Isekai Tensei: Recruited to Another World Volume 1 E-Book

Kenichi

• Herausgeber: J-Novel Club
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Serie: Isekai Tensei: Recruited to Another World
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Seitenzahl: 353

Beschreibung

Isekai Tensei: Recruited to Another World Volume 1

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Prologue

Chapter One

Side Story: The Sage’s Early Years

Afterword

Color Illustrations

Character Designs

About J-Novel Club

Copyright

Landmarks

Color Images

Table of Contents

Prologue

In a certain prefecture, in a certain district, there was a rural village. And this village was located in an area suffering from population decline. As one would imagine, this meant that there were few youths in this village. In fact, people in their forties were considered young.

Living so far out in the countryside came with a lot of inconveniences, but the denizens of the village spent their days helping each other out—it was good old-fashioned rural life. The worst that ever happened was the occasional rampaging wild boar, crop-eating monkeys, or huge nest of wasps—that sort of thing. That was how peaceful this village was.

But on this particular day, something was different in the village. Some unusual visitors—several young men and women—had shown up. However, they didn’t seem excited to be there at all. They wore clothing of the same color, and walked with their faces turned downwards. The villagers, too, wore the same color and walked in the same manner. Some of them wept. Some collapsed onto the ground. They were all heading to the same place, where one story would end and a new one would begin.

Tenma Otori looked on as these people poured into the meeting hall for the funeral. As he watched them, he thought, “This is a strange world we live in.” There wasn’t anything unusual about what he saw. What was unusual was the place from which he was watching them, because he was sitting cross-legged on top of a coffin. Under normal circumstances, if someone did something that foolish and rude, the bereaved family and friends would probably have beaten them senseless.

But no one grabbed hold of Tenma. In fact, no one even looked at him. It was a bizarre sight to behold, indeed.

Well, if there had been anyone who could behold it, anyway. Yes, you must have figured it out by now—the funeral Tenma was observing was his own. In other words, no one could see Tenma because he was a ghost.

“Wonder how long I have to stay here,” he muttered. But of course, there was no one there to answer him.

Or at least...there shouldn’t have been.

“Well, shall I take you somewhere else, then? Hello, Tenma Otori. I’ve come here to recruit you.”

This was the first thing anyone had said to him since he became a ghost. He hadn’t been expecting anyone to answer his question, so he turned around, startled. At that point, he saw a strange, human-shaped light.

“Hello, I’m— Whoa!”

The light reached out its hand(?) towards Tenma, who grabbed a nearby bowl and chucked it at the light. He lobbed the bowl quickly and rather accurately, but the light bent to dodge it like something out of the Matrix.

“Hey! That’s dangerous!” The light seemed startled, but not angry. Despite that, Tenma grabbed another bowl and was on the verge of throwing it too. That was when the light began to panic. “Look, I’m not here to hurt you! Don’t throw that at me! If you do, it might hit someone else! Just listen to me!”

After the light began pleading with him, Tenma put down the second bowl. The first had gone through an open window, so it probably hadn’t injured anyone. “Well? What are you?” he asked. “It seems as though I’m some kind of ghost, so I’m guessing you are too?”

In response, the light puffed out what Tenma could only assume to be its chest. “How rude! I’m a god!” At these words, Tenma slowly reached for the bowl again. “I’m not lying! It’s true! Seriously, just listen to me!” the light said. Tenma paused. “At least let me finish, okay? Allow me to formally introduce myself. I’m a god from another world. And I’ve come to recruit you to my world, Tenma.”

Though Tenma was frozen with surprise when he heard what the self-proclaimed god (pfft!) had to say, he quickly recovered.

“‘Pfft’? Hey, don’t you think that’s kinda harsh? Anyway, you sure seem to be handling this well. I thought you’d be more confused.”

“Well, I am a ghost, after all. So I think I can buy that you’re a god from the Otherworld who wants to reincarnate me. Why’d you pick me, though?”

“Oh, that’s easy. It was random.” Once again, Tenma took up the bowl—“Enough of that already!”—before rethinking it. “Anyhow, it’s true. I just happened to be passing by when I sensed a soul that I thought would really fit the vibe of my world.”

“But...you already knew my name.”

“Right.”

“And you mentioned you came to recruit me.”

“Right.”

“But you just said you only happened to be passing by and thought I fit your world’s vibe.”

