บท 4: New Beginnings
Indeed, everything was different.
If Tanya had known she'd be dropped in the middle of a preindustrial civilization, she would have taken either of the other two options.
Aqua was likely to know more about this world than Tanya, since Tanya had never been to a place like this and that girl probably had at least a passing familiarity with the world she sent people to, and the Shapeshifting ability would have been much better here, where bureaucracy was more limited and she could claim to be whoever she wanted.
Speaking of her options…
She felt the top of her head, and found the so-called 'Circlet of Greatness.'
She held it up to the light of the sun, studying it.
It didn't form a complete circle, like a hat or crown might, but it instead tapered off to two points near the back of the headgear. It was richly decorated, with the metal, seemingly woven like cloth, forming sculptures of wings, clouds, and other things commonly associated with heaven.
Tanya scoffed at it. Some of the metalwork resembled spirals and geometric shapes, and those portions were fine. But the rest of it looked quite… tacky, especially with the light the metal seemed to produce.
Tanya couldn't tell what sort of metal it was. It seemed to shine more than even a highly polished piece of metalwork in the sun should. She didn't know what it was, but she was fairly certain it definitely wasn't normal.
Well, she knew it wasn't Mithril. She…
She shook her head violently. She couldn't dwell on the past. She had too much to do.
Sighing, she attached it to her belt. It wouldn't be wise to wear something like that here. She might be mistaken for royalty, and while she'd learned some basics of royal etiquette the two times she'd personally met the Kaiser, this world could have entirely different rules.
And it likely did.
Well, first thing was first. She needed to ensure her mana still functioned like normal. If she couldn't access it, for some reason, she would be completely doomed. About to activate a simple formula, she cast a suspicious gaze around.
She was garnering a few odd looks from the people passing her by, but nothing more.
Wait, there were pedestrians here?
She confirmed it. Yes, these people seemed to be milling about.
That meant that this place might not be as rural as she thought. Laborers would likely be working in the fields right now, considering how labor-intensive agriculture was without the help of advanced tools.
She was in some sort of city, then. Nodding to herself, she began to stroll about, quietly analyzing the buildings and people around her.
None of them seemed particularly scared or worried, which boded well for her. The Demon King and danger were likely far away, enough that the people here only felt a small minority of his effects.
She kept walking, soon arriving at an area that seemed to be less on the periphery. The small areas of grass she had seen earlier had now disappeared, giving way to an area of the city that was densely packed and filled with people.
Tanya searched the buildings for some sort of alleyway or area where she wouldn't be interrupted or seen. Magic hadn't existed in her first world, and it had been seen as more of a branch of science in her second. She didn't know how it might be seen here.
For all she knew, it was illegal to all but the highest classes.
She ducked into the alley, dogging past the scraps of trash. Her nose didn't even twitch at the smell; she had encountered far worse on the frontlines.
Within a second, she began to work through the math required for a Reinforcement formula, flexing her limbs to get a feel for its power.
She studied her movements, and noted the drain on her mana. It was…
Larger.
Doing something like this was supposed to be trivial. She'd used something similar in her classes in order to be at the top of the class even before they'd been issued Computation Jewels. This shouldn't have done too much to her mana! But now…
The loss was noticeable.
Tanya scowled. The well, magic was harder here, then. That limited her options, unless she wanted to call on the Type 95's help.
She wouldn't be able to zip around the battlefield like she used to, and the best of her arsenal would be limited to a few uses a day, if she didn't pray to Being X.
The light filtering in from the streets was suddenly cut off, and Tanya scowled. She was trying to think, and having someone interrupt her thoughts was decidedly… annoying.
She quickly dispelled the Reinforcement formula and turned around, only to tilt her head in confusion. Someone was blocking the street, staring at her. He wasn't saying anything, either.
He wore shabby clothing, even by this time's apparent standards. They were a patchwork of other, once better clothes, and seemed to hang about his body. He was hunched over, and though Tanya couldn't make out his face, she thought she saw a flash of… orange hair.
The one good thing about the man, appearance wise, anyway, was the scabbard at his side. While not ornamental or anything, it seemed well cared for.
"Can you move it, buddy? It's kinda dark in here," she said in a relaxed tone, waiting for his reaction. He just grinned, and drew a long knife from the scabbard at his side.
"Are you lost little girl?" he asked, advancing towards her. Tanya didn't move an inch.
