Prologue

Author: Ryusui
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n2121hw/1/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

Somewhere, there was a vast forest. The widest forest on this planet, called the Spirit Forest. At its center stands a tree overwhelmingly thicker, taller, and greater than the rest. The World Tree, which governs the flow of mana in the world.

The one who manages that wide forest all alone is the Guardian.
The Guardian is chosen by the spirit that dwells in the World Tree, or else summoned from another world. The chosen Guardian then lives an easy life in the forest and watches over it.

Of course, the spirit does not force anyone. It respects the will of the one it has chosen, and if refused, it looks for someone else.
That said, the current Guardian was a little different from the Guardians so far.
She was taken in by the previous Guardian, a mage, became a disciple, and then inherited the Guardian’s role as-is. The spirit did approve, of course, but it is still a different way of being chosen than before.
And one more thing. The current Guardian had a little hobby, inherited from the previous Guardian.

Deep in the Spirit Forest, there is a large wooden house. It has no second floor, but it is decently spacious. The door opened, and a single humanfolk stepped out.

A pitch-black robe, and a staff taller than they were. The hood was pulled low; the face could not be seen.
That someone lifted their face, and the corners of their mouth rose, just a little pleased.

“Mm. Nice weather.”

With that, the hood came off. Silver hair long enough to reach the hips swayed in the wind. A girl with well-cut features looked around with blue eyes, then gave a small, satisfied nod.

“Peaceful today too.”

Of course, somewhere in the forest, animals were killing and eating according to the law of the jungle, but even including that, it was a peaceful morning.
The girl walked a little way and stood in the small clearing in front of the house. She tapped the ground with her staff a few times, and a magic circle rose on the earth in an instant.

She tapped the ground once more, and a sphere of light about the size of a fist appeared. At the same time, a small blackboard-like slab came out beside the sphere.
Watching that blackboard, letters began to flow after a little while.

‘I’m heeeere!’
‘We’ve been waiting!’
‘Morning, Rita-chan!’

The letters were not this world’s script. They were the letters of a language called Japanese. To the girl, though, they were familiar, and she could read them without trouble.

“Morning, everyone.”

When the girl called Rita greeted them like that, the blackboard filled with greetings. She gave a small laugh at the sight, and said:

“This is sudden, but research wore me out, so I want something sweet.”

‘Too sudden lol’
‘Don’t start the stream by begging lol’
‘Well, we’re sending some anyway!’

After strings of text like that, a great many sweets lined up on the ground in front of Rita. Cake, cookies, Japanese sweets, and so on. Rita’s face softened, and she promptly picked one up.
Kusa daifuku. Easy to eat and delicious, so she liked it a lot.

“Umashee.”

‘Umashee’
‘Who taught her a word like that…’
‘It was us, wasn’t it…’

Finished with the kusa daifuku, Rita kept going through the sweets. One by one, carefully giving her impressions as she went…

“Umashee. Umashee.”

‘She’s only saying umashee lol’
‘Well, as long as she eats them like she’s enjoying them, that’s enough lol’

Having polished off the sweets that had been sent, Rita cleared her throat. Time for a serious talk.

“All right. A report on the research results.”

‘Before that, you’ve got cream on the side of your mouth’
‘Anko too, while we’re at it’
‘You can eat a little more calmly, you know lol’

“Ah… Excuse me.”

She had not meant to eat that fast, but she might have gone at it a bit too greedily. It had been a while since she’d had sugar, so it could not be helped.

“Once more. A report on the research results.”

‘Aye aye’
‘Last time it was whether our world is really another world, right’
‘What was the conclusion again?’

“Pending, I guess. As a guess, I’m treating it as not another world.”

Rita’s hypothesis was that it was somewhere very, very far away. Because, to begin with—

“What even is an ‘other world,’ you know?”

‘That’s fair’
‘When you put it that way, it is kind of a mystery’
‘It’s a pretty common story premise, but if you actually get asked, it’s hard to answer’

A different world. She understood what they meant. But if it was a different world, then you should not be able to observe it in the first place, she thought.
Rita and the someones on the other side of this magic were conversing in real time like this. She could not believe that would be possible with a so-called different world.

