In the beginning, there was light. Then there was me.
“I really did arrive as a cute girl, just like I described! And I sound like a cute girl, too! Maybe John wasn’t a total failure after all.”
I stared at my reflection in the side of a shiny, gleaming arch that stretched up all the way from the ground at my feet and curved high above me, touching down a stone’s throw away. This must have been the gateway I passed through to get here. And ‘here’ looked to be the middle of a wide-open circular plaza that was paved with all kinds of cobblestones and lined with a ring of tall, medieval-style buildings.
I couldn’t help taking a minute to check myself out like I was admiring a newly created avatar in a game, making different facial expressions and running my fingers through my hair that was many times longer than I was ever used to having. My starting gear appeared to be some kind of a simple dark tunic. Or was this a nightgown?! I knew I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up. I spun around to get a better look and that’s when I felt it.
That fullness in my chest, that unfamiliar weight that tugged at me, bouncing and swaying with every step and turn I took. How could I forget—the rite of passage granted to every guy who gets magically turned into a girl! That once in a lifetime, first opportunity to reach my hands up to my bust and grab my own two soft, supple, juicy—
“Oh, great. We got another pervert in town.”
I froze. The voice came from a young man with shaggy auburn hair wearing what must have been some kind of guard armor. He was giving me a sidelong glance from underneath his helmet a short distance away.
“Wh-What are you looking at?” I stammered.
“See all these people?” He motioned for me to look around. “We’re in the middle of the city square in the capital. You’re going to cause a lot of problems if you start groping yourself out here in public.”
To my dismay, a quick glance revealed that there were a lot of people milling about: merchants peddling their wares, burly men in cloth work outfits, a couple of women in extravagant dresses, a small family carrying baskets of produce, and even a girl my age wearing cute robes that looked suspiciously witchlike. Some of them had even stopped in their tracks and stood observing us.
“But I’ll tell you what,” the guard continued. “I’ll pay for your own inn room if you let me watch.”
He pulled out a coin from his pocket and flipped it toward me. I caught it and gave it a once-over. Was this a silver piece? Free coins are one thing, but it’s not like I’d ever go along with an insane ‘offer’ like that.
“No thanks, sleazeball,” I shot back.
He scowled and started walking toward me. “Hey now, you already accepted. You’re not going to make an enemy of the city guards on your first day, are you?” He patted the hilt of a short sword at his hip.
I took a step back, then another. A small gathering of city folk had now formed around us. This could be bad. Very bad. And this was way too sudden; I’d barely even gotten a chance to acclimate myself to this new body. I might be able to slip through the crowd and escape, but I’ve got to have some kind of starter spell.
I thrust my right hand out and shouted, “Hyah!” Nothing happened. Actually, the guard stopped moving closer to me, but I doubt that was because of any magic I casted.
“Look, lady. Why don’t you just come with me for a minute?” His scowl had turned into a half-amused smirk.
There was no other choice now. I had to hope for the best and make a break for it into the—
“Quick, come with me!”
I felt someone grab my hand from behind and take off running. I turned around and saw it was that girl in witch’s robes I had noticed in the crowd. The next thing I knew, I was running right behind her, the guard looking just as flabbergasted as me.
“Hey, wait!” he shouted after us.
The edge of the crowd we were heading toward swiftly stepped aside to let us pass, and we hurried past them and down the nearest street.
“I’m Alice!” the girl said back to me with a smile. Now that I got a better look, she had chest-length raven-colored hair, cheerful indigo eyes, and a rucksack strapped to her back that rattled as she ran.
“Beryl,” I replied. “Thanks for the assist!”
Alice and I hurried down the street, eliciting startled gasps and strange looks from passersby. We may have been two girls trying to outrun a guy, but one glance behind me revealed that the guard was worse off; apparently he was not used to sprinting in all his armor.
