Confession

The game of knights with Krena ended shortly after four. With the sun setting earlier these days, Krena ran home.

While helping Telesia, whose belly was growing larger, Allen prepared dinner. By the time it was ready, the Alba Heron's blood had drained thoroughly, so it was about time to move it into the earthen-floored entryway. Leaving it hanging outside the house all night probably wasn't a good idea.

Since he'd taken down ten of them, the fact that Alba Herons were often hanging in front of his house had become fairly well-known among the serfs living nearby. A serf had once asked him at the well how to catch them, but Allen hadn't explained any more than that he caught them when they came down.

To keep others from seeing him hunt, Allen did so in the tall grass of the fallow field. Since the weeds were dry and dead, anyone entering them would make a rustling sound. He'd planned to stop hunting if he heard someone enter the field, but that had never happened.

"So you've caught ten Alba Herons now?"

"Yeah, Father."

As they ate dinner around the hearth, Rodan spoke to Allen.

"That's amazing."

Rodan seemed quite curious. Allen did farm work and carried water with superhuman strength. The fields had been fairly large, yet they'd finished digging up the potatoes in just two days. And now he was catching Alba Herons as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Rodan had always thought him clever, but lately Allen had been showing even more extraordinary abilities.

Allen looked at Telesia. She seemed a little uneasy. She hadn't said anything, but clearly it was on her mind, too. He looked back at Rodan.

"Once Mash is asleep, I have something I want to talk to you and Mother about."

He said this while watching Mash, who was eating with all his might beside them.

"All right."

Rodan seemed to understand from those words alone. Allen also felt that the time had come. He'd been planning to talk to them about why he was so strong.

These days, with both parents at home, Mash didn't fuss even when Allen wasn't around. If Allen played with him a little, he soon fell asleep.

When Allen returned to the living room after Mash had fallen asleep, Rodan and Telesia were already sitting there. It seemed they'd been waiting for him. Allen sat in his usual place.

"To me, Allen, you're just Allen."

Before they even began talking, Telesia wanted him to know that nothing he said would change how she felt about him.

"Thanks. This might take a while. Is that okay?"

"Yeah."

Rodan answered.

"Actually, when I was one year old, I received a message from God."

"A message from God?"

"Yes. A message from God."

"What!?"

"It said, 'Allen, I will grant you wisdom and strength.'"

"Strength?"

"Yeah, something like making me smarter and stronger than other people."

"I see."

"And then it said, 'I will give you a trial that even a hundred people might not be able to overcome. Use the wisdom and strength I've given you to overcome it.'"

"A hundred people!?"

A trial that a hundred people might not be able to overcome had been given to Allen alone. It was an immense, seemingly endless trial.

He'd chosen those words to tie in with Rodan's description of leveling up as overcoming a trial.

"No... What could God have been thinking, giving Allen a trial that even a hundred people couldn't overcome...?"

Telesia was speechless.

"I see. So today, you overcame one of those trials."

"Huh?"

Rodan, however, seemed to understand what Allen meant. He reached out and touched Allen's cheek.

"You may not have noticed, but you had a wound here until lunchtime."

Allen had been wounded on the cheek in his first fight with the Alba Heron. The tip of its beak had cut him when he was nearly eaten. But now the wound was gone. Allen hadn't noticed.

(Huh? When you level up, your HP is fully restored. Does that mean it heals old wounds, too?)

This was the first he'd heard of it. That was why, when Rodan was seriously injured, the other serfs had tried with all their might to defeat the Great Boar. If they did, Rodan might overcome his trial and be completely healed.

"I think I overcame my first trial. I could feel strength welling up inside me."

"I see. So it was a message from God. Did God tell you a name?"

There were several gods in this other world. Rodan wanted to know which one had given Allen his trial.

"Huh? Um, the name was Elmea."

"C-Creator God? You shouldn't address Elmea without an honorific. It's Elmea-sama."

"Got it. I'll use the honorific when I'm around other people."

"Y-Yes, you should..."

Allen had not a shred of faith.

"Then what was the Talent Appraisal Ceremony about?"

At the Talent Appraisal Ceremony, Allen had been told that he had no talent and that all his abilities were E. Rodan had always wondered about that. Allen didn't seem talentless or weak in any way; he was a capable son.

"Two months ago, Elmea gave me another message about that."

"R-Recently, huh!?"

"Elmea said there was no mistake about my abilities, since they'd been determined based on how quickly I grow and how quickly I overcome trials. As for my talents, they couldn't be fully appraised because they were new. I didn't ask what my actual talents were."

"S-So that's what happened."

Allen had decided not to mention that he was a Summoner. It was a talent that allowed him to summon and command magic beasts from thin air. He worried it might cause some kind of misunderstanding. It was a talent neither Rodan nor Telesia had ever heard of.

He would wait a little longer, then find another opportunity to tell them properly and take his time explaining it.

For now, he would leave it at this: God had given Allen a trial so difficult that even a hundred people might not be able to overcome it, and had granted him wisdom and strength to help him succeed. That was to explain why he was so clever and strong.

Of course, he hadn't told them about reincarnation, either. From the moment he'd been reborn, he'd decided to keep the memories of his past life a secret. If black eyes and black hair were proof of reincarnation, then the villagers' surprise might mean that reincarnated people were extremely rare—or perhaps nonexistent. At first, he'd thought it might just be the reaction of people in an isolated village, but even the Knight Commander had stared at him. Black eyes and black hair seemed to be quite rare.

Telesia hugged Allen.

He now somewhat understood why he'd kept throwing stones until the tree's bark peeled off in large strips. Now, he was fighting Alba Herons for his family. Had he been fighting God's trial all alone this entire time?

"I-I wish you'd told us sooner."

"That's right. I wish you'd told us sooner, too. I'm your father, after all. So that's why you were so clever—God gave you wisdom."

"I'm sorry, Mother, Father. I should've told you earlier. I intend to overcome this trial."

Allen moved on to what he planned to do from now on. Telesia looked at him in shock. Her darling child was about to set out on a path of hardship—a trial that even a hundred people might not be able to overcome.

"...I see. You're right. This is a trial given to you by the Creator God. God wouldn't give you a trial you couldn't overcome. If you ever have trouble, come to your mother and me for anything."

Rodan, however, seemed to support him. Having spent years hunting boars, Rodan was more familiar with the idea of God's trials than Telesia was.

"Thank you."

"Have you told anyone else about this?"

"No, I haven't told Krena, either."

"I see. The Creator God is absolute. Don't tell too many people."

If Allen said that he'd heard God's voice all by himself, some people wouldn't take it well.

(Well, my parents believed me. But if I told anyone else, they might say I was pretending to speak for God. I have no proof, after all.)

"Yeah."

"But..."

"Huh?"

"Would it be all right if I bragged to Gerda a little?"

"..."

"Would that be a problem?"

"No, that's fine."

"I see, I see. Gerda's always going on about the Sword Saint, the Sword Saint. I need to show Gerda that my son has impressive qualities, too."

Apparently, Rodan was a very human father, jealous because his best friend's daughter was so talented.

They hadn't been able to talk much before, but the awkwardness of the past few days had finally disappeared.