Chronicles of an aristoc.., p.1
Chronicles of an Aristocrat Reborn in Another World Vol. 1, page 1
Table of Contents
Color Gallery
Title Page
Copyrights and Credits
Map of Grunewde
Table of Contents Page
Prologue
Chapter 1: Reincarnation
Chapter 2: Studying
Chapter 3: Baptism
Chapter 4: Social Debut
Chapter 5: Private Tutor
Side Story: Saori’s Feelings
Chapter 6: First Adventure
Side Story: Gods Chatting
Chapter 7: Creation Magic
Side Story: Cain’s Great Adventure
Chapter 8: Lamesta Fortress
Chapter 9: To the Capital
Chapter 10: Ennoblement
Chapter 11: Capital Debut Party
Chapter 12: Cain’s Estate
Chapter 13: Housewarming Party
Chapter 14: The Royal Guard
Chapter 15: Confession
Side Story: Telestia - Love at First Sight
Afterword
About the Author
Footnotes
Newsletter
Prologue
“I WONDER WHY I DIDN’T ACCEPT THEIR INVITATION. It was a mistake not to… Saori even went out of her way to invite me…”
Kazuya was rolling around in bed. The phone in his hand was open to an image of three girls wearing yukatas. Along with the image was a message that said, “We look cute in our yukatas, right? Too bad you won’t get to see it!”
The girl front and center in the picture was Kazuya’s high school classmate and childhood friend since elementary school, Manabe Saori. She had invited him to join her and her friends to see fireworks, but Kazuya had declined since he thought being the only guy in a group with three girls was embarrassing.
Shiina Kazuya tumbled around in bed as he listened to the distant booming of fireworks from his room. Kazuya was the only one living in the house. His parents had passed away in an accident when he was young, and he had no siblings. He was raised by his grandfather, who had also passed away last year. The inheritance left behind by his parents and grandfather would last him until he graduated college, so necessity hadn’t forced him to get a job yet. The sixteen-year-old second-year student spent his days going to high school and then heading back home. He maintained slightly above average grades, and his looks were just as ordinary.
From the other side of his screen door window, a consecutive series of grand explosions signaled the end of the fireworks show.
“Those were the last fireworks for this year. Well, no point in thinking about it now. Maybe I should treat myself to some ice cream.” Kazuya exited his room and headed to the kitchen downstairs.
“Which should I have today? I’m feeling like some shaved ice.”
Kazuya opened the freezer and looked inside, only to find it completely devoid of sweet treats. “No way! No ice cream or nothing in here? I guess I’ll go for a walk and grab some on the way back.” Kazuya rushed back up the stairs to his room, grabbed his wallet and phone, and then headed in the direction of the convenience store.
He glanced upwards and was greeted by a cloudless, beautiful night sky. The only thing covering the stars tonight was the smoke from the fireworks show.
Since the show had ended, families in yukatas and other small groups could be seen walking in the direction of the train station. They were all smiling, likely talking about the fireworks show that had just ended.
“I wonder if they’re selling any new brands of ice cream?” Kazuya ignored the groups of people in yukatas headed in the opposite direction, his mind occupied by the question of which ice cream to buy. Just as he was close enough to see the convenience store, people rushed out of the store while screaming.
“Ahh!”
“Run away!”
Couples in yukatas and parents with their kids were fleeing from the store. Behind them, a man was waving around a knife.
“Die! All of you! Die!” The man’s head swiveled left and right, his bloodshot eyes tracking people as they ran away. He locked eyes with Kazuya, who was simply standing there, then charged at him.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me! I need to get out of here!”
As he turned around to run, Kazuya noticed that right behind him were two middle school girls in yukatas. Their knees had failed them, and they were sitting on the ground. “You two need to get up and run!” Kazuya shouted at them, but they were paralyzed with fear; there was no way the girls would be able to get away in time.
“…I guess I’ll just have to man up.” Kazuya took a deep breath before turning around and facing the man with the knife. He lowered his stance, tensed up, and waited for the right moment.
“Taaake this!” Kazuya shouted as he tackled the man’s waist with all he had. The two of them fell onto the sidewalk, entangled together. Kazuya straddled the man and held him to the ground, shouting, “Someone grab his knife!”
Suddenly, starting from his stomach area, a warm feeling traveled throughout his body.
“You…!”
Kazuya punched the man, causing him to lose his grip on the knife, which fell to the wayside. Seeing the man was disarmed, several bystanders approached to help Kazuya hold the man down.
Adrenaline had initially distracted Kazuya from the heat emanating from his stomach area, but once he looked down, he realized that blood was flowing unimpeded from where he had been stabbed. The blood had already dyed his t-shirt red. Kazuya tried to get up, but he no longer had the strength to do so and instead fell onto his back. The night sky filled his vision. He turned his neck sideways in an attempt to move and saw that people were using their phones to call for an ambulance and the police.
A passerby brought a large amount of towels out of the convenience store and pressed them down on Kazuya’s wound in an attempt to stop the bleeding. The passerby shouted, “An ambulance will be here soon! Hang in there!” Everyone around Kazuya had worried looks on their faces.
