Chapter 2: Chapter 1: Reincarnation of a serf

So warm.

Kenichi came to and realized that he had lost consciousness. To his surprise, he now found himself submerged in liquid that was around the temperature of a heated pool.

Wait, I’m not breathing!

The realization that he was about to drown sent him into a panic. For some reason, however, he felt incredibly weak and could not move his body as he wanted.

Shit, I’m going to die at this ra— Uh, hold on. I’m not breathing, but I’m not exactly gasping for breath either. What’s happening to me?

Despite being unable to see or breathe within this warm liquid, Kenichi felt completely fine. In fact, he even felt peaceful, as if all the mental fatigue that had been accumulating from his high-stress corporate job was melting away. So he simply gave himself up to the tranquility and let time pass.

Ten days later, a jolt of unease suddenly shot through Kenichi. It was a very strange sensation, one that he had never experienced before.

Hold on, is this...? Ugh, I’m being squeezed!

It was as if his entire body were being crushed. As before, however, he could not muster any strength into his limbs. He could not see, and he could not hear. All he had was his consciousness. And just when the squeezing let up, Kenichi felt himself being dunked into what felt like lukewarm liquid again.

I can’t breathe!

Although he had been all right with not breathing until now, he all at once felt desperate for air. As he flailed around in distress, he suddenly felt an impact on his behind that was abruptly followed by more in quick succession. He realized that he was being slapped.

That hurts! Whaddaya think you’re doing?!

“WAAAAAHHHH! WAAAAAAHHHH!”

“He’s breathing! Theresia, you did it!”

“Oh, honey...”

It was Kenichi’s first time hearing these voices. His eyes and ears still could not see or hear clearly, but he identified what he heard as Japanese.

Now that his airway was clear, he took a deep breath of the oxygen that his lungs sought so badly. After being lifted from the warm water, something strange and rough enveloped his body. Things finally settled down a while later.

Yeah, there’s no doubt about it—I’ve been reincarnated. I can’t be more grateful. That said, why did I regain my consciousness before my birth?! Couldn’t it have been when I turned five or something?!

＊ ＊ ＊

Six months passed. Kenichi spent that time constantly surveying his surroundings. His eyesight gradually improved, as did his hearing. He also became capable of crawling around, which widened his sphere of activity by quite a bit.

“Do you want to go beddy-bye, Allen?”

“Yah!”

One thing that had become clear to Yamada Kenichi within this time was that his new name in this world was Allen. And although he had not been able to select his gender, he had reincarnated as male once again.

The person currently holding him was his mother, Theresia. She was a very pretty woman with green eyes and brown hair that was always tied up in a ponytail. Age-wise, she was almost twenty.

Theresia gently placed Allen back in his bed—a small frame with wooden railings—and pulled his coarse hemp blanket up to his shoulders.

“Theresia, I’m home!”

This next person entering from the part of the house with an earthen floor was a man with a solid build, covered in sweat and smeared all over with dirt. This was Allen’s father, Rodin. He had brown hair like Theresia’s and a rugged face. His build was quite sizable and muscular. He was around twenty years old. Because Theresia almost always referred to him as “honey,” it had taken Allen quite a while to learn his name.

Theresia handed Rodin two steamed potatoes, at which a quizzical look came over his face. He asked, “You already ate?”

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“Huh?” returned Theresia, otherwise at a loss for words. Seeing this, Rodin gave one of the potatoes back to his wife, completing this exchange that had been repeated multiple times during the previous six months.

“Come on, you know you shouldn’t do that. If you don’t eat properly, you can’t produce enough milk. The tax reduction on the village lasts until next year, so we’ve got to let Allen grow as big as possible until then.”

“Thank you, honey.”

What is this village’s name though?

Apparently, this village was a brand-new settlement that had been set up under the orders of the lord of the fiefdom. Every once in a while, Allen’s parents would talk about new babies being born to the other families in the village, leading him to suspect that most settlers here were quite young.

And I’m this couple’s only kid so far.

In this family, there was Rodin, the father; Theresia, the mother; and Allen, the firstborn. Rodin and Theresia had come to this village partly because of the tax cut it received as a frontier village and partly to gain independence from their respective parents.

After wolfing down his potato and washing it all down with water from a jug, Rodin went back out. Before he did so, however, he made sure to plant a kiss on Theresia’s cheek as always. The two were clearly still quite in love with each other. Allen might very well be getting a younger sibling soon.

Living as a serf isn’t easy, but it looks like it’s still a pretty good life.

As Allen was the one who had chosen to be a serf himself in his previous world, he was not dissatisfied with his current situation. He had a pretty mom and a dad who loved his family. But if he really had to put his finger on the one thing that was bothering him...

Status: Open, he chanted inside his mind, raising a chubby hand into the air. However, nothing happened, leaving him no choice but to put his hand back down.

Did I really become a Summoner? Maybe I’m too young to Summon anything? I can’t even check my own Status. Now this is true Hell Mode. I’ve got nothing to do.

Allen was a six-month-old infant, nothing more, nothing less. Although he had selected Summoner as his class before his reincarnation, there had been zero hints of anything relevant to this ability as of yet.

Light novels that start off like what I’m experiencing normally depict the protagonist circulating mana within his body since infancy and obtaining massive MP capacity. The problem is, I can’t feel anything remotely like that inside myself.

Drowsiness eventually overtook him before an answer came. His body was still that of a baby, so he would cry when hungry, he would pee and poo himself, and he would still conk out when sleepy.

＊ ＊ ＊

Another six months passed, and Allen turned one. Fall had just arrived, which meant he himself had been born in the fall. The spread at dinner that night was more extravagant than usual. As he was in the middle of being weaned, his diet now largely consisted of simmered beans or steamed potatoes mashed into a paste with a wooden pestle.

“It’s such a feast tonight! Good job hunting that great boar, honey.”

“I did it all for Allen!”

“Dankyu, papa, mama.”

As Allen’s family were serfs, farming was their main job. In the field next to their house, they grew potatoes, wheat, and other crops. This was information that Allen had gleaned solely through the conversation between his parents as he was almost always in Theresia’s arms and had never been brought out beyond the garden.

When fall came and all the harvesting was over, the men of the village would gather to hunt in the nearby forest. This was something that the strapping Rodin really enjoyed—so much so that he had remarked many times that, had he been born a commoner instead of a serf, he would have chosen to be a hunter. Anyone who participated in the hunt would get to take home a portion of the meat, so he gave it his all whenever he joined in.

There’s almost no seasoning in this whatsoever.

Although his food tasted only of the rudimentary flavors of its ingredients, Allen still did his best to seem like he was enjoying it for the sake of his parents who had prepared it. Besides this, there was also some mashed apple-like fruit that was actually quite tasty.

After dinner, Allen lay in bed. He thought, I guess this life isn’t all that bad. I’ll probably become a Summoner eventually. He idly lifted his hand toward the ceiling and, like he had done dozens of times before, chanted inside his mind, Status: Open.

Fwum.

To Allen’s surprise, a black book suddenly appeared before his eyes, floating in midair.

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