“Johanne Karim, you are being called upon,” an Angel said while descending from the skies, holding a rolled up sheet of papyrus along with a quill and ink.

“Holy fuck, finally. I was getting so bored, you can’t even imagine. Training and training until they finally realize I exist. So, what is it this time?” The man asked.

“I shall now read the divine writings of the gods, as well as their request,” The angel cleared his throat. “Johanne Karim, as per the decree of the great gods, you are being sent to the mortal realm once again. Our divinations have predicted a great war, and it is your task to ensure the safety of our greatest believers, the demonic race. You shall-” The angel couldn’t finish the sentence, as he was interrupted.

“Yeah, yeah, this isn’t my first mission, what, do they think I’m dumb? Skip the boring stuff and get to the interesting part, hurry!” Johanne said excitedly.

“Ehm ehm, alright..” The angel cleared his throat. “You shall be born into an ordinary human family in the outskirts of Eidwin. You will be given a genetically superior body, and an affinity for mana.” The angel said the last part suspiciously quietly and muttered it, making it difficult to head.

A bead of sweat ran down the angel’s face as Johanne made a suspicious expression. The angel turned around, beginning to leave, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him.

“Hey, hey, hey, wait a second,” Johanne made a serious expression. “If I’m supposed to protect the demons, why am I being born into a human family? And an ordinary one, not even a noble family. And what exactly do you mean by “an affinity for mana”, huh? Everyone has some affinity for mana. I don’t think those words are there on accident. Why did you mutter them so quietly? Are you scamming me? Am I being fooled right now? I want to speak to HR.”

“W-well…” The angel stuttered. “We ran out of budget.” The angel said, ignoring Johanne’s last sentence completely.

“You ran out of budget?”

“The people are ceasing to believe in us so we are running a little low on holy power. This is the best we could do.” He managed to stammer out.

“Oh, and when were you planning on telling me that exactly? Have I lost my mind or have you? What you seem to be insinuating is that I have to play on hard mode because you can’t gather believers. You do realize it has been almost 200 years since you last wanted something of me, right? Does no one here care about worker's rights?” Johanne sighed. “And I suppose there’s an order to gather believers for them somewhere in the contract?” Johanne questioned the angel, knowing that the angel quite literally could not utter a lie otherwise they would be smitten right then and there. Though, this one rule had made the angels absolute masters of clever wordplay and manipulation, such as changing the topic and ignoring questions.

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“I-It’s written in tiny letters on page 3…”

“Okay, so, let me summarize. You want me to somehow, in some way, stop some great war, all the while I am handicapped with a subpar physical body AND you somehow want me to become friends with the demons as a HUMAN?!? Have you never poured oil into water?”

“Y-yes, that is about accurate.” The angel looked down at the floor, ashamed.

Johanne snatched a quill out of the angel’s hand with a sigh, and proceeded to sign the document. As he did, the angel’s entire demeanor changed.

“Alright, you will now be briefed about culture and about what happened in the past 200 years. Please follow me!” The angel beamed, almost as if his ashamed self from a few seconds prior never existed.

“Hey, was the leaving and all an act? Are you trying to fool me for a second time? You’re a cunning dude. Anyways, I don’t want any briefing, just send me and I’ll figure it out.”

“I’m afraid this briefing is mandatory, it is written in tiny letters on page 2 of the contract.”

“AAAAAARGH!”

The briefing was finally finished and the reincarnation ritual began. As usual in every one of his ventures, Johanne woke up in his crib, being spared of watching the moment he was born and when he was a complete toddler.

He was now 3 years old, and he got to work. He cast all manner of analysis spells on his own body, his tiny fingers moving at lightning speed. By now, he was a veteran at being a baby. Or at least he tried to, because after only the 3rd spell, he was suddenly hit with a burst of nausea.

“WHAT THE HELL IS THIS MANA CAPACITY?????????”

Due to Johanne’s admittedly amazing physical constitution, the mana flowed along his mana paths very smoothly, but his mana vessel was vastly undersized.

“Hey, fuckers! I want a refund! What the hell is this? Genetically superior body my ass!” He yelled, or at least he tried to. His cries came out as exactly that, simple cries. He could only curse the gods in his mind as his mother entered the room.

His mother, Rina, had black hair as dark as the night. Even in the dark, Johanne’s eyes could clearly see her blue eyes, which contrasted well with her hair. She was tall and packed some muscle, but was also very delicate as she lifted Johanne from his crib. His first impression of his family was that it was alright, at least deriving from what the angels told him. He wasn’t used to this, however, as before he would always get reincarnated into very rich and powerful families. If it wasn’t for his love of novel experiences, he might have refused signing the contract at all.

In his mother’s arms, he immediately began brainstorming ideas on what to do about his very limited mana capacity.

His swordsmanship and martial arts were already honed well, so he needed to learn how to minimize the mana usage of all his spells through researching modern magic theory, and the greatest place to do this was the Eidwin royal academy. The second issue was body augmentation. With such limited mana, swordsmanship was largely out of the question as there simply was too much of a physical gap between an augmented and an unaugmented body, that could be lessened through skill, but only to a certain extent.

Johanne did not know what to do about this issue, but he decided to press on regardless. He was even excited at the prospect, telling himself, “finally, a challenge”.

And thus, his plan was formulated. At the age of 13, he would enroll into the Eidwin royal academy as a student and go on from there.

As he finished his train of thought, his young body had finally given in to his mother’s lullaby, and fell asleep.