♣The Beginning

 

 

 

♣The Beginning

 

IT was nighttime. My usual walk back home from work.

I stopped by a convenience store, then made my way to the usual intersection. As I walked down the gentle slope, I pulled out my headphones, although I knew I ought to be more alert when walking outside at night. The idea that some suspicious person might be following me around was frightening.

I turned on my phone and dialed emergency services, so I’d be able to call for help with one push. And to top it all off, I wore a white coat and white backpack—that way, any oncoming cars or bicycles would easily notice me.

This neighborhood was mostly peaceful, but you could never be too careful. You never knew when some pervert might crawl out of the woodwork.

As I walked on thinking such things, I felt something white and cold drop on the tip of my nose.

Snow. I thought it was cold—

Screeeeeeeeeeeeeech!

“Huh?”

The moment I stopped and looked up at the night sky, the sound of a braking bicycle squealed behind me.

Wait. When did a bicycle get here…?

I heard someone shouting. I felt something hit me first, then my head bang hard against a telephone pole. A dull sound rang in my ears. The last thing I saw was a bicycle, with its lights off, sliding to the center of the highway.

God, this is the worst… A bicycle with its lights off… Am I going to…?

The world went dark. It was so cold…so dark.

No, no, not like this. I…I never even had a boyfriend… I couldn’t even repay Mom… Thank her for everything yet…

Mom… No, I don’t want to go… Mom…

♣♣♣

“GOOD girl…”

When I came to, a woman was looking down at me. She had blond hair and a crystal embedded into her forehead. I couldn’t say why, but somehow…this woman registered as “Mother” in my mind.

I reached out to her. My small, baby hands reached toward Mother. Mother gladly enveloped my hands in hers, happily mouthing the word “Rubia.”

…Rubia. Yes, that’s my name.

“Good girl, Rubia. There, there.”

I couldn’t speak. Only meaningless “Aaah”s and “Uuu”s left my lips. But Mother simply beamed at me.

I don’t understand. What’s going on…? Wait. Wasn’t I—uhh…? Working at the pub near the station…? Just an ordinary…? Wait…what…? This is weird. Why can’t I remember…?

“Cindy.”

“…I know. Rubia is…”

A man’s voice called out to Mother and made her raise her hand from my head. The smile was gone from her lips. Her brows furrowed sadly and tears welled up in her blue eyes. The brown-haired, bearded man that approached Mother…that was Father.

“Rubia…my precious daughter… Our country of Jiera is at its end. But you will survive…” said Father.

“May the blood of the Stone of Daybreak…never come to awaken. And may she always be safe…” added Mother.

“Aah… Aaah…”

Father, Mother, what’s wrong? What is this box? Why are you putting me inside it…? What’s going to happen now?

They placed me in an oval, egg-shaped container of some kind. Father put something on top of me and closed the lid. Mother wiped her tears away. Father bit his lips bitterly.

I had no way of knowing that screams and fire were raging beyond that room’s door. And rocked gently, enveloped by darkness, I gradually succumbed to sleep.

That makes sense…I am a baby, after all.

But why were Mother and Father so sad? What did they mean “by the blood of the Stone of Daybreak…?”

“You must live on.”

Father’s muffled voice reached my ears. And that was the last memory I had of my parents.

♣♣♣

HOW much time had passed? I could tell my ark was rocking and jolting, but it was totally dark. When I woke up, I spent some time crying and whining, but I realized no one was around and stopped after a while. Instead, I started listening attentively to what sounded like a river bubbling. I wasn’t cold, since I was wrapped in what felt like two or three layers of blankets, but…

Is this ark drifting along a river…? No, that can’t be…! What am I, baby Moses?!

I’d already learned, at this point, that crying wasn’t going to get me anywhere, so I raised my hands, clenching and opening my fists. I fumbled around, touching my face in an attempt to understand who I was.

“Aaah. Uuu…”

That was the extent of what my voice could utter. I couldn’t speak. And that meant…no question, I was now a baby.

Yeah, I figured! I figured that’s what this means! But how does this make sense?!

A bicycle ran into me and made me bump my head against a telephone pole. That was the reason. But…!

