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Soudouki Vol 1 Prologue
🕑 Added 2020-01-14 13:27:37 +0000 UTCSynopsis: here
Illustrations vol 1: here
Prologue – Reincarnated Soul
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Part 1
──It was a very thick wooden sword.
It was shaved so it looked like a sword at least in shape, but it was so thick that even when it was a grown man who held it, his thumb and his index finger wouldn’t reach each other. The boy had been swinging that wooden sword continuously for around one hour.
The strength of his grip had already gone since a long time ago. Right now he was barely holding the sword using only the strength of his fingers.
He mustered his last remaining strength and swung down the wooden sword powerfully, then the boy fell on the ground facing up.
He finally finished his daily training, 2000 practice-swinging.
「I-I’m dying……」
Those words slipped out from his mouth. He didn’t know how many times he had said those words until now. He looked up to the sky while gasping for breath.
The boy thought. Even throughout this whole continent, his Cornelius(コルネリアス) House must be the only one that made an eleven year old child swung wooden sword until he couldn’t move anymore.
His knew some children who were also noble like him. They were introduced to him through his father’s connection. Right now they should be receiving lessons from their private tutor for several hours per day, or they would receive training that would only feel like a light game at best.
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「I see, you’re dying. You really have a short life my son……stay in good health even when you are in that world.」
「That’s not something a mother would say! Damn it!」
A spear descended from the sky like arrow. The boy called Baldr(バルド) twisted and barely dodged it.
There was a piercing sound. The ground where he was lying on just now was pierced by the spear’s tip.
Seeing that, Baldr stood up as his survival instinct commanded him to do.
That attack would surely give him a lethal wound if he didn’t dodge. Baldr gritted his teeth and yelled angrily while feeling something cold on his back.
「Are you trying to kill me!?」
「What, you can still actually move. It’s not good to slack off even though you’re still young.」
「I would die if I didn’t move back there!」
The mother──Maggot(マゴット) laughed off her son’s fury like it was just a breeze. She brushed up her trademark silver hair that was like moon and laughed fearlessly.
There was definitely affection toward Baldr within that fierce smile, but the one who could perceive that was only her husband Ignis at best because he knew her really well.
Of course for Baldr that smile only looked like the portent of even harsher trial for him.
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「Come on! What’s wrong? I’m going to come at you without holding back if you don’t quickly take your stance you know?」
「I’ll dieeee! This time I’m gonna die for sureeeee!」
Baldr was completely exhausted from the practice swinging. Maggot who had switched her spear with a wooden sword attacked him.
The thick wooden sword was the same like Baldr’s. It was a brutal weapon that could kill human if it hit the wrong place.
Baldr felt like he wanted to cry. Even so for the sake of his survival, he had to keep handling the consecutive attacks of his mother that were hard to predict.
The thick wooden sword was hard to use with his hands not having any grip strength.
He couldn’t grip the sword firmly. If he lost focus the sword would immediately slip from his hands. But if that happened then Maggot’s attack would hit his body directly.
The attack was merciless even though this was just training. Baldr had experienced getting hit or having his bones fractured many times until now.
Thinking back, it was mysterious how he was still alive now.
He was intentionally using a thick wooden sword so that he was used with the weight and impact of a real sword. But to endure the burden, he had to let go of his body’s tension perfectly except at the moment of impact.
It was because even if he still had stamina left over, it would be impossible for him to keep a strong grip all the time.
If he clashed with Maggot in a contest of strength, his sword would immediately get sent flying──Baldr understood that, so he didn’t exert more strength than necessary and took great pains to parry the attacks with the suitable amount of strength.
If Baldr made any blunder here, a blow with no holding back would land on him.
「That’s right. Use your pinky as the base, transform your grip strength itself into strength to parry.」
「There isn’t any persuasiveness in it if you’re looking that joyful while talking!」
「Fuhaha! Now, don’t say that. This is a joyful skinship of parent and child.」
「In which world there is a skinship where the son is just an inch away from death!」
Just an instant of carelessness might become deadly──such dangerous training that was constantly accompanied by death was a morning scenery that had become the custom in Cornelius House.
