"What?", was the only thing I could force myself to say after a long time of simply staring at my new surroundings. Not only I had no recollection of how I ended up where I was currently standing, but I was pretty sure I've also left behind good ol' Terra.
I wisely used the small time window I expected to have between complete utter shock and a nervous breakdown to check out my vicinity in more detail besides the obvious 'Hey, this looks like a generic High Middle Ages city with obvious magical influence and a high percentage of non-human people' thing.
After a quick glance around I could identify about four obviously distinct races in the small crowd around me. The most obvious race was the people with animal features. I saw a few guys with cat ears and tails, a few with dog parts and even a huge dude with bunny ears. The other three was the usual elf, dwarf and hobbit trio of races. Although if you squinted right, the hobbit-like guy might pass as a child, but for some reason, I could only see him as an adult. Weird.
The second thing my quick glance allowed me to discover is that I'm seriously short for some reason. After puberty, it was pretty rare for me to bump into someone that was taller than me, so this is seriously disconcerting for me right now.
Did I get shrunk? Have I been de-aged? Are the people around me just freakishly tall?
As I took a closer look at myself to try and discern which of those is the correct answer I have found out three things. Firstly, I distinctly remembered not being a hobbit before this, so I guess bye bye to my old body, I got fairly good mileage out of it despite how I treated it most of the time, so 'Thank you for your services'. The second is that the change of body also came with a change of not being male.
The third and most immediately important one is that remainder of the aforementioned time window has been rapidly used up by the last two revelations so it's 'high time for a breakdown'.
I quickly located a cluster of bushes beside the cobblestone road that would allow me to hide from this cruel world that keeps bombarding me with realizations that should be FUCKING IMPOSSIBLE. I like to keep my freakouts to places without an audience, thank you very much.
I spent the next indeterminate amount of time sitting behind the bushes generally being catatonic and simply staring into space in front of me. I spiced things up by occasionally rocking my body back and forth and letting out quiet whimpers.
Enough time went by for the sun to change positions where it was able to shine right into my eyes.
'Fuck you Sun! Can't you see I'm trying to have a well-justified breakdown here? Fuck.'
After a couple of deep breaths, I decided I've dealt with the situation enough to rejoin the ranks of somewhat functioning humanoid beings.
First on the agenda was to take stock of what I had on me, it might even provide a clue on where exactly I ended up.
I was wearing a simple gray coat above a sleeveless shirt that also had a hood attached to it. As soon as I discovered this I put it on right away. I wasn't very good with crowds even before, so I was gonna take every small opportunity to segregate myself from the wandering people on the other side of my beloved bushes, however flimsy protection should it prove to be.
My hands were covered with simple gloves and my feet in fairly comfortable socks and boots. The last clothing item worth mentioning was my shorts. Thankfully it wasn't a skirt, I think it would have been too much of a shock for my system otherwise. Overall, they were fairly comfortable and their make was much better than one would expect from a medieval society, so I guess magic played a factor in their creation.
There were only two other non-clothing items on me, a small dagger, which was still fairly large in my small hands, and a pouch of money well fastened to the inside of my coat.
I've yet to find out the exact economic value of the coins, but I still felt some relief about not starting out with basically just the clothes on my back.
The 'V' with two vertical lines across it on the back of the coins felt like I should know it from somewhere, but I couldn't remember after pondering about it for a while, so I guess no easy uncovering of the setting for me.
However much I would've liked to find a hole, preferably with internet access, and hide myself in it, I had to get going if I didn't want to spend the night on the streets. I had no idea what degree of public safety I should expect at night, but having been turned into a small girl I wanted to err on the side of caution, or even paranoia.
A few dozen deep breaths later I left my sanctuary behind the bushes and after painstaking effort, I reached the other side of the foliage and stood at the side of the road. Standing there I remembered I should listen to the people going by to determine if they speak a language I know or it's something entirely alien to me. Seeing those european style buildings, cobblestone roads and human-shaped humans and other humanoids made me forget that this is most likely not Earth, but some kind of alternate dimension.
I guess some kind of hyper-realistic virtual reality should also be in the running as an explanation, but even if it ends up being true, it would be basically no different than an actual different world.
But back to the topic of eavesdropping. I strained my ears for a while to pick up stray conversations from the people meandering about and I'm rewarded with the information that the residents of this apparently magic powered medieval style town or city in a different dimension are speaking japanese. Well fuck. I guess this was one notch in favor of this being the setting of some kind of entertainment work originating from Japan.
That could be a hit or miss on the subject of personal safety so I still had to find out more.
