In a dim, stone building. Only a part of the light flow from the high ceiling is surfacing. That light is reflecting a glittering, mysterious geometric pattern drawn on the polished marble floor.
I――Umeki Satoko is blankly sitting at the corner of the geometric pattern, my eyes loitering here and there in an attempt to try to grasp the situation.
I’m reminiscent of some luxuriously decorated temple or palace from a photograph. In the room, there are around ten men wearing gorgeous, but somewhat old fashioned clothes which you could find in history textbooks and paintings.
All of them are swarming a cute-eyed high school girl, with bright tawny hair and perfectly chosen makeup.
What is this? What is happening?
There’s a limit in grasping the situation. Just a little while ago, I finished my work and was returning home.
Even though I opened the entrance door and set a foot in the house…… why am I in such unfamiliar place?
Once again, I look at my surroundings.
Somehow ancient architectural style, clothing, hair styles, etc. How to say this…… this is startling? No, no, no. The normal citizens of my neighborhood wouldn’t have any interest in something like this, right?
But I feel that it’s appropriate to say that I have suddenly strayed into a set from Middle Ages Europe.
N? Is this perhaps the novel standard different world transfer, or summoning?
That’s ridiculous. That’s a product of imagination, not a reality.
I know that the concept of parallel universes is theoretically possible, but a different world is a complete fiction. That’s why it’s called a fantasy.
Besides, I’m not someone to get involved in such things. Protagonists from the stories have some good redeeming features. It wouldn’t happen to someone like me, who’s self-conscious of their bad character. The proof of my bad character is the sad truth of being 28 years old and not having a boyfriend.
But, if that’s the case, how do I explain the current situation……?
Yeah, yeah. I don’t understand.
What’s going on? I look around.
There, I finally noticed. In front of the high schooler, there was a man with noticeably extravagant――gorgeous from the sense of modern people, but old-fashioned――justacorps, gilet, and culotte with strong blond hair and light brown eyes.
He’s not wearing a long-haired, curly wig, but he looks like the royalty or n.o.bility from before the French Revolution.
Judging by his clothes, it would be closer to the modern times rather than the middle ages? Around the Renaissance period?
You know, what to say…… those frills, that rich embroidery…… looks horrible!! ――That’s not it. This is bad, this is bad. My true opinion surfaced. Umm…… his social status seems higher than everyone else’s.
If we go by the transfer or summoning standards, that is the prince position? Ugh…… that’s too frilly if that’s the case……
When I look towards the many people who completely disregarded me while withdrawn in my thoughts, I notice that the bad taste prince (a.s.sumption) has noticed me and was staring at me.
――Oy. That, he laughed at me scornfully than he scowled at me with awfully despising eyes, though?
While feeling unpleasant, the bad taste prince――it’s just an a.s.sumption, not an insult――has approached me…… and as I thought.
「Withdraw, you freebie old hag」
So foul-mouthed! Immediately after I thought such, he kicked me who was sitting on the floor and I collapsed.
――…… Hey…… you’re f.u.c.king kidding me?
I don’t understand what’s happening. But, right now, I was definitely made a fool.
There’s no reason to look down on someone you’ve met for the first time, though?
Besides――――I’m still just 28, you know! I’m still in my twenties!! There’s no reason to call me an old hag!!!
The moment something snapped inside me, a scream rose in front of me.
Just when I thought What?…… I noticed.
The glittering, polished marble floor. It’s shiny like a mirror.
The face of the person reflected on that floor.
Until a while ago, the face of the relatively handsome prince-like person has wrinkled from an old age, making it a thing of the past, his hair lost color and his light brown eyes became cloudy like a grandpa’s.
And just next to it.
My face which was reflected on the floor――
――My black hair and black eyes aged by forty years in one ago――