Chapter 2—We’ve Arrived at Town

On the way to our destination, Haruka taught Tomoya and me some common knowledge about this world. After about an hour, we arrived at the gate of a walled town. The walls looked like they were about three meters high; they were composed of brick slabs with plaster filling the crevices. When I looked to my left and right, I could see that the walls continued to curve far into the distance, so I assumed that it was a fairly large town. The gate was wide open; it looked like it was a double door made of sturdy wood, wide enough for two horse-drawn carriages to pass through. There weren’t that many people in line at the moment, so it seemed like we wouldn’t have to wait too long.

Standing right in front of the gates were a couple of guards. They were armed with spears that were slightly taller than their heads and had swords in their belts.

“All right, let’s go,” said Haruka. “I’ll handle talking to the guards. As for you two, just stand behind me and keep quiet, since you don’t know anything.”

“Okay...” we replied.

I mean, yeah, we don’t have the General Knowledge skill, but the way you put it makes it sound like we’re stupid or something. I didn’t say anything, though, since it was better to rely on her for things like this.

“Hello!”

The guard that Haruka had chosen to talk to was a young man who looked a bit older than us. Poor guy. She put on a perfectly businesslike smile, and the guard beamed in response. She may be more slender now, but she’s also way more beautiful! I would’ve probably been deceived by that fake smile too, if I hadn’t known her since childhood.

“Hello. Uh, are the three of you adventurers?” The guard examined us, but he seemed unsure what to make of us.

“No, but we plan on registering to become adventurers.”

“Is that so? You don’t seem to have any weapons, though.”

“Well, actually, we lost our purses in the previous town we visited, so we had no choice but to sell our weapons for money. Then we decided to come to this town. Even unarmed, we can handle ourselves just fine with our magic, since it’s not that dangerous around here.”

“Hmm, I guess that makes sense given that two of you are elves. But can you afford the entry toll? It’s one large silver coin per person. The rules here dictate that you can’t pay later, so...”

The guard must have found Haruka convincing, but he was apparently still wary of us—or rather, of Haruka; he was completely ignoring Tomoya and me. It annoyed me a bit, but on the other hand, it was convenient for us, so I decided to hold my tongue.

“Yes, we have enough to spare,” Haruka answered. She handed the guard three silver coins.

After the guard counted the coins, he nodded with a smile and stepped aside to make way for us. “Okay, you’ll probably be fine, since you can use magic, but do take care. There are a lot of dangerous quests out there for adventurers.”

“Thank you very much.” Haruka smiled and bowed to the guard, so Tomoya and I followed suit as we passed through the gate.

“Oh, wait a moment!”

We stopped dead in our tracks when we heard the guard call after us. Haruka forced a smile again and then turned around to face the guard.

“Um, is there something we forgot?”

“Oh, it just came to me that you probably haven’t decided on an inn to stay at, right? I recommend an inn called The Slumbering Bear! It’s located on the right side of the plaza inside the gate. Also, my name’s Cass. Feel free to ask me questions if you have any!” He seemed happy to offer advice. He was probably just trying to help us out of the goodness of his heart.

But come to think of it, his kindness probably had a lot to do with being struck by Haruka’s beauty. After all, his eyes had been on her the whole time. I’m too chicken to try and do anything about it right now, though.

“Thank you very much! We’ll keep that in mind!” Haruka’s reply was smooth and amicable, but Tomoya and I struggled to maintain our smiles. We were extremely nervous.

None of us said a word once we started to walk again. When we got decently far away from the gate, we looked at each other and all sighed a breath of relief.

“Whew!” I exhaled. “I got really nervous even though I didn’t say anything!”

“Yup, same!” said Tomoya. “Man, we would’ve seemed suspicious if Haruka hadn’t been with us!”

We had been the only ones at the gate whose clothes were made of plain cloth—and also the only ones who hadn’t been carrying any belongings. Even the people who were clad in light clothes had clothes made of leather. They also had small satchels with them along with knives in their belts. That was enough information for us to figure out that it was quite suspicious to walk around unarmed outside town.

“I’m glad that things went well. The excuse I gave wasn’t exactly a good one, but I think we’ll be fine as long as we don’t cause any problems and can be good, hardworking adventurers.”

“Oh yeah, is it possible to end up being unable to enter town?”

“Of course it is. You can enter town as long as you’re not a criminal and pay the toll, but it’s possible to end up in a hassle like being interrogated for a long time or being asked to name the place you’re staying at. Feel free to praise me for skillfully dodging those troubles.”

“You’re amazing, Haruka-san!”

“That was so cool, Haruka-san!”

Haruka held her head up high while Tomoya and I played along and praised her. We looked at each other and chuckled. We could relax now that we had found our way to a safe place and—did someone’s stomach just growl?

“Oh, ha ha, I’m hungry!”

It was Tomoya’s stomach that had growled. He seemed slightly embarrassed by it; he laughed awkwardly and scratched his head.

“It seems to be noon right now, so that’s actually good timing. Let’s buy some food on our way to the inn that the guard recommended,” Haruka suggested.

Oh yeah, I feel quite hungry as well. Uh, when was the last time I ate something? I remember eating breakfast before getting on the bus, but I don’t remember having lunch. Well, maybe it doesn’t matter, since this is a completely new body.

“It’s normal to eat at noon in this world, right?” I asked.

“Yes, it is, but it seems like most ordinary citizens make do with a snack from the food stalls,” replied Haruka.

“That’s still better than going on just two meals per day. It’d be hard to adjust to this world’s norms right away and start eating less. Now then, I wonder what the food tastes like in this world!”

“I wouldn’t expect too much if I were you, Tomoya...” Haruka muttered darkly while Tomoya happily looked around for somewhere to get food.

“Yo, that place is cheap! It’s only thirty Rea for bread and soup! Let’s check it out!”

Tomoya didn’t seem to have heard Haruka’s words and was pointing excitedly at a food stall. At the front of the stall was a huge pot full of soup with a pile of rolls sitting beside it. Each roll was a bit larger than the palm of my hand and had a dark crust. Is that the famous brown bread that often shows up in fantasy settings? I’ve had bread that was partially made with rye grain, but never real rye bread. I’m actually kind of looking forward to this.

“We don’t have much money, so I guess we have no choice.” Haruka didn’t seem too excited, but she agreed in the end, and we bought some soup and bread.

Tomoya and I had planned to dig in on the spot, but Haruka raised her hand to halt us. She led us to a place a bit farther away. “Okay, listen up. Dip the bread in the soup to soften it before you take a bite. And leave some bread for scraping the bottom of the bowl at the end. We need to return these bowls after we finish eating, okay?”

“Roger. This bread does seem quite hard.”

I nodded along with Tomoya. Rye bread was well known for being tough to chew. All right, let’s dip it in some soup and see what it tastes like...

“Ack! Huh? This is harder than I thought it would be! It also doesn’t taste very good...”

“It tastes sour! The soup isn’t very good either. It’s just kind of salty and that’s it.”

After I heard Tomoya’s reaction, I decided to try out the soup myself. There really was nothing more to it than a slight salty flavor. There were some bits floating in the soup that looked like scraps of vegetable and meat, but they were completely flavorless.

While Tomoya and I were complaining about the food, Haruka continued to eat quietly without any visible distress or audible complaints.

“Um, Haruka, do you actually think this tastes good?”

I thought maybe it was our taste buds that were weird, so I asked Haruka to confirm, but she shook her head.

“Of course not. I was just prepared in advance, since I knew it would taste bad.”

Oh yeah, she did tell Tomoya not to expect much. I was looking forward to trying out rye bread, since it was a staple food for fantasy worlds, but sadly, I guess an ordinary Japanese person wouldn’t enjoy the taste.

“For real? I thought this would taste much better back when I read scenes like this in light novels...” Tomoya must have had a similar train of thought. He sighed and cast a gloomy look at the rye bread.

