The Tale of A Man Who Believed That His Reincarnation Had Granted Him A Japanese Sword And The Greatest Battle Sense, Only To Have The God Finally Inform Him "Huh, I Didn't Give You Any Combat Sense… That's Scary…" - Episode 2

About a month has passed since I was reincarnated.

No matter how mildly I try to describe my reincarnation life that started in the forest, it can only be described as a homeless life or enforced overnight camping. In this otherworldly forest, there are many animals that I also saw in my previous world, so if you only consider the framework of animals, it doesn’t feel that otherworldly.

The clothes I was wearing when I was reincarnated got torn up from living in the forest, and I threw them away around the third day after my reincarnation. So, am I living as a naked savage now? Not at all.

In this forest, there are human skeletons left here and there, though not very frequently, and I gratefully use the clothes and tools I find from these skeletons.

Meals are arranged three times a day in the forest, and the recent trend is a natural-tasting small fish soup made by boiling small fish caught in a stream in the forest in a helmet worn by a skeleton and randomly tossing in some grass. By the way, the taste is just plain bad. I’m about to cry.

For now, I’ve been focusing on managing my daily life, so I haven’t been able to explore the surroundings at all. Considering that a person who used to enjoy watching camping videos on a video-sharing site was suddenly thrown into the wilderness, it’s quite an achievement that I haven’t died and have managed to adapt to this life.

Thanks to that katana the god gave me as a reincarnation bonus, even though I still get attacked by monsters from time to time, my life has finally started to stabilize recently, so I think I’ll explore the forest today.

“Japanese sword for self-defense, check! Clothes are tattered but for now, check! The campfire was properly extinguished, check! Everything’s good!”

Confirming that the campfire set up in the slightly open square used as a living base has burned out, I set out to explore the surroundings with high spirits.

In this forest, in addition to animals like rabbits and deer that are familiar from the previous world, there are also several types of so-called monsters that attack people, similar to those that attacked right after my reincarnation.

I came across slimes, which are familiar even in popular RPGs, beastmen with dog-like appearances, and skeletons walking upright like white-boned corpses. I was particularly surprised when I first encountered the skeleton.

I was approaching to gather tools from the corpse, and out of nowhere, it suddenly stood up and attacked me with a tattered sword, which really surprised me. It was the kind of fear that falls under jump scares. Reflexively, I drew my katana and ended up slicing through the tree behind me.

Tying a katana with a rope made by weaving together long, narrow leaves, I carry the katana on my back, keeping my hands free, and proceed briskly through the forest. After walking for about thirty minutes, I heard a human voice other than my own for the first time since coming to this world.

“Ugh, I’m so tired. Those guys from the other squad are probably raiding Ridge Village by now, right? I should have joined that squad instead.”

“This is the fourth time I’ve heard that complaint. Seriously, just move on already, it’s getting annoying.”

“I get that bringing the loot back to the hideout is important, but…”

The voice I heard, thanks to the God’s reincarnation bonus, sounded more like English than Japanese, but I could clearly understand it as Japanese.

Peeking quietly through the trees in the direction of the voice, I see about ten rough-looking men dressed like obvious thieves, walking along a path in the forest while pulling a cart. They have swords or maces, which look quite dangerous, hanging from their waists.

Hey, hey, what bad luck to meet a thief or some other lowlife right after being reincarnated in another world. If possible, I’d prefer to have my first conversation with a cute village girl. I want to ask what they’re carrying in the cart or if there are any nearby towns or villages. But they might demand my life in return, so maybe I should just quietly back off. Plus, they were joking about raiding the village too… Better not get involved.

“Hmm… Hey! The young lady we loaded into the carriage is causing a scene again! Someone, give her a couple of punches to shut her up.”

“Hey, hey, hey! Didn’t the boss tell you not to damage the products?”

“Just say she bumped into the cage while we were carrying it. I don’t care if she’s some merchant’s daughter or whatever, as long as she’s not dead, it’s not a problem.”

Oh, this is… probably, or rather, definitely human trafficking. In the previous world, such events would never have happened in places I would see in my lifetime, but now they are integrated into daily life.

From the conversation of those likely bandits, it seems that the one struggling energetically to escape inside the carriage is the merchant’s daughter. If that’s the case, helping her would not only reveal the location of the village or town but also earn favor with a merchant, who presumably has money.

The maximum return on the bet of risking my life is the chance of becoming a benefactor of the merchant’s daughter and gaining knowledge of this world. If it were the me before I died once, I would never get involved in such dangerous matters, but somehow, after experiencing death once, those emotions have become all fuzzy and I can’t quite understand them anymore.

Well, since I’ve already died once, I might as well take on those bandits for now. With the reincarnation perks, I should be able to manage somehow!