After the official took his leave, the maid who had served me tea brought me to the chambers where I was to stay from now on.
My new home was far bigger than my one-bedroom apartment back in Japan—it was more like a suite in a hotel, since it had a living room connected to two bedrooms. The interior design was done up in an extravagant Rococo style. It reminded me of those outlandishly expensive hotels in Europe that advertise themselves all over the internet.
I collapsed on the sofa in the living room, thoroughly exhausted. The yellow light streaming through the window told me it was afternoon, but when I was summoned from Japan, it had been the dead of night. Not to mention, I had only just gotten home from work. I supposed there was a time difference between the Kingdom of Salutania and Japan.
Seeing as I was running on empty from all those days in a row of killer overtime, not to mention the abrupt change in my entire world, I don’t remember what happened after I collapsed. I assume that I fell asleep.
When I woke, I found myself on a luxurious bed. Someone must have carried me to it. By then, it was the following morning. I had also been stripped of my coat and business suit, and stuffed into a white dressing gown.
Eep! Who the heck changed my clothes?
I assumed (hoped) the culprit was the maid who brought me to this room, but I couldn’t help feeling a bit, you know, alarmed.
I thought about putting on something else, but I was unsure if I had license to hunt around for more clothes without permission. I figured there might be someone in the living room, so I made my way there.
When I opened the door, I found the same maid from yesterday waiting for me. Tentatively, I told her I wanted to put some more substantial clothes on. She guided me right back into the bedroom, where various kinds of dresses hung in a closet. They were all way too gaudy for me, though. Not to mention, they looked incredibly expensive—the type of clothes I’d be afraid to move in because I’d definitely get them dirty.
Because I had no plans for going anywhere or doing anything, I asked for something modest and comfortable. The maid could only find one dress that matched my description, though you could probably still call it fancy.
While I was changing, I nervously asked the maid if she’d been the one to change me out of my clothes the night before. She confirmed, so I thanked her sincerely. She responded, “It was my pleasure, milady.”
Honestly, I felt like she was being overly attentive. But I suspected pointing it out would only make her offer more profusely humble protestations, so I tried to stop worrying about it so much. I had already put up with quite enough of that fluff.
And then, somehow, two weeks had gone by. All in all, I had way too much time on my hands.
The first three days weren’t so bad, since I was still freaking out about this whole summoned-to-a-new-world thing. But the lack of anything productive to do quickly started getting to me. I had all the necessities of life, such as food, clothing, and shelter, but otherwise, I was largely ignored.
I saw neither hide nor hair of that blue-haired official after the first time he came to see me, even though I kept waiting for him to contact me. Whenever the maid was with me, we chatted a bit, but it was hard to keep a constant conversation going, and she seemed to have other duties to attend to, so she didn’t stay with me all day. Whenever she left, it was just me all alone in the room, and without a TV or a smartphone to keep me preoccupied, I was bored out of my mind.
But it’s not good to stay cooped up in your room all day! Unable to take it any longer, I made up my mind to go for a walk. I told the maid as much, and she insisted that she would accompany me. However, I would have felt bad making her come with me when I knew she had other responsibilities. Ultimately, I forced my way out on my own, saying that I was just going to wander about in the garden directly in front of my chambers. She was still pretty reluctant to let me go.
I started with nosing around the aforementioned garden, but gradually, day by day, I expanded the scope of my explorations. During my wanderings, I came across an herb garden.
Back in Japan, I had been really into herbs and aromatherapy as a way to burn stress from work, so I was instantly intrigued by the garden. Some of the herbs looked similar to those that could be grown back home, which gave me hope that perhaps the plants weren’t all that different in this world.
That was when I heard a voice. I turned to find a handsome young man with an amiable smile. He had piercing emerald eyes and forest-green hair to match. He introduced himself as one of the researchers at the Research Institute of Medicinal Flora located next to the garden.
“Do you have some business at the institute today?” he asked me.
“Oh, not in particular. I was just taking a walk when this garden caught my eye. I thought it looked interesting, so I came over.”
Upon hearing that, he seemed to take interest in me in turn, and he proceeded to tell me about the herbs they were growing. Lavender, rosemary, angelica—the names were all the same as in Japan, and when I pressed further, I learned they had more or less the same effects as well.
“We use these herbs to make HP potions,” he explained.
“Did you just say HP potions?!” I was shocked to hear him say the name of a game-type item like it was a real thing.
“These herbs have their own individual effects when dried and made into salves, or when boiled and drunk, but they’re even more effective when used in potions.”
“Huh. Is that so?”
At his research institute, they studied medicinal herbs, but it seemed his main focus was making potions, as he proved to be a veritable expert. While I listened to his descriptions of different kinds of potions, I found an intriguing parallel: the same herbs used in salves a long time ago in my world were being used as the ingredients for HP potions in this one. What’s more, the effectiveness of potions was linked to the effects of the herbs used as ingredients.
As I listened to this researcher’s explanations, time passed without my noticing. Suddenly, it was almost evening, and I knew I had to return to the palace.
“Thank you very much,” I said. “I truly enjoyed learning with you today.”
“Thank you for being a great listener. I do hope you’ll stop by again sometime.”