Chapter Index

    Cinderella’s Magic

    Cinderella’s Magic

    How much time had passed since my eyelids began to grow heavier amid countless thoughts and worries?

    “…She’s still not back.”

    When I opened my eyes on the soft mattress, the person I could usually see right away wasn’t visible today, so I briefly turned my gaze to the side.

    Through the transparent glass occupying an entire wall, I could see the world at dawn, not yet fully awake.

    Gray skies where even the moon had completely fallen asleep were crossed by hazy clouds.

    As I slightly lowered my head, I could see buildings with lights still on and hard asphalt.

    People walking somewhere filled the spaces in between.

    These familiar sights, no longer unfamiliar, made me once again reflect on the past few days.

    Days spent using time solely to achieve achievements, not to help or save anyone.

    Of course, if you think about it, I had been helpful to someone at times… but those were merely incidental.

    Honestly, as long as I could achieve the achievements, I didn’t care whether I helped others or not.

    But not anymore.

    Now that I knew more clearly that the people I’d met so far genuinely cared for me, there was no option other than doing my best for those people.

    I’m not saying I wouldn’t care about achievements.

    I just changed my thinking that it would be better to directly help people while clearing achievements at the same time.

    One way or another, I wanted to help people avoid or prevent dangers if my help could make that possible.

    I knew better than anyone that this power was too valuable to waste just because I was a child.

    Since I had seen enough in my first playthrough about how people who entered dungeons got into danger in various situations, I should be able to save them without much trouble if I just get the timing right.

    So, after firmly reaffirming the decision I made last night, I stepped outside the house.

    With small steps, I headed to the warehouse behind the guild headquarters.

    It was to obtain ingredients for a transformation potion that would make my appearance no longer look like a child’s.

    I felt a bit guilty like I was stealing something… but gathering ingredients from the warehouse was the fastest way right now.

    If I were to be self-sufficient with ingredients, I’d have to enter a dungeon and get them directly, but with my current appearance, I couldn’t enter a dungeon in the first place.

    Anyway, I gathered the necessary items according to the ingredient list I had naturally memorized due to repeated quests I had done dozens of times in the first playthrough.

    To the warehouse manager I happened to encounter, I lied that I was there on a small errand.

    “Working hard from the morning~.”

    I couldn’t say anything when being patted with admiration.

    My conscience, which was now diligently fulfilling its role at just such times, was also poking at my heart.

    After watching the manager move away into the distance, I gathered enough ingredients needed for the transformation potion about 30 minutes later.

    However, because there were still some remaining ingredients.

    I once again moved toward the workshop, the only place where I could obtain the ingredients I hadn’t yet found and where I could manufacture the transformation potion.

    After walking for quite a long time and entering a familiar alley, it was just when the workshop had started its business for the day.

    “Hello~.”

    With a polite greeting, I handed over the ingredients I had brought from the guild warehouse to the workshop owner.

    Almost simultaneously, I shared the content of a request related to the transformation potion.

    Of course, it was a request based solely on my memories from the first playthrough, one I hadn’t even seen in the second playthrough yet.

    “I was told that the effect only needs to last about an hour.”

    “Is that so? Understood~.”

    Right after that, I heard that making the potion would take a little while, so I should sit and wait for a moment.

    So, I killed time by looking at various colorful potions and small artifacts in the form of accessories.

    After the workshop owner returned to me again, my heart started to beat a little faster as I received the potions I had requested.

    If I started entering dungeons secretly from Asha after drinking these, it would be the same as literally starting to walk a path of no return.

    The fact that I was going to encounter monsters more vicious and dangerous than the ones I had faced so far made me even more nervous.

    Come to think of it, insignificant monsters would not only fail to endanger guild members but would be nothing more than fertilizer for their growth.

    In other words, monsters that could put guild members in danger were not very easy monsters.

    “Oh? What’s wrong?”

    “No… It’s nothing.”

