It’s Sudden, but I Came to Another World! – C1

1 – For the time being, I want to meet people.

Right, so that’s why I came to another world.

I think, normally, I should start by explaining how I ended up in another world from my everyday life using recollection scenes or something like that.

But since it’s embarrassing to talk about it to other people, I’m going to omit it.

I will say that I am a Japanese man from Earth, but I won’t say anything beyond that due to privacy issues…

“No, it’s not the time to be talking about prologue like that”

Description of my current situation. Inside a forest in another world. That’s all.

When I realized it, I was already in the middle of a forest. No, perhaps it’d be more accurate if I say I’m in a dense thicket on the gentle slope of a mountain. By the way, if you’re wondering how did I know that I’m in another world, that’s because of the trees before my eyes.

They have a translucent trunk that allows a faint view of the scenery on the other side. So I wondered if there was a forest on Earth that has such a fantastic view where the whole area is faintly illuminated by luminous leaves.

Ah, if such a place exists on Earth, please tell me where. I would like to go traveling after my retirement.

“By the way, it’s been about 20 minutes since I was immersed in the view.”

Five minutes for being impressed by the beautiful scenery. Five minutes to regain my composure and start thinking where I am. Five minutes to start thinking that this is not the Earth, but maybe this is another world. And another five minutes to review the trees and relax my mind.

I better get started soon. First, let’s check my own condition.

“No physical injuries. I can’t see any sign of deformation or the appearance of a crest like a typical fantasy development. I can’t feel something like magical power surging inside me. Things at hand… nothing”

I didn’t have anything on me because I was just taking the garbage out of my home. I don’t even have my smartphone, and my wallet wasn’t even filled with money from Earth. No, there’s at least one paper bill.

But it looks like I was just suddenly sent to this place without any kind of side effect. There was no isekai-reincarnation bonus, after all.

No, thinking about it calmly, I didn’t die—I was just sent to another world, so this is isekai-transition rather than reincarnation pattern.

Apparently, it is night right now. It is dark as pitch above the trees.

I can also see a star-like object that is several times larger than the moon that can be seen in Japan.

I’m sure it’s a satellite of this planet just like the moon because I can see the phase, and the fact that the satellite can be seen makes it natural to think that this planet is also formed just like Earth in the solar system.

There’s only a thin probability that something like Earth exists. So there would be nothing more convenient than to think that I was transported to another world.

“—by the way, isn’t it a bad idea to walk around in a forest at night?”

One way to know the direction at night is to look at the celestial bodies, but because it’s another world, the arrangement of the stars is obviously different. Finding something like the Orion or the Big Dipper is, of course, impossible.

Thinking about it calmly, even if I figured the cardinal direction, I wouldn’t know where to go since I don’t even know where I am.

So I can only go forward. Fortunately, the plants around here are glowing, so it seems safer than walking in the forest on Earth at night.

“I should praise myself for wearing sneakers to take the trash out instead of slippers.”

I found something for a fact after randomly walking for about an hour. Apparently, this is not a forest but a mountain.

Wherever I proceed, the level is constantly changing, and as I continue, I can gradually see the shape of the mountain.

As I expected, this is a mountain with a gentle slope, and it seems that my starting point was near the top of the mountain.

The first pointer is to go down the mountain. Next is to find a river.

What I came up with while walking was, of course, a method to survive. I plan to eat nuts as foods and drink night dews as water to survive, but since I’m not a natural-born survivor, my limits are bound to come.

To be honest, drinking raw water is rather scary, but that will be the last resort. The reason for finding a river is more to determine the direction rather than to hydrate myself.

If this planet is the one that hasn’t been explored by humanity, then there’s nothing I can do about it, but if humanity and civilization exist, the river can be the basis for it.

Great ancient civilizations also flourished by cultivating around rivers that have nutrient-rich soil. I want to believe that this principle is common even in another world.

“But here comes the problem.”

I muttered in a tiny voice.

I can see in a distance, but yes, there’s a bear. An extremely huge bear.

The bear I saw at the zoo didn’t even reach two meters, but this bear is at least four meters high.

Were they nocturnal? Aah, this forest is bright. Of course, there’s no problem.

It’s about 20 meters ahead, but I could see it clearly.

Well, I can see it clearly because it’s bright. And the bear is looking over here~. I think it sees me as a target~.

I’m thinking while I feel the valuable experience of having a frozen spine.

What should I do?

Play dead? I’ll just be easy prey.

Escape? Kuma-san is on the downhill side, and there’s no way I can escape to the opposite direction since uphill-chase is a bear’s specialty.

Fight it? Not a chance, even if I had a hunting rifle.

In the meantime, the bear slowly approaches while growling.

