Chapter One: Shortly after birth.

He found himself being bathed in warm water.

Ren tried to open his eyes to see what was going on around him, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not open his eyes. On the contrary, his whole body did not feel as strong as he wanted it to.

“Bo-chan is fine and I think your wife would agree. Don’t you think so, ma’am?”　

I heard an aged woman’s voice.

“Yes. I am relieved that he seems to have been born well.”

Then came another voice, this time younger. Her voice sounded a little tired.

Ren was bewildered, but felt calmer than before. This may be because the two voices he heard were calm and gentle.

(What’s going on?)

Ren let his bewildered voice echo in his mind while he tried to sharpen his senses other than sight.

His senses were too good for a dream and he couldn’t believe that this was not real. However, he couldn’t catch up with his understanding of how unrealistic it was that he, who was an adult, would become a baby.

The two women were talking about something about him while he was puzzled, but Ren was not concerned about that.

(No way. —-)

Thinking it was impossible, I remembered the Legend of the Seven Heroes that I had been playing earlier.

The important part of it was after discovering the hidden skill called “Summon Magic Sword”.

(Start …… special story with special downloadable content……)

He thought it was ridiculous.

But because of this situation, which he couldn’t just dismiss as a dream, was thinking of ridiculous predictions.

(Am I reincarnated?).

Ren, who has a deep knowledge of fantasy stories, immediately had this prediction in his mind.

Whether he could accept it or not, this situation was too clear to his senses, other than sight, to make the prediction unrealistic.

(…… I see)

This is amazing. This is really special downloadable content, a special story.

Ren muttered in his mind while pretending to be calm.

Then, even after all this time, a sense of shame overflowed.

Since he was a baby now, the thought of being naked and being doused in a bathtub or something would be outrageous.

Ren was an adult, so it was a natural sense of shame.

The problem was that he couldn’t resist it.

He tried once more to see if his body would move, but the result was the same and only pleased the two women.

(I wish I had a better grasp of the situation, but ……)

Ren was again surprised to find that he was unexpectedly calm.

But perhaps this calmness was, in addition to the fact that a phenomenon that was too unreal was happening in reality, he had given up on other things because his body was not moving as it should.

(At least my name…..)

Ren fluttered his body as if he was praying.

As if in answer to his prayer, the aged woman asked the young woman.

“Mistress, have you decided on a name?”

“Of course, I have chosen one.”

“I’m glad….Now, Mistress, it’s time for you to hold your Little Boy and call him by his name.”

Ren felt his body wrapped in a soft cloth and realized that his body had been lifted into the air.

But soon he was enveloped in warmth. He thought that he must have been lifted up by the woman with a young voice and waited for her to call his name.

“This child’s name is —-.”

Ren gave up on understanding the situation for the moment and hoped that he was the right character.

Surely he must be an important character in the legend of the Seven Heroes. It’s no doubt because the hidden skill is said to start a special story.

To say the least, my heart was filled with anticipation.

“Renwald. This child’s name is Ren Ashton.”

Hearing those words, Ren was stunned.

Because that name is …….

(Oh, I’m …. the one?!??).

Ren Ashton is a friend of the main character and the one who caused the uproar in Legend of the Seven Heroes II. That’s a character who has already been flagged for death.

My name was the same as that of Ren and I used to feel a secret kinship with him.

But now, I was already tormented by mixed feelings.

(I don’t understand. What am I supposed to do when I’m suddenly reincarnated and it’s a villain character!)

There was no convenient being anywhere to answer the question.

A cry that couldn’t be the voice of Ren screamed in his mind.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

A day passed and even a week later, there was no one to answer Ren’s question.

The only thing he could see with his own eyes was that the room he was in was a little shabby and drafty, and that he was still a baby.

He has been living like that for a little more than half a year now.

(no doubt about it. I was reincarnated and became Ren Ashton.)

It would have been more false to say that it wasn’t real when he got to this point.

In other words Ren… no, Ren (TN: The kanji for both names is different but pronounced the same) had come to believe—- no doubt that this was reality, and at the same time, he had come to the point where he was prepared to have to live in this world.

Moreover, he felt that a new self had recently emerged, different from the old Ren, born as Ren. In the early days of his life as Ren, he had even wanted to return to his original world, but in the past few weeks, he had stopped thinking about it.

You are Ren, so it’s natural to live in this world.

It was as if the world was saying that to me.

(Let’s live in peace. I don’t want the emperor to order them to subdue me.)

