Chapter Sixteen: My life got a little better

Leila—the girl who became my friend.
“What the hell!!!!!!???” I yelled with every last bit of strength, so loud my head smacked the ground.
With all the haps and mishaps since arriving in this world, it was almost impossible to believe someone would just… offer me food out of the blue.
What is this girl thinking? Is she here to kill me with poisoned fruits? My paranoia refused to rest, even though she was standing a fair distance away.
“Sigh… even a cute girl like that, out for my life? Fine. Just let me die already.”
I shut my eyes, waiting for death’s embrace—when it happened.
“I said get up!!!”
Her voice cracked with frustration. Then—
KAAM!
Something hard struck my head, exploding into shards of pulp. A fruit.
“What the hell!!??”
I shot up instantly.“Can’t you let a person die in peace!? What’s wrong with you!? If you had just waited, you could’ve claimed my death and gotten yourself rich!”
But the girl didn’t reply. She couldn’t.
She stood frozen, trembling all over, eyes wide with terror. Afraid of me… yet refusing to leave.
What was wrong with this girl?
“I-If you… don’t eat it you’ll die!!!!” she finally shouted, voice breaking.
“Haa!?” I barked back, still in disbelief.
…Wait. Could it be? Was she… trying to help me?
Our eyes locked across the distance. Her lips trembled.
“P-please…!?” she yelled, face twisted in a mixture of fear and cuteness so overwhelming it almost broke me.
To think… someone from this world would beg me—beg me—to eat food.
Poison or not… I was eating it all.
I dropped to my knees, grabbing a guava-looking fruit three times larger and purple in color, and devoured it like a starving beast. By the time I came to my senses, every fruit she’d thrown was gone.
Then my eyes drifted to her basket.
It was half the size of the grandma’s, and less full. She lowered it gently to the ground.
“Here…! I’ll give you all of it!” she shouted, still trembling.
“Really!!??” My heart leapt. I sprinted downhill, eager to thank her—
“Kyaaaa!!” She shrieked and bolted.
Too late—I was already running full speed down the slope and couldn’t stop. My mind, however, stayed glued to that basket.
I ate everything. Only afterwards did I glance at the girl. She stood fifty meters away, hands pressed together at her waist, watching.
“Why are you running away!?” I called.
“…It’s scary… your aura is scary!!” she shouted back without meeting my eyes.
Aura? Right… I’d almost forgotten. She must be a low level, way lower than those guys who once tried to kill me.
“Haha! I can’t believe how weak you are! Level so low you’re trembling!” I teased.But her expression shifted. Anger.“How dare you! I’m level 32! And I don’t want to hear that from someone who got beaten by level 10 punks!”
“Huh? Level 32? That’s gotta be a lie! And wait—you were watching when they beat me up!? Why didn’t you help!? Oh right, you’re weak!”
Her face reddened.“I said stop it! I’m way stronger than those weaklings!”
“Hahaha! Then why are you trembling like that!? Those guys weren’t shaking this bad when they got close!”
“They took a drug!!”
“But still—if you’re so strong, why are you standing fifty meters away!?”
“Do you have any idea how hard it is to even stand here!? A lower level person wouldn’t last within a hundred meters of your aura!!”
Our shouting match reached its peak. Her patience snapped.
“Fine! If you won’t believe me, then I’ll show you how strong I really am!!”
She raised her arm skyward, eyes closed. Her lips moved in whispers too faint to hear, but I could feel it.
The air shifted. A tornado-like wind whipped around us. Even houses half a kilometer away trembled in the storm.
The sky bled red—an ocean of fire above.
“Oh my god…”
Badump. Badump.
My heart pounded.
I collapsed to my knees, panic gripping me.“I’m sorry!!! Don’t do it!!!” I screamed again and again.
Then—silence.
The sky cleared. The winds died.
But a new problem arose: the townsfolk. Dozens of them had gathered, watching us in awe and fear.
“Look what you made me do!!” she shouted, cheeks flushed.
“…I said I’m sorry,” I muttered, shaken to my core.
Little by little, the crowd dispersed. Finally, she turned to flee.
“Wait! Please wait!!”
She stopped, glaring.
Desperate, I dashed to the rock where I’d hidden my basket of herbs and stones. Carrying it down sixty meters, I placed it in front of her, then retreated.
“I’m giving them to you!!”
Curious, she edged forward—then froze.
“Huh!!!?? How did you get these!? I can’t accept them—they’re rare and expensive!!”
“Expensive…?” I blinked. “What are you saying? They’re everywhere!”
Her disbelief was written all over her face.“Really…? Then where in the world did you find them?” she asked mockingly.
“Outside the barrier. And the stones, I got them in a nearby cave.”
“You think I’m dumb!? These herbs only grow in the fairies’ country! The stones only exist in the dwarves’ mines! Who do you take me for!?”
I almost said ‘is this girl for real?’ but bit my tongue.
“Then I’ll take you there right now if you have time!!” I blurted, desperate.“…Time…?” she whispered. Her eyes widened. “Oh no!! I don’t have time for this!!”
In a hurry, she grabbed the basket and sprinted toward town.“Meet me here tomorrow, same time!!” she shouted before disappearing.
“…What is this feeling inside me?”
It wasn’t panic. It wasn’t fear. It was something warm. Something so good I almost cried.
“…Did I make… a friend?”
That night, I stayed behind the rock instead of returning to the mountains. I couldn’t wait to see her again. Tomorrow, I’d ask her name.
“Haha… my life is starting to get interesting.”

---
The next morning, I rose early. I ate the leftover fruits she’d given me, saving nothing, but I didn’t care. All I wanted was to see her again.
Patience was hard. I peeked around the rock too many times. Townsfolk passed by in the morning, forcing me to stay two hundred meters away until noon.
By 3pm, my heart thundered. That was when she’d arrived yesterday.
But time dragged. Three… four… five o’clock. Still no sign of her.
The excitement drained out of me, replaced with emptiness. I hadn’t even eaten breakfast from the anticipation. Now, loneliness gnawed at my chest.
She’s not coming.
I fell to my knees behind the rock.“What was I thinking!?”
Of course she’d abandon me. Everyone in this world had treated me like an abomination. Why would she be any different?
Maybe she’d been with those punks. Maybe she only pretended to be kind to trick me. Maybe the basket was just a setup.
Tears threatened.
Then—
“Hey, boy with the evil aura!!”
That voice. Cute. Familiar.
She came!?
Energy surged through me. My legs carried me downhill with a bright smile.“You came!! You came!!” I cried, arms wide.
“KYAA!!” She screamed and ran, dropping her basket.
“…Huh?” Only then did I remember—my aura.
I scrambled back uphill to lessen it. Sure enough, she edged back toward her basket.
This time she wore a long purple shirt and black pants. The basket she brought was bigger, filled not just with fruit but also clothes.
“S-sorry I’m late…!!” she called.
I shook my head, tears blurring my vision.“…I thought you weren’t coming…”
She gave me a puzzled look.“I said I was going to come, didn’t I? I finished all my work so I could stay a bit longer today.”
Badump. Badump.
Tears streamed freely now.
“…I’m in heaven.”