"This is bad — the explosion must have knocked him off-course. I have to find my master as quickly as possible. I can't let the Goddess Eris down."
An elf girl with white curly hair sprinted across the lush green grass, a long spear tipped with a blue crystal in her hands and open-toed knee-high sandals on her feet — every stride revealing her round, luminous toes. She was running straight toward where the golden shooting star had fallen.
She had lived among the elves for a hundred and ten years. As a chosen oracle of the Goddess Eris, she had received a divine revelation, stepped out from the Fairy Forest of the elven realm, and been appointed as the exclusive personal guide for the "Hero" — tasked with helping him learn this world and ultimately defeat the Demon King.
An exclusive personal guide, by her understanding, meant total, round-the-clock dedication — from the moment he woke to the moment he slept, from the cradle to the grave. She had studied hard for a considerable time in preparation for exactly that.
And yet here she was, stumbling at the very first step of her duties. The master she had been sent to serve had been caught in a blast wave, knocked off his intended landing trajectory, and sent tumbling down into a lake.
She had no idea whether there were dangerous creatures lurking in that lake. If her master had been hurt, what would she do?
The more she thought about it, the more anxious she became — she almost wished she could sprout extra legs just to run faster.
Jhin waded out of the lake and onto the bank without much fanfare, casually wringing the water from the hem of his clothes. He turned toward the lovely young woman standing before him — whose cheeks had gone faintly pink — and offered an apologetic look. "I'm really sorry about —"
He didn't finish the sentence.
A thunderous rumble erupted from somewhere deep in his gut — as though a starving beast had been locked inside and was now howling to be freed. The surge of power that had flooded his body when he activated the Void Genome had vanished entirely, replaced by a hollow, bone-deep weakness and a hunger so acute it felt like violence. Every single cell in his body was screaming for nutrition.
His lips, drained of color, parted slightly. Before Jhin could even get the word hungry out, his vision went pitch-black — and he dropped straight onto the grass.
"Oh no — he actually fainted from hunger? This is really not good."
The girl reached out with hands that looked slender and soft but were in fact brimming with quiet strength, catching Jhin smoothly before he could achieve any kind of meaningful reunion with the earth below.
Hmm... but I've already eaten all my own food. And I can't exactly leave him here alone to go hunting. What do I do?
"Um — excuse me~" A young, urgent voice floated in from the distance, growing closer. A white-haired elf girl came sprinting up, breathing hard. "I'm so sorry — this person is my master. Could I take him from you?"
"Oh — an elf?"
"Ah — I'm terribly sorry, I forgot to introduce myself." The elf girl straightened up with composed dignity and addressed the girl in front of her seriously. "My name is Kokkoro. I have been sent by the great Goddess Eris to serve as the dedicated guide for the Hero, accompanying him as he learns this world."
"My name is... Pe — Pecorine! I'm an adventurer who travels all over!" Pecorine hesitated for just a moment before giving her name, then gently set Jhin down on the ground. "He seems to have fainted from hunger. Good timing, Kokkoro — I'll go search nearby for some monster meat or ingredients we can use."
"There's no need to go to that trouble, Miss Pecorine. I happen to have brought ingredients with me." Kokkoro slipped the pink pack off her back and opened it — it was stuffed to bursting with food, more than enough to feed three normal people a full, proper meal.
Pecorine thought about it, then abandoned the idea of going hunting.
I eat a lot at the best of times, but if I use my equipment's power to hunt, it'll only drive my appetite higher. Better to hold back for now and just eat until I'm half-full — as long as there's no fighting, it should be fine.
"Kokkoro, I'm — I'm going to go rinse off. If your master wakes up, make sure to let me know."
"Of course, Miss Pecorine — please go and bathe without a worry."
"Thanks. I'll leave things to you."
Even with Kokkoro's assurance, Pecorine still chose a large boulder at the lake's edge and changed clothes near its shelter. It wasn't that she doubted Kokkoro's character — it was simply a girl's natural shyness about bathing anywhere near a male, even one who was currently unconscious. She'd have been flustered either way.
Kokkoro gathered some sticks and stones from nearby and quickly assembled a small stone campfire ring. She struck a flint against dry tinder and nudged the sparks into the kindling beneath the wood. The flame grew from a timid flicker into a lively, dancing ball of fire, and only then did Kokkoro begin to prepare the meal.
"Low heat first~ then bring it to a rolling boil~ then take it off and let it rest..."
The soft melody she hummed to herself — mingled with the warm, rich fragrance drifting up from the pot — drew Jhin back from the dark. His clothes had dried mostly through in the campfire's warmth. They were still a little damp, but nothing worth worrying about.
Jhin pushed his still-protesting body upright and found himself looking at an elf girl seated by the campfire, turning a warm, heart-lifting smile in his direction.
"You're awake, Master. Does anything hurt? Just hold on a little longer — the food will be ready very soon."
Her voice was young and slightly childlike, yet it carried a sincerity and a tender, almost smothering affection that seemed on the verge of melting him where he sat. From the very first glance, a single thought rose unbidden in Jhin's mind:
This woman could absolutely be my mother someday!
Noticing that Jhin was staring at her in a daze, Kokkoro realized she hadn't introduced herself to her master yet. She cast a quick, practiced glance at the pot bubbling contentedly on the campfire — confirming the heat wouldn't ruin anything anytime soon — then folded her hands neatly in her lap and addressed him with quiet formality: "My name is Kokkoro. Acting on the command of the great Goddess Eris, I have come to serve as your dedicated guide."
"Nice to meet you, Kokkoro. I'm Jhin. You don't need to use honorifics with me — I'm really not used to it."
"Eh?" Kokkoro clearly hadn't expected that to be his very first request. She wavered visibly. "But... you are my master — if I don't use honorifics, it feels..."
"I'd prefer if we were family rather than superior and subordinate."
"F-family!" The word hit Kokkoro like a spell she had no defense against. Her resistance to dropping the formalities crumbled almost instantly. "Understood, Mas — I'll do my best to change how I address you."
"That's more like it. Now then, Kokkoro — I'm starving. Is the food ready yet?" Jhin rubbed his rumbling, hollow stomach. He had a fairly good idea of why he was this hungry. Using the Void Genome to enhance his body had driven his physical attributes up sharply in a very short span — and that kind of rapid surge inevitably demanded massive caloric and nutritional compensation.
In his normal life, he had always developed his physical capabilities slowly and steadily, which was why nothing like this had ever happened before. He simply hadn't anticipated that crossing worlds would fail to come packaged with a complimentary full HP and MP refill — and that oversight was exactly what had made him collapse in front of a stranger.
Thinking of the girl he'd encountered, Jhin turned to Kokkoro. "Kokkoro — have you seen a girl with long orange hair anywhere nearby?"
"If Master is referring to Miss Pecorine, she went somewhere else to bathe. I already asked a wind spirit to go tell her the food was nearly done — she should be back any moment now."
"I see. Good — I still owe her an apology."
"I don't think this was your fault at all, Master — but you really do have a wonderful sense of responsibility." Kokkoro felt a genuine warmth bloom in her chest at her master's upstanding character.
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