By the time I regained my consciousness, I found myself on a grassy hill, alone and so lost. I couldn't even comprehend what just happened to me, as numerous doubts and suspicions raced throughout my mind.
They pounded repeatedly in my ears, like the banging of drums. It made me think that I was losing my sanity.
Petrified, I lost control of my breathing and slumped onto the ground.
Tears threatened to slip out of my eyes as I gazed at my surroundings, the harrowing realization of my predicament dawning on me. The terror I felt made me unable to stabilize myself and control my breathing.
Later, as the sun was about to set, I slowly got up from my position and dragged my feet from where I stood, begrudgingly trudging through my worries and onto a road. From there, I walked and walked until I bumped into a firm body.
The both of us stood silently, waiting for the other to make conversation first. But that resulted in awkward silence.
Finally, after the silence reigned for far too long, the man before me spoke. "Um..." The man mumbled as he raised his hands to my shoulders. "Are you alright..." He pushed my shoulders slightly, exposing the clear despair I had on my face. "...Miss...?"
"...Ehm... What happened to you miss?" The man asked cautiously.
At his question, I turn my gaze to the man's face, or more specifically, his eyes.
Black eyes stared at me in worry, reminding me of what I had lost, and soon
—I felt anger.
But the man in front of me wasn't involved in that... All he was to me was a bystander, somebody uninvolved in my problems.
Silently, I suppressed my anger, then bit my lower lip as I collapsed onto my knees.
"I..." I muttered anxiously. "I-I was robbed... And kidnapped!"
The man stepped back in uncertainty, but soon, he kneeled to my eye level. His voice in response to my anxiety was both calm and reassuring.
"Don't worry." He said softly as he patted my head. "It'll be okay... Please don't cry."
I wonder, at that moment, was I truly crying?
×××××
It seems that due to my distraught appearance, the merchant couple whose group I bumped into, decided to let me stay with their cargo till the next city.
And with this, I don't know if I should call this couple kind or careless. Like seriously, be more cautious with your wares! You're merchants, aren't you? Well, either way, I'm thankful to the couple for letting me stay with them. I seriously wouldn't know what to do if they just left me.
"...Hello big sister." Said a little boy while he approached me from outside the carriage. From what I have learned, this little boy was the only child and heir of the merchant family.
I stare at the boy silently, watching as he tried to get onto the carriage, but ultimately failing as he was too short.
"...I'm a man," I say to correct the child while helping him get onto the carriage.
When the boy eventually gets in the carriage, I am finally able to get a better look at him.
The boy had big blue eyes that accentuated his adorableness by a hundredfold, and soft milky skin that made me want to pinch his cheeks.
"Thank you, big brother." The boy said as he gripped my robe.
Yes, robe. It looks like Yulias has some kind of a conscience, as he took the time to give me clothes appropriate for the world I've been dumped in.
"Hey, kid," I whisper while motioning for the two of us to sit somewhere. "Do you want to play a game?"
The boy tilts his head slightly in curiosity, as his brows rise in excitement.
"Okay!" The boy exclaims.
"Well then, for this game, I'll say a word, and then you'll tell me the first thing you think of. Okay? Do you get it?"
"I get it, let's play the game!"
Carefully, I think of the knowledge that I would want to know of first, then at what the little boy would like to hear. Taking this into account, the first word I ask the boy is...
"Merchants?"
"Money!"
"Family?"
"Parents!"
"Bodyguard?"
"Adventurer's Guild!"
"Magicians?"
"Magic!"
"Priests?"
"Holy City!"
"Church?"
"God Yulias!"
"Fighting?"
"Adventurers!"
"Medicine?"
"Production Guild!"
"Animal?"
"Wolf!"
"Beast?"
"Goblins!"
I pause for a bit, closing my eyes to concentrate on the information given to me. In this world, there is magic, goblins, various fantasy guilds, and... Yulias is a god here.
I open my eyes once again, all the knowledge from before having been safely placed in my head.
