Chapter 1: Pardon the Interruption

Pardon the interruption, but I’d like to express a few grievances about my current situation. There are a lot of things I could say about my predicament, but to put it bluntly, it seems I've been reincarnated into another world.

I'm not quite sure how it happened, but a couple of days ago, I woke up to a chicken sitting on my face. It must have nearly suffocated me, because I was gasping for air after fighting to get it off. With my second life starting off with such a rude awakening, and especially with my surprising new appearance, it took some time to truly grasp my situation.

I'm sure others who are in circumstances like myself would consider this whole reincarnation business some sort of hallucination or dream sequence, and I was very much the same. But the pain in my neck from that chicken still hasn't gone away, and the ease at which I move my new body is undoubtedly palpable. It's hard to deny it, I truly have been reincarnated.

And, somehow, I've inherited the body of what seems to be a young woman raising chickens. I've neither been a woman, nor have I raised chickens in my past life, so this change of pace is a bit staggering. I feel a strong desire to raise these chickens, but I can barely navigate my own body. Placing me in this setting so abruptly has thrown me for a loop.

Going by the stories I've read back in the other world, there should be some sort of crazy event that caused this, right? People like me would check out their new powers and body, or curse the goddess that sent them into a harsh place, or they'd even be summoned by a king to help save the world, and have no time to process their surroundings. But I have none of that. All I have is a vague instinct and a new appearance. The lack of any spectacle in this whole thing is what confuses me the most.

If I was going to get reincarnated, I would've liked it to have a bit more… oomph, y'know? I didn't need to have a fateful encounter with a truck like my predecessors or anything, but just plopping me into the world with no grand explanation and leaving me with no ambition is a bit lackluster.

Some of my immediate questions were nonsensical things like, “Am I a mob?” and “Did something go wrong upstairs?” and other things like that. I may have even asked, “Where the heck is my reincarnation perk?” with no remorse.

I must've spent an embarrassingly long amount of time trying out all the usual reincarnation perks. I yelled out “Status!” and “System!” and other similar words, and when that failed I tried to activate magic in various ways, but there was nothing. The only thing I did was annoy a couple of my chickens, and I got pecked in the shins for it. It's cruel how someone's hard effort can be ignored, even here.

In the end, the most I could do was look at my reflection to remind myself of my situation and say:

“Woah, this is what I look like now, huh?”

I'm a bit shorter than I was before, which isn't too surprising, but the long, deep black hair, bright green eyes, and freckles are new to me. My skin is fair, but my hands have callouses, presumably from working with the chickens. Pairing that with my standard “medieval fantasy village girl attire”, I feel like my current appearance is quite modest. Perhaps I’m being a bit vain here, but I think I look quite cute! I won’t turn heads or anything, but frankly I don’t really want to. With this simple hometown vibe, I bet I could easily blend into a crowd of extras marveling at some unforeseen circumstance.

Eventually I did discover something slightly interesting, that being one of my keepsakes from my past life. It's a pendant that has a picture of my parents, as well as a young boy from then. That young boy, of course, was me. It's a small memento of what I used to be, and I'm glad I can still honor my parents in some way, even if they left that world long before I reincarnated.

Considering how oddly fine I am with this whole situation, I'm happy to have a reminder like this. If it weren't for the small miracle of this pendant, I'm not sure I would be able to realize in a few years that I used to be someone else. I should keep this pendant safe.

Now that I'm on day three of becoming this girl, most of my major confusions have been answered, but there is one more problem I need to solve. Before I'm confident enough to leave my humble abode and head into the main village square, I need to solve this problem, otherwise my fellow villagers might give me suspicious looks.

Simply put, I have no idea who I am.

This is a problem loaded with questions. What's my name? Who am I related to? Am I even friendly with any of the other villagers? What world is this? If I keep this string of questions going, I'll spiral down an abyss I can never recover from, and yet I may need to dive into it anyways.

I suppose I'll attempt some chicken care, and then bravely enter the world outside. I haven't spoken to anyone, so I'll do some reconnaissance and hope I can figure things out that way.

I open up the very small closet I have in my house and pick out the same identical outfit I've been wearing. This girl either doesn't care about fashion, or just doesn't have the money to buy anything else. Next, I tie up my bandanna in a sloppy motion, strap on my simple work boots, munch on leftover stale bread for breakfast and greet my chickens.

Despite my backyard being a chicken farm, it's a little bit pathetic. I have a small, half-broken chicken coop, and an area for my chickens to prowl. The gates of the coop are fragile and old, so seemingly my chickens are free to go into the house, which admittedly isn't much better off than the coop. To me it seems like this girl threw something together with a chicken-shaped dream while not bothering to prepare thoroughly. What the heck was this girl doing?

For the time being I haven't bothered to fix any of these issues. It makes no sense to take on big projects when I'm still not fully aware of my environment. I’m still quite bad with these chickens, so I’ve gotten pecked and scratched quite a bit, but this girl’s instincts help me manage somehow. Besides that, all I've been doing for the past two days is hoping for some clarity on my situation. A divine voice or a friendly visitor would have helped. But I guess I'll do the reconnaissance and hope this girl isn't a loner.

Just as I'm about to step outside my house, I feel a deep chill run down my spine. It's a piercing feeling that starts in my core and spreads throughout my body, filling me with an intense sense of dread.

Huh? What the heck is this? Am I that scared to go outside and talk to people? Why am I sweating? Why is my breathing haggard?

I force myself to blink, and I do so slowly. I need to calm myself and understand what exactly is going on. My eyes see nothing, and I use the darkness of my closed eyes to steady my breathing before I open them again.

When I open my eyes, I'm in a completely different part of my house. The front door was right in front of me, but now I'm near the cupboard.

…Eh?

I don't understand what's happening. The feeling of dread has worsened, but I can't even do anything about it because now I can't move my body. My breathing has suddenly become regular, and for some reason, I'm smiling.

Why am I smiling? The uncomfortable feeling is only growing at an exponential rate. Is this magic? It feels as if it's constricting my very soul. Does magic exist here? Is my second life doomed before it can even start?

My door opens, and the dread multiplies once more. In walks a young man with shining golden hair. His face has a blank expression, and his outfit isn't anything notable, just a battle tunic and some trousers. He's followed by three other people, and all of them pay me no mind as they leisurely enter my house.

If I was in any other situation, I would have confronted these people against my better judgement. Who do they think they are, strolling into other people's houses without remorse?!

But I know who this is.

This is the unnamed Hero of the Lost Lands, and the protagonist of The Tears of Nephelai, a niche RPG that I've played more times than I can count. It's my favorite video game of all time, so there's no way I would mistake that design. The Hero has a simple and effective appearance that conveys just enough of a character to connect with people. I've enjoyed this character for many years of my life.

And yet that same Hero is now rummaging through all of my things as I'm forced to stand here, smiling at him, due to some mysterious force.

Ah, I get it now.

My forced smile, the oddly stiff way the Hero Party is moving, and the little jingles I hear when the Hero inspects the items inside my house. These all tell me of my new, cruel reality.

It seems I've been reincarnated inside the game The Tears of Nephelai, but, unfortunately, instead of being the Hero, or even a somewhat important character, I'm a nameless NPC, a non-player character who has to bend to the Hero and abide by the rules of the game.

Forget Nephelai, I might just shed some tears myself.