Subaru marveled at his surroundings, his mind running a mile a minute. Ethereal green trees and exotic sounds that only magical fauna could echo throughout this clearly magical forest entered his eardrums.
To think he'd get isekai'd, just like that! Was he summoned here, or did he reincarnate after dying to something? Probably the former. He barely paid attention in class these days, but he was pretty sure no one just up and dies just like that, unless you were already either middle-aged or an elder. It would definitely suck if you were any younger than that and still died of a heart attack...
He felt a weight in his right hand. The bag his mom gave him.
Setting it on the ground and unzipping it, he kneeled over and examined the contents once more.
A couple fruits, a bag of chips, a bottle of water, a notebook with a pen stuffed in the coils, two freshly sharpened pencils, and a small plastic sharpener with a childlike design on it.
He zipped it back up and slung it over his shoulder. Not the best starting gear, but it was a final parting gift from his parents! The value of such a priceless treasure would not be underestimated by the likes of Natsuki Subaru!
Now that his bearings returned to him, he looked to the dirt path he stood on that he assumed lead toward his first encounter of this new world. Ah, this was probably the tutorial level! His limited experience with the videogames Dad bought for him would not go to waste!
Subaru's anime-addled brain conjured fantasy after fantasy as he took his first steps, their echoes seemingly reverberating throughout.
This was it, wasn't it? His isekai power fantasies had finally been answered!
Another step, and then another, and soon he was running as fast as his little legs could muster, excitement overtaking him. His exuberance echoed through the forest, startling the creatures that dwelled there. Birds fluttered away, and small animals scampered for cover from the disturbance. He ran and ran, wind howling in his ears as he made his way down the dirt road.
The wind pushed against his face, and the wind howled into his eardrums as he ran forth. The starter mobs should pop out any second now...!
He ran and ran, his anticipation and excitement welling forth as his bag bobbed and danced behind his shoulder. To think he'd get summoned at such a young age, too...!
Subaru's mad dash soon slowed to a halt, however, the sounds of the wind and his bag smacking against his back s quickly being replaced by ragged gasps. He bent over, resting his hands on his knees as he heavily coughed and hacked.
"Okay... so I'm not..." he panted, " super OP just yet..." he panted again," but that's fine... I just gotta... level up first..." He took a deep breath, "...What kind of bozo... fails the tutorial... level, anyway?" He struggled to voice his thoughts as he recuperated, trying to gauge whatever powers he may have gained. He wasn't having any luck so far.
He remained hunched over for some time, though he lifted his head up so as to get a better view of his surroundings. He didn't want to get ambushed by a slime or goblin or anything, after all. To think he'd run out of stamina already! A rookie mistake he'd be sure to learn from.
He thought this, but still felt it a good idea to sit down for a breather. With two soft thuds, one from the bag and one from his butt, he began to rest. He wiped his forehead with a sleeve of his tracksuit, and with another thud, he lay down completely, sprawling his limbs out and staring blankly up at the canopy. It would be a good idea to get his hands on some MP restoring potions.
As his breathing began to slow and his heartbeat no longer dampened his hearing, though it still thrummed in his ears, he began to notice some of the finer details of the forest. With the ruckus gone, various types of birds began tweeting again, and the buzzing of some sort of insects he was unable to identify reclaimed his hearing. It all blended together to create a calming white noise.
A subtle breeze cooled him off, brushing against his face and ruffling his hair a bit. He saw as the canopy shifted under the wind, and he squinted under the light of the sun, its rays temporarily unobstructed by the forest's leaves, at least until the shifting of the leaves above settled down. All in all, it was quite...
"Pretty..." He whispered out. It was pretty, it really was, but as he took note of what should have been a magical isekai realm, the calm got him thinking. He sat up with a light grunt and rested an arm on one of his knees. He looked around.
Bushes, trees, dirt path, more bushes, more leaves...
And nothing particularly magical of note.
It was pretty cool with all the trees and wilderness and all that, but nothing really seemed particularly otherworldly.
His exhaustion gone, he stood up, and slung the bag back over his shoulder. He stretched his back and looked around again.