We didn’t get very far before I noticed that running in this world hurt a lot for two reasons. Firstly, my starting gear didn’t include any goddamn shoes, and with every step my bare feet landed hard on a bunch of goddamn cobblestones. The other reason was because the crappy tunic I did start with was clearly not designed to wear for strenuous physical activity, and every step also painfully tore at my chest as my breasts thrashed about with hardly any support. I was starting to realize that whatever ‘seventy percent’ equaled on the breast slider in this world might have been more than I bargained for. Not that I was used to running around in any cup size, for that matter. Next time, I would go with… no, now’s not the time to optimize!
After we had taken a few turns down different side streets, Alice checked behind us again. The guard was nowhere in sight, and she motioned for us to head into a nearby alley.
“I think we lost him,” she said while panting for air.
I was equally out of breath. My lungs burned and my bare feet were horribly sore and aching, among other parts of my body. To my embarrassment, I realized I was still holding her hand, and I quickly pulled back.
“You really saved me,” I said after I finally caught my breath. “I was in a bad spot back there.”
She shook her head and smiled again. “Don’t mention it. You aren’t from Gadea, are you?”
I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to hearing that. “Is it really that obvious?” I asked sheepishly.
“I’d heard about people coming through the Gate from another world before, but I never knew what it looked like until I saw a giant beam of light shoot down from the sky. And then when it disappeared, there was a person standing at the bottom!”
Oh. How many more details did John leave out? I might have been a bit more cautious had I known I would be making such a dramatic entrance into the world.
“So, what was it like?” she continued, leaning forward with eyes lit up by curiosity. “I’ve never met an Outworlder before. How did you cast magic in your world? What kind of potions could you brew? I want to know everything!”
We had just finished recovering from our run and I was already starting to get exhausted all over again. And I wasn't sure how I felt about getting called ‘Outworlder’ either. “Uh, it wasn’t that exciting. There was no magic, unless you count magic mushrooms, I guess?”
“So you did have experience with alchemy!”
“Yeah, ‘alchemy.’ Let’s go with that.”
Alice was only getting more and more excited which only made my head spin. I shifted on my feet with unease as I felt my palms getting sweaty, and that’s when I remembered I was still holding onto the silver coin from that sleazy guard. I went to place it into my pocket when I made a startling discovery.
“I don’t have any freaking pockets!” I might have blurted that out too loud since Alice looked startled as well. “Er, I mean this tunic is the only thing I arrived here with. I don’t have any spells, I don’t know where to go next, and I don’t even have anywhere to store this.”
I held out the coin. Alice looked me up and down as if searching for something, then clapped her hands together with a curious grin.
“Why don’t you try here?” she suggested, slightly pulling down on the neckline of her robe and pointing in between her breasts. She actually had a modestly small bust, but I got the message loud and clear.
I didn’t get a good chance to check all over myself after my rite of passage was so rudely interrupted earlier, but after staring down into my tunic it looked like I had plenty of cleavage to hold something. I turned over the coin in my hand and felt it had warmed up in all the time I had been holding it. Even though there were still so many unfamiliar sensations right now, at least it would not be cold to the touch going in. I took a deep breath to steel my nerves, then slowly pressed the silver coin down between my breasts until it was barely visible.
“Oh my God, you actually did it!”
Alice was absolutely beside herself with laughter, doubling over in a fit of giggles. There was nothing I could do to stop my cheeks from reddening with embarrassment. Was this really her idea of a silly practical joke? She was more of a weirdo than I thought.
“You’re pretty funny, Beryl,” she continued after calming down and wiping a tear from her eye. “Say, weren’t you trying to cast a spell earlier? I recently came here from my hometown to start learning magic. Why don’t we apply to the Magic Academy together? We could even be roommates!”
“Wait, slow down. Don’t you think you’re taking things a little too fast?”
She pensively scratched her chin. “You’re right, it’s really expensive and we have to pass the entrance exam. We should probably start by signing up at an adventurer’s guild for beginners and work our way up from there.”
