Chapter 1-1: An Otherworlder in the Midst of Understanding the Current Situation?
This world, “Dragon Jewel,” was created by the Dragon God. The name carried the meaning of being the Dragon’s treasure…or something like that.
Even now, legends existed in this world – of living gods who still appeared to reside here. “Appeared to”, because the average person could not meet the gods; only royalty might be able to do so. If the average person happened to have a wish, it seemed that they had to go to a temple.
Ever since I gained full awareness, I constantly sought out information. I would feel confused to the point of going mad if I did not do so, and hence, I thirsted for knowledge. In this manner, I listened to various kinds of information and developed a hypothesis.
“Could it be, I was in another world in my past life…?”
Certainly, I had several years worth of memories as Ocht. My mother and I were part of a traveling troupe of entertainers, and occasionally, I had sung on stage as part of an exhibition. Although my memories were a bit vague, as I was in a dreamy state of mind, they were undoubtedly mine.
Alongside those, I currently also had a different set of memories. I had no idea what kind of person the owner of these memories was, but I believed that this massive amount of memories, which were unrelated to Ocht, surely formed the foundation of my personality. Conversely, Ocht’s memories weren’t filled with experience nor knowledge, to the point where I believed that it was not possible for them to develop a personality.
The memories of the other person showed that they had dwelled in a country called “Japan”. It seemed that all the children went to school, so I also went there. In almost every country in this world, only people who had wealth or talent could go to school. That alone was already a big difference. It also seemed that Japan didn’t really believe in religion. At the very least, it wasn’t a monotheistic country.
At first, I had thought, “Perhaps I just don’t know it, but that country exists somewhere in this world.” However, the deciding factor that made it clear that it was in another world was the fact that the only intelligent life living there was the “Human Race”.
“After all, based that knowledge, I shouldn’t exist.”
A variety of races, including the “Human Race”, lived on Dragon Jewel. A large majority of the population was comprised of the “Elf Race”, the “Beast Race”, the “Winged Race”, the “Demon Race”, and the “Spirit Race”. However, the Beast Race classified themselves even further, and there were as many minority races as there were stars.
As for me, I was something called a “Mixed Breed”, and I possessed the blood of the “Human Race”, the “Elf Race”, the “Beast Race”, and the “Spirit Race”. A “Mixed Breed” was someone with the blood at least three different races. They were a despised existence. This was because different races developed differently, and no one knew how a “Mixed Breed” would develop.
The first time I heard it, I was like, “What the heck?” I then thought, “I can’t choose how I’m born, so isn’t it cruel for me to be persecuted right off the bat?” It seemed that the country called Japan didn’t really have something like social status, so there weren’t things like persecution. However, after hearing one reason after another, I understood why they were hated a little better. The rate of growth, lifespan, knowledge, and magic power of a “Mixed Breed” were all unknown.
In other words, one could constantly grow for a week and suddenly die, while another might remain as a baby for 100 years before suddenly growing. Their magic power or knowledge might be abnormally high, or on the contrary, abnormally low. Although one might be normal up to a certain age, they might suddenly start aging faster. They were like unpredictable bombs.
Abnormal growth wasn’t a disease though, so that wouldn’t affect other people. However, public order here wasn’t as good as it was in Japan, so the people of this world believed that the bloodline of a child who wasn’t guaranteed to become an adult should not be left for the next generation. This was why “Mixed Breeds” were detested.
In my case, my body seemed to grow at the speed of the “Human Race”, but my intelligence had been no different than a baby’s. It seemed that I was at a level where if I couldn’t speak properly, I would be completely unable to live normally. After the death of my half “Spirit Race” and “Beast Race” mother a month ago, my intelligence and my emotions suddenly began to develop. Since they had developed to an extent that surpassed my current body, if other people knew about me, they would probably find me disturbing. Perhaps the fact that they could not understand us “Mixed Breeds” also contributed to why we were detested.
Even then, the fact that I had not died yet was because this world’s ethics prevented people from killing “Mixed Breeds”.
“Having said that, I’m still acting right now.”
Japanese people were good at reading the mood. It was such a normal skill that you could use the slang term “KY” to refer to people who couldn’t read the mood. However it was impossible for me to put this ability into effect when I didn’t understand the situation. As a result, I was a little cut off from the people in the troupe of entertainers right now.
