AN: A bit longer than the others.
Walking out of the house with Kioko, I push open the wide doors at the entrance of the house. I walk out with a large stride and continue down the path. We’re walking for ten minutes in silence. Whenever we reach the middle of the extravagant garden with beautiful flowers filling the place and designed shrubbery lining the walls, Kioko finally breaks the silence.
“Thank you… for freeing me from slavery,” She says, looking down towards the ground. She’s trying to hide her blushing face, but it isn’t working. I can clearly see her face bright red with blush. “So… When are you going to let go of my hand?”
“What?” I ask, confused.
I turn my head to look over towards my hand, and realize that my hand is closed around hers. My face immediately turns beet red with embarrassment. I let go of her hand, exasperated.
“When did I do that?!” I ask, ashamed of not noticing.
“About five minutes ago. Did you not notice?” She asks timidly.
“No, I didn’t.” I say. Well, that explains why she was blushing up to her ears a moment ago.
We continue walking in silence until we get near the city. It took about an hour, but I couldn’t really think about anything. I was too busy being self-conscious due to a beautiful woman about my age walking next to me for the past hour.
Once we get to the city, I stand with my mouth open and eyes wide. The city is surrounded with giant walls similar to those in medieval castles. They are around five hundred feet high, and stretch all the way around the city, which has to be dozens, if not hundreds of miles long.
“Just how long did it take to build this?” I ask without thinking. I turn my head towards Kioko after returning my jaw to its original position.
“From what I’ve heard, it took about two hundred years to build the walls around the city.” She replies without changing her expression at all.
There’s no way it only took two hundred years to build that. It must have taken at least five hundred years. How is she able to keep a straight face while looking at this place? I think to myself.
Ignoring my obvious expression and amazement, Kioko starts to walk inside the gates. I walk faster to catch up after a moment.
“Hey, just how are we supposed to get inside that place without any I.D.’s or any type of identification? Did you forget the fact that I’m from another WORLD?!” I exclaim in worry.
“The people by the gates know who I am.” She replies. A mischievous smile appears on her face. “I’m quite popular with the boys, though I’m not entirely sure if they’ll allow you in. They might be overcome with jealousy and bar you from entry.”
“Stop trying to get out of our agreement.” I reply with an agitated face. “Though I won’t deny the fact that you’re quite popular with the guys, I don’t really care, and I really don’t find women who talk about themselves with that kind of attitude attractive.”
Kioko puts on a disappointed face. I don’t know if she was trying to get me jealous of other men looking at her, but I hardly know her. I’m also not so stupid as to fall into that type of trap.
We walk to the gate, and Kioko introduces me to guardsmen. They allow us entry since they still think that Kioko is a slave of Honcho. Whenever I walk past the gate; that is when the real amazement started.
Walking past the gate, my eyes immediately widened with amazement. The view of the city is stunning. It was getting dark, so there were torches and candles light all over the streets and in all of the buildings. That doesn’t sound amazing, right? The reason it was so amazing was the color that the candles and torches were burning.
They were burning green, a very beautiful green. Green balls of lights were lighting up the roads, although not very well. Kioko must’ve seen my face, and began to explain what is in front of me.
“During spring in Ullerade, candles all burn the most beautiful green you’ve ever seen.” Kioko says with a happy sounding voice. I look over towards her, and see her eyes light up with joy.
She must not have gotten used to seeing this, even though she’s seen it for five years at least. I think to myself.
All of the sudden, my eyes that were filled with excitement of seeing something beautiful and amazing, were suddenly filled with anger and sadness.
“Oh! Crap!” I say aloud with a disappointed in myself type of tone. “What are we going to do about housing, water, and food?!” My hand immediately grabs my face as I bend forward.
“You really are an idiot. Well, we can always find a job, and sleep on the streets for the night.” She says to me.
True, we can always do that, though I would rather not.
“Or you could leave this guy and entertain this me for the night.” A voice says from behind.
Before I turn around, my face instantly shows disgust. How can this guy be so shameful? A better question is probably, ‘How can this guy be so forward?’ Is he really trying to skip first and second base and head straight to third? I really hate guys like this.
I turn around and wipe my face of any emotion. Another type of guy that’s going to be horrible dealing with.
I look over to Kioko and her face shows a face of fear. Dang it! Why now? Why did something like this have to happen now? She’s just been freed from being a slave, and now this detestable guy shows up!
I ignore him and take Kioko’s hand. I somewhat forcefully intertwine my fingers with hers and continue to walk forward. I look over at Kioko and see her blushing up to her ears, though, it does make sense.