“That’s not what I meant…” Misunderstandings aside, apparently she had in mind the exact kind of newbie progression grind I was trying to avoid with my reincarnation strategy. “Is magic really that hard to learn in this world?”
She nodded, frowning. “Magic isn’t taught outside the capital anymore. It’s very difficult without studying or proper training, much more so than something like swordcraft or archery. Usually only the nobility have access to spells, and the rare talented commoner who gets accepted into the Academy.”
No starter weapons, no starter spells, and I ended up with the most difficult combat path in this world gated by some corrupt social class-based system?! Not to mention that school was one thing I’d already had far too much of in my previous life! I was about to mentally lambast John again when I remembered the reason I came here and the one thing he did get right.
“Okay,” I said with renewed vigor, “then all we need to do is get a noble to ‘sponsor’ us!”
“No, that’s… not a good idea. Nobles and non-nobles don’t mix very well.”
This girl must have been around my current biological age, and it seemed like she still hadn’t figured out the shortcut to the top. It was like an unwritten law of the universe: all it took to separate a desperately horny bastard from his gold pouch were a few honeyed words from a sexy avatar. Not even a level gap or social class divide could change that. Why waste time with the low-level grind, running around on crappy starter quests for hardly any reward, if you could skip your way to the top? It wasn’t even about greed at this point; there was a dastardly Demon King plaguing this world that simply must be slain!
On second thought… even if Alice wasn’t on board with the plan, she definitely knew a lot more about this world than me. She did ask me to do something pretty weird, and yet she did also help me out in a way. If I wasn’t careful around her mischievous antics, she might take me ‘down the rabbit hole’ to madness. But even still, she was kind of cute…
I stepped toward her and gently took her hand in mine.
“Hey Alice, you’ve been really helpful so far, but I could use someone to show me around.”
Her whole face lit up with a heartwarming smile.
“Yes, I’d love to!”
Alice has joined your party! |
She gripped my hand a little tighter. “Don’t worry, I’ll take us to the guild right away!”
The… The guild?
Wait, no! Not the newbie guild!
I think Beryl severely underestimates the difference between reality and games and it’ll be funny when she figures it out
Beryl, oh Beryl. To much mmo's my bo... ehm, girl.
Again good job author-dono.
Ok she is stupid. If she did not figure it out from the guard. A few honeyed words from a sexy avatar to a Noble will result in him ordering her to strip or be whipped and then possible pregnant. Not a game and Nobles do not need your permission to Rape you any more than guards.. MC is stupid and playing a dangerous Game.
Beryl's master plan has never her failed before~ What could go wrong?
@Malonymous That you can not rape a PC in a video game and this is a real-world wear you can not log out. Oh the humanity! ..@Malonymous Excellent story by the way my criticism of the MC is not in any way criticism of your writing! Well Done and TY!
@dragondeathlord Yeah, the major theme of the early arcs is about the MC's expectations meeting reality here, loosely a play on the "isekai'd to a game world" kind of trope. And thank you, I appreciate reading different perspectives on the MC and story! I try not to go overboard, but for comedic purposes, some of the MC's actions are intentionally silly (for better or worse)
@dragondeathlord I bet you're one of those people who believed the first night's right really existed.
@_ciro_ Different subject but No I do not but I do think it's a stupid Argument to say it did not for the reasons Given. The reality was any night was the Lord's Night he was LORD! So the lord and sees you and your wife the happy couple comes over and he tells you he wants your wife first...Exactly what did you DO? And if Next week he decides he wants her again? And what if he wants your daughter? He got them as HE IS LORD.
I have seen the Arguments on youtube about the Droit du seigneur not being real and they are right but not for reasons they claim. It was not real because it was ALWAYS THE LORDS RIGHT TO DO WITH HIS SURFS AS HE PLEASED!
