Two Worlds, Starting with Kaguya of Penglai Mountain

As the girl spoke, her smile deepened as she looked at Kurokawa Kazuya.

Nothing describes a level and state of civilization better than widely used tools.

The communication devices carried by Kurokawa and Miya indicate that it is a world where no supernatural powers exist.

Kaguya Houraisan: "For mortals, a thousand years is enough to make everything vanish like smoke, so..."

The beautiful woman sat gracefully on her pink bed, tilting her head slightly with an expression that suggested she was watching a good show.

"Are you thinking of spending all your time becoming stronger, pursuing a one in ten thousand chance of returning a thousand years later, or are you taking advantage of the fact that we still have connections and deep feelings for each other now to continue your career in another world?"

Bright words are like a full moon hanging high in the night sky.

The bright moonlight is beautiful and moving, but the full moon in the sky always hangs high in the heavens and can never be touched.

The full moon, which attracts people to pursue it relentlessly, yet can never be touched.

In some ways, it is more terrifying than any malice.

Kaguya Houraisan's appearance remains captivating, even deserving of the title of stunning beauty, and Kazuya Kurokawa is a normal man who enjoys beautiful girls.

But at this moment, I inexplicably felt a sense of disgust towards the other person.

Kazuya Kurokawa: "Another world, perhaps."

He responded to Kaguya Houraisan with a single sentence.

If the power of this world is truly as Kaguya Houraisan said, requiring hundreds or thousands of years of accumulation to give him even a sliver of hope of returning to his original world.

Until all the acquaintances he cares about in the other world are gone, Kurokawa Kazuya will try his best to maintain this relationship and spend more time with them.

Kazuya Kurokawa: "So why did Kaguya Houraisan help me?"

She had no idea what the other person's status was in this world, or what this world itself was like.

But the fact that the other party helped her was strange in itself, if this was the world the other party described to him, a world with all kinds of gods and monsters, where great power belongs to oneself.

As a mortal, he had no chance to resist his opponent.

Kaguya Houraisan: "Ah~ of course, it's because it's interesting."

The princess on the moon revealed a beautiful smile.

Kaguya Houraisan: "Don't you think it's quite novel for someone from another world to simply exist here, carrying knowledge from another world? There must be countless amusing incidents."

Kazuya Kurokawa: "..."

So, is this woman in front of you, who is very beautiful and has the temperament of a Yamato Nadeshiko, actually a fun-loving person?

Kaguya Houraisan: "Of course, it's not just that."

As she spoke, she stood up from the bed and gracefully straightened the wrinkles in her clothes. She walked slowly to Kurokawa Kazuya's side, then squatted down and looked directly into his eyes.

The long pink dress that trailed on the ground and the long black hair that reached her waist spread out as the girl moved.

Kaguya Houraisan: "You want to die, don't you? The look in your eyes is one of utter despair, a desire to die yet a fear of death. I find people with that kind of expression quite interesting."

Looking directly at Kurokawa Kazuya, the princess on the moon revealed a bright smile.

This time, her smile, compared to the previous elegant and beautiful smiles, carried a deeper emotion.

Chapter Four: Settling in a Small Village

Kaguya Houraisan openly received marriage proposals from five high-ranking nobles: Prince Ishizaki, Prince Kurumochi, Minister of the Right, Dainagon Abe, and Ishigami Chunagon.

Kurokawa and Mi could not actually live in each other's rooms; if that were discovered, it would definitely cause a lot of trouble.

"Although I could easily resolve all of this, wouldn't that be less interesting?"

This is how Kaguya Houraisan answered Kazuya Kurokawa.

However, Kurokawa Kazuya, who had some understanding of "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter" itself, always felt that the other party was actually protecting his adoptive parents.

If everything unfolds as described in "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter," Kaguya of Mount Hourai will be taken away by someone from the moon and return to the heavens three years later.

Even if Kaguya Houraisan were incredibly powerful, she wouldn't be able to protect her adoptive parents by then.

There's definitely a reason why he might not want his adoptive parents to be blamed after he leaves.

This wasn't because Kurokawa Kazuya intentionally thought the best of the other person, but rather because he observed it from the other person's attitude towards their adoptive parents.

Words can deceive, but actions and attitudes cannot.

Once again, I entered a gray and white world where time seemed to stand still.

Kazuya Kurokawa followed Kaguya Houraisan out of her room and prepared to build a dwelling not far from their home.

Kaguya Houraisan possesses the ability to manipulate eternity and fleeting moments. Her other abilities are unknown, but based solely on what she demonstrated to Kazuya Kurokawa:

1. To imbue something with eternity, to infinitely expand a fleeting moment into eternity—this is the ability that allows the battery on Kurokawa Kazuya's phone to never run out of power.

2. As you see now, you directly enter a world where time has stopped. In a world where everyone around you is completely still, you take Kurokawa and Mi away from your room and come to the outside of the village.

Based on the power struggles and boasts of various online forums in the internet age.

Kaguya Houraisan possesses abilities such as altering the rules of objects and stopping time, all of which are undeniably impressive.

However, Kaguya Houraisan was a sinner who was banished from the moon to the earth.

Simply put, there are at least several beings above her who can judge her.

Kurokawa and Miko do not believe that in a world where such power resides within itself, and where an organization capable of commanding the trial of Kaguya Houraisan's crimes cannot exist without multiple beings stronger than Kaguya Houraisan.

Although the world has changed, the rule that political power grows out of the barrel of a gun has never changed.

All so-called rules are built on the most basic form of violence; without violence, there is no point in discussing rules at all.

Kurokawa Kazuya couldn't quite describe how he felt after hearing all this.

