I believe I reached the afterlife; soon, I think God will come here, and then I will be sent to another life. I also want to get rid of this life. All this time, I was just following others and pursuing temporary goals. The world may seem different, but everyone knows the truth: no one I encountered seemed superior or happy; they are just stuck in a loop of striving for improvement, unaware of how long that will last. The workers follow their company head, the company head follows the government, and the government follows the people.
God said, "Did you wait long?"
I replied, "Oh, you came! I had expected your appearance to be different. You are short and look cute, rather than cool and strong, and you are dressed like a human."
God asked, "Does that trouble you?"
I said, "Not at all! In fact, you look good that way. But when will you send me to another life?"
God responded, "Hey, wait! Can't we talk more? You look really troubled."
I admitted, "Yeah, but you can't help me with that. I am just troubled by reality."
God said, "Tell me; maybe I can help."
So I shared everything with Him.
He then replied, "Oh, is that so? This time, I will give you a life where you will remember your past experiences so that you can live up to your dreams. This world has the potential for you to fulfill your dreams, but you have to try hard."
I asked, "I hope I can live up to your expectations. Why would you do that much for me?"
He answered, "We give humans life to enjoy and find their purpose. Everyone does, but your life wasn't like that, and you hope for something different. I watch everyone's life, and when someone's life doesn't go well, it makes me sad."
I asked, "Does this have any consequences?"
God replied, "It may."
Hi, I am William Schneider, and I have been reincarnated into another world. This world appears quite different, with the existence of devils, gods, beasts, magic, and curses, making it fascinating. Here, devils, gods, beasts, and others are normal; they strive to become the strongest. The high mana flow in this magic-oriented world generates monsters that spawn everywhere. The court guards fight these monsters to protect citizens. The court guards are selected by the emperor, who is the strongest and most suitable leader for the kingdom. He lives with his family, and only the top knights know his location.
To achieve the life I desire, I must become the emperor. However, things don't seem to be going well.
When I was reincarnated, I reappeared at the same age at which I died, allowing me to save some time. However, since no one knows me, I quickly noticed something was wrong. As I walked down the street, all the vendors stared at me and expressed anger. "Why is a human here?" they said.
As soon as I spoke, they beat me to a pulp, but a man who looked like a knight came to my rescue. He was so fast that no one could see him.
"Don't do anything reckless," he said.
"Why did you come here, and who are you?" I asked.
When he inquired about my situation, I explained, but I realized he couldn't understand me. It seemed that no one would grasp my reincarnation, so the changes I made would be seen as changes made by their own people, not someone from outside. I had read somewhere that changes made by reincarnated individuals do not impact the world, but it doesn't seem true in this instance. If that were the case, they might have understood what I was saying.
"Wouldn't you answer me?" he pressed.
"I can't remember my memories," I replied.
"Oh, I see," he said.
He then took me to his house and explained everything. He advised me not to roam around because this world treats humans as enemies. When I asked how he managed to move about unnoticed, he explained that he could control his mana to make it equal to zero, rendering him invisible. He told me I could stay with him as long as I didn't feel comfortable in this world. However, I worried I didn't have time and needed to hurry. Given my past experiences, I realized I couldn't trust anyone, so staying here for too long could lead to trouble. Therefore, it would be better to learn some magic or something useful quickly. Since most of my work is outdoors, I should probably learn magic fast.
"What is your name?" I asked him.
"Sim Arbet," he replied.
"How can I learn magic?" I inquired.
He explained, "Children go to school to learn magic, but someone your age can learn it from books. However, you need to practice a lot to become refined and strong. If you want books on magic, they are kept in the storeroom."
There were quite a few books, and today I read three of them. They provided enough knowledge about magic, and I just need to practice it in the open now.
I can do that tomorrow, but first, I need to explore this mansion and gather information in case something happens. I estimated that it took us approximately five minutes to get here from the city market. Considering we flew at a considerable speed, I think this mansion is about 10 km away from the city.
