Daily life in another world 「Isekai no Nichijou」

In the midst of the dark night, three figures sat around a bonfire seeking warmth.

"Within the shadowed fastness of the woodland there standeth a lone door… and lo, its hinges groan as it yawneth wide."

A sense of suspension and foreboding crossed the air.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"And!? Then what?!" Peddle almost screamed.

Syuufarin glumly scratched the ground with her foot. "...Apologies… ne'er before hath I dared to weave a tale of dread…"

"It's a good start." Hobask tried to give a little credit to the sulking girl— And he secretly came to call her that in his mind because the woman does not in any way behave like an adult.

It's hard to believe that the frail looking girl can fight well. Given that is what his impression is after seeing her just once against those wolves. It was a very memorable first impression.

She behaves like someone of noble lineage, acts like an adventurer, and talks like a scholar.

The girl doesn't smile much, or maybe her facial expression is just fixed like that. Despite that she moves animatedly and displays more emotion with her body than with her face.

She's naive in the oddest of things, and disturbingly wise about others.

She also can send them over the moon and over with her magic, he didn't see much of it but she is never without her staff. Even in her sleep the girl seems aware of her surroundings.

They did not want to provoke the metaphorical bear. Which is one of the main reasons they didn't fight her when she wanted to accompany them. Not like they could refuse.

They could actually, Syuufarin wouldn't have minded, but they didn't know that.

"Let's end it here, we should go to sleep."

"Hm. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

"I bid thee… *ahem*" Syuufarin thought for a moment.

"Good…night?" She nodded to herself. "Indeed, goodnight."

——— –– –– -- - -

[Outskirts of Haldur's Liberation army's encampent.]

[Syuufarin]

We have traveled together for around a week now. And we… They are finally reaching their destination.

'I don't have a destination, I go where the winds take me… heheh.' I amuse myself with my own joke.

I can't really say that we've grown closer or got to know more about each other during this time. Despite it all, there was an underlying tension beneath the air.

After all, it's hard to keep levity when you are transporting implements of war.

But still, we became more familiar at least. Even if I had no grand reason to stick with them to the end, I still did. And that counts for something.

"Here we are… Welcome to the Liberation Army"

I look in awe, they are much bigger and more organized than I thought they would be. "It's… big. How would someone even begin to coordinate all these people?"

Tents, people, and all sorts of hastily built structures stretched across an entire hill and then more. It was like looking at a miniature town compacted into a single space.

Without the convenience of the communication infrastructure from my past life, it meant that all the people here were somehow keeping track of operations and each other somehow… through messengers, or maybe something else.

"Most folks come from simple places, but there are a few old military men that helped herd everyone."

"From Caseisdo?" I ask.

"...no? Maybe, I don't know where they came from now that you mention." Hobask scratches his head.

"Thank the Lady above, I can understand you now… Hey, do you wanna prank people with your fancy-speech? I want to see what faces they make when they think an aristocratic sort shows up."

I look away from Pedle with a conflicted smile. "Ahaha…"

I've had plenty of practice toning down my speech patterns and getting acquainted with today's way of speaking. Even I knew that both my accent and slang were horrible.

'They think I'm some exiled noble from far away that doesn't want to reveal her secrets!' I internally scream. 'I'm not!'

No matter how many times I told them that I spoke the way I did because I learned their language from reading books, they both just looked at me like I was a kid who said they didn't steal from the cookie jar or something. The sort of disappointed and "what is she yapping about" look that showed that they are listening, but not giving any credence to my words.

It was incredibly infuriating, in the end I gave up trying to clear up the misunderstanding.

On Pedle's words: I still sound a tad snobbish, it's the accent, but at least not speaking riddles anymore.

As we approached many eyes turned towards us.

Especially me.

"I-Is… this normal?" I freeze on my tracks, anxious.

"No… We're a bit late for sure but…" Hobask turns to me. "It's likely you."

"But I didn't do anything?" I turn around back and forth. Searching for something.

Peddle points at me in a rude manner. "It's the horns… and your big'ol tail."

"I-it's not that big…" I self consciously pick it up, holding it close to my chest.