This wasn't really following many of the tropes so far. No cute girls all over him, no summoning circles around him, no pleas for the great hero to slay the demon king. He didn't even get hit by truck-kun or find a secret passage or anything! He just appeared there, just like that. He just got a little sick on his way to school, and then boom. Forest.
"I mean, still pretty cool I guess, but not what I really had in mind..." He muttered to himself. If he found his way to a nearby village, he could probably sign up for an adventurer's guild or something, hell if he knew. It was a start, at least.
A distant rustling, this one not from above, caught his attention, however. Completely forgetting his previous thoughts, his heartrate began to climb back up to its earlier fury.
Was this it? His first enemy? Or maybe the cute girl that summoned him here? He looked toward the sound expectantly, senses unusually heightened. Probably his super-awesome magical powers finally awakening, he reasoned.
Gently setting down the bag (he didn't want to bruise the apples), he placed his arms out and spread his legs in a sort of pseudo-stance, kind of like the ones he'd seen in some fantasy anime whenever a mage or whatever would cast a spell.
"Alright, tutorial enemy!", he mustered up the will to speak, "M-magic powers, go!" He flexed his arms, and to his half-expectance, nothing really happened. He immediately lost his stance, standing up normally.
He stared at his palm for a second as if he'd cheated on a test by writing in his hand, before letting it fall limply to his side.
"Uh, magic powers go?" He half-heartedly jutted his hands out a couple more times, and for a second, he was glad no one was there to watch his antics as his cheeks warmed.
The rustling became louder, and before he could try to call upon his totally cool abilities again, not that it would do anything, a figure leapt through the bushes, breezing past him, and making his butt hit the floor.
He only saw it for a split second, but the expression on her face irked him a little bit. Plastered on was mix between a snarl and something out of desperation he couldn't quite name. Blood and dirt adorned her clothes and visage. Red leaked from her bruised lip, dripping from her otherwise pale and probably pretty face. Her noticeably blue hair was in a tattered mess, and a few stray strands were caught in her mouth.
They made eye-contact for an even splitter second - did that even make sense? - and his adrenaline jumped. Her eyes, an unnatural hue of green, were frantic and shrunk. They were almost scared, as if she was begging him to get the hell out of there, for whatever reason.
So, get the hell out of there he did, and with a renewed vigor he hadn't mustered up since he first arrived. Before he realized it, he was running as fast as his body could take him for the second time that day.
"H-hey! Wait up!" He called out to the retreating probably magical mystery lady, who only grew smaller as she gained distance.
"Dammit!" The child cursed, stealing a glance behind him in case any figures were chasing them.
There wasn't any, from what he could see, but as he looked back to the flower-haired mystery lady, he realized she was carrying two other people on her shoulders, not... whatever he thought she was carrying. Burlap sacks or something.
As the grew ever smaller, he took in their details. Like the one carrying them, they had white-ish clothes and colorful hair. Unlike the one carrying them, they were completely knocked out, or dead, or barely conscious—he couldn't tell.
"He- Hey! What's going on?!" He shouted as he chased the otherworldly woman, "I don't really get what's happening, but I can help! ...I think..." He kept that last bit to himself.
Not that it mattered. His fatigue from his earlier sprint began to catch up to him faster than he would have liked, and soon she was out of view completely.
Well, he was definitely in a fantasy world, if that lady with anime hair was anything to go by.
"...Holy shit," the child cursed, before exhaustion took the better of him and he fell face-first onto the dirt road.
...
The sun was long gone as the elf slowly rotated some freshly caught... she really didn't know what she was eating, but it was definitely a bird... over the campfire she set up not even an hour ago. Crickets were chirping their nightly tune, and the crackles of the fire made for an almost homey comforting white noise. The scent of the game being cooked soon caught up to her nose, and she felt her mouth water. It wasn't properly cooked yet, though, so she'd have to hold out a little longer, even if she was hungry.
Serena tucked in her legs under her arms as she cooked the freshly prepared game. She gazed into the flames, leaning her cheek into her knee. Her front was warm as the glow danced in front of her, but a small chill ran throughout her back.
She was not having a good day. To think a lowly thief of all things managed to get the jump on her and her comrades vexed her to no end. Seriously, how did a simple patrol routine amount to this...? She guessed she kind of had it coming, considering how cocky she got from a three-on-one battle, but it still pissed her off. She'd be sure not to underestimate her opponents after that exchange.
