When we got back to the restaurant next to the inn we’re staying at, Kiaran (I still love calling him that!) explained to the blood eyes guy what we were talking about. I was actually super nervous, since he seemed to be much more adult than the rest of us.

“So that’s what you were doing, huh? Alright I didn’t like my old life all too much either. I’ll be Aubrey then.” I was super nervous but he just went along with it. Kiaran started to tell him it was a girl’s name but Aubrey insisted it was gender neutral. That was a conversation which I really enjoyed listening to, by the way.

After that we started eating. There was pretty much nothing on the menu that I ate in my own world. I guess that makes sense. The food in a post industrial, consumerist society would be a whole lot different than the food in a medieval one, even if it has magic. Would the magic even make the food more similar? It might have the opposite effect and cause this world’s pallet to diverge. I’ll think about this later.

Anyway our food eventually comes. Kiaran and Aubrey are both sharing an apple pie and I’m having chicken-mushroom skewers. I haven’t tried any kinds of mushrooms at all in my past life. Not by themselves, not on pizza, and certainly not with chicken. Since I’m Azariah now, I want Azariah to be someone who isn’t afraid of trying a new food.

I figure if I don’t like the mushrooms I can just pick the chicken off of the skewers and eat that. I have a lot of experience eating chicken nuggets no matter what restaurant I go to, after all. Unexpectedly, I actually really love it. I ended up licking all the skewers clean because I found it so delicious. Kiaran was staring at me, as I started sucking on the skewers like some other long, cylindrical object, which gave me some really conflicted feelings.

I was actually still kind of hungry after I had three of those things, so I ended up eyeing Kiaran & Aubrey’s apple pie. Kiaran offered me one of his slices which I gratefully accepted. I never tried apple pie in my last life either, but I did love apples. Sure enough, I absolutely loved it. It was finally enough to satisfy me too, which I really appreciated.

“So, how much did you figure out?” Aubrey asked, after we finally got the bill. Kiaran mostly explained everything, and I only bumped in during topics I found super interesting. It mostly felt like I was getting in the way, but I think I know Kiaran well enough for him to not get annoyed at me for something like this.

“Alright, I see. So copper coins to silver coins are 8 to 1, huh? Wooden coins to coppers are 16 to 1… The inn fare is 57 silvers and 6 coppers per week. This dinner is 4 silvers and 2 coppers in total. This is a pretty expensive restaurant. If we assume that eating cheaper and having to eat 3 meals a day instead of 1 like today cancel each other out we’ll be spending…”

Aubrey starts going off about money. The math is a bit difficult, but it isn’t anything I can’t do. 

“87 silvers and 4 coppers…” I say. 

“Are you sure that’s right?” Um… I think? I hope so. 

“Yes.” I say. Please be right, please be right, I can’t think of anything that might have gone wrong. Maybe when I was adding the food cost to the inn fare? No, that’s just basic addition.

“Alright, we’ll go with Azariah’s calculations. I’m not good at mental math. I’ll work it out on paper later, but we’ll use Azariah’s math as a substitute for now. My job pays me 2 silver coins per day, assuming I work the full day. That’s 14 silvers for a whole week assuming I work a full day everyday of the week. That brings our weekly expenses down to… 73 silvers and 4 coppers, assuming no other expenses.”

So yeah, we’re kind of burning through our limited money right now, which isn’t good. Assuming that Aubrey doesn’t get a raise or a higher paying job, me and Kiaran are going to have to earn 73 silvers and 4 coppers between us, and that’s just to break even while only spending money on food & shelter. 

“Me and Azariah will just enroll in the adventurer’s guild then!” 

“Absolutely not!” Wow, that’s the first time I’ve heard Aubrey raise his voice. 

“Aw, come on! Why not?!” 

“You said there was a fee for joining right? You also figured out that you can only start doing high paying jobs with a great deal of experience, right? It will be forever before you start earning anything.”

“But we’re otherworlders, right? We should grow insanely fast. It won’t be that long before we get high paying jobs.” 

“You said ‘experience’, not ‘results’. The natives’ idea of experience will be centered around them, not rare otherworlders.” 

“I agree with Aubrey, Kiaran.” 

“Azariah!” Kiaran yells out in betrayal.

“Think about this. We’ll need a bunch of armor, equipment, potions, and magic books if we start getting serious about that sort of thing. That’s all sure to be expensive. Since we aren’t making a profit, we can’t risk an expense like that. We need to have a stable foundation first.” 

“Wow, I really wasn’t expecting that out of you, Azariah.” Wow, Aubrey complimented me, this feels strange.

“I… I was supposed to move out of my parent’s house soon when I died… I’m not arrogant enough to think I was going to be able to buy anything I wanted right out of high school.” 

“Parent’s house? High school? How old are you, Azariah?” Aubrey sounds really worried for some reason.

