Chapter 3
The next morning, I woke up early, quickly washed my face, drank a glass of water, and headed for the front door.
Naturally, I was nervous today, and I didn’t think I could stomach breakfast.
When I got there, my older sister was already at the entrance, silently holding out a small bottle.
Oria Ruud. The second child of the Ruud family, she had dark brown hair and was stunningly beautiful.
She usually wore her hair, which reached down to her chest, loose, and stared intently at anyone with her big eyes. Men who met her gaze seemed to get flustered.
The small bottle my sister held out contained a glittering, transparent liquid.
Realizing what was inside, I couldn’t help tearing up.
“Sis...”
“If a monster gets you, drink this right away. Then run straight back here. Understand?!”
The bottle contained a healing potion.
Though it was called medicine, it wasn’t made by an apothecary. That glittering light could only be created by magic. It was a potion made by a Saint, who had infused it with healing magic.
There were very few Saints. And because of their limited magical capacity, each Saint could make only a few healing potions a day.
In other words, these potions were sold in limited quantities and were incredibly expensive.
“A healing potion isn’t a cure-all. It can’t heal deep wounds, and it won’t work on missing limbs. So the best thing is not to get hurt in the first place. Got it?!”
“...Thank you, Sis.”
I was happy to feel how much my sister cared about me.
For my sister, who was cheering me on, I was determined to bring back as large a magic stone as I could.
“...You were thinking something weird just now, weren’t you? Listen, a magic stone is a magic stone, no matter its size. Bring back one so tiny and light you’ve never seen anything like it!”
For my sister, who had brought me back to reality, I decided to bring back the smallest, lightest magic stone I could.
...Now, that said, encounters with monsters weren’t common.
Adventurers and the Knights regularly hunted monsters near inhabited areas, so there were hardly any around there.
I wouldn’t run into one unless I ventured deep into the forest.
“Hmm...”
For now, I headed through the knights’ territory toward the forest.
Insects hopped around at my feet, and rabbits and foxes occasionally showed their faces, but nothing that looked like a monster appeared.
“Ideally, a one-eyed rat would be perfect. They’re small and weak. And preferably a lone one that’s come out looking for food.”
Right, one-eyed rats made their dens in caves. I think there was a cave on the eastern side of the forest...
My feet naturally carried me toward the eastern side of the forest.
“Aah, I’m surprisingly calm...”
I tried speaking a little louder to check how I was feeling.
Yeah, I’m fine.
For someone facing a monster alone for the first time, I’m pretty calm.
I’ve trained with a sword every single day, and the others in the territory said I’d improved a lot over the past year or so. I should be fine against the monsters around here.
This kind of thing is all about confidence. I can do it. I can!
I must have walked for about an hour.
As I looked around, staying alert, I suddenly realized how unnaturally quiet it was.
Huh? Come to think of it, I haven’t seen any animals at all...
...The back of my neck started tingling.
Ah, this is, like, bad.
I began to slowly back away, and then I heard a faint moan.
...................
...............
Yeah, I know.
The right thing to do is leave quietly.
But for some reason, my feet cautiously carried me toward the source of the voice, all the way to the base of a huge tree.
And there, at its roots, I found a bird chick covered in blood.
...It was probably only a few days old.
A tiny black chick curled up, blood pouring from it as it desperately took shallow breaths.
Its eyes were closed, and at this rate, it wouldn’t live another half a day.
A weak, tiny chick on the verge of death.
And yet, I don’t know why, but I couldn’t stop trembling as I looked at it.
...What should I do?
Is this really just an ordinary chick? Is saving it the right thing to do? Or is not saving it the right thing?
Of course, I was the only one there, so I had to decide for myself.
As I stood there wavering, the chick in my line of sight faintly opened its eyes.
Blue eyes. Clear, boundless blue, like a cloudless sky.
It gazed at me with those eyes, pleadingly.
And then, without thinking, my hands moved, and I fed the chick the healing potion my sister had given me.
“It’s okay, it’s okay,” I said, stroking the chick.
The chick had been lying limp, letting me do as I pleased, when it suddenly roared, “Graaah!!”
That’s right!
Healing potions heal wounds by forcibly boosting the user’s recovery ability, so they hurt like hell while you heal!
“It’s all ri—”
...I was saying, but the hand I tried to reach out with stopped in midair.
Because the chick, writhing in pain, was growing bigger and bigger right before my eyes.
It grew to several times my size, then let out a roar and sank its teeth into my shoulder.
Its fangs sank into my shoulder and tore it clean off.
...Oh, right.
As my consciousness grew hazy in an instant, it came back to me.
There were no black birds in this world.
The only black-winged creature was the legendary monster known as the “Black Dragon.”
It was the highest-threat monster, said to require more than a hundred knights to take down.
I think when it suffered a life-threatening injury, it turned into a juvenile to recover.
The Black Dragon opened its jaws wide once more as I grew hazy from blood loss.
Ah, I’m going to die...
All that training, all that talk about getting stronger—it was meaningless. Could an ant take down an elephant?
...Come to think of it, when you’re about to die, you remember everything from the day you’re born until the day you die.
“...Fifteen years of life, huh? That’s a little short. The highlight of my life was...”
The Black Dragon bit into my side.
A searing pain, and red sparks danced before my eyes.
But for some reason. Somehow.
What I remembered then wasn’t the things I’d experienced in my fifteen years of life, but the memories of my previous life.
Memories of using the power of the “Great Saint”—now nothing more than a fairy tale—over and over and over in my previous life.
“Bwah—what is this absurd power?! It’s throwing the laws of the world into chaos!!”
Bitten by the Black Dragon and bleeding to death, I remembered my previous life.