Novice Reincarnator

The afterlife was a small, sterile white room that wouldn’t look out of place in a hospital. As it turned out, God was a dandy man with curved horns on his head. He was sitting by the side of my bed for some reason.

“Oh, you are awake? Good. What is the last thing you remember, Ash?”

I glanced down at myself and sure enough, I hadn’t escaped my fate of being a big breasted demon girl. I was in an unfamiliar school uniform. My mouth opened after a moment of hesitation.

“I was taking the Examiner entrance exam when the world shattered like glass. For some reason, I ended up in a dark cavern with a terrifying monster in it.”

I shivered just remembering that colossal monster. It was all over now. I had died, after all.

“I looked into what happened. It wasn’t an accident you were sent to certain doom. Someone tampered with your explorer’s license to send you to the Crystalline Caverns. Do you have any idea why someone might try to kill you?”

“H-Huh?”

Someone wanted me dead? Impossible, is what I wanted to say, but Leo had confessed to me. It wouldn’t be strange for Elizabeth to want to erase me. My face must have shown something because God took out a notepad and spoke up.

“You look like you have an idea. Can you tell me who wanted to kill you and why?”

“No, it can’t be her.”

“Her?”

My mind raced. Elizabeth was the obvious culprit because she was the one who pushed me to become an explorer, but I couldn’t believe that she would do such a thing. I wanted to believe that she was being genuine with me. At the very least, I was certain that her love for Leo was real and that she cared enough about my well being to not try to kill me.

I went over my last conversation with Elizabeth. If Elizabeth didn’t try to kill me, then there had to be someone else that tampered with the explorer’s license without her knowing. A thought struck me out of the blue.

What if I wasn’t the intended target at all? I was a nobody, but Elizabeth said she came down to my homeworld with the purpose of bringing Leo back. Then, perhaps the explorer’s license was tampered with in the hopes of killing a future Legendary talent.

“Sorry but, who are you?”

Now that I had fully woken up, I realized that this wasn’t the afterlife and the man besides me wasn’t God. I was in a hospital and this man was a demon.

“Allow me to introduce myself. I am Cain Duskhelm, a Demon Duke. I hurried over when I heard we had a new addition to our race.”

“I am surprised you consider a Hornless Demon as part of the noble Demon race. Most races look down on the lower species.”

Like every other race, there were five different known levels of Demons. Hornless, Demon, Greater Demon, Noble Demon, and finally, Demon King. The dandy man in front of me was second from the top, nearly at the apex of the demon race.

Demon’s were famed for their great mana capacity, but hornless demons lacked this trait. Almost all lower species lacked an attribute that made the Upper species so special and thus, they were typically discriminated against.

“There are so few demons in the world that every new addition is worthy of celebration. Why, several marriage offers have already come your way from renowned bloodlines.”

“Seriously?”

I couldn’t help but ask Cain in disbelief. I ran away from my homeworld to avoid being forced into an unwanted relationship, but it turned out the Upper Realm was no different.

“You are a rare female Demon. That means you can contribute to the prosperity of our race by producing several new Demon children. Children in the Upper Realm tend to take on the same race as their mother after all.”

The dandy Demon Duke glowed with happiness at the fact that I was a girl. A weak whisper escaped from my lips.

“Ah, I’m afraid marrying a man is impossible.”

My words didn’t dampen Cain’s enthusiasm in the slightest.

“That is no issue. If you prefer girls, that is fine too. There are pills and potions that can allow girls to temporarily gain the equipment necessary to have children together.”

I dropped my eyes and gazed absentmindedly at my huge chest. It was strange how quickly I had grown to care about this dandy Demon General’s opinion. It was too bad my words would erase his favorability towards me.

“I was a man in my homeworld, so something like becoming pregnant with kids… Impossible.”

I understood the responsibilities one had towards their own race. The talented geniuses in my homeworld had a responsibility to become explorers and protect our homeworld’s safety. In the same way, Demons here had a responsibility to reproduce and multiply to make up for their small numbers.

Even so, I couldn’t do what I couldn’t do. I braced myself for words of anger and condemnation, but they never came.

“I understand. I’ll turn down the marriage proposals for you.”

“Eh?”

I looked up. Cain had a gentle smile on his face. His hand stretched out and kindly patted my head. I didn’t hate it, despite not being a kid anymore.

“I can’t force you to do what is impossible for you. We are just happy to have another member of our race.”

“Thank you, Cain.”

I couldn’t put into words how happy Cain’s words made me. It was okay for me to just be myself. I didn’t need to be Leo’s girlfriend or some Demon’s wife. Cain stroked his beard while he looked at me.

“What do you say about becoming my adopted daughter? The more persistent Demon’s will not be able to touch you if they knew you had me as a backer.”

“I appreciate it, but I already have two people I call my parents and I wouldn’t trade them for anything in the world.”

A pang of loneliness filled my heart. I had been in such a rush to get away from Leo’s pursuit that I had even left my family behind. Explorers could return to their hometown every now and then, but I wouldn’t be able to see them for the time being.

I took a deep breath and changed the topic to what we were talking about earlier. Everything Cain had shown me so far proved that he was an individual I could trust.

“Does the name Elizabeth McDouglas mean anything to you?”

The dandy Demon Duke put his hand on his chin and thought.

“McDouglas. That is the young human family that gained an immense wealth and power in a short period of time after befriending the human hero.”

“Elizabeth gave me my explorer’s license, but I don’t think it was originally meant for me. She came to my homeworld to bring my best friend, Leonhart Maxwell, to the Upper Realm.”

“Did you say Leonhart Maxwell!?”

Cain shot to his feet in shock. As I suspected, Leo and his father were rather a big deal. Cain continued without waiting for me to reply.

“Leonhart Maxwell is the son of the human hero. We all wondered where his son had disappeared to. The hero must have hidden his son in a lower world to protect him. It all makes sense now.”

The dandy Demon General furiously scribbled on his notepad. I gave Cain my thoughts on the incident that nearly killed me.

“Elizabeth loves Leo. There is no way she would try to harm either Leo or I. Therefore, I think someone else had given her a faulty explorers license.”

“Of course, the McDouglas family would never harm the son of the hero. This needs to be investigated immediately.”

My news was apparently even bigger than I thought because Cain quickly said goodbye to me and left the room in a hurry. Peace and quiet returned to my hospital room. Now that I finally had a moment to myself, I took stock of my current situation.

“Status.”

 

Name: Ash

Class: Novice

Level: 2/10

Personal Skills (1/3): [Weak Bladder]

Racial Skills: [Contract]

Class Skills: [Novice]

 

Despair clouded my heart. My first skill that took up one of my three precious personal skill slots was [Weak Bladder]?

Ah, this reincarnation was an absolute failure. Someone, kill me now.