Summary:
Coincidences are a strange thing. Entirely unintended, unplanned, and in most cases unpredictable. Despite this, those same accidents could go on to change this, reshaping those affected, redefining the impossible, and moulding the narrative as it pleases, causing it to stray from its intended path.
It was one of those same, innocuous coincidences that led to a thirty-five-year-old NEET to reincarnate in another world, and another entirely different one that ensured he wouldn't be alone.
Instead, he'd be joined by another. A man in his late twenties, employed as a worker at a convenience store, who, driven by illness, would find himself a victim of a freak car crash, which would, in turn, cause him to awaken to a new life as a young nobleman within the Boreas Greyrat Family.
Chapter 1: A Fantastical Renaissance
Notes:
Hey there! Thanks for checking this out.
I intend to talk to anyone who'll listen a bit more at the end of this, but for now, there's something pretty important that I figured I should probably tell you about before you read this.
In this chapter, you'll encounter a language that our *Currently Unnamed Main Character* can't understand. Authors have a few different ways of dealing with this. Some X it out, as the original story does in its first chapter, some write around it, changing perspectives so that they don't have to write it from the character's perspective.
I've chosen to write it out, but put it through a simple Caesar Cypher. 7 a-h, if you don't know what that is or means, that's fine, it's the default setting for an easy to find online converter so if you want to translate it and see what I wrote, it should be easy to look up, if not that's fine too I tried to write it in a way where you'd be able to understand the chapter regardless.
Once again. If you want to translate the gibberish dialogue, run it through a Caesar Cypher, 7 a-h decoder.
I wrote it twice, but that'll probably just increase the chance of people skipping this.
Oh well.
It should also be mentioned that the last line of dialogue can be read at face value and doesn't need translating.
Enjoy.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
A vivid light called out to me. Its radiance challenged me as it pushed through the thin gap in the wall ahead, eager to greet me and introduce itself in person.
Despite the warm welcome and luminescent invitation, I found myself overwhelmed, eyes clamping shut, unable to behold the light's brilliance. My body flinched, overtaken by a fear of the unknown. Halting the steady forward march, I'd been diligently undertaking until that point.
It was during this brief pause, a mere second, that my body's self-inflicted perpetual motion stopped, that my thoughts caught up to me, and I began to wonder…
Where am I?
This certainly wasn't my futon, and as cramped as my apartment is, doubling up as storage for all the merchandise and memorabilia my parents refused to shove into their attic, it wasn't half as tight as this place. Wherever it was, there was no doubt it could have inflicted even the smallest mouse with a debilitating case of claustrophobia.
Its reddish walls, illuminated by the pervasive light that stopped me in my tracks, it almost reminded me of a cave. Through carefully squinted eyes, I could have sworn I saw my confines shake, quivering in excitement. Pulsating each second, working only to further tighten around me.
Forget my apartment, was this even real?
Sure, I'd heard of red rocks, so the idea that similarly colored cave systems existed somewhere out there wasn't the craziest thing to cross my mind, but that still didn't explain how the hell I got here. Or why the walls were wet to the touch. Had a flood recently passed through the tunnel? That didn't seem right; sure, it'd been raining over the past few days, but not nearly enough to cause a flash flood.
This had to be a dream.
That was my conclusion. It was the only thing that made sense, given that no matter how I tried to justify the situation in my head, nothing came together as it should. Not to mention that all of this was inconsistent with my memories of yesterday…
Huh.
What…What did I do yesterday?
I think I had a shift at the convenience store, and the manager made me come in even though I'd been running a high fever. On account of having blocked sinuses and wearing a mask to stop myself from spreading the infection, it was pretty hard to breathe. Still, I'm fairly sure I worked through it, in spite of the dirty looks the especially health-conscious customers gave me.
It was dark out when I got off, and I just wanted to crawl back into bed, so after swapping out with a co-worker, I headed straight home. At some point, it started to rain. Without an umbrella, it'd only worsen my condition, but I didn't want to turn around to buy one at my workplace, so I decided to power through.
Next, I think I came to a crossing in the road, where a group of three middle schoolers, a girl and two boys, were arguing with each other. I can't even begin to remember what it was they were saying, though I do remember how their loud declarations of jealousy caused my head to feel like it was splitting apart.
