“Finally…”, an exasperated voice leaked out from a young girl’s mouth as she closed a book and leaned back into a chair.
“...This book was so not worth staying up late for…”, the young girl drowsily grumbled, yawning and resting her eyes.
“It’s not the worst I’ve ever read but, it’s not that good either…”, she said, slowly dozing off. “Everything about it… was just… decent. Nothing good or great… just decent…”.
The girl began swaying slightly and ended up thumping her foot against her desk. “...Ah.”
Now awakened from her trance the girl turned off her dim lamp, laid the book on her cluttered desk, and headed towards her bed, ready to sleep, albeit slowly. “I really shouldn’t have listened to the 5-star reviews. But it looked so appealing…”
Now snug in bed, the girl finally closed her eyes… But the moment her eyes closed she felt a difference in her surroundings so grand that even the word “change” would be a vain description.
The soft and somewhat springy sensation of her bed had been replaced with a coarse and grimy texture. And the air, which should have held a minor odor, was now filled with a variety of scents ranging from garbage to mildew and even animal waste.
Sensing the new environment, the girl sprang up and spent a moment, lost in thought, observing her surroundings.
Eventually, the girl came to her senses. “What… is going… Where am I?”
After a few seconds of observation, the girl found that she was in an alleyway. To her left, she saw a wall and to her right, she saw the alleyway’s entrance and exit. As the girl started to think about why someone would kidnap her, she froze.
Some indescribable stimuli drew her attention, having been her first time experiencing it she was left speechless.
The girl had almost exited the alleyway, wanting to find the source of the stimuli but stopped in shock as she saw a man, with black hair, average height, and attire, carrying a duffel bag on his shoulder. The man hadn’t noticed her and simply walked out of her sight, seemingly just an ordinary person. The girl would have just chalked him up to being an ordinary guy, if not for the blade hanging at his side.
The girl’s heart rate skyrocketed and she instinctively stepped back into the alleyway, muttering to herself in stress. “What the?! That guy’s got a knife! Where the hell am I?!”
For a minute, the girl stayed in the alleyway until she was sure the man with the blade had walked away. She eventually crept towards the alleyway’s exit and found that the man had disappeared and only a few other people were on the street out of the alleyway.
“Okay… Guy with the knife is gone…”, now out of the hallway, the girl had a chance to fully observe the street the alleyway led out of.
Nothing from the environment stood out to the girl as out of the ordinary. It was the kind of street you could find in any city.
“Hmm… Nothing here really points out where I am. And I don’t have my phone so I’ll need to find a police station or something like it to get help”
The girl had begun walking towards her left. “The guy with the knife was heading to the right. While there isn’t a reason to hurt me, I’d rather be safe than sorry…”
The other people on the street watched in curiosity as the girl left the street.
****
****
“Urgh”, the young girl groaned as she walked down the street in pain. The discomfort from walking barefoot had set in for the girl after she began walking for a few minutes.
“Where am I?”, the girl mused to herself, somewhat fatigued.
“While I’m not exactly extroverted, I still recognize my town and this is not it… Am I in another…”
As the girl continued talking to herself she paused and once again perceived the indescribable stimuli.
The stimuli was radiating from a woman who passed by her, giving her a look of curiosity before she passed and entered a building.
“That girl, she… had the same… vibe as the knife guy…” the girl muttered in shock, looking at the building the woman entered.
The girl had found her attention stuck to the building. In comparison to everything she’d seen so far, the building felt familiar to her. She was confident she had never seen or entered the building before yet something in her head clicked when she saw it.
“W-wait…”, after some thinking and recollection the girl finally found her answer on where she'd seen the building, but the answer was…
“Impossible… N-no way!”, the girl exclaimed.
With her heart pounding and her body shaking the girl began to tread toward the building. As she approached the building she sensed the “vibe” it gave off. Like that of the woman and man with the blade though vastly larger in comparison.
Despite feeling the “vibe” the girl gave no thought to it, her entire being focused on the building and confirming the answer she came up with was wrong.
As she reached the door the girl hesitated for a moment, her sweat started building up on the door handle as she roughly gripped it.
Then, a man exited the building and glanced at the girl gripping the door handle.
“You alright kid?” the man asked in a concerned tone.
“I-i’m fin-”, as the girl responded she froze when she gazed at the man.
The man was tall, around 6 ft (182 cm), with dirty blonde hair and brown eyes. Though the man’s most notable feature was a scar along his neck to his left cheek.
The girl let go of the door handle and stared at the man with a pale face.
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“I’m… I’m…” The girl’s words trailed off and before she could put them together she wobbled and then fell.
