Chapter Text
The first thing that came to my mind after becoming aware of myself and my surroundings was that I absolutely don't know where I am.
I didn’t feel tired, everything around me screamed that I was in a forest opening, which of my memory hadn't failed me yet wasn't my last place where I was aware. So I decided to pinch myself hard enough to wake myself from this dream.
I didn't wake up. “Fuck.”
Immediately opening my phone in a desperate attempt to convince myself that I was just simply lost and not actually somewhere else far away and what I found was…
- No Reception
A confirmation that I am no longer on Earth.
I took a deep breath to calm myself down.
Alright, I’d seen enough people getting isekai’d into fictional worlds, time to do a whole body check before starting anything. First off, what was on me.
I didn’t have much on my person except my house keys, phone, a small bag that contained an umbrella with something else and my wallet. I impulsively opened my wallet to check what was in there out of habit.
I found that the ID cards and banking cards I had were replaced with transparent, nondescript cards that felt nothing like plastic, they felt like they were made out of glass. Could this be related to my cheat skills here?
Other than that, it seems whoever dropped me here is kind enough to exchange whatever money I have left in my wallet to its world equivalent. I counted… a lot of gold coins in here. I thought the numbers were in the thousands, I genuinely didn’t know how they still fit inside this wallet.
I checked more of my belongings: keys, a small bag and an umbrella. None of them looked like they had been tampered with like the cards and the money in my wallet. I did find out that there is a water bottle inside the bag, so that kind of solved the dehydration issue.
Alright, now that I had finished checking up on myself, I guess the next thing to do was to figure out what my cheat skills are. Maybe it was a system-like cheat?
“System.”
Nothing appeared in front of me, maybe I had to use a different keyword?
“Pause.”
Nothing again.
“Menu.” This is so fucking stupid.
After a couple more attempts at accessing the cheat skill (that should have been my God-given right to have) met with the cruel indifference of the universe, I assumed the cheat I got wasn't a system-based one. So I decided to be quiet, close my eyes and maybe feel the difference between what I normally feel and what I am now.
…
…
Okay I felt something in my chest, like I could physically tell it's there but I don't know what it was. My intuition told me it's something like a gateway so something can go through it. So something like summoning stuff? That sounded nice.
I also felt like there is something inside my head, like at the area around the brain stem, how the hell had someone place a thing there without having made me immediately braindead or at least with cognitive mental issues-
“Hey Mister, are you alright? Ribbit.”
“I- Uh- yeah, thanks for asking.” I opened my eyes and looked at the girl that asked me the question.
That was not a human. She was also buck naked.
“Are you sure Mister? You look like someone who's uh… Ribbit. What does mommy call that condition…”
A monster girl? Did I really just get reincarnated into a H-game?
“Mmm… Constipated! Yeah you look like someone who's constipated. Ribbit.”
“You don't have to worry about that, I was just thinking real hard.” Surely she minds her own business after this.
“Oh, that's good then. Ribbit.”
…
An amount of awkward silence passed, she was still looking at me like something interesting would happen if she stares at me, damn kids. It's like we had a contest on who talks first loses.
…
I declared my loss against this girl. “Alright kid, I'm afraid that I'm lost, do you know where we are?”
“We are near the Broken Tower. Ribbit.”
Somewhere I wasn’t familiar with. “Are there places such as towns or places where there are a lot of humans?”
“Uh… the nearest settlement around here is a small village where I come from and I guess the nearest human settlement would be Grand Noah. Ribbit.”
Oh, I was in the world of Monster Girl Quest. That made the naked little girl a bit more sensical.
“Okay, so do you know the way to Grand Noah?”
“Unfortunately no mister, I have never gone into a human settlement. Ribbit.” Well that sucked. “But mommy does go there from time to time. Maybe you can ask her. Ribbit.”
“Hmm…” Alright, Dilemma: I had no idea where the direction to Grand Noah is, so I’d have to ask her mother in her village of monster girls. This felt like I was walking into a lion's den.