"Miss, I've seen you smack around beasts I wouldn't dare to stay close to with that tail." Peddle commented, unhelpfully.

"S-shut up!"

Hobask sighs. "He's not entirely wrong. Beastkin aren't very common around these lands… And I've never seen any like you. You're bound to stand out even more beyond just being a stranger."

I squirm under the scrutiny of so many eyes, hugging my staff for comfort.

Then I decide to climb on to hide.

"Hey hey! What are you doing!? We are the ones carrying all this weight, don't go adding to it!" Pedle sputtered.

"I wanna hide inside the carriage! There's no way I can deal with all those people."

Hobask gives me a side-glance. "You mean the wagon?"

"Huh? Isn't that what it is called?" I pause.

Apparently I had been referring to it with the wrong name all this time.

"Yes, carriages are the fancy ones to carry people."

"Huh."

A hand presses against my face as I try to climb in. "Get off!"

"Mweh! I don't wanna!" I flail my arms around him half-heartedly and attempt to go inside anyway in protest. But his hand is firm.

"What are you? Shy?"

"Grr— YES." I pull up my hood and try to make myself small beside the car— I mean wagon.

Peddle blinks twice. "Really? I didn't take you for that sort when you confidently descended from the sky like a white knight to save us." He says humorously.

"I-It's fine when it's just two people." I then mutter. "Also I had been practicing for a long time for my first impressions."

"Hm? What'd you say?"

I bonk him in the head with my staff.

"Ouch! Hey what was that for!"

"Hmph."

With that we stride ahead in relative silence.

——— –– –– -- - -

Since their delivery was delivered, Hobask and Pedle needed to report to the man in charge, and since if I was left alone I would just be aimless in the camp I went with them.

"Yo! treasure-money-something guy!" Pedle greeted cheerfully

"It's quartermaster." The man replies tiredly. "Names?" He says in an impersonal tone.

"Hobask."

"And Pedle."

The man gives a lazy glance to me.

"Sყųųʄaཞıŋ."

He blinks, very slowly, once. Practically emitting waves of tiredness and making a broad aura of "I'm done with this nonsense, someone end me please."

Pedle snortles. "Just call her Seyun, we don't get it either." He waves a hand.

I sigh.

Then he pleadingly stares at me with a shit-eating grin in an angle just so that the quartermaster doesn't see.

I sigh. Again.'Why must you butcher my beautiful language?'

Looking at the grizzled man sitting behind a desk, piles of paper, coins, and measuring tools in front of him, I begin feeling a little sorry for him, so much that second thoughts start to form.

Pedle begins to wink at me.

Hobask… sensing the odd silence, he glaces at Pedle, then at me. Realizing what was to come he then looks skyward and silently places a palm on his face in resignation.

I sigh, louder this time.

On the other hand it would be hella funny.

"'Tis… aye, near enough, I trow. Let that crooked echo of mine appellation suffice, lest we tarry all night in vain correction."

The quartermaster closes his eyes.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"""..."""

We all stand there for a painfully long minute of silence.

"You dug this pit yourselves. Pedle she's yours now." Hobask simply leaves.

"H-Huh? Hey! Wait a minute!" He chases after him.

"Huh?" I blurt out, watching them leave.

'HEY DON'T LEAVE ME HERE! HE'S SCARY!' I scream in the privacy of my head.

I'm left alone with the tired man.

*thunk* A sudden noise makes me jump a little, I see the officer resting his face against the top of the desk.

""...""

I lightly cough on my fist. "Apologies about that… Pedle kept needling me to do this all the way when we were coming here." I immediately threw him under the bus. "I'm not from around here so I needed some time to adjust to the local dialect…" I trail off, not knowing what to say next.

""...""

I feel as if a wave of resignation and indifference blooms off the man's body, despite him not having even twitched a muscle all this time.

"Do you need um… help?"

"........Are you familiar with algebra?" A weak voice responds. A quiet and pointless plea but a man can dream.

"Algebra?" I tilt my head and tap my cheek for a moment to recall what the word means. "If by that you mean mathematical equations using letters and symbols to represent unknown variables, then yes, I know a bit about it."

