D.S. Newman
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Isekai Mansion Arc 2 Part 1-5
🕑 Added 2023-08-17 13:31:15 +0000 UTCThe next day, while I was sitting outside talking to Higgins over coffee, Emily went to the study to talk to Anabel.
“Anabel, we need to talk. Eric just told me about last night. I want to apologize to you,” Emily began, “I was wrong trying to one up you. It was selfish…and kinda mean trying to take advantage of your lack of knowledge in modern courtship.”
“It’s okay. I know you didn’t mean to hurt me directly,” Anabel responded.
“Listen. I’ve thrown myself at that guy on a number of occasions. He’s completely hung up on this Stephanie chick. He’s as loyal as anyone can possibly be to her, and I’ve decided to respect that. But you know what, if that woman ends up breaking his heart any further, then I leave it to you to come mend it. There’s no reason we shouldn’t be friends.”
Anabel smiled and said, “we are friends, Emily. I owe a lot to you as well for teaching me and helping take care of me when I get confused about modern things. I owe as much to you as I do Eric and Higgins at this point. Thank you for coming and talking to me about this.”
The two girls hugged and at that moment, their friendship was solidified.
* * *
Later that night, I made my announcement to the entire house, “everyone…thank you for taking such good care of me. I’m not 100% yet, but I feel I will be well enough to continue my expedition in Callist tomorrow. But before I go, this time I’d like your blessing. Due to recent events and conversations between all of us, it has come to be understood that we are becoming a tight little unorthodox family in this house. Though it is my duty to fight the Seven Devils, I will no longer go gallivanting off to do so without taking it up with all of you first.”
“You have my blessing, Eric,” said Anabel with enthusiasm.
“Go get 'em, tiger!” Emily added.
“Of course, Master Noble. Do what you feel is best,” Higgins said.
“Alright! With all of you in my heart, there's no way I can fail! I’ll take on those blasted devils with the power of friendship!”
* * *
The next day came, and I said my goodbyes to everyone once more. I suited up in my chainmail and started back down the well. Once I was back in the spring, I began the arduous task of climbing back up the rope. It was a hell of a lot harder with the armor on. I made it about halfway when I started to feel a pull. Up above was Arduwan, tugging the rope to help hoist me over the ledge.
“Arduwan,” I called out as I came to my feet, “you’re still here?”
“Yes, Eric. I decided to wait until you came back up.”
“But why? I never even told you why I wanted to come here. What if I had fallen to my death and I never came back?”
“Hmm, I hadn’t thought that far ahead.”
Wow, it’s like someone playing an RPG rolled up a character with all the intelligence stats dumped into attack and defense.
“It appears you are mostly recovered. Is this a magical spring?”
“I’m doing okay. And sorta, I’ll explain some time. Do you think we could try out another quest?”
“Sure! I already had one picked out for when you came back,” she said enthusiastically.
“Excellent! What are we doing?”
“There’s a village, not far from the desert's edge where a small pack of Gnolls have apparently taken residence in a nearby cave. The people are terrified and it’s only a matter of time before a wandering child is taken by them.”
Hold it, timeout. For all you non-TRPG Fantasy nerds, Gnolls are Hyena people.
“Perfect! I mean, not perfect about children getting eaten by them. Perfect that we can do something about it.”
“I’m worried I’ll make a bad plan again. You should come up with something this time.”
“Eh, don’t worry about it. Your plan with the goblins was a good one. You just overestimated a little bit. Have you ever fought Gnolls before?”
“The only time I’ve ever encountered Gnolls, they were afraid of me. Direct approach tends to work well with them if you’re tough enough but if they feel outmatched, they’ll run.”
“Hmm, I think I may have an idea, but we’ll need to buy some supplies. Come on, I’ll explain on the way.”
We went back to Braytown in the grasslands and bought a few things before heading to the site of the Gnoll cave. We hunkered down on a ledge overlooking the cave entrance in broad daylight to verify Gnolls were coming in and out of it. They were.