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Finally he couldn’t even put any more strength into his fingertips that were just barely holding the sword. It was only then the training was finally over.
「Aa, being alive is wonderful……」
Today too he managed to finish the training alive somehow> Baldr looked up to the sky while feeling emotionally moved like that.
「Here is your drink, young master.」
「Thank you, Sey-nee.」
A beautiful maid with brown hair that reflected the sunlight held out lemon water toward Baldr. He lost himself drinking it in big gulps.
The refreshing sourness of the chilled lemon was permeating into his extremely exhausted body.
Baldr let out a sigh ‘puhaa’ like an old man. He got a bit embarrassed by that and returned the cup to the maid, Seyruun(セイルーン), his childhood friend who was two years older than him.
Seyruun giggled and took back the cup. She was looking at Baldr with the eyes of a big sister watching over her cute and naughty little brother.
「Do you want to drink one more glass?」
「Yes, please.」
Maggot narrowed her eyes toward the two’s warming conversation, but for those who didn’t know about the depth of her love, it only looked like she was narrowing her eyes dangerously.
──But it would be best to not point that out to her. Silence is golden.
(This is really fun……I never thought that there will something this fun other than war job.)
Her beloved son was growing right before her eyes. What’s more that growth was caused by her own hands to a direction that she preferred. She never thought that such thing would bring her this much enjoyment.
Maggot watched over the two while recalling half of her lifetime that was full of ups and downs, where she, a mercenary who traveled through many battlefields ended up as a wife of a count.
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Part 2
At the eastern part of Mauricia Kingdom(マウリシア王国), along the border with Haurelia Kingdom(ハウレリア王国), there was a vast woodland area. The whole area was the possession of the house of Count Cornelius.
This area had few farmland, in exchange it was blessed with inexhaustible forest resources and mineral resources. It was also abundant with water source.
However due to its geopolitical fate due to being located at the border, military spending completely ate up the count house’s financial situation. The house was poor and had no financial leeway at all.
The current head of Cornelius House, Ignis was 35 years old. He was at the prime of his manhood.
At his youth he obtained a reputation as a philanderer due to his good look. He was well known even at the royal capital due to his love affairs. However he encountered his destiny when he was 23 years old.
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The name of that destiny was Maggot──a mercenary of all things.
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At that time the relationship with Haurelia Kingdom worsened. A large scale military clash happened at the border. Maggot was hired to fight at the side of Cornelius territory army in that battle.
With her flowing silver hair, violet eyes, and above all else her spear technique and abnormal body strengthening magic that were without match, she stood out more than anybody else in the battlefield like a blooming flower.
Ignis was able to raise the achievements of destroying the army of Marquis Selvi(セルヴィー侯爵) that should be called as the main force of Haurelia Army as well as taking down the enemy’s veteran commander-in-chief was all thanks to her.
Silver Light Maggot.
Just by hearing that name, Haurelia Kingdom’s army would tremble in fear as though they encountered the devil himself.
That woman would go to a new battlefield when the dispute came to an end. When Haurelia’s side heard that, they welcomed the news with their hands raised in cheers. There were even people who wanted to use this chance to invite her into their own army.
Conversely Mauricia Kingdom also wished to somehow keep her in their own regular army, but Ignis’s action went outside the expectation of the surrounding.
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「Please marry me.」
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Maggot doubted Ignis’s sanity when she heard what he said.
She certainly had confidence with her own look, in the past she also had tyrannical nobles demanding her to attend to their night activity as a woman instead as a mercenary.
Although it went without saying that kind of noble would lose either their life or their important thing as a man after making such demand.
However she never even dreamed that a noble would ask for her hand in marriage so brazenly like this. Even for the out of the norm Maggot, this proposal was totally unexpected.
Mauricia Kingdom was a country that respected the right of the commoners, even so there was still an inviolable wall existing between nobles and commoners.
Not to mention the bloody path of a mercenary that she had walked until now. Not even in her dream she had thought that there would be an idiot noble who asked for her hand in marriage.
But in reality it was undoubtedly a fact that Ignis(イグニス) was in love with Maggot.
He had fallen in love with her since the instant he took a look at Maggot’s figure rushing through the battlefield.
