~*~
"Ren are you awake? Come now, rise and shine."
Malik-san knocked the door as he called out to me. I was surprised that I almost fell to the floor. I looked around dazedly at my surrounding, my head was a little hazy because I suddenly woke up in an unfamiliar room.
"Ah, right. This is not my house."
I murmured as I recalled what happened yesterday. I was transported to Alsar and met Malik-san, yeah.
"Wait, I'm awake now! Wait a minute!"
I walked to the door to greet Malik-san.
"It's okay, no need to rush."
As I thought, I really was in another world right now. At first I thought maybe if I went to sleep, I would wake up and everything would go back to normal.
Ugh. Thinking about my current situation made my head hurts.
Well, first thing first. I better pulled myself together. Time to start another day in Alsar!
"Good morning, I'm sorry I slept in. I'm going to wash my face first."
I saw Malik-san sitting on the sofa. He handed me a bundle of clothes.
"Yesterday when Ren was sleeping, I just realized I can use [Small] magic on my old clothes to fit your body. Sorry I didn't realize it sooner."
Ah that was right, yesterday Malik-san said he didnn't have clothes in my size.
"Thank you very much! I didn't know magic can be used in such convenient way."
"Shrinking clothes using [Small] magic is easy. [Big] magic to enlarge clothes is harder. Because if we want to increase the size of clothes, that means we have to produce more clothes from nothing, right? [Small] magic only decrease the existing things, but [Big] magic can produce something out of nothing. Well, a proper magician can use [Big] magic easily."
I guess magic was not that easy to use despite being convenient.
"I see. Well, once again thank you for the clothes. I'm going to wash my face now."
I held the bundle Malik-san gave me and headed to the sink. I washed my face and when I was done, I spread the bundle of clothes on top of the cupboard.
I had one long sleeved white shirt, a black vest, a long dark brown pants with suspender attached to it.
"Wow, it fits me better than I thought and so comfortable too. It's also easy to move, not restricting at all."
The clothes was simple in design but when I put it on, I looked amazingly good. The size fit me perfectly too. Malik-san really had a good sense of fashion.
Back in Japan, Golden Week was almost over so it should be March in Japan right now. Since both Alsar and Earth had the same rotation, I guess it should be spring season right now? Either way the clothes suits the season so it was fine.
I walked back to the living room to show the clothes to Malik-san.
"Malik-san, does the clothes suits me?" I showed the clothes to Malik-san.
"Wow, you look good! Now we only need shoes for you. In the meantime, you can use this sandal. When we get to the market, let's visit the shoemaker and get shoes in your size."
"Umm.. Malik-san.. Right now.. I don't have any money with me. I will just borrow your sandal."
Since right now I was penniless, I had to restrain myself from borrowing too much money from other people otherwise I would be in trouble if my debt piled up and I couldn't pay it on time!
"What are you saying? In the first place, if you don't even have a pair of shoes, it's going to be hard to get a job."
"Ugh.. You have a good point there….. Fine! Please lend me money, I will be sure to pay you back when I get a job!"
I had to work extra hard so I could repay Malik-san!
"Ren you're such a good kid! Okay, I understand but leave the food expenses to me, alright? Even though right now because of an injury, I already retired. But I still have some savings from back when I was an adventurer."
Malik-san said as he patted my head gently.
Wa-wait! Injury? What?!
"Ehh? Are you injured? Is it painful? Are you fine now?"
"Ah it's okay now. 10 years ago, I was fighting a monster and it got my left leg. I managed to kill it and returned to the town though. As time pass by, I've recovered my leg but I've decided to quit being an adventurer and worked for the guild instead. Ah right, I need to show you around the guild too!"
Malik-san replied, he was still stroking my head.
That was right, this was fantasy world after all. Of course monster existed here. Because the situation somehow turned gloomy, Malik-san immediately perked up and changed the topic.
"Anyhow, it's all in the past now! I'm perfectly fine now and there's no monster inside the city so you're safe! Let's hurry up and go to the market! First, we need to go get breakfast, we can get some from a food stall in the market. Then, shoes and clothing for Ren. After that, lunch at another restaurant and then.. We need to purchase ingredient for tonight's dinner. I will put it inside my magic bag and then we can head to the guild!"
I already heard about the magic bag yesterday. It seemed like you can put a lot of things inside despite the size of the bag. I also wantrd one if possible..
"Sounds exciting! I wonder what the market and the guild looks like! There's bound to be bunch of food I never see before too! Interesting!"
"Is that so? Well let's go!"
~*~
I followed Malik-san as he went outside. It took about 5 minutes of walking before we reached the market. I think right now it should be around 7 am? But the market was already packed with people!
I hadn't got the chance to take a good look yesterday so I didn't realize it but turned out in the city, there was a bunch of different race living here. There was elves with pointy ear and beastman with animal ears. Amazing!
The sight of rabbit ears on that bald uncle though, it was pretty traumatizing.
"Even though it's early in the morning, the market is already crowded!"
"That's right. The market is always crowded. We have to be careful not to get separated. Let's go get breakfast at my usual place."
"Right!"