Wait. So, does this mean I…d-died? Died and got reborn as a baby? Doesn’t it all end when you die? It normally does, right? Does reincarnating with my memories intact make any sense?! Wait, hold up. Is this really Japan? No, even if it isn’t Japan…am I even still on Earth?! That woman back there…my new mom had a jewel in her forehead! And it wasn’t a decoration. It was in her forehead! Was there a tribe like that out there?! Like in the Amazon? One of those Indigenous tribes…?

Wait. Then this river…

Hold up, hold up, a river?! Aren’t there, like, crocodiles in the Amazon?! Nooo…!

A crocodile could probably swallow this little ark of mine whole… Aaah! And now I remember some TV show saying giant serpents are breeding in the Amazon! Big snakes that can swallow human children whole… Big, giant snakes… The Amazon’s like a breeding ground for dangerous creatures!

Noooooooo! I just died five minutes ago; I can’t die again so soon!

“Aaah…”

I was on the verge of bursting into tears but managed to quiet down. I didn’t know how far I’d drifted, but I was probably far from civilization by now. Crying and screeching here would only alert predators to my presence…

Aaaah… Why did this happen to me?!

♣♣♣

“………!”

I jolted awake. How long has it been…?

What happened… I… Wait, did I fall asleep?! Ugh…I guess it makes sense. I am a baby.

But being a baby just made a whole slew of other problems rise to the surface. Real issues that tormented me in the here and now. Like being hungry…and really, really needing to pee. The hunger I could put up with—or rather, it’s not like I had much of a choice—but my bladder issues were approaching critical mass!

The fact I’d been a grown adult in my past life not a few hours ago made it absolutely awful to put up with. But worse yet, this little ark I was in was hermetically sealed. Whether I went number one or number two, it’d be a catastrophe, both in terms of smell and, worse yet, my dignity. How could I live it down?!

Still, crying about it would only attract predators that might gulp the whole ark up and put a swift end to my newly gained second life before I even had a chance to properly start it!

I can’t die this soon! Someone help meeeeee!

But then, I thought I heard something.

Huh? Did I imagine that…? Wait, no, I definitely heard it!

I could clearly hear someone wading through the water, approaching me. Someone was here to save me!

“There we go…mm?”

Yeah, I just heard someone’s voice!

I opened my eyes just as someone roughly opened the lid to my ark. A dirty, bearded face looked down at me, with the starry sky as its backdrop.

…Er…he totally looks like some kind of villain… B-But wait, no, I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. M-Maybe he’s actually really nice?

Given the situation, I had no choice but to rely on this person for help.

Please help me! Don’t send me down the river again!

“Tch, a baby?”

With a click of his tongue, the man closed the ark’s lid, and I could hear him walking. But this time, it was different from the sloshing water. He was probably carrying me up a hill.

“Hey, what happened?”

“What was inside?”

“Take a look.”

I could hear more adults. As I looked up, the ark opened again, except this time, several grimy, bearded faces greeted me, blotting out the starry sky.

…Th-They all look like scumbags. Nooooooo!

“Gaaaah, gaaaaaaaaaaah!” The scumbag face roulette made me bawl.

Th-They stink! Haven’t they heard of a bath before?!

They smelled of iron and the distinctive body odor given off by middle-aged men.

“Aaah, someone shut this pipsqueak up!”

“Hey, is there anything expensive-lookin’ in there? All I see is this dirty rock.”

“Oh, but this silk cloth looks kinda snazzy.”

“Nothin’ else of value in there… Tch. Hey, Boss!”

…Boss?

The man that picked me up and a few other men roughly lifted up my ark and started walking. The sound of a bonfire’s crackling and crude laughter reached my ears.

I have a bad feeling about this…

“Yo, boys. What did you find?”

“This silk cloth is the most valuable thing. The only other things in there were this baby and some pebble.”

“Oh, silk sells for a pretty sum. A baby, though… What race is it?”

“She looks human. See, no fur or fluffy ears.”

“No scales or a tail, either… Oh, but check it out; it’s a girl!”

Noooooooooooooooooo!

They tore my blanket and clothing away, unveiling me for all present (a group of middle-aged men!) to see.

Creeps! Perverts! Sick perverted creeps!

