Chapter 1

On that day, a meteorite fell on the planet Earth. If it had been just a meteorite, there would have been no problem, but it contained unknown particles that affected the human psyche.

The meteorite, entering the stratosphere, gradually altered its descent trajectory due to atmospheric influence, heading toward a provincial city in Japan. When it was a few hundred meters above the ground, a middle-aged man was walking slowly on the road at the impact point.

"This way to the police station."

The man was walking to the police station to turn himself in for the murder he had committed.

His name was Mantani Mirumaru, a 40-year-old math teacher at a high school. However, he was not a good teacher. In fact, he was a terrible teacher who found it troublesome to talk to his students.

Still, until half a year ago, he had been reasonably happy. He had a wife who was a good cook and cheerful, and a cute daughter, and he loved his family.

Half a year ago, his wife and daughter were killed right in front of him. It was a hit-and-run.

During the police investigation, the son of a politician came under suspicion. However, the police stopped pursuing the politician's son.

A skilled lawyer appeared and brought a witness who testified that the politician's son was at a different location. The police suspected the witness, who claimed to be a corporate consultant, but they lacked the evidence to prove perjury.

Mantani accidentally learned that one of the detectives was in debt to a suspicious financial institution and bribed him to get information.

The detective told him that the politician's son was suspicious. Upon investigation, it turned out that the son had scrapped a brand new car. Moreover, the witness who provided the alibi was a resident of the underworld with whom the politician had a secret relationship.

Mantani asked the police to investigate properly. It was in vain. The police told him that they could not pursue the politician's son further unless the alibi was broken.

Mantani realized that the politician's son was the culprit. He lured the culprit to an uninhabited place, incapacitated him with a stun gun, and transported him to an abandoned factory.

He tied the culprit to a factory pillar with a rope and interrogated him. The culprit cracked under a little pressure. As expected, he was guilty. A feeling of resentment welled up inside Mantani. However, he did not yet intend to kill him.

The desire to kill was born from the culprit's words.

"It's not my fault. The old lady and the kid just jumped out."

It was a lie. Mantani's wife and daughter had only started crossing the pedestrian crosswalk when the signal turned green.

At that moment, Mantani became a "revenge seeker."

Tears overflowed with frustration, and he hit the culprit's face.

"Stop... It's not my fault!"

Every time the culprit spoke, Mantani's head almost exploded with anger. He realized he had hit the culprit many times.

About an hour had passed. Mantani was breathing heavily, his shoulders heaving. He felt intense pain every time he struck with his fist. His knuckles were cracked. He noticed that the culprit had become quiet.

— He was dead.

Mantani realized he had killed someone.

"Oh... What a waste. What did I do wrong?"

Mantani despaired at his life. Now that he had lost his family, everything seemed meaningless.

On his way to the police station, a meteorite fell on Mantani's head.

The next moment, after feeling a strong light, Mantani's spirit was forcibly ejected from his body, which then exploded.

"AAAAAAH..."

The spirit, forcibly separated from the body, instinctively screamed. It was a soul's cry, as there was no physical body.

The impact energy of the meteorite affected the surrounding space structure and the dimensional barrier. The spirit, ejected from the body, broke through the dimensional barrier and was thrown into the "Sea of Chaos," a higher-dimensional space filled with high-dimensional energy, which existed before the Big Bang that created our galaxy.

For the spirit that had entered such a place, it was like being thrown into boiling hot water. It struggled and tried to absorb the surrounding energy.

However, it was only for a moment. The "Sea of Chaos" found Mantani's spirit to be foreign and rejected it, ejecting him.

At that moment, Mantani's spirit had absorbed a large amount of high-dimensional energy from the "Sea of Chaos." This energy transformed into evolutionary energy. The direction of this evolution was unknown, but it would likely begin when it received some kind of stimulus.

Mantani was ejected to a world called the "Playground of the Celestial Beings." On the northern hemisphere of the Zamdoura continent, in the southern part of the Romanas Kingdom, Mantani appeared.

The Romanas Kingdom is nominally ruled by the Romanas royal family, but in reality, it is divided and ruled by local nobles. Nobles are granted titles by the royal family based on the size of their territory, wealth, and military power. Notable nobles include the Duke of Octavius in the north and the Duke of Melbis in the east.

When Mantani regained consciousness, he first noticed that his physical body was gone.

"Am I... dead?"