“Right.”

“Is it possible that you weren’t ‘just passing by,’ but that you instead knew about me all along?”

The light paused. “What makes you say that?”

“Because it all sounds a little bit too perfect. Maybe you just happened to come across me and thought I’d fit right into your world...so then you killed me, turned me into a ghost, and acted like it was all just a big coincidence. That would make more sense.”

The light was silent.

“So?” Tenma prompted it. “Did you kill me?”

“Of course not! I wouldn’t do that! Don’t be ridiculous!”

“Sorry,” said Tenma quickly, apologizing when he realized the light was close to tears (and it called itself a god?). “I think I’m just kind of on edge.”

Then the light lowered its voice. “I have something I need to apologize for as well. Honestly...I’ve known about you for a long time. But I swear, I didn’t kill you! I’ve been keeping a close eye on you, waiting for your life to come to an end.”

“How long is ‘a long time’?”

“Since you were born.”

“That long?! But I’m from a different world. Why were you interested in me?”

“In my world, there exists a sickness which can affect even the world itself. Everything that exists has something called ‘élan vital,’ which is kind of like their life force. And when the world gets sick, the sickness drains the élan vital out of it. In the worst-case scenario, the entire world could disappear. So in order to avoid that, we regularly gather souls with very rich life forces from otherworlds, and send them to our world in order to stimulate the growth of the élan vital.”

“Kind of sounds like a vaccine or something. What does it mean for someone’s soul to have a rich life force, though?”

“Well, it basically means that they’re able to have an effect on physical things, even when they lose their physical forms and are reduced to little more than their souls. Think about it—you’re a ghost, but you were able to pick up that bowl and throw it at me, right? Normally, if a ghost had tried that, their hands would slip right through the bowl. That’s how ghosts are, after all.”

Until Tenma heard those words, he hadn’t even realized he’d picked up a bowl and thrown it. Wanting to give it another try, he reached for a nearby cup and tried to pick it up. An elderly person who was near the cup witnessed this and was rather startled.

“Watch it, Tenma. Most people would call what you’re doing right now ‘poltergeist activity’!” Frantic, the light snatched the cup away from Tenma and set it back down.

The elderly person blinked a few times, then did a double take when he saw the cup back in its original position. He rubbed his eyes several times, then shrugged. Even though he was a little drunk and would probably forget it in the morning, this funeral was going to turn into an exorcism if Tenma wasn’t careful.

“So what are the pros and cons of me being sent to this other world?”

“Hey, don’t just change the subject and pretend it never came up. I’m serious—you have to be careful! Anyway, back to your question... I really don’t think there are any cons. At most, I’d say that since you’re going to be reborn, you’ll have to start from square one, as a baby. And as for the pros, I’m going to give you various abilities that will make your life much easier—cheats, basically. If you want, you can bring all the memories, experiences, and abilities you gained in this life over to your next one. And I can use magic for you—but only once, and it has to follow the rules of this world. The other condition is that it can’t do harm to anyone else.”

Tenma thought for a while about this single-use magic. If it has to follow the rules of this world, then it probably can’t be used on me. It might be interesting to wish for world peace...but I don’t really know what that entails. I was thinking that removing certain things from the world might make it peaceful, but the light said we’re not allowed to harm anyone...

And then, suddenly, he became very conscious of the voices all around him.

“Could you make all the memories of me in the world fade?”

“I could...but may I ask why you’d want me to do that?”

“So this village suffers from population decline, and pretty much only old people are left. But I want everyone to keep trying their best and gradually get the population up again.”

“Hmm, hmm...”

“My grandpa and his friends are the ones really leading that effort, and they all adored me. Everyone here looks so depressed that I wouldn’t be surprised if they all died tomorrow. It’s too much to bear, so I really wanna do something about it.”

Upon hearing Tenma’s answer, the light’s body—or what was probably its body, anyway—began to tremble. Tearfully it said, “What a wonderful boy you are! Well, that would be a piece of cake! But why don’t you want me to erase their memories completely?”

Tenma flushed slightly. In a quiet voice, he said, “Because it would make me sad if they forgot about me entirely.”

“Tenmaaaa!” The light sobbed and tried to hug him, but he deftly evaded it. “You meanie! Anyway, in order for your wish to be granted, you must first leave this world. Go ahead and touch my hand.” The light held out its hand, and reluctantly, Tenma took it. “Let’s go!”

