*Shing!*

Mika drew her sword and whipped her body around to face the entity that just spoke.

“Ack! I’m sorry if I surprised you, but you shouldn’t go down there!” The squeaky voice cried out and walked out from behind the bushes allowing Mika to get a good look at her stalker.

A child, seemingly no older than 10, with long blonde hair and large blue eyes, appeared in a cute mini-skirt. Mika didn’t have the heart to threaten or kill a child, so she slowly lowered her sword, but then out of the corner of her eyes, she spotted something weird about the child.

She had long, pointy ears that were clearly not human.

Her vigilance increased, and she raised her sword again.

“Who and what are you?” Mika asked with narrowed eyes, pointing her sword at the girl. Too many things in this jungle might want to kill her. She wasn’t about to be tricked just because the thing in front of her had the appearance of a little girl!

The sight of a 5 to 6-year-old child wielding a sword would normally be a comical sight, but Mika’s slightly murderous aura from living in the jungle and the cold look in her eyes caused the unknown girl to flinch.

“M-My… My name is A-Aerin Galadher, and I’m an Elf,” The girl, Aerin, introduced herself.

However, this left Mika even more confused, “Elf? What’s that? Is that a different kind of human?”

Naturally, Mika would be confused as the closest thing she’s seen to a human, other than an actual human, is a monkey. She’s never heard of or seen an elf before!

“A-An Elf is an Elf! We’re not humans!” Aerin answered, but that wasn’t the answer Mika was looking for.

“Then why do you look like a human with pointy ears?” Mika questioned, examining Aerin’s body, trying to spot anything else unique.

Aerin’s face turned red as she didn’t know how to answer that.

In the end, she just pointed at Mika and countered, “Why do you look like an Elf without pointy ears?!”

Mika opened her mouth to rebuke her but didn’t know what to say. If all Elves looked similar to Aerin, then it’s true she would look like an Elf without pointy ears.

Mika shook her head and decided to change the topic, “Okay, let’s forget about that for now. What are you doing here, and why’d you warn me not to go down there?”

However, after glancing at the basket full of flowers and unknown mushrooms, she partially understood what was happening.

Still, Aerin answered, “I went out of the village to gather flowers and mushrooms! That’s when I heard footsteps I’d never heard before and decided to follow you, but when you started walking toward the abyss like a dummy, I had to stop you, “ She glanced at Mika like she was looking at an idiot, “The grandpas in my village said anyone who walked into the abyss would be lost forever. I don’t want to see a little girl like you lost forever. That’d be too pitiful.” She shook her head slightly.

Mika’s eyes twitched at being called a little girl by a little girl, but she couldn’t deny that as her current appearance was that of a 5 to 6-year-old child.

However, Mika took notice of a few keywords that Aerin said.

“You said you lived in a village? You actually live in this jungle?” Mika questioned, but then something occurred to her, “Wait a minute! Since when were you following me?!”

Aerin tilted her head and pondered, “I don’t know. Maybe an hour or so. Why?”

Mika’s eyes sank, and she felt her confidence take a hit, “How… How were you able to do that without me knowing?”

Question marks seemed to appear over Aerin’s head, “Hmm? Because I’m an Elf?”

Mika’s eyes twitched again as that response wasn’t helpful at all.

“Ugh! Whatever! Can you tell me more about this village of yours? I’ve lived in this jungle for a while but haven’t come across anything like a village.”

Aerin thought for a moment but shook her head. Mika was a little disappointed, but she couldn’t threaten the girl for information, now could she?

However, that changed when Aerin spoke, “I need to make it back to my village before my parents get mad, but if you want, I can bring you with me.”

Mika nodded and didn’t hesitate to agree, “That’d be great! Please take me to your village!”

She sheathed her sword and walked over to Aerin, letting her guard down completely.

‘What can this innocent little girl do anyway?’

Aerin smiled now that Mika had sheathed her weapon, but her slightly malicious aura and dirty appearance made Aerin want to keep her distance. Though, Mika wasn’t nearly as scary as the various beasts in the jungle, so she wasn’t too bothered by this.

“Alright! This Big Sister will take you to her village! Hehehe~” Aerin puffed out her chest and declared.

Mika nearly tripped, hearing Aerin call herself Big Sister, “I’m not calling you that, Aerin.” She said in a stern tone. Or at least she tried, but the voice of a 5-year-old girl doesn’t sound very demanding.

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“By the way, my name is Mika Zoller.”

“Nice to meet you, Mika! My name is Aerin Galadher!” Aerin chuckled as she reintroduced herself.

Mika sighed and felt like the trip to Aerin’s village might be more annoying than she initially thought.

“Now that we’re friends, let’s go to the village! I can’t wait to inform mom and dad that I found a stinky, homeless baby in the forest! Maybe they’ll even give me a present for saving you,” Aerin said as she turned around and walked through the jungle.

Mika’s eyes twitched again.

‘Haaa… Don’t get annoyed. I’m the adult here. She’s just an ignorant kid. What kind of person would I be if I got mad at a kid who was saying nothing but the truth?’

Mika kept repeating this in her mind as she wasn’t used to being around kids.

Unfortunately, she underestimated a child’s curiosity.

