Knock knock
"You can come in, I'm up."
As the wooden door of my room opened with a slight creak, my parents, both with dark circles under their eyes, came into my room and said good morning to me.
The longer I hesitate, the more I'll regret it. There's no point in putting it off, it's best to say it now.
"Good morning to you too... Umm, dad, I had to go to bed very late last night because you were making too much noise while massaging mom."
"Eh, uh, I'll go and make breakfast."
Hearing my words, my mother reacted with extraordinary speed, covered her face with her hands, and ran out of my room under the pretext of making breakfast, leaving my father behind.
My father, as if to prove what an amazing organism he was when it came to shamelessness, talked at length about my mother's back pain and her need for regular massages.
I couldn't even blame them for their ridiculous lies, since they thought I was a child. I said a few words that made it seem like I believed my father and went to the living room to have breakfast with him.
When I was new to this world, I thought I had a kind of love for my mother that could be considered wrong, but as time passed, I realized it wasn't the kind of love I had imagined, but something similar to the love people have for their parents. Since I started thinking this way, I had become more accepting of my parents.
Even if I added up my previous life and this one, the fact that I was younger than them had helped me a lot. I think having a mother and a father made me feel more at ease.
For many nights after reincarnating, I used to imagine how I would survive if I were kicked out of my family or if they died, but now I didn't even think about tomorrow, and before going to sleep at night I imagined that in the future I would become a great magician and summon a gigantic meteor from the sky.
For a moment I wondered what exactly this feeling was called. Recklessness? Callousness? No, no, it was nothing like that. It was something very different, something that felt much warmer. Confidence...
"Are you upset about something, Yuto? So that's what happened. We're sorry, Yuto, we won't make any more noise at night, please don't hate us."
"Puffft... hahaha."
As usual, my mom was terrible at reading people. I couldn't stop laughing.
"Say something too, Kael! Our son started laughing from anger, just like me. Kael! Do something!"
Hahaha, maybe I'm laughing so much because my nerves are broken. Oops, my tears are dripping onto the breakfast mom made so carefully.
"I think you're worrying for nothing, honey. Your face gets so ugly when you laugh in anger, but look, Yuto is as cute as a little girl, as always."
Bamm (the sound of an iron ladle hitting Kael's head)
Ahahahah... My jaw hurts... When was the last time I laughed this much? Or rather, had I ever laughed with so much fun before?
After a few minutes of improvised help from my mom and dad, like giving me water to drink and patting me on the back, I managed to calm down.
For some reason I wanted to laugh stupidly today, so I'd better get out of here or I'd start laughing again.
"Even though today is an important day for you, aren't you leaving a little early, Yuto?"
Hearing my mom's voice as I was putting on my shoes, I answered quickly without turning around and left the house.
"I need to visit my master before going to the celebration."
"Come back and get your coat before you go. You'll sweat and get sick after the competition."
"Okay."
As if a bunch of brats could really make me sweat.
As I left the house and walked toward the town center, feeling the morning frost all over my body, I realized my eyes were wet once again. At first I didn't care, thinking they were wet because of the cold wind, but as I kept walking down the road where no one was around, my tears kept flowing without stopping.
What's going on? Did I open some kind of seal because I shed a few tears while laughing? I hadn't really cried much since I passed the baby stage, but is this really normal? Or am I sad for some reason?
Why would I suddenly be so sad? I should be happy right now, because I feel the security of having a family.
Slap!
Ahhhhhhhh, what's wrong with you?
Snap out of it, Yuto! You're not the kind of wimp who goes into emotional mode for no reason! Oh right, only wimps get happy at the smallest thing and despair at the simplest thing!
Maybe in this world men get their period too? No no no, that's too ridiculous... I guess... I hope so.
[If it makes you feel better to think that way, you can think that way, sir. But I haven't found any trace of information in my data to confirm your guess.]
Are you really listening to me all day?
Huff, maybe you think I'm an idiot for acting like this?
[I think/calculate how wrong humanity is for not behaving like you, sir.]
Ahhh ah, no one ever talks to you at all...
