Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 87
After returning home, I asked Melt for a small favor.
“Melt, let’s leave through the East Gate together and head out of town… maybe somewhere near the hidden door in the rocks. Then I’ll switch back to Shizuma. After that, can we head back into town together? Just casually, like we’re walking home.”
“Yeah, sounds good. Given the situation… they might be watching or keeping tabs on us, right?”
“Exactly. I don’t think they’d chase us all the way into the mountains, and if we’re there, you’d probably notice if anyone followed us.”
“That’s right. With my nature magic, I can easily detect enemies in forests or mountain areas.”
At last, the time had come to test the culmination of all our groundwork so far.
As Shizuma, I would likely take on the trial and gain permission to enter the dungeon.
Until the moment comes to capture Marquis Olheus, I will train and strengthen myself as much as possible.
I’ve already inherited many skills as Shizuma.
With “Rhythm Step,” I can move and evade more quickly in battle, and with “Gourmet,” I won’t run out of stamina and will also recover health over time.
Thanks to the various “Disciplines” I’ve obtained from different jobs, I can now use each job’s basic techniques.
…With all that, I’ll challenge the dungeon and train myself.
“Let’s go, Melt.”
“Going out at night feels kind of exciting, doesn’t it?”
Whether she sensed my tension or not, Melt’s usual tone helped me relax a little.
Yeah, there’s no need to be nervous anymore.
When we passed through the East Gate, one of the guards—unusually—spoke to us, even though I wasn’t in my Sheele form.
“Not often someone leaves Lindblum this late. You’re that young adventurer who made it to Ruby Rank, right?”
“You remember me, Gatekeeper-san? Yes, I’ve got an urgent matter outside town. I’m going to pick someone up.”
“Oh, and I’ll be back later! Same’s got a job out that way.”
“Wait, aren’t you friends with Sheele? Has she left town again?”
One of the other guards asked about Sheele.
“Um, Sheele is…”
“She went to investigate something near the port town, I think. Probably won’t be back for a while.”
“Huh… why do you know that? Are you friends with Sheele?”
“Yes, we’re in the same guild.”
“Oh… the same guild, huh…”
I’ve thought this before, but… this guard is totally into Sheele, isn’t he?
“Well, we’ll be going now.”
“See you later, Gatekeeper-san!”
“Take care out there. I’m sure you’ll be fine, but you know there are bandits and large-area roaming monsters at night.”
“Yeah, I heard even wild dogs can go rabid these days. Once autumn ends and food gets scarce, hungry monsters come out.”
Yikes. That’s a thing too?
“Don’t worry! I’m strong too! I only need one more job to make Ruby Rank myself!”
“Wow! You’re amazing too, huh?”
“No way… you’re that young? And Sheele, too…”
“Hey, she’s an elf, remember?”
“Oh, right.”
Somehow, we’ve become pretty familiar with the East Gate guards.
With that, Melt and I ran off into the night along the road.
Our destination: the hidden rock door. Once inside, I’d switch characters.
It’s a hassle, sure… but this time, it’s necessary. There’s no doubt my movements are being closely watched.
Normally, I’d just switch at home with no problem.
“We’re here. Melt, how’s the area look?”
“Hmm… No one’s in the mountains, I think? I’m pretty sure we were being watched until we left Lindblum. Whoever it was probably gave up after we hit the road. Maybe they plan to investigate the trail later.”
“So at the very least, they’ve tracked our direction.”
“Hey, why don’t we just go back home through the underground tunnel after your transformation? That way, we leave behind as many mysteries as possible. From here, they might think we crossed the mountains to the southern forest, or that we have a base up there. It’ll throw them off.”
“Hmm… you’ve got a point.”
Melt can be surprisingly sharp sometimes…
She probably has great instincts when it comes to danger or defense.
“Alright. Let’s head back through the underground tunnel. I’ll change back now.”
“Got it. I’ll open the rock door.”
We slipped inside and shut the door behind us.
Even in complete darkness, I could still operate the menu somehow, and selected “log out” to return to my Shizuma form.
