The first rays of sunlight are breaking through the mist that covers the narrow streets of the town like a thin layer. The morning air is chill and fresh, and the smell of freshly baked bread wafts over from a nearby bakery.
I pace through the sleepy town, my footsteps echoing softly on the rough cobblestones.
Death, I think as I walk past a fountain, its water splashing gently in the morning silence.
The town is slowly coming to life, traders are opening their stores, and the first vendors are advertising their goods. But my thoughts revolve around this one topic that so many people fear.
With this thought, I was standing in Front of the inn where I saw, once again, the death in Front of my eyes Last night. Unlike other people who are sad and devastated when someone dies, I took the fact of my own death in a neutral way. Not because of the thought that I was given another chance and was reincarnated, but because I had already seen the corpses of the people who meant a lot to me with my own eyes.
In front of the inn, a small group of the town's inhabitants gathered to look at the crime scene. Two men who looked like soldiers with their iron armor and a sword on their belt guarded in front of the building.
A short moment later, two more soldiers stepped out of the house through the entrance, holding a covered stretcher in their hands. Of course, no one knew what was under the blanket, but there were probably some suspicions based on the length of the stretcher and the curvature of the blanket.
I watched for a few minutes how they loaded my former body onto a carriage and drove away, but before they left, I had already moved away from the crowd and took a short walk through the city.
The morning sun casts long shadows as I pass through a busier street. People greet each other, children run around, laughing.
I stopped and looked up at the sky, where the sun had now fully risen, bathing the city in warm light.
The chance of being reborn is fifty percent each time, either you are reborn, or you die forever, and your soul goes to the afterlife. But even if you are reborn, you die one day, maybe from old age, or maybe even from murder, as in my case.
Even if I got a second chance, it doesn't happen to everyone, because I will also die again one day in my new Form. And if I can believe the words of God, I won't get reincarnated after my next death.
A faint smile flits across my lips. Perhaps death and my reincarnation are simply a new beginning. A chance to experience something new, to grow, to learn.
It may not be the end, but the beginning of a new chapter. No matter what may come, I will write the book of my new life myself and never give up.
My first goal is to find the one who killed me last night. I have no idea who the culprit is, nor why he was after me.
The only thing I know is that he has a strange tattoo on his back, whose pattern I saw for the first time. However, I'm sure of one thing: after I've caught this guy, I'm gonna... kill him.
With a cold-blooded expression, I looked cluelessly to the right, where I saw a store selling various mirrors. But when I peeked into one of the mirrors displayed in the shop window, a person I didn't know was watching me.
My body flinched in shock and took a step back, but when I realized it I raised my left hand, causing the person in the mirror to raise his right hand from his side. As I thought, it was my own reflection, but I still couldn't believe it.
Eh? What is that? I asked myself in my thoughts. On the other hand, if I remember correctly, God mentioned something. .
So is this the new body God told me about? I still couldn't believe it, nor could I believe my eyes, but right now, I am a half-wolf.
My human ears were gone, but instead I now have big ears with an earring on the left ear, which I can apparently move around depending on my mood, and I felt something strange behind my legs, like someone was trying to kick against my legs.
However, when I looked behind me, a large and fluffy white silver tail of a wolf was wagging slowly. Hmm, I'll have to get used to that. Surprisingly, I also got a red eye color that didn't looked like colored contact lenses. My front teeth also became a little more sharper and my nails, or rather claws now, grew longer and turned black. I no longer wear my once black school uniform, but a black sweater, dark brown long trousers and brown boots.
The most important thing is my hair... My once dark brown hair was a different color, like I had dyed it, but still looked natural. White-silver strands hung down my forehead, covering my entire head. I took a closer look in the mirror and stroked my hair, admitting that it looked really cool, the shape of the hair was similar to my previous hairstyle, except for the fact that it grew a few centimeters longer.
