Down the narrow back alley, at a dead end, four people were arguing.
Two men on one side, two girls on the other. The men looked like trouble; the girls were both — striking.
The girls looked about my age, maybe younger. And they looked alike. Very alike. Twins, probably. Same silver hair, sharp differences in how they styled it — one long, one short — and a difference in expression.
Their upper halves were near-identical: black tops over white blouses. The lower halves differed: the long-haired girl wore culottes with black knee-high socks, the short-haired girl wore a flared skirt with black tights. The contrast read at a glance — active versus demure.
“That’s not the deal! The price was one gold coin!”
The long-haired girl raised her voice. The men sneered, mocking. One of them held what looked like a glittering crystal antler.
“What’re you on about? I said I’d buy this crystal-stag antler at one gold — provided it wasn’t damaged. Look, see this scratch? That’s why the price dropped. Take it — one silver coin.”
A silver coin clinked at the girls’ feet.
“That scratch is not significant damage! You two were planning this from the start—!”
The long-haired girl glared at them. Behind her, the short-haired girl bit her lip in frustration.
”…Fine. Keep your money. Give the antler back.”
The long-haired girl took a step forward. Her clenched fists were equipped with oversized gauntlets that didn’t quite match her frame.
“Oh ho, that’s not happening. This is ours now. We’re not handing—”
“Excuse me — sorry to interrupt. May I?”
Every gaze in the alley snapped to me. The girls blinked, confused. The men, on the other hand, immediately gave me hostile looks.
“Huh? What’re you? You want something from us?”
“No no — I want something from her.”
“Wait, me?”
I ignored the man’s threatening look and addressed the long-haired girl behind him.
“I’d like to buy your antler. One gold coin.”
She stared blankly for a moment, then understood and smiled.
“Sold!”
“You’re not selling shit — this is ours, you—!”
The instant the man raised the crystal antler over his head, it shattered. The stone I’d thrown had hit it dead-on.
“H-hey!? What did you do?!”
“It’s mine now — whatever I do with it is my business. Don’t worry, I’ll pay her.”
“You bastard—!”
One of them pulled a knife and lunged. I watched it come — and dodged with absolute certainty I could dodge. I could see it. His movement, the path of the knife.
This was probably the body-stat boost the god had given me. I crouched low, swept his legs, and as he fell on his back, drove a fist into his torso.
“Gguh—!”
He went still.
Turning, the other man was fighting the long-haired girl. He was swinging a hand-axe, but her gauntlets were blocking it cleanly. After a beat, she stepped in like lightning and a right straight detonated against his face. His eyes rolled back and he collapsed. Clean.
If it was going to be settled this fast, I didn’t actually need to smash the antler. Well — I’d thought removing the cause of the fight was helpful, but. Trying to look cool in front of girls — bad call. Too late now. I pulled out a gold coin and handed it over.
“Here. One gold.”
”…Really? It helps a lot, but…”
“I’m the one who smashed it. Take it.”
“Then… thanks, I’ll take you up on it.”
She accepted the coin with a gauntlet-clad hand.
“Thanks for the rescue. I’m Elze Silhoueska. This is my twin sister, Linze Silhoueska.”
”…Thank you very much.”
The short-haired one ducked her head with a small smile.
So they were twins after all. Long hair = Elze. Short hair = Linze. Got it. Only telling them apart by hair and outfit, though.
“I’m Mochizuki Touya. Touya is the given name.”
“Heh. Given name and family name reversed. Eashen-born?”
“Uh — something like that.”
Same reaction as Mika at the inn, same response from me. Seriously, what kind of country is Eashen.
“So Touya, you just got into town too?”
Elze sipped her juice. More like just arrived in this whole world, but.
We were back at Silver Moon. The twins had been looking for an inn, so I brought them along. Mika was visibly pleased about the new bookings — very readable person.
We ended up having dinner together. As we wrapped up Mika’s meal and moved to after-dinner tea:
“We had a delivery for those guys — a crystal-stag antler. Got royally screwed. I’d had a bad feeling about them, honestly.”
”…I told you to call it off, Nee-chan. You didn’t listen.”
The younger Linze glared at her wild older sister. Reckless senior, sensible junior dynamic. Elze was the unafraid type, Linze leaned shyer.
“Why’d you guys take the job from them, anyway?”
“A bit of a back-channel. We’d already taken down a crystal stag and had the antler, so when someone said they wanted to buy it, good timing, we figured. Lesson learned, though. From now on we take jobs through proper channels — like the guild.”
She sighed.
“Maybe we should register at the guild while we’re here, Linze.”
“That’d be safer… let’s go tomorrow.”
The guild. Like a job-placement office in games — they hand out tasks, you complete them, you get paid. Hm.
“Mind if I tag along tomorrow? I want to register too.”
“Sure, come with.”
“Mm. Let’s all go.”
Both agreed cheerfully. Get registered at the guild, take jobs — that’d cover living expenses. A foundation for life in this world might be in reach.
We said goodnight there and I returned to my room. That’s one day done. A lot of one day.
Arrived in another world, sold clothes, got an inn, helped some girls, got into a fight. What.
I jotted the day’s events into the phone as a diary. While I was at it, I poked at news sites from the old world. Oh, Giants won. The band broke up — sad.
At a stopping point I powered down and slipped into bed. Tomorrow: guild registration. What’s it going to be like. The thought trailed off as sleep took over. Out.