Malik-san increased his pace. If I lose the sight of him, it would be the end for me. I desperately ran up to him, the length of our leg wass too different!
In fact, almost everyone in the market was a lot taller than me. Even the women was super tall here. No matter how you looked at it, I looked like a small child compared to them.
If I were to permanently live in Alsar.. Would I be able to even have a girlfriend here? Do they even consider me as love interest??
I was too depressed that I didn't realize we've arrived at our destination. Almost immediately, I smelled a really delicious aroma coming from the stall.
"You see, that stall sells delicious roasted pig meat with bunch of spices and ritas with bread."
"Ritas? I don't know what it is but it smells amazing!"
"Is the name of ingredients in your world is different? Anyway you should try it first, I'm sure you will get hooked."
I've never heard of it before, it must be the kind of food that only existed in Alsar. But it sure smelled delicious!
Malik-san then ordered for us and handed me my portion.
So this was what they called 'ritas'?
I gathered my courage and took the first bite.
*chomps*
Wow! The pig meat was so full of flavour! The juice and herbs from the pig absorbed by the ritas was extra delicious as well! Wow!
Apparently 'ritas' was like some sort of lettuce in Earth and pig was well.. pork meat.
'Ritas' and lettuce had similar sounds so I guess it was kinda easy to remember.
"Malik-san! This is so delicious! The pig is so juicy and the ritas is so crispy! Amazing!"
"I'm glad you like it! Let's take a seat so we can take our time eating."
Malik-san pulled me to sit on the nearest bench and then we chomped on our meal delightfully. At first I was worried whether it was safe for me to eat different world food but it was surprisingly delicious that I finished eating my meal in a beat.
While I finished my first bread, Malik-san was already eating his second serving and he took a water bottle from his magic bag and passed it on to me.
"Here, take this. It's tea."
"Thanks! *gulp gulp* Ah, I'm full."
"Ren you eat so little. You should try to eat more. Ah but, you shouldn't force yourself to eat too much either."
Because the different in our physique wass too great, I guess the amount of food I eat might seem too little to Malik-san?
Malik-san took the bottle from me and put the bottle back into his magic bag.
"Well then, shall we go look for clothes? I have quite a lot of money so no need to hold back!"
"Eeeeh? Then it will be hard for me to repay you back. I will just buy the basic necessities. "
"Hahahaha! Ren you're already like my son, so it's okay to see me as your father"
Son..?
Father..?
My parents divorced when I was 3 years old.
Then my mother raised me alone. I've never met my father ever since then.
Even though I had new father thanks to my mother remarrying, I didn't meet him often because I was busy with my study and they also lived so far away. We had met a few times but I was not that close to him yet.
"I actually never had a father figure in my life before but I guess it's nice to have such cool looking father like you."
"I see.. Well, I've been living alone too all these years. I bought that huge house thinking that I might settle down and build a family one day but years pass by and here I am, still alone. But now I have Ren so I'm very happy!"
I knew it, that house was too huge for one person. But is this alright? I mean we were practically strangers, I've only known Malik-san for about 2 days but.. From the bottom of my heart, I felt safe with him.
"I don't have a wife too, I'm still single but.. In the future I also want to have a family, I might get a wife someday, though I don't know whether the woman in Alsar would even consider me as love interest because of how short I am. But since right now I'm still single, please let me live with you."
I practically looked like a minor if I were to compare myself to the average height in Alsar. It was probably almost impossible for me to get a wife and somehow, everyone in here was so physically fit. It was not like all of them have such big muscle like extreme bodybuilder but they seemed to be physically fit, the muscle in them were pretty defined and the woman had nice bodyline as well.
Rather than a love interest, the woman in here might saw me as little brother or something.
"Rather than a wife, I think it'd be better for Ren to search for a husband, maybe around 2 or 3 husbands to protect you. Since the other female looks manly compared to Ren, they might feel inferior if they were to become your wife. Hahaa!"
"Eeh? Wh-whaat?!"
Husband?! What?!
What was more, 2 to 3 husbands??
What did he mean??
"Ren? What's wrong? You have strange expression on your face. Hmm, though I told you to search for a husband, I would only approve if you marry the man that I acknowledge. They better earn my respect first before trying to marry you. I can't let a jerk sullied you!"
I was so surprised,so my face looked really weird right now. But that was not something a father would say to his son! It was something that a father should say to his daughter!
"Umm.. Malik-san, I'm a man you know, is it okay if I marry a man? What's more, multiple man instead just one??"
"So what if you're a man? Is it forbidden in your world? Homosexual marriage is normal here in Alsar and marriage here is not limited to one couple. You can have more than one partners. Although I say it's not limited to one, usually people only have about.. 5 partners at most?"
W-what?!?!
This was the biggest culture shock I've ever experienced in Alsar!
Well back in Earth same-sex marriage was already approved in some country, I even had some gay friends back in university. Even in Japan, having a concubine or more than 1 wife was quite common especially during the war era.
Now that I think about it.. It was not that different huh? I guess it was alright.
But to imagine myself actually marrying more than one man…
"Well it's not that common in the place where I lived, in Japan especially. Because if there's a lot of same-sex couple that means the population will decrease, right? Because no procreation will happen. Especially Japan already experienced the decrease in population, it would be bad if there's less heterosexuals couple in Japan."
