Nice to Meet You, I'm Emi!

Yoo-hoo, everyone! Hellooo~!

My name is Emi! I'm a 5-year-old girl!

In my previous life, I was a plain old high schooler named Aihara Runa, but after a whole bunch of things happened, I reincarnated into this other world called Ardyst along with Omake-sama, the ‘Vessel of a God’!

In this life, I live in a poor little backwater (no sugarcoating) called Fenoben Village...... yep, I live there, as a normal (I'd like to think) village girl!

I've got black hair and black eyes, and even though I'm just a village girl, my skin is fair, and, not to toot my own horn, but I'm actually a pretty cute girl! Ehehe!

Ah! There's the farmer next door, Uncle Rand!

Helloooo~~!

“......Tch! Hey, brat! Don't you dare come near my field!”

Uncle Rand picked up a pebble from the ground, wound up his arm...... and threw it!

I gave a quick little hop to the side and dodged it.

Geez, how dangerous~!

I wonder if Uncle Rand is in a bad mood?

Seriously, who throws stones at a cute 5-year-old girl~?

Of course, a pathetic little throw like that wasn't going to hit me anyway!

Getting carried away, I tried taunting him with a side-step shuttle drill.

“YOU LITTLE BRAAAAAT!!”

Oh crap, Uncle Rand is seriously pissed!

He's chasing me with a sickle! Retreat, retreat~!

◇ ◇ ◇

“Haah, haah......! Damn it...... where did that cursed child go!?”

Right here, above your head, in the tree.

I've been training quite a bit following Omake-sama's advice, you know? Stealth operations are a piece of cake for me!

Losing a middle-aged man who's starting to worry about his beer belly is a breeze!

Now hurry up and get lost! ......He's gone.

I slid down from the tree and started walking toward my destination.

Honestly, Uncle Rand is such a pain, isn't he?

He's just gone and decided I'm a potato thief!? I've never done anything like that!

No matter how hungry I get, I make do by eating grass roots in the forest, you know?

Besides, my family's the poorest in all of Fenoben Village, so couldn't he spare a potato or two?

Oh, and the ‘cursed child’? That's me.

Around here, having black hair and black eyes is rare (even my parents don't have black hair or eyes. Maybe it skipped a generation?), and I'm always wearing rags and looking grubby......

Also, it seems my facial muscles are dead in this life, so I'm expressionless...... and I'm not used to interacting with people, so I'm quiet.

Whenever I wanted to talk, I just chatted with Omake-sama in my head, so maybe that was a bit of a mistake!

Well, anyway, for reasons like those, the adults in the village find me pretty creepy!

That's why they call me ‘cursed child,’ some insult I don't even really get!

Look, look over there!

See the village kids playing?

I went to the trouble of reincarnating and all, so I was hoping to finally make plenty of friends this time around......

But the adults who hate me make sure I can't get close to the other children!

It seems the adults are filling their own kids' heads with slander, stuff like “Don't go near her, or you'll get cursed” and whatnot!

How rude!

What's more, there's always at least one adult accompanying the children, keeping watch to make sure no ‘dangerous thing’ gets close to them......

And since I seem to be categorized as that ‘dangerous thing,’ I'm physically blocked from getting near!

For example, that red-haired boy playing in the center of the group...... I think his name is Torch-kun. He's the same age as me and still so little, he probably doesn't even know I exist, right?

......Yeah.

Anyway, you've probably gathered this from how the story's gone so far, but my family is actually pretty poor.

Next, I'll introduce my family to everyone!

Look! Right there, that dilapidated shack on the outskirts of the village that looks like it's about to collapse...... that's my family home in this life! Technically.

I'll erase my presence and take a sneaky peek through a gap in the wall...... there he is.

“Gaa...... gugaa......”

That man over there, drinking and snoring away in broad daylight, is my dad in this life, Cody!

As you can tell from his stubble-covered face and this trash heap of a house he never cleans up, he's an incredibly sloppy grown-up!

Apparently he used to work some job called ‘adventurer,’ making money by slaying monsters!

He retired from adventuring after injuring his leg, but since he can still fight better than an average person, he works as Fenoben Village's guard (supposedly)!

It's so peaceful here that I've never actually seen him working, though!

The villagers call him the “Good-for-Nothing” behind his back!

How pitiful!

Eh? My mother?

Apparently my mom was an adventurer too, and quite a beauty!

She came to this village glued to my retired dad's side, but right around the time I was weaned, she glued herself to some hunky young traveling merchant who passed through instead, and left the village without me!

Die.

......Oops, my bad.

That uncontrollable murderous intent just leaked out!

Gotta hide it, gotta hide it!

Fortunately, since I have Omake-sama inside me, I've been able to survive by getting advice on things I can eat!

Actually, in this world, you can find insects with high nutritional value in quite a few places!

Since nobody else knows that, the bugs in the village and the nearby forest are an all-you-can-eat buffet for me!

Thanks to that, I'm actually confident that my nutritional status is pretty good, despite being poor.

Thank you, Omake-sama-sama!

Ah, maybe the reason Uncle Rand is convinced I'm a potato thief is because he saw me digging up and eating earthworms (or bugs like them) in the field?

Now then.

That doesn't matter.

Let's hurry up and get what I came for while Cody's asleep.

Sneakily, sneakily......

Avoiding the trash scattered throughout the house and making sure not to make a sound, I head toward the kitchen where the flies (or bugs like them) are swarming.

......Found it! Salt discovered!

You can't get seasonings like this in the forest.

Cody can't even cook for himself properly anyway, so let's just take some.

Just enough so he doesn't notice.

Actually, I don't live in this house right now; I've built a base in the nearby forest and I live there!

Cody has no intention of raising a kid in his state, he hits me if our eyes meet, and the villagers treat me like a bad omen, so it's hard to stay in the village......

Basically, I lead a self-sufficient life, hunting and gathering in the forest.

That's the kind of 5-year-old I am (straight face).

Oh, this is only possible because of Omake-sama's advice plus having a mostly grown personality and knowledge from my previous life, so normal 5-year-olds must never try this!

Even I've almost died several times.

Normally, you'll just die.

......Well now, that's everything I wanted to do today.

There's still time before it gets dark, so maybe I'll head back to the forest and do some hunting!

And that's what my life in the other world of Ardyst is like!

There are plenty of hardships, but I'm living life to the fullest!

Every day is so fulfilling!

I'll keep doing my best to survive safely from here on out~~~~~!

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

Wait, WHAT THE HELL IS WITH THIS SURVIVAL CHILDHOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!

THINGS ARE EVEN WORSE THAN IN MY PREVIOUS LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIFE!!!

I bawled my eyes out on the inside.

But as usual, my facial muscles are dead.