Right now, I'm staring down at the picture book spread out at my feet.
It showed all sorts of creatures.
Illustrations of bizarre lifeforms I'd never seen on Earth were rendered in realistic detail across its pages.
These were the Monsters—the vermin that inhabited this world.
"This is a Goblin.
Ana, the maid seated beside me, explains the Monsters featured in the picture book.
Ana looks like she's in her twenties, but in reality she's lived nearly twice that long.
Back in the day, she fought Monsters as a mage, and her knowledge comes from things she's witnessed with her own eyes. She even teaches me things that aren't in the book.
On the opposite side from Ana, my little sister
Sue has been eager to copy everything I do lately.
She can barely string words together yet, unlike me, so she probably doesn't understand a single thing Ana is saying.
Maybe she thinks she has to listen too, simply because she sees me listening so intently.
That earnest little face of hers was too adorable, so I patted her on the head.
Her light-blue hair was silky smooth and felt wonderful.
Sue smiled happily as I stroked her head.
Ana and the other maid standing watch near the door, Clevea, both watched the scene with warm, amused smiles.
At first, being watched like that made me embarrassed, but I was used to it now.
"You and young Lady Sue really do get along, don't you?"
"Mm!"
"Yeaah!"
Ana's words prompted simultaneous responses from Sue and me.
That answer only deepened Ana's smile.
Well, I had gotten pretty good at playing the part of a small child.
I turned my gaze back to the picture book.
Ana didn't know I could read yet.
She probably thought I was just enjoying looking at the pictures, but I had already learned to read the characters of this kingdom.
The picture book was centered on illustrations, with only brief descriptive text about each Monster.
That was precisely why Ana's explanations were so valuable.
But the more I listened to Ana, the more this world's sheer absurdity came into focus.
We were supposed to be having a serious discussion, yet words like Skill, Status, and Level kept popping up—terms straight out of a game.
This world was exactly like a video game.
Since I was actually living in it, I couldn't bring myself to think of it as one, but that didn't change the fact that game-like systems genuinely existed here.
A Skill, apparently, was an ability drawn out from the soul and given form as a defined power.
Status referred to one's numerical ability values.
Level represented the accumulation of a living being's power, reduced to a number.
The explanations sounded plausible enough, but to someone who knew the games of my previous life, they all rang a little cheap.
Still, in this world these things were taken for granted. Nobody even questioned why such things existed or how they worked.
I felt plenty of unease myself, but all I could do was accept that this was the kind of world it was.
I turned the page.
The next illustration was of an enormous wolf.
A human figure was drawn at its feet, presumably for scale.
For a moment I wondered if the proportions were off, but Ana's explanation confirmed the size was accurate.
"This is a Fenrir. It's a mythical-class Monster, so large it resembles a mountain. The last time one appeared, it supposedly destroyed half a fortress in a single bite. Even I've never seen one in person."
That made sense.
A creature this massive wasn't just a Monster—it was practically a kaiju.
To think something this enormous existed... this world was even stranger than I'd imagined.
But more to the point—how could something with a body that size even support itself?
"Hey, how does it stay standing?"
My question made Ana blink in confusion.
Maybe I hadn't been clear enough.
"Like, this big, right?"
That seemed to click, and Ana realized what I was asking.
"Hmm, it might be faster to show you rather than try to explain. Clevea."
Ana called Clevea over.
Clevea, like Ana, was a maid who also served as a bodyguard—she had originally worked as a female knight in this kingdom.
Unlike the slender, mage-built Ana, Clevea's physique was muscular and powerful enough to rival any man's.
Ana and Clevea exchanged a few whispered words, then stepped apart from each other and stood at a distance.
Clevea held one hand open and thrust it forward.
"Here I go. Fireball."
Ana cast a spell at Clevea.
The Fireball magic was, as the name implied, a low-level fire spell that launched a small orb of flame at its target.
The orb—its power apparently restrained—struck Clevea's outstretched palm.
Sue was frozen in surprise.
I hadn't expected magic to come flying out of nowhere either, so I was a little startled myself.
At the sight of our reactions, Ana and Clevea exchanged grins, looking thoroughly pleased with their little prank.
I couldn't help feeling a little put out.
"D-does it hurt?"
Sue kept fussing over Clevea's hand.
"It's a bit warm, but I'm quite alright."
Clevea answered in a voice that was thick and forceful for a woman.
"As you just saw, the higher your Status, the more durable your body becomes. That's why even massive Monsters don't collapse under their own weight."
Curious, I reached out and touched Clevea's palm.
It had the slightly toughened, calloused texture typical of someone who gripped a sword for a living.
But it didn't feel hard enough to shrug off a Fireball without a scratch.
"Your Highness, an increase in defensive power doesn't necessarily mean your body becomes harder."
"Really?"
"Yes. It's less about becoming harder and more about becoming harder to wound. I wasn't particularly notable in that regard, but the Heroes of past generations were said to be so tough that ordinary swords couldn't even leave a mark."
Clevea answered my question patiently.
But harder to wound? Did that mean something like the bond strength between cells had changed?
No—maybe it was foolish of me to keep bringing Earth's common sense into a fantasy world like this.
For now, I set aside the fuzzy unease lingering in my chest.