One of them lifted me up by one leg and dangled me upside down in what was probably the worst possible way to hold a baby. But forget appearances or gentleness. Him holding me like that only made me…

“Gaah!”

…incapable of restraining myself. And it really, honestly wasn’t my fault, but…

Aaah… Just kill me… I thought as shameful relief overtook me.

“Gaaaaah! Gaaaaaah!” I cried out.

“Ya little shit!”

“Gahahaha! The baby pissed on ya!”

“Shit, wait, the fire’s goin’ out!”

He flourished me about, still holding me by the leg. This time, I wasn’t screaming just out of embarrassment—it hurt.

O-Ow, my leg! What are these guys doing?! Wait, no, did this guy just try to throw me into the fire?! You can’t do that to a baby—Ow! My leg feels like it’s tearing off! Stop it! Let me down! It huuurts!

“A baby, huh…? What do we do with it, Boss?”

“Well, we could probably sell her to a slave merchant in Edesa Kura for some coin. It’s a girl, so we could also keep her around for our pleasure, huh? Or… Here’s a thought. We could teach her how to kill and make her work for us as an assassin! She’ll net us a fortune.”

“Oh, I like it! And if we have her to keep us company, we won’t have to kidnap any village girls anymore either!”

“Nah, there’s that extra-special something about bedding girls you kidnapped yourself…”

“I guess…”

“’Sides, stealing’s our job! If we don’t taste the spoils every now and then, we’ll lose our touch!”

“Ahahaha! Ya ain’t wrong!”

Wh-What are these people saying…?! Are these guys… No, they’re definitely thieves! No way… Why did I get picked up by them, of all people…? They’re going to make me a slave…or an assassin…? To hell with that! If I stay with these people, they’ll kill me sooner or later!

Someone! Anyone! Heeeeelp!

“Gaaaaah! Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” I bellowed out.

“Zip it, pipsqueak!”

“Gaaaaaaaaah! Aaaaaaaaaaah!”

“Forget it, Boss, let’s just flay this tyke. You really think we can raise a kid?”

“Well, I guess you’re not wrong there… Though we could just abduct some girl from a village and have her raise the kid for us… Huh?”

Help! Somebody! Anybody! I don’t want to die here and I don’t want these creeps to take advantage of me or make me a slave! Please! Help, please!

The only thing I could do was wail and cry out helplessly. I squeezed my eyes shut and cried out as hard as I could, so I didn’t even have the leisure of appreciating the starry sky.

But before long, the bandits started fighting something. Apparently, my crying had summoned something they hadn’t expected. I could hear gurgling and screams and the ominous sound of something snapping. By the time I’d grown too tired to cry any longer, the sound of an animal’s growling had reached my little ears—a distinct gurgling sound.

W-Wait… Wait up… I just imagined that, right…? Th-This isn’t happening…

“Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…!”

“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” I cried out in fear.

A-Animals!

A pack of animals, crimson blood dripping from their jaws, was circling me! And while I couldn’t see it, I could clearly hear the sound of crunching and smashing.

“U-Ugh… B-Boss… H-Help… Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

The thief then fell silent, as if the agonized howl he’d let out clogged his throat. I could hear the men screaming and moaning, calling out for help and begging the animals to stop. But little by little, their voices were replaced with the sound of something being torn off and eventually followed by silence.

The only thing I could see was the back of one animal. But I heard the growling of several more.

I silently accepted that my life was over. It was short and its end came all too quickly. My only way of surviving this was for the animals to not notice me and leave, but my ark was wide open, and my gaze was locked with one of theirs.

What was that red, blood-like fluid dripping from its mouth? I was afraid to ask and didn’t really want to know. So, I closed my eyes.

Just hurry up and end this… What is this even? A nightmare? I’m probably not gonna wake up in a hospital after being hit by that bike, am I…?

When that thief dangled me in the air from my legs, it really did hurt, after all…

The animals sniffed my scent curiously.

Is this gonna be one of those cases where they decide to raise me as one of their young or something…?

“Gaaaah!”

“You mustn’t harm her.” A mysterious voice echoed out.

