Death comes without warning.
At the hands of the weakest monster, a horned rabbit.
"Ugh."
The pain in my abdomen, pierced by the rabbit's horn, was unbearable.
Looking around for someone to help, I was met only with mocking laughter.
"Hey, look at that guy."
"Did he really get stabbed by a horned rabbit?"
"He doesn't seem too badly hurt. A bit of salve should do the trick."
To think they could be so indifferent towards someone dying.
It seemed excessive, but then I remembered, in this world, adventurers don't die from a mere hole in the stomach.They had the miracles of potions and healing magic.
Of course, as someone from 'another Earth,' this was none of my concern.
'It's so unfair.'
Does the lack of mana really make such a big difference?
As I lay there in pain and despair, looking up at the sky, someone approached me.
"Seriously."
It was a girl, visibly annoyed.
She was a top ranked adventurer, dispatched from an high level guild to protect novices.
"Do you know you're famous around here as a homeless person?"
"Me...?"
Was I really a known figure in this neighborhood?
I wouldn't know; no one ever spoke to me.
"You're always causing trouble like this. If you don't have the talent, you should look for other work."
"I'm sorry..."
I wanted to look for other work, but I didn't have an ID.
My mana-less body was significantly weaker than the people of this world.
I had no choice but to earn money in the beginner's hunting grounds, which was a struggle for me.
Despite the unfairness, I needed the girl's help to survive.
All I could do now was silently accept her reprimand.
"Why do you keep doing this? The guild can't keep bailing you out."
"I'm really sorry..."
I lowered my eyes in shame under her scolding.
Perhaps pleased with my submissive attitude, she refrained from further rebuke.
"Alright, let's check your condition. Do you agree?"
"Yes..."
I nodded weakly, and a translucent window appeared from her fingertips.
The ability to view someone's physical information was extremely rare, and this girl possessed it.
"You have some bleeding."
As she read through my information, she suddenly stopped.
Her eyes were fixed on where my gender was listed.
"A woman? You were a woman?"
She seemed genuinely surprised.
My gender had been hidden under dirty, unkempt clothes, and now that it was revealed, I felt a sense of unease.
'This is bad...'
Eight years ago, when I first came to this world, I inexplicably became a young girl.
Though it's embarrassing to praise my own appearance, my current looks were 'angelic', to say the least.
The problem was that I had no home, no identity, and no mana.
A perfect target for terrible deeds.
Knowing the brutality of the people in this world, I had no choice but to disguise myself as a man to survive.
"No wonder you looked androgynous..."
The girl muttered to herself as she continued to read my information.
Then, as if on cue, both the girl and I expressed our doubts simultaneously.
""Eight years?""
In the space where my age should have been, 'eight years' was written.
Did it mean I had been in this world for eight years?
I could make sense of it, but it seemed the girl in front of me couldn't.
"Your age is listed as 'eight years'? What does that mean? You're not eight years old, are you?"
"Me, ei-eight..."
I've been living in this world for about eight years.
I wanted to explain this to the girl, but the pain in my stomach was too severe to speak.
Barely managing to extend eight fingers was all I could do.
"You're not eight years old, right...?"
"Me, eight years... ack."
Blood gushed up my esophagus.
The blood dripping down my chin stained my shirt red.
"Ah..."
Am I really going to die like this?
As my eyelids grew heavy and closed, I could hear the girl's frantic cry for the last time.
"You're not eight years old, are you?! You aren't, right?!"
---
Heya new novel by me! Raei!
Not a trial novel, fully picking this up, will probs get up to ch15-20ish first before doing 4 or 5/week.