Take a Breath and Let Time Pass

"Mmm...?"

My body feels so heavy. I must've been in bed for too long...

"Yaaawn-"

Without someone to force me awake, there's nothing to stop me from falling back asleep as soon as I wake. Maybe it'd've been better to take the alarm clock with me than that cube thing... not that I had a choice.
I can't even look at my phone to check what time it is. Heck, I don't even know how time works on this planet. Do they have 24 hours a day? Do they even have hours!? ...The less I question how time works, the better. I don't think I understand how it works on Earth, never mind here.

Stubborn to escape my bed's possessive grip, I slowly turn, and turn, and turn, until...
THUD!
I fall to the ground with a moan of pain. This is my sure-fire method of waking up! It's never failed me before, and it doesn't fail me today.

"Right... Let's get ready for the day."

After doing a few stretches, I open the door to my room and step into the corridor. The lady who owns the building eats her breakfast in the main room while listening to the kids play outside. I stop to chat, and somehow, I end up helping her clean the place up. Usually, I'd go for a jog, but scrubbing some floors isn't a bad way to get your exercise.
As thanks, she lets me borrow a wooden bucket. I put my chainmail inside it and step outdoors.

There are still some snowpiles on the edges of the village, in the places no one ever walks. There's plenty of it outside the village too...
Starting with the closest snowy areas, I shovel some up into the bucket 'til it's full, then place the cube against the chainmail lining. If all goes to plan, the heat from the cube should pass through the chainmail, which will melt all the snow.

"I wish that bird over there could see what Earth's birds were like."

The cube quickly heats up, and in a matter of seconds... Tada, it's a bucket of water!
The process isn't ideal. The bucket is small, so I can't melt much snow at once. There's very little metal in this village, so I'm stuck using a wooden bucket.
The cube's a bit awkward to use, as well—I've gotta be careful not to burn myself. That being said, I haven't noticed it getting hot; I've gotten a handle on how quickly it heats up, so I've been preemptively letting go of it after barely holding it. Still, it seems to heat up the chainmail well enough. The metal must be more sensitive to heat than I am...

I go pour the water into the village's well, then head out to melt more snow. Operation: Thaw the Frozen Village - commence! Will this make any impact? Probably not, but I really have nothing else to do until the princess calls for me, and maybe I'll learn something about the cube if I keep using it. It's a desperate way of wasting time, I'll admit.

After doing this a few times, an observer comes along to cheer me on - Arya.

"Oh hey! You're finally awake- Uh, what are you doing...?"
"Making water."
"...why?"
"For science."
"Who's science?"
"Huh? You definitely know what science is!"
"Of course I do, dummy. What's scientific about this?"
"I'm testing the melting point of snow."
"Haah... You're just wasting time, aren't you? And here I was, eager to hear stories about the capital..."

Arya doesn't seem impressed by my ingenious combination of bucket + chainmail + magical cube thingy. She just hasn't played enough point-and-click adventure games to admire my guesswork.

"Oh, right!" I suddenly remember something. "Wait here." Handing Arya the bucket + chainmail + cube combination, I head back to my room.
When I get back, Arya looks unimpressed with me.

"Here."
"...What is it?"
"A souvenir from the capital. Open it up."
"...Fine, if I have to."

Putting aside some annoyance at being handed a bucket of water, Arya takes the gift and unpacks it, revealing a patterned box. Inside, a bracelet made of a metal that, while silver in tone, reflects a blue light under the sun.

"Wow, miabela? Isn't this expensive?"
"I think so, yeah. Sera refused to buy it."
"Huh? Then how did you afford it? You don't have any money from this world, so... No way, you stole it!?"
"What? No no no, I didn't steal it! I paid for it!"
"...really?"
"Really. I sold my... wait, do you know what a phone is?"
"A phone? Like a telephone?"
"Yeah, yeah."
"They made a centre for them in Harn. They send sound through wires all throughout the city."
"Through... wires?"

Seriously, what time period did He come from? Phones have been wireless for my entire life!

"Well, I brought something like a telephone from Earth with me, so I sold that."
"Is that okay? It's from your home, you didn't want to keep it?"
"It's fine. At least now the metal it was built with can go towards something more useful."
"That so? Well... Thanks. I love it."
"That's a relief. Sera wanted to buy you a shield, but I-"
"She gave me that earlier."
"She seriously bought one!?"
"It was a bit heavy..."
"She didn't even pick a light one? That girl's a lost cause..."
"So anyway, what was it like in Lann? I've never been!"

My self-imposed duty to melt the village's snow quickly left my mind, and for a few hours, Arya and I talked about life in the city. I recalled the sight of people happily chatting in the streets.
The hustle and bustle of the markets have a completely different feel to anything in the village. In the same way that the lady who runs the inn has a lifestyle built around the people and places of Shum, Lann is as much a home to someone else.

It looked like a nice place to live... That'll all be ruined if Eraidus decides to attack, won't it?

◇ ◇ ◇

Despite doing some exercise this morning (technically it was in the afternoon), I decided to go for a jog anyway. I don't know if soaking chainmail in water is bad for it or not, but it was a gift, so I want to play it safe.
I remember hearing, when I was very young, that chainmail lasted for as long as you used it. I think it was mentioned in a TV show, so I don't know if that's true or not, but I'll trust my home planet for today.

It's colder here than Lann was, for sure, but it's definitely warmer than when I first arrived. That's what I tell myself as I jog through the no-longer-snowy part of the village. To distract myself, I get to thinking.
...I swear there's some fancy science thing I could be doing with all this snow. Like, I've got infinite heat, I've got a bunch of water. I know I could boil the water to make steam, but what would that do for me? I don't know how to turn steam power into electricity, and I already sold my phone, so... isn't it useless?

The other thing I've been wondering is, well, language. I feel like I understand some of the signs in the village now. Not enough to actually read them, but some of the symbols look like ones I know of. But... what symbols do I know, and why? That doesn't make sense to me.

I once again end up staring at the strange device I've been holding onto this entire time, waiting for answers to appear.
"You did this, didn't you?" I interrogate the cube. It doesn't respond.
"I wish I understood how you worked..."
...
"Damn, that didn't work, huh?" The voice commands on this device are very limited. It must've been made before the 2010s.
"I wish there were instructions on how to use this device." Nope, no reaction. It only ever responds to phrases like 'I wish they could see ___'.
I can probably use that on myself. That sounds dangerous, though. How would I snap out of the vision?
Maybe I should ask someone to supervise me. Then I could make the cube show me stuff, and maybe that'll help me understand it better.

Is this device responsible for sending me here? There was no voice command to trigger it, so I doubt that.
If I didn't hear a command, maybe everything that I'm seeing is just a projection of memories? But the princess successfully used the cube's projection ability on me earlier, so unless projections can overlap, I don't think so. Plus, I can move of my own free will.

What I need right now is...

"Sir Hildna. Are you busy?"

The princess.