There lived a strange child named Rio in the frontier settlement of Krua. Following a week of residence, the youngster was adopted by the village's hunter family. The girl was a lost orphan who one day came out of the neighboring Levstone Forest, and that was all they knew about her. Given her youth, the hunter family chose to adopt her as their child.
Although rare, there have been instances of children being expelled from their own town or left orphaned. They had to fend for themselves most of the time. Rio, they believed, was the same as those kids. After she stayed here for a month, it started to seem strange. The child was articulate and very inquisitive. She questioned them on topics unrelated to their line of work, such as the terrain, the kingdom's name, the nearby nations, their level of technology, and numerous other topics they were unable to clearly respond to. She was also intelligent, offering guidance that improved their everyday life, such as understanding crop rotation and how to replenish the soil with what she referred to as natural fertilizers.
When her adoptive parents started to wonder about her past, they questioned her about it. She never gave satisfactory replies. Other than her name, she said, she couldn't recall anything. With no time to look into it, they were unable to confirm her claims. They could only believe what she said.
It wasn't bothersome. Rio conducted herself wonderfully. She did not protest about cooperating with the grownups around her; instead, she followed their lead. Even when there are no kids around, she doesn't become bored and instead spends her time on more useful tasks like cooking, cleaning, and picking fruit. She occasionally tries strange things outside the village, but they are harmless, and nobody finds it unpleasant.
As a result, they got used to her strange antics throughout the two months following her adoption. They didn't care even if they thought she was the daughter of a fallen noble. She was already regarded as a member of this village.
Everything was normal, and life continues on.
Up until it wasn't.
Rio ended up behaving very differently when Rudolph returned to this community in the first week of the Late Summer Season. Rudolph, a villager and longtime Krua resident, had come to the next town like other young people hoping to make it in the boonies like this one when he was young, and after becoming a wizard's apprentice, he remained there until he turned thirty, at which point he became a mage himself. At sixty, this person decided to retire from his wizarding career and spend the rest of his life in this community.
It all began when Rudolph met Rio, the youngest and newest resident of this elderly-populated village. He pointed to her and said that she has the potential to become a magician. Rio, who had always behaved properly, suddenly became interested in magic and gladly accepted his offer to become his apprentice. Since then, studying magic has taken up much of her free time.
Rio's interest in magic surprised the villagers, who had assumed that she was usually calm and didn't expect her to be excited about it. She had a certain zeal in her that seemed desperate to understand everything Rudolph taught her, and she reviewed what he taught her day and night and talked about magic constantly since she became the wizard's apprentice. Her obsession was so evident that it impacted her work in the fields when she was assisting the adults.
She still makes an effort to help the community while spending most of her time with the retired wizard. The only question they had was why she was so determined to study magic.
They have no idea.
All of their presumptions about her are incorrect, in actuality. Rio is unable to divulge her secret. She has no plans since she always thinks that if she tells others her secret, she might get in trouble.
The truth is, Rio is a Reincarnator.
To this day, she can still clearly remember her death. She also recalls being in the middle of the jungle when she woke up that time. Fortunately, she was located close to the forest's edge, which faces Krua Village's outskirts at that time.
Rio, however, couldn't recall anything else. She is aware that she is a full-blooded Japanese person, that she is an adult before she dies, and that she knows her name. She remembers only those three things from her previous life.
Also, she does remember one thing from her previous life that isn't really significant, but it is a personal desire that she appears to have kept in her current existence.
She wants to live in her own power fantasy!
Although she can't remember it well, she is aware that she detested her previous life's monotony. She is aware of how much she enjoys using light novels and anime to escape reality. She is also aware that she constantly aspires to be like the protagonists in those stories who are abruptly taken to a different world. Someone who experiences positive changes in their life and gains abilities that make their life easier.
If she ever has the experience of being taken to another universe, she wants to experience that.
Then she did, but her happiness was short-lived when she discovered that she lacked any talents or any cheat abilities. This reincarnation just gave her a younger body, with no exceptional qualities.
It felt like the world is conspiring against her.
When she realized that she lacked everything that would help her in this new world, she became extremely discouraged. She was aware that she wasn't very remarkable in her previous life, even while she was unable to recall anything. She lacked the intelligence and special abilities that would set her apart from her peers. She had no practical knowledge that she could apply in this parallel world.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
She was therefore certain that she was worthless without any extra assistance. The fact that they have it easy is the reason she even aspired to live like an Isekai protagonist!
She had given up her dreams of living like an isekai protagonist after a week in this village because of this. Accepting that she would not be unique in this world, she will attempt to live a quiet life in this community and, ideally, pursue meaning in this life. After being disappointed by her own lack of cheat abilities, she had intended to do just that.
However, all of her inhibitions disappeared the instant Rudolph revealed that she had the potential to become a magician.
Only the thought of learning magic consumed her mind.
"If I don't have any cheat abilities, I just have to make my own!"
And with this promise to herself, she started taking Rudolph's lessons seriously.
Rudolph's magic lectures were unclear. He constantly used words that were hard for her to understand when he explained magic. He constantly talks about ideas that don't make sense to her, such as how Mana feels warm and invigorating and how interacting with it requires spiritually delving inside your mind.
