Chapter 2
...I woke up.
My body feels somehow sluggish and heavy.
Hmm... What happened...? But before that, where am I?
I sit up and look around... Whoa... Trees, trees, and more trees.
There are tons of huge trees that look old enough to have lived for hundreds of years.
Between those huge trees are slightly younger trees: big tree, young tree, young tree, big tree.
...Anyway, let's calm down.
No matter where I look, I see trees.
I turn around in a full circle to check. It's a forest.
And somehow my body feels sluggish and heavy.
On top of that, this forest looks as though it's covered in some kind of black shadow.
I wonder if I can do something about this heaviness.
The black shadow is depressing too.
For now, assuming this is a forest, where exactly am I?
Let's think back over what happened.
Um, I definitely heard the voices of three people calling themselves apprentices... Yeah, no doubt about it.
Was I perhaps caught up in the Hero Summoning they performed?
Hero Summoning... That came up in the manga my little sister was reading.
She'd come sit beside me and ramble about it until she was satisfied, even when I hadn't asked, so I kind of remember it.
If I remember correctly, it involved summoning a hero to another world...
Ah... So does that mean this is another world...?
Um... does that mean I might not be able to go home?
...
"Damn it!!!!"
I got irritated.
So I screamed at the top of my lungs to blow off some steam!
I forcefully push all the air out of my lungs...
I feel a little better.
My little sister says, "Bottling things up is bad!"—before a test, I once heard a war cry from her room.
As it turns out, this is actually a good way to relieve stress.
All right, let's face reality.
This is probably another world... right?
Another world... the manga my little sister read... There must be some standard tropes, right?
What were they again?
A standard feature of another-world stories is... Think... magic.
Hmm, magic!
Ah! A monster!
Crap, I shouted out loud.
I look around to check.
Yeah, nothing here.
I check again, slowly this time, because I'm scared.
Nothing.
"Phew... Still, I feel sick."
Ever since I woke up, I feel like something has been clinging to my body.
On top of that, it feels like it's slowly getting inside my body... Is that weird?
No, that's what it feels like...
...I feel like the black shadow is growing too.
For now... where in this other world am I?
I'd like to ask for help... but all I can see is tree after tree—nothing else.
I'd hate to be somewhere deep in a forest.
Even so, I keep feeling worse and worse.
This lethargy and nausea are unlike anything I've ever experienced.
...Lethargy and nausea... I sound like one of the people on that paranormal show I watched yesterday. Wait... a ghost?
Maybe the black shadow is the curse of a vengeful spirit.
...Are there curses you can actually see in another world?
"Haha, no way... right? Wait, there really isn't, right?"
For now... begone, evil spirits!
I tried saying it out loud, but nothing changed. If anything, it was embarrassing.
Um, in the manga, I think it was... purification magic?
I whisper, "Go away! Purification!" at whatever is clinging to me.
...Phew... What am I doing...? I need to calm down.
A vengeful spirit? I'm an idiot...
Besides, I don't even know if magic exists in the first place.
Good grief... Huh?
...My body feels... lighter... maybe...
Hahaha, no way.
To test it, I point at the black shadow in front of me.
"Purification."
...It worked.
If I managed to purify it... was it seriously a vengeful spirit? An evil spirit?
Hahaha, so this is a world where magic can be used...
Maybe escaping from reality once in a while isn't so bad.
'Grrrr'
Looks like I have no choice but to face reality. There's something behind me.