Chapter 12: Gretel’s Story

As Lexi and Gretel made their way from the battle’s wreckage to the city gates, the paladin worked to quickly devise a stratagem so that she could elicit information from NPCs like the mage without necessarily revealing her status as a PC from another world all together. It was so simple that she had to hold back from slapping herself in the forehead when the idea finally came to her.

I’ll just tell them I’m a wandering knight from a different city, Lexi decided. I mean, shit, I can probably just use my actual hometown and that’ll sound super exotic to the NPCs here. Anyway, aren’t the best lies ones that’re grounded in truth? This way, I’ll probably be less likely to slip up and forget what stories I’ve told to whom.

“I’ve been meaning to ask,” Lexi ventured. “What city is it that we’re heading towards, anyway? I’ve been wandering around in the wilds for so long, I’m actually not quite sure where I even am right now.”

Gretel looked wide-eyed at the paladin, mouth agape.

“H-how ... did you even come through the King’s Wood alive, much less as unscathed as you appear to be? The ring of greenskins surrounding the capital has closed in so tightly that none dare even pass through the gates unless in the company of a seasoned party of adventurers. The whole kingdom has grown utterly perilous!”

Fuck! Maybe this wasn’t the best idea after all.

“Well,” Lexi said as a blush spread over her face and bust. “To be perfectly honest ... when I said ‘wilds’ I wasn’t actually talking about the forests here.” Scrambling, Lexi thought of a way to smooth this over without drawing too much attention to her singular situation as a PC. “I wasn’t sure if you would believe the truth, but here goes. I’m actually pretty new at this whole adventuring thing — this fight was my first.”

“What!?” Gretel gasped. “B-but, you were so amazing back there! I mean, it was my first time too, and I couldn’t even stop the goblins from r-ra–”

Not wanting the defiled young mage to relive that experience any further, Lexi gently shushed the girl, placing a finger on her lips.

“Let’s leave all of that behind us for now. I don’t think it worked out they way that any of us hoped, but there’s no use in dwelling on our failures. We came through it alive, and are stronger from it. We might want to think about where things went wrong before we plan our next adventure, just so we don’t make any of the same ... what’s the word... tactical missteps. But, it won’t do either of us any good to dwell on how we fucked things up. Deal?”

Gretel’s eyes shone with admiration for the paladin. The faintest trace of tears rimmed her clear blue orbs. But, these were tears brought on my gladness, not despair. A warm smile lit her face, and the young mage sniffled, giving Lexi a nod of assent.

“So anyway,” Lexi continued, hoping to leave the goblin debacle in their wake for a while at least. “Like I was saying, this was my first real adventure. I’d done a bunch of ... uh... training before, but never for real.”

The lie came easily to her lips because it really wasn’t that far off from the truth. After all, was it not because of all her borderline obsessive time spent playing J-RPGs that the game’s AI had selected Lexi to be a player? It was hardly even a stretch to recast that experience as training, for Gretel’s benefit.

“But, you’re not from Astyanax?” Gretel asked, head cocked.

That must be the name of the city, Lexi reasoned.

“No,” the paladin shook her head. “My city is, I think, probably really far from here. I doubt you’d have heard of it, since I’d never heard of yours. I was actually brought here by a faerie, just barely before I heard the battle sounds from you and the other fighter.”

“Roland...” Gretel said sadly, her voice dropping with subdued pain at the mention of his name. But, to her credit, the mage blinked away any tears of sadness that might be threatening, and powered through the memory, heeding her new leader’s advice. “I’ve heard about such creatures, but I’ve never seen one myself. We’ve got a decent amount of representation the other goodly races in the capital — the ones our kingdom is on good terms with, at least. But faeries are more like something you’d hear about in stories.”

“It’s the same where I’m from,” Lexi agreed. “I grew up with stories about the faeries, but I’d never even thought them real until today. I don’t really even know why I’m here, in your kingdom, except that the faerie told me I’d been chosen to take on quests against the monsters here because of my ... erm... training.”

“Wow,” the mage said wistfully. “That’s so romantic! It’s like something out of one of the great heroes’ legends.”

“I don’t know about romantic,” Lexi said with a grin. “But, it’s definitely pretty fucking weird. Enough about me though, how did you end up in an adventuring party anyway?”

Seeing a look of concern subtly darken the mage’s face, Lexi quickly backpedaled. “N-not that I don’t think you should be an adventurer or anything. I’m just wondering what made you want to strike out, since it was your first time and all.”

“My story’s not nearly as exciting as yours, but I’ll tell it if you want.”

“I do!” Lexi said emphatically. “If we’re going to be a team, we’ve got to get to know each other.”

Gretel smiled shyly, a blush spreading across her pretty face. And though her beauty was still marred by the dried coating of goblin blood and cum, Lexi felt a strong surge of affection — both emotional and physical — for the girl.

“You see, I had just joined the Adventurer’s Guild a few days ago. It was the first thing I did after I turned eighteen — that’s the age limit for guild membership here.”

“Adventurer’s Guild?” Lexi queried, her interest piqued.

“Oh! Yeah, I guess they probably don’t have that where you’re from. The guild is really only a guild in name, since there’s no period of indentureship for new members like with most of the real guilds. But, members are ranked according to their expertise like with other guilds. New members like me come in as novice adventurers. Then, depending on how many quests you complete, you can move up the ranks through journeyman, master, or even grandmaster.”

“Interesting,” Lexi mused. “How does the guild decide who moves up from one rank to the next? I can’t imagine that they’d just take your word for it that you’ve completed whatever quest you’re supposed to have done. But, we aren’t bringing back any disgusting trophies like ears or heads — thankfully — to prove that we killed all those fuckers back there.”