I am me

"Hm?"

Noah's eyes darted toward the maid, full of confusion.

"Ah… I knew I would catch your attention with that…"

Noah furrowed his eyebrows. To think he fell for such a basic trick. If he didn't feel so drained, he would have probably felt really ashamed of himself.

"Well, it is not that much of a fancy story," continued the maid. "To the far west of this kingdom, farther than the kingdom of Novel, there's a little cluster of islands called Endymion. There lives a… king, I guess? A bloodthirsty king named Dorian Narcissa. King Narcissa reigns over Endymion's islands, a place full of women but absolutely devoid of clothes."

Was she going to continue with her tale? Did she really expect him to follow such a stupid thing?

"So the islands were his… harem of sorts? Well, he did ask me to marry him at some point, but I went too far in… Anyway, I went there to retrieve a certain mirror for the Otogi kingdom when—"

And so, the maid began her tale.

———

All began when the Otogi kingdom, a little kingdom of the far east, decided to send three of its most valorous warriors to retrieve the kingdom's sacred artifacts.

[King of Otogi]: Oh, valorous warriors! Our kingdom's treasures have been dispersed throughout the world and are now guarded by fearsome monsters! Go! Search the world and find them! Or something like that…

———

"Hm?" made Noah, furrowing his eyebrows.

"I am not sure of what he said exactly. That was a while ago…" replied the maid, shrugging. "Anyway, after that, we sailed, fought a lot of stuff, found one of the treasures, got into a fight, almost died, reconciled…"

Now that was quite a way to summarize things. Well, not that he cared.

"And then we reached Endymion."

———

[Endymion Guard]: Stop there, adventurers! By order of Dorian Narcissa, no clothed person shall set foot on this island!

The guard advanced toward us, a lance in hand, in her birthday suit but her decency protected by suspiciously well placed sun rays. She pointed at one of us.

[Endymion Guard]: Also, that man over there, he cannot enter. If you insist on bringing him, we will have to forbid—

The three of us looked at each other, and the only man in our party shrugged.

[Blue Lake Vagabond Sora]: It appears our intel was right. What do we do? The closest guild is kilometers away, and our provisions won't allow us to travel back…

Our calm companion made a thoughtful observation. If we left without provisions, we would without a doubt die in the middle of the sea.

Yet, we couldn't step on any of the islands without cutting our ties with all and every man we knew. This, of course, included things like covenants, parties, and guilds.

While breaking a covenant could be done by simply throwing away the covenant's ring, a party could only be undone by officially breaking it in a proper guild office—thus our companion's comment.

Thankfully…

[Fox-haired Priestess Tamamo]: Why must thou hesitate thusly? If we encounter a wall, shall we not do as we always did?

[Blue Lake Vagabond Sora]: Wait, you can't mean…

[Fox-haired Priestess Tamamo]: Little Momo, if you will.

[Straight-Faced Peach Momo]: Alomeda.

[Calm Lake Vagabond Sora]: Wait, you two—

[Fox-haired Priestess Tamamo]: YKC Belobog Inarikonkon! Come, my fiery servants! Wreak havoc on this island!

———

"And that's how the priestess summoned giant flaming foxes that attacked the island. Thanks to the commotion, we were able to sneak in and find the king without fighting too many guards," calmly explained the maid as she described what Noah could only imagine as hell on earth.

———

Finally, we reached Stripper King Narcissa in his castle as he looked at himself in a giant mirror.

[Stripper King Dorian Narcissa]: Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?

[Magic Mirror]: That, your grace, would be…

[Stripper King Dorian Narcissa]: Shush. Throw not your breath for naught. We already knows your answer, for there could be only one.

He then turned to us, a carefree smile on his face as sparks flew through the room.

[Stripper King Dorian Narcissa]: What about you, strangers? Have your eyes witnessed such beauty before? Yes, yes. Feast your eyes on us, carve that view in your eyes, and devote yourselves to me!

Holding out weapons, the three of us hesitated. Could we really fight such beauty? Wouldn't it have been a better choice to grovel before him and kiss those beautiful feet of his?

———

"?"

For some reason, the maid's breath suddenly became more labored and her cheeks flushed. Just what was she imagining?

That didn't last for long though, as she quickly shook her head before continuing.

———

[Fox-haired Priestess Tamamo]: Oh my… To think such a person exists. Even I, as a shrine maiden, feel the need to prostrate and lick her feet. Worse still, I find myself overjoyed at the idea…

[Blue Lake Vagabond Sora]: Kuh…! The competence charm… isn't it? Such a fearful opponent…

Tamamo peeked at Sora behind her fan.

[Fox-haired Priestess Tamamo]: … Oh… Such is the kind of woman you favor, sir swordmaster?

She pointed at the area under his waist. Sora, who was usually the most reasonable of us, suddenly became really agitated.

[Blue Lake Vagabond Sora]: D-Do you think the time is right for such jokes?! This is merely the effect of her Charm skill! Nothing more!

———

"H-Her?" asked Noah, confused.

