Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu web novel

　Grimacing at the burning sensation on his skin, Garfiel kicked up the pile of fallen leaves violently.

"You're going to do it for me, aren't you?"

　Although the words were muttered in an irritated tone, there was also a sense of genuine admiration within them.

　The man said that underestimating the odds was the reason for his defeat. This is a fact that cannot be denied.

　Garfiel had undoubtedly completely underestimated Otto's lack of fighting ability.

"Fire magic ore... I wonder what the intention was behind not making it a more powerful one."

　For a moment, a curtain of flames covered everything in sight.

　Garfiel remembers with disgust how it burned his stiff body for just an instant before disappearing.

　It was a blow that was practically a false threat. My skin felt a slight tingling sensation, but it was no different to a sunburn and was far from any kind of damage.

　However, there is one thing I can say for sure.

"If that was a lethal hit, then even I wouldn't have gotten away with it...!"

　What should have been a fatal moment was missed thanks to the opponent's judgment.

　If this wasn't a case of mercy being shown, then what was it? The current situation was one in which he had been completely taken advantage of by his opponent, who had gone easy on him and failed to take his consciousness.

　This makes me feel so pathetic and foolish.

"You've got to be kidding me...!"

　Even more frustrating was that the attacker had chosen to flee in an instant, ignoring Garfiel, whose consciousness was being taken over by the flames. A noble move that showed no consideration for pursuit, Garfiel was slow to react and lost sight of Otto completely.

　Soft soil. Fallen leaves. He ran through unfamiliar ground with great skill. His statement that he had been walking around the forest in the middle of the night was understandable.

　Still, if it were a pure chase, there was no way he could escape Garfiel. For every ten steps Otto took, Garfiel could cover them in two. That's how great the difference in physical ability and race is.

　However, Otto managed to cover even that up with his cleverness.

"--Dzu! H-what?! This... Ah! Shit, my nose is hurting."

　The moment he sniffed to chase after the fleeing Otto, a pungent smell so strong it caused pain penetrated Garfiel's nostrils. Taking a deep breath, Garfiel threw his face back and shook his head in pain so sharp it made his vision flicker.

　Looking down, he saw a clear bottle had been thrown in the spot where Otto had been standing a moment ago. The lid was open and a colorless liquid was pouring out of it, and he could sense a pungent smell emanating from it. However, that was as far as his sense of smell could go.

"You bastard...you're not going to shut up my nose and think you've won, are you?"

　Baring his fangs, Garfiel becomes enraged as his options are blocked one after another.

　How many plans had he been coming up with against Garfiel? Every single one of them had completely shut Garfiel down.

"――――"

　Touching the wound on his forehead, Garfiel breathes heavily and performs a ritual to calm himself down.

　Taking a deep breath, he calmed his heart and lungs, drawing away the thoughts that were threatening to be swept away by his anger. He wasn't thinking about how perfectly Otto had continued to lure Garfiel into a trap.

　Why was Otto throwing himself into such a reckless battle?

　To begin with, it was odd for Otto to challenge Garfiel.

　His goal was to buy time - to attract Garfiel's attention to himself, and in the meantime allow the remaining refugees in the Sanctuary to escape one by one via separate routes.

　That was exactly what Otto had revealed to him, and if his words were true, even if he were to pursue them now, there was no way that even Garfiel would be able to stop all of the dragon carriages.

　For a moment, he considered using his command authority to have the replicas of Lewes chase after them, but unless he knew the starting point of each of the dragon carriages, it would be a waste of fire at best.

　The clones have no knowledge or experience and can only carry out rough instructions.

　What's more, they have to be encouraged to even eat regular meals, and when they reach their limit in the forest, they curl up into a small ball and give up on life.

　Garfiel is tired of trying to find them and stop them disappearing.

"In the end, the only person I can rely on is myself. Ha! Just like always."

　There weren't enough moves and the nose was blocked.

　Still, Garfiel is not pessimistic. He has a well-trained body. He has more than enough strength left to run through the forest and achieve his goal.

　Whatever Otto's goal, he had resisted Garfiel to this extent. He must have been prepared to anger Garfiel and have him use his claws and fangs.

　Garfiel no longer looked down on Otto as mere prey to be eaten.