My short survey of the crowd made me realize that there were a considerable number of warrior looking people who were coming and going in a certain direction, so I decided to start investigating along that trajectory. It turned out to be the same direction where the sun, which rudely interrupted my doom and gloom state, was shining from, so I tried to avoid looking that way until now. I guess I can safely say that was an error, since for the low cost of shading my eyes with my hand and looking in that direction allowed me to be fairly sure on what kind of world and what kind of city I ended up in.
There was a single tower dominating the sky, which from the looks of it rivaled the height of the god damn Burj Khalifa, yet it looked to be made of stone and there were no signs of modern materials or construction techniques that allowed the construction of this physics-defying monument. The decorations on the side of it were masterpieces that would've been highly popular tourist destinations in my old world, even if they weren't carved on the side of an impossible building. If I was skeptical of the existence of magic or equivalent supernatural force in this world, then this creation would've surely dispelled that notion.
I was pretty sure the tower in question was called the Tower of Babel which was built with the help of the gods after their descent to the lower world from Heaven. Seeing that tower and adding of the other factors I've so far uncovered I was pretty sure I ended up in a world greatly resembling the setting of 'Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka' or 'Danmachi' for short. That would make this city Orario, the playground for a high concentration of gods and superhuman folks called adventurers.
Thankfully, it could have been much worse from the perspective of public safety. I shouldn't have to worry about getting randomly kidnapped and sold as a slave if I remember right. Of course, there is still the possibility that the world as described in the light novels and other works greatly sugarcoated the darker aspects of the story, but for some reason, I'm leaning towards that not being the case. Hopefully, that's not just wishful thinking on my part, but I can't discard that possibility either.
After the quick and efficient discovery, I deemed it prudent to return to my safe haven behind the bushes and continue to ponder my place in the world and try and recall everything I remember about the Danmachi setting and story.
So basically I ended up in a world where gods walk the lower world. The gods here that live among the mortals give their blessing to select people, which is called a Falna. A group whose members received their Falna from the same god is called a Familia. There are a few kinds of Familias with different focuses. For example, one of the most prominently featured exploration type Familia is the Loki Familia. Being an exploration type means that their primary activities consist of delving into the dungeon and exploiting it for resources such as magic stones and other drop items.
But perhaps the most important tidbit right now is the titular Dungeon. Orario was basically founded by Ouranos, one of the first gods to descend and the force behind the Guild that regulates dungeon related activities. Before the gods descended, monsters would overflow from the dungeon and spread out on the surface, bringing calamity where they went. Before the advent of Falna, adventurers fought the monsters solely on their own merit, or by contracting with powerful Spirits. The hows and whys of that were not elaborated in the story as far as I know.
That all changed with the appearance of gods and the Falna. Suddenly mortals were able to fight back so effectively that they pushed back the monsters to the dungeon where they still can't escape from to this day. The job of an adventurer has become institutionalized thanks to the Guild, so in the end, the dungeon was turned into a natural resource instead of a natural disaster. Being an adventurer is not easy work and is fraught with dangers, but if you are cautious, you can make a decent living even without going deeper into more dangerous floors where more powerful and trickier monsters exist.
Turning all that information over in my head I spent some time just looking at the mystical tower in the middle of the city, which was easier now that the sun moved behind the building and I didn't have to shade my eyes constantly. I think they just called the Tower of Babel simply Babel in the story, so I guess I should do the same. It's certainly easier that way.
Sitting in the shade of the tower my mood also took a downturn. Now that I'm not in shock, sobbing, or hyperventilating, it was starting to really hit me.
I'm alone. There is no way home. I don't even have the comfort of looking in the mirror and seeing my old self who I spent all my life as.
Instead of proceeding down the spiral of despair I tried to focus on the remaining two of the three immediate questions one would come up with in a similar situation. After the 'Where?' was answered, the next two are 'How?' and 'Why?'.
On the topic of how, instead of spouting some scientific bullshit which somehow has to include quantum physics I should recount what I remember of the circumstances of my departure and arrival.
Well, after thinking about it for a while it was a big stinkin' bust. I can't remember any hard cut off points for my memories, so no 'I went to sleep on this day and boom I woke up here', or 'I saved the lives of a busful of nuns and orphans then heroically sacrificed myself so random strangers could live and then boom I woke up here'. My memories just fizzle out sometime in 2019, I think. After that, it just snaps into focus at the point when I came to a few hours before. There was no fanfare of a hero summoning, nor any signs of an accident that somehow resulted in me ending up here.