“Well, there is one use for rye bread,” said Haruka. “It lasts for quite a long time before going stale, so it’s a good choice for nonperishable food. That’s about all it’s good for, but still...”

“Wouldn’t rice be a better choice for nonperishable food?” Tomoya asked. “It lasts a long time too, but more importantly, you can easily turn it into a delicious meal even if all you have is a mess tin and a bonfire.”

“Do you mean like the dried and boiled rice people used to eat as rations in the distant past?” I asked.

“Oh yeah, I remember reading about something like that from classical texts back in literature class!”

“Mm,” I said. “If you want, you can eat it as is, or you can just pour some hot water over it and it’ll be ready.”

“Yeah, and the modern-day version of that is instant rice,” said Haruka.

“Wait, really?! I’ve had that before! All I had to do was pour some hot water over it and it tasted almost exactly like regular rice!”

I had also tried instant rice before; it had been labeled for use during emergencies and disasters, but it had actually been quite delicious—a bit different from regular rice, but it was a taste I wouldn’t mind on a regular basis.

“That taste’s mostly thanks to modern technology, though. Regardless, according to the General Knowledge skill, rice doesn’t exist in this world!”

“So you’re saying that we have to get used to this type of bread if we want to become adventurers?” I asked Haruka.

She nodded solemnly in response. “Other nonperishable foods do exist, but apparently they taste just as bad.”

“Hmm, hopefully we can find a solution to this problem when we have some spare time to experiment with cooking.”

“Agreed. It’s not as though I enjoy the taste of this bread either, so I’ll do my best to help when we have the time.”

Having been slapped in the face by reality, Tomoya and I resumed our meals quietly. We finished eating without further conversation.

Haruka retrieved the empty bowls from us and went to return them to the owner of the food stall. She asked him some questions while she was at it. “Sir, we’re looking for an inn to stay at. Do you know any good places? A place with single rooms available would be ideal.”

“Well, it depends on your budget, so...” He stared at our clothes while he thought. Yeah, we don’t look rich at all.

“We were recommended a place called The Slumbering Bear. Have you heard of it before?”

“The Slumbering Bear? Oh, that place. Come to think of it, they also offer inn services. It’s not a bad choice, but the owner’s unsociable. It’s located in an alley that’s a bit hard to find, so head for the plaza and walk further down the main street on the first right, then ask someone for directions.”

He retrieved the bowls from Haruka and pointed down the road. There was an open area a few hundred meters in that direction.

“Thank you very much! We’ll come back again in the future!”

Haruka smiled and waved goodbye, then led us back to the main road.

I hurriedly caught up to her to ask about our future plans. “Are we actually going to come back here to eat?”

Haruka shook her head with a bitter smile. “Probably not. Well, not unless we’re close to running out of money.”

“I’m glad!” I said. “The bread and soup were, well, you know...”

“Mm. It really made me appreciate how well-crafted instant food was back in Japan. Even something basic like consommé, which only requires hot water, would be very difficult to make from scratch here. I’m not too confident about whether or not I could make a delicious soup with just salt.”

“Really? But aren’t you quite good at cooking?”

It wasn’t a regular thing, but as Haruka’s childhood friend, I had had some opportunities to eat her homemade food. I don’t know how good the average high school girl is at cooking, but one thing I do know is that Haruka’s cooking was great.

“Thanks for the compliment, but it’s hard to make a flavorful dish without any seasoning. I hope there’s a good variety of dried food available here.”

Dried food is stuff like bonito flakes and kombu or kelp, right? There are also dried shiitake mushrooms and dried sardines... Oh yeah, now that I think about it, dried food is quite important for making broth. I was always lazy and just used broth powder whenever I cooked, but I remember seeing the contestants use bonito flakes a lot on cooking shows. If that’s what you need to create good broth, then maybe it’s actually a luxury we can’t afford.

Hmm, suddenly I’m not too sure if we can make it here in this world. Guess I’ll have to hope Haruka can use her excellent cooking skills to whip up tasty meals with cheap ingredients...

★★★★★★★★★

The Slumbering Bear was indeed quite hard to find, as we had been told. We asked people along the way for directions multiple times, and eventually we found ourselves in an alley that was far away from the center of town. The building in front of us looked somewhat old, but it was at least clean, which made a good first impression.

“All right, let’s go in. Leave all the talking to me again, okay?”

Tomoya and I nodded in approval. I felt somewhat ashamed of myself, but the difference in our knowledge of this world was a very big factor. Haruka opened the door and went in first, and we followed after her. Inside, the first thing that caught my eye was a group of tables laid out in rows. It looked like a dining hall. This isn’t a hotel, so I guess it’s obvious that there’s no front lobby. There were ten tables, each round and large enough to seat up to five people. There was also a decent amount of space between them; the dining hall was quite large. To the right of the room was a long counter, and in the center was a middle-aged man who must have been the owner of this inn. He was quite tall, bulky, and had a beard. Behind the counter were some stairs, which presumably led to the rooms for travelers.

“Hello, we’d like to stay at this inn. Is there a room for three people available?”

“It’ll be five hundred Rea per night for one room. Breakfast and dinner will be an extra eighty Rea per person. Water is available from the well in the backyard. If you need it, a bucket of hot water will be fifty Rea.”

Oh yeah, this guy’s definitely unsociable. He said everything we needed to know, but still.

“Okay, we’ll stay for one night, with breakfast and dinner included, please.”

“Seven hundred and forty Rea.”

“This should be it. Here you go.”

Haruka didn’t seem to mind how unsociable the innkeeper was. She stuck her hand in my pocket, drew out one large silver coin, and mixed it with her own coins to pay. Oh yeah, she paid the toll at the gate for all three of us. That means she has almost no money left. That’s rough.

“Your room is up the stairs and on the right at the very end of the hall.” That was the last piece of information he murmured after taking our coins and handing Haruka a key. This guy really is unsociable. Well, I guess it’s better than being asked all sorts of questions. I’d rather stay inconspicuous.

“Okay, thank you,” said Haruka. “Let’s get going.”

“Roger,” said Tomoya.

Haruka started to climb up the stairs, and we followed suit. We walked down a dim corridor towards our room.

The room was much brighter than the corridor. There were four beds, a small table, a wooden chest to store belongings, and a large window that looked out on the road below.

“Hmm, this isn’t too bad. In fact, I think this might be better than some of the cheap inns I stayed at in the suburbs back in Japan.” Tomoya nodded in satisfaction as he glanced around at the room and the bedsheets.

Cheap inns back in Japan?

“You’ve stayed at those kinds of places before, Tomoya?”

“Yeah, a few times when I went on trips. Some of the rooms I stayed in didn’t have any proper windows, and there was just one futon to sleep on. I definitely prefer the look and feel of this room. Only downside is that there’s no air conditioning here.”

Wow. I’ve never even stayed at a capsule hotel before.

Haruka seemed surprised as well, and she turned to Tomoya to ask him more. “I’ve only stayed at regular hotels and traditional Japanese inns myself, so I’m curious—what were those cheap inns like?”

“I mean, they were decent enough to sleep in and that’s about it. The rooms had television and air conditioning, but the shower room was shared. It was cheaper than other options, though, so they can be a convenient place to stay depending on what you’re traveling for. However, I wouldn’t recommend them to women. I gotta say, though, I feel way more tired than I thought I would.”

Tomoya collapsed face first onto a bed and let out an exhausted sigh. His tail was visible, wagging a little.

“U-Um, Tomoya, can I touch your tail?” I asked.

“Uh, I’m not really into that kind of stuff from another guy. But, well, I do understand the allure of a fluffy tail, so sure, I guess?”

“Thanks, dude!”

Tomoya squirmed a bit at first from that idea, but he said okay in the end, so I went ahead and touched his tail. Wow! This is really fluffy! I thought it would be a bit stiff, but I was wrong. I continued to pet it for a while.

“AAAGGGHHH!”