Blinded by rage, the rational parts of my brain clouded over with illness, my open palm curled into a frustrated fist as I began moving toward them, resolved to give them a piece of my mind. Unlike me, they were still in their prime, caught in the thralls of youth, capable of doing and becoming anything, without being weighed down by the responsibilities and expectations that come with being an adult.
Yet here they were, arguing in the middle of the street, wasting the precious time they had, and showing off to us sad sacks who'd wasted the springtime of our youth. All while making a scene and disturbing the peace.
That's a crime. You know.
After that I…After that. Is when it all goes blank.
Come on. Brain think! I know our memory has never been great, but whatever it is that got us into this situation, or caused us to hallucinate this dream, has got to be in there somewhere. I'll even give you a reward if you find it. I'll eject all of the junk food and cup ramen out of my diet and subsist on exclusively brain foods.
Salmon, kale and walnuts only!
That's all I need.
As long as you still let me eat dessert every now and again.
Despite my best efforts and most tantalising offers, my mental playback of the previous day ended there. Leaving me to ponder, for a fleeting moment, if this was all some punishment for flying off the handle and beating those middle schoolers to a bloody pulp.
"Argh!" Thankfully, those wayward thoughts were pushed down into the recesses of my mind upon being interrupted by the frantic and pain-filled groans of an unseen woman. Her cries filled the empty space of my compact prison with frightening efficiency, reverberating through the hallway and shaking the walls to their very core.
A pit began to form in my stomach. Thinking and theorising were pointless; whatever reason there was for me being here was moot. One thing I did know was that the crying woman, and whatever was causing her pain, was on the other side of the cracked wall that lay ahead.
If I wanted to make it out of here alive, I'd have to do anything and everything I could to avoid it.
As if programmed to respond to my deep well of internal dread. The cave's wall began contracting around me at a more than alarming rate, tightening around my body and pushing me forward toward the wall I'd just sworn to avoid.
Hey. Wait. I desperately tried to call out, but no matter how much I willed myself to speak up against whatever force was propelling me headfirst into danger. My body refused to listen, leaving me unable to object to the sudden shift in location.
Hadn't they ever heard that it was a bad idea to head toward the light?
The cracked wall that had been staring back at me, having remained unmoving throughout my mental anguish and short-lived quest to retrieve my memories, began to shift as I approached. Slowly, the gap between the two mounds that formed the wall pulled apart, allowing light from the other side to spill into the cave.
My eyes closed reflexively once again, overwhelmed by the abundance of light, though not before catching a faint glimpse of a gentle pair of hands, outstretched just beyond the cave's exit, reaching out to catch me.
Temporarily blinded, I was left in the dark, as I felt the aforementioned hands wrap around me, gently enclosing around my body, as if to contain it without fully restricting it, as the cave had. Once firmly within the hands' grasp, my body was lifted upward with frightening ease.
Here I was, a twenty-five-year-old man who weighed just short of a hundred and sixty pounds, being hoisted up into the air without so much as a laboured grunt from the poor soul doing the lifting.
What kind of monster had a hold of me? I had to wonder.
Floorboards creaked, and the figure holding me wandered from the cave's entrance. I felt practically weightless, as they shifted my body so that they could hold me up with one hand, leaning me against a round and bouncy surface that was so soft I practically sank into it.
My mind wandered for a moment, lost in the comfort this new position brought, though I was still able to make a high-pitched splashing sound that came from behind me.
That at least confirmed that this place had water.
Said water would then be unceremoniously dumped on top of me. Without warning, the cold liquid would rush past my body, drenching me as if rushed toward whatever container had been laid out onto the floor in advance. I could feel my body temperature plummet in real time, helped along by my now damp hair and the stray raindrops that'd clung to my body.
If they were going to waterboard me, they could have at least used warm water.
Thankfully, my robust captor came to my aid. Promptly wrapping a fuzzy piece of cloth around my body, shielding me from the elements and leaving little time for me to wallow in the frigid air. Their second hand returns to begin rubbing the fabric against me, mopping up the residual water and returning my body to the room temperature it was built to operate in.