For now, I had two theories I was debating between. The first is the physics-y bullshit excuse, that somehow I spontaneously came into being right there on the spot complete with memories of a previous life that may or may not have existed, and even if it did, it doesn't mean it actually ended, just that a randomly created copy of a personality ended up in a new body on the spot due to random quantum fluctuations. The second one is that I was chosen for a task by a sentient force that wanted to achieve something by plopping me down here. Out of the two, I tend to believe the first is the more probable one, since any self-respecting self-aware force that is capable of perpetrating the second possibility should be well aware of the fact that if it wants something important done then it shouldn't fucking pick me. Hah, in the end I still ended up blaming it on magical quantum physics.
The sun once again started assaulting my ocular sensors by popping out on the other side of Babel, so I decided it was time to set out and find lodging somewhere.
That reminds me, my new race was called pallum here, so I can finally stop using the 'hobbit-like humanoid' descriptor. If I remember right, pallums can also see in the dark, so it's possible that's why the sun irritated me that much. Other pallums may have already got used to it, but thanks to my fresh off the assembly line body, I wasn't able to so far.
The only lead I remember in any way related to lodgings was the Hostess of Fertility, but I have no idea if it was a strictly wine and dine pub or it offered rooms to rent out. I remembered that Bell ended up in a bed on the upper floor of the pub after his second minotaur encounter, but that could've been someone else's bed or just an extra room that wasn't used for anything special.
First things first, I need to search the entrance of the tower for a map with hopefully restaurants, pubs and inns marked on it.
My first expedition to the entrance of Babel ended up a failure since I failed to locate anything resembling a map. This is big fucking oversight from the service industry here in Orario. That being said, maybe most establishments were already working at capacity so there was no need to advertise. Hell if I know.
Still, the result remained, namely no map for me. The residents or visitors here probably just ask someone if they want to find something, but that's not really an option for me currently. Even before coming here it would have been the last thing I would've tried, but now, trying to have even a short conversation in a language I can scarcely speak, with unknown people who seem giant compared to me, with a voice I only used for whimpering so far was not really on top of my to-do list.
Still, it seemed inevitable that I'll have to speak with someone before the day ran out, so it would be prudent to test my voice before that. To that end, I relocated back to my greatest spiritual crutch in this world, namely, the bushes near where I landed.
Once again hiding in my sanctuary, I tried to speak a few words and short sentences, so I could get used to my new voice. In the end, it wasn't such a big deal. My voice didn't crack as it could've after a prolonged time of not using it, nor did I find any other problems with it. It was significantly higher than I was used to, but that came with being younger and female.
Now that I exhausted every excuse I could find to not continue executing my plan of finding shelter for the night I started walking towards the city walls on one of the main streets. I remembered that the Hostess of Fertility sits on one of the four out of eight main streets of Orario that match the four cardinal directions, so if I was lucky I could find it before sunset. I needed the time to dredge up my conversational japanese skills anyway, which were rusty, to say the least.
Walking on the street, I casually observed the other people near me. If I were to sum them up in one word, it would be 'ordinary'. Well, ordinary for this world. Just simple people walking about doing their business, living their lives, unaware of the possible extra-dimensional intruder amongst their midst.
It took me much too short of a time to come across my intended destination, so much so, that I haven't finished thinking of how exactly I was going to ask about renting a room there. The building itself looked very much how I remembered it from the anime. A very cozy looking two-story building with a pub on the ground floor. A good portion of the front of the building was decorated with exquisite wood carvings, which were even more prominent on the double doors leading inside the pub itself. However, the chief reason why I was able to positively identify the building was the sign beside the doors. The name 'Hostess of Fertility' was actually written on there in english. It was written in a funky font, but it could be decoded fairly easily.
That brought up a big question however. If the common language was japanese, then why was it written in english? A question for another day.
After a few more minutes of back and forth in front of the shop, I patted myself down, made sure I was presentable and as covered by my coat as possible, then I walked into the pub, ready to face my non-existent destiny. There weren't many customers inside, probably because it was near the end of the day so normal people weren't coming anymore, but it wasn't the time yet for adventurers to start arriving either.
The closest waitress to the entrance was a human girl with light gray hair. That must be Syr Flova, one of the protagonist's future love interests. However, she seemed to be a few years younger than I expected.
A sudden realization made me break out in a cold sweat.
Even if I landed in Orario, it was far from guaranteed that I arrived near the main story in time. I could've landed at any time across a thousand years or even the future if I only based my information on the existence of Babel.
After I managed to gather my wits about me, I called out to Syr who was wiping the chairs at a table with her back to me.
"Ex-excuse me," I managed to stutter out.
"Oh, hi there. Can I help you with something?" she asked me with a smile after she realized I was the one who called out to her. She bent forward to be closer to my eye level too, a textbook 'talking to a young child pose'. Syr may have been a bit manipulative in the story, but she seemed like a good girl still.