“…No headache. Good. I’m okay.”
“I can’t see! Let’s head down the stairs—there’s light over there.”
“Wish I brought a lantern…”
“I did~”
Melt lit a lantern and playfully shone it upward at her face.
“Boo!”
“Cute.”
“You’re not even startled…”
Well, yeah. She’s just cute.
But still—how well prepared is she?
“Let’s sprint the rest of the way home through the tunnel, Melt.”
“Okay, but will you be alright, Shizuma? Your body’s not that strong, right?”
“It’s not like I’m sickly, but this form is definitely weaker than the others, and I’ve got less stamina. Still, I’ve boosted myself quite a bit. I want to test it out.”
I opened the menu and pulled out a cookie, eating one.
This activates the effect of [Gourmet].
“Ooh, you ate something! Give me one too!”
“Here—almond cookie.”
“Yay! I love sweets… Mmm, so crispy and toasty.”
I’ve been thinking nothing but “cute” this whole time.
It feels like I’m feeding a pet… Is this the power of fox ears?
“Alright, let’s race, Melt.”
“Sure! When I say ‘Ready, go!’ we’ll start running, okay?”
“Wait—! Melt, where do you learn this stuff from?”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
You little trickster… aren’t you already seventeen?
Feels like her mental age is minus ten. But… well, she’s always been alone, after all.
“Alright, for real this time. Race you home.”
“Let’s go—Ready, go!”
In that instant, Melt took off like a rocket, already far ahead.
Her acceleration is insane!
I took off right after her.
With each step, my feet felt like they were gripping the very earth beneath them.
The sensation was completely different from any running I’d done before—it was clear this was something new.
As one foot launched forward, the other slammed down hard, propelling me again.
I never knew my body could feel so responsive.
Up until now, I’d always felt like I was watching myself fight from a distance—a strange disconnect between my mind and body.
But now, it was different.
Right now, I was fully me, moving at superhuman speed, with superhuman control.
The size of Melt’s silhouette ahead of me wasn’t changing.
We must’ve been running at nearly the same speed.
Even with enhanced skills, I still wasn’t quite fast enough to close the gap—at least, not in a straight line.
“[High-Speed Movement] + [Rhythm Step] + ‘Rapid Step’ activated.”
I activated not only my passive skills, but also the active skills of both the Swordsman and Thief classes.
It doesn’t just increase the number of attacks—it boosts movement speed too.
[High-Speed Movement] is a passive skill that increases movement speed outside of combat for certain classes.
[Rhythm Step] boosts overall movement speed and dodge rate during combat.
But in this world—this real world—how do you even distinguish between “in combat” and “out of combat”?
Right now, I’m “competing in speed against Melt.”
Maybe because that’s my recognition of the situation, all the effects are activating properly. Which means—
“I caught up!”
“Whoa!? I won’t lose!”
“You’re getting even faster?!”
I had finally gotten close enough to almost touch Melt’s tail—but she accelerated again.
Just like that, we arrived in front of the stairs leading to the house.
“Phew… I win!”
“A-Amazing… I couldn’t catch up in the end…”
“Hehehe~ But you really surprised me. Shizuma, you’re super fast! You really are getting stronger, huh?”
“At least in terms of speed, yeah. But… this is still my limit. Melt, you’re still amazing.”
Passive Skill × Passive Skill × Active Skill.
It’s probably an additive rather than multiplicative effect. Even so, the resulting speed boost was crazy… and yet there’s still this much of a gap.
Melt… she may still be developing, but I’m sure one day she’ll be like Shuris-san, maybe even rival the Thirteen Knights.
“Haa… Whew… I went all-out for the first time in a while… Running in a place this smooth… really tired me out.”
“But hey, we got home in less than half the time it took us to get there. This underground passage is really convenient.”
“Right?! Hmm… Shizuma, you really are strong, huh? I just realized something! You’re not even breathing heavily!”
“Ah… now that you mention it…”
Seriously? I was sprinting at full speed, using all kinds of skills—and I’m not even winded?