If I were to do this, I needed to ensure a way so I could walk out of there unmolested. My mind goes back to the blank cards and the feeling in my chest, was I really willing to gamble my future on this cheat working when I needed it and on this girl telling the truth?
…
“Alright kid, lead the way.” YOLO it is.
“Oh I forgot, mommy told me I shouldn't interact with strangers. Ribbit.”
“...You do realize that you interacted with me first right?”
“Oh yeah, I forgot about that.”
She looked away from me for a second, likely because I caught her with her metaphorical pants down.
“Uh, my name is Kero. Let's be strangers no more.” She gives her right arm for a handshake, it looks like it's wet, probably due to it being slimy.
I shook it anyway. “Mine is Jeans. Pleased to meet you.” No reason to tell her my real name.
We shook on it for quite a while, bordering on awkwardness when I opened my hand and she still was not letting go of my hand. Is she autistic?
“I will bring you to my mommy, so you won't get lost again! Ribbit.”
“Mhm.”
We then walked for what felt like half an hour holding hands together, it wasn't completely silent the whole way there. She asked some questions about what do I like to do in my free time, in return I asked about mundane stuff like how's life in her village. She says that she lived near a river so she never really had a problem with food, that there was a community of frog girls just living life.
“So why did you wander around that far into the woods? It couldn't be safe being far away from home.”
“I don't like staying near groups of people. Ribbit.”
“Not good with people eh? Looks like we have something in common.”
“Mm. Ribbit.”
I saw a river bank not too far away, it seemed like what she just described. I asked her anyway for confirmation. “Is this the place?”
“Ribbit. Welcome to the village.”
It was indeed a small village, there couldn't be more than 10 hovels standing here, I saw some frog girls just hanging around the downstream of the river. Inside some of the houses I saw a lot of movement, likely the inhabitants inside are having intercourse. I immediately looked away because I wasn't a voyeur.
“Go this way. Ribbit.”
She led me into a branching path that's away from the frog girls and into a smaller river. Compared to the downstream below, this part of the river was empty, and it really was off the beaten path compared to the one that leads directly to the village. I guessed this is the place where she hangs around by herself.
She finally lets go of my hand after all of that. “I will swim around for now. Feel free to join if you want. Ribbit.”
“I don't have any spare clothes, also no towels to dry after swimming.”
She had already jumped into the river bank and is already swimming around while looking at me the entire time.
“...I guess I can just swim with my trunks.” It had been a while since I swam too, maybe it would refresh my body from all this walking and talking.
She looks a bit… Happy? At the confirmation that I am joining her and starts to swim in my general direction. I took off my clothes and my pants and started heading into the place where she leapt into the flowing river.
I looked over the river to assess the condition before committing with a jump, the water was remarkably clear and the stream wasn't so fast that I'd be whisked away by the current, that would be an embarrassing way to die. Also I couldn’t see any leeches so I hope one doesn't randomly get into my skin and I’d have to deal with leeches in another world. Yuck.
With what I saw based on her proportions, the river shouldn't be that deep, so I prepared myself to jump into the river.
“Here it comes!” and then I leapt into the river.
Before I landed into the body of water a stray thought of information came to my mind. I was jumping into a river with a frog monster girl. Ah.
The single moment that should have been not even longer than a second stretched into minutes upon realization. What the fuck was I doing this whole time?! I literally followed a monster girl into their habitat, and then followed into their hunting grounds??? Oh I was so fucked. And the worst part is it would probably be in the most literal sense! I was not ready for this! What would-
The splash of the water broke whatever I was thinking into complete silence. The embrace of the cool water made me forget about all the worries I had previously. Man, being submerged in water is nice. I was also probably being dragged away by the slow current. My eyes, which haven't closed since jumping into the water, see a figure swimming into my direction. Ah, there it is. My Virginity pred-
“....—Ribbit! I forgot to ask you this, can you swim? Ribbit.” She pulled me from drowning into the surface of the water.
