“Right, well it’s not a very easy story to digest. But I guess we should get this pain out of the way, huh?” I replied. Ai Fa gave a “hmph” and sat down beside the stove, one leg upright with the other crossed behind it. It was a truly manly pose; rather unfitting for such a scantily clad woman.
“You mind if I make myself a little more comfortable, too...?” I asked. After getting a small nod, I loosened the strings of my apron.
The temperature around here was probably about the same as it was in early summer back in Japan. And with the stove lit, that meant it was starting to feel pretty hot in this room. Still, now that I’d taken off my apron and exposed the t-shirt underneath, the night air blowing in through the windows was feeling real refreshing.
“What a strange outfit you have on... I’ve never seen anyone dress like that, even in town.”
“Yeah, well, I guess that makes sense. And I mean, this is my first time seeing anyone dressed like you, too.”
I took a seat too atop the stiff fur rug, directly across from Ai Fa.
“So, what do you want to ask me? To be honest, I don’t really get what happened myself, though, so I don’t know how good of an explanation I’ll be able to offer.”
“Where did you come from?”
That was the second time she’d asked me that question. I suppose we wouldn’t get anywhere if I just answered that I was from the Chiba prefecture in Japan again...
In the dim light, I stared straight into Ai Fa’s wildcat-like eyes and said, “Ai Fa... You saved my life, and invited me into your home. I had nowhere to go, but you took me in and treated me kindly, which I’m just so, so grateful for. That’s the absolute truth.”
Ai Fa tilted her head as if to say “and?”
“So I want to tell you everything. And then you can make your decision afterwards.”
And so, I ended up telling her the whole of what had happened to me, even though I didn’t understand it myself.
I told her that I lived for 17 years in a relatively peaceful country. That one day tragedy struck, and I ended up leaping into a fire. That I thought I had died, only to wake up in that forest before as if none of that had ever happened. And that this place was a lot like the world I had come from, but seemed fundamentally different somehow.
“I suppose there’s still the possibility that I just got flung to some unknown part of my own world. But that wouldn’t solve the biggest issue of how I’m alive and kicking when I was supposed to be dead. Too much stuff just doesn’t match up...” I admitted, voicing the doubts that had been swirling around inside. “For example, take the words we’re talking right now. You’ve never even heard of Japan, right?”
“I don’t know it.”
“Right, that point alone is utterly incomprehensible to me. I mean, back in my world it’d be unthinkable for someone who didn’t know of Japan to speak Japanese so fluently. So how exactly is it that we’re able to converse so smoothly like this?”
Ai Fa just sat there in silence.
“So, it’s not just you people of the forest’s edge living in this world, right? There’s also that ‘city of stone’ and ‘Western Kingdom,’ yeah? About how big are they?”
“I have no business with the city of stone. I’ve only ever gone as far as the town on the outside of the stone walls in order to sell giba horns and tusks. Anything else I could tell you would be more hearsay,” Ai Fa quietly responded after a bit of contemplating. “I’ve heard... that Duke Genos rules over thousands within the stone walls, and the citizens ruled by the Western Kingdom of Selva outnumber the very stars...”
“Hmm... Yeah, that’s pretty big... Do you know what sort of god the people in the city of stone worship, and stuff like that?”
Ai Fa shot me back a dubious look in response. “Obviously the people of the nation of Selva worship the western god, Selva. There are four great kingdoms on the Amusehorn continent, each with their own principal deity. Without the divine protection of the gods, the people of Amusehorn could not exist. After all, a man without a god is little more than a beast... You’re not trying to tell me you don’t even know that much, are you?”
“Unfortunately, that’s the case. I’ve never heard of any continents, kingdoms, or gods that went by those names in my life,” I said with an awkward smile as I scratched my towel-wrapped head. “There was still a slim chance that maybe I was dense enough to never have heard of a tribe of 500 hunters or that there were boars out there with horns, but... there’s just no way. Looks like I’ve got my answer there.”
Well, I figured that possibility was a real longshot from the start and had pretty much given up on it, so it wasn’t exactly much of a shock at this point. Still, it did mean acknowledging that there wasn’t even a smidgen of a chance left that I’d ever see Reina or my old man ever again.
I looked straight into Ai Fa’s beautiful blue eyes and stated, “Let me voice my present conclusion... Be it through a godly whim or whatever, I was sent here from another world. And maybe it’s the work of some unseen force that we can communicate, too.”
“...”
“Whether it’s the distant past, the far off future, a parallel world that evolved differently, or just one in some different dimension... At any rate, this isn’t the world where I was born and raised.”
“...”
“I’m a visitor from a different world,” I awkwardly forced out as my shoulders drooped. “Either that, or I’m just a giant idiot who hit his head or something and started thinking all that was the case. Those are the only two ideas I’ve got...”
“So you admit that you’re crazy...?”
“Not in the least. To me, those 17 years I’ve lived are everything I’ve got. If all that is just a lie, then where does that leave me?” I forced out while holding back a sigh. That was all I could say on the matter. “Just to be sure, there aren’t any other people like me out there, are there? Like if all people who died in my world were reborn here...”
“As if such a stupid thing could be true.”
“Yeah... I mean, if that were how things worked, this world would be absolutely overflowing with the dead.”
I copied Ai Fa by lifting up one knee, then rested my chin on it.
“Anyway, that’s all I’ve got to say. I leave it up to you to decide what to do with me.”
“...Understood.”
Ai Fa shot me one last glance and then gradually stood up.
“...Well then, it’s about time.”
“Hmm?”
“The meat should be just about ready.”
With that, Ai Fa took off the stone weight and the lid to the pot, causing white steam to billow forth.
“Man, that smells tasty!”
I stood up myself and excitedly peered over Ai Fa’s shoulder into the pot. The water and bits of meat were positively dancing about in its rounded bottom. And the steam was impressive, but so was the way that it was foaming up. It was like someone had thrown soap in there or something...
“...Hey, food is important too, naturally, but are we seriously done talking?”
That question earned me a glare from up close and personal.