　He decides that it is an enemy that needs to be hunted using all his strength, and he always corners and kills it.

　--At this point in his thinking, Garfiel has already forgotten his original goal and is unaware that he has fallen prey to Otto's scheme.

"You guys have been acting pretty well. And that guy told you to do it... What the hell are you even saying?"

　As he pursues Otto, who has hidden in the forest, Garfiel turns his head and sees a dragon carriage standing there.

　They were two dummy dragon carriages, pretending to be carrying refugees to escape. However, both of the earth dragons pulling the carriages were real, and ever since Otto and Garfiel's exchange began, they had been sitting there with their knees bent, maintaining a nonchalant attitude.

"If you don't act carelessly, you won't harm me. That's wise. In fact, there's no need to kill anyone."

　Shaking his head, Garfiel passes by the earth dragons and reaches for the carriage again.

　A large amount of clothing had been scattered around the car to mislead the villagers' smell. I had only checked that earlier and called it a day, but if I stuck around a little longer, maybe I'd find something else.

　Pushing aside the clothes strewn about with his foot, Garfiel looked around the seats and the walls. He was about to exit the carriage after a brief search to see if there was anything he was looking for.

"--Huh?"

　When I turned around, I saw something stuck to the back of the passenger car door, as if it was hidden there.

　The white paper swaying in the wind was designed to be visible only from the inside.

　--Having a bad feeling, Garfiel strode briskly to the door, roughly snatched it away from the window, which was swaying in the wind, and spread it out in his hands.

　and,

"---If it's this good, it's definitely worth doing."

　Seeing the written words, Garfiel's vision turns red with rage.

　The next moment, a black mass exploded in the small room, lifting the passenger seat. Garfiel's roar was drowned out by a swarm of insects buzzing like a storm.

※※ ※※ ※※ ※※ ※※ ※※ ※※ ※

　--For Otto Suen as a child, the world was a hellish cradle.

"――――"

"xxxxxxxxx"

"※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※"

"********************!!!!!!"

　Around the clock, Otto was constantly hearing words he couldn't understand.

　Sitting on the ground with a dazed look on his face, the world was constantly forcing Otto to stay connected to it, whispering in his ear, or shouting from afar, sometimes singing, and sometimes as if in its death throes.

　No matter where in the world he went, the voice followed young Otto wherever he went.

　Days without rest. An endless, discordant chorus. A hellish concerto that had no intention of cooperating with anything at all, that continued to accompany Otto at all times.

　--Why does everyone live in such a noisy world as if it's normal?

　Otto wondered about this in the hellish situation where he could barely hear the person next to him.

　His parents picked him up and smiled as they spoke to him, but no matter how loving their words were, they were drowned out by the other noises and did not reach Otto's ears.

　When his parents noticed something was wrong with their son, they immediately took him to the doctor.

　He didn't laugh, he didn't get angry, he didn't cry. The reason he never developed any sort of emotional expression was because all the influences from the outside world seemed the same to Otto.

　As a result, Otto spent his childhood as an emotionless person, to the point that his parents worried about him.

　Fortunately, the Su Wen family was a merchant family that maintained a middle-class standard of living, and they had enough savings to send their son to the doctor.

　However, no matter what doctor he takes Otto to, they can't find anything wrong with him. This is only natural, since his condition is nothing more than hearing loss caused by hearing too well.

　Otto had two older brothers, one older than him and one younger. Unlike Otto, the two brothers were able-bodied and grew up healthy, receiving love from their parents. Their interest in Otto gradually waned, and the love of the three of them was divided between them, keeping Otto away from the warmth of his parents.

　Otto neither resented nor envied his siblings or parents. At that time, he had not yet developed the ability to hate or envy anyone, or to have any positive or negative feelings, and his siblings were patient with Otto, who could barely understand what he was saying. It was no wonder that his parents had grown tired of him.

　If I had been in either of my brothers' positions at the time, I don't know if I would have been able to try so hard to be kind to a family that I didn't understand. So I'm actually grateful.

　Even though we cannot make our voices audible, we can still communicate through written words.

　It was Otto's older brother who found it and tried to read the book to him.

　Naturally, learning to read and write was also extremely difficult.