Serena, after a lot of mana-enhanced running, managed to make it to base camp and set both of her subordinates down as gently as she could and got to work on their wounds. Both had pretty bad gashes on the sides of their faces, but a little healing and they'd be good to go. It almost irked her that they were so easy to heal. They were both concussed of course, and that was an issue in its own right, but the wounds themselves were something even a beginner could tend to. Hell, even without any magic, they'd be good to go with some good bandage work and rest!
That guy was probably going easy on the three of them, when she seriously thought about it.
She looked to the inside of the tent the rest of her party recuperated in. Had that man been out to kill them...
AGH! FUCK! Whatever! No point dwelling on it now, after all! The past is the past!
She waved the stick around angrily with one hand as she fumed, ruffling her flowery-peach hair with the other. The meat nearly flew off the stick, and she had to push it back by bouncing it in her hand a few times.
Besides, she thought, she managed to snag quite the unexpected treasure, after all!
The elf turned to the sleeping form of a small young boy, kept warm by the crackle of the fire she just got through setting up. She slapped together a makeshift bed for him, but in all honesty, she probably should have just put the boy in one of the tents. It would be cramped, but it'd probably be better than what she decided to go with. Not that it really mattered, though. She'd keep a close eye on him either way.
The boy was clearly exhausted, perhaps some runaway noble human child that managed their way to Elior, somehow. Their black hair made her question her assumption, however. She didn't know black hair was possible before she picked that kid up. Or maybe it was perhaps a noble thing, and she was just out of the loop...? Hell if she knew.
She turned back to the duck-chicken thing she slowly rotated over the orange flames. She'd make more for the others later, but man was she beat! She did have a bocco on her at one point, but she must have dropped it during the scuffle from earlier, so she'd have no choice but to make do with some good-old-fashioned roasted...
What the hell even is this thing?
"The stars are the same..." She was pulled from her thoughts when the raspy voice of a child entered her ears.
Serena looked over to the still resting form of the boy laying on her hastily made makeshift bed, the only difference being his eyes were open.
"...Stars?" She questioned as she took a bite out of her roasted whatever. She looked up to the night sky the child seemed so enraptured by. The little lights twinkling up above were quite pretty, she had to admit.
It was almost like looking at a whole crap-ton of minor spirits anchoring themselves way up high to show off their nightly lights. She leaned her head over to the kid, silently beckoning him to continue.
The boy tilted his head over to her, the leaves under him rustling a bit. Now that she had a good look at him, the child had some pretty scary eyes on him... was a really a noble? Scratch that, was he even human?
"...It's nothing," the boy shifted his head to his previous position, back up to staring at the night sky. Serena didn't pry.
The elf swallowed the roasted duck-chicken-bird-thing she was chewing on, weighing her options.
"Thanks for saving me, flower lady..." The kid piped up, still looking up to the night sky.
Serena felt a little warmer from the small praise she received.
"Oye now, it's not like I did this for you! You're interesting, and I wanna see where this goes."
The boy mumbled something about a "tzoonderay" or whatever, but she didn't comment on it. She didn't know why, but whatever nonsense he just spouted kind of pissed her off.
She let out a small sigh, wrapping her lips around the last bits of the mystery bird, savoring the last of its juicy taste. Whatever it was, it was damn good. She'd be sure to hunt more of it later. Actually, with the famine and all, it'd be great for the villagers over at Arlam.
The fire continued to dance and crackle in front of her, warming the nearby area.
Flower lady, huh?
She didn't particularly mind that little nickname. She did felt a wee bit guilty, considering she was just a few seconds ago weighing whether or not to hold the boy ransom, but she'd bet she could still do that as long as she let the kid know he wasn't in any real danger. If he wasn't a noble, then she'd just find some other, perhaps less risky way to fix all the bullshit plaguing the villages.
Besides, she really wasn't lying, either. It would be pretty damn interesting to see whatever happened to the kid, after all.
Serena licked the stick clean, and began picking her teeth with it.
Given that kid was the only other person awake aside from her, she decided it a good idea to strike up a conversation. He seemed educated enough, so he'd probably know what she was talking about.
