Volume 1 - CH 1

Survival

– Surviving under harsh environment and condition.

Otome game (date-sim)

– Romantic simulation game

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「FOOUND YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-」

「Tsu!?」

My encounter with that woman happened in a back alley of the small rural town where I was living.

That woman was wearing a pink dress that was usually worn by young woman that came from the city. The dress was strangely worn out. Coupled with her slightly dirty and messy hair, it made her looked like an old woman.

Her hollow cheeks and bloodshot eyes made her looked terrifying like a ghost. While I was frozen in fear, that person threw away the baggage she was carrying on her back and assaulted me.

「N-noooo!」

「You brat-, don’t resist-! ……Fufu, so this is it.」

「Nooo, give it back-!」

「Shut up-!」

She took away the talisman pouch hanging on my chest violently as though to tear my chest. Then the woman took out something from the pouch even though I was told that the pouch must never be opened no matter what. After that the woman laughed out shrilly.

「Aha……ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah! As I thought-! There is no mistake-! This is the world of 『※※※※』! Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah!」

That laughing voice was filled with madness. I was so terrified that I couldn’t even move.

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I was living with Otou-san and Okaa-san until I was four years old. I was happy at that time…….

In the morning I would wake up from the scent of soup that Okaa-san made. When I went to wake up my sleepyhead Otou-san, he would hug me and rubbed his still unshaven beard on my cheek. When I complained, Otou-san would lift me up high to put me in a good mood. I would easily get a better mood with that and laughed before Okaa-san scolded us with a face that didn’t look scary at the slightest.

But, such happy days would never return anymore…….

In that day three years ago, a lot of monsters attacked the town where we were living in. It was a great outbreak of monsters that occurred every several dozens of years. Otou-san who was a soldier of the city said that he would protect. He fought bravely and never came back. Even so the monster couldn’t be repelled and they entered the town. Okaa-san also died in order to protect me from them.

I didn’t know how did the battle with the monsters ended up. A surviving soldier picked me up who was crying in the middle of rubbles where corpses of monsters and humans were scattered. After that I was put into this orphanage that was located in this distant town.

Otou-san’s big back. Okaa-san’s gentle smile……. After losing all of them, what was left to me was only the 『talisman pouch』 that Okaa-san gave me. Without understanding what would happen to me from there on, I was exposed to the harshness of the world without even any time to grieve for losing my parents.

The orphanage was an old church. There were around ten new orphans who were put into there. All of us were crammed together into a small room that looked like a barn. We were only given thin ragged cloth as substitute for bedding and thin soup with only salt and vegetable scraps for food, but even those things were taken away by the older orphans.

The old hag who was managing the orphanage only gave us hard black bread and salt soup to us every day without doing anything else. She made the orphans did everything else for managing the orphanage. Drawing water, washing, cleaning, taking care of the garden, gathering firewood, moving baggage, and even other works that were unrelated with the orphanage were undertaken by the old hag and she pushed them all on us. We had to do all of them since even before the sun rose and we still wouldn’t finish when night came. The older orphans who learned to slack off forced all the works on the younger children. A boy who got his food stolen once nibbled a potato in the food storage, but then the old hag beat up that boy with a rolling pin until he puked blood. The next day his body was turning cold on his bed.

I’ll be killed……such thought had crossed my mind for more than once or twice. But even the adult of the towns couldn’t be relied on. There was nobody who would try to get involved with the dirty and thin orphans. There was also nobody who wanted to adopt such orphans. Furthermore that old hag, she would hand off orphans with nice appearance to the nicely dressed adult who sometime shoed up and received a lot of money in return.

I didn’t want to stay in this kind of place. But I listened to the words that Otou-san and Okaa-san said to me and endured.

『There isn’t anyone who is bad from the bottom of their heart. That’s why become someone who can smile and forgive others.』

The violent old hag was just irritable. The older orphans who stole from the younger children were surely acting like that only because of the bad environment. That was why I’d become someone who could smile and forgive them. ……Thinking like that, I endured for three years without never stopped smiling while doing my best so that at least my talisman pouch wouldn’t get taken away.

But……was what I did a mistake? The old hag said that there would be an important guest tomorrow and told me to wash my body at the well.