In addition at that time a necessity was born to keep Maggot in Cornelius territory, and so Ignis also took advantage of this situation. That was the truth of the matter.
Of course as the consequence his relatives and retainers criticized him heavily for his decision. Not only that, the reputation of Cornelius House in the noble society also became the worst.
The exalted noble blood was going to be mixed with the blood of a mercenary of unknown origin. With the state of things like this, in the future Cornelius House would definitely be kept in low position within the high society of Mauricia Kingdom.
And yet Ignis still proposed a marriage to Maggot even if he had to brave such danger. Such fact made Maggot to feel something too. Nonetheless she was completely unable to imagine herself settling down as a wife of a noble.
There she made a single proposition toward Ignis.
It was what would be called later as “The Hunting of Cornelius’s Couple”.
It was a contest of hunting skill. The one who hunted the less number of games would do what the winner asked.
Maggot’s strength that was too unreal overshadowed Ignis, but he himself was also a military man who was greatly renowned for his bravery. It was said that there wasn’t anyone in the knight order who could rival him.
The two carried out the hunt with the ferocity that exterminated almost every animal in the forest, but something inexplicable happened at the evening when the sun almost went down.
Maggot’s arrow that never missed until then failed to hit her target.
Until this time the number of animal that the two had hunted was the same. There was no doubt that obtaining a lead in number at this time was advantageous with how little the remaining time was.
Ignis fired his arrow in high spirits. But his arrow also missed slightly and fell into the grasses.
They fired again, one arrow each. But unbelievable this time their arrows veered far away and flew to the wrong direction.
This was something that by all means should be impossible for these two who boasted great military prowess.
Maggot and Ignis felt that this happening was a divine revelation. After all the animal that they targeted was a pair of mated birds.
The heaven was telling the two of them to get married──they unconsciously believed that.
Once they had made their decision, they carried it out with a decisiveness that was befitting their militaristic nature.
They suppressed the relatives that raised objection by practically threatening them. They brought, or rather kidnapped an archbishop from the royal capital and held a grand wedding.
Furthermore due to Maggot’s connection from her mercenary era, even the king himself also attended the wedding. It effectively made it impossible for anyone to raise objection toward the marriage of the two.
Like this Maggot officially became the wife of Count Cornelius and gave birth to a boy in the following year.
It was a handsome boy who looked similar with Ignis (who was completely whipped by Maggot right now) in that he might make a lot of women cry in the future. He was named Baldr──.
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Part 3
No matter how much on an ex-mercenary Maggot was, there was a reason why Baldr was going through training this harsh at eleven.
Normally it would be hard to assign this kind of training to a child who still hadn’t even understood logic.
It was hard for a child to be interested toward something that they couldn’t comprehend. In most case they wouldn’t be able to learn anything when they didn’t even understand the meaning of the training.
Although it was known that training from early childhood would be effective because children could absorb new things quickly, it was hard to practice it in reality because of such reason.
However, there was no need to worry about that when it came to Baldr.
Far from needing to worry, the amount of his knowledge far surpassed even the average adult in some respect instead.
Such impossible story suddenly took place in Cornelius House around six years ago.
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Baldr’s growth was good compared to the normal infant, and yet it was hard for him to learn how to talk.
Because of that sometimes it was like he recalled something and let out incomprehensible voice.
Normally it wasn’t a big deal, but that eccentric behavior would be especially striking when he wasn’t feeling well or when he received a great shock.
And then at spring when he was five years old, Baldr got serious infection from the injury that he got while taking a walk.
Baldr was tormented by high fever and fell unconscious. During that time he saw a very long dream. It was a very, very long dream that was equivalent to the lifetime of a single person.
Baldr was wandering in the point between life and death for around two months. The first words that he said when he opened his eyes was──.
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『Holy shit』
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Those words weren’t the vocabulary of the official language of Aurelia continent(アウレリア大陸) (Mauricia Kingdom was also a part of this continent) that Maggot and others used. It was made up from Japanese language that shouldn’t be known by anyone in this world.
Oka Masaharu(岡雅晴), that was the name of Baldr’s previous life.
