Indeed, Allen had been exiled only moments prior. His upbeat expression as he ventured out of the city belied the fact that he was a young man who had greeted his fifteenth year only a few days prior.
Still, there was a good explanation for that. Allen was not truly fifteen years old at all, and having been reincarnated, he still had memories from his previous life. It was this that explained his strangely cheerful demeanor.
The fact was, Allen had always wanted to get out of that mansion. In his past life, he had been known as a hero who had saved the world. But that didn’t mean that he’d enjoyed a glorious life. Quite the opposite—he had spent most of his days soaked in blood and was similarly dirtied by his involvement in all manner of cloak-and-dagger intrigue. With his life constantly under threat from assassins, it was no exaggeration to say that he had never enjoyed a peaceful moment. In the end, despite the lengths he had gone to to save the world, its people had regarded him with fear.
Fed up with that world, Allen had resolved to depart from it, and in a stroke of what could only be called luck, he’d had a means of doing so. His power as a hero, as well as his duty as savior, had been assigned to him by the goddess of that world. As repayment for fulfilling his obligations, she agreed to grant him one wish, and thus Allen’s wish to be reborn in another world was granted—reborn, rather than simply transported, because he sought a fresh start. Unfortunately, that was the only part of his wish that had come true.
“All I wanted was a peaceful life. That’s why I came to this world.”
And yet, he had been unfortunate enough to find himself born into the duchy. As he grew, he became aware that he was being referred to by terms such as “child prodigy,” appellations which, at the time, seemed far removed from the peaceful life he had hoped for. Indeed, although he was now known as a good-for-nothing, Allen had very much been the prodigy they claimed. In fact, given the memories he carried with him from his past life, it was likely his own doing.
“Back then, all that crap about Levels and Stats just seemed like such a pain, though...”
This world was said to be loved by the spirits and the gods, for they offered their Levels, Stats, and Gifts (the first two being granted by the spirits, while the third was granted by the gods). This belief was held so widely that it was all but considered conventional wisdom, and it had a great impact on the religious beliefs of the people of this world.
There was only one belief system here that could be called a religion. While the people were polytheistic, competing religions had not sprung up around them, perhaps because they directly felt the gods’ blessings in their lives. Naturally, this resulted in a strong sense of piety. It was less a matter of blind faith and more an acceptance of obvious truths. While people were grateful to the gods for giving them their daily bread, they could not be accused of blind fanaticism. For his part at least, Allen, who was not much concerned with religion, had never witnessed such behavior in this world, although when he considered the reasons religions were founded, he imagined similar reasons could be found throughout the land.
In this land, the word “church” referred not to any building, but collectively to the organization that governed religion. This was headed by a person known as the Hierophant, but the real power lay with the Hierophant’s subordinates: the archbishops who locally took up residence. But this is a matter for later in this story. Suffice it to say there was one organization that governed all religious matters. And given that those affiliated with it were particularly pious, it would be no surprise if some among them proved fanatical.
Allen, however, was not a man of great piety. It would be no exaggeration to claim that he had no piety at all. He had been treated better by the gods in his previous life, as strange as that was to admit, but he accepted his fate and thus did not resent them. He simply had no interest in worshipping them.
His feelings toward those who had helped him were a different story. Despite—no, because of—these facts about the world, Levels, Stats, and Gifts were understood to be absolute truths for the simple reason that they were absolute.
Stats were an objective quantification of a person’s abilities, divided into seven categories: Strength, Agility, Intelligence, Dexterity, Stamina, Magic, and Luck. Again, these Stats were absolute; a person with 1 Strength could never defeat a person with 2 Strength in a test of strength. Even a difference of one point was overwhelming, and upsets were fundamentally impossible.
Most Stats ranged from 0 to 2 at birth. A 0 Stat did not mean that a person had no ability, simply that they did not yet have enough to reach 1 full point. A higher Stat meant greater ability, with a 3 Stat at birth demonstrating a natural ability in that sphere.
While Stats were not fixed for life, the time at which they changed was set in stone: whenever one’s Level increased. A person’s Level, also referred to as the rank of one’s soul, increased as one accumulated experiences. At such times, one’s Stats would increase according to the experiences accumulated. However, increasing one’s Level was no small feat.
As a rule, a person’s Level was 0 at birth. One full year was considered the minimum amount of time necessary to reach Level 1. With each increase in Level, the time required to further increase one’s Level also increased. The ease with which a person could increase their Level, as well as their limits, varied. In some cases, a person could train for twenty years without gaining so much as a single level.