“All right... See you, everyone. For my sake, I hope you live long, happy lives.”

The next moment, Tenma felt a floating sensation, then lost consciousness.

◊◊◊

“Tenma?”

Everyone in the room turned towards the casket at once. They were looking towards the spot Tenma’s soul had been, at the exact moment it had disappeared with the light which called itself a god. All at once, they began to say they could’ve sworn they’d just heard Tenma’s voice.

One old man who seemed perhaps to be grieving the most over Tenma’s death wiped his tears with his sleeve and peeked inside Tenma’s casket. Then he started to sob. Wondering what was going on, the old man’s friends came over and peeked inside the casket too. Then they realized why the old man was crying so.

“Tenma’s smiling...”

“That’s right... He must’ve gotten to heaven safely...”

As Tenma’s body lay in the casket, his face had been expressionless, but when the old man looked, he saw that the corners of Tenma’s mouth had turned upwards. It made him look like he was smiling.

◊◊◊

“Are you awake, Tenma?”

When I opened my eyes, I saw ten beams of light standing around me.

“Where am I?” I murmured. One of the lights approached me—well, actually it was more like it got shoved forwards by the other beams of light—and slid right onto its face.

“This one’s great! We’ve never had one like this before!” The voice that came from this light sounded like it was female, and it—she?—hugged me.

“I’m so glad he’s the one who came!” another light—this one seemed female too—said happily as it approached me.

“Never heard anyone say that before!” Yet another light, one which seemed like an old guy, whacked me on the back. Meanwhile, two other lights were quietly looking me up and down from a short distance away.

One more came up and started sniffing me—probably a pervert of some kind, if I had to guess. A second one wriggled around me as it patted me down. Judging by the way this pat down included the lower half of my body, this one was a real pervert, but I managed to block it from the goods just in time.

There was a light who was watching from behind the female-sounding lights, and then one last one standing beside it, watching me very hesitantly (this one seemed a little gloomy).

It seemed like they had pretty high opinions of me, but since I couldn’t see their faces, I wasn’t sure.

The very first light—the one who had hesitated, then been shoved by the others—spoke up. “You’re making Tenma uncomfortable, you guys! Give him some space!” At this, the other lights finally started to calm down.

“I don’t know who any of you are, so it’s hard to tell you apart...” I muttered. Unfortunately, this just started the commotion up all over again.

“Whoops, I forgot to make it so that Tenma could see us! Sorryyyy! Ehehe!” I was a bit annoyed by that comment, which came from the light who’d been shoved by the others. It was probably the same light who had brought me here, and who was now being beaten to a pulp by the ones who had shoved him.

In the meantime, the most feminine-sounding light placed her hand—or hand-like appendages, at any rate—on my temples and said, “Hold still for a minute, okay?”

She began to chant under her breath, and my temples immediately began to grow warmer until they felt a little hot.

Then she let me go. “All done!” Even though she had only touched me for a couple of minutes at most, it had brought about a drastic change.

I could now see a beautiful woman standing in front of me, wearing a soft smile. And she was also extremely well-endowed, so naturally my gaze traveled down to appreciate it.

“You can see us now, right? I’m so sorry about that! He can be such an airhead sometimes!” With a wry giggle, the beautiful woman apologized. Another beautiful, slender woman—the one who had hugged me—was standing next to her. Then there was a stout woman who looked like an innkeeper or something, and a little girl of maybe ten years old peeking out from behind her.

A short distance away was a young man of about fifteen years old getting pummeled by a muscular guy—the old dude from before—and then an animal that looked like a wolf... No, wait, it was just a guy wearing a wolf skin. Then there was a guy who was so good looking that even I wasn’t ashamed to admit he was handsome, although the way he moved was a little weird. Suspicious, even... Uh-oh, we made eye contact! As soon as our eyes met, he winked, then blew me a kiss. Wait, it’s him! He’s the pervert! Hey, I’m disappointed in you!

After I’d looked around for a while, two more of the men came up to talk to me. One was an attractive middle-aged gentleman, and the other had a hood pulled low over his face like some kind of magician.

“Hello, Tenma. I am the god of destruction, and this man in the hood is the god of magic. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Likewise.” I greeted them in turn. They had names that were kind of disturbing, but I figured it would be fine as long as I was polite and didn’t make them mad. After that was done with, the girls came over.

