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Volume 1 Chapter 1-2: Beginning of a New Life in Another World

 

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Hm? Somehow the air feels so fresh and my body feels so light…is this the so-called “feeling of freedom”?

Did I really feel that it was so unbearably stifling to live on Earth that I felt so different here?

I thought that if it was my daily life I had been able to blend into society without much of an issue.

Those thoughts ran through my mind as I continued walking. Visually the hill had looked further away, but I ended up reaching it fairly easily.

Since I had already climbed most of it I might as well take a look at my surroundings.

I turned to look backwards at the forest I had started near and couldn’t help but groan when I saw how positively enormous it was.

「I’m just glad I didn’t go in there. The vast expanse…it’d make even the Fuji forest pale in comparison.」

I patted my chest and thanked my lucky stars that I had listened to Hotaru-san’s advice. I then turned to check what was on the other side of the hill.

「Ah, a road. If I follow it I should reach a town or something.」

I checked where the road led and saw that it wound across the land to the left.

I see, when I stood at ground level the grass had blocked me from seeing it.

This time I checked towards the right side of the road and followed it with my eyes. I was able to see that it continued off into the distance before splitting into a fork.

「Hm? Something’s there…a sign? It looks like the path splits so it should be some kind of guidepost!」

That was the first man made thing I had seen in this world. It didn’t provide much information but it was better that I had seen it.

This time I didn’t bug Hotaru-san and simply made my own decision to head down the hill and towards the sign.

When I reached it I could clearly tell it was indeed a guidepost. The pole was driven into the ground and had three different signs attached to it.

『←Tower of Zachil
Town of Mikrea →
Beware of Bandits! 』

Was written on it. I was able to read these strange letters that I’d never seen before.

So this was the power of God!! …unfortunately it wasn’t really a power that would help me survive…

「Obviously we should head to the right ja.」 (TN: I will now add the ja that Hotaru uses in her speech so it is more easily distinguishable and shows her age.)

I had no objections to Hotaru-san’s suggestion. The tower to the left sounded really interesting, but for now we needed to reach somewhere with people so I’d hold back on my impulse.
………..

「The only issue is how long it’ll take us to reach the town…」

After nearly an hour of walking we hadn’t seen any signs of a town. I had been walking at a pretty brisk pace too…

According to the signpost we would reach a town eventually if we followed the road. However, the distance wasn’t written anywhere.

「If it’s not 2 or 3 days….if it’s a week away then I’m fairly sure we’ll just fall over dead.」
「It seems so ja~no. Unlike me, you need food to survive after all ja. Even if we had entered the forest to hunt, Soujirou was right to say that we don’t know nearly enough jano. If you accidentally ate something weird then you’d….such a think is definitely possible ja.」
「You’re right…eventually we’ll have to give it a shot, but at this point I still have enough strength and time to keep going. Let’s continue for a while longer.」

Since we’d arrived here the sun had shifted in the sky. If I was going to hunt then it would be preferable to do it during the daytime. Entering at night was filled with danger so it’d be better not to do so for today.

Honestly, I’d be fine if I didn’t eat or drink for a single day. Instead of entering a mysterious forest I knew nothing about, it’d be preferable to hold out as long as I could while aiming to reach town.

But if there was no helping it….thinking of my spare energy I would have to enter into the forest tomorrow while the sun was high to take my chances. Of course this was all considering that a day in this world lasted 24 hours.

Fortunately the road had been made at a suitable distance away from the forest as it curved gently to right passing by the woods. It seemed that even continuing forward the road would not be too far or too close to the forest.

Seeing how the road avoided going near the forest confirmed that it was as dangerous as I thought it was.

If I wasn’t mistaken then the town should be on the other side of the forest based on how the road was curving around it. Most likely cutting through the forest was the fastest way to get there. Even so the road purposefully avoided it if it wasn’t a matter of being unable to cut a path.

It should be so since the sign warned of bandits, plus there should be dangerous living things inside.

「Soujirou! Run! I hear screams!」
「Huh?」

I let out a confused noise as I reflexively listened to Hotaru-san’s words and set out sprinting….but…somehow…my running felt light and airy…it was hard to run.

「….umu, I was wondering if it might be the case, but this planet’s gravity seems to be weaker than Earth’s ja. Soujirou! Adjust yourself! Lean forward a bit, bring your center of gravity lower, and push the sole of your foot against the ground. Run as if you’re kicking the ground behind you.」

I-I see…since the gravity was lower it felt like my physical abilities increased and I didn’t get as tired.

I can understand that. All that was left was figuring out how to move properly.

「Lean forward….drop my center of gravity」

Oh! I became more stable.

「Use the sole of my foot to strike the ground and…kick!」

Ooooh! I could clearly feel how much faster I was moving. As expected of Hotaru-san! At this point I already wanted to call her Master. But still this speed, it felt like near double what I could manage back on Earth.

When I was walking normally it didn’t especially catch my attention so it should be 20-30% different. There could be other differences in this world that I hadn’t noticed yet as well.

「Hou…good job Soujirou. Good bodily control ja. Just by telling you how your body started moving as instructed…this is proof that you have talent ja.」

That made me happy. Hotaru-san must have seen many swordsmen in her time so her words had a certain authenticity to them.

「Just continue running along the road! Around that curve we should be able to see them.」
「Got it!」

For now I was running because Hotaru-san told me too…but if I kept going wouldn’t this place us in a dangerous situation?

If there was screaming then at least there would be some kind of conflict ahead, it’d be best if it was just a lover’s quarrel but if it was a monster or bandits then there was the chance that I would end up killed trying to save someone.

「It’ll be dangerous ja. But until we know the situation we won’t be able to figure out if we can give assistance. If we can help them then the 『information』 we’ve been searching for should be within our grasp ja~zo」

Ahh I see. If we save them we can get any information we need from them. Once we’ve figured out where the town is then we could also probably get some food or shelter from them as well.

In that case I’d better hurry up and figure out what’s going on so we can ask for help ourselves.

I had grown more used to this new method of running so I strengthened my kicks a bit to speed up.

Woah to run at this speed using my own legs…I couldn’t get over the exhilaration. Plus I was running so hard and yet wasn’t out of breath.

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