Tomoya jumped up from the bed all of a sudden.

“Huh?! Don’t suddenly scream like that, Tomoya!”

“It’s your fault for touching me weirdly! That’s enough! Don’t touch my tail anymore!”

“Oh, come on!” I made a stroking motion with my hands to indicate that I wasn’t done yet, but Tomoya firmly refused further contact.

After a moment of thought, he found the words to describe how it felt: “It felt really weird! Like, uh, it felt somewhat similar to the kind of shivers you get from being poked in the back, and I can’t stand that!”

“Ah, yeah, that’s not a pleasant feeling.”

Wait, if this is how Tomoya reacted, then other beastmen probably won’t let me pet them either. Does that mean I won’t ever get a chance to touch animal ears or tails? What a shame. That was one of the things I was looking forward to the most in this world. Oh well. I reluctantly gave up on my dream, but my eyes lingered on Tomoya’s tail for a while.

Haruka gave me a disappointed look and sighed. “All right, you two, stop playing around. Let’s go out to buy some goods that we need.”

“Eh? Why don’t we just call it a day for now? Aren’t you two tired as well? I’m really tired mentally.” Even as Haruka was urging us to go outside again, Tomoya had gotten back on a bed and was rolling around while he complained.

Haruka sighed for a moment and then lightly swatted Tomoya on the head.

“I’m tired as well, but we don’t have the luxury of resting right away. Tomoya, how much money do you have left?”

“Uh, let me count—it looks like I have 970 Rea.”

“Okay, I’ll be taking that.”

Haruka snatched the coins out of Tomoya’s hand the moment he was done counting them.

“Huh?” said Tomoya.

Haruka held her hand out in my direction. “Give me your coins as well, Nao. We don’t have enough money at the moment to split it equally.”

“Okay.” I knew from experience that it would be a bad idea to say no to Haruka when she was like this, so I obeyed and surrendered all the coins I had in my pocket. It’s not like she’ll run away with the money, and it’s better for one person to manage it all for now.

“All of this adds up to 1,870 Rea. We’ll have to make do with this amount for all the goods and items we need to start as adventurers. Any thoughts?”

“Yeah, this isn’t much money at all.” I didn’t know how much things cost in this world, but I knew for a fact that we didn’t have much leeway. The amount of money we had left was only enough to stay at the inn for two more nights, so we didn’t have the luxury of rest while it was still early in the day.

“Uh, I have a question,” I said. “What are we going to do for a job? Are we going to take on quests as adventurers? That’s the standard choice for this kind of world.”

“It’s more like our only choice,” replied Haruka.

Haruka explained to Tomoya and me what kind of work was available in this world. She told us that there was day labor that counted as work for adventurers too, so we could get those kinds of jobs through the Adventurers’ Guild. For women, there was the option of waitress work at a tavern, but the pay was quite low. Even if you got hired as a live-in waitress, most of your wages would go towards accommodation fees. If you wanted to save up money, you would have to turn to prostitution. As for other examples, artisans had an apprenticeship system set up, so it was impossible to get work in that kind of field without connections. You also needed connections to enlist in the military, which would be extra difficult without much knowledge about this world.

“This is why becoming adventurers is our only realistic choice.” Haruka shrugged and sighed at our predicament.

Oh yeah, I remember needing a resume for any kind of work back in Japan, even part-time work. With that in mind, I guess registering as adventurers really is our only realistic choice.

“Any other questions?” Haruka asked. Tomoya raised his hand while still lying on a bed, so Haruka pointed at him. “Yes, Tomoya?”

“Registering as adventurers sounds fine to me, but can we actually afford to right now? We have like, what, the equivalent of less than twenty thousand yen, right? Surely that’s not enough to buy proper adventurer clothes for three people.”

Back in Japan, that amount of money would only be enough to buy some underwear from a 100-yen shop and some clothes from a Shimamura store. Cheap mass-produced clothes like that don’t exist in this world, though, so it’s not that easy.

“Yeah, we’re in a tough situation,” said Haruka. “I’m not saying we should start working today, but if we aren’t prepared to work tomorrow, we’ll have to sleep outside to save money.”

“That would be horrible!” said Tomoya. He jumped up from the bed to beg Haruka for help. “Okay, so what do we actually need? Since you actually know a bit about this world, can you list some things for us to discuss, Haruka?”

Haruka paused in thought for a moment. “Well, we’ll definitely need things like a satchel to carry our belongings, waterskins, cloth bags for gathering materials, and leather bags for carrying meat and fur. Those are the general goods we’ll need. We’ll also need weapons and armor, but...”

“Will we have enough for those last two?” I asked.

“Probably not,” Haruka replied.

I asked Haruka about the market price for the things we needed, and apparently we had just about enough for the general goods, but that was it. That sounded like an extremely tight budget, so we discussed further and trimmed it down. Water was important, so we had to buy three waterskins, but we would have to make do with one shared bag for belongings and one or two less for the other bags. As for underwear, only Haruka would buy a new pair. We would spend the rest of the money on a weapon for Tomoya. That was the best we could do with what we had. Haruka and I would go without weapons for now, and all of us would go without armor.

“Hmm, even with this extra money set aside, I’m not sure if we can afford a decent weapon...” said Haruka.

“It’s not like there’s anything we can do about it,” I said. “Weapons are expensive, and even a mass-produced knife back in Japan would cost a few thousand yen. Tomoya, be ready to use a staff or club if it comes down to it.”

“Roger,” said Tomoya. “A cypress staff is a standard starting weapon for an adventurer, after all!”

“That’s more like a starting weapon for a Hero!” I exclaimed.

“If we ignore how other people might look at us, then an iron club would be just fine,” said Haruka. “Let’s go see what we can buy first.”

This isn’t exactly how I imagined our lives as adventurers would begin. Haruka laughed dryly at our efforts to keep our spirits up.

★★★★★★★★★

The first place we headed for was the general store. We asked the taciturn innkeeper if there was a specific store he would recommend; although he didn’t say much, he did give us an answer, so we knew where to go. Haruka was once again in charge of deciding what to buy. She managed to haggle and obtain goods much more cheaply than the original price.

Tomoya and I stood behind her and looked around at the goods available. We didn’t participate in the price negotiations.

“Uh, Nao, aren’t we useless?”

There wasn’t even much for Tomoya and me to carry, since we couldn’t afford to buy a lot.

“Don’t worry about it. We’re useful as bodyguards so random guys don’t hit on Haruka. That’s always been our role in these situations. Besides, a pretty girl is more likely to get a better deal haggling.”

“I mean, yeah, I guess. But with your looks, wouldn’t you also be up to the task as long as the person you’re haggling with was a woman?”

“I’m not any better at haggling than I was before, but maybe I’ll give it a shot some other time.”

I’m more handsome now than I was before, right? I can’t tell. I wish I had a mirror.

Haruka came back from haggling and rolled her eyes at what Tomoya and I were talking about. “Instead of thinking about stupid things like that, think about ways for us to earn loads of money so that we don’t need to haggle in the first place. Let’s move on to the weapon shop and not waste time. We still have to go to the Adventurers’ Guild afterwards.”

She went on ahead of us, and we followed right behind. After a few minutes of walking, she stopped in front of a shop with a sword and shield painted on its signboard—presumably the weapon shop. We were greeted by yet another middle-aged man. He glanced at us but didn’t say a single word of welcome. Do cute salesgirls not exist in this world? Aside from the guards at the gate, all the people we’ve met so far have been middle-aged men. Well, the guard was a guy as well, and I guess that makes sense. Cute female guards and soldiers are probably quite rare.

“We do have thirteen hundred Rea left, but that’s not enough for a sword...”

There were swords and spears lined up against one wall. On the opposite wall was gear like shields and maces. There was no armor on display, but there was a wooden board that listed the estimated price for the other gear.

“Hmm, it looks like the cheapest swords available cost at least four thousand Rea.”