“It’s so wonderful to meet you, Tenma! I’m the goddess of love!”

“I’m the goddess of nature! Nice to meet you!”

“Hey there, Tenma! I’m the goddess of life!”

“I’m the god of death... Nice to meet you.”

The beautiful slender woman, the beautiful woman with the soft smile, the innkeeper, and the little girl introduced themselves to me in turn.

By then the three guys must’ve gotten sick of beating the god who looked like a young boy, because they came over next.

“Hey! I’m the god of skill! Nice to meet ya, Tenma!” The old dude whacked me on the back again. It hurt pretty bad.

“...I am the god of beasts...” The wolf—I mean, the guy wearing a wolf skin—came up from behind and started sniffing me again. Well, I guess I get why he’s sniffing me so much if he’s a wolf... Wait, no! What if he eats me?! I’m scared!

“Hiiii! I’m the god of war! It’s so nice to meet you, Ten-MWAH! Eheh!” A Wild Flirty Guy appeared! Flirty Guy used “Blowing Kiss”! Tenma avoided the attack. Wild Flirty Guy looks disappointed... Phew, that was a close one!

“Ahem! Nice to meet you, Tenma. I’m the one who brought you here. I’m the god of creation,” the guy who looked like a teenager said to me. There were about eight big golf-ball-sized lumps on his head, just like the ones you’d see in a manga. Actually, it was kind of impressive that those were the only injuries he had after being beaten to a pulp.

“Nice to meet you, everyone. I’m Tenma Otori. Do you think you guys could tell me what’s gonna happen to me, and what I should be doing right now?”

“That’s a good point. I’ll explain things. First, just have a seat.” The boy who called himself the god of creation snapped his fingers. A chair appeared next to me, and then ten other chairs appeared, forming a circle around me. The boy straightened up and went on, “Once again, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Tenma. And welcome to our world, Phantasma! Though we’re the only ones who know its name...”

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Go ahead.”

I waited for permission to speak before asking him the one thing I was the most curious about. “You keep saying you’re the gods and goddesses of such and such, but you haven’t actually told me your names.”

The god of creation gave me a blank look. “Names? We don’t have any. I guess if I had to pick, our names would be the God and Goddess of Such and Such.”

Now it was my turn to be surprised. “Isn’t that a little inconvenient?”

The god of creation seemed to understand what I meant. “Yeah, I guess from your perspective it might seem inconvenient for us to not have individual names. But the names of gods change with the times and the sovereigns in charge, so we don’t really like being called by the names that humans come up with. It’s kind of a pain.”

I had the feeling that the last thing he’d said was the most important reason, but I decided not to say that out loud.

“Setting that aside, the first thing I want to tell you is that just because you’re being reincarnated into this world doesn’t mean there’s something specific we want you to do for us. That’s because the moment that you’re reincarnated, the reason we called you here ceases to exist. You may live freely. Well, we’ll probably intervene if you try to destroy the world or go around massacring people, though,” he joked—although it didn’t actually sound like he was joking.

“Okay, I’ll keep that in mind.”

“That’d be great. Because it’s really a huge pain for us if we have to intervene.” It seemed the god of creation thought just about everything was a pain.

“You mentioned something about giving me abilities that would be like cheats, right? So what are you gonna give me?”

“Yeah! Well, we have to start with the basics, of course, so we’ll give you Identify! That one’s super useful. Also, I’m going to give you Growth Boost! That one increases all your growth—like the experience points you receive and stuff like that—by about ten times what the average person would receive. As for the rest...the gods and goddesses who like you will bestow you with various protections or cheat abilities. We’ve decided that those present will do that.”

“So, what am I gonna get?” Having grown up in modern times surrounded by manga, anime, and light novels, I was pretty interested in supernatural abilities.

“That’s a secret. You’ll have to wait until you’re reincarnated to find out. But you’re the first person to have ever received abilities from this many gods. Aren’t you lucky!”

“‘The first’? So you mean there have been other people who came to this world before?”

“Yeah. Maybe forty or fifty in all. But it wasn’t just people who came—there were dogs, cats, and strangely, even a fish...”

“A fish...” So my soul is in the same class as dogs, cats, and even fish...?

