Zen's memories as a child weren't very abundant. The clearest ones were just knowledge about his family and Eldarwin Forest, and memories of the village at the foot of the mountain. Literally, he'd never left the neighborhood once since being born. But one strange thing was that among the knowledge he had was information about monsters. Why monsters that appeared after gates opened were also here was a mystery.
But what was important was that whether this was reincarnation or possession, he now had no choice but to live as the boy named Zen.
"Let me go outside for now."
Having organized his thoughts, Zen took the empty bowl and opened the shabby door to go outside.
"Creak..."
The first thing that entered his eyes was an old medieval farmhouse that could appear in movies.
It was surrounded by old wooden pillars that seemed to have lasted several years. The roof was covered with roughly woven straw and bark, looking helpless against heavy rain and wind.
The entrance was made of roughly hewn oak planks with a hand-carved latch. The windows were palm-sized with animal hide attached to barely block the outside wind. On one side of the wall, hides from the two wolves recently hunted were spread out, and white smoke rose from the smokehouse chimney all day long. The yard had a simple fence, and around the house wildflowers and weeds were tangled together.
He could see Dad sitting on a tree stump in one corner of the yard, maintaining his bow.
He was pressing down on the slightly curved bow shaft with his hand, checking the balance in the exact center, but Zen noticed Dad's leg tied up with rope using a wooden block as a splint. When they returned yesterday he was limping but could still walk, so it must be more serious than he thought.
"Dad, is your leg okay?"
"Just sprained it a bit."
"What do you mean 'a bit'! It's all swollen! Geez! Really! When we have a pile of things to do!!"
Mom's slightly irritated shout came from inside the house.
"I said it's fine! Ahem..."
Dad cleared his throat and glanced at me.
'They're good people.'
The more they talked, the clearer the memories of this body's parents became. Like absorbing knowledge read in books, they emerged with an overall feeling of great affection. His previous parents briefly came to mind. Though they existed only as fragmentary memories from the distant past, he knew each and every one had been warm.
"Anyway Zen! Go to the well with Anna and fetch some water. Anna, take this to your brother."
"Okay!"
Creak!
A small figure came toddling out carrying a wooden bucket as big as her body.
Maybe four or five years old? A very small and cute girl with messy brown hair wearing a sack-like dress stained with grime. Finding Zen, the child smiled brightly and ran over going "toddle toddle toddle."
"Big brother! Anna, this is heavy!"
"Oh... yeah."
Taking the wooden bucket from the child's hands reflexively, she naturally approached and grabbed Zen's hand. As if it had always been that way...
"Hurry! Let's go!"
"Yeah. Yeah."
"Fill the water container completely, don't get distracted by other things and hurry back!"
"Yes!"
***
The place they went to fetch water was a small spring about 10 minutes from home. Water flowing through rock crevices had pooled, and it was quite clear water. Zen looked at his own face reflected on the surface. A somewhat dark brown-haired boy with a thin, narrow jawline and expressionless but infinitely kind-looking eyes came into view.
'At least I'm not ugly.'
He had some complaints about his face looking too kind, but at least he was handsome.
"Good."
Since he was reborn, a handsome face was better, right? A handsome face was useful anywhere. Having lived his previous life without being very handsome, he could think of this as compensation.
"Big brother!"
After drawing water, Zen shouldered the rope connected to the wooden bucket.
It was heavy with water, but the calluses worn into his shoulder from the rope showed Zen had been doing this work for a long time.
"Anna! Let's go!"
"Okay!"
Anna, who'd been looking around the spring area while Zen drew water, ran over toddle toddle toddle with something making her happy and grabbed Zen's hand.
"Be careful coming down."
"Okay okay! Anna listens well!"
Since the path down from the spring was a bit steep, when he cautioned her, Anna, holding Zen's hand tightly, carefully placed her steps.
"Careful... careful..."
The sight of her coming down carefully holding his hand was so cute he wanted to pat her head, but unfortunately he had no free hands.
'Now that I'm reborn, I got a handsome face and such a cute little sister—maybe this is God's gift for all my hard work.'
In his previous life he was an only child. Of course, he wasn't lonely with his parents' love, but on the other hand, he didn't know how much he envied friends who had siblings. But in this new life he'd gained such a cute little sister. Well, guys with little sisters described them as 'just enemies connected by blood' or 'pain that gives without taking,' but... for now it was good. And right now there was something even better...
[Strength Amplification increases by 0.1%.]
'That's right. Awakened ones really are cheats!'
Just carrying some water and his strength increased in real time. This was the cheat-like nature only awakened ones possessed.
No matter how hard ordinary people tried, they couldn't beat awakened ones—the fundamental difference was here, and since the results of effort appeared in real time, the sense of achievement felt within was beyond words.
But this was still just an extremely small part of an awakened one's potential.
"It's still peanuts level, but if I keep collecting it'll become useful!"
"Huh? Big brother? What did you say?"
"No no. Let's go."