He was a student who enrolled in an educational institution called high school. One day his life activity was suddenly cut off.
From what he understood, his last memory of his life was him walking on a street to head toward an examination place for a higher education institution called university.
Perhaps he was killed by a random attacker, perhaps he got a sudden heart attack and died, or perhaps it was the cliché where he was hit by a truck……though Maggot didn’t understand what this “truck” could possibly be, at the very least the only certain thing was that he died before he knew it.
But the problem didn’t stop there. Other than Masaharu, there was the personality of one other person that got resurrected.
Since Baldr lost consciousness, the memories of three people were intermingling inside his brain all that time. It was nearly a miracle that Baldr’s could wake up into a normalcy despite the vast amount of information burdening his mind. That was what the healer who examined Baldr said.
Baldr was somehow able to maintain his brain’s identity exactly because he was a little kid with an ego that was still weak.
Maggot who learned that fact resolved to train Baldr both in body and in mind.
The personality called Baldr had fractured. In order to combine it back into one, Maggot judged that the best way would be to stimulate Baldr with the sensation of life that human could feel like pain, distress, fatigue, etc, and most of all to stimulate his instinct as living being to want to live.
But, this hellish training brought an unexpected result.
It was the influence of the memory that was awakened last, the memory of someone who was a career soldier in another world.
Seeing her son’s skill improving rapidly made Maggot’s heart leaped in spite of herself.
If her son kept growing like this, she believed that it wouldn’t be impossible for him to become the strongest warrior in the kingdom.
(He almost never rises to the surface anymore since Baldr grew up……but that guy got quite an interesting personality. His name is……Oka Sanai Sadatoshi isn’t it?)
The memory of this warrior who died peacefully at 70 years old undoubtedly gave a large influence toward Baldr’s martial talent. It seemed this old warrior had knowledge of martial art from a country where magic didn’t exist. Its movement was thoroughly logical and suited for actual battle.
It seemed he died from old age at the end. He was also a man who was the most mature and the least self-asserting among the three personalities.
However Maggot still didn’t know that Sanai’s craving that could also be said as his instinct was giving not a little influence on Baldr’s life.
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On the other hand, Masaharu had this disease called chuunibyou. It was a disease that any man must had suffered from at least once, but in Masaharu’s case it had to be said that his illness was a little bit too heavy.
「If I’m reincarnated, then as expected knowledge cheat is the way to go.」
Even throughout the whole Japan, a high school student who read everything from Wikipedia to encyclopedia because of such reason must be Masaharu alone.
It wasn’t like he was so dissatisfied with his life that he wanted to escape from reality.
He maintained his grade at above average ranking, his physical ability also wasn’t so lacking that he could be called as unathletic. Rather he had the ability to fight for a spot as a regular in the basketball club.
It wouldn’t be wrong to say that he had a fulfilling student life.
However, if he had a chance to go to another world……if there was a time that he awakened to some kind of power……he couldn’t stop himself from having such delusion no matter what.
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「Mayonnaise is the standard but……aa, if only I can at least bring my PC here with me」
A lot of data was stored inside the secret folder in Masaharu’s PC. The majority of them consisted of information about science, medical treatment, as well as cooking that was possible to reproduce without needing special requirement.
However, Masaharu had the self awareness that one day he certainly would have to say farewell to his youth that was immersed in such useless delusion.
His choices for the future would be reduced along the nearer the university exam approached. And when it was time for him to find employment, a fierce competition would be waiting for him.
There wouldn’t be any ground for “what if” to intervene there.
Actually Masaharu also knew just how harsh and lacking in dream reality was.
That was why he wanted to abandon himself to the sweet dream just for now.
Animal ears were justice, cheat was romance. And then if there was an adventure that made the blood boil and the flesh dance accompanied a friend who he could entrust his back to, then he wouldn’t ask anything else.
「Dog ears and cat ears, which is justice……」
Dog had this indescribable charm and the nobility from how loyal it was to its master. Cat had an elegance that no other animal possessed and ambivalence like a tsundere beautiful girl.
Masaharu was walking with his eyes closed even while he was aware just how depraved and chuunibyou his thought was.