Unaware of my internal conflict, the god of creation continued speaking with a fond look on his face. “A Japanese koi, to be more specific. A huge koi with the name of Namitaro—more than two meters long! A fisherman caught it right after it was reincarnated, though...”

“Oh, that sucks.”

“The majority were humans, but some of them had such terrible personalities that none of the gods wanted to give them anything. Most received one or two abilities, though.”

“In that case, it does seem like I’ll be getting a lot. Thanks for that.”

“You’re welcome. It’s time for us to start now, though. Oh—what do you want me to do with the memories from your past life?”

“Leave them intact, please.”

“Got it. We’ll do this all while you sleep, so by the time you wake up, you’ll have been reincarnated. Also—I’m calling it ‘reincarnation,’ but we’re actually going to simply create a body for you, so you won’t have parents. We’ll just leave you near someone we think might raise you. Worst-case scenario, even if they don’t, you’ll still have the protection of the gods, so I’m sure you’ll manage.”

“That...feels pretty irresponsible, but okay, sure. Let’s get started.”

“You sure you’re ready? I’ll try to find the nicest people I can. We’ll start now, then. Tenma, I pray that your second life will be full of happiness. Good night.”

“Thanks. Good night.”

At once, Tenma fell asleep.

“All right, let’s give Tenma our protection and his cheat abilities. Besides Identify and Growth Boost, I’ll give him Creation Magic, Enchantment, and Conceal. And my protection too, of course.”

“I’ll give him the full power of my protection. That’s all I can give, anyway.”

“But having the full protection of the goddess of love means he’ll meet all kinds of great people! I’ll give him my protection and Detection.”

“I’ll give him Vitality Boost and Recovery Boost, I think. And my protection.”

“I’ll give him Instant Kill Resistance and Debuff Resistance. I won’t give him my protection.”

“I don’t really think he’d mind having your protection, or anyone else’s protection either...but it’s your choice, Death. I’m gonna give him Skill Acquisition Boost and my protection.”

“I’ll give him Omni-Elemental, Magic Boost, and my protection.”

“...I’ll give him Sensory Buff, Follower Buff...and my protection...”

“Oh, so Tenma can become a Tamer, then. I’ll give him Destruction Resistance, Destruction Boost, and my protection.”

“I think...I’ll give him ME!”

“Be serious!” everyone else cried out.

“Whaaat? You don’t have to yell at me. Fine, fine. I’ll give him...‘My Love’!”

“That’s the same thing!” everyone else yelled again.

“Fine... To help him gain combat skills faster, I’ll give him Combat Master, Physical Ability Boost, and my protection! There—are you satisfied?”

“That should do it. Now it’s time to cast the enchantment on Tenma.” There was a pause. “There, all done. Let’s check his current stats.”

Name: Tenma Otori

Age: 25

Class: Human

Title: Favorite Child of the Gods

HP: 15000 → 50000

MP: 15000 → 50000

Strength: B- → S+

Defense: B → SS

Agility: B → SS

Magic: C+ → S+

Mind: A → SSS-

Growth: C → SSS

Luck: D- → B

Skills

Sword: 8

Brawling: 8

Throwing: 8

Cooking: 8

Rod: 7

Endurance: 7

Dismantle Items: 7

Spear: 6

Traps: 6

Night Vision: 6

Archery: 5

Axe: 4

Gifts

Protection of the Gods: 10

Identify: 10

Conceal: 10

Detection: 10

Skill Acquisition Boost: 10

Follower Buff: 10

Growth Boost: 8

Vitality Boost: 8

Recovery Boost: 8

Debuff Resistance: 8

Sensory Buff: 7

Physical Ability Boost: 7

Destruction Boost: 5

Magic Boost: 5

Creation Magic: 5

Enchantment: 5

Destruction Resistance: 5

Instant Kill Resistance: 5

Omni-Elemental: 5

Combat Master: 5

“Think we overdid it?” the god of creation wondered aloud. The other gods just chuckled wryly.

“The abilities we promised him surpass those of even the strongest humans in his world. Plus, since we packed him full of protection, there’s no telling how strong he’ll get,” the goddess of nature said, sounding unusually panicked.

And it was no wonder. It was basically guaranteed that he’d be the strongest human out there if he had a normal childhood, but depending on his experience it was highly possible he’d become even stronger than that. That was how humans became gods...or became humans who could kill gods.

