14 C14. An Ordinary Day

As the first rays of sunlight shined on his face through the opened window, Tyler woke up from his slumber and sat up. He rubbed his eyes as he took a look around the room to see where he was. He had been having a nightmare where he was trapped in the demon continent in the demon king's castle with a strange door that led to a library that didn't exist.

That was quite a scary thought, so he was glad it was just a dream. "Damnit!" He facepalmed himself as he recognized the room he was in. It turned out it wasn't a dream after all. He got out of the bed and walked into the bathroom. The design seemed to be an old Western design back on Earth, but then again, he couldn't be sure.

Walking to the sink, he pushed the head of the tap down, and it lit up in a dim glow. Water gushed out of it soon after. He could tell by the basic magic runes inscribed on it that the water was coming from the well. It was a basic magic circuit system that had been set up throughout the castle, using magic runes to connect the taps to the water in the well.

This wasn't easy to achieve, as one needed a massive power source. Usually, only nobles would have it after a hero had made the world understand the importance of hygiene. The summons from Earth seemed to have had some influence on the demon continent as well.

He splashed some water on his face and went in to take a bath. Now that he knew the water was working, he might as well wash off as well as wash his clothes. He hadn't taken a bath since he woke up underground and he felt a little uncomfortable. There was no soap, but he didn't mind that. He knew how to make them since they taught him back in high school on Earth.

He had made it again when he transmigrated here a thousand years ago. He had made it so often it was now burned into his memories. He had even sold the formula to a store owner for quite a lot of money. Maybe it was popular now in the human continent. 'Perhaps I need to invent something similar here... hmm, still, I'll need a lot more information on this time period.'

After taking his bath and drying off, he walked out of the bathroom feeling refreshed. That's when he noticed his body was back in form. He felt his mana had fully recovered and even felt like it had increased somehow, which was impossible, right?

*Thud!

As his thoughts trailed off, he heard a loud sound coming from the room next door, and he instantly knew who it was. He quickly dressed himself up and ran next door with the dagger tucked away behind his shirt. He was dealing with demons and had to be prepared just in case things didn't go as planned. He had thought of several plans when dealing with these demons, but he didn't plan on getting complacent.

He soon arrived at the front of the door and opened it. He didn't bother knocking so as not to seem overly polite. They didn't know who he was or how strong he was, so he wanted to make an impactful first impression. Or was it now a second impression?

Walking into the room, he saw the blonde-haired girl on the ground, moaning in pain as she held the back of her head. She appeared to have rolled out of bed and fell, hitting the back of her head on the floor.

He slowly walked closer, clearing his throat and speaking, trying to make his voice deep. "Are you okay?" he asked, his voice slightly hoarse. The girl was visibly startled as she nearly jumped out of her skin. She looked up at the person who spoke and saw a tall young man with short black hair and a cleanly cut fade, wearing a brown shirt and brown pants with ordinary-looking boots standing in front of her at some point in time.

Her expression changed instantly as she shrieked at the top of her lungs. The high-pitched sound startled Tyler a little as he retreated a few steps back. For a demon, this was not what he expected. She seemed to be overreacting to everything, like all her emotions were jumbled up together, making her emotionally unstable.

He scratched his head as he wondered how to approach her without getting an exaggerated response. The girl had finally finished screaming as she dragged herself to the edge of the room in tears, mumbling words as she retreated away, "Please don't hurt me, please don't hurt me..."

Tyler was confused. There must be something wrong somewhere. He had felt the girl's strength and knew it was no joke, which was why he was planning to bluff his way through their conversation as he could not appear weak during their negotiation. She was most likely the one who killed the magic beast, yet here she was acting like a frightened kitten.

'Is it an act?' he thought as he saw her curled into a ball at the end of the room. He couldn't feel anything coming from her. He could tell she was strong, but the mana fluctuations in her body felt off.

That was when a thought hit him. 'Is this a side effect from the strange transformation she used last night?' It made sense. It was clear there was a massive difference between the white-haired lady and the blonde girl he was looking at right now. Their aura was even completely different. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn't have believed they were the same person.

It was only normal for a transformation that powerful to have some side effects. Last night, it didn't seem like she had any emotions, and now she seemed to be overflowing with emotions. So that means her emotions were still unstable, and she would be very sensitive right now, especially if her memories from last night were not clear, making him into a monster in her mind.

Impressed by his observational skills and analytic mind, he decided it was best to give the girl some space while he talked to her. It was best he capitalized on this golden opportunity.

He took a few steps forward and crouched down to talk to her. "Hey, I'm not going to hurt you. You don't have to be scared. Look, you and your companion were unconscious in the woods, and I only brought you here so you wouldn't get attacked by monsters. Why would I hurt you after that?"

Hearing the word companion seemed to resonate with her as she looked to be in deep thought, completely ignoring what he was saying. After a while, she seemed to have remembered something as she yelled, "Rain! Where's Rain?" Tyler was still in the middle of his big speech when he was startled by her voice. "Rain?" he looked out the window and didn't see a cloud in the sky before it clicked for him.