Mantani's spirit, which was floating around, would normally have disappeared and moved on. However, it was wandering like a ghost due to the absorption of high-dimensional energy.

"Oh... Is this divine punishment?"

Despite the loss of his eyes, he could still see, which was strange.

The surroundings were a small forest, with white-flowered trees filling his view.

"Where am I?"

He drifted aimlessly, aware that he should have panicked upon realizing he was dead.

However, he had a strange confidence that things would work out.

While drifting, he came across a small river. As he watched, a large peach floated down the river.

"Could this be...?"

He approached and tried to bring the large peach to the shore. His hand entered the peach and came out the other side, as if passing through it.

Mantani had forgotten he had no physical body.

"What should I do... Is this telekinesis?"

Since his hands didn't work, he tried to push the large peach with his mind. It moved slightly, surprising Mantani, who had only half-seriously tried it. During the process, he realized it wasn't a peach but a child's buttocks.

"...Momotarou... I wish I could have seen him."

Without a physical body, his thoughts felt hazy.

"If it's not a peach, this... won't do. It feels like I'm losing my dignity as a human."

Using telekinesis, he brought the child to the shore and laid him on the grass. Unable to perform CPR, he tried to mimic chest compressions.

He placed his hands on the child's chest and pushed with his mind. After a few pushes, he miscalculated the force and ended up colliding with the child's body.

Mantani's spirit, being a spirit, entered the child's body. Inside, he encountered the child's spirit, which was absorbed by Mantani's evolved spirit.

Coincidentally, Mantani had taken over the child's body. At that moment, the child's heart started beating, and he convulsed, spitting out water.

The moment Mantani's spirit fully synchronized with the child's body, he lost consciousness.

...

Someone was calling out.

"Ricardo... Ricardo, hold on."

He opened his eyes slightly, and the bright sunlight stabbed his brain, causing a sharp pain.

"Ugh..."

He groaned and sat up halfway.

"Phew, good. You're alive."

The voice belonged to a red-haired boy, about fifteen years old.

"Tomorrow is an important day, and you slipped and fell into the river."

He recognized the face. ...No... That's impossible, I don't know any red-haired boys.

"Get on my back, we're going home."

Confused, he was carried on the boy's back toward the river. Incidentally, the buttocks he had seen earlier were hidden by the red-haired boy.

Mantani remembered who the red-haired boy was—his oldest brother, Antonio.

(…Wait… He's my brother… No… I've taken over a child's body.)

He pulled out the memories of the body's original owner. Ricardo, from the village of Unius, was the name of the body's original owner. Most residents of this remote village did not have proper family names. If needed, they used the village name, Unius, as their family name. Therefore, he was Ricardo Unius.

He was nine years old, the third son of a poor family, and was supposed to start working for a relative, a magician, the next day.

At nine, it seemed early to start working, but in this world, it was a common situation.

His family was a typical large, poor family. Ricardo had two older brothers, a younger brother, and a younger sister.

From Ricardo's memories, he recalled information about this world. Politically, it resembled the Warring States period, and life was similar to that of contemporary Europe.

At first, he thought he was somewhere on Earth, but Ricardo's memories included seeing walking trees, confirming it was not Earth. The continent's name, Zamdoura, further solidified this.

Ricardo lived in a territory ruled by the Fabius Viscount, a basin surrounded by mountains far from the sea.

The main industries were agriculture and forestry. During the agricultural off-season, his father worked as a lumberjack to earn daily wages.

Mantani... no, Ricardo, tried to leave the body but couldn't.

"Did God give me a chance to start over? I don't deserve it..."

At that moment, he felt a sense of despair.

He noticed that he could understand the words Antonio was saying, even though they were not in Japanese. He seemed to have inherited the knowledge of the original Ricardo.

Ricardo's spirit was almost completely absorbed by Mantani, but he could still feel a residue. Although he would have died without Mantani, a strong sense of guilt remained.

"We're almost home."

The house was a dilapidated wooden structure. It was spacious but drafty. It was cool in the summer but a bit cold in the winter.

"Oh, what happened?"

His mother, Julia, a young woman in her mid-thirties, looked tired as she asked from the kitchen.

Antonio explained that he had slipped while fishing and fallen into the river, and she worried about Ricardo's condition.

Ricardo (Mantani inside) said, "I'm fine... I'm fine," and sat on a chair in the main room to rest. His body was weak from nearly dying.

His father, Federico, who had been working on weeding, was also at home. He was a serious-looking man with a scruffy beard.