Chapter 1: Pioneer Village(1)

A pioneer village in the East.
The usually quiet morning was exceptionally busy today.
At an hour when only the light-sleeping elderly would typically be awake, the sounds of hurried footsteps and urgent shouts overlapped.

The commotion woke Avalli earlier than usual.
Though, compared to a modern city, calling this ‘commotion’ was rather quaint.

‘…I’m more used to the quiet nights now.’

Avalli’s pale feet touched the floor beside the bed.
Rubbing her sleepy eyes, Avalli began to tidy her bedding.
The village chief couple, who owned the house, had told her ‘there’s no need,’ but as someone living under their roof, Avalli couldn’t help but be mindful.

Avalli was aware that she was an outsider.
Even in this eastern pioneer village, where origins were usually disregarded, she was likely the most disparate existence.

And for good reason, Avalli wasn’t originally from this world of ‘Sword and Magic.’

‘…I should have just kept playing the game.’

[Sword and Magic]

A famous RPG series that had been popular for over a decade.

With a new title released, there was a man who decided to try the Sword and Magic series for the first time.
Following a friend’s advice, ‘Why not start easy?’, he chose the easiest difficulty.
Planning for a comfortable first playthrough, he even created a character loaded with cheat-level settings.
He wasn’t thrilled that the age was fixed at 12, but he pressed the start button, reassured by his friend’s words that the character would naturally grow as the game progressed—

The next moment, he became Avalli, stranded alone in the middle of a dense forest.

“…Ugh.”

Recalling the terrible memories from two months ago, a small groan escaped Avalli’s lips.
Hunger and thirst, attacks from wild animals, being chased by beasts, and occasionally getting caught up in strange phenomena.

It was sheer luck that a young girl managed to survive alone in such an environment for two weeks.
Avalli, who had suddenly become an inhabitant of the game world, might find it absurd to hear, but if she hadn’t chosen the ‘Easiest’ difficulty, she would undoubtedly have died.

But even that had its limits after two weeks.
If the village chief, patrolling alone near the village, hadn’t found Avalli—

‘…He’s a lifesaver.’

Having finished tidying the room and changing her clothes, Avalli.
About to leave the room immediately, she glanced into the slightly cracked mirror.

Dull brown bobbed hair, a sprinkle of freckles on her cheeks.
An appearance lively enough for her age, but slightly ambiguous to be called a ‘beauty’.

It was the exact image of the girl ‘Avalli’ that the villagers knew.

After nodding with a satisfied expression at the Avalli in the mirror, she promptly pushed the door open and stepped out.

“Good morning!”

She greeted energetically as usual, but strangely, there was no reply today.
Not only was there no reply, but there was also no sign of anyone around.
Feeling slightly uneasy, Avalli looked around and soon found a loaf of bread in the kitchen with a small note placed beside it.

Avalli squinted at the note, but couldn’t decipher its contents at all.
The village chief couple tended to overestimate Avalli’s learning ability.
An assessment stemming from the sharp, unchildlike demeanor she had shown so far.

But for Avalli, who bore these expectations, it was only burdensome.
She studied with a lantern on until just before falling asleep to meet those expectations, but learning a completely new language was inevitably difficult.

Still, her studies weren’t entirely fruitless, as she managed to decipher a little of the note by the time she finished her meal.

‘…Besides the part about being late, I can’t read anything else.’

Avalli stared intently at the note a little longer, then shook her head and gave up trying to decode it.

If it were truly important, they probably would have woken her up to tell her.
It must be nothing serious if they just left a note like this.

Having rationalized it to herself, Avalli opened the door and went outside.
Originally, Avalli rarely even left her room, but living in this pioneer village had changed her personality considerably.

It couldn’t be helped.

In this world of sword and magic, there was hardly any ‘entertainment’ to enjoy indoors.
She was quite interested in the books the chief owned, but… it would still take a long time before she reached a level where reading was possible.

“Oh, Avalli. What brings you up so early today?”

As soon as she stepped outside, someone called out to Avalli.
It was the middle-aged man who always reeked of alcohol, the drunkard Karls.

“It was too noisy, Karls. Is something happening today?”
“What, didn’t the chief tell you?”

When Avalli shook her head, Karls gulped down the liquor in his hand and continued.

“We’re having a visitor. Here, in this pioneer village!”
“A visitor?”
“Yeah, a visitor. And a high-status one at that! Ha, it’s unbelievable. I thought the only high-ranking person who’d ever visit this remote place was that bald tax collector— Kyaaak!”

Karls, who had been chattering excitedly, yelped and ducked his head.
Behind him stood Karls’s wife, fists clenched and eyes glaring fiercely.