Right… she still looked like a little girl, and now she wasn't well known throughout the land thanks to propaganda and being flung from front to front.
In the Empire, people hadn't questioned her on who she was, after a few years of service. They accepted that she was an elite soldier after a simple introduction, most of the time.
He was seemingly disconcerted by her lack of reaction. Eyes narrowed, he stepped towards her again. "Now, now, little noble girl. Don't cry or anything. Just come with me, and I'll bring you back to your parents."
Tanya snorted. Really, this thing thought he could take her?
She might not have been dressed in any sort of battle gear – she'd need to fix that once she found out where she could get clothing – but she could definitely take care of this loser.
The creep seemed even more confused, but he continued to advance, nonetheless.
"Listen here. I have better things to do than to beat you down, so if you leave now, I'll pretend to never have seen you," she supplied. She doubted the man would comply, and she really honestly want him too.
She wanted to test a few formulas out, and this schmuck – someone willing to kidnap children – would be a perfect test dummy.
He didn't look important, and no one would look for him.
He peered at her, for a moment, until he began to crack up. Loud peals of laughter issued from underneath the man's shabby hood as he doubled over. She didn't take her eyes off his sword. She wouldn't risk this being a feint.
He straightened up, looking towards her once more. "Awfully brave, even for a noble, since you don't have any weapons. Now come along," he said, motioning his sword towards her.
She just smirked and pointed at him while pouring mana into a formula, deciding that she would kill him.
He seemed to violently flinch as she began to grin at the feeling of mana coursing through her, but before he could do anything more, she began to work through an Explosive Vaporization formula to send towards the dumbfounded man.
She didn't want to destroy the buildings around her, after all, and that formula would be a perfect test.
As the mana continued to build up, she became worried when the formula didn't shoot out of her index finger after a long ten seconds. He was glancing at her with a confused look on his face, but she was saved from any further confusion as the formula completed itself, albeit while draining more mana than usual.
The man was now rushing away from her, fear apparent on his now visible face. Tanya gulped, and hoped that the extra start time for the formula wouldn't translate to a formula that could damage the buildings around her. She pulled the mental trigger and watched as the ball of light left her finger and propelled her backwards.
It flew towards the man.
In an instant, his torso and head were consumed in a ball of fire. His forearms fell to the ground, the sword that had been clutched in his hands clattering as the scabbard was set flying away.
Tanya attempted to rise for her position, panting slightly.
She grimaced as she walked towards the sword and picked it up. It seemed that she still needed Reinforcement formulas to brace against the recoil, and it also seemed that any formula she tried to use would cost more mana here.
Tanya swung her new sword as she walked towards the entrance to the alley and picked up the scabbard.
Now, she had a weapon. It might not have been much, but it would work in a pinch. Hopefully, she'd get a gun, but if she couldn't…
She shook her head. If she could reinforce her body beforehand, she could pack enough punch with just the sword to defend herself, if nothing else.
She continued to look around the alley, and found the singed cloak of the man. She searched it, glaring at the garment.
It was beyond filthy, of course, but she soon found enough to justify touching the thing. A small pouch of money and a smaller dagger were quickly added to Tanya's belt.
Now sure that she had taken everything, she headed back into the street.
Instead of vaporizing the man and the rest of the five feet of alleyway left between him and her, it only destroyed his head and chest it a ball of fire. The rest of him quickly fallen to the ground.
That was hilariously underpowered for the mana she had poured into it. It seemed her thoughts about her powers being weakened were correct. Though, that problem would be solved if she used the Type 95…
She shook her head. She wouldn't fall for that temptation. It wasn't worth it.
GROWL!
Tanya blinked and looked down at her body. Her grumbling stomach reminded her of what she needed to do.
Find somewhere to eat.
--OxOxO--
After concealing her weapons, Tanya had utilized her cuteness and still-high-pitched voice to ask pedestrians where the center of the city was. They'd been strangely accommodating, spouting off about "the town of beginning adventurers."
Others had been quite… apprehensive of talking to what appeared to be a twelve-year-old, which was a bit odd.
She had eventually gotten clear directions, despite everyone's varying reactions to her.
She'd woven between the streets, marveling at what she saw. It was relatively peaceful, and people didn't seem all that concerned. Maybe this place was more advanced than she had thought?
There were public areas of recreation, after all. She'd seen what looked like a park, and a lot of the buildings had trees and grass in front, like the typical American home.