I was so dumbfounded by the sequence of events that have happened I just answered whatever she asked me. “Yeah, I know how to swim. Specifically the free style.”
She tilted her head, “What’s a free style? Ribbit.”
I demonstrated the style by alternating my arms back and forth while simultaneously rotating my body and moving my legs up and down until I reached the other side of the river.
“That’s a free style, sometimes also known as front crawl.” I rested my body on the edge of the river, taking breaths and just relaxing in general. And trying to get away from her
“Oh. Can you perform that for me again? If you do, I'll teach you how to swim like a frog. Ribbit.”
“I think I already know how to do it. It’s something like this right?” I swam to the other direction whilst doing breaststrokes along the way.
“So how was it?”
“You got the general idea right. But you’re missing some key details. Ribbit.”
We then spent the entire afternoon just talking about swimming styles, playing with water, and sharing stories together. Honestly this wasn't what I thought would happen after jumping directly into the habitat of a monster girl.
After all of that, I went ahead and dried myself off. Kero was still swimming from the looks of it, but she said that she is finishing up too. I assumed that frog girls don't mind as much of the wetness compared to humans.
“Are you done drying? Ribbit.”
“Yep, pretty much done. So what's next?”
She sprang off the river into the riverside with such distance that would make a long jump athlete blush.
“You’ll meet mommy at my home. Come! Ribbit.” She held her hand out. I stared at her. Did I really need to do this again?
She noticed that I'm not grabbing her hand. “Ribbit? What's wrong?”
“Do we really need to hold hands again? I assume your home is not that far away from here.”
Kero looked at me with a face of absolute seriousness that I had never really seen her do. “I will bring you to my mommy, so you won't get lost. Ribbit.”
…
She was very assertive on this matter. I guessed that it was better to defer to her judgement here. I didn’t know exactly how other frog girls might react to a guy just walking by himself. She could be my ‘meatshield’ so other frog girls wouldn’t bother me as much.
“Alright.” I took her hand again, and we finally left the lonesome river.
We went back to the main path. I saw that the other frog girls were still in the same place where we last saw them. There were no more movements in the hovels so I assumed they did the deed and are resting now. To be honest, I thought I’d lucked out by meeting Kero here. She seemed more like a nice kid than a sex-hungry monster.
When we walked to the center of the town, the other frog girls finally noticed us and sprang from their position on the river to the center of the village. I counted about 6 frog girls that joined us, they looked like they were in the same age range as Kero, some being a bit older and some being younger.
“Well look who’s back. Ribbit.”
“And she does not come back alone! Who is this huh? Ribbit.”
“Ribbit? Did she seriously find a husband before any of us?”
“Look at that! Ribbit! They're holding hands together!”
“Yeah we see it duh. Ribbit. We have functioning eyes, you know.”
“But shouldn't you only do hand-holding if you have… Y’know, sex? Ribbit.” Huh?
The peanut gallery went silent. They were all looking into us with such intensity like they were trying to bore a hole into us with their eyes.
...I see now why Kero would rather be alone than with her peers. Interacting with kids like these all the time like this would drive me nuts. It was like an infinite web of highschool bullshit all over again.
“Hoh? Ribbit. The Outcast getting a husband before any of us is a real piece of work. I’ll give you that.”
I knew I shouldn't get involved in the lives of people, especially one that I would probably leave after this event. That this was just a normal occurrence, kids being kids bullying the ‘others’ of their own group. Getting attached to people makes you more open to the hurt that will happen once they leave your life, especially in my case where after this meeting I’d probably never see them again.
But, something about the last sentence said by the girl about an outcast… I wanted a clarification for it. If it was because of Kero not being sociable enough, I could probably just talk them down for being rude.
“Hold on. What do you mean by Kero being an outcast?”
Everyone looked at me now, including Kero. Some of them looked excited, some looked smug and others looked pleased. As for Kero…
She looked as if the world was ending for her.
