You Gotta Enjoy Life or It's a Waste
The lunch of simmered chicken wings and dried shiitake mushrooms, along with the fish head soup, was a big hit.
Even Brother Gene, who says he’s not that into fish, ended up getting seconds of the fish soup.
Yeah, you really shouldn’t knock it till you try it.
In the afternoon, I practiced horseback riding with Grandfather.
The one I always ride is a white horse named Snowy. I heard she was born the same year I was, so I told her, “We’re the same age,” and then—“Brrr.”
She shook her head.
When I was surprised, Grandfather laughed and said:
“Haha, Snowy may be six years old, but in human years, that’s about twenty-five.”
“Wait, really? Then… could it be Snowy was trying to say she’s older than me?”
When I looked at Snowy, she nodded with a “Brr.”
Huh? Can Snowy understand human language?
She’s such a smart girl.
Today we left the manor grounds and rode along the beach.
Riding a white horse along the coastline… it's like being that feudal lord who always goes wild. He always causes a ruckus and then just leaves it to his subordinates to say “Justice has been served.” Like—why don’t *you* do it?! I remember yelling that at the TV a bunch of times.
Maybe Snowy sensed I was thinking about dumb stuff again, because she neighed:
“Brrr. Brr.”
“Ahaha, sorry, sorry.”
I patted her neck.
Back at the stables, I brushed Snowy. Once that was done, it was dinner time.
“Is it tasty? I wish you could come with us to the Lampail territory, too. There's no ocean there, but we’ve got mountains and forests. And we’re going to have a new little brother or sister. I’d love to introduce you.”
“Brr.”
“Do you want to meet them too, Snowy? Next year, we’ll all go together.”
＊＊＊＊＊
After dinner, while I was in my room…
Knock, knock, knock.
“Young lady Joan~ The Old Madam is calling for you~”
It was Sarah.
“Thank you… Hey, Sarah, did you hurt your leg during training?”
“Eh?! H-How did you know?”
“Your walk seemed off. Where is it?”
“M-My ankle…”
“Okay, pain pain, go away~ First Aid. How is it?”
“It doesn’t hurt anymore. Thank you so much.”
“You’re welcome. But don’t push yourself too hard, okay? If you make it worse now, it could take even longer to heal.”
“I’ll be careful.”
Grandmother, who had called me, was in the living room. Next to her, Grandfather was dozing off. Hm? This feels familiar… déjà vu?
“Grandmother, you called for me?”
“It’s nothing serious. I just thought we could have some tea together.”
“Oh, I see. I’d love to.”
As I said that, Rottenmeier brewed some tea for us. She even brought out some cookies and then left the room.
As expected of a top-class maid… even if she is scary when she’s mad.
“Hey, Joan. I’ll ask you straight—what’s happened over the past two weeks?”
I didn’t quite understand what Grandmother meant.
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“Well, since we saw you at the end of the year, you’ve, I don’t know… looked younger? More like your actual age, I guess?”
“Oh, that. Um, I don’t really know why, but… my mental age seems to have gotten younger.”
““Haaah?!””
Ah… Grandfather’s pretending to be asleep again.
“Grandfather?”
“N-No, I just woke up. I was about to get up when I heard ‘got younger’ and…”
“Ahaha, it’s fine. Anyway, about the mental age—once I searched myself, I figured it out.”
“What do you mean, figured out?”
“Umm, it’s easier if I just show you. Search Open.”
I looked at my hand and activated the search.
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[Joan Lampail]Lampeil family, eldest daughter. Six years old.
Attribute: Null
Status: Healthy.
Muscle mass has increased from before.
Thanks to seaweed, hair is glossy and shiny.
Supplemental: Due to reincarnation, her mental age is being dragged by her physical body. As her body grows, her mind is becoming younger.
Mental age: 60s.
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““………””
“See?”
“Ah, I see. So you're our age, basically. Hahaha!”
“So that really is a thing… Still, you do seem more like a kid now.”
“Yes. I’ve been acting that way on purpose. I thought if someone who didn’t know me saw a kid with all this knowledge, they’d find it weird.”
“Well, yeah, probably. Still, going around telling people you have memories from a past life might not be the best idea either.”
“Exactly. And since I’ve been reborn, I thought I should enjoy it.”
““Huh?””
Hm? Did I say something strange?
“I mean, I was reborn this cute, right? It’d be a waste not to enjoy it. There were things I didn’t do in my previous life that I regret.”
“Bwahaha! You’re right about that. Not enjoying it would be a waste. So, what kinds of things did you want to do?”
“Um, horseback riding, martial arts, traveling, studying languages… stuff like that? That’s why I’m so happy to be learning martial arts from Grandmother and riding horses with Grandfather this time.”
“I see. So that’s why you asked to learn hand-to-hand and sword fighting from me.”
“Yes! Oh, and in my previous life, I used to play games… um, they were adventures in virtual worlds where you fought monsters, and I really want to do that for real now!”
“Oho, virtual worlds, you say. Such things exists over there, huh? Sounds like a pretty advanced world.”
“Yes, it was advanced in many ways. But we didn’t have magic, so when I saw real magic for the first time, I was shocked. I thought it only existed in stories or virtual worlds.”
Even now, sometimes I wonder if this is all a dream. I wish I could use magic too, but with a Null attribute, that’s a no-go. Still, coming from a world with no magic, just having skills is already amazing enough for me.
What do you think about this chapter?
