Hard to Understand an Eccentric
Understanding an eccentric was never easy.
“Isn’t there something like a student discount?”
“No.”
“…Can I pay in installments?”
“Absolutely not.”
“I really need those arrows.”
“Then bring the money.”
The weapon shop owner was truly unyielding.
At this rate, do I have no choice but to steal them?
The thought flashed through my mind in a burst of frustration, but I knew full well it was impossible. For one thing, if any arrows went missing, I would be the first suspect. And that weapon shop owner had been a formidable veteran in his prime. The novel even mentioned how he caught every single person who ever tried to swipe a weapon from him.
“Haa…”
Even so, I couldn’t simply give up on the enchanted arrows.
I considered every possible method, but obtaining enchanted arrows proved hopeless. If I couldn’t buy them, I would just have to make them myself. With that idea in mind, I went looking for upperclassmen who possessed enchantment talent, only to discover…
The timing couldn’t have been worse.
Apparently all the students with enchantment talent had gone off on some group training camp. They wouldn’t be back for a week. I was entering Dungeon A tomorrow. One way or another, I had to secure arrows today.
Enchanting arrows myself is impossible.
Buying them was out. Making them was out. The only remaining option was to find an alternative—and I already had one in mind.
If it’s one of those explosion potions she makes, the lethality should match an enchanted arrow… no, it might even surpass it.
I stood in front of a dormitory door, ready to claim that alternative. It wasn’t far from my own room; after all, I was visiting a classmate.
If you enter without permission, the room will explode!
A scrap of paper bearing those words was stuck to the door. I let out a sigh and knocked.
Room 4, Jinny.
Defining trait: eccentric. She didn’t carry that nickname yet, but it would stick soon enough. Anyone who casually tested their own potions on people was bound to earn a title like that.
She never cared much about money. If I offer to be her potion test subject, she’ll probably hand over an explosion potion for free.
Getting the potion itself wouldn’t be hard.
Right. As long as she listens to me all the way through.
The real problem was that Jinny was extremely selective about people. Anyone who failed to catch her eye might as well have been talking to a wall. The original protagonist had never managed to enter her good graces, and the novel never even explained how one was supposed to earn her favor in the first place.
I still have to try.
The odds of rejection were high, but this was my last resort.
Creak.
I swallowed hard as the door cracked open. Through the narrow gap, a girl with striking pink twin-tails peeked out.
“I’m Reina, your classmate. I came because I have a favor to ask.”
“…….”
Thankfully the door didn’t slam shut. Jinny simply stared at me, so I kept talking as clearly as I could.
“I need an explosion potion. Could you give me one? I’m not asking for free. I’ll be your test subject in exchange.”
“…….”
“How about it?”
Jinny kept staring in silence. For some reason that gaze made me tense. Then—
Creak.
The rest of her body emerged from behind the door. She stepped toward me until our noses nearly touched. The urge to retreat flared, but she pulled back first, and I quietly exhaled in relief.
Jinny spoke.
“You pass. You may come into my room!”
“Huh?”
“Come on, come on, get in!”
She grabbed my hand and dragged me straight inside. The door slammed shut with a bang, and I finally got a clear look at Jinny’s room. A magic circle was drawn in the center of the floor, and something like a large cauldron sat on top of it. It screamed “I do alchemy here” to anyone who looked.
So this is what Jinny’s room looks like.
Even the original protagonist had never set foot in here. Being allowed inside still felt unreal. And I was curious.
“What exactly about me passed?”
The reason she had accepted me. This eccentric girl had never accepted anyone else for the entire length of the original novel. So why me?
“You’re shorter than me!”
…What?
“There are way too many tall people in this academy! I was starting to think I might be the shortest, but knowing I’m not is a huge relief!”
Jinny was on the short side. And the one even shorter than her was the person called Reina. Of course, a few months from now I would grow and she would become the shortest again… but still.
“…You seriously said I passed just because of my height?”
“Is there any other reason?”
Apparently understanding an eccentric’s way of thinking was going to be harder than I’d hoped.
Jinny’s eccentricity aside, her alchemy skill was genuine. As someone who had read the novel, I knew that better than anyone.
“If you want bomb potions, I have them right here!”
She held up a reddish liquid sealed in something that looked like a plastic pouch of artificial tears, shaking it with a grin.
“If you want this, you’ll have to become my test subject!”