“She’s weird! She doesn’t want to play with us. Ribbit.”
“She only wants you for herself! She doesn't share her things with us!”
“She’s fatherless!”
“Ribbit. If she really is like her mother, then her husband will eventually leave her too. Ribbit.”
“How about it mister? I think you'll have a better time with us rather than that outcast.”
This was pathetic. I was genuinely getting mad at this B-Movie level attempt at schoolgirl bullying.
Kero looked down and seemed visibly shaken by the words hurled at her. As if she were shutting out all external inputs related to the world around her. She let go of my hand, clearly expecting me to leave her. To surrender myself to her ‘bullies’ and to make all this harassment stop.
Indeed, this had to stop. Now.
“I will say this for all of you.” One, take all the attention from them.
“Keep your attitude like this and no one will ever want to be your husband. In fact, some of you here will die alone, never having sex.” Two, land the finishing blow.
With that, I grabbed Kero's hand and walked away from the group.
After walking for a bit, I realized that I actually didn’t know where her mother's house was. Oops, I'd have to ask her about this.
“Uh, sorry to make this sound awkward, but can you show me the way to your house? I should've let you lead the way but in the end I have to get you out of that situation.”
“Why?”
“What about why?”
“Why did you stay with me… After all that? Ribbit.”
To be honest? It was a spur of the moment thing, personally I have never been bullied by my peers. I only saw other people bullied in front of me. I knew logically that it is wrong, and that people shouldn't do that. Tell an authority figure that a kid is being harassed. Or even hell, just be there with the kid and be his friend. It was just one step to make someone feel better.
But I couldn't take that single step.
“Because that's what real friends do.” Because I wanted to feel good while doing superficially good things.
She looked at me with awe, her welled up tears from holding back the mockery finally burst forth. Though instead of sadness, it is tears of joy.
“I… Ribbit.” She wipes her tears with her free hand. “I have always considered you a friend after exchanging names when we first met. Ribbit.”
“But… Hearing it from the other side makes me feel glad! Thank you! Ribbit!” She looked so happy, so relieved, so…
I hugged her, not because I felt glad that she was happy, well a part of it is. But because looking at her face right now is too much for me. What, you think you deserve those wishy washy feelings because you did something you couldn't before? Why is that? Is it because she's a girl? A little girl-
She hugged me back, and that ugly train of thought stopped. I wanted to cry, to release my grief of what I could've done, what I should've done before. But I held back, no one wants to see a grown ass man cry for no reason.
We embraced each other for what it felt like minutes, just two people who were running away from their problems, finding solace in one another.
“So… Ribbit, wanna go to my home?” She broke the silence.
“Yeah, let’s go.” We both released each other and went into her house.
The walk to her place wasn't that far away from where we were, apparently my blind walk away from those girls led us in the right direction all along. The hovel looked like it was only inhabited by a single person, compared to multiple people being inside of the other hovels. I assumed that was her mother inside there.
“I’m home! Ribbit.”
“Welcome back, mommy will be there if you need anything.” A voice replied back, she sounded tired.
We entered the house, I removed my shoes and placed them somewhere near the entrance of the doorway. The place was built like a medieval 1 room house, with all the dining, living, and place to sleep being all together in one place. Her mom seems to be preoccupied with prepping what looks like dinner.
“Ribbit, I want you to introduce you to someone.”
“Oh, did someone give birth again? I’ll have to visit them and congratulate them if that's the case.”
“No mom, uh… Ribbit, I think it is better if you look at him.”
“Him?” She stopped with preparing whatever the food it was, and turned around to look at Kero, then at me.
“Hello Ma’am.” I said with the most everyman voice ever while waving my hand at her a little.
“Oh. Ribbit. Kero Dear, why didn't you tell me about a man coming here?”
“We just met earlier today, Ribbit. Jeans, this is my mommy. Her name is—”
“Jeans, is it? Welcome! I’m very sorry that the house is messy, it wouldn't be proper to have a Guest with such a place like this.” It was like she was on rapid fire mode to give excuses to make her and Kero not look lazy or improper.
