Volume One: Reincarnation in Another World
Chapter 1: Reincarnation
“Earth attribute… A dud, huh?”
My mother’s cries of pain as she gave birth to me. The wails that escaped my own mouth without my willing them. The midwife’s relieved sigh.
Amid the many voices reaching my ears, I still remember the words of my father, who stood a short distance away with one hand resting on his monocle.
“This child is no good. Born with the earth attribute, he’ll never become a distinguished mage. He’s a dud.”
Disappointment filled my father’s voice and gaze.
I remember all too clearly the look he gave his newborn child.
……
…………
Five years had passed since I was born.
“Well, it’s not like it left a deep scar on my heart or anything!”
Remembering the disappointment on my father’s face even after five years, I laughed it off.
For an ordinary child, being branded a useless dud by his own father from the day he was born would have been enough to make him miserable.
But I wasn’t an ordinary child.
There was a good reason I could clearly remember the day I was born five years ago.
I was a reincarnator. I retained the memories of living in modern Japan until the age of twenty. In that previous life, I had been raised by loving parents, made it halfway through university, and considered myself fortunate.
I felt a little guilty toward the people who had given birth to me here, but part of me still couldn’t see myself as a person of this world.
That was why my own father’s disappointment didn’t bother me very much.
I had been born into a wealthy noble family.
Even branded a dud, I was still a member of the family and lived in comfort.
“Delicious.”
I sat by the window in the spacious room I had been given, a tea set spread before me, and popped a cookie into my mouth. With little interference from my parents, I was free to live as I pleased.
I had few complaints about my current treatment.
“Noah!”
As I enjoyed my tea and gazed idly at the beautifully maintained garden, someone called my name and flung open the door.
“Sister Shia.”
The girl who strode into my room was three years older than me—eight years old. Her white hair, the same color as mine, reached her waist, and her red eyes shone brightly.
Her name was Shia. She was the eldest daughter of House Willard, a marquis family of great importance in the Kingdom of Lunoa, and she was my older sister. I was the third son of House Willard.
There were four of us siblings.
“The fire-attribute prodigy Shia has come to visit you again today, since you’re always all alone!”
“Are you on your way back from your magic lesson?”
I picked up the teapot and poured tea into the cup across from me.
“Yes, I am!”
Sister Shia nodded, sat down across from me without hesitation, and gulped down the tea.
“Unlike you, who were born with the earth attribute, Father has high expectations of me! I’m nothing like you, the dud!”
The world into which I had been born was entirely unlike Japan.
Its most distinctive feature was the existence of magic.
Magic was a miraculous power invoked with the mana possessed by every living thing.
There were two kinds: non-attribute magic, which anyone could use, and attribute magic derived from the attribute one possessed from birth.
There were only four magical attributes: fire, water, earth, and wind. Of these Four Great Attributes, earth was considered unfortunate. Merely possessing it was enough to have someone branded an underachiever.
“Yes. You always work hard in my place, Sister Shia. I think you’re truly remarkable.”
“Hmph!”
I watched my sister puff out her chest proudly with a gentle smile.
She looked down on me without the slightest restraint and was cheeky beyond belief, but she was still only eight. Though she was my sister and three years older, once I accounted for my mental age, she felt more like a niece.
Even her impudent attitude was adorable.
“You’re small and weak! I’m making myself strong enough to protect you, so be grateful!”
“Hehe. Thank you.”
The kindness behind her desire to care for me as her little brother was another point in her favor.
Her habit of looking down on me so naturally was questionable, but that was normal in this world, so there was no point letting it bother me.
“How was today’s lesson?”
“Let me see… Today’s teacher was awful! All he did was make a lot of noise!”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes! But what he said about cultivating mana was somewhat useful.”
“Cultivating mana?”
“Yes. It was a rather unusual method. Apparently, simply circulating mana throughout your whole body increases it. Everyone knows your mana grows the more magic you use, but circulating it’s enough even without casting a spell. It sounds quite useful, though that teacher was suspicious, so I don’t know how much of it’s true.”
“(Oh, so there’s a technique like that. I’ll try it later.)”
I was still a five-year-old underachiever.
My father had no intention of giving me a proper education. Under those circumstances, the information Sister Shia brought me about magic was vital to my own studies.
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