Blood 2 — Restart

Reincarnated.

Born anew.

At first, confusion prevented recognition of the fact. It took several days to accept the reality.

At first, I thought it was a dream.

Drowsiness came quickly. Consciousness felt hazy, unstable.

Thus, I believed this was a dream within which I had fallen asleep during class.

But a dream lasting several days was impossible.

I am now an infant.

Sleep, wake, eat, defecate, cry, sleep again.

This is the routine.

Between these actions, I observed my surroundings, attempting to assess my current state.

First, this is not Japan.

That is certain.

Nor does it appear to be Earth.

No one here has black hair and black eyes. No electrical devices exist.

A setting reminiscent of medieval Europe, yet in a time when even remote African regions possess electrical devices if not isolated, it is incongruous for a rural European village to lack civilization's tools.

A reincarnation into another world, I presume.

A human who has died is reborn in another world, carrying their memories from their previous life intact.

She had never imagined such a thing would happen to her, but lamenting it now, after it had already occurred, served no purpose.

It is more constructive to consider what comes next than to lament what has already happened.

Moreover, I welcomed the current circumstances.

After all, I was reborn.

A new life, freed from the form of the previous self.

It begins.

Overwhelmed with joy.

Their parents being handsome only amplifies the effect.

The mother carried an air of a delicate young lady.

Father exuded a sharp, capable demeanor—entirely opposite to his mother’s delicate grace.

Both were distinctive. Both were strikingly beautiful.

If I had parents such as these, I must be beautiful as well.

And it seemed my parents were individuals of considerable standing.

My chamber was notably spacious.

Spacious enough to surpass the modest apartment I had inhabited in my previous life.

Several attendants were assigned to me.

Not royalty, perhaps, but unquestionably noble.

To me, who had endured hardship in my prior existence, the gods must have granted a reward.

Thinking of my future filled me with contentment—smiles came naturally.

Seeing me smile, the maid and my mother mirrored it.

I was happy.

Infants sleep for long durations.

Though long, awake periods existed.

And there was nothing an infant could do.

For some reason, I seemed to be a night person. I spent more time awake during the night than the day.

Even so, having been a high school student in my previous life, I had no desire to cry out at night.

I could not ignore physiological needs, but I refrained from waking family or servants simply out of boredom.

I used such idle time to practice magic.

Magic exists in this world.

I had witnessed a servant using fire magic to light a lamp.

In elementary and middle school, boys often imitated manga characters. At the time, I had thought them foolish. But now I understood, just slightly, the feelings of those boys.

If magic exists, I wanted to use it.

Driven by that desire, I began practicing magic.

But I did not know how to use it.

In the brief span of time I could stay awake, I grunted and experimented with various methods.

As a result, I gradually began to grasp the nature of mana.

[Proficiency has reached threshold. Skill 'Mana Perception LV1' acquired.]

The moment I sensed mana, the voice arrived almost simultaneously.

A language I had not heard in years—yet this was the first time I had heard Japanese in this world.

I glanced around, but no one was there.

A strange unease settled over me at hearing a voice with no source. That night, I could not sleep well.

The voice, it seemed, was the voice of a deity.

In this world, skills exist. When one acquires a skill or increases its level, the voice of the deity becomes audible.

By piecing together fragmented auditory fragments, I deduced this information.

Yet the deity’s voice speaking Japanese feels unnatural.

The conversations in this world do not sound like Japanese.

Not English either.

This must be a language unique to this world.

Since Japanese is never heard at all, even in fragments, the deity’s voice should naturally be in this world’s language if anyone else were to hear it.

Then why does it sound in Japanese only to me?

The only explanation is that the deity who speaks is the one who reincarnated me into this world.

In that case, speaking Japanese is not surprising.

I silently offered thanks in my heart toward the deity whose voice I heard.

And thus, I gradually grew.

Being unable to move is inconvenient, so I began practicing crawling early.

I managed it fairly quickly, but moving too soon would draw suspicion, so I avoided movement in public as much as possible.

I also learned the language.

Not entirely comprehensible yet, but I could grasp the general meaning of basic conversations.

Listening in on conversations, I gradually understood aspects of this world.

The religion known as the Goddess Cult.

Culture and history.

The position of this household within the social structure.

I learned each of these pieces step by step.

The way of thinking and basic assumptions differed greatly from Japan.

Though I felt disoriented by these differences, I managed to reconcile them internally.

And in the quiet passage of time, I lived as an infant, fully immersed in infancy.

Then, the incident occurred.