I grabbed the cheapest sword to see how it felt in my hands. It was more like a blunt object in the shape of a sword. Wouldn’t an iron club be better than this? You could just flail around with a club and that would work fine, but that wouldn’t do for a sword. What else is cheap here? It looks like there are spears, wands, and knives...

“What’s the plan, Haruka?” I asked. “We can just barely afford a spear, if that’s an option.”

“Hmm, come to think of it, we definitely need a knife. Without a knife, it’d be hard to harvest materials and parts from whatever animals we hunt down.”

Oh yeah, Haruka does have the Disassemble skill. Are we really going to do that ourselves? For real? I don’t think I can dress or gut a mammal at all. I can clean fish, though, and maybe reptiles too, if I try my hardest not to get grossed out...

“There’s also a registration fee we need to pay to become adventurers, so we need to set aside some money for that too.”

Ugh, we need money just to register? I asked Haruka about the amount we needed. Apparently it would be a total of nine hundred Rea for three people. Well then, I guess we have no choice. Where are the cypress sticks?

“Yo, check this out! I found something good!”

Haruka and I were still fretting over our budget when we heard Tomoya’s voice. He sounded very happy as he came back and showed us what he had found. It was a sword that looked like it was carved from sturdy wood. There was a plain cloth wrapped around the hilt to give a better grip. The sword seemed slightly better suited for actual combat than the wooden swords in a Kyoto souvenir shop. It’s still made of wood, though. Is it actually useful?

“What’s the price? Only 150 Rea? Yeah, we can afford this plus a knife,” said Haruka. “Okay, this sword will be your weapon, Tomoya. Nao and I can use magic, so we’ll be fine without one. Probably.”

That was wishful thinking, since neither of us had actually used magic yet. Oh well, we can’t spend what we don’t have, so we’ll have to make do without weapons. We bought just the wooden sword and a knife and then hurried out of the shop. I felt like the shop owner was calling us cheapskates the way he looked at us when we left, but I was probably just imagining things. Surely he didn’t expect much from people who don’t even look like adventurers, right?

“Okay, we’ll be heading to the Adventurers’ Guild next, but let’s decide on what names to register under,” said Haruka. “My name isn’t that common here, but I think it’ll be fine. Naofumi, on the other hand, is obviously a Japanese name, so go with something else. Also, we don’t need a surname to register.”

This was apparently advice based on the General Knowledge skill. None of us had any desire to become famous, so there was no reason to make ourselves stand out in the wrong way.

“Yeah, let’s try to avoid trouble wherever we can. Should I just go with Nao as my name?”

“That should be fine. We’re used to calling you by that name, anyway. What about you, Tomoya?”

“How does Touya sound? It’s close enough to Tomoya, so if you guys call me Tomoya, you can just pretend you pronounced it wrong. It’ll also be easier for me to remember to respond to a name that sounds like my real name.”

“Sure. Okay, let’s stick with those names from now on.”

“Yep. Well, we’ve called Naofumi Nao for a long time, so I’m the only one with a name change.”

Tomoya, you already messed up and called me Naofumi! Well, at least I don’t have to worry about him messing it up again. I won’t point it out, though, in case that makes him do it again.

★★★★★★★★★

The Adventurers’ Guild was located near a gate in a different part of town than the gate we’d entered through. Based on the position of the sun, the gate we had entered through faced east, so the gate near the Adventurers’ Guild faced south. According to Haruka, the sun also rose in the east and set in the west in this world.

The guild building was unremarkable, but it was about two times larger than the inn we were staying at. The sign above the front door had words written on it instead of symbols. Haruka confidently led the way in, so Touya and I obediently followed her. When I asked her why she didn’t hesitate at all, she told me that she had confirmed the location back at the general store. Mm, Haruka’s really reliable. When I praised her by saying “Good thing you have the General Knowledge skill!” she shot back with “These are things you should know too!”

I got scolded. Mm, yeah, Touya and I really have been relying on Haruka too much. When that thought occurred to me, I cast a sidelong glance at Touya and found him looking back at me. We stared at each other for a moment and then nodded together.

“All right, leave it to us this time, Haruka!” I said.

“Yeah, even we can handle registration!” said Touya. “It might even be better for us guys to do it so that there’s a lower chance of us being looked down upon!”

“Stop! Stop right there!”

Haruka grabbed us by our hands and stopped us short just as we were about to stride ahead.

“It’s fine! Just let me handle the talking for now! You two have other responsibilities, okay?” Haruka pointed at the bag that Touya was carrying. So we’re only useful for manual labor...? “Besides, you two are useful enough just standing behind me. I mean, just look at me. I look like a frail and beautiful elf, right? I haven’t checked how I look in a mirror yet, though.”

“Yeah, true,” said Touya. “You do like you would be easy to kidnap. Well, on the outside, that is.”

“A frail and beautiful elf? I guess,” I said. “On the outside, that is.”

“What? Do you two have something more to say?” Haruka seemed somewhat unhappy. She glared at us, but we both shrugged and laughed off her question.

“Nah, it’s just that you’re not weak at all, Haruka,” said Touya. “You weren’t weak back in Japan, and now you have all sorts of skills here too.”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t go as far as to say you’re masculine or anything,” I said, “but at the same time, you don’t really fit the description of a frail girl either.”

I mean, she learned aikido in the past for self-defense. She’s very plucky and strong-willed too, and I remember hearing about many heroic episodes where she saved underclassmen girls from obnoxious guys who were hitting on them.

“Ugh, okay, you got me! Wait, no, that’s not the point here. It’s how I appear to others that matters, okay? I’m counting on you two as bodyguards.”

“All right, we’ll do our best to be useful. We’re just standing behind you, though.”

In the end, Haruka was the one who led the way into the guild, but what I saw inside led me to wonder if we actually needed to be on guard at all. The room we entered was a large hall. About two-thirds of the hall was occupied by reception desks. At first glance, it could have been a public office. The other third looked like a dining hall. There were people who looked like adventurers gathered around tables. They were chatting with each other while enjoying food and alcoholic beverages.

Surprisingly, nobody seemed drunk at all, contrary to my expectation that adventurers would be rowdy and disorderly. I asked Haruka about this later on, and apparently adventurers who caused a fuss or a ruckus would get demoted in rank without mercy. The ones who got in big trouble would get kicked out of the guild and blacklisted, so almost nobody dared to cause trouble inside the guild building, since there were a lot of staff members around. I guess it’s kind of similar to getting wasted in front of your boss and doing something really stupid. Well, if they wanted to get wasted, they could always just go to an actual tavern.

“Hello. Can I register as an adventurer here?” Haruka had approached one of the reception desks to ask the staff member seated there about registration.

The staff member was a young lady who seemed bright and cheerful. She wasn’t exactly a stunning beauty, but she gave off a warm and welcoming aura. “Of course. Do the two behind you want to register as well? It’ll be a total of nine hundred Rea for three people. Do you have enough?”

“Yes, here you go.” Haruka handed over nine large silver coins, and the lady handed over three pieces of paper in exchange.

“Please fill out these forms and turn them in when you’re done. Do you need any further explanation?”

“No, thank you.”

There was only one pen, so I had to wait for Haruka to fill out her form before I began mine. I only wrote my name, race, and a simple introduction. Haruka wrote that she could use a bow and some magic in her introduction, so I followed her example and wrote that I could use a spear and some magic. Touya wrote swordsmanship in his. It feels kinda weird how I can write the words of this world’s language just as easily as Japanese. That god must have been powerful to grant us abilities like this. Apparently, most people can speak just fine in this world, but very few can actually write, so I guess giving us the ability to write really was a huge freebie.

“All right, thank you very much. Please wait here for a while.” The staff lady took three cards out of a drawer and laid them on the desk in front of her. While she was working on the cards, she asked, “Oh, I have a question for each of you. Are you healthy?”

We were all very confused by the sudden question.

