After Mary had gotten him to agree to stay, they’d gone back to eating dinner. Ren struggled to get the spoon to his mouth and spilt more of the soup onto the table. He glanced up at Mary, who seemed to ignore the mess he was making and enjoying her own dinner. Mary-chan’s a lot more mature than I imagined her. He looked down at his bowl and then peaked back up at Mary. How long has it been since I’ve eaten a meal with someone else? Trying again, he struggled to get the spoon to his mouth, and this time dropped the whole thing. The spoon bounced off the table and onto the floor, splattering liquid everywhere. Heat filled his face. Am I really this bad at using my left hand?

Mary stood up and walked around to his side.

“Ah, M-Mary-chan, I can—”

She ignored him, picked up the spoon, and walked over to a bucket of clean water to rinse it off. When she finished, she pulled her chair around to his side and sat next to him. Picking up the bowl, she scooped up some soup with the clean spoon and tried to feed him.

“M-M-Mary-chan! I’m not a child,” he snapped, and regretted it when he saw the disappointment on her face.

She set the bowl down and huffed. She placed the spoon in his hand, crossed her arms, and looked away from him. “Try just moving the spoon around first.”

He felt bad but didn’t know how to apologize. Slowly, he pretended to make a scooping motion with the spoon and dropped it onto the table. What? I shouldn’t be that weak. He flexed his fingers and found them stiff.

“Why?” He mostly asked himself.

Mary looked back at him, still pouting. “Did you cast high level magic today?”

He blinked. “I just used one of my normal spells to take out that Cat Claw.”

She shook her head and sighed. “Why would you cast high level magic on a forest beast? High-level magic takes a big toll on your body. You need to be more careful with what spells you use.”

It’s possible to overdose on potions, and it will affect my body when I cast magic. This is so different from Y.O.W. No… I should get rid of that thinking. This world isn’t Y.O.W. The rules here aren’t the same. I’m going to need to learn from scratch how everything works.

There was a knock on the door, and Mary went to answer it. The burly guard from before entered holding a bundle and poles. It looked like Ren’s tent and bed roll they’d left behind. Well, I guess items aren’t storable in inventory. Maybe inventory doesn’t exist in this world. Maybe it’s like earth. Great, that’s annoying.

“I went and retrieved your tent boy. Next time be more careful.” The man growled at Ren.

Ren could feel the man’s overwhelming presence and wanted to hide, but he didn’t want to look lame in front of Mary. He stood up and bowed, but only made it halfway because his shoulder throbbed.

“What are you doing, don’t move around too much,” Mary scolded and came to his side.

“T-Thank you for saving me earlier.” Ren lightly touched his shoulder and wanted to scream.

The man stared at him in surprise then cast a confused look at Mary. “Is this the same flicker who was dripping fancy words up until yesterday?”

Ren blushed deeply. “I, uh, that was…”

The man raised an eyebrow then looked at Mary. “You sure picked an odd one.”

Mary didn’t comment as she fussed over Ren’s sling.

The burly man cleared his throat and finally introduced himself, “My names’ Role Millar. I’m Mary’s father. I chased you around a lot when you were a Flicker, but… Um.. Well… If you make Mary sad, I’ll pound you into the dirt.”

“Huh?” Ren was taken aback.

It was more surprising that Mary had a father than him threatening him. Oh, Mary-chan called him father, didn’t she? I was so preoccupied with everything, I didn’t question why. Ren found it odd to think about NPCs having families. Role’s last comment irked him in a way.

“I would never hurt Mary-chan.”

Role stared him down, but Mary stepped in between them. “That’s enough, Father. Leave Ren’s stuff and go back to the Guards Tower. The night watch is starting soon.”

He looked a bit sad but put Ren’s stuff down and left.

“Greif, I’m not a child anymore. I can take care of myself.” Mary huffed and went about straightening up the wadded-up tent.

Ren sat back down feeling exhausted and watched her work. A thought crossed his mind.

“Mary-chan, how old are you?” Ren asked.

She looked up at him, surprised. “About five years older than you, I think.”

The color drained from his face. “H-how old do you think I am?”

“Around twenty. Why?” She finished up and placed the tent in a corner next to his bag.

Ren fidgeted nervously. “I’m not twenty. That’s just… the age I set this… body to be… I’m actually a lot older.”

Mary froze and looked at him. Her lips pulled tight as her eyes widened. They stared at one another for a moment before she recovered. “T-that’s f-fine. Since you were a flicker, I considered it. A-As long as you’re under fifty, n-no fifty-five, I can deal with that. Sixty would make you older than my Father…”

Ren sat there and watched Mary panic. She’s so cute.

“I was thirty-five in my world,” Ren finally admitted.

Mary let out a sigh of relief, then glared at him. “Don’t worry me like that! Thirty-five is perfectly acceptable.”

“But we’re ten years apart in age. Doesn’t that thought bother you?” Ren fidgeted.