*****
*****
“...Hmm…”, grumbling, the young girl awakened slowly, finding herself in a plain room and on a small, but clean, bed.
The girl spent a few seconds gazing around the room before coming to her senses.
“It… wasn’t a dream huh…”, the girl muttered as she swapped looks between the unfamiliar room and the soot-like stains on her pajamas.
The room the girl was resting in resembled a simple bedroom rather than a hospital room.
The girl’s eyes were now directed to the room’s door. But what caught the girl’s attention was not the ordinary door but the indescribable stimuli or feeling beyond it. She could tell the feeling was a collection of separate feelings rather than just one mass of feelings if that made sense.
“It’s the same as the knife guy and that lady…”, the girl muttered before letting out a deep sigh.
“Looks like I’m in that damn novel… Did I get isekai’d?”
The girl got out of her bed and approached a small mirror in the room.
The young girl stood at 5’2 ft (157 cm) dressed in a slightly oversized t-shirt with dark purple pajama pants. The girl’s hair, which reached her shoulders, was a mild red and was messy in style, though its messy state wasn’t new to the girl. The girl’s face looked ordinary, nothing about it stood out that could particularly be called beautiful or ugly, besides her eyes. The girl’s eyes were hazel with a myriad of green, gray, and gold, and additionally held an unchanging tired look that made her seem tired at best and creepy at worst.
“I look the same, plus I’m wearing the pajamas I went to bed in so I don’t think I died and reincarnated or transmigrated into someone’s body… Then was I summoned?”
The girl was now away from the mirror and prancing back and forth.
“If I was summoned, that raises 4 questions.
1. Who summoned me?
2. Where’s the summoner?
3. How was I summoned?
4. Why was I summoned?
In the 3 books in the series I’ve read, no character was capable of summoning anything so I have no idea about #1, and without the answer to #1 I can’t find any concrete answers for the other questions…”
The girl took a seat at the small desk in the room and began gnawing at her nails in frustration.
“Well… It’s not like answering those questions is an immediate concern. I need to focus on how to get through this story’s plot”.
The moment the girl finished speaking the door in the room opened and the scarred man entered the room.
“So, you’re awake. You feeling okay?”, the scarred man asked in a neutral tone.
“Uh… yeah”, the girl timidly replied, her thoughts left in disarray.
Holy shit… that’s Daniel… A real-life version of him… Though he looks a bit different.
“Alright. Do you mind giving me an explanation of what happened?”, Daniel questioned, showing subtle curiosity on his face.
Uhh… How the hell am I supposed to explain how this world is a novel series and I’ve been summoned into it?
“U-um… Well…”, the look of confusion and hesitation as well as the young girl’s lack of an answer was enough for Daniel to understand how complex the girl’s situation was.
“It’s clear you’re in a difficult situation. As long as you aren’t in danger it’s fine if you don’t answer”, Daniel clarified.
“Really? Thanks…”
Thankfully he isn’t pressing me about this. I don’t think I could lie to him and get away with it…
“So where am I?”, the girl asked, despite the part of her that already knew.
“This is the Mercenary Union’s HQ, or rather just the one on the Aries Continent. The room was in one of the spare rooms in here meant for the high-ranking members of the Union, one of them by chance let you use the room”
“Okay…”
After a few seconds of scrutinizing Daniel asked the girl.
“So, do you need anything?”
“Um… Some clothes, shoes, and a notebook would be nice”
“Alright”, Daniel said as he turned towards and left the room.
“Wow… It felt… weird talking to him, especially when I was just reading about him not too long ago”, the girl muttered.
Daniel was a minor character who had a more prominent role in the 3rd volume of the series as the Protagonist's mentor, training her in swordsmanship.
***
***
About an hour had passed and the young girl’s room had been filled with a bag of plain clothes, a notebook, and a pen, as well as a backpack and a bottle of water, courtesy of Daniel. The young girl in question was laying on her bed, somewhat exasperated while thinking aloud about Daniel.
“Daniel has been surprisingly nice compared to how he’s written in the 3rd volume. Then again he had a kid in the novel, so I guess my age made him sympathetic toward me. But now that I’m thinking about Daniel in the novel… He looks kind of different”
“There are few negligible changes to his hairstyle but the most notable change is his scar… It was described as dark and faded, but Daniel’s is pink and looks kind of new… Wait…”, something in the girl’s head clicked and she rushed towards the desk in her room.
The girl clicked her pen and began vigorously writing in her notebook.
“Daniel doesn’t completely match his description so there are 2 possible explanations I could think of. Either what I read isn’t 1:1 with what’s happening in this world, in which case I’m screwed. Or the events of the novel haven't happened yet!”
Suddenly, the girl stopped writing in her notebook.
