Both of his hands shot up instantly the second his feet made contact with the dirt ground.

The universal sign language of I’m not here to do anything harmful, expressed with palms wide open and fingers spread out to communicate as much as he could possibly do so.

He maintained a neutral facial expression, which was a little harder since there was a sword poised mere inches away from his throat.

Lissa had not lowered the sword.

Not even in the slightest.

Closer, she was easier to read than she had been from atop the hill. And what Ash could read from her expression was a girl who had decided he posed a potential threat, and wasn’t about to change that assessment without good reason.

Her light blue eyes were steely, pragmatic, like the eyes of someone who’d passed the phase of fear and had moved on to the more practical stage of being on guard. The sword was steady.

He kept his hands up and did not question the sword.

Up close, he noticed something that had escaped him from his distant vantage point.

Fox ears.

Both girls possessed those. Rising high above the crown of their heads, colored just the same as their hair, and twitching slightly in the manner ears would when the person was carefully observing several things at once.

And beyond them, barely perceptible at the edges of his sight, fox tails as well. Long and fluffy tails, swishing in that unconscious way that tails did.

It took Ash exactly one second before he caught himself.

’There are actual demihumans here,’ Ash thought. He had read about them in many novels, seen them portrayed in anime. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Always clear and simple concepts, until he was standing before two actual demihumans in this other world.

Then of course, as always, his brain failed to prioritize and instantly reminded him of the same question he’d asked every single time demihumans showed up in the fiction he consumed.

If they have fox ears, what are the human ears doing? Do they both function at once? What is the mechanism? Is one responsible for processing lower frequencies and the other responsible for processing higher ones? Or perhaps they’re both processed simultaneously?

None of the numerous novels he had read had an answer for him. Neither would Lissa’s sword, which continued to press threateningly against his neck.

He let it go.

At the current moment, nothing else mattered except getting some water. Information was secondary; everything else could wait.

"I mean no harm," Ash said calmly, maintaining a non-threatening tone and not lowering his hands. "But -" His voice faltered for just half a second because he realized just how embarrassing the second phrase was going to be. "Could I have some water? I’m quite thirsty."

Silence.

All three pairs of eyes settled on him.

He became aware, gradually, that the silence had nothing to do with the water.

The old man from the carriage went stone silent, Rinna’s crimson eyes widened, and Lissa’s expression changed just the tiniest bit, with her sword arm becoming slightly less tense, a hint of warmth reaching her cheeks in response to his words.

Nobody said anything.

"...Can I please get some water?" Ash tried again.

"W -" Lissa blinked, her concentration broken for just a moment before she caught herself and she straightened, pressing the sword a little closer with renewed intent.

"Wait, you haven’t even answered my question yet. Who are you, and what are you doing here?"

"Lissa, put your sword down," Rinna’s voice sounded calm.

Lissa did not put her sword down.

Ash glanced from the sword itself to Lissa’s face, then at Rinna.

He had a decision to make.

Truth-telling was out of the question. I died on the pavement, some old man who claims to be a god brought me here and now I’m here to save your world, was not a sentence that ended with anyone giving him water.

In every single novel Ash had ever read, a reincarnated protagonist lies without hesitation.

He had arrived at that same junction.