After recovering from Menu-san’s — or Melfina’s, I suppose — sudden “confession,” I set out for the closest city. Along the way, she told me the general story of what had happened before my transmigration.
Apparently, I had died in an accident, but it was an accident due to a slip-up by a god (a deity other than Melfina). Consequently, that god had approached Melfina, whose jurisdiction was transmigration, and begged her to take “special measures.” According to Melfina, this kind of thing wasn’t all that rare. So even gods and goddesses make mistakes, then?
::You would be surprised at the number of gods and goddesses who are quite irresponsible with their powers. I’m different from them; I do take my job seriously, okay?::
As for this particular goddess who had been speaking to me inside my head, it turned out that she had once been an angel who had served another deity. Her long years of service had eventually been recognized, and she’d been promoted to Goddess of Transmigration and Reincarnation in this world. Compared to her peers, she was considered a total newbie. When my case had been brought to her, she had apparently accepted it while grumbling this again? to herself. Of course, I could only take Melfina’s word for all of this.
::Right after you chose your skills, you immediately turned to press me for a Contract. You went on for nearly an hour saying, ‘I’ve fallen in love with you! Please come along with me!’ Honestly, I was feeling a bit bored after doing this job for several hundred years, so I eventually caved in and said yes.::
I had no memory whatsoever of this episode, but apparently I had fallen for Melfina at first sight. Now, though, I could only hear her voice.
Wait, hold on...you left because you were bored? It sounds like you are one of the irresponsible ones after all!
::Even gods and goddesses need a breather every once in a while. In terms you would understand, it’s paid leave! Don’t worry; I’ve thrown all of my work at my subordinate. With one thing leading to another, I haven’t taken any leave for several decades already, so I thought it would be a good time to do a bit of recharging.::
Threw your work at someone else? So you’re treating my transmigration as a vacation?! If that’s so, I’d appreciate it if you’d at least return my memories.
::The discarding of your memories was something that you decided on, honey. You didn’t have enough skill points, so you asked me to take your memories in exchange for more.::
Why on earth would I say that to someone I’d fallen in love with? What was the point of forgetting all about it right afterwards?
::Well, you did say, ‘Even without my memories, I know for a fact that I will fall in love with you all over again!’ You were so direct and straightforward in your approach that I couldn’t help but be slightly moved. In dating sim terms, it was Favorability +1. Congratulations.::
Ugh, please let her leave it at that. I may have no memory of it, but listening to this story makes me feel like I’m being forced to relive an embarrassing episode from my history. In any case, it seems like Melfina’s appearance is totally in line with my personal preferences. Now I really want to get a look at her.
“Does the fact that we’ve already Contracted mean that I can Summon you now?”
::You can’t at the moment. The amount of MP needed to materialize me is far beyond your current stats.::
Wind taken out of my sails right at the start. Guess my goal now is to gain enough levels to Summon Melfina.
::I look forward to both your growth and another novel and exciting confession from you.::
“There isn’t going to be a confession, all right?”
As our conversation continued in this manner, I finally reached the top of a hill, and a city came into view.
::That is our destination, the city of Parth.::
The city appeared quite sizable, composed of brick buildings surrounded by a stone wall that looked roughly ten meters high. I felt my heart begin to beat rapidly at the sight of a view so different from modern Japan, with “Now this is fantasy!” bouncing around inside my head. There was even a tall clock tower near the center of the city, with a design that wasn’t terribly different from the clocks that I was familiar with. This may be another world, but perhaps our cultures are more similar than I thought.
The outfit that I was wearing at the moment was casual garb for travelers in this world. According to Melfina, it was part of the standard welcome package for all transmigrators. It wouldn’t raise any eyebrows but its defensive capabilities certainly left something to be desired.
The stone wall had entrances on both the east and the west sides. I approached the gate and what would be my first human interaction in this world.
Hm, the guard’s noticed me.
“Hey there. Are you an adventurer? Sorry to trouble you, but could you show me your guild card or some other form of identification?”
“I’m sorry, I come from a small, rural village, so I don’t have any identification.”
My response was something that Melfina and I had worked out in advance. A sizable portion of the population of this world didn’t own any identification, so gate guards at a city of this size often issued IDs as part of their duties. It would require a bit of money, but Melfina had also given me some cash when I transmigrated, so there was no problem on that front. I suppose she was capable of doing her job properly after all.
::As I said, I do take my responsibilities seriously!::
I acquired my identification without any issues and headed towards my destination, the Adventurer’s Guild. Although I had been apprehensive at first, by now I was thoroughly ready to enjoy this new fantasy world to the fullest.