Something akin to a satisfied chuckle sounded from above me, before my pack mule began to move again, they'd turn themselves with an audible swishing sound, shifting me once again as if presenting me to the world.
Then a voice spoke up, cutting through the air, "Jvunyhabshapvuz! Svyk Wopspw, Shkf Opskh. Pa'z h ivf!" I could recognise the speaker as the same one who'd chuckled mere seconds ago. The voice was deep, feminine, and full of warmth, speaking with a tone reserved for announcing joyful news.
It was then that the tension in my eyelids dissipated, signifying that I'd adapted to the light that had accosted me upon leaving the cave.
Feeling that it was somewhat safe to gaze upon my surroundings, I braced myself for impact and forced my eyes to open. The sight I'd be met with was that of a large medieval bedroom. A deep moss green carpet stretches across the floor, seemingly expensive paintings and bookshelves filled with their namesake line the walls, leaving only the odd gap to allow for the room's windowsills to jut outward.
It's the type of thing you'd expect to be sealed off and maintained in a museum dedicated to an important figure in history, or described in some fantasy novel.
Still lying in the arms of a woman, my head is tilted upward as they begin moving forward, shifting my eyeline so that I'm looking up at them.
She was huge. No, not like fat, I'm not an insensitive jerk. Though her frame did seem to be on the larger side, it didn't account for the fact that from where I was sitting, she was practically a giant. I'd have estimated the woman was at least three meters tall, allowing her to stand taller than most of Japan's moderately sized homes.
Though it wasn't just the woman's size that was strange. While she closely resembled the average person I'd pass by on the street without a second glance, a few of her features left me with a raised eyebrow.
While not entirely out of the ordinary, her long, bright orange hair was already eye-catching, given that I came from a land where the majority's natural hair color was jet black. Nestled within her overhead mane were two short ears, clad in fur of a similar color that ended in a black tip.
When coupled with the shiny button-like patch of skin that sat at the tip of her nose, she almost looked like an honest-to-goodness Beast Person. Specifically, she reminded me of a fox.
Her state of dress was also somewhat strange, given that she seemed to be dressed from head to toe in a long black dress, pristine white apron, and a frilly headpiece that shared both colors.
That's right. It's full-on maid attire.
Was she cosplaying or…
My thought process was then interrupted as we reached our destination. The fox woman looked down at me for a moment before moving me so that I'm left looking outward.
An extravagant king-sized bed, complete with tall supporting posts and an overhanging canopy, sat in the centre of the room, pushed against the farthest wall. Laid beneath a thick lilac cover is a deshevaled woman with long red hair, dressed in a plain white gown. Stood beside her, holding her hand in his, was a man with shaggy brown hair, shifty eyes, dressed to the nines in an expensive-looking green suit.
The woman's breathing is stressed and laboured, her body painted in a layer of sweat that glistens when catching the sunlight shining through the room's windows. She looked like she'd been through hell.
Despite that, as her eyes met mine, she couldn't help but smile. Revealing to me, a pure innocent expression, one filled with love, warmth, and longing. Her lips quivered excitedly as if she was doing everything she could to hold her already wide smirk, in case her expression became permanently etched onto her face.
"Ho. Dvuklymbs!" The man declared, speaking in the same unfamiliar language that the maid had.
I wasn't much of a linguaphile, so no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't gain any insight into what it was he was saying. All I could tell you is that it wasn't Japanese, and though I'm not too familiar with it outside of my time studying it in school, I don't think it's English either.
"Pu ylabyu mvy vby ohyk dvyr. Dl'cl illu islzzlk dpao h ivf av hja hz hu olpy av aol Ivylhz Nylfyha uhtl." The man continues, grinning from ear to ear as he glances at the woman.
She returns the glance, groaning between deep breaths, "Uvul vm aoha thaalyz hz svun hz aol ihif'z olhsaof," before looking back to me.
He seemed to comprehend her statement, nodding, "Vm jvbyzl, klhy."
Again, the fox-woman dressed as a maid chuckles, "Dvbsk aol shkf sprl av tlla oly jopsk?"
