When I Woke Up, Someone's House

That day, for Aihara Runa, was one that began in a fairly ordinary way.

While Runa was sleeping in the storeroom as usual, her foster father suddenly came in and dumped boiling water all over her.

If I remember right, her foster father had been drinking all night and had just come home in the morning.

Her foster mother had scolded him for it, which put him in a foul mood, and that's why he did it.

I think that's how it went.

And once she was awake, Runa took a thorough beating until her foster father's mood cleared, then fled the house as if escaping and headed for school.

Well, it happens a lot. It happens all the time, this kind of thing.

No point wearing a gloomy face first thing in the morning. Smile, smile, smile, smile!

On that usual route to school, Runa met her.

A transfer student who had lost her way.

The only person who had ever taken Runa's side in a previous life full of nothing but enemies.

The person who had invited her with a dazzling smile: ‘Let's be friends!’

Her, name was, if I remember right......

◇ ◇ ◇

“............”

I snap my eyes open.

“......!?”

I was asleep!?

I, was asleep!?

How long was I asleep!?

Where is this!?

Am I under attack!?

I leap up in a panic.

The duvet that was covering me floats lightly through the air.

【Body Strengthening】, kept running.

【Magic Sensing Threads】, deployed.

Combat-ready, so I can kill whatever comes at me in an instant.

Up, down, left, right, eyes on every direction, on guard.

The floating duvet drops quietly to the floor.

............

Floor?

Duvet?

Huh?

There's a ceiling.

There are walls.

Huh?

I'm not in the forest?

Huh?

Where am I?

Once I calm down and take a look around, it seems this is someone's house.

It's a small, wood-paneled room I can't exactly call grand, but it's clean, bright and well kept.

There aren't many things.

In the corner of the room sit several baskets that look like they're woven from straw.

“............”

When I calm down and take a good look at myself, I, have been put into clothes.

Nothing special.

Just an ordinary shirt and trousers, like the ones I once saw the villagers of Trash Village wearing.

They look like a boy's.

Over my black inner set, which made it through life in the forest with flying colors, I'm wearing that boy's shirt and trousers.

That's what I'm wearing right now.

<Fuwaah...... good morning...... huh, this place, where is it......? Hell......?>

Ah, good morning, Omake-sama.

If I may jump straight in with a retort, what's with ‘Where is this? Hell?’

Normally, wouldn't you mistake it for heaven or something?

Actually, didn't you say yourself before that there is no afterlife in this world?

<Fuwa!? Ah, Emi!? G, good morning!?>

Now then, with one thing and another, Omake-sama, who had swiftly snapped out of her half-asleep state, and yours truly, Emi-chan, began assessing the current situation.

◇ ◇ ◇

<......Still, I really thought this was the end this time. To think you'd run into the Black Dragon in that forest and be attacked by him.>

Savoring the happiness of still being alive, Omake-sama says so.

The Black Dragon, you mean that ridiculously huge, flying, chattering black lizard, right?

Bori bori.

<Black lizard...... Emi, that is a being who appears even in this world's myths, the ‘Sealed Black Dragon’. If meeting him was a miracle, then being spared, and the two of us being alive right now, is a miracle too.>

I couldn't care less about that.

That damn black lizard, screaming nonsense the whole time he was beating me up.

I'll never forgive him.

I'll kill him someday. I'll definitely kill him.

I'll kill him while making him regret ever letting me live.

Bori bori.

<......Haah. Please make sure it's ‘someday’, okay, Emi? Even if you tried again right now, you'd absolutely be no match for him. Fortunately, he should be sealed in that forest, so there's no chance of him wandering off somewhere. Let's train hard, become the strongest in the world, and then challenge him, shall we?>

Come on, even I'm not dumb enough to miss the gap in our strength, Omake-sama.

More to the point, Omake-sama, you don't say it's ‘impossible’, do you?

<It is not impossible. Because......>

............Because?

<............ See, I told you before, didn't I? You have me. With the knowledge I've gained from my Isekai Reincarnation Broadcasts, pushing you up to the strongest in the world isn't impossible!>

Whaaat!? That's what you're basing it on!?

<I can say with full confidence that it is an unshakable, unassailable, rock-solid basis.>

I think this every time, but Omake-sama really trusts the information from Isekai Reincarnation Broadcasts too much......

Well, whatever.

For now, here's the thing.

Let's set the chattering black lizard aside.

Because, Omake-sama, right now there is a situation we must resolve urgently!

Bori bori!

<Yes, what is it?>

It's this!!

This!!

This hellish hunger!!

<......He did share his blood with you, after all...... The resulting mana transmutation, and the hunger that comes with it as a side effect, should be on another level from anything before. No wonder you couldn't help, wanting to rip up the floorboards and devour them.>

AAAAAH!

I'm hungry!

I'M HUNGRYYYY!!

NO MATTER HOW MANY FLOORBOARDS I EAT, MY STOMACH WON'T FILL UUUUP!!

Wait, where is this!?

I have no memory after being forced to drink the black lizard's blood, so why am I in someone's house!?

Whose house is it!? Does this mean someone saved me!?

Also, I've been eating their floorboards without asking. I wonder if I'll get yelled at!?

<Somehow, you're worrying just like a termite would.>

Termites probably feel no guilt about eating houses!

The fact that I can reflect and feel for a person I haven't even met proves that I am undoubtedly human!

......Hm!?

<Ah.>

While Omake-sama and I were having this idiotic exchange, the 【Magic Sensing Threads】 I had spread all through the house picked up a reaction.

Apparently, something has come in through the front door, into this house.

I can't help going on guard.

Without meaning to, I give off 【Intimidation】.

I stop my hands and mouth from devouring the floorboards and focus on the intruder's presence.

If I sense even a hint of hostility.

I'll slash them to death with 【Mantis】.

So I can move instantly, my weight on my toes.

Both hands, raised in front of me.

No, right now, I'm in the worst condition possible.

My stamina and magic power are both near rock bottom. I haven't recovered all the way.

In that case, would it be safer to bust through the wall and run?

......Even though I'm thinking this, there's a reason I don't run off at once.

Something smells good.

A fragrant, delicious smell.

And that smell is coming closer.

Gugyururururururururu......

In spite of myself, my stomach growls.

I can't stop drooling.

What should I do.

I want to eat.

I want to eat, want to eat, want to eat.

That thing that smells so delicious, I want to eat it.

What should I do.

What do I do?

Escape?

No, I want to eat.

How?

Steal it?

Should I just kill them?

......At that point, I was confused from sheer hunger.

I wasn't able to make a rational judgment.

The confusion had left me unable to move.

If a being with actual hostility toward me had been approaching, this confusion would have created a fatal opening.

But, fortunately, that wasn't the case.

The ones who entered this house were not thieves, burglars, monsters, or anything of that sort.

Slowly sliding open the door, a little frightened by my killing intent, the ones who peeked in at me from the other room were.

About my age, a boy with deep green hair, and a girl with brown hair.

And a young woman, her hair the same color as the boy's.

In the baskets they held, large loaves of bread were piled high.

The protagonist, Emi, reaffirms that she is human by comparing herself to termites.

Please don't make the retort ‘If you feel guilty, don't eat the floorboards’; it is far too powerless in the face of hunger.