The next day.

The villagers had already woken up early and were doing their own chores, from cleaning their houses to fishing for some food by the river.

Followed by the laughter of children and the sound of their mothers scolding them.

Everything was peaceful with the occasional birds tweeting which sounded like pleasant music coming from around the surrounding trees as if they could calm the soul by just hearing it, and such a scenery wouldn’t be complete without the occasional appearance of animals appearing in the vicinity of the village.

“Ahhhh!”

Everything was beautiful until a scream full of horror reverberated throughout the village, startling the people and the birds into flying.

Rakin screamed as he quickly sat up from his bed with a face full of horror!

His head furiously looked around while his hands rummaged around his body like he was making sure that he didn’t lose even a little bit of his flesh!

While breathing heavily, “Thank god, it was just a nightmare”

Following his words, Rakin heard the flustered footsteps of someone making their way up the steps of his hut, and he slowly turned his head towards it and saw Minera’s face slowly coming up the steps with a worried look on her face.

Rakin was halfway from smiling when his face suddenly turned rigid when he saw the faces coming up from behind Minera.

“Potaaa!”

He couldn’t help but let out a curse when he saw his father and Agani coming up the stairs behind Minera.

“Hey! Cursing so early in the morning!” Minera berated Rakin with a frown as she walked over beside him and placed down the bowl of warm water with a piece of cloth in it and sat on her knees.

“So early in the morning, and you look and sound so pathetic” said Agani in disdain as he watched Minera wiped Rakin’s face with the wet piece of cloth in her hand.

“So it wasn’t…it wasn’t a dream?”

When Rakin uttered those words, vivid memories of what happened yesterday once came again crashing in his mind and he started feeling nausea.

“Are you sure that he’s your son?” said Agani towards the man standing beside him with a chuckle.

“Hmmp!” Darisay snorted as he glared at Agani before turning his attention back to his son and talked to him in a very imposing manner.

“Such disgraceful action of falling unconscious in the middle of the battlefield! I would have executed you on the spot if you didn’t manage to make a distinguishable merit for killing Megro!”

“I..this..ummm, sorry father. It won’t happen again”

Rakin was about to rebuke him when he suddenly couldn’t help but glanced sideways and saw the dangerous gleam in Minera’s eyes, and it quickly made him cower away like a scared puppy.

“Good, we’ll have a gathering with the rest of the warriors after we have our meal. So get yourself ready because you’re attending it with me”

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“Eh? Why?”

Rakin let out a weird sound after hearing what his father said. After all, according to his memories, the former owner of his body was never allowed to attend any of the Warrior’s Gathering in their tribe.

“Pfft!”

The sound of suppressed laughter suddenly sounded from the side, and the people inside turned their head towards the source of the sound and saw Agani trying to hold back his laughter.

Agani quickly noticed the looks directed at him and he finally couldn’t hold it back and let it rip!

“Hahaha! I..I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh at this time Rajan Darisay. It’s just…just how lame was your son that he sounded so confused when you mentioned to him that he would be attending your Warrior’s Gathering later today?!”

“Shut up! If it wasn’t because your clan doesn’t hunt humans for food, then you wouldn’t be here standing today!” Rajah Darisay angrily shouted at Agani, attracting the attention of the people near Rakin’s home.

“Did you think I wanted to stay here?! If it wasn’t for those Megro bastards catching us off guard, my tribe wouldn’t have landed into this predicament where we are scattered. I don’t even know how many of us are still alive” Agani replied with a pained expression mixed with anger and frustration.

“Anyway, we’ll talk about that at the gathering, and you, wash yourself and get breakfast. After all, you’re today’s warrior of the tribe”

After that, the two men walked out of Rakin’s hut under his confused frowning face.

“What’s the deal about the Warrior’s Gathering?” immediately asked Rakin to Minera after the two men left as he doesn’t seem to have any recollections of it according to the memories of the former owner of his body.

Minera turned towards him with a gaze full of confusion and a slight suspicion, but still answered saying, “The Warrior’s Gathering is an important occasion for the village because the men who are invited to attend are already somewhat recognized as one of them, a warrior. It means you are now officially a warrior recognized by the entirety of the warriors of the village, a title considered an honor to every family in our tribe. The only thing you need to do now would be getting the recognition by the our village shaman”

When Minera concluded his explanation, Rakin suddenly felt a surge of new memories in his mind, it was like the clouds in the skies were suddenly blown away, revealing an azure clear sky!

‘What the heck? Too many memories of this body are scattered or lost! Damn!’

Rakin’s surprise didn’t last long as this wasn’t the first time he encountered this, the first time was just yesterday when he learned that their tribe is allied with an aswang tribe, and not only one, but a few of them!

And now, his suspicion that he’s suffering from fragmented memories of this life was just proven right, and it made him frustrated as it would certainly raise suspicions to the people around him, just like with Minera just now and the thought of what would happen to him when they learn that he’s not ‘Rakin’ sent a shiver down his spine!

‘Damn, I should refrain from asking too many questions for the time being and instead learn through gossip among the housewives in the village. I should be able to learn from their loose mouths’

Rakin let out a sigh as he had long realized that gossipy housewives wouldn’t disappear no matter what era it was.

Seeing Rakin suddenly letting out a sigh, Minera opened her mouth and said, “What are you thinking? Are you worried about what would happen later?”

Rakin looked up and quickly thought of an excuse and said, “Uhh no, I’m just hungry, so what’s our meal for this morning?”

Thankfully, Minera was quickly distracted by Rakin’s question and didn’t think enough of his behavior and said, “Wait here, I’ll bring the food up”

“I- nevermind”

Rakin wanted to stop her and tell her he’s fine doing it by himself, but his body came to a halt when Minera shot him a glare just when he was planning to stand up.

Seeing that Minera had finally gone down the stairs, Rakin opened his mouth and muttered, “Bloody hell, this woman is really scary. No wonder this bastard was always walking on eggshells whenever he’s around her”

Soon after, Minera came back with a wooden bowl of steaming hot soup and a plate of grilled meat.

A few hours later, inside a creepy and dimly lit cave.

Rakin is currently facing a scary looking old woman, holding a scary looking cane with a few small skulls of unknown animals hanging around the top end of the cane.

“Let’s begin” an aged voice echoed inside the cavern, startling Rakin in fright!

“Can we stop with the scary stuff? I didn’t sign up for this sh*t~!”

“That hateful father of mine!”

“Shhhh!”

“Nooo! Don’t come near me you old w*tch!”

"Ahhh~!"