“Uh, yes, we are. Why do you ask?”

“Oh, well, it’s just that there have been multiple strange incidents today where people around your age suddenly dropped dead. Two people died all of a sudden right here in this guild building. It caused a real commotion.”

People around our age suddenly dying? Oh boy, I bet I know why...

“W-Well, that’s kind of scary. Is there any information about how or why this happened?”

Haruka averted her gaze somewhat while she inquired about further details. Her poker face had crumbled a bit, but the staff lady had her eyes down on the desk and didn’t notice, and she answered Haruka’s question while she continued filling out the cards.

“Unfortunately, nothing at all. In the first incident, the person suddenly collapsed on a table and died. As for the second incident, the person entered and looked around the guild, and then suddenly collapsed to the floor. Neither of them had any visible external injuries, so people panicked about it being poisoning or a plague, but there were no signs of those causes either.”

The staff lady sighed and handed over the completed cards to us. They were made of metal and were roughly as thick as a regular debit card. Our names were engraved on our respective cards. Each was lightly decorated and also displayed the words “Issued at Laffan Adventurers’ Guild,” but apart from that, it looked like a normal metal card.

“All right, your registration is complete. It appears that similar incidents have occurred in other places in town as well, so please take care.”

“Thank you very much. What should we watch out for, though? We have no idea what to expect.”

“Good point. I’m not too sure. I guess taking care of your health would be a good start?”

“Indeed. Thank you again.”

The staff lady inclined her head slightly as she gave us advice, and Haruka forced a smile when she said thanks.

Haruka suddenly asked one more question, as if it had suddenly occurred to her: “Oh yes, does this town’s guild offer herb-gathering quests?”

“Yes, it does. The herb-gathering locations near this town are in the forests south and east of here. The eastern forest is a bit farther away, but I would recommend it for beginners because there are very few monsters there. Well, you’ll probably be just fine, since two of you are elves.”

While she was describing the eastern forest to us, the staff lady gestured in the direction of the gate we had entered this town through. Yeah, there was a forest in that direction, but I think it was way more than just a bit farther away.

“Thank you very much for the advice,” said Haruka. “We want to be as cautious as we can in the beginning, so information like that is very useful.”

“Is that so?” said the staff lady. “I’m glad to be of help, then. Good luck.”

“Thank you,” said Haruka.

Touya and I joined in and said, “Thank you very much!”

She sent us off with a smile. Oh yeah, although she wasn’t a stunning beauty, that staff lady was still the first woman I’ve had a conversation with since I arrived in this world. Well, just because this is a different world, that doesn’t mean that I’ll meet beautiful girls and women all the time. It’s not like I’m the protagonist of a harem light novel series.

“Okay, I’ll explain a bit about the Adventurers’ Guild on our way back to the inn,” said Haruka. “But it’s not that different from what you two think it’s like, so it’ll be a simple enough explanation.”

Haruka stopped in her tracks on the side of a road slightly away from the guild and took out the cards we had received earlier.

“This is an adventurer card. It seems to be made from a durable alloy, but it doesn’t have any special functions. It’s just an identification card engraved with our names and the guild where the card was issued. There’s nothing written on the back at the moment, but as we complete quests from the guild and gain more trust, we can get something like a seal engraved here. The guild will offer us more perks and benefits based on the number of seals we have, and more types of quests will become available to us.”

Hmm, so it’s exactly what it looks like. I didn’t know there was a separate use for the back of the card, though.

“Are there no high-tech features like a system to prevent other people from using your card, or a system that displays your stats or status screen?” Touya asked.

“Nope. Just think about it: how could a card that only costs the equivalent of about three thousand yen have such advanced features? Anyone can register and get this card, so it wouldn’t be logical.”

Haruka had swiftly shot down Touya’s question. Another classic light novel trope out the window. Well, even if it was possible to implement those kinds of features, it would probably be very expensive.

“We can obtain up to ten seals. Those indicate our adventurer rank. We don’t have any yet, so we’re Rank 0 newbies right now. Seals can’t be removed, so if you start or get in trouble, a cross mark will be engraved on top of a seal to indicate a rank demotion. It’s possible to raise your rank again, but the seals with cross marks will remain forever, so you’ll inspire less confidence and trust than others with the same rank.”

“So it’s basically like a criminal record. The fact that we can’t get rid of it is kinda scary. We should be careful about it.”

In a way, it was a well-designed system. Anyone could register to become an adventurer without qualifications or a recommendation, but troublemakers would get kicked out of the guild.

“Well, apparently, you’ll get a few warnings before you get a cross mark as long as it’s not a serious infraction, so it’s fairly rare to get demoted in rank. Any other questions?”

It sounded like the adventurer system in this world was pretty much what you’d expect in a normal fantasy setting. Well, it’s lacking in gamelike elements, but other than that, yeah.

“Oh yeah, you asked about herbs earlier, right?” I asked. “Does that mean there are the standard herb-gathering quests in this world?”

“Yes. Most towns will buy gathered herbs. You don’t even need to be an adventurer to turn in herbs. However, there are no convenient gathering spots near towns. After all, nobody would pay for herbs if they were that easy to gather.”

Yeah, that makes sense. If herbs were close enough that even children could go out and gather them easily, then the reward would probably be the equivalent of a child’s allowance.

“What’s the average reward for turning in herbs? Is it enough to make a living?”

“Well, that depends on how useful your Hawk’s Eye and Touya’s Appraisal skills turn out to be. If we can successfully hunt animals that have marketable parts, then I can put my Disassemble to use and we can slowly save up money over time.”

Haruka had paused for a bit before she answered. Based on how she’d chosen her phrasing, we would have to work very hard if we wanted to make a decent living. Income for work that anyone could do was low in this world, just like how it was in our previous world. The other thing we needed to decide on was how many hours we would spend each day trying to earn money. Hopefully we can earn enough that Haruka doesn’t have to hesitate when it comes to buying new clothes. I’d like to be able to buy new clothes myself if possible, and I’m sure Touya feels the same way.

“So even if we do all that, we’ll only be able to save up money slowly? What about manual labor?” Touya asked. “There’s some available through the guild, right?”

“Well, you might be able to earn some money from that kind of work, but Nao and I wouldn’t, since it requires physical strength.”

Yeah, elves aren’t very well suited to manual labor.

“We could arrange it so that Touya does manual labor while Nao and I gather herbs, but none of us want to split up like that, right? Besides, I think it’s better to stick together for leveling purposes.”

“Oh yeah, that evil god did mention something about level ups back then. Does that only apply to the skills?”

Some of the skills that we could browse via our status screens didn’t have a level number next to them.

“Well, the very existence of skills isn’t common knowledge in this world, since there’s no way for ordinary people to check if they even have skills.”

So it was all thanks to the evil god that we could obtain skills and check them out via our status display screens? Well then, I might actually be willing to pray to him now.

“However, it is common knowledge that you can become stronger if you work out or defeat monsters.”

Yeah, that made sense. The first half of that statement applied in the previous world too. The key question here was about whether or not the upward curve of improvement was steeper than we thought, but that was something we would have to test out for ourselves.

“Also, that staff lady mentioned something about monsters earlier, but what are monsters in this world actually like?”

“Monsters are creatures that have something called a magicite inside their bodies. Most of them act based on pure instinct and have no intelligence, so it’s recommended to slay them on sight. It’s possible to obtain monetary rewards for defeating monsters, but you’ll have to turn in proof of the kill. On that note, monsters don’t just vanish into thin air once you defeat them, so we’ll have to gut them ourselves for the materials and magicite inside.”

“Ugh, I’m not good with disgusting stuff like that...” said Touya.

“Same here...” I said.

“I’ve only cleaned fish myself, so I don’t have that much experience either,” said Haruka. “But we have no choice! I’ll handle this for now, so you two better learn and get used to it eventually!”

