Chapter 1 - Main Characters Stand Out

The small black pot holds simmering stew enough to eat for two meals. The aroma mixes with the smoke from the burnt firewood before reaching all corners of the small room.

I grin when the sweet smell of potato stew enter my nostrils as I stir the pot with a large wooden spoon. Bits of colourful root vegetables bob up and down the surface.

"It's a good day for stew hehe."

Salivating ungracefully, I put down the pot from the stove and placed it on the table.

Dinner~ Is~ Served~

"Ah right— my bread"

I stand up and turn around to reach the counter for some stale bread I managed to get cheap yesterday. But before I could even take a step, a sudden episode of dizziness hits me.

Feeling my consciousness waving me goodbye with a smile, I swore inwardly.

F*CK, I WANT TO EAT MY POTATO STEW!!

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My eyelids are closed shut and my body feels heavy. I'm lying on a hard surface and there's suffocating smell of smoke.

Cough cough cough

Fire?

Wait nononono— I can't die yet. I still have so much to accomplish in life.

When I sit up and blink my eyes, I wake up to the same room inside the same small hut I was in just before I fainted.

What happened?

I hastily cover my nose and mouth, and reached for the windows to clear the smoke from the room.

"It must have been carbon monoxide poisoning. But which dumb person cook with firewood in a closed room?"

Me. I'm that dumb person.

That was me before I knew cooking in an enclosed area isn't the smartest move.

Wait, carbon monoxide? What is that?

A sudden rush of memories fill my head like pouring water into a glass.

The memories show a 30-year-old working woman in a country called Japan. She was a 'corporate slave' in that era, working day in and out with little time for herself. She was a closet otaku, and her only solace from her depressing life were light novels, mangas, anime and otome games.

Then, she died from over-exhaustion.

With that said, the current situation is very familiar something I saw in that woman's memories. It's a very generic isekai trope.

"I reincarnated in a different world~~~" genre

That means the memories I saw was my previous life.

Not that I'll start suddenly switching personalities. I've been born in this country, lived in this world for 15 years as "Tina". (Yes, that's my name.)

I'm not going to have an identity disorder. I'm me, the past life is already gone and I'm going to live in the present.

And that's how I came to realise, I'm in a fantasy story world.

Not that I remember my past life reading THIS or THAT book. Rather, there were too many books with plots completely wiped out of my memory once I'm done reading.

Even if I'm not sure about the particular novel, I'm sure this is a made-up fantasy world.

How, you ask?

Leaving the potato stew, now disappointingly cold after being left for the night... If I look out the window right now—

It's morning. The sun radiantly shines down over the small huts squeezed together at the edge of the town. Further away, there are a few stone and wooden buildings. The living conditions improve as you walk towards the centre of the town. Inich is a populous town located near the Duke's castle. The commerce is booming and travellers frequent for visits.

Now, if you see over the busy crowd from outside the window, you'll see a traffic of people moving about. A majority of them are commoners; they are all brown-haired and brown-eyed. They all wear normal clothes, and own a variety of normal physique you'd expect a normal person to have.

Like the default characters when you press start on a new game.

The faces are a bit blurry because they have no distinguishing features.

If someone asked me to look at one person, and then pick that same person from the crowd five minutes later, I wouldn't be able to.

I'm the same. Extremely ordinary brown hair and eyes, with no attractive features of any kind. If someone had to define the word average, they might as well draw me aside and use me as the perfect example of "mediocre".

In that chaotic mob of NORMAL people, I would occasionally come across exceptionally odd-looking individuals. This used to happen every few months. Rather, it was strange how I never questioned their appearance before I recollected my past-life memories.

"Odd-looking" because they have the brightest f*cking hair I've ever seen.

And I know it's going to be hard to believe, but guess what? It's all NATURAL. Their hair grows out of their roots PURPLE. Or GREEN. Or BLUE. Or RED. You get my point.

Actually, there's one outside right now.

Look at him.

You can almost visualise the sparkly roses drawn in his background. Intense red hair, razor-sharp jawline, fine eyebrows, and an unflinching expression in his eyes: His face is a 10/10 masterpiece.

Now let's talk about his physique: Tall, broad shoulders, long legs, muscular but not bulky.

The way he carries himself gives an aura that screams "LOOK AT ME I'M AN IMPORTANT CHARACTER"

Ugh, what an attention-seeking man.

Anyway...

I realise that in most stories, reincarnators/transmigrators have the story revolving around them, whether they want it or not. This ALWAYS happens, despite claiming "Nooo~ I'll stay away from the story~~"

That is, ultimately, because they're DUMB.

How do you expect to escape from the story while you generously sink your feet in the plot, dabble with all sorts of main characters and do things that make you stand out?

Obviously, I want to continue living my easy-going life.

I'm not the richest person, but I'm able to maintain my lifestyle through farming and sewing. This is already a big progress, considering how difficult it was for women to support themselves in medieval times due to gender discrimination.

I don't want to constantly worry about when I'll die.

I don't want to meet a prince - or any other member of the royalty for that matter.

I don't want to get involved in some bullsh*t drama that's not drama (Your partner doesn't love you back? Ooh, why don't you cry me a f*cking river?)

To pursue such ideals, I must maintain my status as a mob character.

This is how you live a mob life.