Besides, she really needed someone to vent her frustrations to. Even if that someone so happened to be a kid she found lying face-to-dirt in the middle of Elior.
Tossing the saliva-covered skewer into the fire, she decided to recount the events that plagued her not to log ago.
"Hey, kid, wanna hear a story? Children like bedtime stories, so be grateful, you little brat."
The boy sat up in a cross-legged position, nodding.
"Flugel," he abruptly said, staring at her with those creepy eyes of his. He had an innocent smile on his face.
"...Huh?" She blinked in confusion.
"Flugel. That's my name," the child repeated, nodding with a hand on his chin. He leaned a little closer to her, the bed of leaves and twigs rustling under the shift in weight. He put his head in both his hands as he hummed.
"So you're the main heroine, huh?" His smile grew as he stared. Looks like Serena would have more expectations to live up to than usual from here on out...
She gave a small chuckle at his surprisingly onchalant attitude. She'd assume he'd be more of a brat and a pain to deal with, but she could definitely get behind this kid.
Flugel, was it? Weird name, weirder kid, but she'd be sure to remember that.
"Alright then, Flugel," she leaned into a more relaxed position as she looked at him curiously. The campfire's light reflected off of his scary eyes as he bore into her.
"How about a little story?"
...
...
Daphne awoke with a gnawing ache in her abdomen, something she was long accustomed to. A gentle, lukewarm breeze rustled through the half-open door, carrying along with it the stench of a new day. She didn't know if it was her starvation or the breeze that awoke her, but she didn't really care.
It had been a number of days since Peneus left the house, running off to who knew where. The carriages containing the foodstuffs departed some time ago, so unless he got into some unnecessary scuffle—which he probably did—he should have arrived several days ago.
Creusa had grown weaker over time, surviving solely on the ground water that Daphne periodically fetched from the pump outside. The child took it upon herself to bite off bits and pieces of the wooden furniture in an attempt to squeeze out what little sustenance the non-edibles contained. The grass on the now ceased lawn was consumed long ago, and the rest of the land lost its fertility completely within the first years of the famine.
A soft light seeped through her eyelids, inciting her to shift in Mama's grasp, soft groans escaping her. When she settled down, she heard the faint sound of footsteps. She strained her ears, listening to the uneven and clumsy gait of a worn soldier, the volume steadily increasing ever so slowly. She perked up at the familiar rhythm.
The footsteps halted, and the shoddy door creaked open. Behind it revealed a man in his early thirties, but he looked older. An eyepatch covered where his left eye used to be, and his right eye shone with a bright, gold-yellow sheen. Messy, brown bangs partially concealed his face, and a scruffy ponytail trailed down his back. He wore rags that resembled those of the working class, with two rugged, battle-worn shoulder guards distinguishing him. Underneath was a chainmail shirt of his own making, though there was a gash in its side, the one where he was snagged.
Strapped to his waist was a whip, coiled loosely. Fresh blood seeped from the satchel it resided in. Clutched in one of his arms was a shabby, hole-riddled basket containing a single tatoe, a dirt-caked bread loaf, and a small bocco fruit—spoils of war. In the other was his injured side, staining his already dirty clothes further. A bright grin flashed his features in spite of it all, probably thanks to the extra-elusive bocco fruit nestled comfortably in the basket.
"Papa's here! Mama, Mama, wake up!" she whisper-yelled, shaking her lightly. Creusa, after a short delay, fluttered open her tired eyes open in response, groaning all the while. She closed them again soon after, however.
"There's my little girl!" Peneus remarked despite his life-threatening wounds. Blood seeped through his fingers and was starting to pool on the floor. If he were to loosen his grip, entrails would have surely added to the puddle. Daphne had to swallow the accumulating saliva in her mouth at the thought.
"Oh... there you are... you deadbeat..." Creusa could barely talk, but she managed out an insult anyway, giving her husband a half-lidded stare—not that she'd have been able to open them any further anyway. Her demeanor changed when she caught sight of her husband's state, however.
"Peneus... what happened to you?" She coughed out weakly. Had she been at her full strength, she'd have run up to him, and had he not been injured, smacked him upside the head. The injury would be the reason for it in the first place, though, so it didn't really matter.
