A Young Woman's Lonely Journey through Eternity (Youjo Senki x Minecraft) (2024)

I'm not alone.

Sure, I couldn't speak the language (because of course I wouldn't be able to. Why would I?) However, the man that stumbled onto my home was clearly intelligent enough to figure that out quickly enough and switched to a game of charades to communicate with me, which I promptly joined in on.

It seemed he needed somewhere to sleep, so I directed him to the cabin I had made… What, months back? Perhaps he could tell me the local calendar here, after the language barrier issue is resolved. Maybe he has some books?

I led him inside the slightly dusty cabin, which had undergone slight renovations. The stairs down to the basem*nt were removed in place of a ladder, and said ladder now sat where my bed did before, hidden by a trapdoor in the floor. As for the bed, it was in the room the stairs were formerly in, creating an actual bedroom instead of it being right out in the open like it was. Aside from that, not much else had changed. Honestly, it was a little too dusty to live in at the moment.

Or atleast, that's what I thought. When I turned around to gauge his reaction to my meager offering, he looked around the room in confusion, particularly at the kitchen where… Ah.

I may have forgotten how backwards this world might be. Or perhaps they're surprised by the antiquity of it all? I thought, but shook myself out of it and gave a rather weak tour, due to the language complications.

I quickly found my answer to my earlier thoughts when the stranger became fascinated by the faucet, experimenting with the hot and cold functions. That told me enough about what I can presume to be my neighbors, unless this man happened to wander all the way over here somehow.

Which made me wonder, where did he come from? I've looked around the area, and I haven't found a trace of civilization for several kilometers around. And considering the trip he would've had to take, the fact that he managed to get here without any visible weapons is… strange.

Then again, I haven't been able to find the desert I came from since I arrived, and I knew it had to be a day or two out considering I ran.

I let out a cough, and once I regained his attention, directed him to the bedroom. I assume he thanked me, but I wasn't able to tell because I didn't understand the language… and he fell asleep as soon as he laid down on the bed.

Guess I'm not the only one who can't resist a bed's allure, apparently.

I stepped out of the cabin and looked out at the moon rising over the sea, heralding the arrival of night and the monsters that plagued my life. Or, I suppose, my afterlife. It wouldn't surprise me at this point if Being X simply forgot there was an actual world of sorts here instead of the void he mentioned. Which brings up the question: what is the nature of this world?

Mana flowed through everything. That was the first fundamental difference between my previous worlds and this one. In my first, not a trace of Magic. In my second, Formulaic magic flowed from within a person, not from the world itself. Both Earths were barren of mana, as far as I knew. Here?

Formula existed along a new, pervasive system that lay within everything except herself. Even from the stranger, the twin systems of Mana existed, but the formulaic energy within wasn't even touched. Perhaps they had yet to figure out how the formulaic mana functioned compared to whatever this new mana is.

My questions of the current state of this world's magic aside, there was something I couldn't help but smile about. The stranger had come in on a mule, something often only created by proper civilization. Which means he came from a civilized, or at least somewhat developed, society. One with roles for everyone, with rules to follow.

I hadn't been cursed to be alone with the monsters after all.

So what have I been cursed to be with?

Urie awoke, feeling more rested than he ever has in his life. And in yet another unfamiliar place.

Sitting up, he looked around the room he now inhabited. Having a bedroom in this… not-yet village was already a surprise enough. Even in Mirvain, having private bedrooms was something of a luxury, and while Illager manors do give private rooms, they often feel more… cramped.

This one, by contrast, was merely cozy. A bed and some kind of small table next to the bed occupied the two corners furthest from the door, while the third corner was taken up by a dresser with some kind of reflective material he's never seen before placed on top of it.

In the fourth corner were two doors, one leading into the main room, and another leading into the largest bathroom he'd ever seen. Or, he assumed it was a bathroom.

Getting off of the bed and moving to the strange object on top of the dresser, Urie couldn't help but marvel at what he saw.

Himself, clearer than any reflection in the water of a lake or steel shined to perfection, stared back at him. Obviously, he's seen how reflection work, and has seen his own face before, but with such perfect clarity… What could make this? Silver?

He leaned in towards the reflective window and examined the face that he's seen only vaguely in past reflections. It was…

…I guess I do look somewhat decent.

After a few minutes of self-examination and self-reflection on how others had looked at him before (so much makes sense now!), he exited into the house's main room. It took him another hour until he finally left, as he found the seemingly magical sink in the kitchen. What other marvels await him here?

What else does this woman have in store for him?

The stranger apparently had several books with him, which he let me borrow in order for me to understand his language. Thankfully, he had a dictionary with him, which l was able to use as a reference.

What was very interesting was that the alphabet of this language easily lined up with Latin. Sure, some characters that are rarely used don't have copies, and the punctuation was… nearly identical to what Albish and Germanian had. It made learning how to write easy enough, and I could get a fair number of the words down within a few weeks, but the closeness of the language was still unnerving.

