When waking up, my body felt somehow different.

What had happened again? I touched this glowing stone and then... Someone stabbed me from behind? But the stone clearly activated, didn't it? So was I now back in the normal world? Was that the reason I had to die again? To reincarnate back?

"You look confused, brother. Is everything alright?" Only when a sudden voice called out to me, do I really look around and noticed my surroundings. I was in a bell tent, which was equipped with two beds, one of which I was lying on.

The other bed was occupied by a small girl with cat ears. After shortly trying to remember, I realized that she was the girl from the inn in this unpleasant village.

"Edith?", I asked.

"Yes, that's me. Edith Thornton. And you're Alfred Thornton, leader of the Thornton tribe. Is really everything okay? Just wait here for a second, I'll bring you some water." While saying this, she already exited the tent.

Now being left alone I tried standing up, too, to look a bit around.

The moment I stood up my body felt strangely light. Even more confused than before, I looked at my bare feet and saw that my feet were more formed like the paws of a tiger than that of a human, yet my hands looked normal.

I think I now had a pretty good understanding of what was going on. To confirm my suspicion, I touched my ears. They were way more fluffy than they used to be, and a bit more pointy, too. I've really reincarnated as a cat-person...

When I concentrated, I could even understand the conversation topics of the people outside. Most of them were talking about abductions of several women of the tribe:

"We need to do something about them! Send a rescue party to search for them!", a young male voice exclaimed.

A voice, of what sounded like an old grandpa, responded: "And to where? We don't even know who did this!"

Could those kidnappings have something to do with the corpses, I saw in the Magic Research Laboratory? But before I had more time to think about it, Edith already came back with a glass of water.

"Here you go!", she said happily while pressing the glass into my hands.

"Thanks.", I responded. For now, I should just go with the flow. But since these abductions might have had something to do with the MRL, I might have the chance to use these people to my advantage, to get some revenge for Kaitlyn! Even just thinking again about these events is enough to feel a deep grief and anger. If I see anyone of those hooded assholes again, I'll kill them all!

Seeing my angered face, Edith smileed caringly. "You're thinking about our abducted women, aren't you?"

"Yea, I might actually have an idea, where they might be... Do you think it's possible to gather some warriors, to search for them?", I asked.

"You are the village chief and leader of the tribe. There isn't a single one here, who wouldn't follow you. If you're using your greatsword, there isn't anyone who could beat you, thus you're leading the people. It's as simple as that."

"Perfect." After hearing these words, I was confident in my actions and the plan that had been slowly forming in my head. "Edith, help me gather the whole tribe."

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Already, after stepping outside the tent into the forest, I had the feeling the tribe wasn't that big. And now that everyone was gathered, it looked like my suspicions were right.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

There were around 30 people in total, but only a third of them looked like they could actually fight. But it didn't matter; I'll get my revenge, even if I'm alone.

"Thank you for gathering this quickly!", I announced. "I have a suspicion, where our kidnapped family members might be." The expression of many of the younger members of the tribe lighted up with motivation, when hearing this. "We'll head out in three hours, so use until then to prepare everything you need."

Loud cheers were coming from everyone, but I was already lost in thoughts about what to do next.

"Alright, that's it for this speech; I'm a bit rusty, does someone want to train with me?", I asked. I didn't have much time, but I'd need to train a bit with the greatsword, since I had never used one before. I hoped it was as strong as my old sword.

A strong looking young man stepped forward: "If I get the chance to fight against the chief, I'd really like to."

"Then let's go."

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When shortly heading back into the tent to grab the greatsword for the training, Edith incidentally mentioned that the man I was training against was called Levi. In the short time I was in the tent, she also somehow managed to mention quite a lot of other names and their characteristics, which seemed a bit strange, but I wasn't complaining since I had no idea who everyone was.

But now it was time for my training!

I quickly left the tent and headed towards the training area. Whilst walking I inspected the sword and its status is in the upper six-hundreds – which looked pretty good to me, even though it wasn't as high as my old sword.

When arriving, Levi was already waiting for me.

"Have you finished preparing your stuff?", I asked, "We'll be directly heading out, after our training."

"I've got food and my weapon, what else would I need?", he asked with a grin.

"I guess you're right,", I said while readying my sword, "then let's start with our training."

He struck first. He was so fast that I was completely taken by surprise, however I was still somehow able to parry it. The greatsword was way bigger than my old sword or a baseball bat, but I could still swing it with relative ease. I wonder if this was the effect of the status of the weapon at work again.

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While we were training, all the other warriors slowly gathered around the training area, and now it was already time to start the rescue mission.

In our short period while we trained, I learned a few tricks how to handle the greatsword and felt ready to face some real enemies.

"Let's head to the capital!", I announced, "We don't have much time, if we want to save them!"

Leading the group of cat warriors, I started heading in the direction of the capital. While the village was located in the forest, it was not that far from the capital. It should only be around a day walk.

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And indeed, after only walking for a few hours, we reached a street which seemed familiar – it was the one I took with Kaitlyn, after we left the unpleasant village.

"Let's take a short break here. We'll be heading out in half an hour, and then you'll need to be ready for fighting!", after announcing this I take a small snack out of my backpack, which Edith prepared for me.

"You truly have a wonderful little sister.", Levi commented, when seeing the elaborately prepared meal.

"I guess...", I answered awkwardly. She was't really my sister after all.

To try to not have to talk further, I wanted to take a bite out of my bread, but something unexpected prevented me from doing so:

We were resting a bit off-road, but I could clearly see some hooded people running on the road, while having someone tugged under their arms. It's clearly them again!

And I wasn't the only one, who had noticed them. Every one of the warriors quickly grabbed their weapons.

But just in time, when I wanted to start sprinting after them, someone else already came running down the road after them. And that someone somehow looked like myself, before I had reincarnated as a cat person? Confused, I stumbled onto the road. I could only see this person from behind, since he had already sprinted quite the distance away from us.

However, there was no way I could forget this scene. It was exactly like when I had chased after the kidnappers.

No. It was when I chased her down. And this person running away from me... Was me.

"You've seen enough for this time!", while I was still confused, Levi said something strange.

"We need to chase the kidnappers down!", I said, now starting to panic again.

But, when I turned around to look at the warriors, they still had their weapons readied. And without a warning they struck. Against me!

I somehow successfully parried the first hit of Levi again. Then two of the other warriors tried to hit me which I managed to dodge, and then behead one of them. But it was still a 1 vs 9, and after a few more parries the old grandpa drew his longbow and hit me right in the chest.

This wound would without a question have been fatal on its own, but for Levi it didn't seem to be enough; his sword striking down on me once more.