Maybe they just looked like peasants?
Regardless of the oddities of the people around her, It hadn't taken long for her to reach where she'd been directed to. She needed to find somewhere to eat, sleep, and get information. She didn't really have that long to look, either.
The sun was beginning to set.
So, she followed another group of people who had weapons. She saw a few swords, some sort of quarterstaff, and a bow. Hopefully, if they were going to rest here, she could too. They headed towards an inviting building, and she followed them, noting its appearance in the case that this was somewhere worth spending her time, should she stay in the town.
It was, from what she could tell, a fairly large building compared to the buildings around it. The outside was some sort of brick, while a number of windows dotted the outside of it. There was some sort of sigil on the front of it. Maybe it was for the person that owned it?
A red-tiled roof topped the building off. The group pressed inside, but Tanya didn't when the sound of breaking glass echoed from inside. Now cautious, she cast one last look towards the merchant stalls in front of the building before walking in and pushing past the doors.
Tanya peered inside, mouth agape as she stared at the interior. It wasn't what she'd expected.
Instead of some dimly lit room, with tables and people strewn about in whatever way they desired and a low hanging ceiling, it was fairly open and well furnished.
The stone floors, instead of mismatched cobblestone or uneven floorboards, was made of some sort of polished stone, arranged in a clear pattern. The ceiling was far above her head, a large statue stood in front of her, and potted plants decorated the entrance to her right and left.
Instead of candles, some sort of lantern dotted a pathway, illuminating the interior. In neatly arranged tables, groups of people, in various states of dress ate, talked, or laughed.
The food…
It looked delicious, and it looked modern.
There had not been much recognizable fare in the Empire. None of it was like anything from her homeland, and even the overseas products that were available in Japan, like hamburgers, were nowhere to be found in that world.
Here, however, she could see salads and fish that were so very different from the meaty diet most soldiers got that was only occasionally bolstered by soup, bread, and, during a particularly memorable month, sawdust.
She smiled in remembrance. Viktoriya had stomached the worst of the sawdust-bread and 'meat' that was just animal hide so that Tanya would get more nutritious food, in the hopes that she might grow a bit.
She shook her head and continued to look around. She could see what looked like an actual hamburger clenched in the hands of a large man who was devouring it with gusto.
Like many people in the room, the man was wearing a bizarre arrangement of clothing. Others wore varying pieces of armor or no metal plates at all and simple cloth.
For the most part, Tanya could say one thing about all of the attire: nearly all of it looked like it was straight out of a video game.
Really, who wore metal armor on their arms, leather pants, and bared their chest? That didn't seem particularly protective. That said nothing about the extremely impractical armor she saw one of the females wearing.
Tanya didn't think there was any reason to wear nothing but a few measly strips of cloth besides a desire to show off.
Above all of them, in the rafters of the building, was a skeleton of some sort of creature. Who would put something expensive like that in an area where drunk people could damage it?
"Welcome! If you're here to…" trailed off a light, airy voice coming from in front of her. Tanya looked down from the ceiling.
Someone wearing a typical maid uniform, excepting the muted green colors that highlighted the white apron she wore, had greeted her. Tanya looked up, passed the person's clothes, to look at her face.
"Er… are you looking for your parents, little one?" she asked, looking around.
Tanya's wonderment quickly passed. This world wasn't like the other two, and it had exceeded her expectations of what an actual preindustrialized world would be. So what?
"I am here to eat, ma'am," she declared while glaring at the girl. Subtly, Tanya shifted her weight as she rested a hand on her newly-obtained sword.
Tanya had forgotten how it felt to have people constantly question you because of your age. People had gotten out of the habit of it during the war, either because they knew of her and her record, or because they knew her personally.
No one that had known her personally dared to describe her as a child to her face without being ranks above her.
The pseudo-maid merely tilted her head. "But you're no older than twelve," she stated.
Twitch.
Tanya sighed, body drooping. On the bright side of the unfortunate fact that she didn't look older, if they couldn't tell that she was sixteen , then at least they were likely advanced enough to not consider malnourishment – and, consequently, underdevelopment – the norm.
Of course, it was also good that they didn't think she was even younger.
When she had gotten her first taste of alcohol, the owner of the beer hall had thought she was ten. It had been humiliating.
Just then, their fledgling conversation was ended by a rude interruption. Both the maid and Tanya looked down.
