Prologue

“Wait, am I hearing you right?” I asked. “Did you really just suggest that we leave this town, Haruka?”

“Wow, what?” said Touya.

We had finally managed to obtain a stable living in this world when Haruka brought up the idea of leaving the town we were in. Touya and I looked at each other when we heard that and spoke at the same time. Haruka had just shot down Touya’s idea earlier when he had said “Can we take on some hunting quests now?” Her reasoning was that it was dangerous, and danger meant no. She would dodge danger as much as possible, and she made sure that we were all careful in our actions. With all of that in mind, it was quite strange to hear that kind of idea from her.

“To be clear, I’m not saying we should go out on a journey or anything.” Haruka stopped herself for a moment before she hesitantly continued. “It’s just that, well, I’d like to search for Natsuki and Yuki if possible...”

“Oh yeah, we haven’t found them yet...”

“Yeah, that’s a bit worrying...”

Touya and I both nodded deeply in agreement when we heard what Haruka said. Yuki Shidou and Natsuki Furumiya were Haruka’s best friends, and both Touya and I were good friends with them as well. We had hung out together multiple times in the past as a group of five. They were definitely our first priority among the classmates who we wanted to help out.

Natsuki was a beautiful girl who had a very graceful and modest appearance. Her eyes would sometimes give off a bit of a scary impression, however, perhaps because she practiced martial arts. Yet her true nature was quite different from what you would expect at first glance. She could be quite unpleasant towards others and hard to get along with. By unpleasant, I mean that she would frankly state the truth to others, which some people might find unpleasant, although it wasn’t like she cursed at others or anything like that. In addition, she would keep her distance from people who she wasn’t on good terms with by speaking very formally to them, which only served to strengthen that “hard to get along with” impression. However, she would drop that polite manner completely and unleash some harsh and painful words in certain situations.

On one such occasion, all five of us were hanging out together outside in the city. When Touya and I arrived together at the place where we were supposed to meet up, we saw two guys who looked like shallow flirts hitting on all three of the girls. It wasn’t unusual for guys to hit on the three of them, so Touya and I just thought to ourselves that it was the same as usual and were about to step in to help them, but we stopped ourselves when we noticed something strange. On a second look, those two guys were actually on the verge of tears, and after we noticed that, we started to hear what Natsuki was saying. I’ll leave out the details, but let’s just say that those two guys were in shambles. That was just how sharp and lethal Natsuki’s words were. Or rather, I should say that it was complete overkill. Touya and I were very hesitant as we raised our voices to make our presence known, and when they heard us, those two guys looked at us as if we had saved them from hell and then ran away without saying a word. Afterward, Natsuki greeted us with a smile as if nothing had happened at all, which terrified both of us and remained a clear memory in my mind to this day.

Yuki, on the other hand, was a sociable girl who was quite petite and friendly, and she got along well with others. Compared to Natsuki, Yuki seemed way better at getting along with just about anyone. That was just on the surface, however. It was actually much harder to get on good terms with Yuki than with Natsuki. In a way, she was kind of similar to a small, wary animal that would take a long time before trusting someone.

On top of everything else, both of them had high scores in the looks department, so another reason that all five of us hung out together quite often was because Touya and I were expected to help the girls out by using our presence to deter unwanted attention from random guys. Both of us would be subject to some jealous looks from our male classmates as a result, and some of them would ask the two of us things like which of the girls we were dating or even beg us to hook them up with one of the girls, which was a pretty annoying experience. However, we had no intention of giving up our friendships with the girls because of that, so we would just stop talking with the guys in class who kept pestering us about it.

“I’m worried about them too, but what about our other classmates, Haruka?” I asked. “Weren’t there other girls who we also ate lunch with a couple of times?”

“Uh, well...”

I mentioned earlier that Yuki was the type of person who was wary of others, and Haruka was actually quite similar to her in that regard. Haruka was a very sociable person—she got along decently with most of our classmates—but that didn’t mean she was good friends with all of them. With most people, there was a certain level of friendliness where she drew the line. At the same time, she was also the type of person with an innate disposition to look out for others, so her personality was quite complex and hard to define. She would look out for others to a certain extent, but there were very few people who she would actually look out for with true devotion. There was also a line that she drew between people who she considered friends in public and people who she considered friends in her private time too. Other than Touya and me, the only people she hung out with outside of school were probably just Yuki and Natsuki. I guess it makes sense that she doesn’t really care about anyone but Yuki and Natsuki among our other classmates...

“What about you two? Are there any friends either of you would like to look for as well?”

“I mean, this might sound cold, but I don’t really see a good reason to look for them in the circumstances we’re in at the moment,” I said.

“Yeah, I feel the same way,” said Touya. “It’s not worth putting our lives on the line just to search for other classmates to meet up with.”

“Ugh, sorry about suggesting this...”

Haruka had a remorseful tone in her voice, but we hastily shook our heads to reassure her that she didn’t have to feel that way.

“Nah, it’s different in your case compared to ours. We’re worried about Yuki and Natsuki too, and our other friends are guys, so they should be able to handle themselves okay. Right, Touya?”

“Yeah, it’s not like we owe them anything, so we don’t have to help them out. I mean, we’re all in similar circumstances.”

It wasn’t that I wasn’t worried about our other friends just because they were guys, but it was more like there weren’t any classmates who we wanted to go out of our way to help in our current circumstances. Aside from Touya, the friends who I hung out with on weekends and holidays went to different schools, so yeah.

“Yuki and Natsuki aren’t in this town, are they?” Touya asked.

“Yeah, probably not,” I replied.