I despaired. I hated the way those adults looked at me. And then I became unable to endure the life in there anymore with how revolting it was……that day, I ran away from the orphanage.

It was fine and all that I ran away, but in the end someone like me who didn’t have anything got hungry and could only sit down hugging my knees in a back alley from how disheartening my situation was. It was then, that woman suddenly appeared before me.

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「Fufufu, you don’t need to feel scared, 『Alicia』……」

「Tsu!?」

That woman suddenly said my name. I jerked and trembled. How did she know my name?

「I have been watching you all this time since the day before yesterday you know? I only know your name and age……and also your hair and eye color, so it was really troublesome searching for you……」

That woman was looking down on me with a twisted smile while caressing the hair and eyes of the scared me with her finger.

「You are really dirty. But it’s fine, I’ll make you clean right away. Besides, you are so thin like this……『Grandfather』 will be shocked when he come to pick you up. You need to eat properly……」

「……Grand…father?」

When I muttered that word, the woman’s bloodshot eyes moved glaringly.

「That’s right, you……no, 『my』 grandfather. ……Hey, are you listening? When I regained the memory of my previous life and realized that this is the world of 『※※※※』, I was trembling in joy……and despaired. Because the 『main character(heroine)』 will only enroll into the academy that is the main stage of the scenario dozens of years later. At that time I will be an old lady already. I won’t be able to get involved with the story no matter what. That was why I thought that if I can at least become a teacher there. For that I became an adventurer, learned magic, and also studied a lot. But it was no good. Only noble can become student or teacher in the academy……that’s why, you see……」

「Hih」

The woman clutched my neck and took out a knife and pitch black 『stone』 from her waist.

「I decided, that I’ll become the 『main character(you)』……」

The woman’s smile was distorted abnormally.

「Hey, do you know about 『magic stone』? A living creature that absorb magic element more than a certain amount will have a stone called magic stone created in their heart through the intermediary of the blood in their body. The magic stone then will produce magic power inside the body. Not only the magic stone will store high purity magic power in it, the element and even the nature of the living creature that act as the base of it will also remain in it even though only slightly. Fufu……I was excited when I found this method in an old literature. Because if I can use this method, I can imprint “memory” and “personality” into a magic stone and transfer them into other person!」

Magic stone? Magic power? The woman was using difficult words and continued speaking as though she was drunk.

「The magician who researched it stop his effort at the animal experiment stage, but I’ll surely be able to complete it if it’s me-! It’s no good if you use other people’s magic stone! I have extracted my own blood so many times and pour my magic power into them, then I gathered the solidified composition from them with great perseverance for five years before I finally completed my magic stone-! It was so hard……so painful……but」

The talkative woman smirked smugly while showing off that pitch black stone.

「If I implanted this magic stone into your heart, I’ll be able to discard this old body and become 『the main character(you)』!」

「……hih」

Mad. She was insane. Even if she succeeded in doing that, the result would only be a different person that simply inherited her memory and personality wouldn’t it? This woman didn’t even realize such thing that even a child like me realized. The woman brandished up the knife.

「Don’t struggle okay. It’ll be over quickly.」

「……N-nooooo-!」

I reflexively swung my hand in fear. It touched the knife and my palm was slightly cut. When my hand that was soaked in blood touched the magic stone that the woman was pinching with her fingers, strange thing flowed into my head.

「Ah!」

The magic stone got slapped away by my hand. The woman’s focus got diverted toward the tumbling magic stone.

A strange sensation that felt like cold and also hot was flowing in from my wounded hand. I felt something as disgusting as that woman from what was invading inside me. I forgot everything else and gave my all to reject it. Because of that only everything else other than the disgusting part was settling inside me. My emotion that was only feeling fear for this three years coldly submerged to the bottom of my heart.

Suu……I narrowed my eyes and realized a part of myself that ws calmly thinking 『I have to counterattack with this opening』. I moved only my gaze while my body was still being held down by the woman to search my surrounding. I found a rock of an appropriate size and grabbed it. Then I smashed it at the woman’s forehead as strongly as I could.

*Thump!!*

「GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!?」

The woman tumbled to the side while holding her head. The knife in her hand fell on the ground. I picked up that knife and held it with my right hand while my left hand propped its pommel. Then I leaped at the woman as though to tackle her.

