Chapter 3

After one dazed second where the hem of his tunic fluttered freely in the breeze, Garlan abruptly flipped himself over and sat back up. Ignoring the pain from his legs being scraped by the uneven cobblestones, he knelt on the ground, tightly clamping his thighs together. His hands fiercely pressed his clothing over a certain key part, his little face flushing as red as a beet.

Why did he just have to embarrass himself in front of this fellow in particular!
Letting out a mournful cry in his heart, Garlan felt his entire face practically burning from humiliation. He pursed his lips and lowered his head, wishing he could just bury his head between his legs. He did not dare raise his head to see the expression of the man in front of him at this moment.

Hurry and leave, hurry and leave, stay away from me, the farther the better.
He desperately chanted these words in his heart, peeking out of the corner of his eye at the two feet still standing before him. All he wanted was for the other party to hurry and get lost already, so he could escape from this awkwardness and recover even a modicum of his lost dignity.

However, that person could not hear the thoughts in his heart. Those two legs seemed to be rooted in the ground before him, completely motionless.

Garlan buried his flushed face even further, but he could still feel Heimos staring at him.
He hatefully ground his teeth, yet there was no way he could open his mouth and tell this fellow to hurry and get lost already. All he could do was silently curse him in the safety of his own mind.
So it turns you’ve never been able to read the atmosphere of a room from an early age——just look at how awkward this scene is, why are you still standing here? Hurry and go away, preferably as far away as possible!
I remember you’re not the type of person who eagerly watches a lively scene, right? So by standing still, you’re deliberately trying to embarrass me, aren’t you?

Just as Garlan was using maximum maliciousness to guess the thoughts of this young Heimos, all while still so mortified he had no idea what to do himself… the pair of feet in his lowered line of sight finally moved.

Hurry up and leave, hurry up and leave, hurry up and leave already please.
Just as the silently chanting Garlan let out a sigh of relief, the very next second, his heart leapt into his throat. Because he saw the pair of feet did not turn around to depart, but instead stepped forward towards him.

Wait wait wait wait wait——
Wh-wh-what, what are you trying to doooooo——

At the sight of Heimos approaching him, Garlan’s vigilance and cautiousness finally overpowered his utter embarrassment. He abruptly raised his head to see what this person was trying to do.
As soon as he looked up, before he could even focus his eyes, his arm had already been grabbed by the other person’s hands.
With a yank, before he could even react, his entire body had already been pulled up off the ground.

Garlan stood in his original spot and looked up at that man with wide eyes.
He saw a face that could be said to be both familiar and unfamiliar… However, either way, it was definitely a very different face from the one he remembered.

The person who had picked him up was currently just a twelve or thirteen year old youth, a childlike air still suffusing his brows. Fine black hair was scattered rather messily around the corners of his eyes. His jaw was slightly pointed, and the outline of the face looked to be on the thin side. But because his skeleton was currently in the middle of rapid growth, his body did not appear skinny. Although he was only three or four years older than Garlan, he was almost a full head taller.

Garlan stared blankly at that face.
In his memory, that man’s face was always calculating and sinister, as if eternally wreathed in deep shadow. His brows had unconsciously exuded a hint of baleful aura, like a viper hidden in the dark.
But looking at this still immature face before him right now, he could not find even a wisp of the persistent chilly aura that had shrouded the man in his memory.

Just as these thoughts were swirling in his mind, he suddenly saw the young Heimos scan him over from top to bottom, and then reach out a hand.
Garlan’s heart skipped a beat, and he instinctively raised his arms in a resisting posture.

His blocking hands obscured his own vision, so he naturally could not see what the other party was planning to do.
Then, the very next second, he felt a hand patting his butt.

The young child abruptly leapt into the air.

What the heck was Heimos trying to do?!

When his butt was patted a second time, Garlan finally reacted, instantly leaping away and turning to face the young Heimos who had moved to his side.
He covered his buttocks with his hands, raising his head to glare furiously at this fellow who had actually dared to pat his butt.

The youth targeted by this glare froze for a moment. Seeing the child huffily scowl and cover his buttocks, he laughed.
Was the child afraid he was going to spank him?
The youth couldn’t help but find this thought amusing. He generously ignored the little child’s glare, instead reaching out a hand to rub the child’s head. Then he bent over slightly, his hand continuing to pat the other side of the child’s clothes.