Given my position, I couldn't tell who the maid had directed the question toward, so I was left wondering until the red-haired woman's head bobbed up and down in a tired nod. Seemingly, it was code for something, as upon receiving the signal, the fox-person began walking closer, following the right side of the bed until we were close enough to touch the ragged woman.
Once we were in range, the woman leaned forward, groaning slightly as she did, still she didn't hesitate to reach her arms outward as if inviting me in. It'd become expected at this point, but I had little to no input in where I was going, and as such, the fox-maid hybrid handed me off to her without a word.
Now holding me with her hands looped under my armpits, the red-haired woman murmurs, "Olssv, aolyl, spaasl vul," softly, before pulling me in, she sets me on her lap, and allows me to lean back, slotting into the gap between her more than bountiful breasts. "Dl'cl hss illu clyf lejpalk av tlla fvb." She hums, her chest vibrating as she speaks.
"Flz." The man speaks up, sitting down on the bed next to the woman, and placing his hand over hers, "Fvb'yl nvpun av kv nylha aopunz pu aopz dvysk. Tf zvu."
What…What's happening here?
With the two looking down on me with satisfied smiles plastered across their faces, I'm left feeling like I'm stuck in the middle of a tender family moment, but I had no idea what was going on.
As I sat there, pondering the specifics of whatever strange situation I'd found myself in, an itch began to surface on my right cheek. At first, I tried to ignore the irritant, lost in my own thoughts, I'd presumed it'd fade over time. When the annoyance still persisted, I finally relented, allowing my hand to freely wander up to my face.
And that's when I saw it.
Though at first it was only a distorted view, presented at the edge of my peripheral vision, my head soon jolted to the side, allowing me to stare wide-eyed at my arm.
Instead of the pale, lanky and admittedly malnourished appendage that I'd allowed to waste away during the course of my life. Instead, the arm that had answered my call to scratch the itch was short, chubby, and had a much more limited range of movement. Looking at it, as I curiously curled and uncurled my fingers, I couldn't help but compare it to that of a baby's.
In that moment, the fog that had been obscuring the events of yesterday cleared, allowing it all to come flooding back to me.
Vividly, it was played back to me like a movie on the silver screen. Just like I'd recounted before, in a state of confused delirium, helped along by fever and a long day at work, I stumbled toward the group of middle schoolers with a clenched fist and the intent to give them a stern talking to.
Previously, I'd worried that after having been pushed to the edge by the events of the day, I might have finally snapped, leading me to take my anger out on the teens. Now able to recall the missing pieces of the puzzle, however, I could tell you that couldn't be further from the truth.
Having resolved to lecture my juniors in life, I'd begun sauntering over to them, barely able to hold myself upright on account of my sinus's messing with my sense of balance and the near constant pain that was rhythmically beating in my head.
When I was only a few steps away from my targets, I sloppily stuttered out, "H-hey," before swallowing hard to force the mucus in my nose upward.
After hearing my frustrated cry, the three turned to look at me, but as soon as their eyes met mine, I fell. In my rush to educate them on all the ways they were wasting their life, I'd wandered too close to the curb. All it took was one instance of placing my foot too far to the side to send me tumbling down to the ground, landing with my face half submerged in a puddle that'd formed in the road.
The two boys ignored my antics completely, which was somewhat hurtful, but I suppose it was the correct decision given that I probably appeared as your average drunk idiot looking to start a fight.
Their feminine friend, however, seemed to have a modicum of kindness in her heart; she'd break from whatever argument she had been absorbed in to come check on me. "Are you okay?" It was a simple question, accompanied by an outstretched hand; in any other situation, it would have inspired me and helped me regain some hope in humanity.
However, instead of focusing on the girl's hand, my attention had been drawn elsewhere, to a pair of headlights belonging to a large delivery truck. It was speeding toward us, barrelling down the street at a pace that surely broke the suburban speed limit and showing no signs of stopping.
Either the driver was negligent and hadn't seen the cluster of four people standing in the way, or they'd fallen asleep at the wheel and were no longer conscious enough to comprehend that they were about to commit manslaughter.
Regardless, why it was happening wasn't important. What was, is that the young girl who'd gone out of her way to show me a modicum of kindness was standing in its path, and was totally oblivious to her fate.