The goddess of nature wasn’t worried about the latter. She was more worried that Tenma’s emotional growth might not catch up to his physical growth. Most humans who got hold of superhuman powers ended up ruining themselves with them, after all.

“He’s got my Destruction Resistance, so I don’t think his physical body or his mind will break. Let’s just watch over him. If we think he’s in danger, we can simply take care of it. Let’s do what’s in our power, while at the same time respecting Tenma’s will.”

Everyone nodded in agreement with the god of destruction. Together, they all gazed at Tenma as he lay on the ground, each of them wondering what they could do to help him.

Chapter One

Part One

I woke up to the feeling of wind caressing my skin. Ahh, I’m awake... I can smell plants and earth on the wind. I wonder if I’m in a forest?

Every time the wind blew, I heard leaves rustling and flying about, followed shortly by the sound of birds singing and flapping their wings. It was all so comforting that I was just about to fall back asleep...when I sensed something strange nearby.

That stinks! What in the world is that smell? It doesn’t smell like an animal. It’s more like someone who hasn’t had a bath in years...

Forcing my eyes open, I saw a humanlike creature dressed in dirty clothes, staring down at me and smiling.

It’s smiling, but that’s more like the face of a hunter who just found his prey!

The creature was about thirty meters away. It slowly approached me, taking one step at a time. Now it was about twenty-five meters away. I tried to run, but my body was too weak. I couldn’t even stand up.

Twenty meters. I tried to call out for help, but my throat refused to work and I couldn’t get any words out. Fifteen meters. I looked around to see if there was someone who could help. When the creature saw me do that, it laughed out loud.

Ten meters now. The creature was much bigger and creepier than I’d originally thought. I was scared, but instead of crying felt something more akin to resignation. Only five meters left. The creature held a club as big as a log, and easily raised it up as it laughed. It was easy for me to imagine what was about to happen to me, so I squeezed both eyes shut.

Why in the world did they leave me in a place with monsters like this?! You had one job, gods! How cruel would it be if I died minutes after I was reincarnated?!

As I cursed the gods in my head, the monster was still slowly making its way towards me. The moment it brandished its club, I heard a swishing noise, then a thump, then a rolling sound. It hadn’t brought the club down on me, so I hesitantly opened my eyes. The monster lay right in front of me, with a thick arrow protruding from its chest.

“Man, that was a close one! I certainly wasn’t expecting to find a baby out here. Good thing I decided to check out the noise!” I heard an unfamiliar voice behind me. I still couldn’t move, but at any rate the owner of the voice scooped me up and peered into my face.

The person who picked me up...was a giant.

“What are you doing out here? Where’s your mommy and daddy?” The giant spoke to me in a kind voice, but I couldn’t understand what it was saying. “I wonder if they abandoned you. Poor thing. Well, I can’t just leave you here, so I’ll take you back to my village.” The giant muttered something, then put his bow back in its sling. He gently shifted my weight to carry me again. I began to panic, and flailed as much as I could to try to run away, but the giant didn’t seem to be bothered by my resistance. He just smiled wryly at me.

Eventually I realized the giant wasn’t going to harm me, so I decided to calm down. What else could I do, since I couldn’t move that much anyway?

“You look like a healthy, brave baby. You didn’t even cry when that goblin came for you. You’re going to grow up to be someone great,” the giant said softly. He sounded a bit happy, but just like before, I couldn’t understand him.

After the giant had carried me for about an hour, a village came into view. It was, I assumed, the place where he lived.

“I’m back. Hey, is anybody home?” the giant yelled. Several other giants came over.

“Hey, that was fast. I thought you weren’t going to be home until nighttime. Um...what’s that?” said a male giant, walking towards us. Then a female giant came running over from behind him, and noticed me.

“Where’d you get that baby? He’s very cute... Don’t tell me you kidnapped him!” With a smile, the female giant took me from the arms of the giant that was carrying me.

“Don’t be ridiculous! I found him in the forest just as a goblin was about to get him, so I rescued him. I looked around for a while, but there was no one else out there. I think he might have been abandoned. So I stopped hunting and brought him back here.”

The giant who’d been carrying me seemed to be talking to the female giant. Meanwhile, other giants began to gather around us. As I looked at them, something occurred to me for the first time since I’d woken up.