　After all, he was unable to make the sounds necessary to recognize words. It took Otto ten times the time it would take a normal child to learn to read and write just to understand what the strings of words meant.

　Even so, it wasn't painful. Sadly, Otto lacked the sensitivity to find it painful, and as a young child unable to lead a normal life, he had nothing to do every day.

"--thank you as always"

　Otto still vividly remembers how his parents hugged him in tears when he showed them the words he had written on paper for the first time.

　Even though he didn't fully understand the emotion of gratitude, he knew he was being treated as he should. Even at his young age, he had decided this, and the words he had written out of obligation were appreciated. This sent a wave of gratitude through Otto's heart.

　It might have been the first time since he was born that he had cried so hard that his throat became dry. If so, it was the second time that Otto had cried at birth.

"Faggot is here, old man."

"AGATEGATAGFATTTETAADAERTERA"

"Mee-mee-mee-mee-mee-mee-mee."

　It was soon after Otto's second cry that I was able to discern a vague pattern to the infernal chorus, the meaning of which I had never been able to understand.

　The various noises that had been relentlessly pounding his eardrums up until then were slowly but surely being selected and removed by Otto's will.

　It was around the time of Otto's eighth birthday that he became able to completely block out the sounds around him at will.

　Otto was now almost a normal person, and from then on, like dropping water into a thirsty desert, he greedily absorbed everything he learned.

　Otto had been forced to abandon most of the things a child learns by the age of eight. He learned to read and write, and studied hard, taking his time, but his comprehension skills were still somewhat inferior to those of his peers. He made up for this by using his powers of concentration.

　The dormant talent of a boy named Otto Suen began to blossom.

　He was not inferior to his older and younger brothers. In fact, his thinking and understanding abilities surpassed those of them. Otto demonstrated exceptional learning ability, and he quickly rose to prominence among the boys and girls of his age.

　--And then, he had a spectacular failure in relationships and became isolated.

"Why does everyone live in such a difficult world as if it were normal?"

　Having been slapped across the cheek by the girl he had a crush on, Otto's face was red and swollen and he hugged his knees and muttered.

　At the age of ten, Otto devoted himself to his studies so as not to bring shame to his family as a merchant's son. In those days, it was rare to find an environment where one could receive a proper education from an early age. He was certainly in a privileged environment, spending ideal days with boys and girls his age.

　The only problem was that Otto's emotional expression and mental age were seven years behind those of children his age.

　Otto, who had never made the mistakes that many children make naturally, made the same mistakes as if it were natural once he was able to do so. However, most of these mistakes were only forgivable because he was still in his early years, even when he was still a child, and when Otto made mistakes, which were well past that age, they always produced results that could only be described as mistakes.

　To make matters even worse, Otto Suen was a boy who was completely unlucky.

　According to his parents, Otto's bad luck began soon after birth when he nearly drowned in the bathwater. From then on, he was frequently plagued by misfortune, including being pushed down stairs, being eaten by bird droppings, and nearly drowning in a vase, all without intending to do so.

　The reason I wasn't fully aware of it was because I hadn't yet developed the sense to appreciate that misfortune.

　As this feeling grew and he looked back on his past, Otto was astonished at his own history.

　I wondered what on earth could possibly lead a human being to spend their days feeling so unlucky.

"Big, it passed, it just passed, it's gone already."

"Shine, it's shining, the light is far away, light, light, light."

"Hey, a monster is coming. Hey, a monster is coming."

　Additionally, around this time, changes begin to occur in the noises that you had been able to consciously block out.

　The meaningless choruses that I had never been able to ascribe any meaning to before now seemed to have meaning.

　Even though he was now able to understand most of what was being said, most of it was incomprehensible to him. As he struggled to turn his incomprehension into understanding, Otto realized the true nature of the hell he had experienced as a child.

　Apparently, he has the power to communicate with creatures other than the human species.

　Otto Suen finally became aware of this skill, which would later be discovered to be the ``Divine Protection of the Spirit of Words,'' eleven years after it had manifested.

　From then on, Otto traveled to various places around town to test out the power of the blessing he had been given, in order to find out the limits of that power. Through trial and error, he discovered that the more intelligent a creature was, the more clearly it was able to convey its intentions to them.

