>>6079627For some completely unknown reason, the flight of a duck catches your attention as it seems to come up from under the bridge to the rest of a support beam in front of you. It quirks its head at you as you stare at it, wait- it almost looks like one of the ducks from the Cendre pond- You stop yourself, this isn’t relevant, “It’s quite obvious someone gave you the idea to attack the estate you were at unless you simply got a penchant for arson? Should’ve seen the other arsonists we caught, they’re hanging from a rope outside the palace right about now!” You should, allowing Marie to finish.
“Let me handle this,” She firmly states to you before turning back to the Stranger, “What she’s trying to say is your Cheat Skill doesn’t seem to involve firearms yet you had one. We want to know who supplied you with the munitions and sent you to that estate.”
“Y-you promise I’ll help me out if I tell you, right?”
She tilts her head a bit and widens her smile, you don’t think the Ota notices how brittle it is, “I was alone for a couple weeks after spawning in here, didn’t run into much trouble, but my antics at a broth- ahem- my antics caught the attention of another of us,” He gestures to himself and Marie, “And he taught me a lot about this world. He was a white guy, about middle-aged I think, and said he was a Desert Storm veteran, anyway, he had the power to conjure any weapon he wanted and knew existed,” Your lips purse as Marie goes a bit pale. Never before have you envied a Stranger as much as you do now. However, there’s also a different question.
“What’s a ‘white guy’ is that a type of demihuman?!” You shout to the Stranger.
You’re rather hastily corrected by Marie who stutters a bit at your outburst, “It means his skin looks like yours and not mine.”
“Ah. Why is that important?”
“It will help us identify him?”
You blink, “Everyone in this kingdom has skin similar to mine.”
Marie sighs “Whatever,” She says before continuing, “Did you know there were still people inside the manor when you set it on fire?”
“Of course I did,” He admits to murder seemingly without guilt or remorse, “But they’re not, you know,” Again he gestures to him and Marie.
“Can you please elaborate?” Marie seems to be struggling very hard to maintain composer, “They’re not?” The duck also seems to have waddled a bit closer on the beam above you- that’s not important.
“Like us, you know? From Earth. They’re basically NPCs, they don’t matter,” You think for a second that this whole good-bad routine is going to be useless as Marie strikes the man but then she brings her hand behind her, secretly summons her sword, and her emotions calm. It’s gone by the time she brings the hand back to caress the Stranger’s shoulder. She looks happy at a glance, but you can tell she very much isn’t. Tough luck, this was her idea.