The voice seemed to echo at first, but it gradually became clear. Was that a man’s voice? Maybe one of the bandits…? Whatever it was, it made the animal bolt away from me with a yelp. And the next moment, a mysterious young man with hair as black as night peered down at me. He was dressed oddly and clearly wasn’t there with the bandits.

“…You didn’t have to kill them… You lot have taken it too far…”

“Humans, burn, territory.”

“Burn, kill.”

“Our kind, many, dead.”

“Humans, unforgivable. More! Kill!”

Those voices spoke not so much in words as utterances… But those sounds they produced were thick with anger and rage.

Wait…the animals are talking? Is this some kind of baby power?

“I know. But revenge will not bring back your lost kinsmen or restore your land. Even I can do nothing about those who have died.”

The voices simply returned a wordless growl.

“You should migrate to the Mythical Continent. Go east from here. If you see humans along the way, you mustn’t attack or devour them. Do so, and they will hunt you down. And they far outnumber you. Once you reach the eastern tip of this land, ask the water dragon Lenne to help you cross the sea. Mention my name and he will ferry you. You wish to protect your clan, yes? Then restrain yourselves for now and make your way east.”

“…Under, stood. Will do, as you say. Clan, I protect.”

“That’s a good boy.”

…Did he just talk to those animals…?

Baby superpowers are amazing, I thought to myself. I always heard stories about babies being able to understand what animals say, but…

The animals’ presence grew further away, and the man peered down at me again. He was a beautiful young man… He felt like he’d come from another world altogether compared to those filthy, smelly men from earlier. He had black hair and dark eyes, just like a Japanese person…

And that figure! He’s like a model or an idol or something…! I only ever saw people that pretty on TV!

But the gaze in his eyes was so sad…

Did he come here to save me? Did he tell the animals to come here? Who is he…?

“I went ahead and did it, didn’t I…? What am I going to do? I can’t raise a baby…”

Wait, whaaaaaaaat?!

The young man dropped his shoulders in a spectacular show of regret. He then crossed his arms and brought a finger to his lips in contemplation, after which he cradled his head in both arms…

This guy’s totally regretting this!

“Leaving the baby to those beasts is… Yes, I couldn’t do that. They’ve got their hands full just staying alive, and besides, I can’t leave a pack of demon wolves with a baby and expect them to raise it… But I can’t do this either! What am I supposed to do?!”

Well, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, either, mister! But, uhh, thanks for saving me! Really! From the bottom of my heart!

If I’d have stayed with those thugs, I’d have lost either my sanity or my life. This man effectively saved my life.

“Aah…” I cooed as I reached my hands out toward him.

I wanted to at least show him my gratitude. At hearing my voice, the young man looked at me with a pale face, his eyes full of anxiety…

This guy… He’s a nice person.

He wouldn’t be this worried and anxious if he wasn’t. Those bandits earlier weren’t occupied with actually raising me—they just wanted to take advantage of me, to use me. And the way they handled me was awful.

But by comparison, this man was pale with concern over the question of what to do with me. Only a kind, good-hearted person would make that kind of face. But still…I couldn’t bring myself to ask someone who was this afraid of the idea of caring for a baby to raise me…though, that said, I couldn’t speak to begin with!

And since he’d saved me, I wanted to return the favor, somehow. But even that was out of my reach, since I was a baby. All I could do was coo and babble while I tried to withstand my empty stomach…

You’ll have to forgive me when it comes to going to the bathroom, though. My body can’t help that. I mean, I am a baby! I really don’t have many options in the way of repaying favors!

“…For today, I’ll just take you to my place. And tomorrow, we’ll check along the human highways. Maybe we’ll find a traveler kind enough to take care of you… Not anyone like those people from earlier, though. Hmm…”

The man bent over and picked up my ark. The ark rocked ever so slightly—he’d picked me up rather carefully. And with his face so close to mine, his handsome features became all the clearer.

…This guy really is a pretty boy. Like, wow.

But he did have an odd pattern on his forehead… Like a tattoo. Is he from some Amazonian tribe? Except he wasn’t going around half-naked…and looked more Japanese to me than tribal.

“Aaah, aaaaaaah.” I cooed.

Who are you? And, erm, thanks for saving me.

