Volume 1 Chapter 1 Part4 (2/2)

”Two years from now, we are going to send another person to this world. He is probably going to receive interference from our enemy. When he arrives, we wish that you protect him and if possible, open up a path for him by teaching him.”

Open up a path? Like what John the Baptist did for Jesus? Teaching him . . . might be interesting?

I was slightly interested in guiding this hero who was supposedly going to save the world. Saving the world myself was too heavy a task but guiding the hero seemed like a much lighter responsibility.

What kind of person is he?

I tried to get more information on the mysterious person and asked, ”Who is this person? I won't be able to help you if I don't know anything about him.”

”We cannot reveal such information at this time. However, when the time comes, fate will make it so your paths intersect. You will understand at that time.”

I was planning to enjoy my second life. However, encountering this person because of fate or something and getting wrapped up in his problems was not something I was eager about.

I probably don't have a choice do I? Refusing would probably land me a heavy penalty . . .

”You have the choice to refuse. The penalty you speak of does not exist.”

I finally realized that this G.o.d was reading my mind.

Uh . . . if you can read my mind, why are you even bothering with speaking aloud . . . Besides, if it's possible for me to refuse, why did you call me out in the first place?

”We believed that if it was you, you would still cooperate with us even if you didn't understand our goals. There's no need for you to be so doubtful. You can live the life you want to live. By doing so, you naturally contribute to our goals.”

I felt it was necessary for me to draw out a pledge from these G.o.ds just as an extra precaution.

Even though I still don't really get what you want, if what you said is true, then I will accept your task. But remember, I'm going to live my life the way I want to. If this future hero causes my freedom to be taken away, even though I won't try to do anything to him, I definitely won't a.s.sist him. I don't intend to offer the freedom in my life to a person I don't even know, is that acceptable to you?

”It is acceptable.”

I had several things I wanted to confirm.

In particular, I had an uncomfortable feeling about the abilities I had gained from the character creation process. Furthermore, the character creation system was eerily similar to an TRPG.

Is the TRPG character creation system a hobby of yours?

Through the telepathy-like though projection system, I could sense that the G.o.d seemed bewildered.

”I do not know what you want to say, but your abilities were given to you in the way you wanted to be.”

The character named Zacharias was created in the way I wanted it be?

”That's correct. The manner in which you created him has nothing to do with us.”

Apparently, the TRPG system was of my own creation.

Was it possible for me to make my abilities even better?

”Of course. However, it was not something you desired. You received a great deal of our divine protection but you had never requested for abilities on the level of a demiG.o.d.”

I finally realized what it was I wanted. My wish was never to be a hero. No, the only thing I really wanted was the ability to wipe my gray life clean and start over. I didn't want to become some kind of superhuman who had immense powers, instead, I wanted to live a life that was filled with companions and friends.

The G.o.d might have taken my silence as the end of our conversation or ran out of time, either way, he said,

”Well then, enjoy your second life. We have already met with you as you requested . . . farewell.”

Please wait, at least tell me your name . . .

At that moment, my consciousness was abruptly cut off.

When I opened my eyes, it looked like it was midnight. My mother and father were still sleeping peacefully besides me. I tried to recall the conversation I had with the G.o.d-like beings.

Two more years? I'm already around three years old. That means that this future-hero is going to be five years my junior. Maybe those G.o.ds thought that waiting a few years would allow me to teach that guy better. Or is there a different reason for the age difference? I wonder what my meeting with this hero is going to be like. Nevertheless, I've gotten authorization from those G.o.ds to live my life as I like. Enjoy my second life, they said . . .

My thoughts concluded and I quickly fell asleep.

The next day, I decided to focus on acquiring the knowledge and skills needed to live in this world.

First, was the language. Based on what I'd heard so far, the words possessed a close resemblance to English. The alphabet system here is basically identical to the Latin alphabet. There were many unique characteristics in the way the places around here were named. If this were England, perhaps the dialect would be similar to those of Scottish or Wales.

The words in daily conversation were no problem for me.

As for the character system, their alphabet was virtually the Latin system so it was easy to memorize. Their number system was also a modified version of the Arabic numeral system. Even though it was a bit awkward in the beginning, I was able to also quickly grasp their numbering system.

The main problem I faced was memorizing words. My family didn't have a dictionary. Maybe dictionaries were extremely expensive and could only be found in places like the royal palace or the library of the capital. Either way, not having a dictionary was extremely exasperating. Every time I heard a word I couldn't understand, I had to go and ask someone. You might think that simply asking someone shouldn't be too difficult, however, you need to remember that there was no reason for a little child like me to constantly ask about difficult words. Each time I asked someone, they would look at me strangely and ask why I wanted to know. Eventually, asking for the meaning of words became extremely troublesome.

After learning how to read and write to a certain extent after three months, I tried pestering my family for a book to read. In the beginning, they gave me a thin book which contained a short and simple story. However, I quickly got tired of the book in less than a month. In my house we had too office rooms. One belonged to my father who was the lord of our territory and the other belonged to my grandfather who was the previous lord. Books on things like geography and history were stored in those rooms. Since I was still an infant, I was naturally not allowed to enter their rooms. However, after earnestly begging my father for a while, I somehow succeeded in borrowing some of their books.

My effort was worth it, as I was finally able to understand the things that were happening on in this world.

I was also able to gain general knowledge from my mother and Molly the maid.

In this world, one year was exactly twelve months, one month was exactly thirty days, one day was exactly twenty-four hours. When I first heard about this, I felt deeply moved by how beautifully simple the system was. It seemed like the G.o.ds of this world were existences who were fond of order and harmony.

Based on what I learned from the geography books and heard from others, I lived in Rushmore village, a small village with a population of approximately 500 people. This Lockhart family's entire territory only consisted of this place. Rushmore seems to be located northeast, at the outermost edge of the Kaelum Empire (TL: My previous chapters were translated a long time ago, so I'm not sure if this is the correct spelling. Feel free to post a comment about it if the name's appeared before.) In terms of lat.i.tude, I think we're around 40 degrees north. When comparing the number of daylight hours of the summer and winter seasons, I found out that the difference was not as extreme as the regions of northern europe. At most, the hours of suns.h.i.+ne differed at around the same amount as Hokkaido. Still, I can't be too certain since the size of this planet is still unknown.

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