"―What's the matter? Why'd you suddenly space out?"
"Hah―?"
A middle-aged man with stern features called out to him, and he absentmindedly responded as such. This response caused the man's already creased brow to wrinkle up even further as he scowled.
"I'm asking a question here! Are you going to buy the appa or not?"
"Hah―?"
"The appa! You wanna eat it, right? You came here saying that and then your eyes suddenly went blank which was quite the shock. Anyway, how about it?"
He was very muscular and had a scarred face, but in his palm was a lovely red fruit. He mentally compared the man's face with the apple-like fruit he was holding out,
"Ah, you see, I'm completely broke."
"… Seriously, you're just browsing? Get outta here! I'm running a business here, I don't have time for window shoppers."
The man shooed him away and he obediently left.
He― Natsuki Subaru examined his surroundings and,
"Eh? Eh? ―What's going on here?"
In his confusion, all he could do was toss out that question directed at no one in particular.
The main street was crowded as usual, except for the occasional passage of a lizard-drawn carriage, the road was filled to the brim with pedestrians.
The sun was still high. The temperature wasn't quite what he'd call hot, but looking at the humanoid wolf walking by― Should he call it a werewolf? Looking at its fur, thoughts such as "Sure must be hot, huh?" floated across his mind. They did, but,
"This ain't the time to be acting like some sightseeing country bumpkin. Umm, what is this?!"
He grabbed his head and twisted his waist. As he performed this full-bodied pose displaying his distress, a number of curious gazes were directed at him.
These gazes felt extremely familiar to him. Just a few hours ago, there were several people staring at him in much the same way― Or rather, in the exact same way.
"Right, several hours ago… It should have been."
As he said this he looked around again, and then up at the sky after which he tilted his head.
The sun was still high. As far as Subaru remembered, the sun had just been setting.
This feeling wasn't unfamiliar to him either.
When he first came to this world, he saw night turn to day. So that much wasn't new, but there was one clear difference this time.
"My wound… Is gone."
He whispered as he rolled up his jersey and confirmed his abdomen's condition.
He had been torn up by what he assumed was a huge blade, spraying blood and viscera all over the place, and yet there were no signs of this having happened to him. Since he had no scars, there were obviously no traces of blood on his jersey either.
In fact, his well-used jersey didn't even have any dust or dirt stains. The convenience store bag in his hand was in good condition, and his pocket still had his phone and wallet. He was back at square one, in every sense.
―It felt like he was going crazy.
"Just being summoned here was already too much for me, what's going on now…"
As far as his missing wound was concerned, he'd already seen what Satella was capable of so he wasn't confused on that front.
However, he'd clearly sustained a fatal wound in the loot house. It was so bad he was sure he had died when he lost consciousness.
If even an injury like that could be healed, it seemed to him that this world's magic could even revive the dead.
"Guess the value of life drops quite a bit then… Wait, who was that back then?"
Realizing that he could see something in his hazy memories. Subaru fervently tried to remember what had happened right before he lost consciousness.
Right, he was dying with his gut split open. There was a woman's voice, he thought.
He'd come across a corpse in the loot house, and then he was attacked by the presumed killer. And as he was on the verge of death―
"That's right, Satella!"
The silver haired girl had ended up entering the loot house to check on him.
Having remembered what he'd done, Subaru was filled with regret. She had clearly warned him not to try anything on his own, that he should immediately call to her if anything happened.
Those words weren't merely out of worry for him. They surely also meant that he should inform her if the situation seemed dangerous.
And yet when it came down to it, Subaru failed to even raise his voice. As a result, not only did he fail to escape himself, even Satella got wrapped up in the tragedy.
As he drowned in his own blood in that darkness, he definitely saw the assailant cut her down.
She collapsed into that sea of blood the same as him, and stopped moving before he did―
"Damn it… Didn't he say he was leaving her to me?!"
He remembered the words Puck said to him right before he disappeared.
Those weren't words spoken lightly. Subaru himself didn't take them seriously enough, and as a result things went exactly the way Puck had feared.
Despite all the warnings, Subaru had completely failed to notice anything and missed his chance.
His present situation was the end result of this.
Tossed out onto the streets totally unaware of what was going on, he didn't even know if they were safe. He was now at a complete loss.
"Am I some kind of moron… No, I'm definitely a moron. I don't have time to hang around sulking. For now, I'd better look for them…"
The two might even be dead― Subaru shook his head to rid himself of this terrible thought.
He was completely useless, with not even a single redeeming feature. He'd even say he was nothing more than a waste that simply converted oxygen into carbon dioxide, and yet he'd survived.
That being the case, he couldn't imagine that that magic using super kind, super helpful, not quite upfront about her feelings and yet so virtuous beauty and that aloof and mysterious oddball of a spirit had died.
Or rather, he didn't want to imagine it.
"Anyway, for now I'll…"
―Head to the loot house, Subaru decided.