I couldn’t convey anything meaningful to him, but I had to at least try. He did save my life.

“Hm? What is it…? You’re such a strange baby. Are all human babies this smart? You don’t have to thank me. I just saved you without thinking of the consequences, and I can’t raise you. Forgive me.”

“Aaah! Aaaaaah!”

Oh, not at all! I understand…! Wait, are you reading my thoughts? C-Can you tell me your name?

But all I got was silence.

Okay, wow, I just got totally ignored! Or I guess you can’t actually hear me…

“This is my house. Or…so I call this little cave… We’ll go looking for someone to take care of you tomorrow, so hang tight until then, all right? Oh, you must be hungry. I’ve got some Kalupa milk. You want some?”

“Aaaah!”

I’ll have some! Please! I don’t know what a “Kalupa” is, but if it’s milk, it’s probably the best thing! You have no idea how hungry I am! I’ll never forget this, mister! You’re a lifesaver!

I flapped my little hands, begging for milk. Very baby-like of me, as it were.

“…B-But how do I feed you… Should it be cold? Or maybe I should heat it up, or… Wait, where did I put it again… Aaaah…!”

…I don’t know what’s going to happen next, but, erm… This guy’s really clumsy.

♣♣♣

THE next day, the man disappeared after sunrise. In his place, some giant monster peered down into my ark. As I looked back with wide eyes, the beast spoke with the nice man’s voice, saying, “I’ll try rocking you a little…”

…No…way…

“Aaaah?!”

This black monster that makes the demon wolves from yesterday look tiny by comparison is supposed to be that handsome guy?! Who is this person?!

The fact was, though, he saved me. The monster closed its jaws around the handle of my ark and started walking. From my point of view, all I could see were its upper jaw fangs and cute whiskers.

The morning glow was just barely visible in the sky. We were off to look for someone who’d adopt me…which made sense. I was a baby, so I needed an adult to take care of me. I could only hope we’d find someone nice…

However, I still held on to a strong resistance to all this. I mean, I still recalled most of my past life, so I had my pride as an adult. And I felt it all too keenly here.

Think this through, damn it! Be realistic! I was a baby—a defenseless infant who couldn’t walk or talk on her own. I needed to throw my pride aside and choose life as a baby. After all, my alternative was to die a helpless baby…

“Uuu, aah…”

“What is it? You need to pee? Poo?”

The black monster noticed I’d gotten louder and carefully placed me down on the ground. Its big black nose sniffed my lower half carefully. The shame made me wish the ground would just swallow me up.

The nice man took off the cloth that served as my makeshift diaper yesterday, then tied a new one in its place, but…having that region sniffed was still embarrassing!

“…What is this stone, by the way? I’ve never seen anything like it. Is it some kind of pact stone?”

“Aah?”

“Oh, I mean the stone inside your room… Well, I guess you don’t understand.”

Can you really call this cradle my room? It feels kind of…off… But I guess this is my room, in a way… Also, what’s a pact stone?

Indeed, I’d no idea what any of this meant. But someday, I might need to know, so I begged him to explain.

“Aaah! Aaaah!”

“You want to know?”

“Aaah!”

“Pact stones are produced when some kind of contract or pact is sealed, as proof of the agreement. They hold no meaning for anyone except for those bound in the pact. To that end, I doubt this stone belongs to you. You’re far too little.”

Given what he’d told me, I doubted this was mine, too. I couldn’t recall anything that grand happening to me.

“But since you have it, it must mean your parents gave it to you with some kind of wish in mind… Perhaps the fact your voice reached my ears wasn’t a coincidence.”

…Really? Well, either way, you chose to come to my aid, and I’m grateful for that! I’ll repay you for this debt someday, I promise!

“Anyway, here we are. We should wait for someone to pass by. If you get hungry or need to go to the bathroom, let me know.”

“Aaah!”

Roger that, sir!

I really couldn’t express how grateful I was to this person. Normally, I’d at least go to the bathroom on my own if I could… And if I wasn’t a baby, I could at least work to earn my own meals!

Are there any jobs in the Amazon forest, though…?

“Aaaaah…”

Incidentally, all I could really do was look up, and my view was just the monster’s face and a lot of thick, green foliage. Which begged the question: just where exactly was I?

