7.Change of clothes and confirm the situation

Editing/Standardisation: Medicine Melancholy
Original Translation: Medicine Melancholy

Iris/Yanagi
I couldn’t just sit here stunned forever, so I started to get myself
cleaned up.
I was currently wearing only a thin one-piece dress, not even any
underwear. At this rate, I would soon be deprived of body heat and
unable to move.
Since the menu didn’t appear like how it used to be in the game, I had
to put on the clothes in order myself, but that’s not the problem.
I had planned to change into the “Rookie Priestess Dress” after the
reincarnation event, so I brought it along with me. This outfit was also
the one “Iris” wore the most times in the “Worldgate Online”
illustrations I had drawn several times. Because I had described it in
detail in the setting materials, I was familiar with its structure.
…
It seemed I had underestimated the complexity and hassle of girls’
clothing.
Out came the set of costumes, which in the game was a set of three or
four icons for all the parts of the body, and when all the components
were taken out, they were like a small mountain.
Besides, although I could move my legs and feet more freely than in my
original body, I was still affected by the lameness of my lower body.
I might be able to stand and walk somehow with this body, but I wasn’t
sure I could perform any other actions.
Since I could not balance myself, I had to sit down and change my
clothes, but I was hesitant to sit directly on the floor of the ruins with
my naked body without underwear, so I laid a mattress I took out of my
bag on the floor. This was one of the things my sister made me carry as
part of my “girl’s etiquette”, but I was thankful for it in this case.
Sitting on the mattress, I slipped one leg through my underwear at a
time. At first I thought it was such a small piece of cloth, but when I put
it on, the feel of the comfortable fabric that fits snugly against my skin
makes me feel secure, as if I was being protected, and something in me
as a former man was being whittled away.
Next up… was the bra. I picked it up and wondered whether I should
wear it or not…
In the end, considering I had to walk after this, I decided to wear the
bra.
Then I took out a pair of black tights. In the game, they had an effect of
mitigating cold air damage, and as expected, there would be no such
effect here.
I put them on while still sitting down, thinking that they would be of
some comfort. This was very difficult.
Next was the slip that got caught on my finger… I was a little concerned
about whether this was also necessary, but my “charming” underwear
in the game was delicate and seemed to be easily damaged in reality,
so I wore the slip on just in case… I didn’t know when I’d be able to get
replacement underwear, and I wanted to avoid unnecessary wear and
tear.
After this much clothing, I finally got to work on the actual outfit. I was
extremely tired at this stage. I was forced to bear in mind that dressing
a girl was really a time-consuming and laborious task.
I put on a sleeveless blouse and a skirt combined with frilly panniers.
The skirt was quite high above the knees, but the layers of frills made it
difficult to see my underwear.
Then I put on my robe over them. I thought I would have a hard time
fixing my long hair that had gotten caught in the robe, but it slipped out
of the robe and fell out of my hands without much effort, and I was
unexpectedly impressed.
The light cream-colored, knee-length robe, embroidered in places with
gold thread, was longer than the skirt worn underneath, but had four
slits around the waist, where the frills of the pannier peeked out.
The two rows of buttons on the front were fastened tightly, and the
waist was finished by adjusting the waistband with a ribbon at the back
of the waist.
With a hand mirror, I checked to see if I was properly dressed.
The tightly buttoned blouse and the robe worn over it gave the
impression of a neat priestess, but the fluffy frills visible in places
softened the stiff atmosphere and gave me a cute and gorgeous look.
Lastly, a pair of short boots with thick soles, slightly above the ankles
and with a length that takes field work into consideration, and I was
ready to go.
I stood up and spun around on the spot to see if there was anything
odd about the place, and the skirt fluttered up to follow the movement.
…This is a bad idea. Regardless of how I felt when it was still a game,
when I actually had to wear it in real life, I felt shocked by its “cuteness
over practicality” design.
Suddenly feeling embarrassed, I quickly put on my cold-weather gear…
a hooded poncho or something… and left the room.
When I stepped outside, the cold air immediately stung my skin.
Fortunately, the cold was not unbearable, as it was just as cold as when
snow began to accumulate at this time of the year.
I pulled out a moderately ornately decorated staff, slightly longer than I
was, with a few gems scattered around it and a clinking gold ring.
Although it looked great, its performance was below the mid-level at
best, and its appearance was transferred from another piece of gear
from the time it was a game. Nevertheless, it was more than enough
for me, who was probably at level 1.
I shook it to try it out, but I didn’t feel any discomfort. It seemed that I
could use it without any problem.
I lightly released “Divine Spear” at the lowest output. It was probably
one of the only few ways to protect myself, so I wanted to get a feel for
its performance.
The result was… with the loss of the system assistance, the homing
function was lost, and I found that if the target was not firmly acquired
by the user until the moment of impact, it would fly somewhere on an
unstable trajectory, like a missile that has lost sight of its target.
There was a cooldown between shots, but it was fired instantly just like
before. The difference was that I now felt a slight, uncontrollable recoil
at the time the spear was fired.
The characteristic of MP damage was still present, but it also turned out
to be more useful in this world than one might think.
I tried it on a rat I happened to see, and it seemed that in this world, a
significant decrease in MP caused an alteration in physical condition,
and if depleted to a certain degree or less, the rat would fall into a
coma.
Healing magic had no effect on the comatose rat, and when I tried
“Mana Transfer”, a magic that transfers MP, the rat immediately woke
up and ran away, so I was sure it’s probably true.
Now that I had an effective means of fighting back if I was attacked, I
was able to give myself a bit of mental leeway.
On the other hand, the same also applied to me, and magic must be
exercised with caution, as MP damage and excessive use of magic can
result in a loss of action.
In particular, since my ability to use magic was now greatly reduced, it
seemed that it was no longer possible to skip support by leaving it up to
MP, as was the case in the game days.
Potions and the like also had their effects greatly reduced.
When I drank a bottle of magic water, which was an MP recovery item,
as a test, I found that although there was a sense of magic power slowly
returning… I didn’t feel any immediate change after drinking it.
Another, explicable troublesome, thing about this was since it was a
liquid, it accumulated in my stomach immediately after drinking. The
stomach capacity of this body seemed to be small, so I should think that
it’s impossible to gulp down so many bottles.
At any rate, after trying out all the major magic and confirming that I
could activate all of them, I tried to contact the two people who were
supposed to be waiting for me in a nearby town…
“Of course the chat function’s gone too…”
…I had to give up on that idea and waited for the two powerful players
to come here, but…
“What if I was the only one to be sent here…?”
A sickening, unpleasant thought crossed my mind. My bag was already
overstuffed with gear, and there was almost no food or water in it. A
few bottles of magic water and two slices of sandwich were all I had.
While waiting for the two people who might or might not be coming.
“…I knew it, I can’t just leave it to them to come to me, I must find
them.”
Wiping away the drops that were about to overflow from the corner of
my eyes, I stepped out onto the snowfield where I had originally come
from during the game, determined to be ready.
…And as it turned out, I wasn’t ready enough.
This world looked like the game, its magic worked almost the same way
as the game. Therefore, I guess I underestimated the reality of this
world and thought that it would be somehow manageable. I didn’t
think I took the meaning of my new reality that seriously at the time.