Yeah, this was new to her as well. We had grown up together as childhood friends in the same environment, so I would’ve been very surprised if she told us that she had experience with hunting and gutting prey. Even though we’re not good with disgusting stuff and Haruka’s the only one with the Disassemble skill, it’d be pretty deplorable of us boys to leave all the hard work to a girl...

“Okay...”

“We’ll do our best...”

Haruka responded with a “Hmph!” We boys could only nod dejectedly to show our submission.

After we finished our business at the Adventurers’ Guild, we returned to the inn and relaxed for a bit on separate beds. For now, we’d settled on a rough plan for work tomorrow. Things wouldn’t be easy, but at least we knew that as long as we worked hard every day, we wouldn’t have to sleep outside without a roof to save money on living expenses. However, it was possible that we wouldn’t be able to work some days if we got sick, so we had to find a way to somehow increase our earnings over time.

“Oh yeah, are you actually okay with sharing a room with us, Haruka?”

“Huh? What, are you going to make a move on me or something, Touya?”

Touya had said it totally out of the blue, as if it had just crossed his mind. Haruka gave him a look of disdain and disbelief. Well, she was actually grinning, so it was just a joke on her part. Touya knew it too, and responded with a lopsided smile.

“Nah, that’s not what I mean. We’re childhood friends, yeah, but we all have our own needs, right?”

“Well, it’s not like we have the money for separate rooms, so it is what it is. We’ll just have to put up with the way things are and try to be considerate of each other. Oh, yeah, um...” Haruka shrugged at first, but her words trailed off at the end, and she looked away from us.

“Hm? What’s up? Feel free to say what you want.”

On top of having been thrown into another world, we were in dire and stressful circumstances. It would be better to discuss problems right away, no matter how awkward they were, instead of letting unspoken complaints build up over time until we suddenly exploded from stress.

“Well, uh, try to hold back from masturbating if you can, okay?”

“Masturbation...? Wait, what?!”

This was way more awkward than what I had in mind!

“I mean, like, the urge to do so builds up over time, right? It’d be awkward if you two ended up in, well, accidents because of it, so if you just let me know when, then I can go outside and leave you two alone for a bit...”

Haruka blushed as she told us that. She was still looking away from us. That understanding actually makes it awkward for us! Even as childhood friends, there was no way we could possibly ask her to leave us alone for a bit because we wanted to let one out. Touya and I gave each other awkward looks and coughed deliberately.

“Well, about that, we would appreciate it if you just pretended not to notice, you know?” I said. It was a delicate subject for us boys.

“Y-Yeah, okay! I’ll just act normally!”

Haruka sounded a bit flustered when she said that, so it was probably a lost cause. I mean, it’s Haruka, so...

“Oh yeah, there’s one thing I want you two to keep in mind! Don’t go to those places, okay?! Diseases are very dangerous!”

“Ah, yeah, sexually transmitted diseases are dangerous indeed. There have been plenty of different ones throughout the history of mankind.”

Syphilis was one of them. Europeans had worked quite hard to spread it across the world during the Age of Discovery. They’d even brought it into Japan. It was possible that it didn’t exist in this world, but there was still the risk that there were other sexually transmitted diseases here. We couldn’t rely on the Robust skill to protect us from them completely.

“Especially you, Touya! Don’t get baited by a cute animal-ears lady!”

“I won’t go! I want a cute wife—and that doesn’t mean for lust only!”

“Is that so? All right, then. Oh yeah, beastmen don’t have a mating season, so that’s good news for you.”

“I-I see...”

Touya seemed a bit daunted and disappointed as he nodded in response to Haruka’s frank words. Yeah, uh, it’s kind of awkward to talk about these kinds of things with the opposite sex. I better try to change the subject.

“Oh yeah, what do you guys think of the incidents we heard about back at the guild?”

We hadn’t talked about it on our way back, since other people could listen in, but it had been at the back of my mind the entire time. This was a forceful way to change the subject, but Haruka and Touya didn’t seem interested in continuing with the previous one, so they went along with it.

“You mean the incidents of people dying all of a sudden? Hmm, was it poisoning? Wait, there were no traces of that, right? What about magic being the cause given that we’re in another world?”

Touya did his best to put on a serious face while he threw out ideas, but he was completely off the mark. Did you already forget what Haruka and I told you in the beginning, Touya?

“No, it’s obviously our classmates,” I said. “I think the people who died probably killed themselves by using up all of their life span with the Plunder skill.”

“Oh yeah, there was a gimmicky skill like that, huh? I’m glad I didn’t get that skill! I would’ve probably gotten it if I had, like, 200 Points or so.”

Touya clasped his hands together and continued to say dumb things. Yeah, he definitely forgot everything. It’s very important information. Did he forget because he can’t see the additional information?

“Based on the information we got from the staff lady, it’s likely that about four or five people have died from this,” I said.

“She didn’t mention an exact number, but that sounds about right,” said Haruka. “How many people do you think chose to get the Plunder skill?”

Plunder and the EXP skills were the two big ones that had seemed like cheat skills. The number of Points required to get Plunder was 80, and the number of Points we’d each had in the beginning was 120, 150, and 200, respectively. If the amount the evil god had granted us at the beginning was based on our athletic abilities and our grades, then—although this would be self-praise—the three of us probably had more points than average. But even with that in mind, everyone in our class had probably started with at least 80 Points, which would mean that everyone could have gotten the Plunder skill if they had wanted to.

“Well, I bet half of our class probably chose to get it,” said Touya. “It looks and sounds like a cheat skill, and it’s something the other boys in class would find attractive.”

Hmm, Touya thinks it’s half? I think it’s a bit less than that.

“There was the Copy skill too, remember? Wouldn’t some people with more points choose to get that instead? Especially people who don’t want to stand out or cause trouble for others.”

“Yeah, that’s true. There were also other expensive skills that looked and sounded good based on their names, like Charm, Heroic Aptitude, and Heroine Aptitude, so maybe not that many people chose to get Plunder.”

Another factor worth considering was how many of our classmates were smart and careful. Based on what the evil god had said, one fourth of our class was already familiar with the “entire class getting transported to another world” trope. That would mean that the same one fourth had probably read light novels and knew about Plunder and EXP skills being cheat skills in similar settings and situations. It all depended on whether or not they were suspicious of the evil god’s words or the cost of certain skills—and on whether or not they had decided to get the Help Guide. There were also people in our class who had no knowledge of light novels or games and thus probably had no idea about the right way to approach the character creation process. It was still possible that some of them had passed over the Help Guide in spite of not knowing anything about games.

“At first glance, Plunder looks advantageous in the short run and the EXP skills look advantageous in the long run, right?” Touya said. “They’re both traps, though. What about the other additional skills? There are plenty of yikes choices out there, even if they’re not lethal like Plunder is, right?”

“If anyone chose the Heroic Aptitude or Heroine Aptitude skills, then they’re just asking for trouble,” I said. “Those will just make you unlucky the entire time if you don’t have the ability to surpass the trials that come your way.”

“Hmm, what about the Charm skill? Will it work on us? That sounds annoying to deal with.”

There were some gimmicky skills that not only affected their owners but also everyone around them. I’d prefer not to get anywhere close to those people.

Haruka seemed to feel the same way. “This might sound cold and heartless, but we should do our best to avoid our classmates, regardless of whether or not they have skills like Heroic Aptitude, Heroine Aptitude, and Charm. I’m fairly sure we’ll end up in bad situations if we do.”

“You sure? What about your friends, Haruka?” I asked.

“I’m a bit worried about Yuki and Natsuki, but we weren’t able to meet up with them, so let’s worry about ourselves for now. Besides, I want to believe my friends wouldn’t choose to get the Charm skill. I bet whoever requested that skill was the same one who wanted to go to an otome game world.” Haruka shook her head, shrugged, and sighed.

I was friends with Yuki and Natsuki through Haruka, so I was concerned about them too, but we didn’t have the luxury of searching for them at the moment. Before anything else, we had to learn how to survive.