"Sorry to bother you. Would it be possible to rent a room here?" I asked with a not slight accent on my japanese.
Syr looked somewhat surprised, but it was hard to tell if it was because of my accent, the question itself, or that it came from someone so young.
"Well, it's not something we usually do here...", she started to say, but perhaps seeing my suddenly crestfallen expression she continued. "But I'll ask Mama Mia about it in a minute. Take a seat here until then."
She then patted the chair next to the one she was cleaning before. I've noted the fact that I was so short I had to hop up a bit to be able to sit on a normal chair next to a table. Syr even helped me with getting on. If I didn't know I was a pallum, I would've pegged myself as no more than a five-year-old.
"I'll be back in a bit, okay?" she asked. I nodded.
After exchanging glances with another blond waitress I didn't know the name of, she proceeded to walk behind the counter and through a door that most likely led to the kitchen. When I couldn't see her anymore I've grabbed the side of the table with both hands and put my forehead against it.
Talking with strangers was always exhausting, but I think today's happenings and emotional distress finally caught up to me. If they don't hurry up, I might end up asleep by the time Syr gets back. I think I'll shut my eyes just for a few secon-
"Oi, wake up." My head jerked up as Mama Mia's voice shocked me out of my half-sleeping state. I noticed she took a seat on the other side of the table, so she wasn't towering over me as much as she could've. I don't know if that was intentional or not, but I was thankful for it nonetheless.
"I'm Mia Grand. Call me Mama Mia. I heard there was a pipsqueak here who asked about renting a room. Did someone tell you that we rent out rooms?" she continued on with a resounding voice.
Her commanding tone of voice was probably part of her forceful personality, but I couldn't help but be shaken by it. Even without knowing that she was a Level 6 former adventurer who could devastate a good portion of the city if she was so inclined, I would still be on edge while talking to her. So I tried to answer her as best as I could while kneading my hands and averting my gaze.
"Only heard of this place. Didn't know if possible." I spoke the answer I managed to put together.
"Hoh, and what did you hear that made you come here instead of somewhere else?" she asked her next question.
"I heard, good place. Good food. Good people."
My answer was even more disjointed than the previous ones, but it didn't seem to faze her as she just smiled at my description of her pub. I noticed that Syr also raised a hand to cover a small smile. I didn't know if they were genuinely happy to hear this place described as such, or they were amused that I described a workforce nearly half made of former assassins 'good people'.
"Now, it's not usually part of the service here, but just because of that glowing review, I might be able to find some place for you." Seeing my hopeful expression she continued. "But, I will have to ask a few questions first. I'm sure you can understand."
"Of course," I replied. In my head I quickly recounted the minimalist backstory I made up for myself. Hopefully they won't try to dig too far.
"First of all, do you have any relatives here or outside Orario?" she started the interrogation.
"No family. Don't know anyone... in Orario."
I didn't even have to act sad about that. The challenge was to hold back the tears instead. Damn, this new body is really prone to triggering the waterworks.
"How did you arrive to the city? Where did you live before that?" she continued on and I was thankful for the quick change of subject.
"My goddess picked me up from village. Brought here. Spoke of things on the way. Arrived today."
It was almost true in a way. If you exchange 'goddess' with 'who knows what', 'village' with 'world' and 'spoke of things along the way' with 'I know your future from fiction'. Nearly half the words I said weren't lies. That's a good ratio in my opinion.
"And who is this goddess of yours? Why aren't you living with her?", she continued on with her more than reasonable questions.
"Can't say her name. Forbidden. Already left. Told me to 'go and beat up that dungeon'."
As I finished my sentence I heard a snort and a somewhat loud 'Nyahhahahahah' from somewhere behind me. I guess some of the others were also keeping an ear out for our conversation.
"I'm sure the dungeon is already shaking in its boots", Mama Mia said with a smirk.
"That being said, I can't say I condone just dumping a kid in the middle of Orario with hardly anything and getting told to 'go nuts'. Some gods think up truly outrageous schemes to amuse themselves." She said while shaking her head.
It spoke a lot about the gods that even a story like that doesn't raise too many eyebrows here.
I couldn't know for sure if Mama Mia believed me or not, but since I genuinely didn't mean them any harm or plan on doing anything detrimental to them, like stealing, I hoped I could gain her approval for staying here, at least for the time being. I tried to not think about the long term before I could deal with the short term.
"Well, we can at least put you up for a while," a relieved smile came to my face at that, "but the best I can do at this time is putting down some bedding in a corner of the upstairs storeroom. Fine with that, kid?" she asked to confirm.