That what Surf MEANS! No rights. You belong to Lord and his land. A Yowan (or what ever that area in different Areas) called it was a Free Man not a Noble and had rights.. But a surf? American history has Records of Indentured Irish and Russians Sold Naked at the Docks Men for Labor and Women as wives or to stock Brothels.
The Idea now circulating on Youtube that Droit du seigneur Never Existed is wishful romanticization.
No Droit du seigneur Lord's first night's right never Happened BECAUSE ANY NIGHT WAS THE LORDS NIGHT HE WANTED!
Surfs had no Rights they wear not free you can even look at old land records and see the Families Attached to the Land. Meaning Owned. But very off subject.
But the point was a Lord could do with everyone's Blessing Anything he wanted to a None Noble ANY NIGHT HE wanted.
And if he Killed another Noble's Surf All he did was pay a wergeld. Cost of the Surf.
There are histories of Nobles there often taking the wives and daughters of their Property and returning them or not. It was Normal Common. King James of the King James Bible. Used to Enjoy Starving and Hunting and killing the Children of his Surfs. History barely mentions it.
We had in My city two cops Arrested for multiple rapes.
Do you seriously think People were somehow more Nobel 800 years ago than today?
That if a Noble Son and saw a Shepherd's Attractive young New Wife that he did not say"Before you use her tonight bring her to me and my friends" And the Shepherd Knowing that this Lord's son could on a whim have him skinned Alive or put to the Wheel Would say NO?
This Illiterate Man knows not his rites and if did knew he had few would say no?
You think he would go to the Village Vicar and complain? When Likely the Man was one of the Lords Freinds waiting his turn with the young Wife?
Romanticization or History indeed.
To Paraphrase. I bet you're one of those people who believed in Happy Southern Plantation Workers too.
Noe our Author might have a Nicer World But going by the City Guards man it's still a Realistic Fantasy setting..And Attractive Young women that Lead on POWERFUL MEN Get in Trouble!
@dragondeathlord It seems to me that you do not know several facts, the first is that the servants did have rights, it was in their contract, you are talking about what the nobleman did in his position of power, not about the right to the first night, the which at least in the Christian world (where this theory is handled, mainly in English romanticism, and I do not mean the artistic movement) was prohibited, do not forget that one of the clauses that all Christian churches shared is that you will only have s*x if it is with the objective of having children.
As for good people, in fact, in my opinion, ancient people were better people, today most people are cynical, at least before almost all religions (or at least organized ones) said that doing benevolent acts would have a positive retribution
Finally, the US slaves, in my humble opinion everyone who treated a slave badly was stupid, mainly because slaves are worth money, nobody wants to lose their money if they can help it.
@_ciro_ I said Serfs Not servants. BIG Difference. This what you get when learn your history from youtube . Surf belong to the Lands ! Not them selves they had no rights. And No real rites whats so ever! It why the Russians Rebeled! Its why French Rebelled! And they Killed Everyone!
And DO YOU SEROUSLY THINK A FARMER COULD GO TO THE GUARDS AND SAY"THE LORD RAPING MY DAUGHTER! HELP ! ARREST HIM!" WELL HE COULD AND HE DIE!
The Argument not Even Stupid its silly! Who Exactly Would Judge the Crime...Oh Right THE LORD! LOL
The People rebelled for a REASON! That was basically the reason! Elizabeth Bathory only got in trouble when she started eating NOBLES!! For years she Ate Surfs and no one cared! 650 girls and no one MINED! She Raped them Bled them and Cut off their Breast and cook them and eat them!
Only After she went after a Daughter of a Foreign Dignatory Was there a PROBLEM!
And What was her real sentence? Was she really buried alive? Nope. Imprisoned? Nope!
House Arrest With her Guards removed replaced with kings that was it! She Alone Proves that Nobles did do Droit du seigneur and raped anyone they wanted ANYTIME!
I say again! The Idea now circulating on Youtube that Droit du seigneur Never Existed is wishful romanticization.