The gods told me I’d be reborn as a baby. These aren’t giants...they’re just normal-sized humans!

Just then, I spotted something familiar in the corner of my vision. It was an ear. Not a human ear, however, but an animal’s. One of the men had ears that looked like dog ears on top of his head. And it wasn’t just him—several people gathered around us had animal ears too. Some had floppy dog ears, and some had pointed cat ears.

Hm... So demi-humans really do exist. I wonder if they’ll let me touch their ears?

While I was enraptured by the animal ears, the conversation wrapped up. The man who’d rescued me took me back to his home with the woman who seemed to be his wife.

“This will be your home from now on,” she said to me. “You can think of me as your mother.”

“I’ll be his father, then.”

“That’s right, and he’ll... Wait, I wonder what his name is?”

“Is there anything sewn into the blankets he was bundled in?”

“Hang on... Hmm, yes—there is! It says, ‘Tenma Otori.’”

“So he’s got a last name too? I wonder if his parents were nobles or something. I don’t know why they would abandon him, but let’s raise him with this name. Nice to meet you, Tenma!”

“Nice to meet you, Tenma!”

Just like before, I had no idea what they were saying to me. But they seemed friendly and like they’d give me a good home.

Are they gonna be my parents? I’d like that.

In my previous life, both of my parents had died and I didn’t really remember much about them. For that reason, I felt a little grateful to the gods for bringing me here.

“Hey, what are we gonna do about feeding him? I mean, nothing’s about to come out of there, right?” the man asked suddenly, staring at the woman’s chest as she held Tenma.

“O-Of course not...!”

They looked at each other awkwardly. Unfortunately, none of the women in their village had given birth in quite some time. In fact, it had been over a decade since a child had been born there. The average age of the villagers had always been a bit on the higher side, and there hadn’t been any new long-term residents in recent years. The few younger folks who did come to the village never stayed long because they couldn’t deal with the quality of life. So the village was well on its way to becoming your standard rural village suffering from population decline.

After this conversation, the two of them quickly went around to all the women in the village who had child-rearing experience for advice on how to care for Tenma so he didn’t starve. Thanks to these ladies, they found out that Tenma would do just fine on goat’s milk. Next, they visited the local goatherd and asked him if they could have dibs on any milk his goats produced.

Since Tenma’s new parents had carried him around the village with them on their quest, all the residents had become familiar with him, even though it was only his first day living there. Within a few days, the minute he was spotted, a crowd of villagers would gather around him.

◊◊◊

Three years had passed since the couple took me in. The man who’d brought me to the village was named Ricardo, and he was a hunter. His wife was named Celia. The two of them used to be adventurers, and apparently they were pretty good at it, because in their heyday they’d made quite a name for themselves. But now, they were my new parents. They weren’t alone—there were a lot of other former adventurers in this village too.

Around two hundred people lived here, and over a hundred and fifty of them were either former adventurers or something in that same vein. It was a small village, but we had farmlands as well as a huge forest where one could pick good-quality medicinal herbs. Thanks to their prior experience as adventurers, the villagers were well acquainted with the local geography and would gather the herbs themselves, or else serve as guides for people who were seeking the herbs but didn’t know the way. This brought in some money, and although none of them were rich, they all lived comfortably.

Recently, they’d begun to allow me to walk around the village by myself. Previously, my mom, Celia, would go everywhere with me and never let me out of her sight. I thought it was a bit overprotective, but she had good reason for doing it. I think it happened about five months after they’d taken me in. Back then, Mom and Dad did everything for me. They fed and bathed me, of course, but they also changed my diapers.

That was only natural, because at the time, my body was still that of a baby’s—but mentally I was different. I was in the same bizarre situation as a certain boy detective; I was a baby on the outside but an adult on the inside. Because of that, having my diaper changed was mortifying. So mortifying that I started holding it in, to the point that it made me sick. And that made Mom cry...

Of course that made me feel even worse, so I decided to get over my embarrassment. I swore to myself that once I was able to walk, I’d go to the bathroom by myself. I was so determined that I started standing and walking on my own much sooner than normal. And the very first place I wanted to go was to the toilet. I’m finally free! Or so I thought, but the second I squatted over the toilet...I fell in. And got stuck. Really stuck.