I tried to warn her verbally, but as I opened my mouth, water from the puddle forced its way in, leaving me in a light coughing fit, which only served to worry the girl more and further distract her from the oncoming truck.
The vehicle continued charging forward. Unbothered by the dark clouded skies or the accompanying rain, and soon it'd come to a close, to a reasonable stop in time to avoid us, even if the driver did get his act together.
In that moment, I had to accept that it was over. That my life was coming to an end. I didn't like it by any means. There was so much I still wanted to do: get married, move out of my crummy apartment, have kids, get a dog, travel abroad, and find a job I didn't hate, but all of those wishes would have to go unfilled.
That was just how the cookie crumbled.
I could force myself to accept that.
What I couldn't accept, though, was the idea that this girl would go down with me.
So, gather every ounce of strength and determination that I could muster. I planted my hands on the ground and pushed myself upward in one fluid motion, reaching for the girl, but it proved pointless. My hand stopped inches from the girl's collar, the truck now only slightly further behind her, a honking sound cried out, signifying that only now had the driver realised what was happening.
It was hopeless. My last act was moot.
Still, if there is an afterlife, maybe it'll at least score some points with the judges when they're deciding where to send me.
Then, as I'd all but given up, a man appeared. Clad in an unimpressive blue tracksuit, an unkempt five o'clock shadow, and a distinct lack of shoes. The large figure had grabbed one of the girl's friends, who'd been close enough to be caught in the crossfire and thrown him out of the way at the cost of putting himself in danger.
Now, he was reaching for the girl just as I was.
And as his meaty hand curled around her arm, leaving a noticeable indent on her sailor uniform, it all cut to black. A loud thud sounded in my memory, along with police sirens and the murmurs of gossiping housewives who'd watched the scene unfold from a distance.
Finally, I could recall the fleeting and thankfully short-lived pain that shot through my body as every bone in my body was crushed without mercy; my body felt wet at the time, probably on account of being covered in my own blood. Then, it was cold, calm, and over.
Returning to the medieval bedroom with my memories intact, I felt my body tense as it tried to force something upward and outward. This…This was all too much for me to handle, overwhelmed by the scenes that were playing out in my mind, my body's fight-or-flight response kicked in, trying to force me to vomit the pain away.
However, there was nothing in my stomach to force out, leaving me retching over and over as I gasped for air.
This caught the attention of the three giants, who shared a brief look of concern as they watched me intently.
I'd died. Just as I thought I would.
I'd died and somehow, I'd ended up here. Wherever I am, as a baby. A newborn.
We had a word for this. A term that'd recently found itself popping up frequently in the fantasy genre, as a certain sub-genre of stories became more and more popular, some even claim the sheer mass of it's storeis eclipse the genre it originated in.
Without a doubt, this was a reincarnation.
It was an idea I'd briefly played around with in my mind before. What if I were reincarnated, if I could be the protagonist, the guy who became incredibly overpowered with little to no work and got the pretty girl?
The me of the past might have seen this as a dream come true. Right now, though, I could only wallow in the nightmare that was my dying day playing over and over again in my mind.
Still engulfed in the events of the past, the retching proved to be an inefficient method of dispersing and ejecting my stress. Leading this new body of mine, with no choice but to rely on its instincts.
And so, I cried.
"Waaaaaaaah!"
With minimal effort from me, tears began streaming down my face, and my mouth opened to begin wailing incessantly. Oddly enough, my cries for help seemed to calm the giants, though with the new context the flashback had granted me, it'd be more accurate to call them adults, each of their worried expressions softening as my body pivoted to more infantile behaviour.
"Vo klhy!" The red-haired woman, my mother, cooed, lifting me upward, cradling my body, pressing me to her chest as she rocked back and forth. "Dl jhu'a ohcl fvb jyfpun, jhu dl? Avkhf'z zbwwvzlk av il h ohwwf khf." She stifled an innocent chuckle, continuing, "Aolyl. Aolyl. Lclyfaopun dpss il vrhf, Thth'z olyl."
