Chapter 1

“Miiiiss, it’s morning!” Keina weakly opened her eyes at the bright light suddenly pouring in and the young, lisping voice. She stared up at the blurry outline of a grained wooden ceiling. Sliding her gaze to the right, she caught sight of a shuttered window. To her left and beyond the expanse of white sheets, the upper half of a young girl was greeting her with a big smile and cheerful “Gooood morning!” “Yaaaawn… Gwud mornin’?” “Hee-hee! Time to get up, miss!” the young girl replied, her smile dazzling. Sleepiness began to naturally ebb away. Keina stretched her torso and bathed in the morning light as if trying to soak it all in, then looked down at herself and immediately froze. The young girl standing by the bed tilted her head at Keina’s odd stiffness. “Morning sunlight…and a wooden room?” Until just the day before, or recently anyway, she’d always fallen asleep in that white-walled hospital room she was utterly sick of. But more than that, Keina was dumbfounded by the fact that someone who couldn’t even stay awake on her own was getting up and stretching. Whether seconds or minutes, the shock didn’t last long. Keina’s gaze became downtrodden, and she felt the eyes of the girl who had come to give her a wake-up call. “Are you awright, miss?” The little girl seemed truly concerned. Keina considered how she might dispel the sadness in the girl’s dark eyes. Casting aside her own concerns, she opened an Item Box and clumsily took out a Candy, which would restore a small amount of MP. She placed it in her palm and presented it to the girl, just like the head nurse used to do for Keina when she was a child, since she was always crying. Keina smiled and gave the Candy to the young girl. “Th-thanks, miss!” “Not at all,” she replied, her smile bright and her face slightly flushed. Getting up from the bed, Keina patted the girl’s head lightly. The young servant placed the Candy in the pocket of her loose smock. She stripped Keina’s bed of its sheets and blankets, folded them neatly, and went to leave the room with a happy heart. However, she made sure to remind Keina, “Breakfast’s ready, so hurry on down, ’kay?” Logic urged her not to become too immersed in this heartwarming atmosphere, and Keina ruminated over what had just happened. …Open the Item Box? As soon as the thought came to her, a translucent display window appeared on the right side of her field of vision. Then, fifteen smaller boxes popped up at once. As she used the scrollbar in the top right corner to scroll down, a vast number of items appeared. “No…way…” She pinched her cheek. …Ouch. Okay, no question this is real. Having employed a classic reality-check technique, she had confirmed that the situation she now faced was no dream. There was no choice left but to accept it. Since she’d thought this might have been a dream, she opened the Magic Skill tab next to the Item Window. Keina blanched when saw something called Dream Dropper: Nightmare displayed. Wasn’t this that online game she’d just been playing? Leadale? The fact that she could move and feel pain proved to her that everything was all too real. You can’t fight on an empty stomach. Keina—or rather, Cayna—decided she would deal with her problem after breakfast. She timidly descended the steep, creaking stairs and made her way to the tavern’s dining hall. There, she found the girl from earlier and a plump middle-aged woman she assumed to be the proprietress. Within the dining hall was a round table with a set of eight four-legged chairs. There was also a counter with four seats facing the kitchen. It was surely difficult to weave through the crowds when the place was filled to capacity. However, at the moment, there were only two farmer-looking men sitting in the tavern eating their breakfast of soup and bread. “Come now, miss, have a seat,” the proprietress urged. “Otherwise, your soup will get cold.” “Y-yes, ma’am.” Cayna deliberated for a moment over where to sit before taking a spot at the counter. Bread and soup in a wooden bowl were soon placed before her. The young girl from earlier gave her a wooden cup of water, completing the breakfast set. There were already several things Cayna found strange about this online world. She went over them as she began digging in. Come to think of it, how many years has it been since I last fed myself?