I look back and take a little time to see what the guy is wearing and realize that he is wearing fancy clothes. He’s probably some… rich guy… This is just what we’re looking for! This guy probably has a nice job and house.
“I said,” Says the man, “she could leave you and entertain me for the night.”
Oh my god, this guy is quite persistent with this. Well, maybe I can use this.
I walk for a little bit, look towards Kioko, and use my free hand to grab the back of her head. I stand on the tips of my toes and kiss Kioko on the lips. They’re actually really soft, wait that’s not the point. Now that guy should leave us alone. I separate our lips after a moment and look back.
“I said—“ The man starts to say again before I cut him off.
“Oh my god! You are the most persistent man I have ever met! Don’t you get the message? I really don’t want to let my friend sleep with a scumbag like you, so how about play a game with me?” I say, letting a slight smirk out on my face. “It’s simple, if I win, you give me everything you own. You will also give me your job. If you win, I will turn a blind eye to what’s going on here. I’m sure you wouldn’t want something like this to get out. It would ruin your reputation, make you lose your job, and possibly even get you thrown in jail. This is an opportunity you just can’t pass up.”
The man gives a slight worried look on his face. He doesn’t realize that I don’t know who he is. He’s stupid enough to think that I know who he is, but he doesn’t even realize that his clothes give away his identity.
“If that isn’t good enough, why don’t I just tell you’re wife?” I add in to the fray of spoken words.
With this, the man’s face becomes extremely worried. His face relaxes a bit after some amount of thinking. “Fine.”
“If you don’t mind, I will also make the rules. It’s quite simple. We’ll make it a coin toss.” I say as I pull out the double-headed coin from my pocket. I swiftly show him both sides, making sure to not show him too much of any one side. “I’ll take heads, and you’ll take tails. Do you agree to the rules?”
‘Do you agree to the rules?’ These words are the first of two parts to activate the elves magic and force the effects of the game to be permanent.
“I… agree to the rules.” The man replies.
‘I agree to the rules.’ The second of two parts to activate the elves magic and force the effects of the game. And with this, the rules are set in stone. I take the coin, put it on top of my thumb and my index finger. I flick my thumb up, and the coin is launched.
As it’s flying through the air, the other guy looks in suspense. I fake attempt a sense of suspense, even though the result is obvious to me. I catch it in my hand, turn my hand over, and reveal the results to everyone.
“It’s heads. I win.” I say as I show him the coin results and stuff the coin back into my pocket. “Now everything you own is mine. Same as your job.” A smile appears on my face once more as I walk off. The man walks off in anger and rage while muttering things for himself.
“Oh, wait. You didn’t give me everything you own!” I shout back at the man.
“What do you mean?!” He replies.
“I mean, you’re still wearing clothes and you still have things like money in your pockets.” I answer with a smile on his face.
After he handed over everything in his pockets, along with his clothes that he was wearing, Kioko had some things to say.
“Are you insane?! Why would you make a bet like that with someone like him?” Kioko says with rage. Her face is bright red with anger.
“How could I do that? Take a look at my coin.” I answer. I pull out the coin from my pocket and show her both sides extensively. “It only has one side. I couldn’t have lost. The moment he didn’t notice, it was my win. You could say that’s cheating, and you’d be right. But I wasn’t caught so it’s fine. I’ve got to use everything to my advantage in this new world.”
“Oh.” Kioko replies with a sorry face. “But,” the expression changes to a curious look, “how did you know that he had a wife. I understand that you could tell he was rich and famous. How did you know?”
“That was easy. Most people in those situations are married, whether they want to or not. Political marriages are big in politics and bigger companies.” I answer. “Actually, how do you know who that guy is? That face you were making earlier made it seem like you knew who he was, but were scared of him for some reason.”
“Oh. He came over to Honcho’s mansion often, and is completely two faced. Whenever with other people, he was very nice, and showed almost no interest in women. But whenever he’s with the girl he’s targeting, then he is aggressive. He’s been going after me for years. I’ve gone to his mansion a few times, though I guess now it’s yours. I can take you there if you need me to.” Kioko replied.
I see. He’s that much of a detestable man, and he’s married. He probably has a political marriage or something. Well, I do feel kind of bad for him, but even so, that is definitely not how a man should treat a woman.
“One other thing,” Kioko says, her face starting to blush. “Why did you kiss me?!”
“Well, that doesn’t matter now.” I say, hiding my blush by looking towards the ground. “I never have to see him again, and neither do you. We should probably just wait for him to report back to his house or whatever before we head back over. I want to check out the town anyways.” Satisfied, I start walking.
