Volume 1 Chapter 1 Part3 (1/2)

As I left the bedroom of my parents, I was still surprised by my reincarnation.

After going through a wide hallway that had a high ceiling, I arrived at a large room that seemed to be the dining room. Since I still hadn't adapted to my new body yet, I was confused by the gap in size with my adult body.

Although the room seems wide, that might just be because of the size of my body. It's probably because the s.p.a.ce between my eyes has become narrower.

There was a large table that could fit ten people inside the room. A very nice smell was also drifting about, probably since breakfast was being prepared. A burly lady who seemed to be forty years old or so was preparing meals in the kitchen, which was located at the back of dining room.

”Good morning, Molly.”

My Mother greeted the lady. I desperately digged through my memories as I looked at them.

Molly . . . maybe she's some kind of maid. She's also the wife of someone named Walt.

After my Father gave his greetings, I followed suit.

”Good morning, Molly.”

”Good morning everyone. ××○△○, please wait a little bit longer.”

While wiping her hands on an ap.r.o.n, she smiled and returned a greeting. Her figure reminds me of a dorm mother.

She feels like a kind lady. There were some words I couldn't catch though . . .

Molly laughed and then headed back to the kitchen counter.

Wooden plates and spoons had been placed on the table, together with round loaves of bread. They seemed like a rustic type of bread that came from the countryside. The fragrant scent of the freshly baked loaves wrapped itself around the table.

A few minutes later, a boy who seemed to be around the age of a first or second grader appeared. He sat down next to Mother as gave his greetings.

He's my older brother, Rod. I called him ”Nii-sama” before I think.

I try to sound as childish as possible as I say ”Good morning, Nii-sama” while smiling.

He looks at me with slight surprise on his face but then immediately returns the greeting.

Did I do something wrong? Since the memories of my usual behavior are somewhat ambiguous, I have to make sure they don't find any discrepancies . . .

A short time later, Molly came out of the kitchen clutching a large pot. She distributed something that seemed like soup into each of the wooden plates. The soup didn't have many ingredients. Only pieces of meat and green leaves that seemed to be cabbage leaves floated in the soup.

After Molly finished dis.h.i.+ng out the soup, my family picked up their bread and began eating.

The food is so coa.r.s.e. I know they're currently declining but still, this is a knight house right? This seems to be what they usually eat. Even when I search through my memories the food doesn't get much better . . .

My Mother helps me eat by tearing the bread into a smaller piece and dipping it in the soup.

Since the bread was still too hard for my childish mouth, she then squashes the bread with a spoon in the soup until it becomes soft enough for me to eat.

The flavor is quite strong but overall, it's not bad. The seasoning . . . seems to only be salt. It doesn't look like they use spices or anything.

I felt full after eating two pieces of bread the size of an adult's fist.

As the other three ate their meal, I began to think about what I was going to do today.

Alright, I'm going to have to gather information after this. It seems like I played with a girl named Mel yesterday because the weather was nice. I was planning to explore the house or maybe pa.s.s time with my parents . . . I still don't have enough information. Let's figure out what to do after looking at the situation a bit more.

After we finished breakfast, my Mother brings me outside. We seemed to be heading towards a well at the back of the house.

Our house seemed to be located at the top of a hill. Gentle downward slopes surrounded it. Further down, the slopes of the hill turned into meadows. Far beyond those meadows were fields that spread out in a patchwork-like pattern upon a series of hills.

We seem to be at the top of a hill . . . although the patchwork pattern is slightly distorted, the fields remind of Biei Hokkaido. My eyesight is quite good though, I can see clearly see far into the distance . . .

My Mother urges me on as I gaze at the landscape with a childish expression.

”Do you see something interesting? You can look at it later, let's go wash your face first.”

When we arrived at the back of the house, the northern side, a man who had the body of a strong bear was drawing water from the well. He seemed to be in his mid-forties.

”Good morning milady, good morning Zack-sama.”

”Good morning, Walt”

When I searched my memory for the man named Walt, I learned that he was a servant of our house who worked from morning to evening. When I greet him with a ”Good morning, Walt.” he faithfully returns a ”Good morning, Zack-sama.” However, he immediately goes back to silently drawing water.

The well seems to be quite deep. Even though Walt has a large body, throwing in the bucket and then pulling it back up takes a considerable amount of time.

It can't be helped since we're on a hill, but nevertheless, this is a lot of work.

When I look at my mother, I see her put white powder on her finger and start using it to brush her teeth.

I try to imitate her by putting the white powder on my fingers and using it to brush my teeth.

Is this salt? It looks like rock salt that's been crushed. Is there no toothbrush?

I continue brus.h.i.+ng my teeth with my powdered fingers.

The powder had a salty and chalky taste. It wasn't refres.h.i.+ng at all.

Is this made of salt and limestone? I hope it isn't bad for my body . . . it looks like all of my teeth have grown out though. Since I don't have any cavities, I think I'm healthy . . .

I imitated my Mother as she ladles out some water from a wooden bowl and uses it to rinse her mouth. We then wash our face with the water from the bucket. The water was so cold that my drowsiness was completely blown away.

I feels like the level of civilization her is the same as around the medieval period or maybe even before that. If the information from when I was making my character is correct, then there should be magic. I haven't seen any indications of magic so far though . . . Maybe magic isn't as common as I thought. Is magic something that's specialized towards combat in this world? I will have to gather information on this as well . . .