The two middle school aged girls in yukatas that had collapsed to the ground earlier approached Kazuya. “K-Kazuya, is that you?!”
Kazuya recognized the girl wearing light makeup. “Oh… You’re Saori’s younger sister, Manami… Long time no see…”
“…Yes. It’s me, Manami… Thank you for saving me. If you didn’t…” Manami was trembling as she thanked Kazuya with tears in her eyes.
Blood continued to flow from Kazuya’s stomach wound despite the towels compressing the area. Kazuya gradually began to lose consciousness. The heat he had originally felt gradually turned into a cold chill that took everything away.
Kazuya raised the hand that he could still just barely move and used it to pat Manami’s head. “…I’m glad the two of you are okay… I’m feeling a little dizzy… I think I’m going to take a nap.”
“Kazuya! You have to keep your eyes open!” Manami insisted as she shook Kazuya’s shoulders. However, Kazuya no longer had the strength to do so. He couldn’t even feel Manami’s hands on his shoulders anymore.
“Sorry… Doesn’t look like I can.”
Kazuya’s strengthless hand fell from Manami’s head.
“No! Kazuya!”
That was the last thing Kazuya heard before fully losing consciousness.
Chapter 1:
Reincarnation
KAZUYA GRADUALLY REGAINED CONSCIOUSNESS. Although his eyes were closed, he could feel the sunlight shining through the window. He opened his eyes and was greeted by an extravagantly decorated ceiling.
“Where am I?”
Kazuya couldn’t help but say the clichéd line as he roused his unfamiliar body and looked around. He usually slept in a typical single bed—the bed he found himself in now was significantly larger. The room was stylishly furnished. A chandelier hung from the ceiling, and bright rays of the sun shone through gaps in the curtains.
“Wow, I can’t believe they managed to save me. Which hospital is this, anyway? I can’t believe they arranged such a lavish room for me, this type of treatment is way too extravagant.”
As he looked around the room, he noticed movement nearby. Upon closer inspection, he realized that someone was leaning against the bed while asleep in the nearby chair. They were starting to wake up.
It was a young girl, about the size of a middle schooler. She was wearing a maid uniform. She rubbed her eyes before looking in Kazuya’s direction and freezing. Then, tears began to stream from her eyes.
“Master Cain!”
The girl suddenly jumped towards Kazuya. Still confused, Kazuya caught her, and the girl buried her face into his chest and began to sob.
“Thank goodness! You’ve been asleep for an entire week!” She cried, tightly grabbing and hugging Kazuya.
“Wait, what are you doing?!”
Kazuya swung his arms in an attempt to break free, but he had no way to overcome the difference in size.
Huh? Wait, I’m the smaller one? Also, why a maid and not a nurse?
Confused, Kazuya brought his hands in front of him and took a good look. His hands were clearly much smaller than those of a high schooler; they were about the size of an infant’s hands.
As he stared at his hands in a daze, the young maid released him and got up. “I’m going to let the Madam know!”
The young maid hurriedly opened the door and rushed out of the room. Kazuya had yet to grasp the situation as he continued to stare at
“I remember getting stabbed by the guy with a knife at the convenience store, seeing Manami, and then passing out… I should be at a hospital right now. That girl called me, ‘Cain,’ right? But my name is Kazuya…”
As he tried to organize his jumbled thoughts, a flurry of noise traveled down from the hallway before bursting into the room he was staying at.
“Cain! You’re awake! Thank goodness!”
A beautiful woman in her twenties entered the room. She had a good figure, long silver hair that reached her waist, and was wearing a well-made dress. Kazuya was completely dumbfounded, as he had never seen anyone remotely like her before.
The beautiful woman rushed over to Kazuya and began to hug him, joyful tears streaming down her face. Kazuya felt enveloped by her soft body and was suddenly struck by a mix of happiness and embarrassment.
“Cain, do you recognize me? You recognize your mother, don’t you? You passed out with an incredible fever and slept for an entire week.”
Kazuya could not make heads or tails of what the silver-haired beauty was saying. He had lost both parents when he was still young, and as best as he could tell, the woman standing before him was in her twenties—far too young to be his mother. Unable to settle his thoughts, Kazuya simply stared at her, dumbfounded.
“Madam, Master Cain just woke up, he might not be thinking straight,” said another maid, who had accompanied the woman into the room.
“That’s true, he was asleep for an entire week after all. Take your time and rest today. I’ll come check in on you again later. Reine was also really worried about you.”
The silver-haired beauty turned towards the young maid who had embraced Kazuya earlier and said, “Sylvia, your job today is to look after Cain. He should be able to have soup, can you prepare some for him?”
“Understood, Madam.” The silver-haired beauty claiming to be his mother and the maids accompanying her left the room to go prepare something to eat.
Kazuya, now alone, looked down at his hands again, opening and closing them once more. They definitely looked like they belonged to an infant. “Was I reincarnated like all those light novel protagonists? I guess they weren’t able to save me after all,” Kazuya muttered as he laid in bed, staring at the ceiling. “At least I was able to save Manami, so I won’t have to see Saori cry.”