Think. Think and quickly find a solution. Right, there’s that method!

“Na—naisu to meeto yuu?”

The bear roared. Apparently, the western greeting is not acceptable.

Start running as fast as I can go?—well, I can’t do that. My legs are shaking, and I can’t move.

The bear who recognized me as easy prey started to run after me—or not.

The bear was swallowed by a dripping greenish-yellow liquid all of a sudden.

I wonder if the liquid that easily swallowed the whole body of a four-meter-class giant bear is highly viscous since it starting to form a sphere instead of spreading on the ground.

Along with the bear’s sorrowful cry, a frightening sound is emitted from the liquid, and the inside of the liquid gradually turns black.

That is blood. The blood of the bear looks black because it’s mixed with the liquid. The bear’s fur, skin, and flesh are also melting at an abnormal rate. The liquid has a will, and it’s eating the bear.

“…it’s a slime.”

If you’ve ever played fantasy RPGs, you’ve probably known it.

The thing in front of is that. It doesn’t have cute eyes and mouth like a certain famous game, but it certainly doesn’t look like a monster with a single-digit experience point.

The bear’s agonized scream echoes throughout the forest as it desperately tries to escape from the slime.

However, it soon became quite as the slime entered into its mouth.

“Uuu…*Bleeergh*! *cough* *cough*!”

Seeing such a gruesome, emotionless, eating scene made me feel nauseous.

Had I seen this after a meal, I’d surely vomited, but I only felt the pain of gastric juice burning my throat.

However, after coming to this point, I finally realize the fatal mistake I made.

The slime started to move to my direction, probably because it had reacted to my cough.

I should’ve quickly escaped while the bear was being eaten. I regret watching it and even making a stupid sound like that.

However, it’s moving slower than the bear’s walking speed. If so, I can just run away.

“——!?”

My body jumped sideways out of fear before I could even think.

The place where I was a moment ago was swallowed by the slime.

The speed reminds me of a ruptured water balloon or a water cannon.

The slime shows no reaction to its failure, and it begins to move towards my direction again.

Again, it moves slowly. I feel like I’m being played even though it has no emotion.

My body doesn’t stop trembling. The bones of the giant bear, which was a threat up until earlier, didn’t even remain.

I’m starting to realize that this might be the last few minutes of my life.

“A… Ah…”

I was engulfed in fear, and I can’t even let my voice out. Then I throw a stone that I randomly picked at it.

However, the stone I threw with a lack of composure flew through without hitting the slime. It flew past through the slime and made a fine sound as it hit the trunk of a tree.

And then the slime blows up.

“…?”

The slime jumped towards the tree behind it.

The tree collapsed due to its overwhelming size.

Then I saw a strange sight.

“Is it eating the tree…?”

Then I inferred that the slime reacts to sounds. Or maybe it’d more accurate to say that it feels the vibration rather than hears the sound itself.

It attacked the bear who was roaring, and it reacted to my coughing sound, and the next moment it attacked me.

And just now it attacked a tree that was making a loud noise.

I looked around and picked a reasonably-sized stone; then, I got up.

Maybe the slime realized that there was no prey in the place where it jumped, and then it started to move again as it reacted to the sound of me standing up.

Then I throw the stone that I picked to the furthest tree while trying to make as little noise as possible, and it hit the tree.

The slime reacted, and it leaped to the direction of the sound, and the tree collapsed just like earlier.

At the same time, I started to run as fast as I can.

“Haa… Haa… Haa…”

I looked behind repeatedly to see if there’s something chasing me, and for fear that something might be there, I threw a stone at a nearby tree while running away.

I don’t know how far I ran.

I leaned against a tree and breathed heavily as I was totally exhausted.

There’s a tinge of light in the sky, and when I realized, the scenery of the magical forest has been changed into that of a forest with common brown and green trees.

It’s wonderful to be alive.

That’s great—but why am I in such a situation?

Why was I transferred to such a world?

According to the popular books I have read, there’s always a reason behind another-world-summoning like this.

Of course, this body has no unique characteristics whatsoever, and I’m not a hero descendant either.

If there’s no particular reason, it’s quite possible that I was summoned by accident.

God’s whims and mishaps, summoning failure, and so on.

It can be a mistake or a failure or whatever. I just wanted to see the summoner’s surprised face in front of me. Abandoned in the mountains is too much for me.

“Become a hero, defeat the Demon King, or create a harem with a bunch of beautiful demi-human girls, or whatever, just please let me live safely…”

Well, it’s no use complaining to someone who isn’t here. Let’s proceed after taking a break.

I didn’t notice it until I calmed down, but I can feel the presence of the ordinary living creatures here and there.

There’s the voice of chirping bird, spider nest in a gap between trees, and, of course, there are no translucent trees around here.