    Various memories of monsters I would have to face directly continued to invade my mind.

    Even after I bowed to the workshop owner and came out of the workshop.

    Even after I returned home to gather the things needed to enter the dungeon.

    Even until I put the transformation potion and slightly oversized clothes into a small leather bag, it continued to occupy my mind.

    But since continuing to worry didn’t change much.

    “…At least I won’t die. I’ve accumulated enough damage resistance anyway.”

    I tried to shake off my anxiety by brainwashing myself with what was already prepared.

    The time I finally started heading toward a dungeon located on the outskirts of the city was when the sun was at its highest.

    However, it was a distance I couldn’t reach even if I walked until late at night.

    Therefore…

    “Excuse me─”

    As the bakery clerk had advised me, I had to ask someone else to take me to the dungeon.

    Of course, I couldn’t directly ask to be taken to the dungeon, so I asked to go to a restaurant located not too far from the dungeon.

    “Oh my, that was our secret good restaurant.”

    So, after somehow succeeding in persuading a quite familiar hunter. I got in his car and headed toward the dungeon.

    What followed for a full hour were various personal stories from the hunter.

    Even though they were nothing more or less than personal stories, they were quite interesting, so the journey to the dungeon wasn’t boring.

    Finally arriving at the outskirts of the city, I waved goodbye to the hunter who was moving away toward the dungeon visible in the distance.

    Then, instead of going to the restaurant where hunters who had finished clearing dungeon monsters mainly visited, I headed to the forest right next to it and changed into the very large-sized clothes from my leather bag.

    Right after that, I held one of the potions that had been fully packed in the leather bag.

    And, click.

    “Phew….”

    I slowly brought the purple liquid, which made my face wrinkle just from smelling it, to my mouth.

    It would clearly have an incredibly nasty taste, but… having come this far, I would be a real fool to give up just because of the potion’s taste.

    In the end, I downed the potion at once with my eyes tightly closed.

    Less than a second later, an acrid dizziness rose from deep within my chest.

    Not just the taste, but the consistency was also thick, making it hard to endure even the moment of swallowing it past my throat.

    However…

    “Urgh?!”

    As if a rapid change was about to begin, a feeling both itchy and hot started to flow through various parts of my body.

    I unconsciously collapsed and tightly closed my eyes again.

    Honestly, it would be a lie if I said I didn’t regret it, but in any case, all I could do at the moment was to quietly endure until the transformation potion fulfilled its role.

    So, although in reality not even a few seconds had passed, it felt like hours had gone by.

    My arms and legs, still trembling, barely endured the sudden transformation and change.

    My heart pounded excessively, creating an extreme level of confusion.

    Nevertheless, I tried somehow not to lose consciousness while continuing to breathe.

    Not long after that, when the trembling throughout my body finally began to subside.

    “Ugh….”

    Forcibly enduring the dizziness that hadn’t completely disappeared, I slowly raised my body.

    But for some reason, my field of vision felt slightly higher.

    No, not just my vision, the ground also felt a bit more distant than before.

    “…Huh?”

    I unconsciously clenched and unclenched the hand that had been sticking out from beyond the white sleeve for some time.

    The appearance of the white sweater, which was slightly puffed out in the front compared to before, was a bonus.

    One fact I realized not even a few seconds later.

    “I, I succeeded!”

    Even if not to the appearance of a veteran who had been in and out of dungeons for decades, I succeeded in transforming into an appearance precariously straddling the boundary between a minor and an adult.

    …Even though I was scheduled to return to my original small self an hour later.

    Anyway, this Cinderella’s magic…

    No, because I had to save people in danger and come back out of the dungeon before the effect of the transformation potion ended.

    After hiding everything not needed inside the dungeon in the bushes, I moved my steps back toward the dungeon entrance.

    By the way, I wonder if the day will ever come when I can enter dungeons without having to transform into such an appearance…?

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