The man's head suddenly snaps to me with a feverish look in his eyes.

"Eek!"

He holds me firmly by the shoulders. "I don't care who you are or where you're from, Are you here to join?"

"U-um… perhaps? I am not from this country and I am friends…? Yes, friends with Hobask and Pedle." I begin rapidly babbling a short retelling of the past few days. "I met them on the road and saved them from a wild pack of fang-beasts, and I did not want to simply leave them to fend off for themselves, and I was lost. Then I got informed of your plight, but as an outsider I do not wish to become embroiled into something I might regret."

"What if you get paid? You don't necessarily need to… no you might still be..." He trails off for a moment. Then shakes his head. "I'll give you one— no, five gold if you help me," the ravenous, pleading, desperate, borderline obsessive PLEASE was left unsaid.

"Everyone in this godsdamned place doesn't have a lick of proper literature in their heads and the few army heads are way too busy or doing nothing worth their asses. Fuck trust and screening those can go out the fucking window nobody's helping me in this hellpit anyway. Questions are for later. Allegiance can go screw itself. Hell, I'll promote you straight to officer if I need to. I'm asking if you want to be— No I will be hiring you. WILL. YOU. DO. THE. JOB?"

"Eep." I squeak out.

——— –– –– -- - -

[Executive Mess Hall]

The quartermaster— everyone calls him that because his name is constantly being forgotten so the title stuck —suddenly showed up one day with an exotic woman.

"Hey! Ain't she a bit on the young side for a grizzly old—"

He was shut up with a glare.

"Everyone." He called out loudly, bringing attention to the people in the area. They were mostly people of no great importance but scattered here and there were some people in the know. Higher ranked captains and the like. "This is Seyun, she is my assistant now. She outranks all of you so don't go getting cheeky with me. I'll be showing her around now."

And just like that they left.

Everyone was confused.

The girl in question that just left with the man seemed to be even more confused than the audience.

"Has anyone ever seen her around before?"

"If there was a woman that looked like that in the camp I think we would've heard about it."

A brief silence crossed the area.

"Is she single?"

"Godammit Larry, get outta here."

And so the rumor mill began to spin its wheels.

——— –– –– -- - -

And that's how I found myself 500% richer than I ever was before.

Sitting on a stool at the edge of the Quartermaster's table, I look at tables upon tables of reports and finish simple calculations of the final sum of the diverse list of products and expenditures.

He gave me a quick crash course of what to do and how, mostly of what he needs and what goes where.

'This is certainly not how I expected to end the day with…' I steal a glance at the tired old man.

His actual name is Matildekhatannhaüser Guillmann, the man was pleasantly surprised I got the pronunciation of his name right on the first try. But he told me people that know him just call him Gil for short.

'If only people could do the same for my name… It's not even a tonguetwister, I don't see anything wrong with it.' I couldn't wrap my head around why people struggled with it. To me it seems like a perfect fine name.

I flip a paper around and back to see if I missed anything, and move over to the requisitions pile.

'It's interesting to see what goes into managing a camp of this size.'

Materials, Food, Weapons, Liquor, Salaries, Repairs, Maintenance, Management, Deployments, Rotations, Schedules… Everything needs to be coordinated. It's a wonder how a single man was keeping track of it all.

I even spotted some suspicious places where the numbers where things didn't add up. To this, the Quartermaster replied:

"Emblezemment— Don't make such a shocked face, it's inevitable around here. Just as long as it doesn't get too bad it's fine to overlook some things, and in the end the money loops back around here anyways."

Apparently there was a soft sort of regulation on people who spent money on luxuries. But as the money circulated just inside the encampment and passed through requisitions anyways the point was nulled. It just means that people are happier and the money passes more hands than usual.

Obviously, some stringency was required. I was just a stranger who showed up and got straight into critical infrastructure of the whole place.

Really, I'm just serving as a glorified calculator.

It's astonishing how little people are educated around here. They know numbers for sure, but not to the level of making graphs and calculating medians.

It was halfway into the evening when three people appeared inside the tent.

"Haldir." The Quartermaster acknowledged his presence without even looking up from his desk.