I grew up in Liverpool and go on the tour. And 6 hundred years Later there wea=re still stories of the Lord that a Lord that Raped a Nun and Buried her alive!
Had s*x for only CHILDREN! No Rape in the Middle ages! LMAO!
Priests used to take a vacation to sin! And committed rape commonly!
The Idea now circulating on Youtube that Droit du seigneur Never Existed is wishful romanticization.
LMAO! How did those rights help Bathory Victims? HMM Did she have children with those girls? NOPE!
And After England Concurred Ireland what exact Rights do you think the Irish had with their British Lords?
You seriously saying in the history Europe No Lord Ever Raped a Woman! And if he did he face Punishment! LMAO! Find me one record one case of a Lord Being Arrested for Raping a Stablehands shoeless Daughter! And I will show a church filled with Babie's bones of Rape victims forced to become Nuns Lords and Priests could use it as a Brothel! Even today in modern Slang Prostatutes call each other the SISTERHOOD!
You are a Romanic! LMAO! Lords Did not wait for Honeymoon(which was a month of drinking mead) They took what they wanted anytime they wanted and it led to the end of the Monarchies of Europe and the ends of the feudal age.
The Historical History Ignored by Keyboard Worriers and Youtube Romantics!
the first is that the servants did have rights,
They had the right to Bleed!
Serfdom
Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery, which developed during the Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages in Europe and lasted in some countries until the mid-19th century.Wikipedia
@dragondeathlord See, you clearly didn't understand what I said.
I said that legally they had a contract, the man had to fulfill some clauses, clauses that he fulfilled with the objective of continuing to have the life that he had.
As I said, what you name is something that is outside the law, that is, I only say that they had certain laws, what happened I do not contemplate in my comment, as for only giving him a home arrest I do not know What are you thinking, that happens today too, in fact, much more than before, much, that is how power works, it always has been and always will.
Finally, English is not my native language, so sometimes what I want to express is not transmitted well.
@_ciro_ And you did not understand what I said! And France and Russia Had not such Rights. That legally they had a contract that did not exist in Russia. The Law was quite Literally was whatever the Lord said Limited by the Emperor of Russia rules and he gave no rights to Peasants and less to Surfs (Surf by definition wear had no rights and considered Legally objects Attached Legally to the Land.) France was the same. Nobles Decided what was right and wrong only limited by the king's will. It's why their Monarchies Fell so Violently and England's survived if somewhat reduced condition. Our argument was Originally that if a Lord or Noble wanted to have his way with a Peasant Girl Married or not she was basically screwed. And Your standpoint was that never happened in Medieval Europe. That People only had s*x to Produce children and they had rites. To which I pointed to Lady Elizabeth Bathory And her eating habits who only got in trouble after 650 victims surfs when she started eating Nobels.
The Essence of our Argument was this. My position was Nobles did and routinely Abuse their Power and a Peasant had not Legal Recourse or power to stop them as they wear the law.
As I understand your Position the church and Law would hold them accountable.
My point is there were no police.. there was no one to go to. And to Defy your Lord in Medevil society was a crime And the church would not challenge a Noble for a Farmer who had his wife ravaged and more likely accuse her of seducing the Noble with witchcraft and killing Executing her. And even today Legal Police Officers Abuse their power routinely.
PS your command of the Language is exemplary. And while I argue with you it does not mean I dislike you nor that I do not enjoy the Argument. a good debate is a thing civilized men rejoice in. This is not twitter lol
@dragondeathlord Well, first clarify that I liked the detail of Twitter, on the other hand, France and Russia depends on the time, in general their rights are scarce.
What I wanted to get to with the whole argument from before is that in theory they had laws that should regulate their behavior (what I said about the doctrine of the church went in the same direction).
That is to say, theoretically nothing endorsed anyone to commit crimes, in practice the power towards theirs, nothing more, nothing less, I speak from theory, you from practice, that's why this discussion.
@_ciro_ Agreed!