Something about the woman resonated with me. The warmth radiating from her body, the softness of her skin, the loving look in her eyes, her maternal tone, and the way it rang in my ears melted the tension in my body with ease. She felt as if she could stop time, and that in that moment, I was the only thing that mattered.
The woman's head lowers, allowing her to plant a gentle kiss on my forehead.
As if acting as an on/off switch, my crying began to peter out, the childish instincts taking a backseat and allowing my more adult sensibilities to take back control. The relief I felt in that moment, the solace that came packaged along with the woman's sympathy and care, is something I'll never forget.
Sniffing, I looked down at the lower half of the woman's body through my tear-stained eyes. That was where I'd come from. The place I'd been referring to as the 'cave' and the 'cracked wall'.
It was more than a little embarrassing in retrospect.
"Aolyl dl hyl. Hss ilaaly." The woman cheers softly.
A hand comes to rest on her shoulder, it's the man's, presumably my father's, "Fvb'yl h uhabyhs, Opskh." Whatever he said, the brown-haired man seemed both surprised and proud.
Chuckles sound from the side of the bed. This time it's the fox-like maid, "Aolyl'z uvaopun zayvunly pu aopz dvysk aohu h tvaoly'z svcl. P'k dhnly pu aopz zahal, Shkf Opskh jvbsk zlycl hz h dvyaof thajo mvy huf vm aol Zlclu Nylha Wvdlyz." She grinned, and the other two adults seemed to laugh along.
The beast woman steps forward, her arms once again outstretched, "Uvd aolu. Dof kvu'a P ahrl aol ihif huk zlaasl opt puav h jva zv fvb jhu nla zvtl ylza?"
In response to the maid's question, the woman looks down at me again, her lovestruck smile falters for a moment, and she sighs. "Mpul. Aoha pz mvy aol ilza," she seemed to be relenting rather than happily obliging her request.
She then hands me off to the maid, who accepts me with open arms, allowing the exhausted woman to lie down, burrowing herself into the bed covers. "Clyf nvvk." The fox person grinned, further inquiring, "Kpk dl kljpkl vu h uhtl mvy aol Fvbun Thzaly?"
Again, the conversation seems to turn to the pair on the bed, the two looking to each other with a slight nod. The red-haired woman murmured, "Perseus."
Nodding in approval, the maid carried me away into the fair off depths of…The other side of the room, where I was then unceremoniously lowered into a small cot or bassinet that seemed to have been carefully woven out of reeds, which was filled with a pillow made of feathers.
Having set me down, the fox woman flashed an endearing smile, bid farewell to my supposed parents and left the room.
Not long after, the man spoke up, saying something that sounded vaguely similar before paying me a brief visit and then making his exit, leaving the red-haired woman to rest and recuperate.
Which also left me functionally alone, trapped within the confines of the supped-up bread basket as I pondered the implications of living this new life.
Notes:
Hey again! Or for the first time, if you skipped the initial note, (It's fine, I've done it.) How was the gibberish dialogue by the way? If you're a little confused by that, you should probably see the note at the beginning of the chapter.
Anyway. Seems like another of these reincarnator OC stories has risen from the trash piles. They've been quite active recently, which makes me feel a little bad for those who don't care for them and only want fics relating to Rudeus and friends, but it'll be a while before he shows up here.
This. As in a Mushoku Tensei OC fic, has been something I've been wanting to do for a while, I'd estimate about two to three years. I'd drawn up a few character concepts, ideas, and starting points, even wrote a few chapters for some of them, but it never really felt right. Hell, there are a few things relating to this concept that I'm unsure of, but I'm overall happy with it so far.
Though that doesn't stop me from being nervous about putting this up. It's been years since I put a fic up on another account, which will remain a part of my secret past, as someone who was even worse at writing.
Truthfully, I've had this first chapter written for a month and a half. I've been sitting on it since, waiting for the courage to post it, and I think I'm there now.
I want people to see this. And I want people to tell me if my writings bad, and ideally, how I could improve.
I don't want this to get too long-winded, and during the time I'd been waiting to post this, I've pre-written some more chapters, some of which I'll be posting at the same time as this. So, I'll leave you be for now.
Hope to see you in the next chapter.
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