The man was tall, with shoulder length hair and a rugged face— well everyone around here has a rugged face —a face more rugged than most rugged faces. He looked at you'd expect a lumberjack to look like if they also participated in the practice of selling ice-cream. His face was square but also sort of roundish, striking a balance between fearsome and oddly approachable.

The man looked at me for a stretching moment as I sat there frozen. "...Gil. What is this?" He gestured to me.

Hobask and Pedle were behind him, looking a bit sheepish and guilty as they approached me.

"Sorry, after we left we couldn't find you anywhere, and then suddenly a lot of people were talking about a woman that was obviously you, and Sir Haldir got wind of it…" Pedle said.

I stared at him just long enough for it to be uncomfortable. "I'm never going along with your machinations ever again."

"Aw." He slumped.

"That. Is my new assistant." Our attention is brought back to the two high-profile people.

"There are procedures for this Gil. You imbecile, you can't just appoint anyone!—"

"Does anyone, in this entire camp, know anything about math? Other than you."

That made Haldir pause. "Surely there is…"

"There isn't. Haldir, boss, my friend," The Quartermaster slowly and gently put a hand over his heart in a gesture to affectionately appeal to him. Putting his quill down and finally looking at his superior's eyes. "I couldn't fucking take it anymore." The metaphorical bomb is dropped. "We have no officers that can do any paperwork, all the captains are idiots, and the rest of our… friends are too busy elsewhere. I'm just one person managing all this!"

"Okay yes, but this can compromise our entire operation!"

I share a look with Hobask and Pedle, they are kind of speaking like we aren't even here.

Pedle shrugs his shoulders in a "What?" Expression.

The quartermaster replied "Don't care, come here yourself to help with all this stuff if you are so against it. Our entire group is made out of vagrants, half-wit peasants, honorless mercenaries, and vultures. Nobody, and I mean nobody, worth their salt would stick around, they see this sinking ship for what it is."

They glare at each other.

"Um… should I leave?" I timidly raise a hand.

"Yes!" "No!" Two voices bark back. I flinch.

I gingerly stand up and swiftly drag Hobask and Pedle with me. "Um… I think I should leave, so… bye?"

"WAIT! MISS PLEASE DON'T GO!" I hear the desperate cries of the Quartermaster.

"GIL COME BACK HERE YOU VERM!—" The sound of scuffling is muffled as we leave the vicinity of their tent.

For a moment we keep walking in shared silence.

"I feel like I've just seen something I wasn't supposed to." Hobask finally says it out loud.

We all nod to each other.

——— –– –– -- - -

[Years ago]

。。。

It was a day like any other.

The men and women toiled away at their fields, the hunters resided in their cabins deep in the forest, the children played, the cattle were led to the pastures.

The children talked about the future, about games, about love.

An old hunter warned them off to not go too deep into the forest, he always said that when they visited him.

The village wasn't special, settled in the middle of two large hills that concealed it from afar.

They weren't short on food or necessities, so the children were allowed to be children while their parents completed the day's tasks.

There was no Lord or Lady to govern their little slice of land, from time to time, someone appointed by the King showed up just to see if they still existed. Sometimes they called themselves viceroy, other times some sort of military title, or a prestigious officer.

The village carried on with its daily affairs.

…

It was a day like any other.

The men worked, a pair of people eloped, the children grew up. Children were born.

The old hunter in the woods passed away, with nobody to call him family, the old cabin became abandoned, and then a place for the children to secretly visit to play sometimes.

Then the King's men came.

But for some reason, a battalion of armed and armored soldiers arrived with them too. And the officer was someone they had never seen before.

They demanded the villager's food, men, and money.

Because it was what they owed them for living in their land they said, because they must pay taxes, because it's a given that they must offer their fruits as tribute, because the king demands it.

Someone protested.

They were beaten down by fists and boots clad in steel.

So the king's men took away their food, their money, and their families.

Yet still, some hoped that they would be left alone after this, that their families would return safely and healthy.

A few months passed.

The king's men arrived once again.

This time, another unfamiliar face, more soldiers. The armed men were undisciplined and rowdy.

They demanded food and shelter. Occupied the chief's house since his' was the biggest one in town.