"Perfect. Thank you very much." I bowed as deep as I could while sitting on the chair, which wasn't that deep.
"Goddess left some money. How much will I pay?" I asked, hoping that I wouldn't have to pay much for lesser accommodations. The longer my nest egg lasts, the better.
"Let's say five hundred Valis a day, food included. If you run out, maybe we can work out something for you to do around here in exchange. How about it?" she offered.
"Thank you for everything. I will do my best." I answered ambiguously. Working around the pub might not be the worst if I couldn't come up with something by the time my money ran out.
Remembering that I was half-asleep when she got here, Mama Mia told Syr to show me where I'll be staying. Truth be told, my adrenalin was still pumping from the conversation I just had, so I probably won't be able to sleep for a little while. Still, it was the perfect opportunity to start planning my more long term future here without having to be on alert for people seeing me.
My guide showed me around the upper floor, which was basically the living space for the staff, then she showed me the way to the bathroom. The strange thing about it was that the bathroom was on the first floor, but could only be accessed by going through the second floor. There was also a backyard and an outhouse for the guests' use.
Due to the anxiety gripping my stomach all day I didn't feel hungry or thirsty at all, but once I've calmed down, my need for sustenance will likely rear its ugly head. Syr and the others probably assumed I ate with my goddess and I would rather get to sleep early.
There was a small kitchen on the second floor, so I will be able to drink some water before going to sleep at least.
I would've expected Syr to be a tad more chatty, but she must've held back, since as far as she knew, I was just abandoned by my goddess and would most likely not be in a mood for chit-chat. Although the specifics were different, her assumption held more than a morsel of truth to it.
Finally, we arrived at the storeroom that will serve as my base camp in this world for who knows how long.
"Here it is. It's a bit dusty, but nothing too bad." She said as she put down the bedding she picked up during our tour. The room was fairly packed with furniture and some boxes, but there was plenty of space left for me to sleep. It helped that my height didn't even reach a meter as far as I could tell.
"You must be tired after such a stressful day. Don't be afraid to ask if you need something, okay?" she said with a comforting smile. "Sleep tight." Then she left the room and closed the door, but not before smiling and waving at me first.
I waved back as she closed the door, then my shoulders sagged with relief. I didn't even realize how wound up I was all day until I was finally able to relax. Even in my sole sanctuary behind the bushes, I was constantly keeping my voice down so no well-meaning or noisy people would notice me hiding there.
As the tension left me for the most part, I flopped down bonelessly on the bedding. I contemplated going to sleep as is, but there was one thing I absolutely had to check before calling it a night. The answer to that question will decide a large part of my future in this world.
The answer to the question of 'Do I have a Falna or equivalent?'.
If I don't, then it would support the theory that I ended up here due to a great cosmic happenstance. In that case, I would be no different than an ordinary resident of this world, perhaps apart from the 'adult's mind from a different dimension in a child's body' thing.
However, If I do have a Falna or similar, then that would basically guarantee that my arrival here was on purpose. Although I still highly doubt I was the actual target of this whole shebang. A proper protagonist would've already slaughtered their way through the upper floors of the dungeon, inspiring awe and wonder in everyone they came across. Not crying for half-a-day and then running to take advantage of the goodwill of nice people.
A Falna appears on the back of the individual, so I had to get a look at mine somehow to get my answer. Sadly, this room had a distinct lack of mirrors I could use. After racking my brain a bit I remembered that I had a shiny dagger, in which I would at least be able to see if my whole back was tattooed or not.
Thus, I spent a few minutes trying to find the best place to put it and then angle it so I could see enough of my back. When it was set up properly I took my coat off and pulled my shirt up and turned my back to it. Turning my neck to its limit allowed me to see perfectly unblemished skin.
I let go of my shirt which fell down to cover my clean back, although the front got bunched up so my stomach was still uncovered. At this point, I didn't really care. It was warm enough, so I wouldn't get sick if I left it like that for a few minutes.
Despite my earlier declaration of me saying that this probably all happened because of random chance, I think I still would've felt better to find out that it at least served some kind of purpose. That I wasn't torn out of my world and dumped into this one to play the role of a shitty background character that's only there to make the heroes of the story make look by comparison.
God dammit if I'm not juvenile as fuck, but if I had to suffer through a world-shift like that, I at least wanted to have a cool powerup as compensation.
Feeling resigned, I turned to put my dagger back into its sheath, when something odd caught my eye.
I saw something out of place on my stomach through the reflection in the dagger. I quickly untangled my bunched up shirt and took a closer, direct look at my stomach. I stared at it for a few minutes, then I murmured to myself.
"Maybe, just maybe, I will have a place amongst the main cast after all."
