One Night in Dorn

"Is there… anything I can help with?"

"You know how to dress these things?"

"Uh… no?"

"Then sit there."

Reika was in the middle of processing the mountain of monkeys we'd hunted the night before—the whole swarm of Simius.

The morning was so quiet and so bright it felt as though a storm had blown through and left the world rinsed clean. An occasional birdcall drifted through the trees, and even that was a comfort. The thought that we'd soon reach a human village was probably doing some of the work, too.

"Cover yourself with this."

She tossed me the pelt of the one that had been their leader.

"Ugh, it stinks… it's covered in blood."

"Shall I sew you a whole outfit while I'm at it? Handle that much yourself!"

"Eugh…"

My clothes were a disaster. They were torn in just enough of the wrong places that going fully naked might actually have been less embarrassing. I couldn't walk into a village like this, so I rinsed the ash-gray pelt in water and draped it over myself.

Reika finished her work. Yesterday's haul had been enormous—there was no way we could carry every last scrap of material. We packed as many hides as would fit in the bag and set off for the village.

"Um, Reika?"

"What."

"Have you… ever seen a dragon? Or something like that?"

The Reika walking ahead of me glanced back. She looked like she couldn't believe what she'd just heard.

"In all my years, I have never seen an elf this dim."

That one stung.

"They exist."

"Really?"

"Never seen one. But they exist."

"What about mages? You know, throwing fire around and all that?"

"Are you not a mage yourself?"

I'd put my foot in my mouth.

"Ah… well… I guess I am? Ahem. Anyway. What about castles? Capital cities?"

"They're everywhere. Head south from Silstimore and you'll find a country called Ormeria. Largest, most magnificent kingdom on the continent, they say."

"Oh… have you been?"

"Never. From here it'd take months by carriage."

Months. I turned that over in my head.

The range I'd covered in a week was one valley and one cave. And this world was large enough that crossing a single country took months by carriage. For an entire week I hadn't even had the luxury of wondering about things like this. Chased by insects, bitten by a snake, running around naked, hemmed in by a monkey swarm. The only thought in my head had been not dying.

But now I had someone beside me, the gun had gone quiet, and we had somewhere to go.

So this really is another world, huh?

A thrill started to take hold. Not fear—the kind of excitement that lives in an otaku's heart, a fantasy world unfolding behind my eyes.

"Wipe that creepy grin off your face."

"Ah, yes ma'am."

We kept moving toward the edge of the forest.

Dorn.

The village Reika had been staying in before she entered this forest.

I'd already painted the whole picture in my head. Stone walls. A bustling marketplace. Robed mages. Adventurers shouting over drinks in a tavern. I'd loaded myself up with every image I'd ever seen in manga and anime, and I was practically vibrating with anticipation.

But the place we actually arrived at…

"…This is it?"

A dirt road. A handful of timber buildings on the verge of collapse, a crooked wooden fence. The smell of livestock from somewhere out of sight. A puppy that squatted in the street, did its business, and bolted.

No walls. Nothing that looked like it could keep a monster out.

"Did you actually expect something?"

"No… ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I mean…"

Honestly, I was disappointed. But I was also relieved. Because for the first time, there were people here besides Reika and me. A woman selling vegetables in the street. A man hauling goods. A few who looked like adventurers. There were definitely people.

And then my mood soured all over again.

"They're staring really hard…"

"I told you, did I not. The humans around here hate demi-humans."

It was the first time in my life I'd been on the receiving end of racial discrimination. Before, I'd only ever glimpsed videos of foreigners pulling their eyes into slits as an insult. I'd never actually stood in a street while an entire village stared at me with those sour expressions.

"Pay it no mind."

Reika said it without looking back, still walking.

"This place is just an exception. Think of them all as idiots. You'll get used to it."

You'll get used to it meant I wouldn't be used to it until then.

A wooden board hung on a building.

I read it.

I read it, walked about three more steps, and then I stopped.

How did I just read that?

I turned around and looked again. It wasn't Korean. It wasn't the alphabet either. Angular strokes, elongated vertically—characters I'd never seen in my life. Look at them one by one and they were just patterns. But the moment I took in the whole thing, the meaning simply arrived. I didn't have to try. It was like letters I'd always known.

And we can talk just fine, too…

The fact that we could communicate was strange in itself. The words I was conscious of speaking were definitely Korean. And what I heard came through as Korean as well. Were they actually speaking Korean? There was no way to know. It could just be how I perceived it, for some reason.

But good enough was good enough. Not having to learn a language or a writing system was a massive advantage. So I just let it go.

The Adventurer Guild building was smaller than I'd expected. One wide room that smelled of alcohol, a few battered tables, and a counter in the back for receiving materials. Maybe ten request notices on the wall.

The moment we stepped inside, everyone in the room looked our way.

We were unmistakably out of place. They were rough men in thoroughly medieval clothes—the textbook image of another world. Compared to them, we were a beastkin in something that might have been Japanese or Chinese, and an elf draped in a filthy, reeking pelt.

Someone coughed, loudly and on purpose. Open staring was the baseline. One guy stood there with his arms crossed, tapping his foot like we were personally offending him.

Reika didn't even glance their way. She walked straight to the counter.

"Thirty Simius hides."