"Now then," I said as I patted the boy's shoulder. "Do you want to play another game?"
At my words, the boy smiles in his seat as he starts clapping his hands in merriment.
"Let's keep playing, big brother!"
"Of course."
When night came, three carriages stopped for a rest. Yes, three. It seems that this merchant family has enough wealth for a carriage for themselves, cargo, and the adventurers.
I walked out of the cargo carriage with the boy on my back, and having played with me all day, it appears that I have drained the child of all his energy, making him fall asleep quite peacefully.
'What a headache... I've had to process so much information today.' I complained internally as I shifted the boy's position on my back. Unfortunately for me, I didn't have much strength, so I soon found one of the bodyguards to carry the boy to his parents.
As soon as that was done, I dragged my aching body back to the cargo carriage.
It was dark in the carriage, but it was at the very least not cold.
Though I was quite alone. So, to get this loneliness out of my mind, I reviewed what I learned today.
Firstly, there are three major guilds here, the Adventurer's Guild, the Production Guild, and the Merchant Guild. Other guilds exist too but are inconsequential when compared to the three major guilds.
Secondly, priests are those who serve the God Yulias, and who mostly reside in the Holy City.
Thirdly, monsters and the like live and thrive here, making extermination quests for them quite common.
Finally, the currency here is reliant on metal coins, from copper being the cheapest to gold being the most valuable. On the bright side, the currency itself follows quite a simple system.
10 copper coins = 1 big copper coin
10 big copper coins = 1 silver coin
10 silver coins = 1 gold coin
With such a system, there's no way I would get confused.
But now I have a more pressing problem to solve. Money. I need money, especially in a world where a sword could strike me down at any moment.
A world that mimics a pseudo-medieval period is too dangerous to live in without money.
So now, I have two choices, the Adventurer's Guild, or somewhere else.
Scratch that, one choice. Only the Adventurer's Guild would take in someone with no background. After all, the Adventurer's guild is neutral, and cannot afford to discriminate with who can join. Suffice to say, as long as one does not reveal themselves to be a criminal, then becoming an adventurer should be of no problem.
So my next course of action after getting to the city is to become an adventurer.
With this thought, my unsettled mind calmed down, making my eyelids grow heavier every second. Perhaps it was at this moment that I remembered the words that Yulias said to me before I passed out. It was something about giving me one of his disgusting eyes.
I couldn't understand what Yulias meant by one of his eyes. For all I knew, what Yulias could have been referring to as his eye was something metaphorical.
I concentrated hard on what the eye could be, but for all my thinking, I could only come up with a few inconclusive theories.
Just as I was about to give up, the thought 'I want to use this eye.' popped up briefly, causing something shocking to happen.
[Rei Arihara
Human
17 years old
Lv: 1
HP: 48/48
MP: 65147/65482
Magic Attribute: Water; Wind; Fire; Earth; Darkness
Skills: Language Conversion; God's Eye (Limited Ability)
Titles: Raised in A Different World; Spring of Magical Power; God's Favorite]
I skimmed through the information, before getting annoyed and looking away.
I hate to admit it, but without Yulias' disgusting eye... I wouldn't have noticed anything.
When day came, I awoke to a strange feeling within me. It was like I was roughly vivisected and then put back together. It was terrible. But I was pulled away from my thoughts by a voice just outside the carriage.
Repeating what I did yesterday, I helped the boy get onto the carriage. This makes the boy rather happy, causing him to run up and hug me.
"It's nice to see you again, big brother!" He said with a bright smile, his arms loosely around my stomach.
"Hello," I said in response, as I began to hug the boy back, his brownish-black hair tickling my chin.
Suddenly, the arms around my stomach tightened their hold on me.
"W-what are you doing?" I asked in a flustered manner, holding down the urge to shove the boy away from me.
"...Big brother, you're so thin." The boy said in sadness.
I didn't expect that he would care...
"Thank you for your concern," I said with a slight smile. "How about I teach you something in exchange?"