If I tried to behave like a child after all of this, they would probably feel even more creeped out. On the other hand, if I talked too fluently for a kid of my age, they would also probably feel creeped out, so right now, I was continuing as a taciturn type of character.
Now then, what should I do to live comfortably after this? As for preventing myself from being persecuted in the future, I had thought, “Wouldn’t it be fine if I just hide the fact that I’m a ‘Mixed Breed’ from now on?” In reality, though, it wasn’t so optimistic. “Mixed Breeds” had a peculiarity where their faces had a large birthmark. In my case, I had a shadow-like birthmark at the corner of my eye, and it was definitely in my identification papers now.
I had no choice but to wear a mask or a hood to hide it. I imagined an appearance like that but…it was suspicious to the point where it was creepy, even if I wasn’t a Mixed Breed.
This society was seriously hard to live in. It was too wearisome. I felt like it was at the level where it was fine for me to just slightly despair over it alone.
“Ocht, the troupe head said we could play.”
Among all this, there was only one child that didn’t fear me. Not only that, even now, after my mind had strangely developed, he still treated me like a little sister, even though he was only a little older than me.
“Clau.”
Clau, who was peeking into the tent from outside, quickly smiled after seeing me and rushed over. By the way, the only people who treated me as a normal child right now was his mother and the troupe leader. Moreover, they treated me as a very rare and strange child.
“He said if we hand out the flyers today, we can play afterwards. Ocht, let’s go.”
Clau grasped my hand with a big, innocent smile before quickly leaving the tent quickly.
“Clau, wait up. I still haven’t polished the knives.”
In order to stay in this troupe, I needed to work. Up until now, my mother had worked and it had been fine for me to just be on the stage as part of an exhibition, but now that my mother was dead, I would be left behind if I didn’t do various miscellaneous tasks. “Mixed Breeds” were certainly rare, but they did exist in the world, so I couldn’t be shown off as a special centerpiece.
Anyway, I needed to appeal to them as a useful person.
For that reason, I performed maintenance on the group members’ tools every day, while trying to understand my current situation.
“Isn’t that Iris’ work? Ocht doesn’t need to do it. Mom said you fail as a professional if you don’t maintain your own trade tools.”
“No.”
I replied clearly and shook my head. Certainly, that might be the case, but if I didn’t do something they had asked me to do, I didn’t know what kind of harassment I would receive.
Unfortunately, I was not a professional martial artist, much less an assassin; I was just a helpless child. If I got hit, I could actually die.
Even though this was another world, I had come to a conclusion after I thought hard, using my past life’s memories.
“It’s safer to be wrapped by long things.”
“Long…to be wrapped?”
I nodded to Clau’s reply.
As long as I didn’t suffer much, it was better to just give up for the sake of my future. If I went around working properly, at least I wouldn’t get hurt, and I could probably retain my basic human rights.
“I don’t really get it, but I’ll help you out, Ocht!”
Clau sat down on the ground, took the cloth I was using, and started polishing the knives. I was worried about getting a small child to help, since he could accidentally get injured by the blade, but Clau was pretty stubborn. Once he had decided on something, he wouldn’t stop helping until it was done.
“Thank you.”
“I’m your big brother, so it’s only right that I protect Ocht!”
As if to tell me “don’t worry”, he put his small hand on my head and started ruffling my hair. That was something his mother often did, so it was his way of showing affection, but my hair became messy. It was somewhat of an unwelcome favor.
In order to quickly finish up on my end, I coated the knives, which had gotten dull, with oil and sharpened them on the whetstone. I didn’t know how to do this in my past life, so I had gotten Iris to teach me the steps. My mind, which had just gotten out of an infant state, easily sucked up the skill.
I was thankful, but…it felt like I might have just become a jack of all trades.
“I’m done.”
After wiping the last container of oil I had used clean and putting it into the toolbox, I wiped the sweat off of my forehead using my sleeves. With a child’s strength, even something like this was pretty heavy labor.
“Okay. Let’s head to where Mom is!”
Why?
Weren’t we going to go distribute flyers? I tilted my head as Clau grabbed my arm and stood up.
“If we’re this dirty, won’t the town people look down on us?”
I see.
Certainly, both I and Clau had gotten dirty. Clau grasped my hand, and this time, we headed out of the tent.
Xant & Minions 