"Long story," he recalled the altercation from earlier, "A bunch of magic users tried gangin' up on me, for whatever reason. I managed to get em' good, though! Conked two of em' in the head, and the last turned tail and ran. They were a pesky bunch, that's for sure..."
"How... how'd you manage to piss off... a gang of magic users?"
"Like I said, long stor-" Peneus gasped at the sudden sharp pain in his side, nearly doubling over.
"Papa, you're leaking red juice again..." Daphne loosened her grip on Mama to get a better look at his state. Peneus hobbled over to the nearby table his wife and daughter were sitting at, wincing as he set the basket down. There was blood mixed in with the dirt and edibles. He picked the bocco fruit out of the basket, and after rubbing it on his shirt, handed it over to Creusa.
"Heheh, I managed to snag this here beaut' from one of those mages! Probably fell outa her pocket while she was high-tailing it, " Peneus gave a small victory snigger when Creusa took it and gently pushed it into her mouth.
Daphne unlatched herself from Mama when she witnessed this, her bare feet hitting the ground with a soft thud. She walked over to Papa, and promptly snatched one of his hands, the one that wasn't grasping his side.
"H-hey! You're pulling on my wounds!" Peneus squawked, only to be met with silence as he was tugged over to the bed in the corner and made to lay down, protesting all the while.
Once the man settled down, Daphne padded across the worn floor, scanning the contents of the near-barren shelf in the opposite corner. It didn't change at all from the other times she looked at it, but she still vainly hoped something would pop up on it. Not that it mattered, since Papa brought back some yummy food.
"Your strength damages my manliness, Daphne," Peneus lightly quipped from behind her, wincing as he settled down on the creaky mattress. The child giggled at his remark.
Her eyes landed on the roll of gauze that lay on the lowest shelf, small and frayed from overuse, though she didn't really remember if it was from patching up Papa or from her slurping it up like a noodle—not that she'd ever had actual noodles, of course. When her little hand grasped the roll and took it, leaving a little clean spot on the otherwise unkempt and dusty shelf. Seeing this, she blew it around, but she ended up inhaling some of it and let out a tiny sneeze.
After wiping her nose with her tattered pajama sleeve, she ran back over to her father who lay down on the bed. She noticed the red liquid seeping out between his fingers as he clutched his side.
"Papa, you're getting all over the bed..." Daphne noted as the mattress began to dye the color of Peneus' insides. She unwrapped what was left of the gauze and got to work on his wounds, ripping his top, including the chainmail, off.
"Oye! That was limited edition! I made that with my blood, sweat and tears, y'know?!"
Daphne ignored him, instead turning to the silver-haired young lady in the rocking chair, who at first glance resembled an elder.
"Mama, mama, Papa's losing juice again..."
"O-oh, Creusa," Peneus brought his attention to her, rubbing the back of his head with his clean arm, "Sorry again 'bout bein' a dumbass... I'll be more careful next ti- ow Ow OW OW! Not so hard! AGH!" The scruffy man was cut off as Daphne haphazardly wrapped the gauze around his lacerated side, "My daughter's strength wounds my manliness, I swear!" He resisted himself from thrashing about.
"Ow ow ow! Daphne, be careful! I think you're enjoying this a bit too much!" Peneus exclaimed, pain present as Daphne pulled at his wounds.
The little munchkin finished up, applying the rest of the bandage and cleaning the blood off her hands, namely by lapping it all up.
Peneus observed his child's concerning behavior with a quirked brow.
"Y'know, Daph, cannibalism is a huge no-no," he voiced his concerns after he pushed himself into a sitting position, "not that anyone around here really gives a damn... Ah, to hell with it! My daughter needs the essence of a strong man who just got back from a battle, after all!"
"Mhmm~" Daphne licked her fingers clean, "Papa juice is the yummiest."
Daphne may have lost her sense of taste the first few years of her life, but that didn't perturb her statement.
"I'm not sure whether to be proud or worried, but hey! Guess I'm the yummiest there is!" He tried to give a lighthearted chuckle, but doubled over in pain as soon as he did. Instead, he resorted to reaching over and ruffling Daphne's hair with his unbloodied hand. It was beginning to grow pale.
