I fell into an unknown world.
As soon as I opened my eyes, it wasn’t a strange ceiling I saw.
I was just lying in a vast meadow. Everything was wide open, no ceiling in sight.
A pleasant breeze rustled the grass, which felt nice. But the sunlight hitting me directly was not to my liking.
I slowly propped myself up on my elbows on the green meadow.
My chest felt heavier than usual. My hair was inexplicably long, and the sensations I felt were noticeably different.
I clutched my aching head, struggling to grasp the situation.
“What the…”
But it was no use. The confusion only deepened.
The声 that slipped out of my mouth was far too thin to be mine.
Not just thin. It was the softest and most beautiful sound I had ever heard.
It was a pleasing tone, yet I didn’t feel good about it. The dissonance of it being my voice was beyond my imagination.
“Uugh!”
My stomach churned, and I had to heave up whatever was inside.
I spat out what I had consumed, though I had no memory of eating anything with this body.
It would take me quite some time to accept that I had become a woman.
*
After changing into a woman’s body, my emotional journey went through three stages.
Confusion, anger, and then acceptance.
At first, I was confused. Moving in a woman’s body was more uncomfortable than I had thought.
Walking was difficult at first. Since the body was different, the way to use it was also different.
I hadn’t walked in this body even once. So, I had to learn all over again how to walk on two legs.
The world looked different due to the different height. My perspective was lower than I expected, and I lost count of how many times I stumbled.
After struggling like that, I moved on to the stage of anger.
Why did I have to go through this? How did I end up as a woman, and why was it me of all people? I felt rage boiling inside.
I cursed aloud and raised my middle finger to someone whose face I didn’t even know who had done this to me.
Of course, nothing happened.
Anger can only be expressed when there’s a target.
I couldn’t know who had done this to me, or the reason behind it.
In the end, I thought that the emotion of anger was pointless in this situation, so I moved on to the next stage.
And here I am now.
After some time, I somewhat accepted reality. This place was a different world from the one I lived in, and I had to move to survive here.
Living in nature seemed too risky, so I wanted to head to a village where people lived.
I wondered if people in this world would understand me.
It could be a world where humanity didn’t exist at all. The amount of information I had was extremely limited.
Even with so little knowledge, it was still almost nothing. The only things I knew were that I had become a woman and that the scenery was very natural.
Thinking that I needed to know something, I walked through the meadow with clumsy steps. What would have felt good under normal circumstances didn’t feel that way now.
When the wind blew, my silver hair, which must have belonged to me, fluttered.
Whenever a strand of white hair came into my view, it felt like a reminder that I still hadn’t woken up from a nightmare.
The hair was silver.
Not only had I transformed into a woman, but it seemed I wasn’t an ordinary woman either.
At least in the realm of common sense I knew, no woman—or rather, no human—had hair this color.
As I left the meadow, I saw a forest of large trees lined up.
Such a natural landscape was certainly not something you could find in 21st-century South Korea.
These were clean sceneries untouched by humans. The fresh air and the scent of the lush grass brushed against my nose. The scenery was too beautiful to be a nightmare.
Also, the scenes were so realistic that it was hard to believe they felt like a dream.
“…”
Looking at my body, the fact that this was still a nightmare hadn’t changed.
Standing at the entrance of the forest, I paused for a moment before stepping inside.
Unlike the unnecessarily peaceful meadow, the forest of this world looked a bit dangerous.
Being untouched by humans, it was a space where diverse ecosystems unfolded. If luck were to turn bad, I might encounter dangerous animals.
Even if I didn’t encounter any, the rugged terrain of the forest would likely be harder to pass through than the meadow. That much seemed certain.
“Aah…”
I let out a deep sigh before stepping inside.
To be honest, my legs were already weak, and I felt like sitting down at any moment.
It was because my body was unfamiliar. Using just my legs seemed to exhaust all my stamina.
Passing through the meadow was hard enough, and now I had to cross a dangerous-looking forest.
If this were a dream, I wished I could wake up.
I took a brief rest there before moving my feet again.
The truth was, I didn’t want to go in. However, I didn’t want to sit down and die either. So I walked.
As I passed through the dense forest, my mind was clear. Just a moment ago, it felt clouded, but I could briefly forget that.
I climbed up the hilly terrain of the mountains.
The forest was quiet yet filled with various sounds.
The chirping of birds and the cries of small animals mixed together.
Of course, it wasn’t all good, as I had somewhat expected.
“Uagh!”
After climbing the hill, I stumbled while going down.
If I was already clumsy on flat ground, how much worse would I fare on bumpy downhill paths?