He could hear the hustle and bustle of the wide street.
The hurried footsteps of salary men, the electronic sound of traffic light, and then the brusque exhaust sound of cars──Masaharu was trying to complete the image of the ideal animal ear within such real life. It was exactly at that time.
*Pshew*, Masaharu’s thought came to a half for eternity together with such impact sound like when a television’s power button was turned off,.
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Part 4
Vibrant sakura petals were dancing in front of the eyes of the old man who was lying down on his bed.
His gaze moved from the sakura that was planted under the castle tower of Inawashiro Castle to the west. Over there was the surface of Inawashiro Lake that boasted a prominent size even throughout Japan.
This region was the center of the governing over Sendo that was located in Aizu under Gamou Clan’s rule. It was entrusted into the hand of an old general from the Warring States period.
This general’s name was Oka Sanai Sadatoshi(岡左内定俊).
He was an old general that fought through battlefields as though it was his second home until his age went passed 70.
Sanai spent most of his life in war. He thought that the attack to Osaka Castle would be his last big battle. He was determined to make that battle as his place to die.
However because of the unending internal discord, the Gamou Clan that he served was appointed to be Edo’s caretaker (guard of Edo Castle). The old general lost his big moment as a samurai for eternity.
The thing that had supported him until now snapped off. Realizing that, Sanai followed the fate’s command and laid down his old body to rest.
Even his thick arms that could easily wield spear like it was feather had emaciated now. The numerous tales of heroism that decorated the old general’s life were going to become things of the past.
Sanai had no more place to belong in the peaceful world without war.
Sensing his coming death, Sanai distributed everything he owned to his lord and his acquaintances.
The fortune of Sanai who was famed as a miser easily exceeded 30000 ryo. It was an amount that could rival the yearly budget of a small prefecture, but with the presence of death looming over him, Sanai handed out all of them without any regret.
Those who knew how miserly he was about money were completely unable to believe just how gracious he was acting.
(I accumulated wealth for no other reason than war. Preserving fortune to be able to face war anytime is the way of thinking of a warrior. However the era from now will become one where it is ruled by the principle of a world without war.)
When he closed his eyes, a sight that he couldn’t forget formed at the back of his mind.
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Behind the scene of the fateful battle of Sekigahara, another battle that contested the right to rule Oushuu was unfolding with a small village at Tohoku as the stage.
Fukujima that was ruled by Kagekatsu, the successor of the god of war Uesugi Kenshin, was attacked by the one-eyed dragon Date Masamune. That battle was called the Battle of Matsukawa.
Uesugi army that was inferior in number employed a great number of brave ronin. They boldly went out to face Date army.
The figure of Sanai in his days of yore was also among the cavalries who were swinging their spear around and routing the Date army.
「Oho, so there art a worthy opponent here.」
There was a warrior riding a fine house. It was clearly a splendid horse for those with discerning eye. The warrior was wielding his spear before Sanai’s eyes.
In front of the warrior who was wearing a plain armor that was a stark contrast with his fine horse, Sanai was convinced that he had found a nice prey to become the proof of his deed of arms.
Rider and horse as one body, as the saying went, a horse was far more precious than an armor for a horse rider. In the battlefield, the horse was the other half of the warrior who was more precious than anything else.
A warrior who was riding such fine horse must be a renowned general without a doubt.
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「UOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHH」
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Sanai made his horse run along with a loud cry.
This was an extremely frustrating memory that Sanai was unable to forget for his whole life.
The owner of this fine horse was none other than Masamune himself. Sanai only learned that fact later and he could only grit his teeth in resentment.
If only he knew that, he absolutely wouldn’t let that enemy got away!
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「Masamune-dono, prepare yourself!」
Exactly, this time he wouldn’t let him got away. Even if he had to give his life, Masamune’s head would definitely become──.
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「……My lord, how are you feeling? My lord?」
When Sanai’s servant came bringing medicine for his lord, the survivor of the Warring States period Oka Sanai stopped breathing quietly with a satisfied smile.
The old general who devoted the majority of his life to war was continuing to see the dream of running through the battlefield even until the moment of his death.