This past month, we had spent whatever free time we had searching for Yuki and Natsuki, but we hadn’t found a single trace of them. Our top priority was to do what we had to in order to survive in this world, so we hadn’t spent that much time looking for them, however. The only way for suspicious strangers like us to get work in this world was via the Adventurers’ Guild, so we had requested Diola-san’s help with looking for Yuki and Natsuki in exchange for dindels. It meant that there was a very low chance that we had somehow missed them. On the other hand, we had encountered some of our other classmates at one point. I’d been quite glad that I’d been hiding my face under the hood of a cloak when walking outside, since I’d overheard them saying things like “I’m gonna buy some slaves and build a harem!” and “Our skills could work on the girls in our class too,” which was very disturbing to hear. On a side note, slavery was outlawed in the country we were in, and it was quite easy to look that information up. It was best to stay away from classmates like that who were detached from reality.

“Even if Yuki and Natsuki didn’t manage to adapt to this world, they’re probably still alive for now, so I want to find them as soon as possible...”

It was technically possible for people to survive on just water for a month, so Haruka’s words made sense. However...

“Nah, they’re much tougher than that, right, Touya?”

“Yeah, and that goes for both of them.”

The reason why Touya and I weren’t that worried about them was because we had faith in them that they would be able to take care of themselves just fine. It seemed like Haruka had forgotten about that until we pointed it out, but she still had a worried look on her face.

“W-Well, that’s true, but I’m worried about whether the two of them can deal with unforeseeable circumstances alone, you know?”

In this town of Laffan, it was possible to earn enough money via day labor inside of town to survive day by day, even if you didn’t take on dangerous work that would require you to go outside of town. However, the type of work that was available for girls inside of town tended to be light work compared to the tough manual labor jobs that guys could take on, which meant that girls would earn less per day. It would be the complete opposite if they took on work in the sex trade, but there was no way Natsuki and Yuki would take on such work, so I just hoped they weren’t forced into a situation where they had to.

“For example, they’d be in a tight spot without savings if one of them got sick or something, right? It’s different for us, since the two who aren’t sick can just support the one who is.”

“Yeah, that makes sense,” I said.

“To be honest, I could probably earn enough to pay for the inn fee myself even if both of you got sick.”

“That’s just because you’re a male beastman, Touya.”

Touya could perform as much manual labor as two people, but that wouldn’t be possible for a regular human.

“That would be enough for the inn fee, yeah. However, even Touya wouldn’t be able to earn enough if we needed money for medicine, so that’s why I want to find Yuki and Natsuki as soon as possible.”

“I’m not against the idea, of course, but do you have any ideas about where to search?” I asked.

“Yeah. Initially, we were probably transported to an area near two towns—this town and a town called Sarstedt that’s located east of here. The grassy plains where we started out were probably near Sarstedt, since they were to the east of here.”

“What’s your reasoning behind this? It’s possible that they were transported somewhere near Laffan instead, right?”

“Yes, that’s true. However, if we consider the different directions around here, then east of Laffan would be the safest place. Assuming that the evil god was a bit kind to us, then—”

“It would be instant death if someone was transported to the south forest, yeah.”

We had gotten used to life as adventurers to a certain extent by now, but we still obeyed Diola-san’s warning and stayed away from the south forest. I had no idea what the evil god had intended to accomplish by transporting us to this world, but it was highly unlikely that he would have transported someone to an area that would lead to their immediate death. If I followed that train of thought, then Haruka’s prediction probably wasn’t that far off the mark.

“However, if we can’t find them in Sarstedt, I doubt they’re still alive...” Haruka lowered her head a bit and sighed after she said that.

What she said made sense, because if someone wasn’t in a town more than half a month after our entire class had been transported to this world, then they were either dead or masters at survival out in the wild.

“That means we should start as soon as possible,” I said. “We can spend today getting some rest and preparing and then head out tomorrow morning. How does that sound?”

“Sounds good to me,” said Touya. “Haruka needs it the most of all of us, since she hasn’t gotten any proper rest these past few days, right?”

“That’s your fault, Touya,” I said. “Look at all this dried meat you made us prepare. What do you plan on doing with all of this?”

I pointed at the corner of our room, where there were a few barrels packed full of dried meat. There were also two big burlap bags that were filled with dried dindels. After drying, they were a fraction of their original weight, but it was still too much to carry all of it with us. Touya averted his gaze in an awkward manner when he saw where I was pointing, but Haruka backed him up.

“Oh, that’s not a problem. I negotiated things with the innkeeper, and he agreed to lend us some space in the warehouse to store our stuff.”

“Wow! Nice one, Haruka!”

The innkeeper was still as unsociable as ever, but he had sold us barrels that we could use for curing meat, and he would also help cook the meat that we brought to the inn if we requested it, so it felt like we had gotten to know him somewhat better by now. Based on recent events, that was probably why he was willing to lend us some space in the warehouse.

“All that’s left is to tell Diola-san that we’ll be gone for a while, I think?” said Haruka.

“In that case, how about we spend the rest of today sightseeing so you can take it easy, Haruka?”

“I’m down for that idea!” Touya exclaimed. “After all, up to this point, we’ve only gone outside to work and to search for Yuki and Natsuki!”

“Sure, that sounds fine. We do happen to have some spare money, so I guess it wouldn’t hurt to do some shopping.”

Haruka responded to my idea with a smile, and I felt like she had finally managed to relax. There was a saying that went along the lines of “No money, no life,” but our livelihood was stable at the moment, and it wouldn’t be shaken even if we indulged in some spending at the moment. It’d be fine to refresh our mental health by having fun for a day, right? Right. Okay, all clear.

“All right, let’s have some fun!” I said. “It’s time to go sightseeing in this different world!”