A Popcorn-Like Thing Popped Out
A popcorn-like thing had popped out.
"$#!"
"%$$%$#."
"%%#."
The men were shouting something at me while thrusting their weapons forward.
Several more people broke away from the procession, carrying torches and scattering into the darkness.
Everyone was armed.
There was only one of me, yet they seemed far more wary than I'd expected.
I'd thought I was the only one feeling afraid, but it looked like they were just as scared.
"...."
Why, though?
Was it my clothes?
Or maybe because we spoke different languages?
The men who'd scattered into the darkness swept their torches back and forth, searching for something.
While they did that, the ones keeping their weapons trained on me began to search my body.
The man with the spear gestured for me to empty everything I was carrying.
"Okay, okay. I get what you want. I'll move slowly, so please don't suddenly stab me."
I tried to calm him down as I pulled everything from my pockets and set it on the ground.
The golden rule when someone has a weapon pointed at you is not to provoke them.
"%$%%."
"&%*%."
"#%^*%%."
The men examined my belongings under the torchlight and muttered to each other in obvious confusion.
They clearly had no idea what any of it was.
That made sense.
Judging by their clothing, this place seemed to be at a medieval level of civilization. They'd probably never seen a cell phone or a plastic bottle before.
"This is how you use it. It's not dangerous. Like this—it's for drinking."
First, I unscrewed the cap of the plastic bottle and showed them, then let a couple of drops fall to demonstrate.
To prove it wasn't poison, I took a sip myself.
One of the men poked at the phone curiously.
He picked it up and turned it over, examining it from every angle.
He pressed the buttons and tried to pry open the seams with his fingernails.
He seemed to think it was some kind of box with a lid that opened.
Someone else noticed the lighter, but since it was small, they probably dismissed it as nothing important.
After fiddling with everything for a while, they set it all back down.
Since they didn't seem likely to figure out how to use the lighter anyway, I didn't bother explaining it.
If they didn't know, there was no need to teach them.
They appeared to think the phone was just some decorative object.
After staring at it for a long time, the men set the phone down and turned their attention to the chocolate.
Their expressions asked what it was.
I sighed inwardly. I really hoped they weren't going to confiscate everything.
Hiding my true feelings behind a smile, I peeled off the wrapper.
I broke off half, ate it, and showed them the rest.
"Oh!"
The men let out sounds of amazement and nodded.
They seemed to understand it was food.
I wasn't sure why they were so impressed, though.
The sound of wonder is the same whether on Earth or in another world, I guess.
Feeling strangely satisfied by that observation, I offered them the remaining half of the chocolate, but no one took it.
They probably thought the dark color meant it would taste bad.
Or maybe they were impressed that I was brave enough to eat something that looked like poop.
While all this was happening, the men who'd gone to search the area returned.
Watching them talk among themselves, I realized they'd suspected I might be a scout for bandits.
That must have been why they'd searched the darkness for hidden companions.
Since they hadn't found anything, their suspicion seemed to have eased.
One of the men who'd been watching me stepped closer and ran his hands over my body.
He patted me down from top to bottom, checking for anything hidden.
When he gestured for me to remove my shoes as well, I took them off. He spent a long time thoroughly inspecting them.
After the search was complete, I got my shoes back.
But it didn't look like I was getting my other belongings back.
The man gathered everything and put it into a small sack.
It didn't seem like he planned to steal them.
He pointed at the items, then made a walking motion with two fingers before pointing back and forth between me and the belongings.
I think he meant they'd return them when I left.
When I nodded to show I understood, he placed my things onto a nearby cart.
From somewhere in the distance came the eerie howl of a wolf.
Unlike the one I'd heard when I was alone, this sound was close.
I didn't know how many there were, but they seemed to be nearby.
When the men heard the howl, they shouted something, and everyone huddled closer to the bonfire.
Maybe a pack of wolves had been following this procession.
This world really was dangerous.
If I traveled alone, I'd definitely end up dead.
I felt like meeting these people today had been a stroke of incredible luck.
The men invited me over, so I moved closer to the bonfire.
The man who'd been distributing food lifted a ladle in my direction, as if asking whether I wanted some.
When I nodded, the man who'd searched me brought over a piece of paper.
He pointed at the food, then at the paper.
The paper was covered in unfamiliar writing.
He held out a round ink bottle and a pen toward me.
When I didn't move, he pointed at the food again and mimed writing on the paper.
It seemed I had to sign the paper before they'd give me any food.
"...."
If I signed this, would I end up being dragged off as a slave or something?
When I shook my head, the man shrugged as if to say it couldn't be helped and put the paper away.
Then he pointed at the sky and made a round shape with his hands.
I think he meant the sun.
When he saw that I understood, he made the walking gesture again.
It seemed to mean I should leave in the morning.
At least they weren't kicking me out right away.
I didn't know what signing that paper would have meant, but these people probably weren't bad. Probably.
There were too many people for everyone to sit close to the bonfire.
I observed the atmosphere and sat down a little ways away.
The armed men seemed to be in charge of the procession.
Their clothes looked better than everyone else's.
The men began taking out what looked like blankets from the carts and distributing them to the people.
Since I hadn't signed, I didn't receive one.
I sat quietly and observed the people.
They didn't look particularly happy to be here.
They gave off a poor and exhausted impression.
The few children were scrawny, and the adults were the same.
Some had faces so rough they could have been gangsters.
But when I looked closer, no one seemed to be in despair.
They didn't look like they were being forced to go somewhere against their will.