Since that was where he'd lost consciousness, he might be able to find some hints there.
Once he put his mind to something he'd immediately start doing it. Here too the speed of his decision-making shined. "I'm not going to school anymore" was usually the sort of decision he was making in his old world, but right now it would prove useful for him to move quickly and without doubt.
However, his determination was―
"Yo, kiddo. Let's have some fun."
Three men blocked his way out of the alley, clearly intending to give him a hard time.
.
.
'Holy shit… that demi-woman has some huge boobs.'
Altair kept walking, not even bothering to hide the thought from himself. Bored and stripped of any real purpose, he was just wandering the streets, soaking in—or putting up with—the weather.
One of the reasons he was ditching his workout lately was simple: he was bored out of his mind. The other was that his training was starting to feel like a broken record. Sure, he could pull off one spell from each element now, but the "mastery" part? Yeah, not so much. Definitely not ready for battle. Maybe good enough for bluffing, though.
However, The Flow Method or whatever it's called, was different. It had acutally shown some results. The only thing keeping it from being perfect was… well, him. If his days kept going like this, he wasn't sure how long he'd keep it up.
He wasn't exactly the type to grind himself into the dirt. Unlike those isekai characters who popped into a new world and their inner david goggins instanly came to light, he didn't have some inner drill sergeant forcing him to sweat every day. The excitement from the first few days or so had cooled off. Not gone, just… enough to make him lazy about it.
Reading was still fine, though. Not like it was a real hobby of his, but it was something to do. And the history here was way more interesting than the crap schools back home made students memorize.
For now, walking around was the best way to pass time—scenery, fresh air, and the occasional eye candies to admire. He was halfway through staring at a woman's thick thighs when his ears caught something faint.
It wasn't loud. Probably wouldn't have been heard by a normal person at all. But thanks to whatever boost his body had—half-elf ears or something else entirely—he caught it clearly.
A guy's voice, somewhere nearby.
"—ried away, you bastards!"
Altair slowed, head turning. 'Wait, what was that?'
Sounded like the kind of yelling you heard right before a mugging. Just like what happened to him a few days ago.
The direction didn't look promising. Just a shop wall. Which meant the noise was probably coming from some narrow alley beside or behind it.
He stood there for a moment, then sighed. Boredom always made the choice for him.
And he was very bored.
'Guess I'll go check it out,' he thought, already walking toward it. "Yep… definitely the dumb decision."
.
.
By the time Altair turned into the alley, the fight was already over.
Three guys were laid out on the ground like trash left out for collection—one short like a cranky kid, one tall and bony, and one with just enough muscle to make losing even more embarrassing.
The guy standing over them had a plastic bag dangling from one hand and was wearing a plain tracksuit.
A tracksuit.
Altair froze for half a second. Nobody here dressed like that. The fabric, the cut—it screamed modern world. The plastic bag was just icing on the cake.
'Well… holy shit,' he thought. 'This guy's from the modern world too, huh?'
Not that it really mattered. There wasn't any reason for him to be concerned.
Sure, Altair could spot someone from his world thanks to what they wore or carried, but he'd been brought here differently—teleported straight into another body. Which meant there was no way this guy could figure it out, unless Altair went and slipped something obvious.
The boy's adrenaline was wearing off, his stance loosening a bit. Before he could walk off, Altair decided to speak up.
"You sure made quick work of these guys, didn't you?"
The raven-haired boy flinched, clearly not expecting someone to sneak up on him.
He turned sharply toward the voice. "Yeah… you got a problem with that? Who are you, anyway?" The words came out sharper than he'd intended, and he winced almost instantly.
He'd barely managed to win just now thanks to catching them off guard, and picking fights with strangers wasn't exactly smart.
Luckily, Altair wasn't the type to take offense over nothing.
"Relax," he said, raising his hands, palms out, in a harmless gesture. "I just heard some noise and came to check it out."
"…Right. Okay," the boy replied, his tone easing up.
"Anyways, I'm Altair. What do I call you?"
"Ah—sorry for snapping at you just now, heh." The black-haired boy scratched the back of his head, already sounding more casual. "I'm Natsuki Subaru. Just Subaru's fine."
'A Japanese name, huh?' Altair thought.
The reason he came to check this place out was due to boredom and to see some action, and now that all of that was mostly over....
"Well… guess I'll let you get back to whatever you were doing," Altair said, already turning away. "Not my business."
Subaru blinked, like he'd expected more questions. "…Right. Uh, thanks for not causing trouble, I guess."
Altair gave him a lazy two-finger wave over his shoulder. "Don't mention it."
And just like that, they split—Subaru heading off with his plastic bag swinging at his side, Altair strolling back toward the busier streets.
No point prying into some random guy's mess, even if that random guy was from another world just like him. He had enough of his own to deal with… and besides, if fate had a way of throwing weird people in your path, they'd probably bump into each other again sooner or later.
.
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