“It's fine really, I mean, I did just come here without any notice.” I tried to make her worry less about the current state of decorum in her house.
“Her name is Kata.” Kero continued helpfully so I don't continue to refer to her as Kero’s mother in my head.
“Oh my, where are my manners, letting my daughter introduce my name before myself.”
She wore this expression of an overprotective dad telling his daughter's boyfriend to watch himself. But on a mother this time!
“What are your intentions with my daughter?” Called it.
“Not much really, she offered to help me so I took up on that offer. After that we became friends.”
“Is this true, dear?” She looked at Kero for confirmation.
“Yeah, Ribbit. I even talked to him first!”
Kata visibly deflated from her ‘serious interrogation’ mode and returned to the tired mom mode she was in earlier. “I was never good at being intimidating, but it's always nice hearing the truth instead of having to comb through multiple layers of niceties.” Hm?
Before I could ask what she meant by that, she immediately bombarded us with another question. “So how did both of you meet? Was it something romantic? Did he save you from an evil monster?”
“Mooom! Ribbit! Come on, I met him on the edge of the forest. I first heard some noises like somebody talking, then I found him standing around looking constipated. Hehe.” She replied with a giggle at the end.
“I did not look constipated back there, I was just pondering on what to do next.” I defended myself from this slanderous accusation .
“Yeah, and after that we went to my place and had fun together.” The way she said the word fun rubbed me the wrong way. I'll have to rectify this.
“By ‘fun’, she meant that we swam around and shared stories together.”
“Boo, you're no fun at this! Let mommy figure it out herself!” She pouted while lightly smacking at me with both of her hands.
“Mmm… Mhm. I approve.” She clapped her hands, gave us a thumbs up and went back to preparing dishes. Hold on, approve of what?
“Approve of what mommy? Ribbit.” Yeah, what she said.
“This is what you wanted right? A husband screening, I told you before that if there is anyone you want to be your husband, he'll have to go through me.”
“That’s not what I want. Ribbit.”
“Hey can we go outside for a moment?” I asked Kero so we could finally discuss the directions to Grand Noah with her mother, but it seems that we couldn't really get into the right mood for the conversation.
“Okay, Ribbit.”
We went outside of the house but not too far away, maybe we could finally formulate something so we can talk to Kata properly.
“I think we should come up with a plan so your mother takes us more seriously.”
“...Yeah, mommy usually wasn't as hard to talk like now.”
“So here's the plan. I will ask her for directions to Grand Noah and through that we'll clarify that I am your friend. Not a husband candidate or whatever she thinks I am.”
Kero looked aside, not facing in my direction. I thought she was distraught over the fact that I'll leave her tomorrow. Oh. Yeah the bullying thing, that would’ve sucked to have made a friend and have that friend leave just one day after.
Oh crap, oh crap, I had to come up with an idea that somehow doesn't ruin her life and not make it impossible to do what I want! Uh… maybe I could take her along me on an adventure across the world? That was probably too dangerous, so maybe ask Kata and her to move somewhere else that isn't filled with kid bullies? Would probably cost a lot of gold for that to even happen. What to do, what to do…
“Hey, Ribbit.”
“Got something on your mind?”
“Ribbit. Got some ideas, I want to follow you wherever you go.”
“...Are you sure? I will eventually travel to every corner of the world, it will be a long journey and I don't want you to regret going along with me. Wouldn't you miss your mother eventually?”
“...Ribbit. What else is there to do? Just stay in the village where people my age don't like me?”
“My other plan is to get you and your mother to move to a different place. But your mother would probably need a reason to move away from here.”
“Then just say that other girls don’t like me here, Ribbit. I don't want to stay here for long.”
“Have you ever told her that? That the other girls don't like you?”
The silence I received might as well have been the answer to our current predicament.
“Okay, we will go in together. After that we talk to her after she finishes doing what she does. She was preparing food right?”
