Nightly Run

Hearing the sounds of an argument coming from somewhere within the ruined city, Aquila perked her ears up. If there was an argument happening, it meant there were living people nearby. Following the source of the din of voices, Aquila soon found herself facing a huge group of people.

There were old people resting by the side of buildings that were still somewhat intact, adults conversing with each other, and children resting on their parents' laps. It was a very peaceful environment. Of course, that was if she ignored the teenagers complaining and arguing amongst themselves.

With the sheer number of people gathered here, Aquila could guess that this was a meeting place for the survivors from within the city.

Thinking to herself, Aquila figured that her best bet to finding out about this world was to go to the nearest city. After all, she couldn't just walk up to someone and ask what this world was called. She could pretend to have amnesia, but that was just bothersome.

While walking up to a group of young adults talking amongst themselves, Aquila could sense the gazes around her varying from quick glances to confusion to lust, but she couldn't care less about it.

Stopping in front of the group, it seemed they hadn't noticed her yet.

"Excuse me. Can I ask a question?" Aquila's melodious yet cold voice called out lightly. Hearing her, the young adults turned to look at her, confused.

"Sorry for the interruption. I was just wondering where the closest city from here is?"

Tilting her head slightly, one of the younger women in the group who looked around eighteen years old looked at her before responding, "I believe there is a city twenty miles south of here. Are you new here? I don't think I've seen you around this city."

"Mmn, yes. I come from elsewhere and wanted to explore around for fun but got lost."

"Oh, I see. Since that's the case, you probably wouldn't want to visit that city south of here. The cities around here aren't very prosperous, so there isn't much to explore. However, there is a city around one-hundred and twenty miles north of here. It's rather far, but it's closer to the capital city, so it would be a better place to visit for fun."

"Is that the case? Then, thank you for the information, miss. If I may ask, what happened here?"

"Oh, here? This is our hometown. We were caught in a large-scale fight earlier and are now awaiting reinforcements. Sorry you had to see our city like this. It's usually a much nicer place."

"That's fine. Anyway, thank you for your help. My name is Aquila." Aquila said, preparing to turn around and leave.

"Ah, alright. It was nice meeting you, Aquila. My name is Lynx."

"Nice meeting you, Lynx. Thank you again." Aquila replied before turning around and walking away without a second glance back.

Staring at the retreating back of the girl for a second, Lynx turned back to her friends.

"Huh... she isn't a very sociable one, huh?"

"I suppose... I keep feeling like she looks familiar..."Lynx said, deep in thought.

"Eh. Maybe she's one of those rich young ladies you met before."

"Perhaps... but she didn't dress like one. She did act a little similar to them though." Lynx replied, still thinking about it.

"Maybe she didn't want to get robbed on the way here since it looked like she came alone."

"Besides, you should know best how those rich young ladies act, Lynx. If you say it, I'll believe it. After all, you-"

"Okay okay, let's not talk about it." Lynx interrupted before her friend could start recounting past stories, rolling her eyes.

Laughing, the woman leaned over on Lynx's shoulder before closing her eyes to rest while the rest of the group just rolled their eyes and looked away.

Pushing the girl named Aquila to the back of her mind, Lynx starting joking with her friends again.

***

"Fuuu..."

'Why did I never notice how hard running actually is back home? Geez... I feel like I'm dying and I've only run around fifty miles so far...' Aquila thought as she slowed down her run to a stop to catch her breath.

After she left Lynx and her friends, she started running north. She had been running nonstop for around five hours now. Thankfully, she hadn't run into anyone on the way. Before she was certain which world she had reincarnated onto, she would rather not run into any troublesome situations. Though, if trouble came knocking on her door, she would welcome it, of course.

Walking for a few minutes while catching her breath, Aquila started mentally noting down her surroundings.

One of the things that caught her attention was the ground she was currently walking on. It was pearly white and looked smooth, but when she reached down to feel it, she realized that it was in actuality very rough.

Feeling her heartbeat calm down and her breathing start stabilizing, Aquila broke into a run again. She wanted to get to the city as soon as possible and find out where she was. She was also rather thirsty and needed water, especially because she could feel the atmosphere here was different from the atmosphere she was used to back at home.

Running at a steady pace, Aquila looked up at the night sky as she ran. She didn't recognize the pattern of stars in the sky here, but nevertheless, it still gave her a sense of comfort, except that something was missing. One of the things she had noticed the moment she opened her eyes on this world was that there were no moons in the sky. Back home, the night sky was full of moons. So much so that it was difficult to tell the difference between the plentiful moons and the stars that dotted the night sky. She felt uncomfortable knowing that there were no moons around this world, but still didn't want to think too much about it.

She would rather spend her time thinking about the more important things.