In exchange, I gave him an alphabet of Germanian, Albish, and Japanese, as well as a handful of words in each. While I don't claim to be the most knowledgeable about either of my languages, the sheer number of words I managed to remember and write down was surprising even to me. Especially since I didn't recognize some of them at first, or even writing some of them down.

While the stranger was looking them over, I mentally checked the mana pool within me.

It's still different each time. I thought, noting how it had dropped by one… whatever this unit of measurement is for mana. Evidently I used some in writing, because it rarely ever drops, and only drops when I try to use it.

With my still basic understanding of the written language, I wrote out a question to the stranger.

What is your name?

The stranger looked at the note after I slid it across the small table between us. With my new house finished, I felt it was necessary to invite the stranger in for a lunch at least once, since it seems the arrangement is likely to last for a while, so being on friendly terms with my only contact with the rest of the world is critical to my future.

Eventually he slid back a response. I frowned at the quality of my handwriting compared to his, but only momentarily since I only recently began to write.

Urie Nozymas… Scholar of Magicka? I read out mentally, suddenly faced with an unfamiliar term. I checked the dictionary, and eventually found what I was looking for.

Scholar of Magicka - Occupation of one who studies Magicka and Enchantment, along with unexplored forms of Magicka. May or may not be more magically inclined than the average person. Typically employed by larger kingdoms. Similar to Clerics and Shamans, though should not be confused with them.

Well, that answered f*cking nothing. In fact, it created more questions. For instance, why can I feel mana coming from some of the words as I read them, and why is it that Enchantment is the same as the entity I faced earlier? What is a Cleric, or a Shaman?

Putting that mess of questions to study later, I translated what he wrote down into Germanian, seeing as that is the language I'm most familiar with. Don't have many opportunities to practice Japanese on the front… After that, I wrote down my own name in both Germanian and my best attempt at "Villageralt", which is the name for the written language of these people.

Tanya von Degurechaff…

I paused, considering whether or not to put my rank and occupation down. Would "Urie" even understand it? What even is my rank, actually? The epaulets on my uniform jacket had gone from Lt. Colonel to Brigadier General, seemingly in line with the typical double promotions soldiers receive when they fall in service to the Reich.

…Veteran.

I passed the note back to him, while reading through the dictionary some more.

Looking through a few of the earlier mentioned topics, a few things were clarified. Magicka, or as it is sometimes called, Lifeblood, is this world's mana that seems to exist in everything (except me, for some reason). Apparently, I seemed to have gotten a decent idea of how this mana worked, but missed a few things. What I call Deconstruction and Construction is apparently, for some reason, "Mining" and "Crafting".

Even I could've come up with something better. I thought, as I dug through the dictionary some more. Eventually, Urie spoke up, pulling me from my investigations on how magic in this world works.

He pointed at himself, then his name on the note. Finally, he spoke, tracing past each word.

"Urie Nozymas…" I said, letting the name roll off my tongue. This language was… too easy to learn.

I ran a detection spell, and sure enough, the gradual increase in mana within me was being halted, used for learning Common-

How did I know the name of the spoken language already? I haven't even… Oh. Isn't that convenient?

After a few more weeks, I was able to learn the surprisingly simple, and somehow familiar, language of this world. Not of the local area, not of Urie's specific species, no. A language that exists throughout the entire world. Atleast, the spoken part does.

The written language, on the other hand, is only half as widespread, and it was roughly split between the Villagers, which Urie belongs to, and the Illagers, who are differentiated from Villagers by skin color, though culture is more of a division than that. Unlike my previous lives, however, the colors that caused so much discrimination in my life were all considered a part of the "Villager" race. Illagers, somehow, bear skin tones ranging from a very light gray to darker bluish-grays, though most fall within a gray tone.

Still, despite the differences in skin color and culture, though Urie nor the books I've read through so far have gone into the Illager's culture, their respective alphabets and written languages were incredibly similar. Even the names were nearly identical. Villageralt for the Villagers, Illageralt for the Illagers. Right next to each other, they look very close.

I was dragged out of my musings by a knock on the door.

"Come in!" I shouted out from in front of the living place.

Urie, the scholar who found my little patch of land, came into the room, sitting down in a chair opposite of my fireplace. In his hands was a rolled up sheet of paper, which he set out on the coffee table between us (if only I could get some coffee…)

My eyes widened as the map was unfurled in front of me.

"What the f*ck?"

My first thought was that I was in Europe, again. My eyes then immediately noticed Japan and Korea sitting where Britain and Ireland should be. Or, if we're going off of my second life, Akitsushima has replaced Albion. Then I started noticing the rest of the map. Italy shattered into islands. Multiple actual islands either becoming a part of the rest of this new Europe. A second Brittany-style peninsula growing off of Iberia's northwestern coast. The fact that the Mediterranean Sea no longer had ocean access. The Black Sea is now a mess of large lakes. And the f*cking names.