Tanya's stomach loudly protested not being allowed to eat delicious food when she could see so much of it. Tanya turned red in embarrassment, and held up the bag of money she had been given by Aqua.
The maid directed her to one of the tables, and Tanya trudged towards it silently.
She handed Tanya a menu, and she felt an eye twitch at the options.
Lizard and toad seemed to be common, while more regular items, like beef and fish, were all priced fairly low compared to those… oddities.
She shook her head. This world had menus and restaurants, but it didn't know what good food was. Who ate toad , besides the François?
After a while, the maid came back, and Tanya placed her order while hoping her stomach would stay silent.
It did, and the food soon arrived, leaving Tanya to mope over her situation with the comfort of food.
She had decided to dive into her homeland's cuisine – her original homeland – first. They had looked at her weird for the specific way she wanted the fish and rice prepared, but she couldn't care less.
It was truly wonderful to finally eat something that didn't taste like it had made with sawdust or shoe leather, and while coffee and sweets were nice, she had been deprived of other familiar food for far too long.
"So. What job do you have?" came a voice from her right.
Annoyed at being interrupted, Tanya turned, glaring at the person and raising an eyebrow. She knew the effect of her stare was likely decreased by the fact that her mouth was stuffed full, but she didn't particularly care.
A twenty-something man stood there, grinning down at her. His hair was blond.
Not like her own hair, which was a muted yellow even in the deserts of the Southern Continent, but so pale it could pass for white on a sunny day. A deep red jacket, complete with zipper for the neckline, hid most of his body, while bandages covered his forearms. Some sort of choker wrapped around his neck, and red eyes peered down a short nose at her.
She grinned idly. If this world had zippers and jackets, then maybe it had guns?
It wasn't likely, of course. She'd seen a number of people who were carrying around swords, spears, and other truly archaic weaponry, which meant that she might have to find some gnarled stick to use as a scepter until she could find a way to make a proper gun.
As Tanya thought about her situation, the silence stretched on. The man seemed perfectly willing to wait. Until, after ten seconds, Tanya finished her mouthful of food, set down her utensils, and raised an eyebrow at the man again.
He merely grinned at her. "See, my party's taken a bet. Taylor and I think that you're some sort of warrior, Keith thinks you have a rogue-like job, while Lynn, bless her generous heart, thinks you aren't an adventurer," he explained, motioning towards each of them in turn.
Taylor was the tallest of the bunch. She had short brown hair and some sort of headband, a piece of armor over his left shoulder, and a necktie, of all things, while a sword longer than her own stolen goods was strapped to his back.
Keith wore an outfit similar to Dust, with longer dark hair and a blue jacket with white fur as lining. He had a bow and, presumably, a quiver strapped to his side.
The last member of their 'party' wore a green jacket, a cape, and wore her long hair in a ponytail. Tanya didn't see any weapons on her.
As she studied each of the people he had pointed out, Tanya's eyebrows were furrowed. Rogue-like? Warrior? Adventurer ?
Tanya let the silence continue to go on as her face continued to scrunch up, trying to think of an excuse or a reason that such… video game-like words were being used to describe jobs. Was the language she'd been given faulty?
She'd seen something on the menu proclaim the fish had been freshly grown earlier that month, so it was a definite possibility.
Seeing her face grow concerned, he waved his hands in front of him in a calming gesture. "Oh, we won't rat out on you. We don't care if you aren't an adventurer and have that sword anyway, I just want my money," he said, a bit of panic overcoming his face. "I have a few debts with them, and I'll be free if you're some sort of warrior."
Tanya, meanwhile, had a conclusion. Maybe the language was approximating words that she knew that meant the same thing. That was certainly a passable explanation.
She turned her attention to the panicking man and the people behind him. He seemed to be trying his best to calm her down and they seemed awfully mad at him.
Oh. They must have thought he was going to make her cry or something. Judging by the motions he was making, he thought so too.
Well, she wouldn't let them down. She let tears – of frustration at yet another situation she didn't understand, of anger that she had been separated from her past life again , and of sadness that her friends were most likely dead – well up in her eyes.
She knew exactly how she'd get information, and she'd have a nice, long, stress-relieving cry as well.
Tanya laughed. Internally. Outwardly, she began to bawl like the baby she hadn't really been only sixteen years prior.
--OxOxO--
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