When we came back inside the house I suddenly felt the need to p.o.o.p. Maybe it was evidence of how healthy I was.

I headed towards the restroom within my memory. My Mother shouted something but I mostly ignored it and continued going inside the house as quickly as I could.

It doesn't seem like a child's body can endure much. I'm afraid I'm already about to leak myself . . .

I arrive at the restroom and then without having any time to be relieved, immediately take care of my business.

The toilet was different from the one in my former world and didn't have have a toilet bowl. It was just a hole in the floor. The bottom of the hole had a terrible stench.

This is the first time I've seen a toilet this dirty. Since there's no toilet paper, I have to wipe myself with the cloth that's placed here. The hygiene here is the worst.

I thought about was.h.i.+ng my hands but since the restroom didn't have a bucket, I couldn't do that.

Won't children become sick like this? If I don't improve this my life won't be very comfortable . . .

As I headed out into the hallway once again, I swore to myself that the first thing I would improve in this world was going to be the toilet.

After I washed my hands and came back inside the house, my mother approached me with a face that looked worried for some reason.

”Did you get dirty? Do you need to change your clothes?”

It seems like when I went to wash my hands, she thought that I had gone to wash myself after soiling my pants.

”I'm okay. I was just was.h.i.+ng my hands.”

She checks my clothes and then after she understood that there wasn't a problem, she looks at me with a strange face.

Was my behavior strange? If I don't wash my hands I can't calm down though. I'll have to be more cautious from now on . . .

As the morning commotion ended, I calmed down a little bit and then looked around. My father and older brother had disappeared and it had become just me, my mother and Molly.

Okay, it seems like yesterday I was playing with three people. There was a child named Mel and also a pair of siblings named Dan and Sharon. As far as I can remember, I usually played with these three people or chased after my older brother's back. What am I going to do today . . .

I decided to first check if my memories of the boy named Zack actually matched with reality.

The memories of children aren't too reliable after all. Since there are probably a lot of misunderstandings, we'll have to confirm these memories . . .  The weather today seems to be quite good so let's also go and check his memories of the garden, Mel's house and also Dan and Sharon's house.

I tell my mother that I'm going to Mel's house and then try to act like I usually do by running straight outside.

I pa.s.s through a pair of crude wooden doors and then arrive outside the mansion. Since Mel's house is halfway down the hill, I have to go down a downward sloping road. When turn back to look at our house, I realize that it was larger than I thought. The wooden building had black pillars, white plaster walls and a slate roof. A chimney protruded from the roof as thin smoke rose from it. Maybe it was being used for cooking.

I made sure that no one was watching me and then stopped running. While walking, I thought about my body.

Running is difficult. Maybe it's because my head is too heavy or I can't control my body properly yet. If I'm going to live in this world, the strength of my body is going to be important. Especially since I belong to a knight house. And speaking of strength in this world . . . if I train my body from around the age of three, I'll gain a considerable advantage over others of the same age . . .

Although I thought that there would only be meadows outside in the area near the house, there were still fields here and there.

I continued descending down the path while feeling the fresh morning wind on my face. The path was made by many people who had treaded down the same route. While treading on such a path, I continued thinking.

If we go by the setting then this has to be the frontier. However, what kind of climate does this land have? What is winter and summer like? How far from the equator are we and also, how high up are we . . . no, wait – first of all, I don't even know what day it is. Not just that, I don't even know how many months or days are in a year! It's pitiable how much I don't know . . .

I felt depressed by my lack of information.

Having come from a world in which the internet was an ordinary thing, where you can obtain information anywhere and at any time, I felt an emotion similar to irritation well up within me as I faced a situation of not even knowing how to obtain information.

However, if I'm going to be reincarnated then at the very least, I deserve a short explanation! . . . I didn't think I would be this irritated about not having any information . . .

Mel's house was located around 50 meters down from my house. It was a small one-story house that was surrounded by a forest which protected it from the wind.

Mel's father was named Hector and he usually carried around a bow. Her mother was named Polly and she often came by our house to help out. Her older brother s.h.i.+m is around the same age as Rod, my older brother . . . I'm not sure if they have a family name or not but for a three year old, this is quite a bit of information. Maybe my memories have finally been fully restored. The information has been organized in a way that allows me to understand it . . .

Instead of knocking on the door like a normal person, I abruptly opened the door and shouted ”Is Mel there!?”.

It's excusable since I'm the son of a feudal lord but did the previous Zack have no manners? Oh well, I'll slowly improve myself from now on . . .

From inside, a charming girl with shortly cut light brown hair and large brown eyes immediately appeared. She seemed to only be older than me by one year.

”What are we going to do today Zack-sama?”

I hadn't thought about it much and was hard pressed for an answer. I tried thinking about what a three year old child might say and then replied, ”Taking a walk?” However, no matter how hard I try, inside, I reek of a middle aged man.

For a middle aged man who's over forty to try to act like a child . . . I feel so embarra.s.sed.

Mel charmingly smiles at me and then nods. She shouts ”I'm going to play with Zack-sama!” and then rushes over to me.

A lovely woman who seemed to be in her mid twenties, Mel's mother, Polly, appears from inside while wiping her hands on her ap.r.o.n.

”Mel! Properly watch over Zack-sama so he won't get injured! You should also be careful Zack-sama!”