“She was. Ribbit. But I think it’s better to bring it up after dinner.”
“Alright if that is what you prefer.”
We walked back into the house, with Kata seemingly done with whatever she was preparing for dinner. She was waiting for both of us to sit at the dining table.
“Welcome back! I made dinner, come and sit here. What did you two lovebirds talk about? Hm?”
I opened the conversation with a light request on why I am here in the first place. “We talked about what I will do for tomorrow. I am planning to leave for Grand Noah.”
“Oh Grand Noah, I haven’t visited there in a while! And little Kero here promised that I can lead you there, am I correct?” She patted Kero's hair whilst continuing to talk to me.
“Yes mommy. Ribbit.”
“What a coincidence! We could go there together tomorrow! I have some things I need to get from the store there.”
“Thank you for that ma’am.”
“Oh save the thank yous for tomorrow, and for now…”
I awaited the permission to eat the dinner made for us. I’d just noticed now that I hadn’t eaten anything since arriving here. Would the food be good? Actually, what even was the food? I just hoped it's something edible. I assumed they eat fish since they live near a river.
“I really want to know what you two actually talked about out in the front.”
Oh, I guess we wouldn’t be eating for a while.
My eyes looked at Kero’s and she stared back at me with a resigned expression. She mouthed to me to tell her the truth, or that’s what I got from reading her mouth movement. I was never really good at doing those.
“We talked about matters regarding Kero and the… situation with her friends.”
“Speak to the point. You’re being vague here.” She retorted with a sharpness I haven’t seen since when we first met, but something seems more serious. She was on edge.
I looked back at Kero, and she looked exasperated. “Tell her, Jeans.”
“Kero is bullied by her peers.”
Kata looked at Kero and then back to me with an expression that I couldn’t really put into words. I would like to believe that it’s disbelief at what she’s hearing. I assumed that she wanted to hear more about what I just said to her.
“She gets ostracized by the kids around her age, they take her things away from her. They mocked her with your current status, implying that Kero being born made your husband leave. And I believe that they do more things than what I have just seen from today.”
She opened her mouth, closed her mouth and cycled through different emotions that I would consider funny if the situation hadn’t needed to be taken seriously..
After a moment of deliberation, she sighed and went back to her ‘cheery’ self that I met earlier. “Alright. Is that all? If it is, I think we should start dinner! The food won’t taste good if it's served cold.”
What? That's all she could muster out? I almost shouted at her at her nonchalance of this information being dropped at her. I snapped my head in the direction of Kero and she also had this look of disbelief at what she’s hearing.
Silence graced the household on what should be a festive and warm atmosphere.
“I don’t understand. Do you not care about… Kero? On the things she went through?”
The atmosphere changed instantly the moment I said that really inappropriate sentence. The previously awkward feeling in the air now shifted into a frigid one, all coming from Kata. And it was all being focused all into me.
“You do not have a right to speak about how I care about my daughter. Ribbit.”
“Oh really?! Because it seems like from here, what I see is that you’re trying to shove away all this problem into a ditch somewhere and forgetting about it!”
“This is a private family matter. Ribbit. That would require a serious conversation between myself and my daughter.”
“Then we have a perfect avenue of conversation right here don’t we?! If not now, then when would it suffice? Tomorrow? Next week? It could even be next year for all we know!”
There was a long pause between us. She looked at me with that expression again.
And then the question that stops me dead in my tracks comes out. “Why would you care? Especially from someone who will leave after all of this is done?”
I…
I really shouldn't have. I didn't have a permanent solution to this problem where everyone ends with a happy ending and holding hands together in harmony. I had even noticed this earlier, where I mitigated some of the bullying earlier today. But that was something within my ability to handle. Something like this needed more finesse, more care put into it than just some spur of the moment decision.
Why? Why should I care? Why do I still want to keep on going, even if letting go of all of this would have been much easier? Why take the harder path? Because…
It was the right thing to do. Definitely. From all the experiences I had learned through, the morals, ideas that have shaped me to who I am today. And all of those still wouldn't make me do all of this. Dig deeper.