Ren nodded his head in agreement.

If I really am that Ren Ashton, I should just take a different path from the one he took in the game. I decided that I must live a clean, righteous, and decent life —-

(So, maybe it’s time to call it a day.)

Ren checked that it was starting to get light outside the window and turned his attention to the door of his room.

Soon the door opened and a woman came in.

“Oh my goodness, you’ve been waiting for your mother.”

Her name is Mireille, Ren’s mother.

Mireille has a well-defined face and brown hair which is close to black, same as Ren’s.

She also just turned twenty-one, according to the information Ren had obtained in the past six months.

“Let’s eat dinner now!”

Saying this, Mireille picked Ren up in her arms and stripped off her clothes.

In fact, Ren had been averse to being breastfed in the early days of his life. The woman is of the same age as he used to be and she is a married woman.

For Ren, who had already decided not to have a girlfriend, it was a shock without time to feel ulterior motives.

(Well…..he never had any ulterior motives after all.)

Perhaps he knew instinctively.

I was born to Mireille, so there was no way I would ever have such feelings for her.

So it was easy for him after he blew it off. Unlike before, Ren followed his appetite without hesitation.

When he was satisfied, he took a break from eating.

He thanked Mireille with a big smile on his face, for he could never say thank you enough.

“Good boy. Well then, let’s have another good night’s sleep.”

A little while later, she tucked him into bed.

Mireille smiled at Ren before leaving the room.

Ren, left alone, sighs lightly, looks up at the ceiling and opens his mouth.

“Ahhhh.”

I’m bored. That’s what he meant to say. But he couldn’t pronounce it properly.

(I can’t even move my body enough. I guess there’s nothing I can do until I grow up.)

In this situation, there are only a few things I can do.

In fact, after sleeping or waking up …… the only thing I can do is to listen and explore the environment around me, but the truth is that I’m not able to explore it at all.

Since that’s the case, it is hard to accept that all I can do is wait till I grow up —- that’s unacceptable.

Ren is fortunate enough to have had a previous life experience.

Perhaps because of this, he has recently been able to crawl and sit up on his own. Lately, sitting on the bed and staring out the window is his favorite thing to do.

Returning to the story…… Ren had something he wanted to check out.

The first thing he wanted to do was to find out about the hidden skill “Summon Magic Sword”.

(I hadn’t used it before because it seemed dangerous.)

I didn’t even know how the magic sword would appear, but it would be a terrible thing if it appeared above my head and pierced my immobile self, for example.

That is why I waited until I could move my body somewhat freely.

(and—-)

The story goes on to say how it can be summoned.

While playing Legend of the Seven Heroes, one could open the menu screen by pressing a button. There, you could often use items on your party members or use magic to restore their strength.

But buttons don’t exist in reality.

And when I thought of example words like “status open,” there was no sign of anything appearing.

“…..Ah”

I hung my head.

Baby Ren held his head, wondering how to summon it then.

In his mind, he muttered over and over, “Summon magic sword, summon magic sword, summon magic sword, summon magic sword”. It went on like a strong wish, or a curse, and before long, —- 

“Eh?”

A bracelet fell from the air onto the lap of Ren, who was sitting on his bed.

The whole bracelet was beautifully crafted like silver and had a large crystal ball embedded in it.

(What is this —-? No, What is reflected in the crystal ball?)

I was disappointed that it was not a magic sword, but as I lifted the bracelet, my eyes widened as I noticed the words that appeared in the crystal ball.

There it reads.

——

Ren Ashton.

[Job] Eldest son of the Ashton family

[Skill] ・Summoning Magic Sword (Level 1: 0/0)

• Summoning Magic Sword (Level 1: 0/100)

• Gain proficiency by using the summoned magic sword.

• Level 1: Able to summon [one] magic sword.

• Level 2: Gain the effect of [Physical Ability UP (Small)] while summoning a magic sword.

• Level 3: 

＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊.

[Mastered Magic Swords] ・Magic Sword of Wood (Level 1: 0/100)

• Enables attacks of about the same level as natural magic (small).

• The range of attack effect expands as the level increases.

• Iron Magic Sword (Open condition: Magic Sword Summoning Technique level 2, Wooden Magic Sword level 2)

• (Open condition: Magic Sword Summoning Technique level 2, Magic Sword of Wood level 2)　　　　　　　

——

In the crystal ball, the so-called status screen was shown.

However, unlike in the days of video games, there were no columns for physical strength, magic power, attack power, etc., in addition to one’s own level.