“That’s not an acceptable answer!” She exclaims, furious. I ignore her and continue walking.
We start walking around the town until we get to the merchant district. It’s a big area with many shops and stores around the whole place. In the center of the block there is a circular area with stalls setup in the road. It’s a little worn down, but it still has the warm and inviting atmosphere that shopping districts should convey.
“I can only imagine how many people are waiting to pickpocket you or have been pickpocketed in this area. Though, I should stop being so pessimistic about this situation.” I mutter under my breath.
Most shops are closed down due to it being late at night, though the streets are still busy and some shops are still open. They probably won’t stay open for much longer though.
We walk around and browse some of the shops. I walk into a clothes shop with Kioko and browse around a little bit.
“Is there anything in the shop that you want?” I ask Kioko. “We need to get you some new clothing. You can’t continue to wear slaves clothes forever.”
“That is true.” Kioko replies with an unusual face. “I do kind of like these two dresses.” She holds up a blue dress with frills at the bottom of the skirt and a green dress with an open top.
“If you want them, then sure. We’ll take ‘em.” I say as I lean in next to her. “Can you help me bring down the price? I don’t know the market prices of things nor how much things are worth.” I whisper in a concerned tone.
“Okay.” Kioko whispers back.
After a few minutes of haggling, Kioko was able to drag the price down of the two dresses from three pieces of gold to two pieces of gold and five silver coins.
“That was quite impressive.” I say to her. “I never could’ve done anything like that.”
“Thank you, but it really isn’t very impressive.” Kioko answers. “Anyone could’ve done that.” Kioko looks down towards the ground, blushing.
“Don’t have too much humility.” I reply.
I hold the bag of money in my hand and just hold it to feel the weight. It feels to weigh about four pounds in my hand or so. This must be actual gold and silver. It must be quite expensive.
“Well, whatever.” I say as I stuff the bag of gold back into my pocket. “Why don’t you get out of those rags and change into the green dress in the changing room.”
“Sure!” She replies with a big smile on her face.
She walks into the changing room and I look around the shop. I find a couple of sets of clothes that catch my eyes, but I decide to wait to buy anything, since we’re going to have to buy other clothes that regular people would wear.
“I’m done!” Kioko says happily as she walks out of the changing room.
My eyes grow wide and my face starts to blush up to my ears, so I look down at the ground for a moment to clear my head. I look back up towards Kioko.
“So, how do I look?” She asks as we walk out of the shop.
“You look… really good.” I reply.
We continue to walk around and go to many different shops. While we were shopping, I bought both of us two sets of clothes that people normally wear. After that I bought us dinner and water since neither of us had eaten for about three hours or so.
We browsed other places, but we didn’t really buy anything else.
“Well, that was pretty fun.” I said to Kioko.
“Yeah, it was quite fun!” Kioko agrees with a wide grin on her face.
What is this situation that I’m in? It’s almost like I’m on a… date. I ignore the thoughts that are rushing into my mind and enjoy the situation that has approached me.
“Excuse me,” I hear a voice say from behind.
I turn around and the face of a young girl appears in front of me. She appears to be around twelve or so years old, but she is still pretty. Anyone can see that. She has blonde hair and orange eyes. She is dressed all in rags, not so bad to where she is a slave, but more like she is a beggar on the streets.
“Can you give me some money for food?” The girl asks with a needy face. I hear a stomach growl and I realize that the girl is hungry. She seems like she hasn’t eaten all day, if not more.
“Of course! Actually, why don’t I buy you some food?” I ask the young girl.
“No.” She replies.
“What? Why not?” I ask with a curious tone. A frown appears on my face out of surprise of my option being shot down so fast.
“Just no.” The girl says once again, stubbornly.
“Is there a reason why you won’t allow me to buy you food?” I ask.
“You should already know the reason. I can’t believe you would even suggest such a thing.” She replies once again.
What does that mean? I should already know the reason to that? Does she talk this cryptically to everyone?
“If you want me to give you money for food, I’ll gladly do it, but why can’t I just buy you the food?” I ask.
“You’re so dumb, you don’t even understand the situation you’re in.” The girl says.
I don’t understand the situation I’m in? Isn’t this situation just a beggar asking for some money for food? What am I not understanding about this situation?
I notice the girl reach into her pocket and grab something. I watch carefully as she starts to move her hand out of her pocket. As I’m watching I start to see something wooden come out. She pulls it out even farther, and attached to the wood is iron.
Oh crap! That wood is a hilt and that iron must be a…
“Now then, I’ll repeat it once more.” The girl replies with a knife held up to my face. “Give me your money for food. All of it.”
v7 Silent's Original Works 