A burning sensation lit itself under the base of my neck.
But above all else… I wanted to see her smile again. I wanted to be a part of the reason why.
“I… Don’t know if I care for the right reasons. Maybe I just don’t want to live a life where I am just a passenger within it. Maybe I’m tired of running away from things that I could have changed. Should have.”
I took a breather. I haven’t noticed that I did not breathe properly since this started. I looked at Kero, she… had this determined look I hadn’t seen her face in a while.
“But if I could do something—anything—to make her life less miserable, then I’ll do it. Even if it’s for my own damn sake.”
I was surprised at how easy that admission came out from me, the truth came out in its entirety. No withholding of information, half-truths or lies came out of me. Kero, Kata and other people could view me however they wish. This is my true self.
“J-Jeans…” Kero stammered, she stepped closer to me, clutched her hands nervously. “He’s not lying Mommy. Ribbit. He helped me because he wanted to, not because he had to.”
“You speak as if wanting is enough.”
“Maybe it isn’t. But doing nothing about it sure isn’t either.” I retorted.
“Please Mommy, I… Ribbit. I don’t want to stay here for much longer. At least let me follow him. Anywhere but here. Ribbit.” Kero begged her mother.
Silence followed after her plea. Kata studied us — not with anger or indignation, but with recognition. Her gaze filled with a feeling of nostalgia.
“The folly of youth… I see it now, this is what you meant by that. Huh?” She murmured into the air, looking wistful as if she was remembering what someone told her before.
Her expression visibly softened. “...The answer is no. You won’t be following him.”
I knew that there was always a possibility of failure in life, that it can happen to the best of us. I had failed before, I’d always thought that having that experience would dull the pain that would come with it. It still hurt. Especially when you care about it.
“But I’m glad that you brought up all of this to me. Rest assured, your idea of moving away from this place isn’t without any merit. Ribbit.”
I looked up back to her, with a very familiar feeling in my chest. Kero looked like she had the weight of the world finally lifted from her shoulders.
“Now, now. Before we continue our talk, why don’t we start dinner? The food’s already cold, but that doesn't mean that we can still enjoy it!” That cheery demeanor again, I think that’s just her real self. So that earlier attempt was…
“Let's eat!” ““Let us eat.””
“Hmm… That would require around almost a couple thousand gold… not to mention the extra cost of doing it so suddenly…” Kata was mulling over the financial stuff she would need to move out of here. I heard that she had planned to move to a place near or in Grand Noah itself. She told me over dinner that she apparently sold the food she makes there.
“Do you need help with that ma’am? With budgeting, I mean.”
“Hm? You know how to manage money, Jeans?”
“Yeah, back then I got into an accounting class. I can help you with stuff like this.”
I whipped out my phone and opened a spreadsheet app.
“Hm? What is that?”
“Oh, this is a pretty useful tool that can help us with calculations. I use it frequently because it's easier this way.”
“Hmm… Alright then, oh it already comes with tables too, that's really convenient.”
We both punched the numbers together into the spreadsheet, with Kata sometimes asking what a feature does and me explaining the wonders of modern technology to her. Kero even joined in on what we were doing and looked interested in counting numbers together. Not long after, we arrived at our magic number.
And it was about ten thousand gold.
Kata visibly looked like she took some psychic damage after looking at the final number, meanwhile Kero just looked awed imagining a number can be that big compared to the fingers she has on her hands. They had a budget of just shy of half of the amount of gold they needed.
“That would be… about 5 more months of selling food in Grand Noah before we can move out of here.” Kata massaged her temple while contemplating on what to do next.
“Five more months?! Ribbit.” Kero looked distraught at her mom’s statement. Yeah, that was not good news if they wanted to move out of here ASAP.
