Mia placed a hand on her stomach, wondering when the last time she ate was and couldn’t remember anything but the horrible slop they fed her yesterday, no, two days ago. It just dawned on her how long she had went without eating or drinking anything, and was amazed it took her this long to realize it or that her body took this long to make that fact known, not aware just how stressed and under pressure she had been and only now, with that tension waning, did her body alert her.

Looking back towards the limping Hiiro, who was focusing on not tripping, and thought if he would have any food on him. John had some kind of skill that allowed him to store stuff where they could not be seen, maybe Hiiro had something as well?

“Hiiro.” Mia slowed to his pace, walking besides him now.

“Hrm? What’s wrong?”

“Food?” She asked, patting her stomach that grumbled angerly.

“Oh, right.” Hiiro said, the thought not crossing his mind “Uhm, we did leave kind of suddenly so…” He reached out into empty air, his hand disappearing into a black void. He fished around in the void for a bit and pulled out a small skewer with 3 chunks of meat on it “This is all I have.” He held his arm out, offering it to her.

Mia quickly snatched it, gobbling it down desperately. It tasted a bit bland, but she did not complain, this was the first bit of actual food she had gotten in a long while. She greedily took a big bite out of one of the chunks, choking on it for a bit before managing to force it down.

Once she had finished two chunks her ear twitched causing her to pause, she felt Hiiro’s gaze and looked up at him, noting the concerned look he had on his face. “…what?”

He shook his head “Nothing, nothing…” He said, not wanting to get into it “Need some water?” when she nodded he continued, pointing towards her “Open your mouth, we don’t really have a container…”

Mia held out a free hand, ice forming into a small cup. She held it once it was fully formed, it felt a bit cold but not uncomfortably cold.

“huh.” Hiiro let out his surprise “Right, you have ice magic.” He then pointed towards the opening of the cup, water sprung out from his finger tip in a small stream “Guess we are good on water then, between me having water magic and you letting your ice melt.”

“Mn.” She drank from her cup, the water not tasting like water, or anything for that matter, it just felt like she was drinking air. She felt it, however, and could tell it was at least hydrating her. She held out the last meat chunk towards him.

He nodded “Thanks.” And took it, eating the last chunk at a slow pace “We will need to hunt for food once we get far enough away, if that’s even possible.” He shrugged, shooting some water into his own mouth, raising up his finger when he was done, a small flame appeared and danced on his tip “Cooking it won’t be a problem at least.”

“Mn.” She nodded, not paying attention to him but was instead staring at her cup, did it melt? She had always discarded her weapons or didn’t stick around long enough to see what happened to it. She was getting a better idea on how magic worked after using it in the battle, but the in’s and out’s still confused her, like why didn’t it hurt her hands to hold a dagger made out of ice for a long period of time? Surely that would have given her frost bite, right?

Now that she was actually thinking about it, it was weird but she figured it was just a magic thing, and would obviously be different than holding an actual icicle plucked off the side of a house or playing in the snow for too long. Still, she decided to hold onto the cup to see what would happen to it, taking another sip from it…it was chilling the water at least…

“Mia? Mia? …Mia?”

She perked up, snapping out of her trance “Huh? What?”

“Did you not hear me? You were staring at the cup.”

“…hunting, right?”

“…right.” Hiiro sighed “You can do it, right?”

Mia looked up at him, raising an eyebrow “Can’t yourself?” she asked, wondering why he was pushing it to her.

“I…” He hesitated for a moment “Don’t have any skills for it, and I come from a peaceful world and a peaceful country, I don’t know the first thing about hunting… if I had a gun, then maybe.”

She frowned, not convinced but shrugged, She’d have to remember stuff her dad and sister talked about while hunting, but between that and her stats she should be fine.

“Oh, and I won’t let you do all the work.” Hiiro said with a smile “You catch it, I’ll cook it. My cooking skill is maxed out, after all.”

“What skills do you have?” She asked, having piked her interest after mentioning he already had a maxed-out skill.

“Oh, uhm…gee, should I tell her…” He looked away, scratching the back of his head while contemplating it.

This, made Mia a bit peeved “You already know all of mine, only fair.” She said, having stopped walking.

“…” He stopped “True…It is only fair, I did sort of cheat to see it as well…” He then nodded, having decided what he was going to do “Alright but only the skills and titles since you already know my hidden skill and I’m sure your stats have changed since I peeked.”