Since I was lost in my thoughts anyway, I also thought of another thing I wanted to check. A short moment later, the familiar sound of a xylophone rang out and a floating display appeared in front of my eyes.
Name: Yuuji
Level: 1
Job: None
HP: None
MP:None
ATK: None
DEF: None
CRIT: None
ITEMS
SKILLS
Oh, not again...
Once again, I can't see my full status, well that's disappointing. How am I supposed to know if I'm strong enough to fight against monsters? I guess I'll find out when the time comes.
As I was already familiar with the system, I moved my index finger up to the SKILL-Button and pressed it. A second window appeared with two things listed.
30- seconds slow-motion
Super Claw > Lvl. 1
The slow-motion skill is still there, that's good, but apparently, I got an extra skill. Super Claw. I guess it has something to do with my claws, maybe a combat skill. If it says Level, it surely means I can master it. I'm curious to see what this skill looks like and how it develops, and especially what other skills there are which I can acquire and master.
I decided to check my items next, perhaps something had changed there too. I first pressed the ITEM-Button, the SKILL-Window closed, and the ITEM-Window appeared. The shape of the list, represented by square slots, remained the same, but I had more empty slots than before. Only one slot, with a silver coin icon and the number thirty below it, is filled. For some reason my standard equipment was gone, another disappointment. It'll be hard to go hunting today without a weapon.
Ah...
Silently, I remembered an appointment that was important to me, while hearing the melody of the church bells in the background. Because of all the unexpected, sudden events, I forgot that I had an appointment to meet the girl from yesterday.
I looked around, to see if there was a clock somewhere, maybe I still have time before we meet. According to a clock hanging on the wall of a building, it's now seven o'clock, so there's still an hour until the time I was supposed to meet her.
Then I remembered that she hadn't mentioned where we were going to meet. Guess I will have to look for her, hopefully this town isn't too big. After that, I started looking for Monika, who might be somewhere on the street already.
Today I realized how big this town actually is, and what a variety of goods are sold, it seems like a trading town to me. There's a watch store up ahead, a blacksmith on the other side and even a pharmacy next to me. I would like to know how much profit you can make as a store owner, maybe you will become a millionaire or something in that way.
I wandered through the town, which was indeed bigger than I thought, probably about six kilometers in diameter. Smaller than the city where I lived before I died, but it's still amazing that something like this is possible in a middle-aged world, I guess magic played a key role here.
There must be a lot of people living here too, the streets looked very crowded yesterday, which makes it even harder finding Monika. To be honest, she's not very tall, maybe around 1.70m, I'm 1.80m on the other hand, but still, I'm not very tall for this world either. Everyone is taller than me, especially the men. Despite my height, I didn't give up and kept looking for her, my route took me through side streets until I found myself in the middle of the town.
Suddenly a huge fountain was in Front of me, which captured my attention so much that I couldn't take my eyes off it. I never thought it would be possible for me to be enchanted by such a magnificent work of art.
But even though I was enchanted, I could take my eyes off it and looked at the person sitting at the edge of the fountain, probably waiting for someone. Now I couldn't take my eyes off this girl with chestnut brown hair.
There she was, the girl called Monika, whom I had the pleasure of meeting yesterday and whom I wanted to meet today. Unlike yesterday, she wasn't wearing that dark green cloak, instead she was wearing a beige shirt with a dark red vest, a matching dark red skirt and brown boots. I also recognized two shortswords and a small bag on her waist belt.
"Monika!" I called out and walked towards her.
"There you are... Yuuji?"
"You're not Yuuji. Who are you?" she asked me.
Now I've found myself in a bad situation, I forgot about Monika, who doesn't know about my new body. I only got it Last night. I can't tell her that I've been reincarnated and that I'm actually Yuuji. I have to find a quick answer. But what can I say? Monika looked at me questioningly, tilting her head slightly to the right, then she asked.
"Are you a friend of Yuuji's?"
"Right! I'm Yuuji's friend," I replied without a second thought.