Then I remembered that my wallet had that egregious amount of gold inside of it. Well, I couldn't just give them the money without making sure that I don't just sink into financial ruin, that would have been irresponsible for myself. I rethought my strategy for this, I would probably need some money to even get around this world. Not to mention new equipment, stuff for camping and new clothes. Maybe there were menial jobs in Grand Noah? But looking back at the “jobs” I had back on Earth it would probably have been very back breaking and not efficient enough to make money very quickly. Maybe some other profession like accounting? That would have made me deal with numbers all day, so that's a big no no for me.
…
I thought I got it, the job I wanted. I gathered the attention of Kero and Kata back to me.
“So, I think that I can help you guys with this situation. Financially, I mean.”
“Really? No offense, but strange clothes aside, you don't look like you carry a lot of money.”
“Ribbit. And if you have a lot of money, wouldn't you be travelling with a cart?”
“None taken. And uh, that would be more convenient, yes. But where I am going will be to places that are inaccessible with a wagon, so I just forgo all of that together.”
I opened my wallet and poured all the money I had into an empty table. The sight of such a small thing containing this much gold would look ridiculous to anybody watching. Hell, I was still in disbelief that this wallet existed with a hammerspace inside of it.
We all blinked at how much money is on the table right now. “I guess we could count how much money there is?” I suggested awkwardly.
We all counted the gold together. It was also a fun experience for Kero for counting numbers. She finally got how to do it properly when we're halfway done counting. It was just enough for the accursed ten thousand gold price and a little bit more.
“The rest would be… an extra hundred and fifty gold left.”
“I see, how long could one person last in Grand Noah assuming I only have that much gold?”
“Assuming no price fluctuations from the last time I’m there, you could stay in an inn and get food there for like a week. Maybe 2 if you only get a small portion of it.”
Kata looked at me. “This amount of money… You know we couldn't just accept this.”
“Well then I’m afraid I’ll have to insist. Use them to get you and Kero out of here.”
“Jeans… I don't know how we could ever repay this. Ribbit. Maybe we could have sex?” Kero looked back at her mother. NOPE!
“N-no you don't have to!” I stammered that part a bit too quickly, I had to recompose myself. “You could repay me by living life without any more regrets of what happened here.”
“Usually men would be fiending for a chance to have intercourse with two beautiful ladies, you sure you don't want to~?” Kata teased with her hag allure. Holy. Where did that come from?!
I backed off a bit from both of them. “No! I'm pretty sure I don't want to…” “For now at least.” I mumbled the last part of it. Why? Why? WHY did that come out?
Kata and Kero seemingly were pleased with the small hiccup I made being a confirmation for both of them that maybe I was interested?
“Aside from that talk, wouldn't you need this money too? You said that you're travelling around the world. That couldn't be cheap.” Kata returned back with the seriousness of the money talk. I gladly took the bait over continuing that line of conversation.
“Hah, Grand Noah has a Colosseum right? I think I can recoup some of my money back fighting there.”
Both of them looked at me as if I grew a second head mid-talking.
“Jeans, dear. Aren’t you a bit too… ambitious for that? The monsters that are fighting in the colosseum are… a step above what you’re physically capable of.”
“Yes, Ribbit. I saw what your body looked like when swimming, I don’t think you’re fit enough to get into a fight.”
“Oh you have already? I guess you both will have to marry soon…”
“Moom! Be serious here! Ribbit.”
Oh yeah, both of them didn’t really know about my cheat skills, I thought showing them what I can do here wouldn’t hurt that much in the long run.
“Don’t worry about lil’ old me on this one, and besides…”
I grabbed one of the empty glass cards from my wallet and placed it directly in front of my chest. If this didn’t work this would be so cringe… I placed my other free hand back into my nape where the heat from earlier lit up and pressed it.
There was a sound of a chain, no scratch that. A literal chain shot out from my chest into the glass card, staining the previously clear center of it into a bright bronze color. I yank it away from my chest and the chain gives, the rest of it coming out of and into the card I’m holding.
“I have my own ways.”