Kazuya would occasionally talk about light novels with his classmates at school. In fact, he often read reincarnation stories, both in print and on his phone. Saori, his close friend, also loved light novels. They often lent books to each other.
“First, I have to figure out my current situation. It seems I’ve been asleep for an entire week.” He had apparently been in bed the entire time, and moving at all caused his joints to protest, so he settled for examining the area around the bed.
After a short while, he heard a knock at the door. The young maid from earlier entered the room while pushing a cart carrying a bowl of soup. “Master Cain, I’ve prepared some soup for you.”
Kazuya sluggishly got up. The maid placed the bowl of soup on the table next to the bed. Kazuya tried a spoonful. “…Delicious.”
The umami of the meat and vegetables had seeped into the broth, giving it a gentle taste.
As he drank the soup, Kazuya finally understood he had truly undergone reincarnation. With this new understanding, a new question entered his mind.
Um…I think her name was Sylvia?
“Sylvia, do you have a mirror?”
“Yes. You’ve gotten a little thinner since you didn’t eat at all while you were sleeping, but other than that, you look the same.”
Sylvia opened the drawer of the desk and took out a mirror, which she handed to Kazuya. The extravagant hand mirror was adorned with silver. Kazuya accepted it with both hands, and, after steeling himself, took a look.
The young boy reflected within the mirror had silver hair with blue highlights and sharp blue eyes. He looked about three years old. His facial features resembled that of the beautiful woman who claimed to be his mother. Kazuya was worried he might have been ugly. Since he seemed to take after his mother, he was likely to become quite the looker in the future. Kazuya inadvertently let out a sigh of relief.
He turned left and right, checking every angle of his face using the mirror. Sylvia suddenly joined him. “Master Cain, you don’t need to worry. You have the makings of an incredibly handsome man. You’re already so cute,” she said with a smile.
Kazuya was so absorbed examining himself in the mirror, he had completely forgotten Sylvia was there as well. Feeling a little embarrassed, he handed the mirror back to her.
“Thank you,” Kazuya said.
Accepting the mirror, Sylvia put it back into the drawer.
Kazuya slowly finished the rest of the soup. It was quite good, and before he knew it, he was already asking for seconds. It wasn’t entirely his fault, as he hadn’t eaten at all in the week he had been sleeping.
Kazuya spent the next three days idling away in bed. Although he had already recovered, Sylvia and the rest of his family told him to rest, just in case.
There was one big problem Kazuya had to deal with if he wanted to live as Cain in the future. Although he had already come to accept his new role and the fact he had reincarnated, he didn’t have any of Cain’s memories. He was able to confirm from Sylvia that he was indeed three years old, but he knew nothing about anything that happened prior to his reincarnation.
In his previous world, if someone were to ask him about his memories prior to turning three, he also wouldn’t be able to answer—but that’s because he was a high schooler. As a three-year-old, he should still have those memories.
He wanted to know more about this world he was in. In Japan, with a smartphone in hand, Kazuya could look up anything in an instant. Currently, he didn’t even know what lay beyond the boundaries of his own room, and he had no way to acquire that information.
In addition, although he had no trouble speaking, he couldn’t read at all. The picture books on the shelves of the desk were definitely not written in either Japanese or English: It was a completely alien language he had never seen before. As he rested in bed, Kazuya gathered what information he could about his family by asking Sylvia questions.
His name in this world was Cain von Silford. The word “von” in the middle indicated he was a noble. Specifically, he was the third son of the margrave responsible for overseeing the territory of Gracia within the Esfort Kingdom. The Esfort Kingdom was located in the center of the Grunewde Continent and was surrounded by other countries. These other countries had declared war against the Esfort Kingdom several times in the past, but things had calmed down in recent years.
Margraves within the Esfort Kingdom occupied lands along its border. They were given the right to independently field their own armies to protect the kingdom from foreign invaders. According to Sylvia, margraves were considered high-rank nobles. This was a comforting fact for Kazuya.
His father’s name was Garm von Silford Gracia. The “Gracia” in his name indicated it was a territory under his control—all lords adopted the names of their territories in this way.
Kazuya met him for the first time a little after he had awoken. Garm looked to be in his mid-thirties. He had blue hair, looked handsome, and was in good shape. He had two wives. Cain’s mother was Garm’s second wife, which likely explained the difference in their ages.
His mother’s name was Sarah von Silford. She was the silver-haired beauty who had immediately rushed over upon hearing he had awakened.
His elder sister’s name was Reine von Silford. She was two years older than Cain. She came to check in on him every day once he had regained consciousness. She had the same silver hair with blue highlights that Cain did, and their facial features were also similar. She was a lovely older sister that enjoyed nuzzling him while shouting, “Cain!”
The first wife of the family was Maria von Silford. She had two sons, Djinn von Silford and Alec von Silford. They were both attending school at the royal capital, so neither they nor their mother were here at the mansion. They were instead staying at the family’s residence in the capital.
Children here would attend school from age twelve to age fifteen, and they were considered adults at age fifteen.
