Chapter 10: First Morning With Licia

I felt relieved after waking up today.

First of all, not having mana depletion in the morning felt especially good.

I was beginning to get used to not having any energy during the morning, but this break made me realize how good it was to be able to be productive.

Somehow, even though I spent less time resting, I was way more energetic.

Another good thing was that I wasn't dead.

Taking all the specifics out of the situation, I had allowed a stranger I had just met to rest in my room while I ended up sleeping like a rock on the sofa.

However, the situation wasn't so simple, and the fact she had not attacked me was a good signal.

It made me trust her some more, after all, if she wanted to do something against me, there wasn't going to be a more obvious chance.

Although even then, I still had the ability to come and go from the [Kingdom]. Even as a citizen, she needed my permission to enter or leave it, so I at least had a place to run if need be.

...Assuming I got the chance to react.

However, that wasn't necessary at all, and as her figure came out of my room where she was just sleeping, a mix of emotions started flowing into me.

It was the first time I had someone sleepover, and it felt like a blessing to see something as beautiful as her first thing in the morning.

It was shocking in many ways, but it was also very pleasing.

Licia: "Morning..."

She seemed more calm now. The look I first got when she was summoned was back for the most part, but... she didn't feel as cold.

She felt... more alive now.

Miwen: "Good morning. Did you have a good night's sleep?"

Licia: "Yes, your bed was amazing, to be honest, I might've slept the whole day if not for the smell of your cooking..."

Again, it wasn't a particularly good bed or anything, but she always reacted with that honest excitement to the most mundane things.

It felt so rewarding for me that I couldn't help getting excited and showing her other things.

Yesterday, this led to us getting stuck in a loop where I'd keep explaining things to her only to see her reactions that only got more amusing as time went on.

Miwen: "Whoops. Sorry for waking you up then. You can rest more if you want, but... I made breakfast for two. Would you like to give me a hand?"

Licia: "Absolutely!"

I was really proud that the meager cooking skills I had were enough to make her eat so happily.

After we finished eating I told her that I had enough points to exchange for another set of clothes and asked her to show me what she wanted.

The plan ended up working. As we both wanted the same thing, they materialized in front of us.

Although this left me broke for Kingdom Points, I wasn't expending them with anything else, so in a way, I was glad to finally have a use for them.

I waited for her to change into the more casual clothes we got, and asked her what she wanted to do from now on.

Miwen: "I'll raid a dungeon today, you're welcome to join me, but if you want to stay at home that's fine too, also if you decide to leave I won't impede you."

She used to be an adventurer with a high level, so I thought that something like this would be surprisingly comfortable for her.

Licia: "Hm... I'll take you up on the dungeon offer, it's been a long time since I went to one and somehow I kind of miss the feeling... You've also been doing a lot for me, so I'll take any chance to pay you back."

She looked pretty confident. Our party certainly needed someone experienced to point out our mistakes, and I thought that she'd be perfect for her job considering she seems more experienced.

Miwen: "I see, I'll tell my party mates that you're coming too. I only met them recently, but they seem to be good people, so you don't have to worry."

Licia: "That's fine. I can wait for a while."

...?

There wasn't anything in her Gift that pointed out this being a possibility, so I got a bit confused by her statement.

Licia: "Yes, have your people never attacked another world from the dungeon?"

Miwen: "No? We've never met people from other worlds, only monsters."

Even now the dungeon still has plenty of mysteries, but... there are plenty of adventurers that make a living out of exploring deeper floors, so there was bound to be rumors about people from other worlds if such a thing existed within the dungeon.

Licia: "That's... strange... every world has access to the dungeons, so unless your dungeons are unique, you should've met people from other worlds inside them. At least one of your dungeons should also exist in another world, it's simply too unlikely for them not to..."

So our world was the odd one, huh?

I didn't know whether this was good or bad, nor could I give her any reason for this being the case.

Miwen: "That's the first I've heard about it, the most we've seen from other worlds are the Divine Events."

Licia: "Yes! There's also that, Divine events should allow you to see people from other worlds, and if you participate in a Fallen God Subjugation, Divine War, or World Punishment you'd also be able to visit another world for a while!"

The reason why I wasn't so surprised by the existence of other worlds was... well, first, her.

Second, we had already participated in a few Divine Events under Catherine, so Earth knows about the existence of other worlds and races.

It's just that, outside of these events, we've never come into contact with them, which led to a bunch of speculations, but... even the best technologies don't seem to be able to reach any other world with living beings, so our theories are just that.

Miwen: "Well, among those, we've only ever been to Divine Events..."

It was a shame to rain on her parade when she seemed so happy that we finally had something in common too...

This led to her being shocked again, but there was nothing I could do about it. I'd love to participate in something as cool sounding as a Fallen God Subjugation, but... the truth was that we had never even heard of something like that.

Licia: "Your world doesn't make sense to me..."

She looked genuinely upset...

Miwen: "Who knows though? Maybe those things just haven't happened yet. After all, ever since dungeons and magic started appearing everything's been changing..."

Licia: ".....?"

I tried to make things look a little better with a little optimism, but it only made her confused.

Something in what I had said left her in disbelief, even more so than anything else.

Licia: "What do you mean by ever since dungeons and magic started appearing? Was there a time without magic?"

Miwen: "Yes, it was only 20 years ago when Catherine, the Goddess Of The Red Night blessed our world with dungeons and Gifts, before that, magic was something of a fantasy for us, something you'd read about in a book."

The more I talked, the more surprised she became. Yet, she was quick to rationalize a few things out of it.

Licia: "20 years...Now it makes sense why the levels in your world are so low... but... a world without magic and dungeons... is that why this world is so different from all the others ?"

Since I had never been to another world, I had nothing to say.

It makes sense that with the lack of magic, we would develop something else, I guess.

But... with enough worlds, surely one would have developed both at the same time, right?

I mean... although people don't use magic willy-nilly, especially out in the streets or in their workplaces due to regulations, safety concerns, and protocols, they are still extremely useful even with our current technology.

Miwen: "You might be right about that... Also, I need to tell you about the First Contact. It's something everyone in this world knows about and it would be inexplicable if you weren't aware of it."

There's not a single person alive today who doesn't know about that, if I want to keep her origin a secret, she has to learn all about it.

Licia: "Hm... Sure, go ahead..."

And so, I told her about the events that happened twenty years ago as we headed to the dungeon.

I got a bit passionate about it and went a bit further than needed, but it didn't seem like she minded too much.

Instead, she kept paying attention to my explanations, and we eventually arrived at the dungeon gate, where Roy and Sam were already waiting for us.