Shion-san and I decided to leave the town and head for a ruin in the forest beyond the hill I had first arrived on.
Oh my god!
I'm so excited!
"Onee-chan, is there a demon king in the ruin? If I defeat him, I'll be a hero! What should I do!?"
"Seeing how you can't chop wood, why don't you worry about that later?"
So what!
I don't plan to rely on the strength in my arms!
"We're about to leave the town, so let's form a party now."
"Hm? Party?"
Doesn't forming a party mean heading out together, like we are now?
Shion-san laughed at my usual clueless face.
"There is an Invite entry in the Status, right? You can invite people into your party with that, forming a group of up to six."
"Hee~~"
However, being able to see your Status and requesting to join parties, it's like I'm in a game. But it is another world after all, right?
Hm?
Or is this a game? A dream?
Uhhhhm.
... I guess I should make sure.
That being said, but how do I actually go about that?
For now I can say I get hungry and sleepy.
The five senses are perfectly recreated, too.
Compared to before I was reborn, nothing feels off about my body, either.
…
Well, of course there is a difference.
An extraordinary difference, the one between being a man and a woman.
Probably never before in my life have I been embarrassed to go to the toilet.
And while the standard of living might be higher in modern Japan, it's not that bad here.
I can see that an original culture has developed here.
It's probably too creative to come up in a dream of mine.
Actually, I'm on the verge of admitting I was reborn into another world.
Just.
If I am to fight with monsters, there is one thing I have to make sure of.
That is————damage.
If there are the Status and parties, will the attacks I take from monsters be converted into damage?
In other words, is there pain?
Or is there not?
Will simply a value such as HP go down?
Was there such a value in the Status?
And this is important
Ignoring games for now, can I fight in this reality where my life depends on it? I'm not used to pain.
"... this is the one thing I didn't want to do."
But I still have to do it, before leaving the town.
I looked around and found what I was looking for.
And then I picked that up ———— a pebbly lying at a street corner.
A round pebbly of good size, fitting onto the palm of my hand.
...here I go!
"Come... on!! ~~~~!"
I smashed the pebble against my head with all my strength.
"Haaa!?"
Shion-san was shocked by my cryptic action.
Seeing stars is probably a good expression for me right now.
Fuhh...
"OOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! OUCHOUCHOUCH!"
I was rolling over the floor in pain.
This hurts, this freaking hurts!
A dream!?
A game!?
HAHAHAHA!
Fine, I'll admit it.
It doesn't matter anymore what this is.
No matter what, this can only be reality.
I mean it hurts!
It hurts so much I'm crying!!!
"Wai, Alice!? Are you alright!?"
Well... certainly it hurts to smash a pebble against your head.
That goes without saying.
But does it hurt this much?
Is that it?
Does it want to say I'm paper?
Does it want to say I'm freaking tofu with Protection 0?
But I'm a maiden, not tofu...
Anyway, the pain finally subsided and I got up straight.
Verification over.
"... with that out of the way, let's go, Onee-chan."
"Eh? Ah, okay... wait, Alice... is everything alright with your head?"
What exactly do you mean with that, Onee-chan?
...I may have lost more than I thought.
For a while Shion-san gave me lukewarm looks, but that was alright.
After an invitation from Shion-san, the two of us formed a pair party.
Pair hunting!
So nice!
"At first we're going to fight near the town, and once you're used to it, we'll head to the ruins. But since it's meaningless for me to do too much, the fighting will be done mainly by you."
"You're not going to abandon me, are you?"
"You'll be fine, you'll be fine."
Really?
Shion-san, do you properly realize I'm weaker than a puppy?
It's inattentiveness like "That little poses no problem" that leads to great accidents!
"And Alice, don't form parties with just anyone, you hear me? If it's not with people you can trust, or where you won't regret it even if they betray you, it's dangerous."
"Is that so?"
"Fundamentally, money and experience are shared equally between party members, but that doesn't work with drop items. Especially when you find a rare item, it's easy to be stabbed in the back."
"Scary!"
Other worlds are scary!
Is this one of those cases?
Where you're not protected by the law?
Self-responsibility?
"That's why I show my Status to people I decide to party with, without hiding anything. As a sign of trust."