Mushoku Tensei Redundancy (LN) - Volume 1 - Chapter 6.2

Ghislaine

I DEFINITELY DIDN’T HAVE what you’ll call a smooth start to life.

Every now and then, the beastfolk give birth to children known as “beastlings.” There’s no cosmic reason behind them. They are born with fangs and lash out like aggressive, terrified animals. They never learn to speak.

I was one of them. I hardly have any memories of my childhood, but in my earliest memories, my heart was dominated by rage. Everything about my body was constricting and torturous. I turned that anger on everyone around me—they were all my enemy. I never thought about why it felt that way. I still don’t know now. To this day, that anger still lurks in the depths of my heart, rearing its ugly head at every irritation. All I remember is the angry yelling of adults and the fear on the faces of my brothers.

Most beastlings settle down as they grow up. By the time they turn five or so, their only symptoms are being a bit slow and bad-tempered. Not me. My fifth birthday came and went, and I was still running wild. I was a terror. Five is an age where you’re more or less able to use a little reason, but I didn’t have a thought in my head. I was constantly flying into tantrums and nearly killed the other kids.

There was no reason for it; if I didn’t like someone’s face, I just acted. In Doldia Village, unruly children like me are stripped naked and doused with icy water. Sometimes, they’re even shut up all night in a dark barn. That usually settles us down—maybe it’s instinctual. But beastlings are different, or at least I was. I don’t know. I guess some others may have broken under that kind of treatment.

Kids like me are so difficult, sometimes they meet with “accidents.” They’re left out in the forest at night when it’s crawling with monsters. Things like that.

They tried to do it to me too… No, they did do it to me. I didn’t understand what was happening, but I somehow knew that the whole village was trying to drive me away—I do have a survival instinct, after all. But I didn’t die, thanks to a traveling swordsman in the middle of his warrior’s training—I was taken in by Gall Falion.

“You don’t want her? Then give her to me,” he said. He adopted me like I was a rejected stray and took me from the village. Don’t think I took to him just because he rescued me. I wouldn’t have been a cute kid. I bit and scratched and howled, but Gall Falion brushed that off, subdued me, put a collar around my neck, and put a sword in my hands.

Then, he said, “If you ask me, you’re made to swing a sword. You get in a fight, you use this.”

Looking back, Gall Falion—my master—must have been crazy. Just think—he gave me a sword, then told me I could use it on whatever I wanted. This is me we’re talking about. I wouldn’t have trusted me with one.

Still, he wasn’t completely reckless with others’ lives. For a while, we steered clear of inhabited areas. We roamed about the forest hunting beasts and monsters.

In the morning, my master beat me to a pulp. When that was over, he dragged me in front of some monster and made me fight it, and I fought for my life. Sometimes I got injured, but I was never badly hurt, and I didn’t die. He must have had a sense of how strong I was in relation to the monsters we fought, because he only ever pitted me against monsters I could beat by the skin of my teeth. In the afternoon, we ate the monsters we’d killed. After that, I could do as I pleased for the rest of the day.

At the start, I attacked my master and tried to kill him. I couldn’t have been more outmatched. He shrugged me off, then knocked me around a bit. But even that wasn’t enough to cow me. I got up and went at him again. As a rule, he met my attacks with a grin on his face. He never gave me any formal instruction in how to use my sword, and I wouldn’t have listened anyway. There was one case that was different, though: when I attacked him without my sword. If I tossed aside my sword during a fight, he’d click his tongue once, then throw an even harder punch than usual and knock me out cold. When I woke up, my sword would be lashed to my hand.

I was an idiot, but after a year of that, even I learned a little. I knew I couldn’t beat him, and if I lashed out randomly, I’d only get a thrashing. It’s incredible I could reason that much, but I guess even a beast knows when it’s beat.

That was my very first lesson in life. Around that time, my sword instruction began. He used words: “Do this, do that. Think rationally. Wear your opponent down steadily, one move at a time…”

I’m not clever. For every hundred lessons, I remembered ten. That’s hardly changed, if I’m being honest.

But my master was patient. He must have known that even I would get better if we drilled the same thing over and over again. I suppose I had talent, because I improved rapidly. At the same time, perhaps thanks to the training, I began, little by little, to see the beastling influence fade. 

Maybe it was working off my impulses every day running around killing monsters because, when I saw other people, I didn’t get as enraged as I had. Or, well, that only happened if they didn’t try to speak to me—if they did, then I’d attack. Eventually, my master decided that I was safe to take into town. I was more used to people, but it was suffocating at first. More often than not, I was met with hostility. I still feel that way.

My master told me, “Ignore ’em. Being strong’ll shut ’em up. They’ll trip over themselves to kiss your ass. Some’ll even come attach themselves to you like puppies.”

The idea of a stranger attaching to me like a puppy was disgusting.

Then I met Eris.

I was wrong. It’s better to be loved than hated.

Anyway, I was finally able to enter the fringes of society, although I still hadn’t had a real conversation with anyone. I didn’t have a lot of words at my disposal. Okay, to qualify, my master always talked to me in the beastfolk tongue, and I’d lived in the Doldia village until I was ten, so I did know the language. I’d just never talked with anyone. I don’t remember when I had my first real conversation, but it was probably with my master. I might have been swearing at him or asking a question—I don’t recall. But this was my master. He’d have answered without making a big deal out of the event, which is why it didn’t register for me. 

