*****

"Alright then, is it fine if I borrow her for a moment?" Kodori asked Mia.

Mia glanced at the girl for moment before giving a nod. "Sure, you should ask her first if she's comfortable with talking alone."

Mia thought it to be for the best, this way the girl would be able to rest and refresh her mind.

"It's getting dark out so it is for the best that she takes the rest of the day to rest. Wouldn't want her to react as badly as she reacted to Ryuu." Mia added. Granted, it was mostly because of Loki's teasing, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

To that, Ryuu frowned.

"Got it," Kodori nodded and kneeled to Abhi's level.

"Sorry to cut short your catching up with Mia, but mind if we talked alone for a moment?"

Abhi stared at her for a moment.

'I can use this to ask some question of mine… I have a lot…'

With a nod, Abhi waved at Mia and others, receiving nods, before guiding Kodori to her room.

Once inside, Abhi sat on the bed.

"Now that I remember, this is the room that I used before I moved out. Was this your room too back then?" Kodori said in an attempt at a casual conversation.

Abhi only responded with a dismissive nod before Kodori watched as the girl flopped onto her mattress face-first

"There really was no need to worry…" Abhi dejectedly muttered to herself with a sigh. "Why am I so pathetic…"

"It's not all that bad. That you were worried and anxious meant that you cared, that you felt responsible. You shouldn't beat yourself about it so much." She sat at the edge of the bed at the girl's feet.

Abhi groaned in response, not at all convinced. She turned her head to look at her fellow English speaker.

"Really?"

"Really," Kodori assured, drawing a subtle smile from the smaller girl.

There really was no need to worry. Perhaps she knew this somewhere deep in her heart, but she was too consumed by her guilt to consider it. Thinking back at it, at how she hid for five years, only for this to be solved so easily. She just had to have some courage! Which she unfortunately didn't have until now, and even then she wouldn't have done it if she didn't feel cornered.

'The more I think about it the more I can't help but feel as small as a pebble.'

"Nnggh… I wanna turn into grass or something…" She groaned before once again burying her face onto the bed sheets.

Now that she is back, she is worried about what to do going forward. Well, she should study the language first before worrying about that, but she just can't help but think over it. Should she stay at the pub and work here? Should she apply for a job? Or start her own business? It just feels wrong to work here at the pub again after she left so abruptly back then. Maybe she should start paying rent? But how much did a day cost?

She's worried for her property too, she can only hope that Bird is guarding it well. He will have to eat something less seasoned meals like raw deer for the time being. Both of them knew he was not trusted in the city, but both of them were unsure of how to get over this issue.

Well, time will tell once the time to pick up her stuff comes. She's coming with, of course! There's simply no way she's trusting those people not to mess up her things!

Kodori coincidentally chose the moment she made up her mind to speak.

"Well? Care to tell me how you ended up in this world? Might give hints about how it happened for me too." Kodori smiled at the girl, finding her quite adorable despite the depressed aura coming off her form.

"Instant." Groaned Abhi, her face still buried in the sheets. She turned her head to the side to look at Kodori and continued. "O-one moment I was struggling to take off the safety belts of my tractor, next thing I knew I was standing in some alleyway, staring at a moldy wall with my clothes too huge for myself because of this new body."

Abhi found it strange how easy and comfortable it felt to talk with this fox despite her initial anxieties and shyness. Perhaps it was the kinship she felt for being in the same situation? Was it the language? Abhi didn't know and didn't care enough to find out. She was comfortable and was finally able to soundly talk with someone other than Bird, she was not about to ruin this and make it awkward between them by trying to find out.

"Well, at least you came with clothes. I came with nothing but my skin, my body weaker and different from my old one." Kodori chuckled in amusement, thinking back to the time when she first came to this world.

It was pretty much the same, one moment she was in her apartment, complaining to the heavens how bored she was, and she next found herself in an unfamiliar alleyway, except she came with no clothes in a new and unfamiliar body. After helping some grey-haired girl from some hoodlum hitting on her, who she came to know as Syr, she brought her to the Hostess of Fertility where Mia helped her. It was also here when she first met Hestia, and eventually Bell.

"I don't even want to think about the implications of that. I'm just glad my clothes came with me." Abhi shuddered at the thought, afraid of the things that might have happened, things like attracting the wrong attention.

"I then helped Syr in an attempt to temporarily escape my confusion. She was being hit on by some hoodlum, and then she brought me here, where Mia and the rest helped me. That's the short and long of it. It's been a humbling experience, really." She chuckled with a shrug.