Mary looked at him, perplexed. “My mother was twenty years my father’s senior when they married. Ten is perfectly acceptable.”

Ah, this world seems to have different standards.

“Is that type of age gap normal here?” Ren asked.

Mary sat beside him and looked thoughtful. “It’s not uncommon.”

There’s a lot to learn. Where do I even start?

“Mary-chan—” His stomach growled loudly. She giggled, making him feel uncomfortable. He eyed the spoon on the table and swallowed his pride. “Would you… help me… please?”

Her eyes lit up. She picked up the bowl and spoon, ready to feed him. Scooping up some thick orange broth, she brought the spoon to his lips. He blushed, but this time took a bite. The liquid warmed him through. He swallowed, then smiled at her.

“It’s tasty.”

Mary blushed and quickly fed him another spoonful. After a few more spoonful’s, he realized he was the only one eating.

“Mary-chan, y-you need to eat too,” he insisted.

She smiled and using his spoon took a bite of his soup. He tensed as she slowly pulled the spoon out of her mouth and pressed it to her lips. Looking up at him through her eyelashes, she smiled seductively. She’s doing this on purpose! She giggled then continued to alternate feeding him then her. When the food was gone, she worked on cleaning up while he sat there and thought.

I’m pretty sure I died. I wonder how long it will take for someone to find my body. Wait, I think I remember someone screaming before I passed out. I guess I don’t have to worry about that, but I wish I could have sorted things out. I wonder if anyone will actually go to my funeral? He watched Mary humming happily as she scrubbed away. 

I guess it doesn’t matter. It’s not like there will be anyone to mourn me. Right now, I need to focus on surviving in this world. How do I do that exactly? I’m going to need to provide for myself… and Mary-chan somehow. If just entering the library is expensive enough that Mary-chan has to save up for it…

“Mary-chan, do flickers have a job in this world?” Ren asked.

Mary looked at him, surprised. “No, they sell stuff to us sometimes, and they help kill monsters around the city, but I don’t really know what they do for a living.”

“Is there a job in this world called Adventurer?” Ren wondered if he could do that. He’d need to figure out how his power worked in this world first if he was going to fight monsters for a living. If they consider my normal frost spell a high-level spell, then what’s a low level? How does casting magic work? It kind of felt like my energy was being drained.

Mary dropped the plate she was cleaning and turned to him, terrified. “You can’t leave! You just got here. N-no, I forbid you from leaving! I…”

She started sobbing and covered her face with her hands.

“M-Mary-chan?” Ren sat there dumbfounded.

“Y-you finally got here. P-please don’t leave me,” she begged.

Ren stood up and walked around the table to where she was. Using his good arm, he pulled her close. She cried into his good shoulder.

“Mary-chan, I-I don’t want to leave you. As a flicker, my job was to go around and hunt monsters... I’m just trying to understand h-how this world works and what I can do to earn a living. My job in my world was mostly computer… paperwork, but I don’t think that will make me a living in this world,” Ren explained.

Mary snuggled into his chest, making his heart beat harder. “You just got here, and you’re hurt, so you should rest. You can worry about that later… and just let me take care of you.”

Ren chuckled. “I’ll rest… but I-I want you to teach me about this world, please? I want to kn-know more about it and more about you.”

They both blushed when he said this, and he let her go. Her tears stopped just as quickly as they started.

“A-anyway, would you tell me more about your world?”

She grinned at him and smiled. “Yes, but tomorrow. We’ll also work on that stuttering. You’ll have a hard time communicating with people if you keep it up. Can’t you just talk like how you talked as a flicker?”

She’s not making fun of me. It just seems she’s concerned about it.

“I’ll… try.”

Ren looked out the window and saw that the sun was setting. I need sleep. Walking over to his tent, he tugged on the bedroll that was lying next to it.

“What are you doing?” Mary walked over to him looking mad.

“G-getting out my bedroll.”

Mary pouted. “You can just sleep with me.”

Ren felt warm under his collar. “That… wouldn’t be appropriate. We… just met for the first time.”

She huffed, grabbed his good arm, and pulled him over to the bed. Either he was too worn out or maybe he was weak, but she easily pushed him onto the bed. She tugged off his boots and tucked him in. She undid her corset and outer skirt, stripping only to a thin cream-colored undergown. Ren froze as he watched her undress. When she finished, she crawled into bed and positioned herself so that if he wanted to lay on his good side, he’d have to look into her eyes.

“M-Mary-chan.”

She snuggled up to him, and he tensed up.

“Good night, Ren,” she whispered, sending shivers down his body.

It didn’t seem he had much of a choice, and at this point he didn’t want her to cry anymore. Plus, his energy seemed to be depleting fast. Well, I did die today, get reincarnated into my avatar, and got engaged. I fill like I fulfilled a lifetime of events in under 12 hours.

“Good night… Mary-chan.”

Her breath hit the exposed part on his neck. He bit his lip. This is going to drive me crazy. How am I supposed to fall asleep like this?