Reika pulled the bag off my back and set it on the counter. The man behind it didn't look at the goods right away. Whether his face was blank or just irritated, I couldn't tell—he stared at Reika and me for a good five seconds before he finally started inspecting the load.

"…Nine silver."

"What?"

Reika's eyes narrowed.

"Hey. That's not even half the going rate."

"Condition's poor. Nine. Don't like it, take it somewhere else."

There was nowhere else. This was the only place in the village. I felt Reika's hand start toward her sword and grabbed her arm in a hurry.

"Just… just take it…"

Reika started to say something, then stopped. She took the nine silver coins and handed them straight to me.

"You hold onto them."

"Huh? Why?"

"I lose things."

"You lose them? Uh… okay."

If there was one thing I'd picked up in a day, it was that Reika was not the meticulous type. She knew far more than I did, but she didn't seem like someone who spent a lot of time thinking things through. She probably really did lose money all the time. Didn't seem like there was more to say. I quietly tucked the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠silver into my pouch.

I waited until we were outside to ask.

"How much ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠should we have gotten?"

"A real guild would've given around twenty-five silver."

"Wow… seriously… Wait, a real guild? There are fake ones?"

"Aye. The real Adventurer's Guild that operates across the continent is a separate thing. Places like this in small villages are usually called consignment offices. Don't worry about it. They keep doing business like that, nobody'll come, and they'll collapse on their own."

Honestly, I was less angry than I was just lost. I didn't know this world's currency system, so I had no idea how badly we'd been shortchanged. Hard to get properly mad about a number I couldn't feel.

"Um… so how much is a silver coin actually w—"

"Pick something over there."

Reika cut me off and pointed.

The writing on the sign was readable, but the words themselves didn't mean anything to me. The Fragrance of Something-or-Other? But I could tell what the place was. They had clothes hanging out in the open. I definitely couldn't keep walking around in what amounted to a pelt over near-nudity.

We went inside. There were no lavish medieval noble dresses in sight. Most of it was adventurer wear.

"Welcome, dears. My, what unusual guests."

It was a warmth completely different from the looks we'd been getting since we entered the village.

"Oh, don't you worry. I don't have anything against demi-humans, you know. And especially not when such lovely ones walk through my door. The men in this town are all so scruffy, there's no joy in dressing them, I tell you. If they'd just put on something decent for once—"

She talked a lot. I didn't mind. This one didn't seem like she'd try to haggle us into the ground. I let her chatter wash over me and started looking through the clothes. A shirt and a pair ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of pants, naturally…

"Dear! Someone as pretty as you can't wear something like that! Hold on. I'll pick for you!"

"Uweh?"

The woman snatched the shirt and pants out of my hands, flung them aside, and started gathering pieces from all over the shop.

"Come on, off with that—try these on!"

And then she yanked the pelt right off me.

"Eek!"

Which meant my body—ragged scraps of leather and all, filthy from a week in the woods—was fully on display.

"Sweetheart… adventuring's been rough on you, hasn't it? Never mind the clothes. Go wash up first. There's water out the back door—use that."

"Ah… I-I'm… I'm fine, really…"

"Tsk. Hurry up."

"Yes ma'am!…"

A few minutes later, I'd washed, put on the underwear she'd given me for free along with the outfit she'd picked, and stood in front of the mirror. I couldn't help laughing at the visual.

A white shirt under a short blue jacket. A black skirt that ended at the thighs, with the faintest of slits on either side. The choker was the shopkeeper's taste. She'd braided my hair, too. The flying-everywhere hair had been annoying, so that was a welcome change.

The first time I'd seen myself in a mirror. For someone who'd spent a week rolling around the forest like a primitive—well, for an elf—my skin and hair were glossy, and more than anything, I was pretty. Very pretty. And my figure was better than I'd expected.

No, not just good—this is a weapon.

It all suited me, overall. The only dissonance was that the person wearing these pretty, well-fitting women's clothes wasn't some other woman. It was me. Clothes were one thing, but I'd never worn a skirt in my life…

Then again, I'd already spent a week living with nothing but a scrap of hide around my waist and no underwear at all. I'd had more than enough of the breeze whistling between my legs. Now that I actually had undergarments on, it felt a lot more comfortable.

Not bad.

The price was four silver. Reika's face gave nothing away, so I had no idea if it was a good deal or if we'd paid full price, but I liked it, so I didn't care either way.

We arrived at the inn.

The sign beside the door said one silver a night, and Reika and I had just paid one silver.

They said there were no rooms. Then Reika set down one more silver. Suddenly, there was a room.

Beats sleeping on the ground…

We paid for a meal. Two people, five copper total. I put down one silver and got five copper back. Apparently ten copper made one silver.

"Is it that good?"

I was inhaling the bread and soup they'd brought out. I hadn't had a proper human meal in a week, and the closest thing had been a scrap of water-soaked bread Reika had given me. This was the first real food. It was underseasoned and lukewarm, but it was still the best thing I'd ever tasted.

"It… iiiiis… you have no idea how good this is…"

I answered with my mouth full. Swallowed, then kept going.

"That aside, the staring is killing me. Everywhere we go, people look at us, and it's honestly scary? I'm glad we made it to a village, but… I kind of want to get out of here fast and go somewhere else."

"Then we leave. I've no intention of lingering in a place like this. We depart tomorrow."

"Huh?"

And just like that, we started deciding on a new destination.