That [Gourmet] trait… it might actually be totally busted in this real world…
We went up the stairs and out from the fireplace into the living room.
“Whew… No way we’re heading to the royal palace now.”
“Yeah, I’m beat too. We’re going tomorrow, right?”
“Yep. Plus… I need to get my gear in order.”
I’m still wearing what I wore on the school trip. In other words, a gakuran school uniform.
Even my former classmates have changed into this world’s clothing by now.
“Shizuma, your outfit is totally black. Is it for hiding in the dark?”
“No, no, no. It’s the school uniform from the school I went to.”
“School! So you had classmates! Whoa! You actually went to school!”
“Yeah, I did.”
Honestly, I only went for the sake of appearances and future employment, so I wasn’t that emotionally attached.
I poured way more energy into online games than school life anyway…
“What kind of things did you learn?”
“Well… stuff like the history and geography of my world. Not quite alchemy, but something close to it. Also foreign languages, math… a bit of everything, I guess.”
“Wow… you studied a lot, huh…”
“I guess so…”
I didn’t like it, but if I didn’t maintain a decent GPA, my parents would’ve banned my beloved online games.
To keep being a gaming addict, I had to pay the price somewhere…
“Anyway, I should change clothes and get ready. I’ll stand out way too much in this outfit.”
“Yeah~ I think Same’s clothes might be a bit too big for you though?”
“Probably. Hmm…”
What about the equipment I haven’t used yet—stuff I just picked up and never equipped?
There are a few such items sitting in the shared inventory menu.
“Beginner gear… this one looks close enough.”
I pulled out the “Traveler’s Outfit” series—early-game equipment.
Since it was the first time I’d taken it out in this world, it automatically adjusted to my size.
“I’ll go get changed.”
“Fits perfectly… This is a really convenient feature, but it only works with unused gear…”
“Thanks for waiting. Do I look like a normal adventurer now? Like someone here to explore the dungeon?”
“You do, you do. But… Shizuma, you still look kind of young, so you might want to be a little careful about that.”
“Ah… maybe I should dye my hair someday…”
“Black hair is pretty rare, right? But actually, during the academy festival the other day, I saw a student with black hair. The girl who guided me to the greenhouse had black hair.”
“Oh, really? So there are others like that in this world.”
In that case, maybe I don’t need to dye it after all.
With that, I finished preparing for tomorrow’s visit to the royal castle. I was a bit nervous and had trouble falling asleep, but I went to bed early to be ready for the next day.
…I have a bad feeling I’ll end up having to fight Cres-san…
The next morning, it seemed I’d managed to get a decent amount of sleep after all.
I’m not sure when I finally dozed off, but I was woken up by the sound of a violin playing from somewhere in the house.
“Melt must be practicing…”
It’s a pleasant surprise to see her take up a new hobby.
Also… isn’t she improving kind of fast? That’s “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” I’m hearing!
I immediately headed to the lounge and, as expected, found Melt practicing the violin.
“Good morning, Melt.”
“Ah, good morning, Shizuma!”
“Wow, you can already play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star?”
“Yeah, but I still can’t connect the notes properly. I can only play them one at a time, all chopped up.”
“Even so, that’s really impressive. I bet Letty-san would be surprised.”
“You think so? But the Glory Knights have been getting really busy lately, so I’ll have to take a break from practicing for a while.”
Hmm, I see.
Well, things will probably get even busier from here. After all, it’s not just the royal knights secretly working to capture Marquis Olheus.
“Let’s head to the castle after breakfast, Melt.”
“Got it! What are we having today?”
“Hmm… We should probably finish up the chicken we got from the guild. I’ll make piccata sandwiches again.”
“Piccata sandwiches… What were those again?”
“It was the first meal I ever made for you. Back when we were traveling from Golda, and I was still in Same’s form.”
“Oh! The one with the bread and meat! That was a taste to remember!”
Yeah, I remember.
I’m sure I can make it even better now, so look forward to it.
With that, I ate breakfast—though the nerves made me eat a bit slower than usual—and then, accompanied by Melt, I made my way to the royal castle.