The chief's daughter died that day, taken away to bed by the soldiers.

A child who had seen it all screamed and protested, cursed the evil men with all the words they knew and raged. The child had their legs broken.

The village doesn't have a doctor, the child will never walk again.

And so, the king's men took away their food, their money, and their families once again.

…

It was a day like any other.

Everyone in the village had to work so that they lasted the next winter.

The men that left them never returned.

Some whispered of leaving the village, to become hero-like adventurers just as the stories said. To leave the kingdom for another country.

But too weak, they were. Too poor. Without knowledge of the land or how to fend for themselves against the dangers of the world.

Then one day, armed and armored men came again into their village.

This time, however, they weren't part of the kingdom's army.

The men were undisciplined and rowdy, and took residence in the new Inn that had been built last year for travelers and occasions such as this.

They spoke of freedom, of justice, of taking what is rightful theirs and to strike down at the unjust ruler. Sweet words of liberation and safety. Promises of power, high echelons if they achieve combat merit on their campaign, coin, women and wine.

That is, if they contribute to their cause.

The children, roused by the honeyed words and filled with angry resentment, curious of changing their life for the better and tasting the luxuries few could dream of, followed after them.

Families fought, they did not want to involve themselves with anything anymore, simply awaiting what fate demanded of them.

Friends parted ways, they did not want to live in squalor and hard work everyday anymore.

Everything was stripped down, what they could carry on their backs and then they left. The ones left behind, survived as best they could.

…

It was a day like any other.

The soldiers came again.

There was nothing left for tribute.

They were accused of fostering traitors.

Then, there was nothing left.

And so, the king's men took away their food, their money, and their families. For the final time.

。。。

The child then, a man now, rose out of his stupor.

He had liquor in his hands, a pouch full of coins, and he had just bedded a good wench earlier.

For a fleeting moment he thought of that old village, of lost friendships, and wondered where they were. How they were. So far away he was, so distant he grew, he seldom remembered his birthplace.

He had liquor in his lips, a hefty weight by his hip, and was feeling pleased with himself.

Never would have he tasted all these things if he had stayed in that dump. Their loss.

So he abandoned those earlier thoughts, and wondered when would be the next time they would "visit" a town.

——— –– –– -- - -

Hobask, Pedle and I go to a line of people being served stew from someone nursing a huge pot nestled above a firepit.

"We could not find you anywhere, the last place I thought you would be was getting warmed up by the Quartermaster himself. How did that happen?" Hobask says.

"...warmed up?"

He blinks slowly, then comes to a silent realization but doesn't tell me. "You know?... Getting close? Keeping the bed warm?"

.

.

.

"WHAT?!" I sputter out loudly.

Everyone in the immediate vicinity looks over.

"Shh! Shh!" I do a weird motion of covering his mouth and grabbing his throat at the same time.

"Ghuk!"

"Why are you covering his mouth if you are the one that yelled…?" Pedle mutters out loud.

I'm dying inside. "You shut up too!"

"Ghck!" Hobask is dying inside too, but literally.

"O-oh! S-sorry! But I'm not doing anything like that!" I say with visible revulsion.

Hobask coughs a few times. "Right… never making that joke again near you…"

"I'd prefer if you didn't talk like that at all."

We move up the line a little. People's attention is more drawn to us than usual.

"So? How'd you end up there?"

"Oh, that. Well I can do some math and organization, the poor Quartermaster looked like he was going bald with distress."

Hobask and Pedle stared at me.

"What?"

"Are you sure you aren't an aristocrat?" Hobask said with a suspicious look.

"How many times do I need to repeat myself, no I'm not!" I throw my hands up. "Stop it! Really!"

Pedle is picking his nose, I blink at him and recoil in disgust. "Sorry but you aren't doing a favor to yourself with what you told us so far."

"Just because I'm well educated doesn't mean anything."

"It does…" Hobask begins but he sees me raising my staff threateningly "...*ahem* suit yourself."

We moved up the line, some people overheard us and now are whispering to each other.

Something acrid stings my lungs, I sniff the air wrinkling my nose. "Why can I smell smoke?"