Well, that said, if you asked where the other side actually was, she did not know that either.
But then it occurred to her. If they were talking through magic like this, then this magic ought to be connected to Earth right now. Meaning, if she analyzed this magic, she might be able to tell where Earth was.

“So I tried analyzing this incomprehensible magic I inherited from Master.”

‘Don’t call it incomprehensible lol’
‘It is incomprehensible though!’
‘Can you even analyze something like that?’

It was not something you could do that easily. At the very least, it was not something you could do overnight.
But Rita had a great many spells learned from Master. Among them was magic that created a special subspace. The subspace made with that magic—named Item Box by Master—was such that if you spent a year inside, only a single hour passed outside.

She had researched inside that subspace, and at last Rita had arrived at an answer. How many years it took is a secret. If she had to say, she would say this stream was after a week’s gap.
Well, she had no intention of telling the people on the other side of the magic that.

“To put the conclusion simply: other worlds don’t exist.”

‘Wait’
‘So that means you figured out where each of us is?’

“Mm. Perfectly.”

‘No way’
‘For real?’
‘Huh? Huh? So that means we might be able to go over there!?’

“That’s impossible.”

She had found the location of the other side—the Earth they spoke of. But it was not a place you could casually go. Even for Rita, a method of going to Earth still had to be established from here.
When she told them that, a great many comments flowed past wanting a concrete location. She had no intention of hiding it, so Rita answered honestly.

“Earth is in the Milky Way.”

‘Yeah. Yeah? That’s… true’
‘You know about galaxies? Well, Master’s putting ideas in her head, I guess’
‘Wait, wait, if you’re bringing that up now, then don’t tell me’

“Mm. This world is in the Andromeda Galaxy.”

‘Hold on’
‘Wait. No, seriously wait!?’
‘No no, you cannot be serious’

Unfortunately, it was true. Rita had not believed it at first either, and had redone the analysis of the magic over and over. The conclusion did not change.
Earth was in the Milky Way, and this world Rita was in—no, this planet—was in the Andromeda Galaxy.

“We’re neighbors.”

‘Your scale for neighbors is broken’
‘What does that mean?’
‘Allow me to explain! The Andromeda Galaxy is a galaxy visible to the naked eye from Earth!’
‘However, the distance is over two million light-years’
‘Neighbors, she says’

It only meant it was close compared to other galaxies. Nothing more.

‘Master’s magic connecting that distance in an instant is way too busted, isn’t it?’
‘Busted doesn’t even cover it. Wasn’t that magic given to Master by the Great Spirit?’
‘The Great Spirit is way too busted lol’

Rita agreed with that. What she had been able to analyze of this magic was only a tiny part. The structure of the formula and so on was beyond her understanding.
That did not mean she intended to give up, though. It was a very interesting research subject. She was thinking of continuing to look into it.

“That’s about it for this research. And now that I know where Earth is, next I’ll think about a way to go there.”

‘Ohh, it’s starting to feel like it’s finally happening’
‘I want to say that’s obviously impossible, but we’ve got snack toss instead of superchats’
‘This snack toss is pretty mysterious too lol’

Even from Rita’s point of view, it was mysterious magic that had gone past incomprehensible into the extreme.
This thing called snack toss activated when people on the other side did something called printing of the magic circle being displayed, and set sweets on it. For some reason, only sweets activated it. Who was distinguishing them, and how—that, too, she still did not know.
As expected of the spirit’s magic.

“Honestly, it’s gone past mysterious and into creepy.”

‘Creepy lmao’
‘I get what you mean though lol’

“Yeah. Anyway, next I’ll analyze this, and think about Earth’s exact position and a method of transfer. I’ll stream again when I feel like it, so take care of me.”

‘Aye aye’
‘We’ll be waiting!’
‘If it works out, an alien’s coming, huh. That’s too hype’

I see. They would indeed be aliens. Strangely enough, the humanfolk here and the humans over there seemed to be almost the same, though.
Rita was very much looking forward to going to Earth. To make it happen, she would work hard on her research.
While she was pumping herself up with that thought, that comment flowed across her eyes.

‘Regarding the reason for that hard work being that she wants to eat curry rice’

That was something that did not need to be touched.