Even though I was finally able to walk, my muscles were about as strong as those of a tadpole that had just sprouted new legs. I couldn’t hold a squat for very long at all. It took about an hour for my mom to find me and rescue me from the toilet. When she saw the upper half of my body protruding from the hole in the ground, she started tugging on me frantically and pulled me out. She rescued me, but obviously I was filthy and absolutely reeked.

That’s when Mom muttered something and waved a hand. In seconds, my body was clean again. That was the first time I’d ever seen someone do magic. That day was truly unforgettable to me...in more ways than one.

Another advantage of being able to walk was going outside on my own. I never went very far from my house, but my mom still worried. She’d say, “You can’t take your eyes off this child for one second, because there’s no telling what he’ll do!” and she wouldn’t give me any freedom. Not that I could blame her...

So even though I was finally allowed to walk around on my own, I could only explore within the village, where I had eyes on me at all times. I wasn’t allowed to go near the forest by myself yet. Still, I was happy that I could walk freely where I wanted.

“Heeey, Tenma! Over here!” a villager called out, having spotted me. He must’ve just gotten back from hunting, because he had several birds slung over his shoulder.

“Hi, Uncle Mark.”

“Hi there. Take a look at this haul, Tenma! I got five birds!”

These pheasants looked a lot like ordinary pheasants; they weren’t great at flying, but they were fast. They weighed around one to two kilograms each, and they were delicious.

“Ricardo helped, though. He got three pheasants and a boar. He’ll probably be home soon, so let’s prepare the meat while we wait for him.”

Uncle Mark was also a former adventurer, and he’d been friends with Dad since they were kids. He liked to teach me archery while we waited for Dad to get home from hunting trips. Of course I couldn’t use an adult-sized bow yet, so it was pretty much just playing pretend. But I felt like I was gaining experience points anyway. After I’d managed to hold the bow a few times, Dad finally returned.

“Welcome home, Dad. Looks like you had a good trip!”

“Hey, Tenma. Look at all this loot! I’m gonna have Mom fix us a feast tonight!” Dad grinned as he took the wild boar out of the pack he had over his shoulder. It still gave me a strange feeling to see him pull a two-hundred-kilogram boar out of that little bag.

“Man, that magic bag of yours sure comes in handy... Wish I had one.” Uncle Mark’s comment put Dad in an even better mood. The magic bag was a treasure of his that he’d gone through a lot to obtain back in his adventurer days. It was a rare item that was difficult for even the best magicians to create. It could hold creatures weighing up to five hundred kilograms, not including things attached to the carcass, like parasites, microbes, or eggs—basically, anything with weak life force didn’t count.

“It really is useful. I’m surprised they say it’s only an Common bag. If it were just one tier better, it’d be good enough to be the family heirloom of nobles, or a national treasure or something.” My father was the owner of this particular bag, of course. All items in this world had a tier. The tiers were Poor, Common, Good, Special, Excellent, Legendary, and Divine. The tiers applied to magic too. So even though Uncle Mark was jealous of the bag, it was actually of a lower tier. Moreover, Legendary and Divine items only appeared in fairy tales and other folklore, so generally Excellent items were considered the highest rank.

“Oh, that reminds me, Ricardo. Did you hear the sage is coming home?”

“The sage...you mean Merlin? First I’ve heard of it! Why, it’s been over ten years since he left!”

“Who’s Merlin?” I asked.

“A weirdo,” both Dad and Uncle Mark answered in unison.

“The strongest magician alive right now, who’ll probably go down in history. He’s well known for being eccentric, and he used to live in this village,” Uncle Mark elaborated.

“One time he charged buck naked into a dungeon overflowing with monsters and fought them all off. Another time, he showed up to an audience with the king wearing just his robe and nothing else underneath. He was also pretty fond of strolling all over town wearing only his underwear,” Dad said.

Sounds more like a perverted nudist than just a weirdo, I thought.

“Oh, and he’s got the God of War’s protection, which is pretty rare for a magician,” Uncle Mark added. My father nodded in agreement.

Hmm, if he’s got the God of War’s protection, no wonder he’s a weirdo. At that moment I realized that I, too, had the protection of the God of War, and felt kind of bummed out.

“Well, enough about that. Let’s butcher the boar and have us some dinner! Mark, you start the fire. Tenma, you call over some of the neighbors to help us.”

“Okay, sounds good! Ah, but I didn’t bring my flint today,” Uncle Mark said.