　He then showed his siblings a conversation with the earth dragon that he kept at his parents' house, and revealed that he had been blessed with the divine protection of his parents since he was a child.

"Yes, I see. Yes… well, you see… Otto. That power is, yes, incredible. Yes, I think it's incredible, so… well, you know. You shouldn't use it where people can see you."

　Possessing a divine protection is a blessing from the world, but that doesn't mean that those who possess such skills are welcomed by everyone. It would be one thing if the divine protection benefited everyone, but Otto's power only worked on himself, and even a childish mind could think of various ways to abuse it.

　His brother's opinion, who was worried about Otto, was certainly something he could agree with.

　Otto made this promise to his brother, whose face was pale and he looked away, and made a firm resolve in his mind that he must not let the existence of his ``Divine Protection of Words'' be known to those around him.

　This power can be dangerous not only to you, but also to those around you.

　A sense of mission burned in the heart of young Otto: to protect his precious family.

　It was three days after his promise with his brother that the existence of the 『Divine Protection of Words』 became known and he was completely shunned by boys and girls his age.

　When his brother saw him secretly talking to the earth dragon, Otto had no choice but to tell him about his blessing. He also told him how worried his brother was, and decided to share with him how dangerous his powers were.

　The next day, Otto's younger brother, who wanted to boast about his powers, brought him to a large group of children, where he was seen talking to an insect, and for the first time in years, he experienced hell.

　The downside of the 『Divine Protection of Words』 is that it is still necessary to use the other person's words to communicate. To put it simply, when Otto talks to earth dragons he neighs like an earth dragon, and when he talks to insects he makes insect-like noises.

　It wasn't long before his name became known as a jerk who couldn't read the mood.

　Since then, Otto sealed away the "Blessing of Words" and resolved never to use it again. Over the course of several years, he managed to erase the bad reputation that had seeped into him and wiped the horrible memories from the minds of many people.

　The one who accomplished this was a young boy named Otto, aged 14, at a sensitive age.

　At the age of fourteen, the excuse of mental maturity no longer holds water. The body also begins to grow steadily into adulthood, and by the time the boy's limbs have fully grown, he has acquired a well-formed appearance that can be described as quite impressive.

　With his grey hair and a soft, slightly sad face, his gentle eyes and his devotion to everything he does, Otto was surprisingly skilled in the elements that stimulated the maternal instinct, and like any boy his age, he began to take an interest in love and romance――

　Using the power of the ``Blessing of Words,'' he made an enemy of the daughter of the most powerful man in town, and was banished.

　It was a cold season, and young Otto was about to turn fifteen.

　I won't go into the details of what happened, but to put it simply, it was the result of being caught up in a love-hate drama.

　On the night of the birthday party for the daughter of the most powerful man in town, her boyfriend comes storming in angrily, claiming that she was with another man. The man who is being blamed is Otto, who he had seen talking to the girl just before.

　Otto answered honestly that he was just asking the time, but the man, his face red with tears, yelled at him, "You bastard!" and wouldn't listen.

　Having the past that he thought he had wiped away after four years dug up, even Otto lost his composure in this one moment.

　So he broke his own seal and did everything in his power to clear himself of the suspicion that had been cast upon him. He listened to the voices of every living thing in the town, and discovered that on the night in question the girl in question had been with no fewer than seven men. He then cheerfully told the poor man, "It appears you are the eighth!"

　After being beaten by a man and targeted by a hitman hired by his daughter after her relationship with a man was exposed, Otto flees his hometown in a panic and, through his father's connections, ends up working for a trading company owned by an acquaintance.

　From there, he continued his training and set out on the road as a traveling merchant at the age of 16 - Otto Suen, setting out on his own as a man.

　It can be said that Otto's peddling journey was a series of hardships.

　Otto's misfortune continued to haunt him, even as the years went by. When he carried fragile goods he was hit by bad weather, when he went into the mountains to shorten his journey he was attacked by bandits, and when he and other traveling merchants camped out one night, Otto was the only one who was devoured by insects, with all the blood drained from his body.

　Despite all the misfortunes he endured, Otto managed to survive without ruin because, sadly, he was blessed with excellent business acumen that was enough to balance out his misfortunes.