Around when I learned how to talk to people, our journey came to an end. We arrived at the Sword Sanctum, and that’s where I made my new home. There was no need for conversation, and I could knock out anyone who screwed with me. In the Doldia village, people had given me nasty looks for that, but here, it got me respect. No one complained, and I could do what I wanted. If I just kept knocking people out, the Sword Sanctum was paradise. Simple enough. 

But then, maybe because I’d gotten too comfortable, my master turned me out on my ear. It was the law of the Sword Sanctum that once you got above Sword Saint, you went out to complete your warrior’s training, so that might be what it was. No one told me anything about that. I was just thrown out. Told to go see the outside world. I went out into the world, became an adventurer, met Paul. Then we parted ways.

***

“And then you met me!” said Eris cheerfully.

In a carriage, rolling along the road to the Sword Sanctum through the Great Forest, I shared my life story. I had to wonder if it was really interesting or not, but Eris was listening, rapt. Linia and Pursena were listening with interest too. 

“That’s right,” I said. Eris looked smug that she knew the rest of the tale. When I’d gotten to the part about visiting the Sword Sanctum, she’d said knowingly, “Yeah! When you beat ’em down enough times, they respect you!”

The Sword Sanctum was like a second home both for me and for Eris. Scratch that, for Eris it was a third home. For me… It was my first.

Linia and Pursena’s eyes were glazing over a bit, their mouths half open. A long time ago, it would have filled me with rage. Now, I didn’t mind so much.

“Mewww, what a heroic life! If it were me, I’d have turned into a good girl the moment they threw water on me, mew. Now that I remember, I totally did, mew.”

“All they had to do with me was send me to bed without dinner. But unlike Linia, I was always a good girl, so I was just doing what came naturally.”

“I’m a good girl too, mew.”

“You’re both good girls compared to me,” I said. They both bashfully scratched the backs of their heads.

“After that, I met Rudeus. And just as I finally had my feet under me, the Displacement Incident happened.”

“That’s right! You reunited with Eris in Fittoa, then went back to the Sword Sanctum to train, mew?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“When you finished your training, you and the boss went to Asura and you became Ariel’s servant, right?”

“More or less. When everything was over, Her Majesty told me she wanted me to stay and gave me this armor.”

I was now clad in golden armor. When I told Queen Ariel I was going to the Doldia village, she brought it out, saying I absolutely had to wear it. I’d taken it off to travel, but now that we were almost there, I’d put it back on.

“Ariel’s clever, mew.”

“Yeah. It’s important to show off your strength.”

Linia and Pursena were young Doldians. Oh, right—Linia was Gyes’s daughter. They’d each gone to school and graduated top of their class. Now, they managed the mercenary band and had over five hundred people working under them. The mercenary band worked for Rudeus, so that basically meant they worked for Orsted. They were clever girls who had been given responsibility for a pack by a Great Power. They were resounding successes. Gyes must’ve been proud. I wished I remembered his face.

“No one would believe the Ghislaine they knew rose to become one of the Seven Knights of Asura, mew.”

“Yeah. But one look at that sparkly gold armor really drives it home. You’ve even got the Asuran crest on there. This is your triumphant return. Everyone’s gonna see you differently.”

“Oh…?” I didn’t really get it, but if these two talented Doldians said so, it had to be true.

“Yeah! I won’t let anyone say different!” Eris’s breathing had been heavier ever since I put this armor on. She said it suited me, but it was too shiny for me… I supposed it’d come handy in the dark.

Still, if I said I wasn’t nervous, I’d be lying. The Doldia Village I remembered had rejected me.

“Hrm?”

“Oh.”

“We’re close,” Linia said. We still couldn’t see anything, but there was a familiar smell in the air: the smell of Doldia Village. Bad memories. The base of my tail began to itch, and I felt a growl rise to the back of my throat. The urge to run gripped me.

“What do you think, Rudeus?” I asked. “Will it be okay?”

That wasn’t a question the old me would have asked. Maybe I’d asked Paul something like that way back when I was part of Fangs of the Black Wolf. How had he answered, again?

“Eh?” Rudeus answered from where he sat in the driver’s box. “Oh, yeah, it should be? If it starts looking dicey, I’ll sort it out. Leave it to me.”

Now I remembered. Paul had usually replied that way too. Eh, it’ll be fine. Even if it’s not, things will work out somehow.

It felt like just yesterday that Geese, Talhand, and Elinalise had rolled their eyes and sighed at him, but in the end, he’d been right. The only time it hadn’t worked out was when Paul married Zenith, then died. 

“Yeah, it should be fine… I’ve got the present from Sir Orsted for them and a box of sweets… Oh! Hmm, we’ve got Linia and Pursena with us too…” The words filtered through from the driver’s box.

Rudeus seemed a bit out of sorts. He was holding his stomach. It was a tic he had when I told him stories from my past. Who knew what that was about?

He’d really grown up well. He’d been a clever kid who’d grown up clever, and he had a knack for getting on in the world. Now, he was one of the Seven Great Powers and Orsted’s right-hand man. If he said he’d sort it out, that’s what he’d do.

“So even you get nervous sometimes, Ghislaine, mew.”

“I get it. Dad and the others are stuck in their ways. They find it really hard to accept Doldias like us who’ve gotten used to city life, I think.”

“Don’t worry, Rudeus is amazing!” Eris said, sounding so much like I remembered her that it drew a smile out of me. Looking out the window, I could see a number of warriors running alongside the carriage. I could tell they were watching us, hiding in the shadows of the trees, lithe as cats and ferocious as tigers. They were downwind. I couldn’t smell them, but the scent that hung over this whole area was unmistakably that of one tribe—I had come home to Doldia Village.