She Becomes the Hero in Another World

In a small cubicle, a lone figure sighed as she tapped the stack of papers into order, before setting them aside. It had been a long day, and all she was looking forward to at this point was dinner, and some light reading before bed. She stretched before glancing at the clock. Right on the dot, the minute hand ticked onto the large number twelve: it was 5:00 pm now.

Quickly, she grabbed her bag and logged out. Her boss didn't like his workers going overtime, and she wasn't going to give him an opportunity to scold her. Since the time clock was nearby, she just managed to punch out before it hit 5:01pm.

It was Friday. Most of the other schedulers had finished their alloted 40 hours earlier that day and left. But, since she was a new scheduler, she had to stick to a strict time clock for one more month. As things were, she was still on a probation period. Thus, she found herself walking down the hall to the door alone.

As she strode by the boss's office, she overheard him speaking about her in a loud voice. Her boss, though strict, was good-natured. His only fault was that he had no notion of 'indoor voice' and spoke loudly no matter where he was.

This was a cause of embarrassment for many schedulers on her floor, whenever they had the misfortune of having him speaking to someone outside their cubicle. Even his whispers were almost deafening. Thus, she could clearly hear his words through the closed door.

"What, the rookie? Yeah, I think she's okay. She's a bit slow on the uptake, but she's punctual, and polite. She's a bit quiet, though, and doesn't speak unless she has to. She could also use a better wardrobe.

...Yeah, I mean it! She has that newsboy haircut. If she wasn't wearing a skirt at that interview, I'd be almost certain that she was one of those wimpy introverted social-anxiety type of boys. You know, the pale kind without glasses? She wears pants and sneakers to work every day. No, I know there's no dress code, but still...Haha! Heck, she doesn't even wear makeup-can you believe that?!" His words at the end were crystal clear.

The makeup-less girl scrunched up her face. 'Well excuse me for having sensitive skin! It's better than caking colored mud on my face every day. At least you can be certain that MY face isn't drawn on me.' She internally huffed. 'This is a scheduling job, so why look nice when nobody's going to see it?

I'd rather use that time to sleep in instead.' She yawned, remembering the light novel that she had stayed up late the night before to read.

She turned around to stare at her Boss's door, a bellyful of fire held inside. 'Nice to know that I'm appreciated, BOSS. Hmmph...more like Mr. BS! Bleeeh!' She mentally made a face at him before she sighed and let her anger slide away as she continued on her way to the door.

Holding a grudge against your boss for speaking his thoughts was like holding a grudge against God for having you be born to your parents: it does nothing to change the situation. Thus, she could only discard the useless thing(grudge) to make room in her head for her beloved stories awaiting her at home.

Watching the ground in front of her as she walked, she thought to herself. 'Maybe I should look for a different job? I know I only took this to pay the bills, but maybe I've made some sort of mistake? Or is this just first-job jitters that I'm going through?'

She was frowning at the ground, so lost in thought that she didn't notice herself walking straight into a vertical magic circle that formed in the air in front of her as she walked out the door.

...

The first thing that she noticed was the change in the pavement. The usual, cracked concrete sidewalk was nowhere to be seen. Instead, the young woman was surprised to see that the ground was paved with cobblestones.

'Cobblestones? I thought these were only used in Europe. I don't remember hearing anything about them replacing the pavement here. Come to think of it, I didn't hear any construction noises either!'

Her vision moved from the cobblestone pavement to eye level as she looked up. In front of her was a quaint village square, paved in cobblestones, with a stone monument in the center. The houses were a mixture of wood and white wall with painted wooden shutters...she remembered that style. It was the Tudor style! She remembered it because she had thought it was quite cute in a storybook picture. People in medieval clothing walked here and there throughout the square, going about their business.

'....Eh?'

She looked behind her. The door that she had walked out of was nowhere to be seen, now replaced by a long narrow alleyway. She reached out behind her to check. Maybe it was just a really well-painted canvas? Or not. Her hand clearly went right through the space where the door had been, earlier.

'...Eh!?'

Mentally willing herself to remain calm, she asked an elderly passerby in a grey tweed who was smoking his pipe, and looked like he might have some time. "Excuse me, is there some sort of event going on? I don't think my workplace was notified about it."

The passerby scratched his head. "No. Nothing of the sort. Gee, those are some strange clothes that yer wearing there, what with that kind of get-up. Are you from the North lands? No? Where ye from young-un?"

"I-I'm from Kansas." She replied weakly.

"Can's Ass? What kind of a town is named after someone's donkey? I'm sorry, young'un. I dunno where that is."

"It's in America!" She replied.

"A Merica?" He asked, tapping the stem of his pipe against his lips as he pondered leisurely. Then shook his head. "Never heard of it. Is it one of those Southern Islands places? I hear tell they've got some strange names for their places."

"Well....can you tell me where I am right now?" She asked, feeling somewhat faint. She might not have gotten an A in every subject, but she was still quite good at her geography. Perhaps she was simply experiencing some sort of temporary amnesia after traveling to a different country?

"You're in Kinsward Town of Ekkinshire Kingdom." He replied. "Anyone knows that."

"...EH?" The girl's eyes became dots as she asked. "I'm sorry...come again?"

"Kinsward Town of Ekkinshire Kingdom." The old man replied patiently. "Did ye accidently get off at the wrong stop? The carriage for the Capital left not half an hour ago, so ye'll be stuck here for another three hours before the next one comes by."

'Kinsward Town? Ekkinshire Kingdom? There's no such place on earth!?' The girl was shocked, but she gathered herself together enough to thank the kind old man, and go for a walk around the square as she observed it quietly.

A shop called 'Sundry Magical Knick-Knacks' drew her attention as a woman walked out of the store, clearly on an errand as three large wooden crates floated out behind her.

Her eyes widened, then darted about as she noticed a girl from a cleaning service wave her hand and light encompassed her customer, clearing away all signs of the mud he was caked with. A cook at a nearby stall spouted fire out of his mouth as he tossed the ingredients into the air. Even the lady watering flowers had her hands up towards a floating ball of water, as mist gently fell from it onto the blossoms below.

'What on earth? I'm...not on Earth!?' Everything finally clicked with her, as her eyes became round white circles with shock.