"Didn't I mention it? I did say Endymion was full of women. The Stripper King himself was actually one too… well, it is more complicated, but listen to the next part first."

———

[Fox-haired Priestess Tamamo]: I am blessed by Charm too, yet you never reacted so strongly. Or reacted at all, for that matter. Why could that be?

[Blue Lake Vagabond Sora]: Do you seriously want to discuss such a thing now?!

[Straight-Faced Peach Momo]: That mirror behind her, isn't that…

My companions' attention focused again on the Stripper King and the mirror standing behind her.

[Fox-haired Priestess Tamamo]: That is…

[Blue Lake Vagabond Sora]: The mirror of Yata, one of Otogi's three treasures!

The king's red eyes glimmered as she made that single noise. Again, our bodies were paralyzed, enraptured by her beauty.

[Stripper King Dorian Narcissa]: So this is the name of that mirror? Such a beautiful object, truly. One of this world's finest pieces. It is thanks to it that I was able to create this king—

Before the king could finish, the three of us had already lunged at her. Tamamo used her fire spells, Sora used his quick-draw techniques, and I aimed to break her neck.

[Stripper King Dorian Narcissa]: —dom… Oh my…

But the king was still standing, unscathed.

———

"D-Did you… er… shit!... di… uh…"

"Did we miss him ?" asked the maid, seeing her student struggle to finish his sentence.

Noah nodded, prompting her to reply.

"We didn't. It's not even that we were too charmed to hurt her. It was just that she was truly invulnerable."

"In… vul…"

Invulnerable? Was that possible?

———

[Straight-Faced Peach Momo]: That is… What did you use the power of the mirror for? Which question did you ask it, and what did it answer?

[Stripper King Dorian Narcissa]: How impressive. There have not been many people who were able to witness our beauty yet maintained their sanity enough to talk casually as you did, nor attack me. Your king is truly impressed by your performance, rebels.

Now, allow me to show you the true extent of our beauty.

———

"... Hm? Wha… What ha… happe… ned… er… a-er-after… that?"

"... You seem more relaxed than this morning. Good."

"!!!"

Realizing that he got carried away, Noah hid himself behind his covers. And here he was, the one saying he wouldn't listen to that stupid tale in the beginning.

It wasn't even that interesting of a story in his opinion, but it seemed listening to someone else was something that he missed deeply.

"Hey… Hey…"

The maid poked repeatedly at the cover. He knew she wouldn't stop bothering him until he answered her. His head timidly peeked at her above the cover, waiting to see what she wanted to bait him with now.

"Here," she said, putting an opened book close to his face. The page displayed what looked like a map of the world.

"Why don't you mark Otogi, Berattelse, and Endymion on this map? I will tell you the rest of the story if you do…"

What a ridiculously weak way to convince someone, he thought. Was there really someone who would fall for that? It really wasn't that much of an interesting story.

"... I…"

"Don't say 'me'," she reminded.

"I… huh… know… t-that. It… It's… er… I… I can't… er… I… don't know… how… to read."

It was something he noticed a long time ago but never brought up. Not that he had anyone to bring it up with anyway.

He knew it was inevitable—he couldn't just start reading books in a foreign language out of nowhere; he had to learn and preferably have someone teach it to him.

Yet, there was something really embarrassing about admitting that you couldn't read. It made him feel stupid, and the fact that he knew he shouldn't be embarrassed made him feel even more stupid for being embarrassed anyway.

"Heh… When did your father see you last time? Were you a toddler or something?"

But…

Strangely enough, the maid's mocking smile and her jab didn't hurt him as much as he thought it would. In fact, he kinda felt happy to be mocked rather than pitied by her.

"Well, I am paid to teach you. That's a bit low for a beginning…"

She stood up and extended her arm to him.

"But I guess I don't mind right now. Will you let me guide you through this path?"

"..."

Really weird. Extremely strange.

Yes, he thought she didn't quite make sense, but he couldn't even tell why. Such a strange woman. Such ridiculous methods employed.

Wasn't she a bit disrespectful of him too? He was supposed to be her master!

Who thought she would make a good teacher? She was annoying!

Also, didn't she forget his name every single time? Such a lack of seriousness!

"Oh… M-My…. name…"

Vasilisa.

He instinctively thought of that name as his. Yet, he was still referring to himself as Noah. For some reason, when he didn't think too much about it, he was simply himself.

He was simply himself. Living in the present. Deciding what he would become in the future.

"... I… am… me…"

The maid raised her eyebrow for a second before flicking his forehead with her finger.

"O-Ouch…"

"Didn't I say to not say that word?" she said, eyebrows furrowed. "It is normally not dangerous, but we can never be totally sure."

"S-So… er… So…"

The maid silently gave a pen to him before tightly closing his hand around it.

"Sigh… You will say whatever you want to say now when you will be able to write it too… Now, are you ready to take your lesson?"

"..."

Silently, he nodded.

The maid nodded too before opening a page at the back of the book and writing a single sentence on it.

"Good… Then let's start with what you said earlier…"

Her finger slowly slid across the letters forming that simple sentence:

I am me.