"Hm? I don't smell anything." Pedle says.

"It's probably because you have that fat finger up your nose." Hobask punches his shoulder. "Isn't it just the cooks over there?"

"No… firewood has a different smell." I slowly spin around, sniffing the air.

"You can tell?" Hobask is surprised.

I give him a glance, then return to looking around. "Yes? Wasn't you h—"

I pause for a moment, I was about to refer to them as "you humans", as if we were separate species.

To think that I grew distant enough from what I was then to have such a degree of separation… A slight feeling of discomfort washed over me. And it wasn't wrong either, technically I'm not human anymore… I don't know what I am.

"Smoked foods." I shake my head. "Isn't there many different types depending on what is used to make the smoke? They smell different too."

"What, are you a fancy connoisseur?"

I blink twice, and raise an eyebrow as I mouth what he'd just said. "What's that? Con-no-i-se-ir?"

For a moment Hobask becomes lost in his thoughts. Just where in the world does this woman come from? He wondered to himself.

"Meh," He waves his hand side-to-side "It's an Parinsian thing. I think it's meant to be someone who is knowledgeable about something, usually people say that when speaking about food but I'm not too sure where the word comes from." He taps his chin. "Never thought about it before. It's one of those weird words people always use."

"Huh, that's neat."

We moved up the line.

"Ah finally! I've been starving!" Pedle rubs his hands together eagerly

"What do they put inside that pot?" I ask out loud.

The people manning the distribution gave a bowl and a piece of hard bread for each person.

Pedle shrugs "I dunno, tastes good enough I guess. I never bothered to ask."

I take a tentative sip.

"It's… alright. I guess." There's potatoes, flour, and some veggies mixed in. It's mostly made out of a mix of starch, grains, a pitiful amount of greens, and a sneeze of protein in the form of thin strings of what I assume is meat from somewhere.

It is a cheap and easy to make food to feed hundreds of people, or maybe someone just threw whatever they had in hand on a pot and called it a day.

Hobask is contemplatively staring at his food.

I poke him. "Something wrong?"

He looks down at me, and sees a pretty girl looking at him with upturned eyes from his point of view.

For a fleeting moment, he feels like grabbing her hand and running away from this place. But the idea quickly fades away as he blinks. If it were a normal human girl maybe he'd try his luck, not only that but She was… She was too good for him, he settled on.

"What is it that you put on our food that made it taste so good?" He mouthed out weakly as he put a spoonful of food on his mouth solemnly.

"Hmm?..." I scratch my cheek. "Other than preparing most of the ingredients myself, there is this mix of spices and herbs I have that I put in everything. Doesn't matter what, it at least turns anything palatable even if cooked badly." I've got to thank Crocus for that one.

"I don't think I'll ever see food the same way again… compared to that… this is slop." Hobask said glumly.

Pedle comments "Ith ishn't that bad." He gulps. "I could eat this stuff for days!"

"That's because your tongue is ruined by all the mud you ate as a child." Hobask rasps out in an angry mood.

"How'd you know that!?"

"...I didn't." Hobask blinked. "A lot of things make sense now." He nodded in a serene manner to himself, as if reaching a grand conclusion.

For a little while, I watched both of them bicker harmlessly as we ate our food.

It felt nice, this. Having friends… Or are they my friends? There was never a point where that was affirmed, I sort of just stuck around and assumed we were in a more than amicable relationship.

Now the intrusive thoughts laid their seed on my head. I kept wondering to myself if they were just tolerating me, since I had saved their lives. Was I too pushy into wanting to follow after them? They couldn't really do anything about it since I demonstrated that I was a mage and could defend myself.

The noises and murmuring voices around us didn't help either, I had been trying my best to ignore them. But people kept constantly making statements about my identity and relationship with these two, and the Quartermaster who I had been seen with earlier.

"Ugh…" I weakly make a noise. Suddenly losing my appetite.

Nobody notices.

By the time they've finished their own conversation and their food. I still had barely touched mine.

"Hm? Seyun did you not—"

"Fire!!! FIRE!!! SOMEONE GET THE BUCKETS!" A scream fills the area.

——— –– –– -- - -