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Chapter 4: The “Screw the Empire”

After that, I came down with a fever.

Between the info-dump and getting the crap beaten out of me by the Empire, I guess it wasn’t surprising.

As I lay there, I noticed the wounds all over my body starting to heal.

A faint white steam was rising from my skin, and if I listened closely, I could hear a soft hissing sound coming from the cuts.

(Ahh, this must be it… The god’s reincarnation gift… The 「Sturdy Body」 he promised as an apology…)

Lying there on the grass, I let my mind wander in a haze.

The god had, kept his word and granted me special powers.

A healthy body with regenerative powers, and the ability to acquire information.

There was even a message from the god embedded in the download…

「Live freely! LETS ENJOY! Use your skills well!」

A pretty sloppy message if you ask me.

Still, the regeneration skill was already proving useful.

Getting punched and kicked definitely hurt, but having your body heal itself was incredibly convenient.

「Gaia. I’ll handle negotiations with the Empire. You just rest.」

「Thank you… Uncle Athos…」

Apparently, there were still some ongoing talks with the Empire, but I left it all to Uncle Athos.

My body was recovering, but the massive information dump still had my head spinning.

I got sleepy quickly and started dozing off even in the middle of the day.

Whenever I closed my eyes, a flood of images would surface in my mind.

They were the memories of the boy named Gaia.

From what I gathered, the god had placed my soul into Gaia’s deceased body.

In my dreams, I relived his life like I was retracing it step by step.

—A happy childhood.

His tribe lived in a village deep in the forest.

A kind mother. A strict but dependable father.

They shared meals as a family, worked the small fields, hunted beasts in the woods.

In summer, they swam in the river. In winter, they supported each other to endure the cold and snow.

It was a poor but happy life…

—But everything changed when the Empire came.

The tribe was subjugated by a vast and powerful empire.

They were terrorized by military force, and crushing taxes were imposed.

If the villagers couldn’t pay, they were taken away as slaves.

(Stop…)

Children he had grown up with, his childhood friends, were led away in chains.

Ropes around their necks and wrists, strung together like beads and dragged off by Imperial soldiers.

(Stop it…)

The adults in the village begged and pleaded.

But the Imperial soldiers didn’t so much as blink.

They kicked away the mothers clinging to them and tore crying children from their arms.

(Stop!!)

The fathers rose up in rebellion.

They rallied nearby tribes and waged war against the Empire.

(Please… stop…!!)

But the battle ended in a one-sided slaughter.

They lost—utterly and completely.

Gaia’s father was pierced through with spears.
His mother was trampled into a bloody pulp beneath horses’ hooves.
The adults of the tribe were cut down one by one.

(STOP IT!!!!)

As I leapt forward, Uncle Athos held me back.

But I broke free of him and charged the Imperial soldiers head-on.

Surrounded by countless enemy troops, I was beaten, stabbed, slashed—

—And then I died.

「STOOOOOP!!!!」

「Gaia! Hey! Gaia!」

When I opened my eyes, I saw Uncle Athos’s worried face hovering over me.

＊

Two days later, the Imperial Army withdrew, and we were allowed to return home.

On the road back, I learned more from Uncle Athos.

I, Gaia, was the son of the chief of a tribe called the Blumund.

The Blumund tribe lived north of the Empire, and the Imperials referred to us as 「Barbars.」

Barbar meant something like 「barbarian」 or 「uncivilized」, basically, an insult.

「So… Barbar, huh? That means we of the Blumund tribe are Barbars?」

「No, the Empire just lumps all the northern tribes together and calls us that.」

「I see.」

Uncle Athos answered all my questions patiently. He was incredibly helpful.

A very dependable man.

Thanks to the info dump, I had Gaia’s memories, but as a child’s memories, they were mostly about family and friends. He hadn’t known much about the world.

Uncle Athos’s clear explanations helped me fill in the gaps and get a better grasp on this world.

Right now, we’re just coming off a war with the Empire.

According to Uncle Athos, my father had been the one to start it.

He’d united the various tribes labeled as Barbars and tried to resist the Empire.

But the Imperial Army moved quickly and crushed the tribal forces, our forces, without mercy.

「But you held out well! I’m proud of you!」

Apparently, the one who had kicked me so mercilessly in the Imperial tent was none other than the Crown Prince.

The fact that I took those kicks without retaliation seemed to have satisfied the Imperial troops.

Though in truth, I was just too stunned to do anything, Uncle Athos misunderstood it as a noble act of restraint for the sake of our people.

Well… I’ll take the win.

The wounds from the prince’s beating had already healed.

Thanks to my body’s regenerative power, any injury disappeared quickly.

Uncle Athos and I made our way through the forest toward the Blumund tribe’s village.

Most of our comrades had either died or fled.

Our stomachs were empty, and we had no food.

Losing a war… really sucks.

To distract myself from the hunger, I chatted with Uncle Athos as we walked.

Then I murmured, almost to myself—

「Father and Mother… both died in battle.」

「Yeah… Your father fought bravely. And your mother, too, she fought alongside him. They were the pride of our tribe.」

The images from Gaia’s memories, the ones I’d seen while feverish, rose again in my mind.

Their brutal ends on the battlefield…

Ahh…

They should’ve been total strangers to me…

It was someone else’s memory…

—So then why am I this angry?

「Uncle Athos…」

「What is it, Gaia…? Are you crying?」

「I’m not crying! I’m furious!」

「I-I see…」

The anger welling up from deep in my gut—I couldn’t hold it back.

It was a rage I’d never known in my life back in Japan.

Is this really how I feel?

Or is this Gaia’s fury?

I didn’t know…

But I did know this:
The Empire, with its cruel and unjust rule—
The Empire that killed my parents—

I couldn’t forgive it.

「I’ll never forgive the Empire…!」

「Yeah. I know, I know.」

「I’ll get revenge… For Father… For Mother… For our whole tribe…!」

「Yeah… you will.」

「I’ll become chief and wipe the Empire off the map!」

「Mm-hmm. That’s right.」

Uncle Athos wrapped an arm around my shoulders and nodded at every word I said.

His voice was warm, but I could feel his hand trembling slightly on my shoulder.

Eventually, through the trees, our village came into view.

At the entrance to the village, bluebells were blooming.

I felt like Father and Mother were there, smiling and saying, 「Welcome home.」