How will I ever get out of this mess? I asked myself. Although I don't have to. I can just carry on playing my charade without getting exposed. I should be authentic as possible, not only to Monika, but also to other people, in order to keep my secret, even if it is hard for me, to lie to Monika.
Besides, I'm a new person now, Yuuji Takahashi is gone.
"Where is he? Is he late?"
There it is, a question I couldn't find an answer to. Maybe I should tell the truth about this one, but it still feels wrong to talk about, his own, death.
The thoughts from last night came flooding back and a heavy weight made my heart ache like someone was about to rip it out. Tilting my head forward and my eyes staring soullessly at the floor, I told her the following.
"Yuuji... Yuuji is dead. He was killed last night."
She looked at me in shock and with a pale face, holding her hands over her mouth and sobbing quietly. No wonder, we got along well yesterday.
"Who killed him?" Monika asks.
Of course I don't know who exactly killed me, and the clues I have at the moment are not enough to go any further, but one thing is clear.
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"I have no idea. But I'm not going to sit around doing nothing, I'm going to find the murderer and avenge m- Yuuji."
Right, I will get my revenge, I will find him at all costs and kill him. I won't find peace before then, even if I have to search the whole world. I will train, level up and master my skills to get stronger.
Monika crossed her arms and looked at me questioningly and suspiciously again.
"How are you going to find the culprit? Do you even have any clues?"
Back to the topic of clues. There are no clues that could help me, except for this strange tattoo on his back. Unfortunately, I can't describe the design of the tattoo, but if I would see it, I will recognize it immediately. I would like to tell Monika about it, but I already have a bad feeling at this thought. I'm going to keep it from her for the time being, and I also doubt that she suddenly saw the culprit with a tattoo on his back. I also don't want to involve Monika into this. It's my own business after all, so I have to capture that guy myself.
I put my right hand on my hip and tilted my head to the left, looking into the void for no reason.
"No, I don't have any clues." Then I looked her in the face again and spoke confidently.
"If I have to, I'll search all over the world, to find that bastard!"
Without hesitation, Monika mumbled something I couldn't quite hear but was able to put it together. "What an idiot." just came out of her mouth with cherry-colored lips.
I'm not happy about the
"You... Um, I'm sorry, but what's your name? We hadn't properly introduced ourselves yet."
It's true, she hadn't met this body yet, but I don't have a name in mind either. Of all the names I know, I can't think of a single one right now.
In the video games I have played so far, I gave my avatar the name YuuTa. As you can see, it's just a combination of my first and last name, and not very creative.
I could take a name from the last manga I read. What was the protagonist's name again? Ki... Ke... Ka...
"Kaito."
"Kaito, then."
Damn, I was thinking out loud. Now I can't take it back.
"Nice to meet you, Kaito. I'm Monika. But you surely already heard that from Yuuji."
She let out a soft giggle and her eyes sparkled delightedly. Her lips formed a bright smile that made my heart beat faster. I couldn't help but to take in the moment, her laugh and her smile.
Why did this moment feel so special? My heart seemed to already know the answer. Her happiness was contagious, but I was blushing like a tomato and couldn't take my eyes off her, but at the same time I felt something strange on my backside.
This seemed to be my tail, wagging around due my animal instincts, of joy.
"So, does that mean you want to start your oh-so-great journey now?" she asked with a slightly mocking tone in her voice that made me pause for a moment.
I sighed and rubbed my chin thoughtfully.
"It would probably be better to do a little research here in the town. Maybe anyone overheard something Last night," I said after all.
My words sounded firm, but inside I felt the uncertainty nagging at me. It was a big town, and the chances of finding anyone who knew anything seemed low.
Monika shook her head.
"Even so, there's no guarantee that the culprit is still in this town. Maybe he's gone already."
She was right, of course. The idea that the killer could have escaped long ago was discouraging. But I couldn't just give up. It was worth a try.