“Ugh, ah, agh, ugh…”
I tumbled down the hill for quite some time. Perhaps I tumbled down much faster than I would have walking.
I landed near the center of the forest, getting closer to the middle.
It was a bit deeper and darker than the place I had been before.
When I finally stopped rolling, I checked my condition. Rolling down a rocky ground must have left me battered and bruised.
Surely I must be covered in wounds.
“…Huh?”
But no matter where I looked on my body, I couldn’t find a scratch. It didn’t even feel that painful.
How could I not feel pain after falling from a mountain? There were plenty of sharp rocks, after all.
This was definitely an unrealistic dream. I pinched my cheeks, thinking it was a bad dream, but I couldn’t wake up.
I brushed the dirt and dust off my body.
There were no injuries, but my clothes were not spared. They were half-torn, leaving me in an embarrassing state to show to others.
Well, I guess it doesn’t matter.
Finding a village was the priority.
However.
Just as I was about to get up and take my next step, I collapsed again.
“Uhh…”
Because I had run into the very thing I wanted to avoid in the forest.
Creeeak…
There were many eyes staring at me. Several beasts bared their sharp teeth, surrounding me.
I couldn’t tell what kind of animals they were. They were close enough for me to see, but only as dark silhouettes.
Is this how I die?
Since changing my body, I hadn’t accomplished anything.
Cold sweat trickled down my skin, and I felt my clothes cling to me.
But I didn’t even have time to care about that. My body trembled with intense fear.
I didn’t want to die. I picked up the small stones nearby in a desperate attempt.
It was futile, but it felt like my last struggle.
“…”
Would I be able to take down even one of them? I found it too unfair to do nothing until the moment I died.
I breathed heavily, stepping back a single step.
By doing so, I naturally lowered my gaze, and then I couldn’t help but sigh at the absurdity.
‘My arms are so thin…’
I briefly forgot that this wasn’t my original body.
With such slender arms, it would be tough to kill even a small animal. The heavens weren’t on my side, after all.
Dropping the stones, I quietly leaned against a tree and closed my eyes.
I waited for death.
But even after waiting, death didn’t come. I felt no pain.
When I opened my eyes slightly, I saw the pack of beasts leaving me without attacking.
They weren’t just leaving; it seemed like they were scared of something and ran away.
Was there something else here besides me?
I glanced around but couldn’t spot any other existence in this place.
It didn’t seem like they would have fled because of me.
Dropping into this other world on my first day, I was unable to move for a while in that spot.
I never imagined that something like that would exist in this world. I had only expected to encounter something like a boar in this forest.
This world was certainly different from the common sense I knew. It was definitely more dangerous than the place I originally came from.
I had been lucky this time, but I thought I needed to be careful with my actions from now on.
After evading the pack of beasts, I walked continuously in the direction I had fallen and managed to find my way out of the forest.
Fortunately, the spot where I exited the forest showed signs of human presence.
I saw a path that seemed deliberately made by someone. Would following this road lead me to a village?
There seemed to be a glimmer of hope. Although time had passed, and the sun was starting to set.
Maybe I should sleep outside tonight.
Since I had just seen those ferocious beasts, sleeping outside was undoubtedly a risky endeavor, but I had no other options.
I was already exhausted, both physically and mentally. I had no strength left to walk anymore.
As I closed my eyes, half fainting, time passed.
Then:
“Hey! What are you doing lying there?!”
“…?”
I opened my sleepy eyes halfway.
The first thing I saw was a large object. It seemed like I had developed a reflex to bend my body whenever I saw something big.
Panicking at first, I realized it wasn’t a living creature.
Of course, living things were included, but at least it didn’t look threatening.
‘A carriage…?’
A vehicle that seemed to belong to the medieval era came into view.
I wondered if I had seen it wrong, so I rubbed my eyes a few times but confirmed again that it wasn’t a dream.
The carriage’s door opened, and a middle-aged man stepped out.
He looked gruff and was furious as he shouted,
“What are you doing, lying there like an idiot?! Do you want to get trampled to death?!”
“Ah…”
As it turned out, I had narrowly avoided being stepped on by the carriage.
He grabbed my hand and pulled me to my feet. Then he waved his hand for me to quickly get out of the way.
He was trying to move me off the road and start the carriage again, but I held onto his sleeve with a hint of desperation.
“U-umm…”
“What now?”
“Could you please let me ride too?”
“There’s a little room left in the cargo area. Get on if you want.”
I guess after running into so many misfortunes, luck came.
Although I felt it was a bit too late to ask for anything after almost being trampled, I was in no position to be picky.