Isn’t this kind of weird, actually?

I ended up sort of just rolling with it, but the idea of this monster actually being the nice mister who helped me yesterday was odd…

Is he a man who can turn into a monster? Mm? Or a monster that can turn into a man? Huh? Which is it? Can people in the Amazon do that? Is this some kind of hunting technique? I mean, it doesn’t look like a disguise…

I looked at my small hands as they waved forward. I couldn’t exactly fool myself into thinking I was anything but a baby at this point. But even if I could accept this weird turn of events, there were plenty of other things that made no sense.

Like…where was I? What corner of the world was I in? Why did my parents leave me? And, practically speaking, sending a baby down a river was pretty much tantamount to killing them, right? Was I thrown away? But my mother and father looked so kind…

Mother had jewels on her. So she probably wasn’t hurting for money, but…maybe there was a famine? I mean, undeveloped regions don’t exactly have convenience stores or supermarkets… So maybe they sent me down the river, hoping someone in a city might pick me up?

But does the Amazon river even connect with any cities…?

I never visited the Amazon or felt really driven to look into the place… But apparently, there are telephone poles near the Egyptian pyramids and the Sphinx, so for all I know, there could be surprisingly modernized cities even in places like this.

Aah…

It was odd. I had so much to think about, but the breeze was pleasant, and the scent of the foliage made me oddly sleepy…

Well, sleeping is part of a baby’s job description…

Sorry, mister…I’m…tapping out…

♣♣♣

WHEN I woke up, I found myself looking up at an unfamiliar ceiling.

“Ah, she’s awake!”

“Ooooh!”

And this time, old men covered in bandages look down at me.

Uhh, mister, who did you leave me with?! I guess…they don’t look like bandits, but…

They were all injured, and some of them were wearing armor… I had no idea what group of folks I was left with.

“Stop gawking at the baby, you guys. You’ll scare it.”

“Sure, sure… Are you really gonna raise it, though, vice-captain?”

“Your wife and kid ran off on you, right? Ya sure you’re up for this? Maybe it’d be better off in De Marl’s Orphanage…”

“Nah, I’ll raise her. A Mythical Beast saved this kid. Something weird might happen if I leave her in De Marl.”

“Y-Yeah… At this point, Mythicals are pretty much more a legend on this continent…”

“I guess there’s still a few left…”

…Mythical Beasts? Legendary creatures? Like, the kind that shapeshifts between human and animal form… Wait, so that nice man wasn’t human, but a Mythical Beast?

All those questions were certainly on my mind, but more importantly, it seemed that the bearded man was going to raise me. They called him vice-captain, but I had no idea what group he was part of. All the people I could see were bandaged, so maybe it was a mercenary group?

Huuuuh?! Mercenaries?! What country is this?!

“…Gotta come up with a name for the kid first, though. What do we call it?”

“Is it a boy or a girl?”

“A girl. Mm… A girl… A girl’s name…”

My name…

If nothing else, it looked like these bandaged people had their priorities straight, unlike those bandits from earlier… Albeit, they were still injured, so that was concerning.

Who are they?

Everyone seemed lost in thought as they tried to think of a name, which was a pretty funny scene, but…

“I know! How about Tinaris?” The bearded man suggested.

“Huh…?” One of the injured men groaned. “V-Vice-captain, you just added a letter to Tiaris’ name. You know, that dancer everyone likes from De Marl…”

“Agreed.”

“Yeah, sounds good.”

“Tia’s the best.”

The group seemed to be in agreement.

“Huuuh…?” The man who argued with the bearded man eyed them with surprise.

Huuuuuuh?!

“All right, it’s decided! Starting today, you’re Tinaris!”

“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” I broke into tears.

“Ah, she started bawling!”

“See! She doesn’t want you to name her after a dancer!”

“But it’s not the same name! It’s just inspired by it… Aah, okay, okay, just stop crying, okay?! H-Hey, how do you soothe a baby?!”

“Huh?! Forget having a kid, I’m not even married! How am I supposed to know?!”

“Maybe she wants milk? Or, uhh, maybe she needs to take a piss?”

“S-Stop the carriage!!!”