------- 10 minutes later
When I felt calmer and the pain from the slap on my cheek became more noticeable, I got up from the stone I was sitting on and walked toward the center of town, remembering what I had told my mother.
What I had told my mother about going to my master was a complete lie. I had hardly ever been around the town, and there were many things I was curious about.
I felt like I had been locked up at home for years, so I decided to make this day as enjoyable as possible.
The town we lived in was built on a plain surrounded by 4 big mountains, and on top of each mountain there was an observation post. According to the rumors I'd heard, our town was very close to the border between our country and the other country, so we were always in danger.
The place where my father worked was also one of these observation posts. For this reason, our house was built on the mountain slope close to the post.
After walking down the mountain path on my little legs for a while, I managed to reach the town center, which was densely lined with houses. There was a big celebration that day, so many people were walking fast through the streets.
Because a sweet little boy like me stood out in such a crowd, many people turned their heads and looked at me with interest. Some of them came up to me, asked my name and stroked my hair, while others stood far away and gossiped, which I could barely hear.
"See that kid's hair? I wonder if she was born with it or if something spilled on her head."
Why the fuck do you give a fuck!
"Who knows... Never mind that, look how cute he looks despite that hair. I think he's guaranteed to be the most handsome boy in our neighborhood when he grows up."
"Are you sure? I think it's a girl."
"I think it's a boy."
"Want to bet? If it's a girl, I'll introduce her to my son, but if it's a boy, you introduce him to your daughter."
"Ohh, you're very clever as always, sister. I don't have a son and you don't have a daughter, so no matter who wins, the other one won't be upset."
"Hmm hmm, who do you think I am? Of course I'm very smart."
My nerves were frayed when I saw the people fascinated by the conversation between the two women and starting to look at me as if I were a prize in an invisible race between them.
Realizing that staying here any longer would turn me into a murderer, I quickened my pace and changed my path toward the side streets.
------- a few minutes later
When I reached a slightly darker street with narrow alleyways branching off between the houses, I was greeted by a horrible scene, and at the same time a system screen appeared in front of me.
When I looked at the system screen, I saw that I had received a side mission, something I hadn't had in a long time.
[Congratulations, you got a new side mission (good or evil)
Mission content : decide your future path by doing good or selfish deeds over the next year.
Mission duration : 1 year
Mission progress : none
Mission reward : teleport
Mission penalty : adding a "negative" sign at the beginning of the luck statistic
Note: first of all, you are a human being, it doesn't matter if you are a master or a butler. Now it's time to make a choice, a choice that you will regret every day... If you had to give up someone, would you give up your heart or your brain?]
Teleportation? Isn't that the super cool special thing every human dreams of? I had to do this mission for sure, because if I turned out to be an unlucky human, I might find myself in a situation where I couldn't protect what I have now, even with the Force.
Remembering the little pink-haired girl who had just been kidnapped and tied up with ropes by two rude men walking past me, I got an idea of why this mission had come up now. I stepped out from behind the empty barrel I'd been hiding behind so that the men, whom I guessed to be human kidnappers, wouldn't see me.
I felt that if I let the men escape I would be stepping onto the path of evil, so without delay I checked my surroundings, whispered a mid-level stealth spell in a low voice, and turned invisible. After all, isn't it a classic in every story that the bad guys lose?
Only a few seconds later, as I ran in wide strides after the men I guessed were human kidnappers, I saw the girl on the shoulder of the man in front slowly open her eyes. Apparently they had somehow knocked her out and secretly kidnapped her.
Even when the girl realized what was happening and wanted to scream for help, the piece of fabric in her mouth prevented her from speaking, and when I looked closely, I could see that there was a magic circle on this fabric. This fabric was probably one of the magical items my master had told me about.
Even though I felt I could defeat both bandits with a sudden attack, I didn't want to take any chances. Besides, there was only forest in the direction the bandits were running, and the forest was a good place for me to use magic.
While I was trying to guess what they had kidnapped this girl for, we were almost at the woods, and the bandits still hadn't sensed my presence because I kept my steps as wide as possible.
After about 10 more minutes of playing spy with the bandits, we came across another group of 3 people sitting on the ruins of a collapsed building in the woods.
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