"If you mean your companion, she's on the bed. She was bleeding a lot, so I had no choice but to bandage her with an old shirt. I'm afraid I don't have any medical supplies around."

The girl immediately jumped off the ground and ran to the bed to check on her friend. "Rain! Rain! Are you okay?" she was weeping even more now as she held the hand of her friend, calling her name over and over again.

Tyler, feeling a little ignored, got up and walked to the side of the bed. "She's unconscious. She had lost a lot of blood. I don't know any healing spells, so there was nothing I could do. If you have a healing spell, it's best if you use it now before it's too late."

"Sob... sob... I... I don't know any..." she replied, still crying.

Tyler finally received a response and felt relieved. After going through the trouble of helping them and bringing them here, if she had ignored him any longer, he might have snapped. Based on what he had just witnessed, he decided to ask his questions in a way that would prompt her to respond. She seemed to really care about the elf, so he would use that.

"She might have an internal injury as well as a few broken bones. If you want her to survive, we should act fast. Do you know anywhere around here we can find a healer?"

"Around here? Where? Where are we?" she seemed surprised by his words as she raised her head to take a look around. 'Did she just realize where she was?'

"You're in the castle."

He found it awkward to use the word 'demon' in front of a demon. He didn't know how demons referred to themselves, and he didn't want to sound weird.

"The castle... the castle... You mean!..." Her eyes widened as the look of shock was plastered all over her beautiful face.

She instantly let go of her friend's hand and jumped off the bed. She took several wide steps back as she stared at Tyler intensely. 'What now...' Tyler thought in complaint.

"Who... who are you?"

"Me?... I'm..."

"How did you get in here? That's impossible... you can't be."

"Huh?" 'Is this her family's castle? Oh God, I hope not.' Things didn't seem to be going as planned, and Tyler was beginning to get nervous as he placed his hand on the dagger behind him.

Tyler tilted his head, confused. He had no idea what she was talking about and why she was concluding on her own. 'What did she mean, how did I get in here?' He didn't even know how to answer the question of who he was. He couldn't just tell her, "Hey, I'm Tyler, nice to meet you." Even in the human continent, the name Tyler was found a little weird, even though it was a very common name back on Earth.

He had been the only one here, although there were summoned beings from Earth called heroes. For some inexplicable reason, most of them seemed to be Asian, and reincarnated ones weren't really common. Most of them wouldn't even remember their past lives.

Not knowing how to respond, he decided to keep his mouth shut. "No one has been able to bypass that spell. The only one that should be capable of that is... No... No... It can't be!" muttering to herself, Liz was getting wilder and wilder with her theories, and Tyler didn't want to see how it would end.

"Your friend doesn't have much time, and I don't know what has changed since I've been gone, so I'll ask again. Do you know anywhere around here we can find a healer?" What he had said was the truth, but Liz seemed to have read more into it. Luckily, it seemed like her emotions were settling down, and she was more rational, so she hadn't overreacted to her thoughts.

She was silent for a while before she spoke again in a low voice. "If this is really the castle, then there should be a settlement of freemen a couple of miles southwest of here. That should be the closest settlement around."

"I see. I don't think your friend should be moved, and since I'm unfamiliar with the location, it would be best if we both go. We should be back before dark."

Although he would rather she went herself, he still had more questions to ask, and he didn't know if the elf would survive. It was better to stick with the blonde girl until he got his answers. Trying to push for information in her current state may end up just backfiring at him, as he seemed to have gained some status in the girl's eyes, so he needed to take this slowly.

Tyler settled on that approach as he didn't even know where to start his line of questioning from, so this was the best option for someone as clueless as he was. Best not to ask a strange question that might turn her against him before he gained any common sense.

She was fidgeting a bit as she avoided eye contact and responded to him, "Y-Yes... Sir."

'Sir? What's with the sudden change in attitude?' He decided not to think too much about it. The side effect from her transformation must not have worn off yet.

He looked at her and had to admit she was way more than pretty. She had a different air around her than the white-haired lady, and it suited her quite well. He looked at her clothes and saw that they were filthy, with many scratches and dirt all over them. "You can use the bath, change into one of those clothes on the sofa, and try cleaning your friend's wounds. The castle is mostly empty, so that's all I could find. I'll bring you some roasted meat in a while. You should eat before we set off."

Liz looked as if she wanted to say something but was finding it difficult. She swallowed her words and uttered a single phrase.

"T... Thank you... Sir."

Tyler couldn't help but cringe when he heard the last word. It seemed she was even forcing herself to say it. "Please don't call me sir," he felt like he had to say it. If he didn't, it might've gone on for a while. "But... ..... O... Okay..." she seemed to be a bit hesitant about it but ultimately agreed. The whole situation felt like he was having a conversation with a child.

He walked out of the room and closed the door. In the end, he hadn't needed the dagger and even ended up trying to console her. It turned out demons weren't anything like he thought they were, but then again, this was only one, and it didn't mean the others were like her.