I wonder if no decent animal is living in that place because that slime inhabits there. And that bear just wandered by chance or something like that.

But why was the bear carelessly wandering in the place where the slime that sits higher than itself in the food chain resides?

“Anyway… I’m tired.”

I let myself enter the dreamland as I muttered so.

---

A meeting was taking place at the castle in the Kingdom of Tiez.

The knight captains donned in their shining silver armors, and the elites who serve the King of Tiez, they all were present.

And of course, the King of Tiez, Maritt Tiez, himself.

Maritt is a man of great caliber who inherited the throne and took the role of an active King at an early age of twenty-five.

Only two years after he became the King, he solved various domestic problems and gained tremendous support from the people.

However, a troublesome issue occurred, leading to the meeting right now.

“Was a merchant without escort attacked again?”

“Yes. The horse-drawn carriage we escorted passed through without a problem, but it seems that those who followed were attacked, and only the corpses were left.”

“Although they reaped what they sowed from being a pinchpenny, it’ll be a bad example if the merchants that bring benefits to our country were attacked.”

The neighboring country, the Kingdom of Garne, changed their King a few years back, and due to his competence, the crime rate around Garne has been dramatically reduced.

However, as a result, the bandits and other criminals have flown here.

Unlike Garne, where the plains spread out, in this land with many mountains and forests, there’s no problem with campsites, so there’s a lot of bandits hiding in the unexplored parts and attacking the travelers whenever they have the chance.

Under Maritt’s discretion, the knights have been stationed around the castle town and the surrounding villages to prevent any further damage. However, it is still difficult to make the road safe.

Although it is possible to dispatch the knight as escorts from the government, it will naturally cost money and labor. And there are not enough personnel to provide it free of charge.

When it becomes so, merchants and travelers will hire adventurers, but the size of the adventurer’s guild in the Kingdom of Tiez is rather small, and they lack the number of personnel due to the strong influence of the knights.

The adventurer’s guild in other countries might have sufficient personnel, but it’s impossible to force other countries to send escorts.

As a result, people were trying to travel without escorts and end up attacked by the bandits.

“If the likes of bandits dare to attack, I will purge them with my sword…”

Said one of the knight captains, but Maritt just sighed it off.

Indeed, the abilities of the Knights in the Kingdom of Tiez are incredibly high. Even a few of them will be able to deal with more than a hundred bandits.

However, the bandit is also aware of it. When the knights are escorting, they don’t appear at all.

It’d be a battle that they can’t win by fighting fair and square. In a sense, it is natural.

“In order to purge the bandits, it is necessary to grasp their whereabouts. Is there anyone here with a plan to break out of this deadlock?”

And like that, the knights were unable to say anything. Previously various ideas were proposed, and although many of them were adopted, they all ended up failing.

The sly bandits always slipped through the knights with their predictable pattern of conduct.

“I know that we have failed in mountain hunting three times. But if we have a better grasp of the situation, I’m sure we can get a result… well, for the time being, I would like to choose someone who will be responsible for dealing with the bandits who became more aggressive as of late. Is there someone or a candidate you would like to recommend?”

If this were any other task, the knights would’ve taken the initiative. However, it seems that they understand the difficulty of this issue, as several talented knights captains have already failed.

And then, Lord Ragdaux, the oldest among the knight captains, raised his hand.

“My king, there is someone I would like to recommend.”

“Sir Ragdaux, is there someone here you’d wish to recommend?”

“No, it’s not someone here. However, everyone knows that she has a remarkable ability. I would like to recommend Ilyas of our squad.”

The face of the knight captains become slightly displeased as such a name surfaced.

“Are you talking about Ilyas Ratzell? Is that right?”

Maritt knows Ilyas very well.

If it’s about Ilya’s ability, then she is a person of talent that will not lose even to a knight captain in swordsmanship, and there’s nothing to be questioned about her loyalty to the country.

However, her reputation was never high. The reason is——

“If it’s [her], I’m sure she’ll come up with an idea seen from a different perspective.”

“Very well, I will give you one month. I will leave this matter to you.”

Pride may be involved in not wanting to admit the heights of her ability. Only a few knights accepted Ilyas, being a woman. Sir Ragdaux is one of the few people who think highly of her, but being a part of the minority, he cannot establish a firm position for her.

If Ilyas succeeds in subjugating the bandits, her reputation may change, but if she fails, she would likely be looked down even more.

Maritt also appreciates Ilyas, but he also knows for a fact that she’s a legitimate knight. There’s also some concern about whether this would work against those sly bandits.

It would be nice if something could bring her towards a bright future.

Said Maritt in his mind as he was anxiously worrying about her future.

TOC | Ch 2