Roa.
When Luo Ge stepped into this once-prosperous town, the scene before him made him fall silent for a moment once more.
The familiar stone-paved streets are mostly broken, and the shop signs along the roadside hang crookedly on the ruins, some barely hanging on by a single iron nail.
Half of the clock tower in the town center collapsed, the remaining part resembling a severed finger pointing towards the sky, the hands of the clock forever frozen at the moment of the disaster.
On the vast open space outside the city, tents of various colors were densely packed together.
The refugees moved between the tents, their faces mostly expressionless. Occasionally, a suppressed cry could be heard from somewhere, only to be quickly dispersed by the wind.
Luo Ge headed towards the makeshift Adventurers' Guild along the dirt road outside the tent area.
After the Great Migration, many residents of the Fittoa Territory were randomly scattered to various corners of the world.
Those who are lucky enough to land nearby can walk back step by step.
Those with less luck might land in a foreign country thousands of miles away, their survival entirely dependent on fate.
Luo Ge had already picked up four or five people along the way. Some were still able to walk, while others were seriously injured. He dragged them to the medical tents in the city on makeshift stretchers.
He was walking when he suddenly stopped.
Beneath a low earthen slope by the roadside, a corner of clothing peeks out from among the overgrown weeds.
Luo Ge pushed aside the waist-high withered grass and walked over, finding a girl lying on her side on the ground.
She lay there motionless, her black hair spread out on the grass and soil, the ends covered in dust.
She was wearing a uniquely styled short top and an extremely short skirt.
The kind that's ridiculously short, with two thin, long legs completely bare, without even a pair of stockings.
Luo Ge was even stunned for a moment when he first saw her, thinking that this girl dressed like that in winter must mean she was either out of her mind or...
He crouched down closer and carefully examined her face.
A typical East Asian face, with slender eyebrows and eyes, a low but soft nose bridge, and slightly pale lips.
In my past life, this face would have been the kind that would make the boys in my high school classroom secretly steal glances at me.
Luo Ge's heart skipped a beat. He reached out and checked her breath.
There was still a faint breath.
To be unconscious in this godforsaken place for who knows how long and still be alive—this person's tenacious will to live is nothing short of a miracle.
He took another look at her clothes.
A small fabric label was sewn inside the collar of the short-sleeved shirt, with a line of small English text printed on it.
Luo Ge's pupils suddenly contracted.
"... No way?!"
He muttered something to himself and leaned closer to see the words clearly.
It was a brand label, in English, with standard spelling and neat font; it was clearly something mass-produced on an industrial assembly line.
This thing could never appear in any tailor shop in this world.
Luo Ge straightened up, his expression becoming quite interesting.
He stared at the unconscious girl on the ground and instantly made a bold guess.
"This woman... could she also be a time traveler?"
The more he thought about it, the more it seemed plausible.
A long, straight black hair, an Asian face, a short skirt, and English letters on a label.
This is the quintessential Japan high school girl setup, practically standard in isekai (another world) stories.
But no matter what.
Luo Ge sat down on a nearby rock, deciding to wait until she woke up.
He wasn't particularly enthusiastic; he was purely curious.
I've been in this world for ten years.
He had seen magic, swordsmanship, dragons, and monsters, but this was only the second time he had encountered a fellow countryman from the same world.
About half a meal later, the girl on the grass suddenly stirred slightly.
Her eyelashes fluttered, and then she slowly opened her eyes.
They had a pair of deep brown eyes, initially unfocused, and it took the pupils a while to slowly come together.
She stared blankly at the gray sky above, her mind completely blank.
Luo Ge leaned closer, cleared his throat, and then spoke in the few fragments of Japanese he had left from his past life, "Um... Yama-de? Konnichiwa... Moshi Moshi? Flower girl? Do you understand?"
"Huh???"
The girl's eyes moved stiffly for a moment before landing on his face.
She opened her mouth, her expression shifting from blank to confused.
She could understand each syllable of what the person was saying, but when they were put together, she had absolutely no idea what they were saying.
"... Who are you, Kazuya?"
She finally spoke, her voice a little hoarse, her Japanese impeccable.
Luo Ge's suspicions were now almost certain.
He took a deep breath and tried again in his broken Japanese: "Your... flower girl... big...?"
What the hell?!
The girl's expression instantly became extremely complicated.
Confusion, shock, doubt that she was still dreaming, and doubt that the person in front of her was mentally ill—several emotions flashed across her face in turn.
She struggled to sit up, shrinking back warily, then tentatively asked in heavily accented English, "... Do you speak English?"
Luo Ge's eyes lit up when he heard that.
Compared to his rudimentary Japanese, he had at least been speaking English since elementary school and could communicate normally. He immediately switched languages. "Yeah. A little bit. You?"
The girl visibly relaxed. "Yes. I can speak English. Who are you? Where am I? Did you kidnap me?"
