Machinist of Mana

My conflict with the over-sized avian was disappointingly short. Sure, it was big, and fast, but as most people who studied such things could tell you, when a mammalian predator gets hold of an avian on the ground, it's pretty much over for the bird. There was still a fair bit of blood though, and two very scared children, who'd somehow come out unscathed.

There was shortly screaming as a hysterical woman, my guess was the mother of the kids, ran over to and embraced them. The beast hadn't gotten too near to them, as it was rather weak for its size, but they looked to be in shock, as were most of the people running about, eyes like dinner plates as they looked on. Reactions like that were of course understandable, while we were okay there was a rather massive amount of blood flowing from the dead beast's neck.

“Is everyone quite alright?” I asked as I sheathed my blade and moved towards them. It was a faux pas to speak to women you didn't know, but in situations like this nobody would be bothered. After all, it wasn't like I was doing anything uncouth.

In times like this it was best to keep yourself calm and collected, at least on the outside. I wasn't so used to things like this that my blood wasn't pounding through my veins, but it looked like the danger was over, and causing panic wouldn't do, so I kept my voice soft and even.

“You... it, that thing attacked my...” The poor mother was having a hard time forming coherent words at this point, but she'd stopped screaming, which was a plus.

“Worry not, the beast is dead, and it got nowhere near your children. Why don't we go find somewhere to sit down for a bit?”

Her reaction was understandable, the vast majority of people weren't used to violence like I was. This lady had probably never been in any sort of life or death situation, and certainly not one as unexpected as this had been. She'd gone from a pleasant day in the park to her kids almost dying, so she was likely flooded head to toe with all the nice stress hormones that someone's body could make. Oddly her kids were handling it much better than she was.

“I... yes, thank you.”

She let me lead them over to a nearby restaurant, one with a large covered seating area, and fell into one of the chairs. A few quick words got the waitress to bring them some tea and biscuits, for which she refused payment, and I left them to it. After all, the authorities were now showing up and looking about and I could already see several fingers being pointed in my direction.

The victims settled I walked back to the scene, and I was impressed. The local police had managed to get here in something like record time, only a few minutes had passed since the incident itself and there were already three on scene, quickly getting interviews while occasionally scanning the sky.

One of the officers was interviewing a woman who looked stressed, but under it all it seemed she was having a grand time. Gossips were present in every world, and it was clear that this would be the highlight of her week.

“Oh yes sir I saw it all! I was just sitting in the park, as one does, and out of nowhere there was this shadow. That thing over there swooped down right out of the air at a pair of children, children for goodness sake, like a blur it was, seemed to just appear.” The officer, who had an amazing mustache, was writing on a small pad with hmms and yeses spread through. “And this man showed up, tall as a lamppost and broad like a barn, with a flaming sword in hand. He appeared like some sort of specter and tackled the beast to the ground before cutting its head fully from its body he did! I've never seen something so amazing!” I had hid the thing from the side, but tackling it to the ground? This lady had a bit of an imagination, and my sword most certainly didn't flame.

“Good morning,” I said by way of interruption.

“Can you not see I'm talking to the...” her speech tapered off as she turned to tell me off.

“My apologies ma'am, but would you mind if I had a short word with the officer?”

She sputtered a few confirmations before walking off with a red face.

“Tall as a lamppost and broad as a barn? You look like my nephew, and we could barely call him a man.” We shared a small chuckle at her words.

“Where are my manners,” he said extending his hand. “Officer Larly.”

“Percival Shadestone,” I returned. “And yes, I'm the one who slew that.”

“Well Mr. ah, Lord Shadestone, thank you for that. If you hadn't seen it coming we may well have had deaths,” the officer said with a nod.

“I'm owed no thanks on that account sir, the man I was speaking with saw it not I.” I looked around for the gentleman in question, but didn't see him. “Odd, he must have left.”

“Have to thank him too then. Don't suppose you caught his name?”

“No, though a local I think. Younger man, with pale white hair and wearing a blue...” a robe? No that seemed odd.

You'd think that after living in this world for years some things would pop out to me, but it wasn't always so. Coming from a modern country, and used to odd clothes, unless I was looking for them, I seldom noticed. That man though, he'd been wearing a robe, that I was certain of, not something one saw around here very often, not at all.

“A robe I think, how strange.”

“Afraid I don't know him, but I'll ask some of the other lads.”

“Thank you for that. Don't suppose you know where I could acquire a change of clothes?” I asked, looking down, it wasn't too bad, but there was blood all over my clothing.

“We've a bard on staff that can clean it up. Useful for cleaning up scenes sometimes.”

Their spellcaster pulled through, unruining my outfit before I got sent upon my way. Sure, it was going to be a mess of paperwork for someone, and of course, there'd be cleanup, but I was hardly needed anymore. I did get a bit of attention from some of the locals and visitors today, but nothing more than expected.

While the park was now closed, for obvious reasons, I did end up enjoying the rest of my day. There were a number of bookstores with absolutely silly fiction about places with metal and glass skyscrapers and something akin to digital assistants, I mean, who thought of that nonsense. There was also a bathhouse, which didn't really fit in with the pseudo-Victorian world I'd been reborn into, but was magnificent.

For my next two meals I even splurged on some wonderful restaurants, perhaps not quite as perfect as breakfast had been, but good none the less. While eating I got to listen to the stories being bandied about relating to my actions that morning. Some of them were truly off the wall, but most were close enough to the truth.

I did file a brief report to the school when I returned, and expected someone would speak to me about it at one point or another. Then again the incident had been fairly minor overall, so perhaps not. What I wasn't expecting was to be woken even earlier than our normal time to find two teachers and a knight in the office I was promptly led to.

Professor Killic threw a newspaper forcefully on the Headmaster's desk. “One day boy! One day! I send you to one of the most peaceful, relaxed hamlets in the whole country, and somehow you find the only beast for thirty miles! What happened to relaxing!?”

“It,” I yawned. “Wasn't that major of an incident sir,” I answered before looking down.

“You made it to the front page,” Headmaster Logan answered, nodding downwards.

“So I did...” I answered as my eyes fell on the article.

“They even put an illustration.”

“I see sir.” Admittedly the picture used looked more like something from a novel cover than what actually happened, some epic battle over a pair of cowering youths.

“There's even talk in the article of giving you an award. Saving children in the middle of town like that, turns out they were some editor's. He's making quite a big deal of it.”

“Sir, it really wasn't a major thing. The beast was pathetically weak, and it wasn't like I was looking for it.”

“Oh I believe you, but you do have a knack for finding trouble. For anyone else I'd suggest a chaperone, but based on previous adventures of yours I fail to see how that would help.” The other two men in the room scoffed at that one, and admittedly it was a pretty good joke for him.

“Please don't take away my days off sir,” I asked, I really needed to get out sometimes.

“I'm not, but I will ask that you try to keep away from populated areas during them in the future, if only to reduce needless panic.”