. Tell me how it fits when I return, will you?"

"Yeah, yeah."

Eliza smiled and waved at Gray before leaving the room.

Alone, Gray ywaned and got out of bed before looking at the bag. "Still... I wonder what she got me?"

The bag wasn't that big. It was a simple cloth sack, the kind that wasn't uncommon in RPG games. "Some clothes?"

He couldn't see how anything else would be in there. After pondering about it for a few more moments, Gray shrugged and opened the bag.

When he did, his mind was blown.

"...No way."

The bag wasn't just a bag. It was the bag. The bag that every adventurer wishes they had. The bag that could hold more than it looked capable of holding.

What he had in his hands was a gneuine bag of holding.

Looking inside the bag was a curious sight. Peering down into its depths, the items were slotted just like an inventory space would be in a game. Mini icons denoted what each item was. While the bag, sadly, wasn't an infinite storage, it looked like it would be more than enough space to hold a lot of things.

At the moment, it looked like there was only a suit of leather armor and a sword taking up the space, along with some sets of clothes and... his regular bag?

It looked like Eliza had taken all of his regular belongings and tossed them in there while he was asleep.

Gray decided to take a look at the armor and sword.

Reaching his hand into the bag, he had the strange experience of grabbing something and pulling it out of an opening it was definitely too large to fit through.

The leather armor was dark brown, and looked to cover his whole body. Thankfully, it wasn't the fantasy type of armor that had dozens of straps to assemble everything, something that he'd have no idea how to put on, but more of a track suit with additional padding to cover his joints.

Strapping on the leg guards and arm guards over the main body, Gray marveled at how sturdy it was. Or rather, how form-fitting. It wasn't too tight and offered enough mobility for him to move. Despite that, Gray had the sense that it was sturdy enough to protect him from impact.

Next, Gray picked up the sword. It was an ordinary looking long sword, the type that would be seen used for a generic sword icon. It was also a lot lighter than Gray expected it to be.

Indulging himself for a moment, Gray struck a pose, pointing his sword towards the sky.

And then the door opened and Eliza walked in. "Well, you seem to be enjoying yourself." She had changed out of her clothes into leather armor that matched the kind Gray wore. Only, that leather armor was very form-fitting and did nothing to hide Eliza’s beauty.

Seeing that distracted Gray for a moment, but then he remembered what Eliza said and nodded. "A little," Gray said. "I haven't held a sword like this in... ever, really."

"Well," Eliza said. "You will have to get used to it soon enough."

Gray nodded. "Right. So, since you're dressed like that... are we heading out?"

Eliza shrugged and sat down in a chair nearby. "That depends on what you desire, Gray. As it stands, we have supplies for a week or two of travel. With that, we should be able to reach the capital, Eternia. If you desire to learn space magic, that would be the best place to go. However, you are still quite weak, and this area is ideal for training... though it can be argued that the life and death fights you would face in traveling to the capital would serve just as good an experience."

Remembering just how close he had come to death against mere slimes, Gray shivered. "No thanks. I think we should stay here for a while until I get a bit stronger. You said I'm still E-Rank in my stats, right?"

Eliza nodded. "Yes. Your body, as it stands, is only slightly above an average commoner."

Gray closed his eyes to think a bit.

With the relative calm, he managed to be able to reflect on what to do next.

No matter what, heading back home was a priority. He had obligations to fulfill, promises he could not afford to break.

Right. Then in that case...

Space magic. It was a long shot, but that would be his best way home. Eliza didn't know much about it other than the fact that it existed, but if he managed to use it, he could head back. Maybe even revolutionize the world with his newfound abilities.

...A small voice in the back of his head reminded him that if such a thing was so easy there would have been countless invasions from magicians in the past, but he ignored that voice.

If he wanted to be able to use space magic, he needed to get stronger. B-level, according to Eliza.

Training by himself would take a lifetime, and that was if he was lucky. That was no good. Even if he managed to get home, there was no telling if the time there carried over, or how the ratio of it even was. The sooner he got back, the less of a possibility of him ending up in a situation where everyone and everything he knew had disappeared.

Just the thought of that...

Never seeing his parents again, his family, his friends... never being able to keep the promise he had made to live for the ones who couldn't even dream about his opportunities...

Yes. That was something he couldn't allow. Then...

"Eliza."

His voice was missing of any doubt or hesitation.

"Yes, Gray?"

"Train me. It doesn't matter how painful it may be or how dangerous, but in the shortest time possible, I have to reach the Braveheart level."

Eliza looked at Gray for a moment, her eyes containing a strange emotion, and then nodded. "As you wish. Then, shall we make our debut as adventurers?"