　He never made a huge profit, but he also never suffered a huge loss. It was a zero-sum game, and he steered the ship with a miraculous sense of balance that was almost decadent for a businessman. The four years up until he turned twenty passed in the blink of an eye.

　The reason he didn't break down and return to his hometown was because he had the presence of his childhood friend, the earth dragon Furufoo, who he had taken away from his parents' home on the day he was banished.

　To be honest, Furu-Fu had many complicated feelings about being the one who had caused his brothers to discover his 『Blessing of Words』, but to Otto now they were a definite bond, and like a precious family member.

　For some reason, Otto was unable to get other peddlers to team up with him, so he often found time to distract himself during sleepless nights by chatting with Furufoo.

　Although Furufoo tries to hide his embarrassment by saying that he wants to go to bed, I somehow manage to hang on to him and continue the conversation.

　It was only natural that peddlers would avoid him at a distance when they saw him talking to people around a fire in the middle of the night, imitating the roar of an earth dragon.

　A turning point comes for Otto, whose life seems uneventful and lukewarm to outsiders, like a childish gamble, but which he finds to be quite desperate himself.

　--They missed a business opportunity and totally messed up.

　At the time, Otto was dealing in oil. He had heard from a beard man with a red face and an eyepatch that oil was being traded at a very high price in Gusteko, a northern country, as the cold season approached. Otto turned his iron products into oil and set off in high spirits for Gusteko -- only to find himself caught up in a time when diplomatic relations between the two countries had been severed, leaving him with no idea how to sell his goods.

　What shocked him even more was when he heard that the iron products that had been sold at a bargain price when they were disposed of were now being traded at incredibly high prices in the royal capital.

　Otto realized that he had been duped and that his life as a peddler was in jeopardy.

　If she doesn't find a chance to turn things around and get back on her feet, she might have to give up on Furufoo. Or worse, she might have to cry to her parents.

　For Otto, that was a territory that should never be crossed.

　It has been over five years since he last saw his family, but the love he feels for them remains undiminished in his heart. The only reason he is able to survive today is thanks to his family, who never abandoned him when he was a child.

　In those ten years of his childhood, Otto had caused his family more trouble than he would have had the rest of his life. Now he would have to spend the rest of his life paying back for those ten years.

　Borrowing and lending must be done correctly and accurately. Otto Suen is the son of a merchant.

　When a traveling merchant he was acquainted with approached him with a profitable business opportunity, Otto went along with it.

　Apparently, what was needed for the request was not a product, but the feet of an earth dragon. They wanted to transport many people by putting them on the carriage.

　Jumping at the opportunity without a moment's hesitation, Otto put his Full-Fu and the "Protection of the Spirit of Words" to full use, eager to arrive at his destination before anyone else.

　Otto raced over rough roads and pathless paths, and despite Furufoo's pleas to stop him saying, "Let's stop this, little boy," he arrived there faster than anyone else.

　and,

"Oh my my my....where are you going in such a hurry....Death!"

　This is a big problem.

　Trapped in a trap and trapped by a group of people who were completely crazy, Otto realized that his misfortune had truly and truly reached its peak.

　Otto was separated from Furufoo, stripped of all his clothes, and thrown into a cold cave, where he was left to exist only waiting for the moment his life would be taken in a joke.

　Who could possibly understand the despair that permeated Otto's heart at that moment? No one could.

　Because at that time, Otto was trying to use all his strength to escape, even activating his 『Divine Protection of Words』 at full power, searching for a way to escape from the clutches of the group. What broke Otto's rebellious spirit was the overwhelming silence - when the 『Divine Protection of Words』 was fully activated, a hell just as intense as the one that had befallen young Otto would unfold.

　That familiar yet abominable noise was not heard at all.

　Otto had prepared himself for hell, but when he witnessed a hell that exceeded his resolve, his heart was completely torn apart by a demonic presence that caused all living things that should exist anywhere, such as insects, small animals, forests, caves, etc., to disappear.

　His eyes lose their strength, and his whole body quickly loses strength. He realizes that everything is no good. No matter what he does, nothing goes right, and he ends up in the cold cave.

　A sense of despair that left tears unable to flow. Just when one had forgotten the passage of time in the emptiness of reality, it suddenly came upon Otto Suen and sealed his fate.