“Some of the boys might have gotten the Charm skill to fulfill their harem dreams,” said Haruka. “They’ll probably just end up being stalked by yanderes, though, based on the skill’s description.”

A small part of me wanted to be popular with girls, but I had thrown out that idea as soon as I’d seen the description. I wouldn’t want it even if it was free.

“Yeah, even back in a safe country like Japan, a stalker was dangerous enough, but it would be way too scary here in this world,” I said. “It would be very easy to get kidnapped and locked up somewhere.”

“Kidnapping is illegal, but it’s likely that nobody will notice if we get kidnapped and disappear, since we’re suspicious and don’t have anyone to vouch for us.”

So it’s not a crime if nobody finds out? I guess that makes sense, since we don’t know anyone who would ask the authorities to look for us if we disappeared.

“I wouldn’t mind playing around with gimmicky skills or classes in games, but it’s a different story in real life...”

“In a way, our classmates are actual human land mines that can explode at any moment, right?” said Touya. “We don’t know what skills they have, so we don’t know if they’re dangerous to us or not, and we might unwittingly suffer if we’re near them when they self-destruct.”

“That’s a good way to put it, although it’s not nice to say, Touya,” I said.

“You agree with me, though, right? The Heroic Aptitude skill is like the very definition of a danger sign over a buried mine.”

“Yeah, I’m not willing to put my life on the line for classmates we don’t know well just because we happen to be from the same home world,” said Haruka. “Let’s just pray they can find their own happiness somewhere far away from us.”

Haruka’s words were quite harsh, but I agreed with her. Touya and I both nodded in approval. We weren’t selfless enough to help others for no reason.

“How long do you think our classmates will survive, Haruka?”

“I have no idea. I think half of them will still be alive after a month, though it depends on where in this world they got transported to. It’s possible that some of them got transported far away from this town. There are also gimmicky races on top of the gimmicky skills, so the ones who chose both without thinking probably won’t do so well.”

Hmm. I had a decent number of friends among my classmates, but a lot of them were probably going to die. It didn’t feel real to me at all. Maybe I would be shocked and disturbed if they died right in front of me, but otherwise...

“Well, the careful people who got the Help Guide and the honest people who ignored the cheat skills will probably survive, so we’ll get chances to meet up with them eventually,” said Haruka.

“So we’re not gonna go find them and save them?” I asked.

“We can’t afford to try to ‘save’ others right now, remember?”

Yeah, we would also appreciate some help and protection, since we were in a dire situation ourselves. The only proper weapon we had was a wooden “sword”—more accurately, a wooden club. We couldn’t even afford to pay for separate rooms at an inn. I could relax somewhat around my childhood friends, but I would’ve been even more stressed out if I had ended up with other classmates who I wasn’t as close to.

“Oh yeah, are there slaves in this world?” I asked

“I’m not sure how to put it. It seems like slavery is generally prohibited in this country.”

“Generally?”

That made it sound like there was more to it. I frowned at what I heard, but Haruka waved her hands in denial.

“What I mean is that there are no slave traders in this country, since it’s illegal. Well, it’s illegal if they get caught. However, there are some working conditions that basically amount to slavery.”

Back on Earth, there had been many different forms of slavery throughout history. Some conditions weren’t all that different from a normal job, but there were some cases where slaves weren’t treated as human beings at all.

“Mm, if you look at what things were like back in Japan a hundred years ago, there were tenant farmers, and village girls were sold to pimps as well.”

It was sadly true historically that people had been sold into slavery during destitute times to reduce the number of mouths a family needed to feed.

“Oh yeah, that’s true,” said Touya. “European colonies before the World Wars were basically slave plantations, right?”

“It’s easy just to cry for the abolition of all slavery, but you at least have to make sure there’s some sort of social security system in place first, along with concrete safeguards against poverty,” said Haruka.

It was absolutely wrong to capture people and force them into slavery, of course, but there were instances in history in which slavery was basically the social security system for some societies. For a lot of people, the only choices were starving to death, turning to a life of crime, or becoming a slave. That was what it meant to have no social security system.

“What are the chances of us becoming slaves?” I asked.

“We’ll be fine as long as we don’t end up deep in debt or commit any crimes.”

“That’s good to know, since we’re model citizens!” said Touya.

“That doesn’t matter if you get tricked. You two don’t have any idea about common sense in this world, so be very careful. It’s possible you might even commit a crime without knowing. Especially you, Touya!”

“Huh? Come on, I’m the very definition of careful!”

Touya seemed unhappy that Haruka had singled him out, but in this case, he had no right to object. I already felt like I had a little less confidence in him based on his offended reaction. He had already been uncontrollably wild at times back on Earth, and he had only gotten worse since coming to this world. We had passed by beastmen two times while we were walking through town, and both times he had stared at them openly. I saw you do it, Touya. One of them was a guy too, which makes me have a lot less faith in you.

“You might lose yourself and say ‘Animal ears!’ or something like that at any time.”

“Ugh, I can’t deny that...!”

I figured Haruka had the same opinion of Touya that I did. Touya himself also seemed to be somewhat self-aware.

“Reporting, contacting, consulting! Keep those three words in mind! At the very least, remember to report to me first before doing anything!”

Haruka emphasized her words with a serious expression and tone, and we nodded in agreement.

★★★★★★★★★

“Okay, let’s go eat dinner.”

A while after we returned to the inn, we started hearing some lively voices from the corridor, so Haruka suggested our next course of action. Touya and I looked at each other. We both grimaced at the idea. Meals far away from home during a “trip” were usually a very enjoyable event. The innkeeper had told us that we could eat in the dining hall whenever it was open, but...

“Ugh, will we have to eat that brown bread again?” Touya asked.

That was the source of our worries. I was quite hungry by then, so I would be able to put up with food that was moderately bad, but that brown bread had been way beyond bad.

“It’s eighty Rea for two meals, so it’s possible that brown bread’s part of the meal.”

“For real? I’m not really picky when it comes to food, but that brown bread’s a bit too much for me,” I said.

“Well, if we’re lucky, then maybe we’ll get to eat white bread or something similar to mashed potatoes.”

“Something similar to mashed potatoes?”

“That’s a staple food in this world. It probably doesn’t taste that good, though.”

“As long as it’s easy to eat, then I don’t really mind if it doesn’t taste good. But sour bread would be hard to force down my throat,” Touya said.

“Um, Haruka, can you cook our meals instead?” I asked.

Things here were probably different from back on Earth, but surely someone like Haruka who was decently skilled at cooking would be able to come up with a meal that didn’t taste awful. I had high hopes when I brought up the idea, but Haruka responded with a bitter smile and shook her head.

“First, we’ll have to earn enough money to rent a room with a kitchen.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s true,” I said. “It won’t be possible while we’re staying at inns.”

Haruka had the Cooking skill, but that skill couldn’t create food out of thin air.

“Well, at least now we have a good reason for working hard!” said Touya.

“It’s not exactly a strong motive, but yeah, I guess.”

It was more like a desire to avoid bad food rather than a desire to eat delicious meals. Regardless, we needed to eat to be able to work. We walked towards the dining hall on the first floor in low spirits. When we were about to pass the counter, the innkeeper stopped us for a moment.

“Here, take this. There’s an additional fee for extra food or alcohol.”

There were no waitresses at all in the dining hall, so apparently we had to go fetch our meals ourselves. There were three large plates, three soup bowls, and three flasks lined up on the counter. The soup was clear and slightly brown, and there were a few different kinds of vegetables floating in it. The main dish was two pieces of meat that were each about the size of our palms and more than a centimeter thick. They looked very juicy. To the side was something that looked like mashed potatoes on a bed of leafy greens.

“Whoa, it’s not rye bread!”

Woohoo! We didn’t know if it tasted good or not, but Touya and I were excited to be able to try anything other than brown bread.