Immediately, I could pick out the "Black-Eyed Kingdom" as the nearest major power in the region, with this "Commonwealth" that sits where Polania does in my second life. Germania looked like a mess, but whatever was going on with the Ildoans was clearly worse. My eyes started to look at what mess awaited me in Scandinavia, but Urie drew my attention first.

"We are here." Urie said, pointing to the tip of the new peninsula on Iberia. "Deep within the Silver Wilds, in the space no lord dares to take. No villages for several kilometers, and full of undead. Even more so now than what others have told me."

Great, so I'd have to take a hike to find the nearest town. Guessing by the name of this region, even this place is considered backwards. I've truly ended up in the middle of nowhere.

Urie ran his finger to the middle of southern France, which was mostly occupied by the "Black-Eyed Kingdom."

"I come from here. Mirvain, it existed before the Black-Eyed King came and burned it down. Worse than others, since we tolerated both." Urie said, then traced a line down from Mirvain to our current point. "It took me four months to get here, with delays."

I looked at the path he took to get here, and then realized something.

"Besides the Ondaberian Desert… Are there any deserts within the Silver Wilds?" I asked, looking at the massive swathe of "Ondaberia" that was occupied by a giant desert.

He shook his head. "No. None of that biome in the Wilds. Not that it matters, since it's a month's journey to get to the Desert from here."

Wait a minute.

"I remember ending up in a desert near here, and I got here in a day. But if what you say is true…"

Urie looked at me in confusion, looking at the map.

"...Where did you come from anyways?"

…Should I come out and say it? That I'm, what, not even a year into being in this world? What could I even say as a lie? Both Germania and Japan are right in front of me, so I can't lie about that. What about my titles, my rank? I already said I'm a veteran…

…f*ck it.

"Don't know. I woke up on the beach one day, a few hundred days ago now if I remember right, and at some point I got teleported into a well in a desert." I admitted. Urie blinked at that, but I continued regardless. "I was told I was going to wallow in the void for all Eternity, but this sure isn't that. I remember briefly being in some kind of void, but I was suddenly teleported to the beach, and then again to the desert after I encountered some kind of tall entity."

Silence filled the room once I finished, as Urie rapidly blinked and began to think. Was that too much? I hadn't even mentioned my past lives…

"There was a third race." Urie suddenly said. "One with powers of Manipulation beyond what either Villager or Illager could hope to use. Their language is used in Enchantment, even though they vanished many millennia ago when the Collapse Era began. One could tell them apart from a Villager or Illager by one distinct thing."

He pointed at my head, no, my hair. "They all have hair."

"...Do you not have hair yourself?" I asked. There was no way that they were all bald or something-

"Not on our heads, no." He replied.

…Well.

"Is there anything else to tell them apart?"

"Hmm… They were noted to use a different form of Magicka alongside the normal variety, and they did not have static reserves of the normal Magicka. Theirs slowly grew, collecting it from the world itself. They could also teleport, I believe." Urie replied frantically. "I should go search my books. I must have something."

He quickly got up and left, forgetting to close the doors on the way, leaving me to sort through the implications of what he said.

…What the hell even am I at this point anyways?

He had a feeling that this woman, Tanya von Degurechaff as he found out, was the source of the Silver glow, but this is more than he could've ever hoped for!

An Ancient, a living, breathing ancient from the First Era, returning for the first time since their civilization collapsed. One as radiant as silver, and one that will lead them all out of the Dark Era they now live in. Sure, they may have forgotten the past, but look at what they've accomplished in such a short time!

If Urie had to guess, she likely appeared at the very start of this year, returning from who-knows-where and gracing them with their presence yet again. Whatever made her forget her past (assuming she did, based on how she spoke of her memories) could be a boon, since even he knows the Collapse of the Ancients wasn't peaceful.

With a nod to himself, he made up his mind. He would follow Tanya from here on out, helping her in whatever way he can. Hopefully she knows the value in having such a resource like him at her-

…Resource? Urie paused on that thought. Why am I thinking of myself as a resource?

He shook his head to clear his thoughts. No time for that. Now, where did he put his father's books on the Ancients?

As Urie continued his search, I decided to go and get some fresh air. But before I left the house, I needed to grab my uniform's jacket. Even with how little the temperature changes, living by the sea can bring some cool air in when you least expect it.

Yet covering my jacket was something I didn't expect to see.

An old, worn out cap. My officer's cap, in fact, resting on top of my jacket.

…Great. Another mystery to solve.

AN 1:Bit of a shorter one this time, but I think it's about time to move on from the first year. Also, can't help but feel like I don't have enough misunderstandings in this yet, so it's about time I got some. Sorry if this felt shorter or anything, but to be honest there's both alot and not much I can do.

Oh, I should probably mention the timescale we're working with here. I expect this story to cover about 500~ years, perhaps 400 if it works better that way. Plenty of time for Tanya to get up to bullsh*t, and plenty of time for her to develop.

Not sure I like the quality of this one as much, to be honest. Ah well, I think you'll enjoy it nonetheless. I hope you have!