The wolf howled again, closer this time.
The people shrank back from the darkness, pressing closer to the bonfire in fear.
What should I do?
If I left this procession and could find a village or city right away, that would be fine.
But what if I couldn't?
If I parted ways with them and night fell, wouldn't I get attacked by some beast even if it wasn't wolves?
Besides, I'd walked all day today and hadn't seen a single drop of water.
Not a river, not a pond, not even a small well or dirty puddle.
The water I was carrying wouldn't last more than a few days.
And I had no food.
Chocolate wouldn't fill my stomach.
I didn't know how long I'd been unconscious, but subjectively it felt like I hadn't eaten for just a day.
Yet I was so hungry it felt like my stomach was sticking to my spine.
Maybe it was because I was thinking about it, but my stomach let out a loud, rumbling growl.
Hearing the sound, a child nearby peeked out and looked at me.
When the child said something, the man who seemed to be the father gestured toward me.
He pointed at the bonfire, mimed writing again, then tapped the ground.
The child jumped up and mimed digging at the ground with something.
After doing that a few times, the child squatted down and made a motion like pulling something up with their hands and tossing it upward.
Hmm. I had no idea.
When I tilted my head in confusion, the child's father laughed and pointed at the ground again, repeating the motion of eating something.
Dig in the ground and eat what you find?
I really didn't understand what he meant.
Another man had been watching and seemed frustrated, because he spoke directly to me.
"$#%$#."
He nodded several times as if to say it was okay.
These people seemed to be telling me it was fine to sign.
"...."
If I got driven away from this procession, I'd probably die anyway.
In that case, maybe it was okay to trust them.
I stood up from my spot, but first I needed to take care of some business.
A sudden, powerful urge to urinate hit me.
To be precise, my privates were tingling.
It felt like right before a sneeze.
Except it wasn't my nose, but my privates.
There was no way there'd be a bathroom in a place like this.
If there were bushes or trees, I could have handled it there, but there was nothing like that here.
What now?
As I hesitated, one of the men sitting near the bonfire walked toward the outskirts.
When he stopped at a spot where his back was faintly visible, he unhesitatingly pulled down his pants.
In a place where everyone could see?
Startled, I looked around, but no one seemed to care.
It must be normal here.
When in Rome, do as the Romans do. I had no choice.
Hiding my sigh, I moved away from the group.
"#$@#&."
When I headed outward, one of the armed men approached.
I gestured toward my pants to indicate I had urgent business, and the man nodded in understanding.
But he didn't go far.
It seemed he planned to watch me from nearby.
Maybe he suspected I was trying to send a signal to bandits.
I positioned myself as close to the darkness as possible and turned my body so the others couldn't see.
It had been tingling unbearably for a while now.
It felt like something was about to pour out.
But when I actually tried to go, nothing came out.
Was it because I'd only had a few sips of water?
No matter how hard I tried, nothing happened.
Then what was this tingling urge?
I thought it was strange and looked down.
That was when the tingling reached its peak and something suddenly popped out with a boing.
"...."
It wasn't my imagination.
Something really had come out. From my privates.
I closed my eyes.
Too many things had happened today. My mind must have fallen into chaos.
I was seeing things.
It looked like popcorn made of cotton candy had come out of my privates.
And now it was flying around.
When someone goes crazy, can they tell that they've gone crazy?
Maybe I really had lost my mind.
Was that why I was seeing hallucinations?
Perhaps I'd already been crazy from the moment I thought I'd come to another world.
I kept my eyes closed for a moment, then opened them again.
Had the illusion disappeared now?
"Pipi! Pipi!"
The cotton-candy popcorn was right in front of my eyes.
It was even making sounds.
It bounced around in the air as if delighted, popping up and down.
Its body was so small that even when it jumped, it only moved about one or two millimeters, but it was flying while bouncing.
Now that it was close, I could see it had eyes.
It might even have thin arms and legs.
Since it was making sounds, it probably had a mouth too.
"Whoa!"
I unconsciously cried out and stumbled backward. The man standing nearby came closer.
"What's wrong?"
"!"
It was Korean.
When I whipped around, the man made a strange face.
"What is it all of a sudden? Did you see something weird?"
"That... what you just said was Korean…."
"Huh? You can speak our language. Earlier you were only saying weird stuff."
The man seemed surprised too.
I was even more shocked.
While the man spoke, his mouth didn't quite match the sounds.
It felt like watching a badly dubbed movie.
It seemed the language he was actually speaking was different, but it sounded like Korean to me.
It was probably the same for him.
What was even stranger was that the man was completely ignoring the cotton-candy popcorn.
It looked like he couldn't see it.
What the hell is going on?
As I stood there in confusion, the cotton-candy popcorn floated over in front of the man.
It seemed clumsy at flying.
It tumbled through the air as if it had tripped and fallen.
Since it was round, rolling and walking probably looked the same, but the popcorn seemed flustered.
"Pipipipipipipi!"
It let out a sharp cry while rolling.
"...."
Rolling perfectly straight through empty air with no floor was actually pretty impressive.
After rolling for a while, the popcorn bumped into the man's cheek.
"Hmm?"
The man touched his cheek with a puzzled expression.
The popcorn had already bounced off his cheek and was tumbling crookedly again.
"Is there a bug?"
The man wiped his cheek and looked around with that same strange expression.
As expected, this popcorn was invisible to the man.
"Pipi… pii… pii…."
Exhausted from all the rolling, the popcorn wobbled as it flew back toward me.