“I’m 17.” 

“17!? You lived to 17?” Right, I guess it does sound kind of tragic if you put it that way. But Kiaran & Aubrey are around the same age as me, right?

“What about you, Kiaran?” Aubrey says. 

“Oh, I’m 15.” 

“15? You both died so young… just how did you two die?” Umm… Oh no, I don’t want to talk about that. Aubrey takes one look at my face and then he looks like he regretted what he said. Am I that easy to read? 

“I’m sorry, that was a very insensitive thing to ask. I died at 23, and my death was… I was just confused at how you two died so young…” You’re really young too, aren’t you?

“Oh, don’t worry about it, I got run over by a truck.” 

“Huh?” That nonchalant attitude about his own death really catches Aubrey and I off guard. 

“Yeah, I was crossing the street, it didn’t stop and next thing I knew I woke up here.” 

“You literally got isekaid by truck-kun…” is my response.

I was about to freak out since I said something so cringey, but Kiaran got the meme, thank God. We joked around about it for a bit, which I found enjoyable but Aubrey was looking at us in horror as we were joking about Kiaran’s death which kind of killed the enjoyment for me.

“Come on Aubrey, don’t look at us like that. My death was instant. Like I told you, I saw the truck coming for me, then I woke up naked in front of a bunch of men and women.” 

“Huh? There were women with you when you woke up?” 

“Yeah, me too.” Why did Kiaran & Aubrey get to wake up next to women too?

“A bunch of them were really cute too… Since I was naked I kind of thought I woke up in heaven.” Huh!? Why did you get to wake up in front of a bunch of attractive women, and I got stuck with a bunch of crusty, middle aged men!? 

“What about the men?” I ask. I need to know. 

“Well, I’m not into men, but I think you might have a thing for them. About half of them had the same build as me.”

Huh!? Why did you get such a good spawn!? Oh what I would’ve done to have woken up naked surrounded by a bunch of cute men and women… Actually, Cherilyn’s kind of my type in the body department, and I was still terrified of her, so maybe I would’ve reacted the same way… 

Still though, imagining myself completely stripped down and surrounded by young men and women staring at me with their lustful gazes is exciting me to no end… Imagine if one of the men told me ‘your body is so captivating, even women want to have their way with you, so can you really blame me?’ Aaahh! I want it! I want it! I want it!

“Kiaran, that’s enough, you’re clearly making her uncomfortable.” 

“What? But she’s blushing?” 

“Yeah, because you’re oversharing, right Azariah?” Oh no, don’t put me on the spot like that. Admitting that fantasy is far too embarrassing. Sorry, Kiaran, take one for the team, please. 

“Y - yes…” 

“See? Now stop it.”

Kiaran & Aubrey start arguing about something but I’m not listening. I’m still too busy imagining a large group of cute men & women having their way with me. I’ll really have to get some time to myself later tonight… to think long and hard about that…

><><><><

It’s night by the time we get back to our room. The 3 people we’re sharing the room with were already there. I honestly forgot about them so I was super nervous. They were just ignoring us, but Kiaran & Aubrey managed to convince them to all sleep in one bed for my sake. Thanks, you two!

After a while, we all go to bed. Aubrey and I sleep on the far ends of the bed and Kiaran sleeps in the middle. We don’t change clothes, because we don’t have anything else to wear. I really need to take a bath when I get the chance.

On a similar note, the bathrooms were surprisingly clean. Apparently water magic washes all the waste away. There’s even a sewer system. I’ve heard it’s more stereotypically medieval when you get away from all the large cities though, which I’m not looking forward to. This is important because I was able to “relieve” myself to that fantasy in the bathroom earlier, which I found incredibly enjoyable. 

Kiaran’s sleeping next to me now. I was a huge night owl in my old life so I’m still wide awake. Man, he’s so cute, even when he’s sleeping. It turned out he was a huge weeb, so we’ve really been bonding over that. I’m really loving everything about him. 

I love the way he speaks, I love his build, I love his hair, I love his eyes, we have the same general interests, I’m so envious of how easily he handles himself around other people. I really want to be with him, and just him. I know why I feel this way.

It isn’t because Kiaran’s so amazing, it’s because he’s the first friend I’ve had since elementary school. His basic kindness is the kindest anyone’s ever been to me in a while, and my feelings are adjusting accordingly. This level of obsession can’t be healthy in a relationship though, so I’ll try my best not to pursue anything. Although ending up with a guy just because he showed me basic kindness like I was some sort of badly written female character excites me in its own way…

Getting that obsessed is really creepy though, so I’ll have to try and keep myself in check. If I lost this friendship because he found out that I’m actually a freak that can’t stop thinking about people’s naked bodies for five minutes, I think I’d actually cry. Oh boy, do I want to keep spending time with him, though. Just hanging around somebody of the opposite gender isn’t creepy, right?