“Why are you wandering the forest alone? Did a stork accidentally drop you while delivering you to your parents?”

“I… What? What’s a stork?”

“Why are you covered in poop and mud? Is that your preference, or does your nose not work?”

“...”

“Is that sword real?”

“...Yes.”

“Do you use it to kill beasts?”

“...Yes.”

“Why do you need to kill the beasts? Can’t you just eat the nuts, berries, and mushrooms?”

“.......?”

“That’s a pretty dress you have!”

“It’s called a Kimono.”

“Kee-mono? That’s a weird name. I’ll have to ask mom and dad about it when we get to the village.”

As she led Mika through the jungle, Aerin bombarded her with a seemingly endless torrent of questions, many of which she wasn’t sure how to answer.

Luckily, the walk to Aerin's village only took around 15 minutes.

When they finally appeared in front of the village, Mika’s eyes went wide, and she stood there in awe.

‘I feel like I’ve been constantly surprised by things ever since I reincarnated.’ Mika thought, but she couldn’t help it.

There are so many new sites to see and new things to experience in this world, each one greater than the last. For example, right now, she’s standing in front of a literal wall of trees.

Mika has seen how walls or fences are made around a regular village. They would cut down trees, chop up the wood, and craft it into something that could be used as a fence. But this village, instead of using chopped-up and processed wood for their walls, use actual trees!

What’s even more impressive is that the trees are right next to each other, with only a few centimeters in between each trunk.

The village looked like an impenetrable fortress!

“Woah!” Mika unconsciously let out a gasp.

Seeing Mika’s astonishment, Aerin chuckled, “Hehe~ Isn’t my village amazing?”

Mika nodded.

‘I wonder how these so-called Elves were able to make the trees do this. Is it magic? Or is it their superior knowledge of the jungle and environment?’ She would be amazed either way.

Suddenly, as Mika was examining the village walls, two tall, blonde, handsome men with blue eyes and pointy ears appeared before her and Aerin, pointing their weapons, a bow and a spear at Mika.

The one with the bow spoke up first, “Aerin. Your parents have been worried sick about you! They thought something might’ve happened since you didn’t come home at the usual time!” He scolded Aerin, then turned to Mika, “And who is this child? No. More importantly, why’d you bring her to our village?”

Aerin snorted and stood in front of Mika to protect her, “Hmph! This is my friend, Mika Zoller! She was about to jump into the abyss, but thankfully, I made it in time and stopped her! Then, we became friends! But I can’t have my friend stinking like monkey poo, so I wanted to bring her back to the village to give her a good bath.”

The two guards sighed at Aerin’s behavior, but they couldn’t exactly fault her for it. She’s just a kid, after all.

“Zoller? I’ve never heard of that name,” The guard with the spear then turned to Mika, “Where are you from, little human girl? How’d you end up this deep in the jungle?”

Mika’s ears perked, and she grew expectant! She had almost forgotten she had finally come across sentient beings who might have an idea where her home was!

“Hello, my name is Mika Zoller. I come from the Zoller Dukedom in Elysium. There was a mishap in the capital, and I was forcefully teleported away. Unfortunately, something went wrong with the teleportation, and I ended up in this jungle. I’ve been living here for almost a year. Do you guys know how I can get back there?”

The two guards were a bit taken aback by her attitude and words, which didn’t match her appearance, but assumed it was probably due to the environment. Looking at her muddy and smelly appearance and the sword on her waist, they could imagine her life hadn’t been easy.

Like Mika was with Aerin, they couldn’t bring themselves to harm her and lowered their weapons as they began to think about her situation. However, they both shook their heads.

“I’m sorry, little one. I’ve never heard of the Zoller Dukedom or Elysium. I only know a few of the Human Kingdoms around the jungle, and Elysium isn’t one of them.” The bowman answered, causing Mika’s head to drop in disappointment.

However, the spearman was curious about something else. He stared at Mika curiously, “Is it true you stayed in this jungle for a year by yourself?”

Mika nodded with no intention of hiding it.

The spearman’s eyes widened, “How is that possible?! The jungle isn’t a place kids like you can run around and survive by yourselves for over a year! Even our Elven children can’t move around freely until they’re at least 10 years old!”

Mika wasn’t quite sure how to answer that. The key factor in her survival is the System. Of course, she’d also been training incredibly hard to increase her chances of survival, but having a constant supply of nutrient-rich serums from the System kept her in peak condition every day.

“...I’ve trained as a swordswoman since birth, and my father taught me survival skills early so I could fend for myself if needed. Luckily, I hadn’t come across anything I couldn’t handle.” That’s all she was comfortable sharing, but it technically wasn’t a lie.

In her previous life, she had learned basic survival skills from her father, and in this life, she’s been training ever since she was in her mother’s womb!

“I see…”

The two guards were suspicious of her answer, but they could sense she wasn’t lying, so they decided to stop questioning her for now.

‘We’ll have to report to the chief about this little girl.’

Ultimately, they moved out of the way and let Mika and Aerin enter the village.

“Go see your parents immediately, Aerin. They’re worried about you!” The bowman said, then turned to Mika.

“As for you… We will notify the chief about your arrival, and he’ll decide whether it’s okay for you to stay. For now, Welcome to Parf Edhellen Village, Mika Zoller!”