"What is this?! Those idiots from the Witch Cult have been acting without any consideration! What can they do?"

　A loud voice echoed through the cavern, bringing Otto, who had been in a trance-like state, back to reality.

　He raised his head and called for help in a husky voice. A large, dog-faced beastman noticed him and appeared, speaking in the Kararagi dialect. He freed the imprisoned Otto.

"Big Bro, how lucky you are! If we hadn't come, those guys would have killed us for sure! It would have been the same even if we had been a little later! Just in time! Just in time! We, of course, should be grateful to the general's boy!"

"B-boss, boy...?"

　Stretching his bound limbs, Otto tilted his head in confusion at the words of the laughing beastman.

　He rolled his eyes at Otto's doubts and smacked him hard across the back with his large palm, making Otto scream.

"The boss is the boss! The monk is the monk! Together they make up the boss's monk! The brain that gave us orders and sent us all the way here! He didn't look like he had a good head like this, but they really say you can't judge a book by its cover! Hahahaha!"

"Uh, yeah... I, I understand. Anyway, thank you very much. Oh, and to that person too..."

　Just as he looked up, thinking he had to say thank you, Otto suddenly realized something.

　When the beastman saw Otto's face, he frowned in surprise. Otto didn't understand the meaning of his reaction, and the beastman unexpectedly tossed him a white towel from his pocket,

"What? If you're going to cry, cry in secret. It's pathetic for a man to cry in public."

"Eh, heh... Wh, are you crying?"

"You're already crying like crazy! If that's not crying then what is it? Sweat! Sweat from the heart! Big Bro, that's a joke that even the guys from Kararagi don't say anymore!"

　The beastman turned his back on Otto and walked away, almost as if concerned. Otto, half-believing, placed the cloth over his face, and was genuinely surprised at how it soaked up the great amount of tears.

　And as soon as I became aware of the tears, they started to flow one after another.

"Uh, shit... wh, what is this... like this..."

　Otto gritted his teeth and pressed a cloth against his face to stop the torrent of tears that was falling uncontrollably.

　I didn't know why the tears were falling, and my head was dominated by incoherent insults.

　--Are these tears because they were released from a feeling of despair so strong that even tears dried up?

"Don't die... it's good, I'm glad..."

　Nothing accomplished yet.

　He has not repaid any of the kindness he has received.

　If Otto had died there, he would have lost all meaning in being born.

　Now that he had survived, Otto was able to realize this.

　--Otto feels that his life is reborn every time he sheds tears.

　The first cry of a baby born into this world.

　The second cry of a newborn baby, when he learns the love of his family and where his heart is.

　And today, for the third time, I have survived the death that I thought I had prepared myself for, and I understand the purpose and meaning of life.

　--On this day, Otto Suen was born again.

※※ ※※ ※※ ※※ ※※ ※※ ※※ ※

"--Actually, I wasn't asked to stall for time like this."

　Kicking the ground and toiling away at physical labor that didn't suit him, Otto gave a wry smile.

　The memories of my pathetic crying and screaming are so embarrassing that I wish I could forget them, but unfortunately, all of these memories of crying are important to me, so I can't forget them no matter how hard I try.

　At that time, the beastman named Ricardo who helped Otto kept it a secret, not telling anyone that Otto had cried so hard. He must repay that debt someday.

　and,

"I always repay what I borrow. I'm a merchant, after all."

　--The monk captain who saved my life.

　Even Natsuki Subaru owes Otto Suen a debt that he must repay.

　He will repay the kindness of having his life saved with all his might.

　It's a natural mindset for a businessman.

　Above allーー,

"--It's for my friends, after all!!"

　Both Otto as a merchant and as a person have imposed upon themselves the task of persevering here and now.

　So Otto Suen is taking on a battle with long odds of success.

　He would take a gamble that ignored the odds of winning, and would use everything he could add to Natsuki Subaru's victory.

　That is Otto's merchant spirit and a testament to their friendship.

　--In the distance, coming from the direction of the dragon carriage they had left behind, they could hear the roar of a wild animal.

　Predicting that the start of battle was truly near, Otto released his own protection―― and, abandoning himself to the familiar hell, he continued running, mustering all his strength.