"Well that may be right, having more children would help the population more but why would the population decrease ? Same-sex couple can also have children anyway."
Whaaaaat?!?!
Did I hear it right?!
Same-sex couple could have children together?! Not adopting but like, giving birth to children together?!
I didn't understand.
"Eh? But how? Even though both of them are guys??"
"Hmm.. I see. So it's not like that in your previous world,huh? I will explain more after we finish picking up clothes for you, okay? I don't want you to get overwhelmed."
"Ah..Yeah, you're right."
~*~
We then started to walk to the clothing store, we didn't walk too far away from the ritas bread stall but the amount of people decreased considerably.
"Ren, let me confirm once again. So in your previous world, same-sex marriage and polygamy is not that common ? And same-sex couple could not give birth to child?"
"Yes. In Japan, my country haven't acknowledged same-sex marriage and polygamous marriage yet. I think in some country they already accepted it but not Japan. And same-sex couple could not have child together although there are other way to have a child like through adoption or through surrogate mother. But there's no way a procreation can happen between homosexual couple."
Yup, I was sure that was the condition in Earth.
"I see. No wonder Ren was so surprised. Well as you heard before, same-sex couple can have children together here in Alsar."
"Yes, I understand but..how..?"
Yup, that was the big question!
From what I've learned from sexual education class, there was no way same-sex couple could give birth together!
"Well in Alsar both homosexual or heterosexual couple need to go to the church and pick up the fruits from Yamu tree growing on the church's ground."
"Yamu tree?"
"Yes, if you eat it while you're still unmarried, nothing will happen though. But if you go pick up the fruits and eat it together as a married couple, a child will be born. After eating it, the effect of that fruit will last for a week so you better have sex together soon before the effect disappear."
So that was how homosexual couple have child together.. What a mysterious fruit..
But the condition for the effect to appear was to be marriage? So that was mean there was no such thing as shotgun wedding in Alsar then. All children born would be between marriage life.
"Then if someone were to have multiple spouses, that means everyone has to eat it together?"
"No. Not everyone has to. Let's say if you have three husbands. A, B and ,C. If you want the father of your child to be A then only you and A need to eat the Yamu fruits together. B and C don't have to eat it. The effect will still appear but only A will be able to impregnate you. Most people are pretty particular with the parent of their child so this kind of thing happens quite a lot."
I see. So if I didn't care who the father was then I could eat it together with A, B and C.
So with this system it would be impossible to had a children if you were cheating. Like if there was person D. A cheated with D so because A was not married to D, even though A already ate the Yamu fruits with B and C, A wouldn't have a children with D.
Oh and if A, B and C ate the fruit together, if somehow the children looked like B in 3 consecutive rows, it'd be sad for C then. That meant for C to properly continue his bloodline, it'd be better for A and C to eat the fruits together without including B.
The Yamu fruit was so convenient but what about the people who lived far away from the church? That meant they cannot have children??
"Malik-san, what if someone lives far away from the church? What to do then?"
"Oh the church is not the only place Yamu tree can grow. Yamu tree can grow in other place than the church but since there's no one to properly take care of the tree, it will be hard for the tree to bear fruits."
"I see, ah there's a lot of new things to absorb…"
This world was really a fantasy world.. Even obscure thing like pregnancy-inducing-fruit existed in here.
"Though now I know that pregnancy is not limited to heterosexual couple, I still think that I will never have a husband because I've never consider a man to be love interest at all. I've only likes girl."
"Ren, it's not like that I oppose of you to have a wife but I really think it's going to be difficult for you."
"Eh? Why is that?"
"Well to be honest, Ren's appearance is more attractive to the men here. Ren is really beautiful, I think even woman might admit that Ren is beautiful but I don't think they might be interested in having you as their husband."
I knew it.
I already knew it but hearing the truth from Malik-san was like the putting the last nails on the coffin.
"And because Ren never practiced sword and magic before, I really think it's better for you to have a more than one husbands to protect you."
"But I'm also a man! I can't stand being protected! I want to be able to stand on my own too!"
Though swordsmanship seemed impossible for me but my pride as a man wouldn't allow me to just let myself be protected and did nothing!
"I know but the current you.. Let alone female adventurer, I don't think you can even win against normal female villagers here."
"W-well that might be right.."
I guess, having a loving wife and protect her like the proper manwas impossible for me huh.
Nah, rather than that I think the most possible outcome for me was to be protected by my wife instead. "I will protect, Ren-kun!" like that maybe.
Ugh! My pride as a man…
Ah,I couldn't keep lamenting! I better moved forward instead!
That was right! First, I need clothing!
"Malik-san! Let's go to the clothing shop! Let's stop talking about my love life and look at clothes instead."
I stood up abruptly and pulled Malik-san hand.
"Hahhaa, okay okay. I know a good shop here, if the size doesn't suit you, I can use [Small] magic to adjust it to your size. So you can pick the design you like, the size can be adjusted later."
"Okay!"
Malik-san finally stood and guided me to the clothing shop.