This summer, my father died.

　Although born a peasant, he had risen to a nobleman's position, albeit a lowly one, with his bravery and courage.

　His father had suffered from illness for a long time.

　He was a strong man with a strong body, but he gradually became like a different person, emaciated, and finally died in his sleep.
　Even though he had suffered so much, he looked so peaceful at the moment of his death.
　I heard that human beings' pain disappears before they die.

　On the day of the funeral, my father's body was cremated.
　There are some areas in the Samaforce Empire where cremation is not allowed, but in this area cremation was the norm.

　The sight of the blazing fire and the smoke rising from the crematorium made me realize that my father was dead.

　For one reason or another, I had never truly considered my father to be my father.
　However, he was still the person I trusted and respected the most in this world.

　Tears welled up in my eyes, but I had to gulp them down.

　I must not cry.

　When I think about what I'm going to do, I must not cry here.

　After my father's funeral was over, I gathered those who had served under him.

　I stood in front of them, dressed in fine clothes and taking care to look as mature as possible so that I could look like a grown man.

　Then I threw out my chest proudly and declared.

'From this day forward, I, Ars Rovent, will succeed my father, Raven, as the head of the House of Rovent!

　It was the twelfth year since I died in Japan and was reborn in this world.


○


　The death that came to me that day was so staggering.



　I was a man who had lived a very ordinary life in Japan for thirty-five years.
　I was born into a very ordinary family, went to elementary school, junior high school, high school, university, and a decent company, and earned a very ordinary income of 450,000 a year.

　The only thing unusual about him is that he's not married, but in today's world of declining birthrates, I guess you could say that's just a normal thing.

　...Well, maybe it's not normal that she's never been able to do it properly either.

　She considers herself normal in terms of her face, but I wonder if it's still a problem with her personality.
　Lack of aggressiveness is something I've been told by many people. I have also been told that I am always in a daze.

　I'm not out of line. I certainly don't have a personality that I'm that passionate or aggressive about, except for the things I really love.
　Maybe the reason I couldn't have a girlfriend is because I've never had a woman I really liked before.

　Well, today is Monday.
　It was a holiday until yesterday, so it's depressing, but I have to go to work.

　Holding my beloved business bag in my right hand, I turn the doorknob with my left, open the door and go outside.

　I took out my keys and was about to lock the door, when

　Boom!

!

　An uncommon pain shot through my chest.
　My hands trembled loudly and I dropped my keys and business bag on the ground. Then I press my hands to my chest.
　I couldn't breathe or stand in too much pain. I fall to the ground.

　What is this, what is this?

　I can't think straight from the pain. I can't think about anything.

　My vision starts to darken and I start to lose consciousness.

　Unable to understand anything about the situation, my consciousness fell into darkness with horrible pain.



　○



　When I woke up, what I saw in my eyes was a woman's face.

　I can't quite wrap my head around the situation.

　Let's go back and think about it from the ground up.

　First, I was about to go to work as usual.
　So, I was just leaving the house and locking the door when an intense chest pain hit me.

　I noticed a woman's face in front of me.

　A slightly rounded, charming woman's face.
　She is not Japanese. She is white.

　If she had collapsed due to chest pains, was this a hospital?
　But the woman does not wear a nurse's uniform.
　I don't even know them. She doesn't have any white female friends.

　To begin with, she has a conciliatory expression on her face, like an owner who loves her dog.
　It's not the same expression you'd give to one who collapsed and was taken to the hospital.

　A woman opens her mouth and speaks to me.
　I have no idea what she's saying.
　It's a foreign language, but it really doesn't sound familiar at all.
　I don't speak a major language at least, but I can at least tell which language it is if I listen.
　She seems to be a woman from a minor country.

　I try to move my mouth. I moved my mouth, but no words came out.
She seemed to be able to pronounce only "ah" and "uh".
　I tried to move my body, but I couldn't move it satisfactorily.
　It seems to be moving at least.

　Hmm?

　Then I brought my hand into view.

　Small. Surprisingly small.

　It was like a baby's hand.

　My mind was filled with question marks.

　My conclusion that I hadn't seen it right, which I had finally come to, was easily shattered when I looked at my hand again. It remained small.

　What was this?

　What a joke.

　Or..........

　Did I die and reincarnate at that time?

　Reincarnation is a Buddhist concept that the dead soul goes to the other side of the world and is reincarnated in this world again and again.

　The founder of Buddhism, the Buddha, taught that to live is to suffer.
　The human soul goes through reincarnation, dying and reincarnating, dying and reincarnating, and so on.
　By practicing and becoming enlightened, we can be liberated from this cycle of reincarnation.

　Does this mean that I am not enlightened, so I am reincarnated?
　Even if I did, it seems strange that I have memories of it.

　Anyway, the only thing I understood was that something unusual was happening to me right now.

　I understand, but there's nothing I can do if I can't speak or move my body.

　Now we have to wait.

　I suddenly felt sleepy.
　Maybe it's because my body is a baby.

　Unable to resist the intense sleepiness, I fell asleep.