The main story begins.
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The sensation of wind brushing against his body was what first dragged Tenma’s consciousness back up.
…Ah, I’m waking up… the wind’s carrying the smell of grass and trees and dirt. Am I in a forest…?
Each time the wind passed through, leaves rustled and fluttered, and somewhere birds were calling and beating their wings to take off into the breeze…
It was pleasant enough that he was about to let himself sink back under… when something off pulled him out of it.
(Reek! What the hell is that smell?! Doesn’t smell like an animal either… like something that hasn’t bathed in years…)
Bracing himself, Tenma opened his eyes — and saw a filthy, vaguely human-shaped something looking at him with a smile on its face…
(It’s smiling, but no matter how you cut it, that’s the face of something that just spotted its dinner.)
About thirty meters away, the human-shaped something started taking slow, deliberate steps toward him.
Twenty-five meters… Tenma tried to bolt, but no strength would come into his body. He couldn’t even stand.
Twenty meters… he tried to shout for help. His voice wouldn’t work.
Fifteen meters… he scanned around for anyone. There was no one. Seeing this, the something let out a laugh.
Ten meters… it was bigger and uglier than he’d thought, and on top of the fear, what hit him first wasn’t tears — it was resignation.
Five meters… the thing raised the log-like club in its hand, still laughing. Tenma squeezed his eyes shut.
(Those gods! Why did you dump me somewhere with a monster like this?! Do your job! How awful is it to die five minutes into reincarnation?!)
While Tenma was inwardly cursing every deity he’d just met, the monster didn’t pause. The club was already starting its swing down — and at the exact moment of the strike, whff—thnk—thunk-thunk-thunk…
When the blow never came, Tenma cautiously opened his eyes. There in front of him — a monster with a thick arrow sticking out the middle of its face, sprawled on the ground.
“Whew. That was close. Didn’t expect to find a baby out here. Good thing I came to check, just in case.”
A voice he couldn’t parse came from behind him.
The owner of the voice scooped Tenma up easily and shifted him so they were face to face.
The man was… a giant.
“What were you doing out here? Dad? Mom?”
The giant’s voice was gentle, but Tenma couldn’t understand a word of it.
“Could be he was abandoned. Poor little guy… right, I’m taking you back to the village.”
The giant murmured something to himself, slung his bow back across his shoulder, and adjusted Tenma into a softer hold. Tenma had been in a low-key panic, but the giant didn’t seem to mean any harm, so he decided to stay quiet. …Mostly because he couldn’t move his body either way.
“Quiet kid. Faced down a goblin and didn’t even cry. Might grow up to be something special.”
The giant murmured this, sounding a little pleased. Tenma still had no idea what he was saying.
After roughly an hour of being carried, a village came into view.
“Right, we’re here. Helloooo, anyone around?”
The giant called out, and several other giants came shambling over.
“Hey! You’re back early. Said you wouldn’t be back till nightfall — what happened?”
A male giant came up to talk to him, with a woman giant following just behind, who immediately spotted the baby.
“What’s that kid? Cute little thing, but — please tell me you didn’t kidnap him?”
The female giant was laughing as she took him.
“Don’t be ridiculous. He was about to get jumped by a goblin in the forest. I checked the area — he was the only one out there. Could be he was abandoned. I called off the hunt and headed back.”
The giant seemed to be explaining things to the woman. More giants kept gathering around, and Tenma, watching this, thought:
(Right, the god said he’d reincarnate me as a baby… so these aren’t giants, they’re just regular humans.)
As he was thinking this, something unfamiliar caught the corner of his vision. Ears. Not human ears — animal ears, dog-like ears, set on top of the man’s head. And not just him — several of the other people gathered around had ears too. Floppy dog ears, cat-like ears, all kinds.
(So-called ‘beastfolk’ exist here too.)
By the time Tenma had processed this, the discussion seemed to have wrapped up. The man who’d brought him in took him along with his apparent wife to their home.
“From today on, this is your home. Think of me as your mama, okay?”
“And I’d be the papa.”
“That’s right, baby. So… what’s your name, I wonder.”
“There anything written on the cloth he’s wrapped in?”
“Hold on… oh, here. ‘Tenma Ootori,’ it says.”
“Got a family name. Could’ve been nobility, his parents. Until we know whether he was abandoned for sure, let’s raise him with this name. Nice to meet you, Tenma!”
“Nice to meet you, Tenma.”
Tenma still couldn’t make out a word, but he could at least tell that these two were friendly and seemed willing to raise him.
(So these two are going to be my stand-in parents, huh? If that’s the case, that’s pretty great.)
In his past life Tenma had lost both parents young, and barely remembered what having parents felt like. He sent the gods a small, grudging thank-you.
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The main story has begun. From here I’m going to pick up the pace a little.
The reason Tenma read the goblin as some huge monster is that he was rattled, and forgot he’d been reincarnated into a baby’s body.