“Wait, I probably shouldn’t be writing this down in English”
After crossing out what she had already written the girl started writing down important events and plot points in the novels, all in Tagalog.
“...Thank goodness Mom taught me Tagalog. If someone reads this then they could use it to change the story’s plot, or just link the future events to me, both of which could get me killed…”
Within the novel, a standard language was spoken by almost everyone, and that language happened to be English, though there are different dialects, English is the common language.
After 30 minutes the girl dropped her pen and sighed in relief. Inside the first few pages of her notebook was a simple summary of the first 3 books of the novel series she’s inside of. The summary included the general plot, random events, and basic character descriptions.
“Now I need to figure out how far I am from the plot and plan accordingly. Daniel doesn’t look all that different from his illustration and description so I’m just likely not far from the start. His scar looks recent and would take maybe a year or two to fade like in the novel. So at least a year before the start?”
The girl once again began gnawing at her fingernail.
“With that in mind, what the hell am I going to do to survive? Daniel’s cool but he has his own kid to take care of, and it’s not like he’s swimming money so I can’t rely on him long-term. Plus who’s to say this room’s owner won’t want it back at some point?”
The girl stood up from her chair and stepped to her window, observing the various apartments outside it.
“I’ll need money to get my own place and essentials, but even money and a private place won’t be enough. Things get very dangerous for civilians around the 3rd volume with monster invasions, and since the novel didn’t describe any ”safe” areas I’m bound to run into a monster at some point”
“While I could hire a bodyguard, a competent one will be expensive and if things get rough they’ll prioritize themself over me, so I can only rely on myself…”
The girl had turned from her window to the door and began paying attention to the sensations past it.
“I’ll need to become a combatant… Well, it’ll be a while before the 3rd volume begins so I should solve my money problems first”
The girl walked to her bed and fell on it in thought.
“This world is a lot like Earth, besides the fantasy stuff, so I can’t “invent” stuff or “create” any businesses from Earth and become a millionaire. I don’t have any skills or special abilities that could make me any money, and a normal job would take too long to save enough to become a combatant”
The girl got up from bed and sat at her desk and stared at the journal on it.
“Information is my only way to make money fast enough, though I have to be careful. If I sell something too significant I could end up causing the story to deviate from the original plot, which will bring an unknown future even quicker, endangering me even more. Let’s just look at treasures”
In her journal, the girl circles the only two treasures in her outline.
-The Flower of Life is discovered by and absorbed by a Noble in the Combat Institute who developed incredible regenerative abilities afterward.
-The main character takes on an A-rank quest with her party to deal with a stronghold of undead monsters residing in the Husviel Region of the kingdom. Underground at the end of the stronghold she finds a sword charred black stuck in the ground. This sword is capable of changing its gravity at her will, though is unmovable to everyone besides the main character.
“I’ll give up on the gravity sword, although the protagonist probably can get through the 3rd volume without it, she might need it in, what would be, the later volumes and there’s no reason to weaken the likely savior of the world. Plus how would I even sell it? Then there’s the Flower of Life…”
The girl started touching her hand taking notice of how soft, as well as how easily it’s been injured in the past.
“If I find and sell the flower I’ll be able to solve my money problems but if I use the flower I’ll get a regenerative ability. That'll be a way to heal myself without healing potions or magic, both of which are expensive as hell. Then again it could just be a small advantage like accelerated healing… but when my life is on the line I'll need to make use of any advantages I can”
With no remaining treasures, the girl had decided on looking for events to sell information on.
“Hmm… Any event I can profit from will cause changes to the plot… Should I really just sell the flower? Nah, I’ve already changed the plot by interacting with Daniel, and I’m bound to change it more down the line. Though I’ll need to make sure I don’t doom the future or bring myself an uncertain future even quicker by making large changes”
After searching through her journal the girl finds one event that fits within her conditions.
-The Light King Gaul dies and his old laboratory in the Aries Continent loses its illusion and is discovered and raided.
“There… in the raiding of the laboratory the Protagonist doesn’t find anything of importance, it was more so for her to test her skills and gain some experience. I can make enough by selling the location and time of opening, plus there just wasn’t stuff important for the protagonist, maybe there’s something I can use?”
The girl took a sip of water, got out of her chair, then lay in her bed for a bit, thinking over her plan aloud.
“Alright. Since the flower was found somewhere within the Combat Institute I'll have to enroll before I can get it. So first I’ll sell the info about the laboratory and then use the money to enroll”
The girl had closed her eyes and now began trailing off.
“Combat Institute is the best place for training so I’ll get stronger… find the flower somewhere in between training, graduate… then, I’ll be… set. How simple…”, the girl said ironically as she finally began to doze off.