In spite of those difficulties, she persisted. She attempted to understand it even though she was unable to. To understand this elusive concept known as Mana, she meditated daily. In order to learn magic, she sacrifices her sleep.
She thought this was her only chance to fulfill her ambitions. She was making every effort to learn magic.
And then, two months later, on the second week of the Middle Autumn Season, she finally achieved it.
She felt Mana for the first time!
Rudolph's statement was accurate. Simply being in contact with Mana was energizing, and it felt really warm to the touch. The mere act of coming into contact with this otherworldly element elevated her spirits, as though it were cleansing her soul.
Regarding how she accomplished this, she wouldn't be able to explain clearly. She was aware that her soul was the one interacting with this mystical force, but she was unable to articulate how she was able to move her soul.
If she was forced to answer, the only response she could say was that, she managed to do so because she thought so.
Magic is more enigmatic than she thought.
This isn't even the magic itself. This is merely a basic introduction to magic. It is late at night when she is able to sense the Mana in her environment, so she will have to ask about the method of sorcery itself tomorrow.
"Hehehe... Finally, I can sense the Mana in my surroundings. Soon, I will learn how to use magic, then I will make my own cheat ability with this magic system!" She said, laughing to herself as she got off of sitting cross-legged on her bed and lay down on it correctly to go to sleep. Rio was so excited that she rolled around in bed, despite the fact that it was late and everyone was asleep. She couldn't wait for the day to come.
She didn't fall asleep until half an hour later.
----------------------------------------
When she woke up, she was surprised to find herself in a pitch-black space.
"What!?"
She exclaimed, surprised at the sudden situation she found herself in. Though she quickly realized something was wrong when she moved... or rather, when she tried to move.
There was a sense of emptiness around her as she tried to look around and realized that she couldn't move her head at all. It wasn't like there was any reason for it, why she couldn't move.
Rather, she had no body to speak of that she could move at all. She simply was a consciousness in this pitch-black space.
In this sea of utter blackness, she was merely a floating mind with no physical form to speak of. It made her feel alone in this void of emptiness. A feeling of fear gripped her imaginary heart as she feared the worst.
She became aware of it before she could say anything. Something stood in front of her in this void of darkness. These were two translucent pictures that appeared before her eyes. Because she had no physical form, she didn't have eyes, yet she could still see these two portals of some kind that showed images beyond them.
In one of the floating images, a dragon is seen pouring flames over a fortress. Below, an army of armored warriors could be seen standing atop the castle's walls, pointing their spears and arrows aloft. A few of them were even pointing their staffs toward the flying beast as a magic circle formed on the tip of their oaken staffs.
A crossroads is seen in the other translucent image. The sunset can be seen in the center of the neighboring column of buildings, which is lined up with large, ancient, and decaying skyscrapers. In addition to the image, there are wrecked automobiles, a twisted lamppost, a massive quantity of rubbish lying around, and starving people wandering around with their flesh and bones exposed on various parts of their bodies, bloodied, pallid, and drooling.
Rio questions the meaning of these translucent pictures. The reason for these imaginary mirrors was beyond her comprehension. She nevertheless attempted to approach one of those pictures. In this dark room, she selected the second floating image. All she can think about is how much she wants to get out of here. Even though she is only a bodiless consciousness, she can sense herself moving in the direction of the floating gateway she is attempting to access. It was barely a moment before the sight of the grim city filled her nonexistent eyes.
After a few times of blinking her eyes, she realized that she could feel her body once more. She instantly became aware that she was in a different body after patting her own. This body was far older than the one she had on that first world. When she looked down, she noticed that she was completely covered by a black elastic outfit. In contrast to her initial physique in the first world, her entire form was slim.
She took a moment to examine herself and then looked around. She knew instantly that she was in some kind of little room. There are fractures visible here and there, and the paint on the walls has already faded. There are tiny glass fragments and signs of rotting metal embedded in the crumbling cement of this building's square aperture that faces the exterior. The bed is covered in dust, and she believes she caught a glimpse of several insects coming out from underneath it. Aside from that, she observes the door, which, despite its apparent age, appears to have been remarkably well maintained. It has signs of fortifications, as seen by the planks patching what she believes to be the damages on the door.
The stale air suggested that this location had not been visited in a while. Unaccustomed to the place's scent, she briefly pinched her nose as she made her way to the window. Looking past it, she is shocked by what she sees.
A view of an abandoned city could be seen beyond the broken window. The region she is staring at was occupied with blackened buildings, and below are poorly maintained roads with sand, gravel, and overgrown plants scattered randomly and erratically covering the ground. On these demolished roadways, she could spot dark or brown stains, along with other kinds of trash and car-shaped junk.
However, the creatures who were going along the road were more noteworthy than that desolate landscape. She observed these humanoid beings moving through the streets, their bodies stiff and bent.
Narrowing her eyes to see them well, she leaned her head closer. When she recognized what they were, she froze.
They're not human!
Rather, they are walking corpses!
Each of them had missing body parts that she could see; some had one or two limbs missing, others had pieces of flesh missing, and some had more bones than flesh.
"Zombies!?"
The realization that she was looking at actual zombies and the environment she found herself in made her stomach lurch at the thought.
She is in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by zombies!