Anna heard his muttering and asked with her head tilted, but Zen shook his head and urged their steps along. He had no intention of telling anyone about his secret yet...
…
Splash!!
After pouring the last water into the water container, Zen wiped his sweaty forehead and called out to Mom inside the house.
"Mom! I got all the water!"
"Already? You didn't just half-fill it carelessly like before, did you?!"
"Huh? No, no!"
"I'll check, so wait."
"Um. Yes."
It seemed the previous Zen had been a bit unreliable with errands.
After waiting a moment, Mom came out opening the door, looked at the water sloshing in the container, and opened her eyes wide.
"Oh my? What's gotten into you?"
"What do you mean gotten into me? I just... did what needed to be done."
"My goodness, you used to always run away saying you didn't want to do anything when asked..."
"Haha..."
"Still... with Dad's leg in that state, I was wondering what we'd do, but the eldest son came to his senses."
Sensing a lecture coming, Zen quickly changed the subject.
"Um... where did Dad go?"
"He went to the forest out back."
"Can I go see Dad?"
"Go ahead. But later help me spread out the wolf hides."
"Yes."
"Anna, come here. Stay with Mom."
"No way! I'm going with big brother!"
Mom held out her hand but Anna shook her head vigorously while hiding behind Zen.
"Geez, do what you want."
"I'll take good care of her."
"Alright."
As Mom shook her head as if she couldn't stop them and went inside, Zen grabbed Anna's hand and walked toward the place called 'back forest' while recalling memories. Anna was swinging their joined hands excitedly, happy about something again.
"Happy to go with big brother?"
"Yes yes! Work is yucky!"
"Haha, yeah."
Memories with Anna were also gradually becoming clearer. This place was dangerous mountains where you couldn't find anything to play with even if you looked everywhere. So from when she started walking, she'd only held onto her brother's hand and stuck to his side like gum. It was bothersome, but as Zen there wasn't much to play with here either, so he remembered going around attached like one body.
"Be careful."
"Okay!"
Zen held Anna's hand and walked together.
And how long had they walked like that?
Whoosh! Thunk!!
A sound far too familiar and welcome reached Zen's ears.
Whoosh!! Thunk!
The sound of a sharp object cutting through wind and flying to hit a tree...
That sound he'd heard sickeningly for decades until it now felt like a friend made Zen unconsciously quicken his pace.
Whoosh! Thunk!!!
The owner of the sound was Dad.
After nocking an arrow on his bow, he slowly drew the string until the bow became a full moon, then released it lightly.
Whoosh! Thunk!!!
A short whistle-like sound tore through the air, and the flying arrow went and stuck in a large oak tree about 30m away.
"Good."
Dad kept nodding, pleased that the arrow hit well...
But Zen's mind looking at the arrow that hit the target was incredibly complicated.
'He really shoots like shit.'
It was too irreverent an expression to use about his blood-related father, but not a single arrow was stuck within the target roughly drawn on the oak tree.
One was stuck above, one below. To wander around like that at just 30m distance...
If his previous self had seen that sight, what would he have said?
'Stupid bastard shoots his bow stupidly too. Hey you. If you shoot like that you'll wreck your shoulder. Geez... who picked up this piece of trash? Upper body! Chin! Shoulder! Lower body! Everything's a mess! You think shooting arrows works on intuition? Don't put strength in your stomach! Why are you looking at the ground? At this rate you'll wreck all your joints.'
His shoulders were jerky, and the angle his elbow bent at was completely screwed. Setting aside not properly being conscious of his latissimus dorsi and rhomboid muscles, he was drawing the string with his whole arm instead of his fingertips. He had the style of someone who'd picked up techniques somewhere and was breathing well, but that was it.
'Really, if he wasn't my dad I'd want to hit him with a switch.'
He wanted to teach him by hitting each wrong part, but the opponent was his dad. He wasn't inheriting the hunter position either, and if he pointed things out according to his temperament, negative consequences were more likely than positive development. Zen pulled back his rotting gaze and looked up at Dad.
Dad, who was a good two heads taller with a large build, used a large wooden bow suitable for his body. The bow's shape was a flatbow style with flat, wide spreading arms—it had poor penetration and wasn't particularly long-range, but it was easy to handle.
'Seeing that the bow is decent enough to use, he must not have learned proper shooting methods.'
He could improve his skills much better by correcting just a few points right now, but it was regrettable since he couldn't give proper grounds for the knowledge he possessed.
Whoosh! Thunk!!
Finally one arrow stuck in the edge of the target, and seeing that, he nodded as if satisfied. Of course, Zen's eyes just rotted again watching that...
Dad lowered his bow and spoke to Zen.
"Son, it's time for you to learn archery too."
"Me?"
"Yeah. How about it? Want to learn from this dad of yours?"
"Ah... yes."
Actually, Zen's question contained the meaning 'You want to teach me that rotten method?' but he didn't want to let Dad know that. He wanted to show off bow skills of a different dimension if he felt like it.
"Good. Try shooting once."
"Yes."