I had come prepared for exactly that, so I nodded. Even so, I needed to set some boundaries.
“But nothing that puts my life in danger. No ‘drink this and explode,’ no endless diarrhea potions.”
“Don’t worry. I only use those on people I dislike.”
People she disliked… A certain face immediately came to mind as her usual test subject.
“Are you going to use it on Zen?”
“Who’s Zen?”
We had only just enrolled, so not knowing names wasn’t strange.
“The red-haired guy.”
“I don’t look at people’s faces, so I wouldn’t know.”
“The tallest one…”
“Ah, I know who you mean! That irritating guy who’s so much taller than me.”
Jinny ground her teeth as if she were facing her parents’ murderer. Just looking at her expression made it clear how deeply the height issue rankled her.
…She’s ridiculously sensitive about height.
I never imagined she had this kind of childish side. Realizing that made the eccentric girl seem just a little bit cute.
“I won’t use anything dangerous on Reina, so don’t worry! I don’t want the person shorter than me to disappear!”
Being called short still stung a little.
No. Right now I’m a girl. For a girl, being short… isn’t a huge problem.
I knew that, but I still hated it.
“My growth plates haven’t closed yet. I’m going to get taller.”
“Don’t worry! I’ll grow just as much as you do!”
She puffed out her chest and declared it with absolute confidence. I looked at her with a faintly pitying expression. She would never surpass Reina’s height. The original story had already decided that. Still, there was no need to tell her.
“Yeah. Do your best.”
“And if you ever grow taller than me, I’ll shave down your skull until you’re short again, so rest easy.”
“…….”
I decided to pretend I hadn’t heard that last part.
Jinny rummaged through her pockets and produced another potion. This one was a proper glass bottle filled with purple liquid.
“Here. Since I gave you the explosion potion, you have to be the test subject for this one now.”
“What kind of potion is it? It’s not poison, right?”
“It’s a perfectly safe potion with no harm to your life. You’ll understand the effect once you drink it.”
No matter how many times I asked, she refused to reveal the name. Knowing the effect in advance would ruin the fun, she claimed.
If it won’t hurt me, then it’s fine.
I downed the potion in one go without much concern.
Nothing unusual happened to me all the way until evening.
What is this?
It was something Jinny made, so it definitely had some kind of effect.
…She said the duration was twenty-four hours.
Meaning it would last until tomorrow. And tomorrow I had to enter the dungeon. My physical abilities hadn’t dropped, which was a relief, but…
Not knowing what the effect is still bothers me.
It kept nagging at me. Maybe that was why the cooking wasn’t going well either.
“Haa.”
I was preparing lunchboxes for tomorrow to share with Ceryll. If a dungeon break occurred, we would be trapped inside for at least half a day. Of course we would get hungry. And Ceryll, despite her appearance, was a massive eater. She also had the weakness that she couldn’t perform at full strength on an empty stomach. For the sake of my own safety, packing plenty of food for her was only sensible.
The problem was—
“Why does this look so pathetic…”
Every single kimbap I had rolled was completely smashed out of shape. It wasn’t even from cutting them wrong. The signs had been there from the moment I started rolling.
“This shouldn’t be possible.”
Before transmigrating, I had lived alone and cooked all sorts of things. Kimbap had been a regular dish even if it took some effort. Me, making mistakes? I couldn’t believe it, so I tried several more. Same result. Just in case, I attempted rolled omelets and a few other dishes as well.
“…This isn’t a rolled omelet. This is scrambled eggs.”
The shapes were a complete mess. The one silver lining was—
“…At least they taste fine.”
I had used the exact same ingredients and recipes, so of course they tasted good. The problem was that the appearance made the claim of “it tastes great” sound like a lie.
This has to be because I transmigrated into Reina.
One of Reina’s settings: terrible handiwork. An archer with clumsy hands? What kind of garbage setting was that? Because of it, everything Reina made always came out looking bizarre. And that trait never improved even by the end of the novel.
“I really hate this.”
I was the type who believed presentation mattered. I had even trained hard for it back in the day. Now all of that skill had vanished overnight. Of course I was irritated. And the fact that the results stayed awful even when I consciously moved with extreme care only made the heat rise higher.
If I practice, maybe it’ll get better someday…
Clinging to that faint hope, I used up every ingredient I had bought. Of course, a single day of practice wasn’t going to fix anything.