Still a bit peeved she nodded, not seeing how her stats having changed affected anything, by that line of thought he should still tell her everything, since his would change next time he leveled up… but whatever.

He took a deep breath, preparing himself “So, I only have what I got summoned with, and I have not gotten the chance to level them up at all so the only one that is not level 1 is cooking.” He then started to list them off “[Sword Arts], [Water Magic], [Fire Magic], [Appraisal], [Danger Sense], [Cooking], and [Reckless].” He shrugged “Titles… the only one I have is the hero title [Summoned Hero].” He then looked at her “You had a lot, I didn’t see them all but just what in the world have you been through… are you really eight?”

“Yes.” Mia nodded, telling the truth for all she cared. The way she saw it, the other timelines where she got older didn’t happen, as she did not remember them, so they never happened. Besides, while she didn’t necessarily feel eight, she didn’t feel like she was eleven either, she didn’t know how anyone her age should act at this point… it was confusing… so she was simply her, and the her she was now was eight.

…

As little sense as that made. Point being, she could technically say she was thousands of years old, did that help her at all or did she benefit from it? No, she couldn’t even remember living those years that supposedly happened, so they didn’t, she was eight, end of story. If she turned nine the cycle then she would be nine, if she went back to her first save file she would be eight.

…

…

By Hiiro’s stare, she could tell he did not believe her at all, but he had seen her status in full, past the disguise so that was undeniable proof as far as he was concerned. Besides, if he didn’t even want to really share his status then she didn’t need to explain anything to him.

She shook her head, calming herself and thought about his skills and all she could really think about was…his hidden skill sure is powerful… with those few skills, all at level 1, his hidden skill enabled him to escape from the capitol unimpeded, if it wasn’t for the downside that made him unable to act after it ran out he’d be unstoppable.

Compared to hers, well… what was the downsides to hers again? Just levels being reset?

She frowned, no that wasn’t it… when it was still level 1 she couldn’t even remember a load, or read, but that wasn’t the skills fault. Actually that would have been weird, if she somehow got the language skill and then died and reloaded, only to wake up in bed one day suddenly able to read.

A massive shiver ran down her spine as her eyes went wide, remembering the screen in the void that pretty much asked if she wanted to continue living. If she had just died a horrible death, and was able to read and comprehend that screen… would she…

Nope, no, stop. Enough of that.

She decided to stop thinking about it, and just be thankful that in her ignorance she didn’t hit it. No thinking about past lives she couldn’t even remember and getting massively off track with what ifs.

Back on track, hunting.

She looked around, trying to use her skills to detect anything while trying to remember what her father and older sister talked about while getting ready to go out for hunt or just idle chatter about an upcoming one… only to draw up blanks, her memory cloudy. “Mn…” Her face furrowed, trying a bit harder to focus but she remembered nothing.

It was weird, she could remember herself at the table with her family, being fed by her mother while her sister and dad talked happily about hunting but not the content. She could only tell what they were talking about while she mindlessly ate, then it hit her, the brainwashing… could this have been an effect?

At this point it was safe to assume, like the slave collars, the brainwashing her aunt cast on her had the same effect of inhibiting her ability to think and act, but that also extended to how she remembered things?

…

Judging by how she remembered herself in that scenario just mindlessly eating, being fed by her mother…

She stopped walking, bending down and hugging her knees close to her body.

“Mia?”

She heard Hiiro but did not pay any attention to him, instead she smothered her face into her ragged cloth covered legs, and let out a muffled scream.

“M-Mia?!”

She stood up, a determined look on her face “Hunting, for what?” She asked, facing towards Hiiro.

“Uh…” Hiiro paused, taken aback by the sudden shift in Mia’s attitude that just took place. “Rabbits? Anything small?”

“Got it.” She nodded, looking forward down the slight path they were traveling down “Meet further down, will find, bring back.” She pointed into the distance, before dashing off into the trees.

“H-hey wait! What if…augh fine! Don’t leave me behind!”

She heard Hiiro’s voice get further and further away as she dashed through the trees, momentarily looking down at the ice cup she had made earlier. She had the skills, she had the battle experience, she could think clearer now, she was not the same braindead child in her memories.

She squeezed the cup in her hands while applying magic, the cup reforming how she desired into a dagger. She smiled, she could do this, she could hunt, how hard could it be?