「Gah, hah…..w-why, you……」

The knife that was thrust horizontally slipped between her ribs and gouged her heart. The woman’s eyes were in disbelief over what they were seeing. The cold and emotionless face of “me” was reflected there.

The woman’s hand reached out toward me even though her heart was being gouged. I put even more strength into the knife and gouged without even being perturbed by that. A lot of blood overflowed from there and the light of life was vanishing from the woman’s eyes.

「……………」

My hands were slightly shaking. My fingers froze while still clutching the blood soaked knife. I peeled them off from the knife bit by bit using my similarly shaking fingers.

Now, I understood. What flowed into my head was the fragmentary “knowledge” of the woman.

I didn’t understand what was this woman thinking that she did something like this. Even so from the knowledge, I at least understood that had spent effort in blood and sweat for dozens of years just for the sake of this so called 『otome game』.

The world of sword and magic, Ciel. In it there was Thurs Continent and the biggest major nation in it was Claydale.

Geography and history. Magic knowledge. Fighting skill. The common sense of this world……there were also a lot of things that were too technical and I couldn’t comprehend but, I was able to obtain the minimum amount of “knowledge” required to live in this world.

I took back the talisman pouch that was taken from me and the ring inside it from the woman’s cooling corpse. Then I carefully struck the disgusting 『magic stone』 that fell beside the woman over and over while taking care to not touch it at all. I threw away the remains that I couldn’t completely crush into the gutter.

After that I rummaged the woman’s pockets and stole her knife’s sheath and wallet. Then I lifted up the bag that the woman threw away.

I had no business anymore with this kind of place. But……there was just one thing remaining that was left undone.

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While carrying the bag on my back, I returned to the orphanage that I escaped from with a different way of walking from before that wasn’t making any sound. I didn’t enter inside and observed the situation of the orphanage while taking care to not be found. Then inside, the old hag who finally realized that I was gone was yelling and ranting to the other orphans.

I quietly entered the orphanage’s ground, hid myself in the garden’s darkness, and held my breath like an animal in hiding.

「…………」

Sleepiness abruptly assaulted me because I had no stamina, but I held it back by nibbling on the hard black bread inside that woman’s luggage. Although I was feeling drowsy, I waited until there was no more sound coming from the orphanage. The light was turned off from the detached building where the old hag’s room was located. After one more hour passed, I quietly started moving inside the darkness.

My eyes had gotten used to the darkness. Even the faint light of the stars was enough to show me the old hag’s location.

There was no room that had lock in this old church that was serving as an orphanage. I slowly pushed open the door and sneaked into the detached building where smell of alcohol wafted from. The old hag was snoring. I patiently waited until she turned over in her sleep and the moment her back was turned toward me, I lightly pushed a towel that was nearby on her neck, and from above I used my whole body’s weight to stab into the old hag’s brain.

「──」

A small groan slipped out from the old hag. Her body jerked. I pushed the towel so that no blood spurted out while slowly pulling out the knife so that the blood was wiped on it. I slowly breathed out the breath that I was holding. I unraveled my stiffened fingertips and returned the knife into its sheath, then I tucked it on my waistband.

With this I had no more grief here. In that woman’s “knowledge”, the director of this orphanage where I lived would be replaced by a kind old priest. Perhaps with this, that priest would replace this old hag as the person in charge of this place quicker. With that the number of orphans who got abused or sold would surely decrease.

But──

「……What nonsense……」

Whether it was this old orphanage, or the shrewd orphans, or this greedy old hag, or the citizens who averted their gaze even knowing about the abuse that happened here, or the feeling that woman harbored, or even that so called 『otome game』, all of them were nonsense.

Don’t tell me, that I was born just for the sake of such nonsense?

Did Otou-san and Okaa-san died just for the sake of such nonsense-!!

I rummaged through the old hag’s room and the storage room beside it. I quickly put on leather sandals and changed my ragged cloth that was dirtied by blood spurt with a slightly better cloth.

After that I spread out a sheet, stuffed some clean clothes, the coins that the old hag hid, the good quality foods and water flask the old had kept for herself, and other things into it, then I sneaked away from this worthless town like a thief.

I rejected that 『otome game』.

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「I’ll survive by myself.」