"How about you?" Kodori inquired. "How did you do on your first day?"

Remembering her first day, Abhi groaned as she once again buried her face into the sheets.

"I…" She hesitantly started, reluctant to share her own experience. But because it didn't feel fair, she did so. "I… cried myself to sleep until the afternoon of the next day…"

"You sure cry a lot… you sure your new body didn't affect your mental age? Wait, how old are you before you came here?"

"I was…" Abhi cut herself off before continuing. "… sixteen…"

She was about to say her real age before deciding not to, too embarrassed of herself for crying so much. Instead, she ended up telling her half of her actual age. She felt ashamed for lying, but it came as an impulse, and now that she had said it, she was scared of how she would react if she found out she was actually lying.

She knew that the earlier she fixed this lie, the better it would be for their relationship, but for the love of her, she just couldn't for some reason.

'So pathetic…'

"Right around your puberty, huh, That's when your brain is undergoing a hormonal change… combine that with all the confusing things that happened to you in an instant, no one can blame you for reacting the way you did." Abhi couldn't tell if Kodori bought her lie or not, even more so since she couldn't really see anything at the moment with her face buried into the sheets.

Upon Kodori's response, Abhi couldn't help but feel more shameless and guilty. This person was the first she could properly converse with in this other world, yet here she was, lying to her face.

'Just say it was a lie… there's nothing hard about that!' Abhi groaned mentally, frustrated at her own behavior.

"But it has been five years since then, right? That makes you 21. As for me, I was nearly forty years old before I was thrown here."

'We're almost the same age, then…' Abhi thought dejectedly, frustrated of her own lies.

"I guess that makes you my senior…" Abhi said, her voice muffled by the bed sheets.

"That's true," Kodori chuckled, "but it's you who is older in this world, shouldn't be I calling you that instead? The bigger would be calling the smaller senior." she joked.

"I'm not small!" She said with a start and glared at Kodori, frustrated that she had not grown much if at all for the past five years. It was strange, it doesn't work like that! "Wait… nevermind that, I'm sorry for shouting at you."

With a dejected look on her face, Abhi buried her face into the sheets once again.

'Why am I so pathetic…'

"Right, I'm sorry if that made you upset," Kodori responded, observing the girl, noting how easy it was to irritate her.

There was also her sudden mood shift earlier after her exchange with Loki to take note of.

"Say, can I ask you some questions?" Abhi sat up and asked nervously looking at Kodori.

Kodori could tell the girl was nervous for some reason so she smiled. "Sure, go ahead. I've been doing the asking so far, it's only fair."

Slightly brightening up, Abhi sat upright and asked her first question. "What's a God? That red-headed guy said he's one that's why he can understand me, but what's that? I know about gods from our world but what is he about? If he's a god, then shouldn't he be in heaven or something?"

Kodori couldn't help but slightly widen her eyes at that. "I'm surprised you didn't know about that, having lived here for so long."

Abhi could only chuckle nervously at Kodori's remark while looking to the side.

"That's because Gods in this world speak in the one true language or the lost language in our world. That's why we can understand them, and they, us…"

Kodori explained to Abhi about the first God to descend, Ouranus. About how he and the Gods that followed him abandoned their godly powers, excluding their immortality, in order to seek entertainment in the lower world, helping the mortals by giving their blessings, widely known as the falna. With the help of the Gods and Goddesses who descended into the lower world, the mortals slayed the monsters that plagued the lower world and pushed them back into the dungeon, where they came from, how the Gods made the Tower of Babel in order to seal the dungeon and contain the monsters within.

Those who are blessed by falna are able to become adventurers, it is they who dive into the depths of the dungeon in order to hunt monsters not just to contain their population, but to gather magic stones. A stone found within the bodies of monsters, acting as their core. It is filled with magic, which the guild has a monopoly over its distribution which they sell to the people of Orario. It acts as magic source for a number of appliances such as lighting, stoves, or water purification.

"I see… I can't say I understand all of that, but…" Abhi's face adorned a confused look as she continued to speak. "Why were they so confused and even offended that I wasn't an adventurer?"

"That's because it is widely known that the majority of people who are not blessed by a God or Goddess, cannot use magic. And that using it needs casting, a set of words used for that specific magic spell. Which makes you…" Kodori cuts off as she looks at Abhi meaningfully.

"…An exception…" Abhi continues with a dreadful look on her face.

*****