Win Me Over, Demon King

2 - New Life, Same Outlook

"Oof!"

Alice rolled over the grass and hit a stop as she hit a rock by the bottom of the small hill. She stayed still, groaning as she cupped her stomach, eyes closed at the blinding streaks of the morning sky.

As her fingers gripped the sharp edges of the rock, she slipped, and fell back. Wincing, she tried the grass and the soil instead. Questions flooded her mind as she sat and fought the gleaming skies against her eyes.

She touched her head, which she swore throbbed with pain while blood painted her skin. Nothing. No headaches from falling on the sidewalk nor blood from the impact. Just headaches from rolling down the hill.

"How did I...?"

Struggling to walk steadily, she used the smoother sides of the rock as support and looked around. A small hill with turquoise grass almost cyan from the sun's rays. Not sunrays, more like spring white rays. There wasn't an actual sun. Just a pastel-schemed sky that brightened up the grass and rocks around.

She turned around, where plenty of trees shrouded her surroundings. When she regained the strength to climb back up the small hill, she had a hand over her eyes, scanning the area for any source of anything but nature.

"Oh!"

To the east, tiny pale brown borders stood. They stretched far beyond the horizon. To the west, a peeking silver windmill. To the farther north, the skies gradually transition to silver and gray, as below that change on land were another set of borders, as though separating the lands based on the skies.

A light blush crept on Alice's cheeks as a grin contoured her face. Nothing could ever prepare her for this.

The world of Caesare was vast, with multiple nations defying the limitations of standing firmly and only on land. Some nations were at sea, some in the skies, some at unusual forces without gravity that imitated outer space, and much more. However, they weren't all as expounded as the primary nation in the web novel 'Ayre versus the Demon King of Eternal Midnight Autumn,' which was none other than Jyusora, aka The Ten Skies in translation.

If there was anything she remembered well from how the words in the novel weaved Jyusora, it was the ten different skies for each prefecture of the nation.

With an excited little squeal, Alice jogged to the east, eager to check out the borders she had only ever read mentioned in her favorite novel. Closing in, multiple soldiers scouted the vicinity with workers alongside them.

Alice slowed down, exhaustion creeping as she took in the border damages she couldn't spot from a mile away. She gazed around. More workers in construction attire were roaming everywhere, with plenty of camps set up here and there. Alice reached one camp with its workers resting on cut logs, trudging almost carelessly, nothing but curiosity powering her legs to move.

"Young lady, why're you here?"

Alice stopped and gazed down at a worker with a bronze mustache sitting on a stump.

"No offense, but this isn't a pleasant place to be for most Jyusorians right now."

"Cut it some slack, will you not?" Another worker lying on the grass near a bonfire spoke up, his eyes still shut, and one of his arms covered his eyes. "Adjust, Trey. Adjust."

The man sitting on a stump, Trey, clicked his tongue. "I know." He looked at Alice, his tired gaze slowly widening in curiosity. "Say, you're not from here, are you?"

"Nope," Alice replied honestly.

"Figures. You dress differently. If I'm to make a guess, you're Konten."

The one lying down moved his arm aside, his dim, lime eyes jumping on Alice, then at Trey. He raised a brow. "That ain't no Konten. Have you seen what people are like in Machinami? Clearly not."

"Are you from Machinami?" Trey asked Alice.

"Konte Machinami?" Alice mumbled, proudly recalling the name of the nation in the novel that most resembled the real world. "Nope."

"See? She ain't."

"Let me hear you make a better guess then!" Trey grumbled.

The other worker with the lime eyes sat up and ruffled his curly dark hair. "Give the lady a break. She could just be wandering around." He met her brown eyes. "Are you?"

"You could say that." Alice shrugged.

"Where are you from?"

"No fair! Asking straight off the hook, you custard."

"Shush, Trey." He rolled his eyes at Trey before gazing back at Alice. "So?"

Alice tilted her head, squinting her eyes slightly. This was an odd situation. Naturally, she was well aware of what happened. Anything was possible. Truly, it was. She died in the real world and somehow got transported to the world of Caesare. The question now was whether she ought to let people know or hide it altogether.

If she were dead in actuality in the real world, there would be nothing to go back to, even if she somehow found a way to. She might return to her old self in a coffin already buried plenty of feet under. If this were to be her new life, only one answer would make sense.

She scratched her head and gave them a small smile.

"I'm not from Caesare."

Naturally, it was to retain her honest and easygoing outlook as always.