I explained to Arduwan, ”Okay, let’s go over the plan one more time to make sure it’s absolutely foolproof. We’re gonna wait until the next time we see a Gnoll go into the cave, then we’re gonna sneak down there and hide on both sides of the cave entrance. I’m gonna throw this smoke bomb into the cave to flush them all out. Once I throw it, I’m gonna run to a vantage point and ready my bow. When the Gnolls come running out in the confusion, you take out as many as you can with your greatsword. I’ll cover you and hit any of them that try and get the jump on you, okay?”
“Yes! That sounds like a fantastic plan to me, Eric.” Foolproof!
We waited a while longer and saw what we had guessed was a Gnoll patrol returning to the cave. By our best assessment there were between six and ten of these things down there and from what I could tell there were no more outside the cave nearby. Even if we didn’t kill them all, perhaps the survivors would be too scared to come back to this area.
After the Gnoll we were watching disappeared into the cave, we made our move. The two of us stood on either side of the cave entrance out of sight. I took out the smoke bomb I bought and tossed it down into the cave. As I heard it hit, I took off running for cover about thirty-five yards away, behind a rock as I watched Arduwan ready her sword.
It only took a minute or so for smoke to come pouring out of the cave. We could hear the Gnolls coughing their lungs out down there and they soon started running out.
*WHAM* *SLICE* *POW*
Arduwan made short work of the first few Gnolls that came out. They didn’t know what hit them! Just as the next round of Gnolls began to emerge I got ready to back her up when I noticed something. A heavy breathing sound behind me. It was a Gnoll! Must have been one we didn’t know about out patrolling or scavenging. I leapt up from behind the rock and tried to get an arrow off, but it was too close. The beast swiped at me with a hand ax it was carrying but dodged backwards just in the knick of time. It furiously kept swiping at me as I ducked and tumbled, remembering my training with Higgins.
Arduwan, who had killed about five Gnolls already and had three more coming after her, turned and shouted, “Eric! No! I won’t let anything happen to you again!”
She ran from the Gnolls coming at her and came in my direction. Just as the creature was about to take a towering downward strike over me, she came to my aid and slashed right across the Gnolls chest.
“Arduwan! Thank you!”
The other three Gnolls were now heading right for us. I stood up and proclaimed, “come on, let’s take these three together!”
Arduwan stood next to me and hiked her greatsword up with both hands so hard and heavy handed that she uppercutted me with the hilt before she ran into battle. My mouth was busted open, and I fell back onto the rock I had been hiding behind earlier and was knocked unconscious.
* * *
I woke up sometime later with blurry vision but could see the horse’s legs running across the ground. I was being carried on horseback by Arduwan at full gallop. I passed out again but woke up just in time to hear Arduwan apologizing as she chucked me into the spring again.
When I came to, I started swimming down to get the stone to return to my world.
Anabel found me this time crawling out of the well, covered in Gnoll blood. She screamed horrifically thinking it was mine, so Higgins and Emily rushed downstairs to see what was going on. I hadn’t even been gone two days this time!
Upstairs in the kitchen, I held a cold pack of ice to my busted mouth as Higgins bandaged the back of my head. I muttered obscenities under my breath in anger at Arduwan’s clumsiness.
“I highly advise against that, Master Noble,” said Higgins.
“It’s the only thing I can think of and the third time's supposed to be a charm, so I’m not going back there without it,” I replied…we were arguing over an idea I had about dealing with Davol.
Emily sat across from me just listening when the doorbell rang. Higgins and I didn’t even notice, so we carried on in our debate. Anabel, who was quite accustomed to pizza and Chinese food showing up at this time, decided to answer the door.
“I simply don’t condone it, Master Noble. Taking things from one world to another is one thing, but something like that coming from this world draws too much attention, this side of the well,” Higgins continued.
Before I could even address his point, suddenly, I heard a voice I recognized but hadn’t heard in some time say, “Hey hey Buddy! Great place you got here!”
Standing in the entryway next to Anabel was a man about my age with two duffle bag straps crossed over his chest and a suitcase in each hand. It was my friend Wraith!
