Azusa Aizawa, twenty-seven, female, single.
Corporate wage slave.
I lived for my job and only for my job.
I set aside romance, leisure, and everything else for the daily slog.
My record was fifty consecutive work days. I wonder what happened to the Labor Standards Act…
One day, while I was working away, I blacked out.
When I opened my eyes again, I saw the face of a young woman. She appeared to have angel wings, or something like them.
“Oh. I died, didn’t I…?”
In the end, my life had been empty of everything except punching the clock.
I didn’t know whether this individual was an angel or a grim reaper, but she was probably something along those lines.
“That’s right. You worked too much, and it killed you in your twenties. You poor thing…”
The girl pitied me. She must have been a kind person.
“Though this could never truly make up for it, I will ensure that your next life has the potential to bring you sheer happiness. What sort of power would you like? If you wish, you could be reborn as a royal princess. Oh, and either gender is fine. You are free to choose nearly anything.”
“I can wish for anything? Really?”
“Yes! I have a habit of indulging women, you see.”
Isn’t that gender inequality? Well, I suppose I’d rather have fewer restrictions than more.
“Make me completely immortal, then, if you would.”
That was what I wished for.
Work had run me ragged until the end of a short life, so for this round, I wanted to take my time.
“In that case, I’ll reincarnate you in a body that circulates mana so you won’t age.”
Evidently, she could just do things like that. Fantastic.
“Do you have any other requests?”
“No, that’s enough for me.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes. What I want is a long, slow, laid-back life. I’d like to be self-sufficient for the basics and live up in the mountains or somewhere similar. Then, if I could help out in a nearby village in exchange for things like salt that are harder to come by, I’m not sure I could ask for more.”
I’d lived in metropolitan Tokyo, so I wanted a carefree existence in a house in the mountains. Granted, all I’d seen of that metropolis was the route between my apartment and my office, so I couldn’t exactly claim to have had my fill of big-city life, but still.
“I can see how hard your former life must have been. All right. I’ll give you a fresh start with eternal youth in the peaceful highlands. I’m sure you didn’t intend to request a long life as an old lady, so let’s make you immortal at seventeen.”
My consciousness faded out again.
✦ ✦ ✦
When I awoke, I was lying on a high plain.
There was a single house nearby.
As I approached, I noticed a sign posted on the door.
Interestingly enough, although it couldn’t have been in Japanese, I could somehow read it.
“What incredibly generous people. Luck is really on my side. No, I suppose it isn’t really luck. That angel-girl did reincarnate me here on purpose.”
Speaking of reincarnation, I wondered what I looked like now. I went into the house and hunted for a mirror.
“I’m seventeen, all right. Not a bad face. The European features will take some getting used to, but still.”
I had stunning blond hair that fell to my waist, and my eyes were a vivid light blue, almost turquoise. I didn’t know how beauty was measured in this world, but I was pretty cute. If I decided to go to high school, I’d probably get all the boys.
I wasn’t wearing the white clothes of the dead, either. These were straight out of a fantasy world, complete with a pointy black hat that would be unmistakable even from a distance. It looked vaguely witchy.
“Okay. Starting today, this is my house. Azusa’s house!”
I was in another world now, and I thought katakana script might fit the atmosphere better than the standard kanji character I’d always used to write my name. It would also help it sink in that I’d turned over a new leaf. That settled it: I’d start calling myself “Azusa” in katakana.
There was a plowed field beside the house that I’d most likely be able to harvest vegetables from. If I wanted a self-sufficient life, this place was ready-made for it.
There were fifteen or so gold coins in the clothes I’d been reincarnated in, so buying the bare necessities was unlikely to present a problem.
A knife hung at my waist as well. I was a woman living alone, so it was probably wise to have something like this.
At the bottom of the hill, I saw a small town. More of a village, really.
“Maybe I’ll wander over and do a little shopping.”
I wanted to ask about the area anyway.
✦ ✦ ✦
On the way to the village, my path was blocked by a jiggly, jellylike creature.
“Oh. A slime?”
Maybe it was the thing’s appearance, but I wasn’t worried at all. A cat might as well have stepped out in front of me. That said, like any monster, it clearly meant to attack me. With cats, the mere sight of a human was generally enough to give them a start and make them back off, so the situations weren’t exactly the same.
I drew my knife. If this was a slime, I had to kill it.
I attacked.
The knife slid into the gelatinous body.
Blorp! A weird sensation traveled through my hand to the rest of me.
Had that done anything…? Well, I’d stabbed it, so I’d probably inflicted damage.
Round two.
Blorp!
That one had more of an effect, maybe.
The angry (I assumed) slime rammed me. The impact knocked me back a step, but it didn’t really hurt.
Safe in the knowledge I wouldn’t be harmed, I went after it mercilessly.
“Take that, and that, and that!”
✦ ✦ ✦