“Did you want rye bread instead? Then—”

“No, not at all! We’re fine with this! Or rather, we absolutely prefer this!”

We rushed to sit down at a table with our food before anyone could swap it out with brown bread.

“Uh, does this actually taste good?”

Our meat looked just as good as what you would get from a decent steakhouse. The only problem was that we didn’t know what kind of meat it was.

“Damn, this tastes delicious!” Touya had taken a bite of meat while I was still considering the food.

“You already started eating?!”

“Just take a bite! It’s super delicious! I’ve never had meat this good in my whole life!”

Touya was excitedly praising the meat even as he forked it into his mouth. It was bad table manners, but the only utensil available was a fork, so it was better than him using his hands. Haruka and I looked at each other for a moment, and then we both stabbed our meat with our forks and raised it to our mouths. As soon as I started chewing, the juice from the tender meat flooded my mouth. It wasn’t soft to the point that you could easily slice through it, but it also wasn’t hard to the point that it was difficult to chew. It didn’t have the rich fat and flavor of Wagyu beef, but it tasted like a lean tenderloin steak. Eighty Rea for this was super cheap, even if the breakfast included turned out to be crude and nasty. If there had been a place near where I lived back on Earth that had offered meat like this, I would’ve gone there three times a week.

“Hmm, I wonder what kind of meat this is,” said Haruka. “The meat itself is decent, and it seems like it was properly prepared too, since it’s quite soft.”

While Touya was basically shoving the meat into his mouth, Haruka was tasting it calmly and carefully. I followed Haruka’s example and calmed myself down so I would eat more slowly.

“Mm. The seasoning tastes like salt and some herbs. I don’t taste any pepper,” said Haruka. “It’s still quite delicious, though.”

Next, I scooped some of the dish that looked like mashed potatoes into my mouth. It was light and a bit moist as well. On Earth, the closest taste to this would be something like a slightly watery pumpkin. It didn’t really have a potato flavor at all. There wasn’t any foam in it, though, so it was easy to eat and went well with the rich flavor of the meat. The soup wasn’t as good as consommé, but it was way better than the salty water “soup” I had had earlier for lunch, so it was fine as far as I was concerned. Well, actually, now that I’ve got something in my belly, it’s just okay, I think. The mashed potatoes aren’t as good as normal bread, and consommé is better than this soup. The meat’s not bad, but the seasoning’s plain. The sauce also isn’t as good as the steak sauces at diners back in Japan.

I take back what I said earlier about coming back for this food if it was available back on Earth. The food only tasted good because I hadn’t had any expectations at all, so I would only go once a week if it cost less than five hundred yen. It was a filling meal, yes, but that alone wasn’t enough to make me wish for it on a regular basis back on Earth.

“This probably counts as a decent meal in this world, though. I’m a bit angry at the stall owner from earlier for selling us nasty food, but I’m glad he didn’t recommend a different inn to us,” said Haruka.

Actually, it was the guard at the gate who had recommended this place to us. He had ogled Haruka a bit, but I could forgive him now thanks to this meal. This food was decent enough to eat, after all!

“Well, in a way, this meal tasted way better now that we know what counts as a nasty meal.”

“Is that really something to thank that stall owner for, Haruka? Or rather, what does the average meal taste like in this world?” Touya asked.

“The General Knowledge skill didn’t tell me anything about how food tastes, but based on the fact that brown bread is common and salt is the most basic seasoning, the food at that stall probably counts as average.”

“Ugh, really? Maybe I should mainly eat meat from now on. I’m a beastman, so surely I’ll be fine, right?”

Touya had grimaced when he heard what Haruka said and brought up an alternative. He had said that he had never had meat this good before in his life, but this meat wasn’t great or anything. Was it because he had become a beastman, or was it because it tasted way better than the nasty meal we had had earlier for lunch? Hold on, isn’t it the innards of herbivores that help carnivores stay healthy eating nothing but meat? Prepared and cooked meat was a bit different from that.

“If you’re okay with eating raw meat along with the blood, then maybe,” said Haruka. “Are you going to do it?”

“Oh yeah, breast milk doesn’t have any hemoglobin in it. You should be fine as far as nutrition goes as long as you drink blood as well,” I said. “I’ve heard stories of tribes that subsist on cow milk.”

“Uh, that’s not quite what I had in mind...” Touya’s face twitched in discomfort when he heard about raw meat and blood, and he shook his head.

In terms of blood, I was okay with stuff like rare meat, but I wouldn’t ever want to drink blood unless I was in an extremely dire situation with no other choice. It would also be dangerous to eat raw food in this world because of parasites. Raw eggs and sashimi were completely out of the question.

“Oh yeah, speaking of liquids, what do you two think this is?” Touya tried to change the subject and pointed at the drinks that came with the food. The liquid inside the wooden cups looked brownish, and it had a sour smell when I sniffed it.

“This is ale, isn’t it?” said Haruka.

“Oh, the famous drink?” It was a standard beverage in fantasy settings. With most food and drink, Touya would dive in right away, but he seemed to be cautious because of how the brown bread had turned out, and he sniffed the ale first. “This is alcohol, right?”

“Yeah, it counts as alcohol, but it’s probably much less by volume than beer,” said Haruka. “I’m fairly sure one cup won’t be enough to get drunk off of, but let’s make sure of something first. Do either of you have extremely low alcohol tolerance?”

“I have no idea—our bodies are different, right?” I said.

“True, that does change things.”

I was a minor, so I had only had a bit of alcohol on New Year’s, but I had been just fine back then. What about in this body, though?

“Well, let’s be careful and take some sips.”

“Okay.”

Haruka and I both raised our cups and looked at each other, then looked at Touya. Touya didn’t notice us at all; he was taking a slow sip from his cup. Right away, he grimaced a little.

“Uh, I’m not sure how to describe this. It’s like a low-quality drink that tastes somewhat like beer, and—wait, you two haven’t tried it yet?!”

“I see, so it’s not that bad.”

“Thanks, Touya.”

I thanked Touya for testing the drink for us and then took a sip myself. Hmm, yeah, this doesn’t really taste like alcohol. It’s warm, sour, and it doesn’t taste good. I would prefer water over this. Haruka probably felt the same way I did, since she grimaced after taking a sip from her cup.

“Water from a well would be better than paying money for a drink like this,” said Haruka.

“Is it safe to drink water?” I asked.

“It should be safe if it’s from a well. Our new bodies are suited for this world, and all of us have the Robust skill too.”

“Oh yeah, that’s true.” I’m glad I chose to get that skill. It would be very hard to live in a world where I couldn’t even drink water safely.

“I’ll go ask for water.”

“Get some for us as well, Touya,” said Haruka.

Luckily, we didn’t have to pay extra for water. It most likely wasn’t as readily available as it was back in Japan, but maybe it was relatively easy to obtain water that was safe to drink in this area.

“Man, though, I can’t believe the ale in this world tastes that bad,” said Touya. “That and the brown bread really destroyed my dreams about fantasy worlds.”

It would be an outright punishment to have a drinking party with this ale.

“Wait, what about wine?” I asked. “Surely wine in fantasy worlds can’t go—”

“I wouldn’t expect much from that either. I’m fairly sure the wine back on Earth tastes better. Besides, do you two actually like the taste of wine?”

Haruka had once again crushed our dreams. I mean, yeah, I didn’t really like the expensive wine that I got a chance to try out before, but still. Touya seemed like he felt the same way, since he was at a loss for words for a bit.

“Nah, the wine I had before just tasted rough to me,” Touya said after a moment.

“Then don’t force yourself to drink alcohol. Besides, do you think it’s actually safe to get drunk in this world?” Haruka asked.

“That’s a good point,” I said.

It wasn’t that dangerous to get drunk and sleep beside the road back in Japan, but it was different here.

“No alcohol until we get used to this world and can ensure our own safety, okay?” said Haruka.

“Okay,” we replied.

That was the end of that.