That was, let’s say, to convey strength to the player in an easy-to-understand way, so it would probably be more correct if they were not quantified in the first place.

 (Magic Sword Summoning Technique ……?　What is this? A skill associated with summoning a magic sword?)

Something similar happened in the Legend of the Seven Heroes.

For example, when you used a Guardian in a higher position, you learned swordsmanship and white magic from the start, and so on.

(Ah …… I believe, you use a magic stone to increase your proficiency.)

The 0/100 listed after the level would be the proficiency level.

Ren surmised that the reason there is no proficiency and level for summoning a magic sword is because its role is primarily based on the proficiency of the magic sword itself.

(After that, it’s said, you could increase the number of magic swords if certain conditions were met.)

The only magic sword that can be used initially is the wooden magic sword, and when it’s opened up, there is only the iron magic sword.

This is slightly disheartening because I had thought I could use a magic sword with strong fantasy colors. I was thinking of a magic sword that can shoot flames or a magic sword that shoots lightning.

(Well, it would be strange to have strong power from the start……. But a wooden magic sword is just a wooden sword…… No, it’s not.)

Ren muttered aloud, and without thinking, pressed his fingertips against the letters on the wooden magic sword.

It was different. It was not just a wooden sword.

(Nature magic, as I recall, is a skill to fight by creating plants and such.)

I remembered that one of the enemies in the legend of the Seven Heroes was a user of nature magic.

The enemy was an elf, who would fight in the forest. In addition to the physical abilities of the elves themselves, they sometimes restrain the heroes with plants created by nature magic.

In addition, since they used magic to conjure monsters, they had a very difficult time at first.

(That elf’s natural magic was strong, but this one has small in parentheses, which makes me wonder.

(Next is this one.)

Ren turned his attention to the column of magic sword summoning techniques and finally came to be pleased.

He had been thinking that he could do nothing without a magic stone, but now that he knew that he did not need one for “Magic Sword Summoning Technique,” his outlook for the future became much brighter.

He was concerned about the fact that the explanation for level 3 was being withheld, but he was honestly pleased, thinking that since it was still level 1, he would not be able to see it.

(I’d like to give it a try if it turns out to be so.)

Ren is already prepared to live in this world.

For the sake of self-preservation, he wanted to understand the power he could use.

(Not being able to fight in a world where monsters exist is far from living in peace.)

I thought so and muttered to myself over and over again, “wooden magic sword …… wooden magic sword ……” in my mind.

But there was no sign of it appearing at all.

Ren, almost drooping, suddenly saw the bracelet in front of him.

He put his right arm, which is his dominant arm, close to it—-. Then the bracelet moved on its own and was attached to Ren’s arm.

“Eh?!”

Ren moved his body in a panic and fell back.

When he looked at his right arm, he saw that the bracelet was still attached to his arm.

(At any rate…… this might work.)

The prediction that popped into my mind earlier was that the summoning of the magic sword might not be activated unless this bracelet was worn.

And that prediction came true.

As soon as Ren muttered “wooden magic sword ……” once more in his mind, a crack appeared in the empty air.

A wooden sword slowly begins to emerge from the crack, as if being pulled out of its sheath.

The sword eventually fell right next to Ren. The sword fell with a pathetic thud onto the shabby bed.

“Ah—- eh?”

Just before his body was about to tremble with joy, Ren opened his eyes and was surprised

(Tiny ……)

The actual sword is made of wood, even though it’s called a magic sword. The actual length of the sword is not really a dagger at all, it looks more like a common kitchen knife.

It would have looked like a work of art if it had been beautifully carved, but there was nothing decorative about it.

(The first thing that comes to mind is the fact that the knife is a very good one.)

Ren picked up the wooden knife—- or wooden magic sword, with a sense of frustration.

I feel that my body is heavy and my head hurts. But I thought it was only in my mind, so I put my strength in my hand and moved my arm to swing.

I had never even swung a bamboo sword in my previous life, so I tried it as part of my training.

But it didn’t go as well as I had hoped.

In the first place, it was impossible for a baby to have such strength.

(Moreover, I had a headache….. Oh, no!)

The headache, which he thought was just his imagination, increased.

His body also became much heavier and these things attacked Ren incessantly.

(Gua……a……)

Eventually, Ren closed his eyes, unable to bear the pain.

His consciousness faded away.

Ren slowly closed his eyelids, still tormented by the intense headache.

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