Daphne grinned, revealing her perfectly white teeth. Anything that would have stained them was already digested.
"Honestly, you really... really worry me, you know that? What... what happened out there anyway? Where'd... Where'd those mages even... come from, anyway?" Creusa struggled to properly formulate a sentence, but she managed in spite of herself. "Daphne, sweety, can you... bring your idiot father over here...? I need... need to heal his wounds..."
Peneus perked up at this, knowing full well his wife would probably end up collapsing from the mana drain. "H-hey, now, I know I got lucky enough to stumble across that bocco, but you're still really weak at the moment, I don't think that this is a good ide-"
"Shut... shut the hell up... and get over here," Creusa snapped, cutting the gruff man off from his ramblings.
Peneus narrowed his remaining eye, debating whether or not to listen. After a few seconds, he scratched his head in resignation, and forced himself off the bed with a groan, both from the mattress and himself.
"Alright alright, fine, you tsundere," he let out after a short internal debate, lifting his hands up in an act of mock surrender with a huff.
"I still don't know... what that word means... ...and it still pisses me off...!"
Ignoring her, Penus hobbled over to the basket and grabbed the bread loaf. Daphne swiped the remaining tatoe, and immediately scarfed it down, not bothering to clean it. If anything, the gunk made for a heartier meal.
"I'll let you heal me, but only once this here bread's digested, yeah? I'm not having you waste any more of your Od on me again."
"That's rich... coming from you... of all people," Creusa eyed her husband's recently bandaged midsection, a red stain slowly expanding across it, revealing the shape of the wound to be a large, clean cut. Whoever nicked him probably knew what they were doing.
After a bit of silence, she relented, sighing and leaning back. "...Fine... fine, I'll put my faith in my idiot of a husband..."
"Seriously, my pride as a man is meaningless these days..." Peneus offhandedly commented to no one in particular. Creusa snorted.
Daphne took this exchange as her cue to wrap her little hands around Peneus' big one. She ran over to Mama, tugging the battered man along the way.
Peneus couldn't find the heart in him to protest this time around, even with the sudden searing pain in his side. Injury or not, he was a dead man either way. He could tell that much from Creusa shooting him daggers.
...Maybe he should lay off on the fighting.
Daphne did a surprisingly good job patching him up, but internal bleeding would still kill him soon enough. Knowing this, he handed his hard-earned spoils over to Creusa. With a hint of hesitation, she brought it to her mouth and bit down on it. This was her first meal in who knew how long, and the sight made Peneus grin, though it faltered soon after.
If he didn't already have a foot in the grave—probably half his body at this point—he would have been overjoyed, ready to swing Daphne around in jubilation. He knew better than to feed his delusions, though. He was still gravely injured, and a significant portion of the meager provisions would still have to be directed towards his own healing. He suppressed a grimace.
He could manage a few more hours before he his injuries claimed him, so Creusa would have to digest the food quickly, allowing time for the sustenance to replenish her Od and mana, on top of the bocco from earlier.
A lone golden orb shifted to his frail wife, who had just finished savoring the last bits of the stale loaf. Warmth flickered in Peneus' chest, but it died down just as fast as it came. Had it not been for his divine protection of sustenance, he hadn't a clue how he'd be able to split the rations among the lot of them.
Creusa, who was still nibbling on the stale loaf, decided to bring up the issue of Peneus' wound again, this time much calmer. She knew he wasn't one to die so easily, even if he was brushing against it right at that moment.
"Since it's a long story... and since it'll take a while for me... to finish eating... ...mind telling us what... happened, while we wait?" She brought her silver eyes from the bandaged gash to his lone gold one.
Well, this was a story he'd have fun telling. He could tell that much when Daphne, who was busy sucking out the bloodstains on the bed, stopped her little feast to face him.
Pulling out the other chair from under the table and plopping down on it, Peneus decided to humor the curiosity of his family.
"Alright then, how about a little story?"
Obviously, next chapter's gonna be Serena's and Peneus' retelling of what the fuck happened. So STAY TUNED! Also I have no idea what the details of the encounter are, SO I'M JUST AS HYPED AS YOU! AHAHAH!