“Gotta work... Tabuchi, progress report...”
Deep in the forest, Ryoma woke up in the shadows of the overgrown trees.
He had the appearance of a young boy, just like the gods had said, no older than 10 and dressed in linen clothes, slumped against the trunk of a tree and fast asleep.
After muttering some words oddly out of sync with his appearance, he squinted through the sunlight filtering through the trees and looked around sleepily.
“A forest? It’s not... a dream, right...?”
As he sat there smelling the scent of the dirt, forest, and wind, he gradually recalled how he came to be there.
“That’s right. This is another world. Hmm?”
His eyes landed on the leather bag and diary-sized book by his waist.
When he picked it up to look at the cover, he was met with the word “letter” written in symbols that clearly weren’t Japanese.
The senders were the three gods that invited him to this world.
“Gain, Kufo, Lulutia...”
After reading aloud the naturally written names, he recalled his memory of the gods.
They were polite and considerate enough to provide me with all the knowledge to live before sending me, but they’ve even supplemented that with a letter... Though at this thickness, it’s more of a manual than a letter...
He turned the page to see three things written there.
First, that he was in a world called Seilfall, in the Rifall Kingdom’s Forest of Gana. There were no particularly strong beasts or monsters here, so it was a comparatively safe place to live.
The second was that it wasn’t completely safe, so he was to confirm the movements of his new body and relocate somewhere safe to live.
A small map had been carefully included.
The last point to conclude the first page was to “read the rest of the letter once you’ve moved somewhere safe.”
A faint smile appeared on Ryoma’s face at how thoroughly the gods left their instructions, but when he tried to get up, he felt a strong displacement within his body.
“I really am a child now... Me, Takebayashi Ryoma. Systems engineer. 39 years old and single. It’s as though my memories were transplanted... Reminds me of a certain child detective.”
Though he had listened to the explanation, Ryoma was surprised to actually feel the change in his body and confirmed there were no abnormalities.
Once he checked everything was fine, he took a breath and started to move his body.
He bent and stretched his arms and legs, going through each part of his body with simple warm-up exercises that gradually grew more intense.
Then, only after checking each and every martial art form his father had relentlessly beat into him in his previous life, did his movements stop.
“...”
The moment after his eyes locked onto a narrow tree beside him, he dug a sharp kick into its trunk.
✦ ✦ ✦