I had to at least try. So, I decided to look for clues in the city. A sudden thought flashed through my mind, and before I had thought it through properly, I asked:
"Would you help me look, Monika?"
"What?"
Her eyes widened in surprise as she looked at me.
I sighed again and waved her off.
"Never mind, forget about it. It has nothing to do with you, anyway. You only knew Yuuji for a short moment. Sorry for that stupid question."
A feeling of guilt came over me. I shouldn't drag her into my problems. That was my own business, my goal. I didn't want Monika to be in danger, even if she had more fighting experience than me at this point.
But to my surprise, she said quietly:
"I... I'll help you."
"Huh?"
My eyes widened as well, because I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
"I know I shouldn't interfere in other people's matters, yet... I don't know if Yuuji told you about this, but when I was in trouble, Yuuji helped me. I did invite him to dinner, but that's not nearly enough to pay off my debt."
Her voice was calm, but I could hear the determination in it. Her words affected me deeply. So, I was helpful for Monika, I told myself. A wave of gratitude and relief came over me. It felt good to know that I wasn't alone.
"Thank you, Monika," I said eventually.
Thanks to Monika's support, I felt stronger at this moment. Together we would find out the truth and find the culprit.
We split up and each of us took one half of the town. Monika took the western side, while I went through the eastern side.
Our mission was clear: we asked people if they had seen a suspicious person wearing a cloak. I also asked about the tattoo that had been on my mind all day. But I hadn't told Monika about it yet. Something inside me said, she shouldn't know anything about it. Maybe it was a mixture of instinct and the desire to protect her. That's why I kept it a secret from her.
However, this clue didn't help me at all. The people I asked just shrugged their shoulders or gave vague answers. No one had seen a suspicious person, and no one seemed to know about the tattoo. My frustration grew with every unsuccessful conversation. After a few hours, Monika and I bumped into each other.
" Did you find out anything?" Monika asked me, hope in her voice.
"No, I couldn't discover anything either," I replied, shaking my head. The disappointment was obvious.
"We've searched over the whole town. Where could we look next?"
Monika frowned and began to think.
Where should we continue? When we start a journey, we need more clues, otherwise we'll wander aimlessly through the whole world. I pondered, trying to come up with a new plan. The uncertainty gnawed at me, but I knew we had to keep going.
Suddenly, an older female voice sounded from the side of the street.
"You look like you're looking for something."
Monika and I turned to the direction of the voice. An old woman in a black robe was sitting at a small table on the side of the road. There was a glass ball on the table, like a fortune teller's, although she might be one. Maybe she could help us.
"We're looking for someone. Can you help us?" I asked the old woman hopefully.
"Let me see." she said, holding her hands over the glass ball.
The glass ball began to glow in different colors. I wondered if it would really work. Could it really help us?
"So, what do you see?" I asked impatiently.
"You're going on a trip." said the fortune teller.
A trip was part of our plan anyway.
"You will find your destination far to the south in the kingdom of Pezowa." she continued.
Monika pulled out a map and showed me our current location and the distant Pezowa. We were in a town called Aldère in the kingdom of Buchenberg, in the far north. Pezowa is a small kingdom and was far to the south. It would be a very long and arduous way.
However, the fortune teller was not finished and added:
"Your journey will be very dangerous. You will feel both pain and sorrow. But you will find brave companions who will accompany you along the way."
Her words echoed in my head. A dangerous journey full of pain and grief, but also full of new friendships. Despite the uncertainty, I felt an emerging determination. It was a risky path, but we would not go it alone.
The glass ball's glow dimmed, and the old lady put her hands back on her lap. That was the end of the fortune-telling. I had already considered that a journey could be dangerous. I knew it wouldn't be easy, but I was still curious to see who these brave companions, she was talking about, were. But I decided to surprise myself.
Despite the uncertainty, I felt a growing excitement inside me. The journey ahead would be a real test, and I was determined to pass it.