“The fence! How many times did I tell you to fix it! You drunkard!”
“I fixed it! Are you blind, woman!”
“You call that fixed? Avalli, come take a look. Is this really fixed?”

Avalli trotted over and checked the fence of Karls’s house.

“…It looks worse than the last time I saw it?”
“See? You idiot. Even a child can tell!”
“How am I supposed to fix it with nothing! We barely have enough nails for the village’s outer wall, you should be satisfied I fixed it this much!”

There was some truth to Karls’s words.
Among the dozens of pioneer villages in the East, not many weren’t suffering from supply shortages.
Unless the village happened to house a noble’s illegitimate child.

‘…Should I help out a bit?’

Avalli had secretly stolen and drunk Karls’s alcohol a few times.
To repay that favor, Avalli slightly pulled back both arms and then—

“You just need nails?”
“Of course. I may look like this, but I used to be a carpenter!”
“Oh, please. Weren’t you kicked out for slacking off during your apprenticeship?”
“I wasn’t kicked out, I left on my own!”

She stretched her hand back out towards the still bickering Karls couple.

“Here, nails.”
“Hmm?”

Several thick, large nails lay on Avalli’s small palm.

“…Did you take these from Arsene’s house? If so, put them back, Avalli.”

Karls frowned and grumbled.
Though the village chief, Arsene, and Karls were close friends, he didn’t want to owe him like this.

“No. I found them near the riverbank the other day.”
“Near the riverbank? That broken watermill?”

Avalli nodded, looking up at Karls.

‘…There’s not a speck of rust on them?’

Karls felt a strange sense of unease.
But heavily drunk as he was, figuring out the source of that unease was impossible.

“Use them. They’re my gift.”

As Avalli held out her hand with bright, clear eyes, Karls dazedly accepted the nails.

“…Well, thanks.”
“Oh my, aren’t you sweet. Stop by at lunchtime, Avalli. Auntie will fix you a meal.”
“Okay. By the way, where’s Hans?”
“He took the kids down to the river. Little ones just make a mess anyway. Why don’t you go play with the kids too?”

Avalli nodded.

Hans, the eldest son of Karls and his wife, was the oldest child in this pioneer village.

Though ‘oldest’ only meant he was a 14-year-old adolescent boy, the other children in the village were all under 10.

And a 14-year-old boy was old enough to take on a role in that community.
Specifically, taking care of the whining children while the adults worked, a sort of childcare duty.

‘The kid is surprisingly responsible.’

Avalli left the village and walked south for about five minutes.
Soon, the sound of flowing water could be heard, and a river, not particularly wide, appeared.

Following the river downstream slowly, she saw about a dozen children playing with their clothes off.
Some of them noticed Avalli and waved, shouting.

“Avalli noona!” (TL: Noona is what a younger male calls an older female.)
“Avalli unnie!” (TL: Unnie is what a younger female calls an older female.)

But looking around, Hans was nowhere to be seen.

“Where’s Hans?”
“I don’t know!”
“Hans hyung told us to play here for a bit!” (TL: Hyung is what a younger male calls an older male.)

Avalli immediately retracted her internal praise of him being responsible.
No matter how shallow the water was, leaving young children unattended near water like this.

“Unnie, play with us too!”
“Avalli noona, do you know how to swim?”
“Of course, I do. But I don’t feel like it today.”

Avalli sat down near the children.
When she first arrived at the pioneer village, they eyed her with suspicion… but it didn’t take long to befriend them.
Now, many of the children preferred Avalli even over Hans.

“Then, Noona, come in!”
“Noona, take off your clothes and come in too! It’s refreshing!”
“Aw, Avalli. You can’t swim, can you? Right?”

But a few of the older kids among the little ones approached Avalli and persistently urged her.
The emotion in their eyes was a type all too familiar to Avalli, a former man.

Avalli grinned brightly, grabbed one of the kids, and—

“Your intentions are so obvious, you little brat!”
“Aaaaaaaah! It hurts!”

—pressed her knuckles firmly into his temple.

“Avalli is attacking Nicol!”
“Stop her! Quick, splash water!”
“It’s the witch Avalli!”

Avalli’s daily life usually went something like this.
Chatting idly with the villagers, playing and laughing with the children, and studying writing at night, rubbing her eyes.
For someone who had become a member of a world of sword and magic, each day was surprisingly peaceful.

***

“A goddess?”
Inside the carriage heading to the pioneer village, the man frowned upon hearing Village Chief Arsene’s words.

“Yes, I can only describe her as a child blessed by the goddess.”
“…More details.”
“It was when I first met the child—”