"Whoa whoa whoa--kidnap?"
Luo Ge raised his hands in a gesture of surrender, his tone tinged with helplessness, "Looks like you still don't understand the situation."
"More than who I am, what you should be congratulating yourself on is—you've time-traveled."
"... Time travel?"
The girl was stunned.
Her fair face was blank at first, then slowly revealed an expression that seemed to say, "Are you serious?"
She looked around at the ruins and tents, then at the gray horizon in the distance, and then down at her high school uniform, which remained unchanged.
As a modern young person who grew up in Japan, she has indeed watched a lot of anime and light novels with isekai (another world) themes.
But when it actually happened to her, her first reaction was disbelief.
"Etc."
She rubbed her temples. "If this is another world, why can you, a local, speak a few words of Japanese? And even English? What kind of other world is this? It must be fake!"
She closed her eyes, slapped her cheeks twice, and then opened them again.
The ruins and grassy slopes before us remain unchanged.
She remembers it clearly: just before that, a dump truck was heading straight for her, she was thrown into the air, and then she lost consciousness.
Looking back now, the plot of being hit by a car and ending up in another world with a squinty-eyed boy who speaks English crouching next to you seems so clichéd.
"Let me first introduce myself."
Luo Ge brushed the grass clippings off his knees and stood up. "My name is Luo Ge. Consider me your guide in this strange world."
"Guide?"
Nanahoshi Shizuka narrowed her eyes, her face full of vigilance. "Did you summon me here?"
"Yes, yes, yes."
Luo Ge nodded without changing his expression, his serious demeanor as if he were reading an important document. "Young lady, you are the hero I summoned from a distant island nation to save this world from destruction. You bear the heavy responsibility of defeating the Demon King and saving all living beings—"
"Don't want."
Nanahoshi Shizuka decisively interrupted, her tone as firm as if she were refusing a flyer handout on the street, "My Lord, please take me home."
"I'm sorry, you can't go back."
Luo Ge shrugged, looking completely innocent. "Until the Demon King is truly defeated, you, as the 'Heroine,' cannot return to your original world."
"..."
Nanahoshi Shizuka stared at him for a long time, her suspicion growing stronger.
The corners of this person's mouth were slightly upturned when they spoke, making it look like they were trying to suppress a laugh.
"Oh, right."
Luo Ge tilted his head. "What was your name in your original world?"
"I am Nanahoshi Shizuka, a high school student in Japan."
She paused for a moment, then asked, "And you?"
"I am Luo Ge Greyrat."
He extended his hand. "Nice to meet you, Nanahoshi Shizuka."
Nanahoshi Shizuka hesitated for a moment, then reached out and shook his hand.
But she immediately seized on the key point. "Wait, didn't you say I was summoned by you? Then why don't you know my name?"
Luo Ge blinked, then burst out laughing, "Hehe, you're pretty quick-witted."
"Of course I was just joking."
"Hahaha, you believed that? You actually believed that?!"
"Are you... joking?"
Nanahoshi Shizuka's lips twitched twice.
She clenched her fists and took several deep breaths before managing to refrain from throwing a punch.
It turned out that this person had been teasing her from the very beginning; the female hero and the defeat of the demon king were all made up on the spot.
She had just experienced time travel, almost thought she had lost her memory, and her mind was still buzzing, yet the other person still had the mind to make fun of her.
really.
Those with squinty eyes are all cunning and scheming.
She sat on the ground, her hands supporting her on the grass behind her, looking up at the boy in front of her with a bright, almost irritating smile, and secretly wrote down the name " Luo Ge Greyrat " in her little notebook.
I also added a label: vile, liar, has a nice smile but a black heart.
Looking at Shizuka's face, which screamed "I really want to punch you but I don't dare," Luo Ge finally dropped his joking expression and said seriously, "But jokes aside, there's something I didn't lie to you about."
"You have indeed traveled through time. And... how should I put it, the situation here is quite complicated."
"Come with me first, I'll take you to a safe place to settle down."
Shizuka was silent for a few seconds, then slowly stood up and patted the grass clippings and dirt off her skirt.
She looked down at her super short skirt, then looked up at the unfamiliar ruins around her and the distant snow-capped mountains, and sighed softly.
"... Alright. But I'm warning you, don't try to fool me with those 'female hero' stuff again."
Don't worry.
Luo Ge turned and walked towards the tent area, waving his hand behind his back. "I have no interest in fooling my fellow villagers."
Shizuka wrapped her thin coat tighter around herself and quickly followed.
The wind in this other world was much colder than she had imagined. She shrank her neck and cursed the awful weather in her heart.
Luo Ge walked ahead, the corners of his mouth never leaving his lips.
He truly hadn't expected to encounter someone from the same world amidst these ruins.
Although we don't yet know how this girl named Nanahoshi Shizuka got here, or how she'll get back.
But at least at this moment, she and he were both strangers trapped in this world.