"A journey, so. As expected, right, Monika?" I grinned at Monika, hoping to lighten her mood a little.
"Well, now that that's settled, let's make some preparations so we can leave tomorrow morning," Monika suggested and wanted to go ahead.
Her voice sounded determined, but also a little tense. I could see that she also recognized the seriousness of the upcoming task.
"Yes, you're right. You mustn't forget your cute panties, after all." I added as a joke, before I had time to think about it.
...
Huh? Suddenly there was a fist in my face, and I landed roughly on the ground. I looked up and saw Monika standing above me with a devilish aura and a clenched fist. Her eyes glittered with anger.
"Wait... Monika!" I shouted in panic, but it was too late.
"I was just kidding! AAAahh!!!" I screamed while Monika continued unblinking. Her blows were painfully precise and there was nothing I could do but let the beatings fall over me. Each blow drove the air out of my lungs, and I could only whimper. After a few minutes, she finally stopped.
"Hmph." Monika puffed and walked away while I was lying on the ground, beaten up. I slowly got up and hobbled towards the fortune teller.
"Thank you very much for your help."
I bowed deeply and wanted to leave too. But before I could even take a step, the old woman grabbed my arm. Her bony fingers closed tightly around my wrist. She seemed to want to say something more.
"You will suffer the most on this trip. Whatever you do, do not let the darkness devour you," she said in a voice that suddenly sounded much younger and more insistent.
Devoured by the darkness? I didn't understand what she was trying to tell me, but her words seemed serious and worrying. It was like something bad would happen to me. A cold shiver ran down my spine. The fortune teller let go of my arm and I followed Monika, who was already a little way ahead.
On the way to another tavern, where I would be staying that night, Monika and I discussed the supplies and other preparations we would need for the long journey. Every step had to be well thought out. Monika was amazingly organized and thought of details that I would have missed.
"We need enough provisions and a good plan for getting through the dangerous areas," she said, writing a list in her notebook.
"Yes, and we should also think about improving our skills. Who knows what awaits us on our way." I added.
The upcoming journey scared me, as my current level can't face a monster yet. Without my standard equipment, I have no weapon to defend myself, so I have to use my current skills, learn them and master them.
Despite the fear, I felt a strange sense of excitement at the same time. It was like fate had led us to this path. And no matter how dangerous it gets, we will go through this together.
The next morning, Monika and I met at the southern gate of the city. As Pezowa lay to the south, it made sense to start there. We both looked ahead to the road we would travel together from now on.
"We should set off now. Looks like it's about to start raining soon." said Monika, casting a worried glance at the cloudy sky. The clouds hung low and heavy, and the air was cool and damp.
"Yes, you're right. Are you ready?" I asked while readjusting my bag.
I decided to get a bag that had the same function as my little pouch connected to my item box in my menu. I didn't tell Monika about my personal item box for safety reasons, mainly because I didn't know how rare it was for someone to have a personal item box or status window.
"Yes." Monika replied resolutely.
Her eyes shone despite the tension.
We set off at the same time, but after a few steps I stopped for a moment and looked back to the town behind me. I will... definitely find this murderer, I swore to myself. The images of the previous night flashed in my mind, and I felt a wave of determination.
"Kaito, hurry up!" Monika called to me. Her voice snapped me out of my thoughts.
"Sorry." I apologized and ran to her.
"Jeez. What are you thinking?" Monika scolded me.
"Sorry. Hehe." I said sheepishly and scratched my head. Her stern expression relaxed a little and I could see a smile on her lips.
So, my journey finally began and at the same time my search for my murderer. Or was there perhaps more behind it? The fortune teller's words echoed in my head. No matter what came my way, I was ready to face the darkness and find the truth.
With every step we took, I felt the threads of fate pulling us further into an uncertain future. The challenges that lay ahead would test us, but I was determined to stay strong. Monika and I walked side by side, ready to face the unknown and unravel, the mysteries that faced us.