As for the mansion, it is quite huge, and it has 12 rooms on both floors, most of which belong to Sim's guards and servants. It also has a small garden and a space for Sim to practice magic and combat.
My room has quite a large space, and it has everything that I need. Since the guards and servants working here are not human, they seem to hate me, and I must beware of them.
It's morning already. I guess I should get some fresh air outside.
"You are up already."
"Yeah, good morning."
"Last time when you asked me about magic, are you interested in that?""Yes, I am."
"I could teach you basic magic."
"Thank you very much. I appreciate your concern and look forward to it. Also, I would like to help you in anything you want because you are doing so much for me."
"If you like, you can help people in the library with their work, because they are short of help as one person is out for some time."
"Yes, I will certainly do my best."
"You can also read about magic in the books there."
"Yes, you are right."
"Also, I will call you for practice after you have your breakfast."
After breakfast, I went for practice, but before that I needed to know what type of magic I could use.
"Do you know what type of magic I use?" I asked Sim.
"No, I don't."
"Then how can I learn magic?"
"I will just ask it from God."
Well, the gods in this world seem to live either physically or mentally. Physical gods don't have many powers and are like humans, but they make contracts with other people and can live inside them. This unleashes powerful abilities for both human and god. But this power comes with a drawback: the god takes over the human's body after death. A person can only use 75% of a god's power—if they use more, they will die.
Demons, on the other hand, demand physical offerings like blood, organs, body parts, or even a person. But unlike gods' power, their power can be used to the maximum. Also, they don't take over a person's body after death.
The difference is that a god usually grants immense magical powers, while a demon grants immense physical powers.
I learned this from a book the other day.
"Well, He says that you have illusion-type magic."
"Then can you teach me how to use it?""I could have, but you are the first one I know who has that kind of magic, and I don't know."
"Although, I can tell you how I use my magic so that you can learn something. I gather the mana in my body and direct it to flow outward. I can also attack in various ways, shaping my mana and releasing it as needed. Since I am a swordsman, I don't use magic like a mage, therefore I may not be able to teach you. Also, your magic type is unknown to me."
"Thank you. I think it will help me a lot."
"Also, I made you a bracelet that cancels mana, so your existence will not be noticed by anyone, and you can easily walk outside this mansion and in the city. But since it is made by me, I can easily sense you."
After that, I practiced using some magic, but it didn't work. Maybe it's because I was reincarnated into another world, and things can work differently for me.
I will just read some books and be sure to travel to the city so that I can gain some experience. That may help me.
So, I reached the city and found that people use magic as an essential part of life. It is like technology in my world. They use it to build houses, cook, manufacture things, and meet almost every requirement.
Since I cannot talk to anyone there, I just came back to the mansion after roaming around for some time. When I came back, I helped the servants with their work and read books on magic. After that, I realized I might not be able to use magic because I lack physical capabilities. People here increase their mana by training physically. My mind has also come from a different world, so it also needs to adapt.
According to me, I can use magic if I train and meditate for some days. Since mana collecting and scattering is new to my brain, it can take time to master this.
From the next day onwards, I started to train and meditate.
It took me 10 days to prepare, and after that I managed to use one attack. As the name suggests, my magic can make illusions. When I used my magic on an apple and thought of a glass, it became a glass—or at least it looked like one. Since I was only able to pour a small amount of mana, it remained for a very short time, maybe just a second.
My magic doesn't seem very useful or powerful, so I should also learn swordsmanship from Sim.
I practiced as much as I could for one month, but my magic still had limitations. Maybe it's because it depends heavily on the brain, unlike other types of magic.
Well, now I can use magic for 10 minutes on multiple objects. But today, when I reached the market to buy books, one person sensed me even while I wore the bracelet. His clothes seemed like those of a knight, resembling Sim. But since I was human, he fought me, and it became a mess. To fight back, I would need to remove my bracelet, but that would cause even more trouble.
I have been in this world for a whole month and still don't know much. Also, there seems to be very little chance of Sim rescuing me. I don't even know why he saved me on the first day.
To be continued