Having likely prepared himself mentally from Kaguya Houraisan's words, he calmed down at this moment.

Kaguya Houraisan: "I'll help you get the cultivation methods for humans. In return, you can complete the video game you mentioned. I'm quite interested in all of this. You can stay here for the time being, and I'll come to see you when I have time."

When Kurokawa Kazuya came to his senses, he was already standing outside a small village.

The cheerful voice of Kaguya Houraisan echoed in his ears, and in his hand was a small cloth bag containing loose silver.

This is not the small village where Kaguya of Houraisan lived, but another place not far from her village.

Before the Industrial Age, the output of labor mainly depended on the land, and due to the shortage of transportation capacity, a city often could not support too many people.

Even a city that has been deprived of its industrial functions often needs the support of countless surrounding villages to function.

The village before Kurokawa Kazuya's eyes, and the village where Houraisan Kaguya lived, are just some of the countless villages like this.

It's probably because Heian-kyo is located nearby.

The village did not exhibit the ragged clothes and hunger often seen in ancient times.

It was the off-season for farming, and children were running and playing in the village, while elderly people sat lazily in rocking chairs in front of their houses, basking in the sun.

By farming during the busy season and sending laborers to the city during the off-season, they at least have no problem having enough to eat and wear.

Kurokawa and Mitsuko, carrying a small cloth bag containing loose silver, found the village's leader and, after a brief chat, bought a decent-looking wooden hut from the village for a few pieces of silver.

He then hired women from the village to do a simple cleaning and tidying of the house.

Because they had no way of controlling the ancient stove.

Instead of starting a fire and cooking like a naive young man, Kurokawa Kazuya spent some money to have the women in the village teach him how to cook during mealtimes, while also teaching him how to operate various tools of the era.

After that, the days after the transmigration began to pass steadily.

Three days passed in a blink of an eye.

An unfamiliar bed remains uncomfortable even after sleeping in it several times; an unfamiliar food remains unpalatable even after eating it several times.

Perhaps out of boredom, the girl named Kaguya Houraisan has spent almost all of this time with him.

Sometimes I would chat with Kazuya Kurokawa about modern knowledge.

Sometimes I would talk to her about cultural topics.

She would even have remote video chats with her sister Yoshiki.

However, she refused Kurokawa Kazuya's attempt to show her the game.

In the words of Kaguya Houraisan herself:

"The long-lived species' view of time is this: as long as things are interesting enough, I am not reluctant to wait. Interesting things should be enjoyed in their final form after completion. Overspending too much time will only make interesting things less interesting."

When she said this, Kaguya Houraisan unusually displayed a non-human quality that Kurokawa Kazuya was unfamiliar with.

Furthermore, during the time he lived alone, Kurokawa Kazuya did experience quite a bit.

For example, he encountered several monks and Onmyoji who were traveling to the village.

These groups, who possess supernatural powers, have summoned shikigami and dharma images in front of Kurokawa Kazuya.

Their main purpose in coming here was to drive away the monsters they were hunting.

After harvesting the obviously abnormally large animals in the forest, they chose to leave.

To Kurokawa Kazuya's surprise, neither the Onmyoji nor the monks robbed or extorted the villagers after entering the village.

Such behavior would be unbelievable in ancient times, when warfare was as swift as a comb.

It's important to know that in ancient times, it was practically accepted for armed forces to rob local civilians when they entered cities.

Waking up the villagers with whips and getting all the able-bodied men to pull carts for them was a basic practice for the upper classes in ancient times.

He questioned Kaguya Houraisan about this matter.

The answer was that the Onmyoji and the monks, having mastered supernatural abilities, looked down on the villagers' meager labor and strength.

Because the gap between the upper and lower levels is so large, the exploitation of the lower levels by the upper levels has actually decreased. This kind of thing sounds like hell.

In short, apart from these special experiences, Kurokawa and Mi's lives after time travel did not seem to change much.

I get up in the morning to handle matters related to game development, and before going to bed at night, I video chat with my younger sister, Yoshiki.

At noon, I would either chat with Kaguya Houraisan, who had arrived, or go to the nearby market to buy some vegetables or meat.

Aside from the inconvenience of being forced to remotely operate a computer using a mobile phone, nothing much has changed.

The peaceful days continued until Kaguya Houraisan said she had helped him find a good lineage of Onmyoji.

Of course, that wouldn't surprise Kurokawa Kazuya; the real point is...

"When you came into this world, were you walking with someone?" - Hint from the blue-haired girl.

As usual, the princess, who had suddenly appeared in the room, spoke in a somewhat casual tone.

"?!"

Kurokawa and Mina, whose composure had remained as calm as a lake since their transmigration, were suddenly thrown into turmoil.

When Kaguya Houraisan saw her expression, a smile appeared on her lips.

For no other reason than she enjoys seeing someone who's completely lost their mind suddenly snap out of it.

Chapter 5 Anna Hachimi

Anzu Hachimi, female, a first-year student at Ishiro High School.

There's a guy I like, but I don't plan to confess yet.

After all, things are already going really well. What if confessing my feelings makes things weird?

The other person must be someone she sees as unattainable and unattainable.

Influenced by this boy, she occasionally reads some strange books.

It was quite amusing how that guy, during his second year of junior high, would spout nonsense about books and games on the market and belittle them as worthless.

It was also influenced by that guy's constant nagging from elementary school to high school.

Anna Hanami has a full understanding of her state after waking up.

Simply put, it's about being transported to another world.

Typically, the protagonist obtains some kind of cheat ability, travels to another world, experiences various adventures, dominates the battlefield, and finally returns home in glory.