Uh…..
This person… no way…. actually… seems like… he might be…
Helping him pat the dust off his clothes?

As he watched Heimos’s actions, a conjecture that Garlan himself found unbelievable popped into his mind.

???

He kept feeling like… something about this wasn’t right?
That man whose eyes had always stared at him with either vicious venom or murderous intent, who had even killed him four times in various brutal ways… really really really did not seem like the type of gentle person who would help up a fallen child.

………………

Garlan pondered it over.
He felt there was a very real possibility that he had encountered a fake Heimos.

While he was lost in contemplation, this fake young Heimos had already patted Garlan’s clothes clean of all the dust that had accumulated with his tumble.
Heimos looked at the child in front of him—that white and tender face was so cute and round, the baby fat making those little cheeks look like buns, filling one with the almost irresistible urge to stretch out a finger and poke those soft cheeks.

Just now, when he had picked up this child who had keeled over in fright, Heimos couldn’t help but frown at the sight of that blushing face. That soft and delicate skin was likely the result of having been thoroughly spoiled, so this child was sure to start crying and making a fuss. He had always found those types of brats quite annoying, so after picking the child up, he intended to hurry away as fast as he could so as to avoid having to listen to this child’s wails.

But what surprised him was that the child did not cry or yell upon being picked up, only looked up at him. Those big round eyes just stared at him, looking thoroughly silly and a little pitiful. For some unknown reason, Heimos’s heart moved slightly. At the uncomfortable sight of those miniature lotus root-like arms and legs stained with dirt, he unconsciously reached out and patted the dust off.

With this pat, the originally obedient and quiet child instantly jumped up, covering his butt with his hands and then shooting him a glare.

The child probably thought that glare was very imposing and powerful. But what Heimos saw was a child tilting his head slightly, looking at him with a pair of watery golden amber eyes, soft eyelashes fluttering from time to time. The pale blond hair surrounding the little face was slightly curled, looking fluffy to the touch, framing those cheeks still filled with baby fat and making the little face appear even smaller.

Like a newborn animal cub that believed it could bite off a person’s hand, diligently tickling a person’s fingers with soft teeth that hadn’t yet grown in.

He couldn’t help but want to laugh.
But in order to avoid making this child angrier, he held his laughter back and just rubbed that head of fluffy blond hair.

Mm, nice and soft, feels great to the touch.
So he rubbed it again.

……

The nemesis I’m destined to meet on the battlefield in a bloody life-or-death struggle just witnessed my most embarrassing moment, patted my butt, and even rubbed my head… What am I supposed to do?

Having been constantly messed with by Heimos from the beginning up until now, Garlan felt very stifled and wronged.
However, no matter how stifled he felt, he also knew it was definitely not a good idea to get into a fight with Heimos right now.

The moment he knew himself to be only eight or nine years old, he immediately realized his nemesis must also be only around twelve or thirteen. However, before he could make any mental preparations on how he would treat this young Heimos upon encountering him… he had already collided face to face with his nemesis completely out of the blue.
…And even made a complete and utter fool of himself right before the other’s eyes.

At the very thought that his nemesis would probably remember this embarrassing gaffe for a lifetime and might even continuously bring it up to spite him, Garlan began to feel every one of his organs start to throb and ache.

Wait a second.
On that topic, wasn’t this fellow the culprit behind his gaffe in the first place?
If it wasn’t for this person suddenly patting his shoulder from behind and scaring his unsuspecting self, he wouldn’t have fallen over.

……No, wait a minute, why did Heimos pat his shoulder?
Garlan once again began to use maximum maliciousness to guess the other’s motivations.
Could it be that just now, Heimos had been trying to secretly push him into the pond and drown him?

#Heimos is always trying to kill me, this is definitely not my own paranoia stemming from having experienced four deaths#

Once this possibility emerged in his mind, the originally hesitant and wavering Garlan immediately went on high alert.
Even if Heimos was just a child, that was still his nemesis. He absolutely must not let his guard down. He only has one final life left—if he’s killed one more time, he’ll die for real.

After thinking it over, he felt his first priority should be to determine the other party’s purpose in approaching him, so he opened his mouth to speak.
“Were you looking for me?”

The child’s voice was as soft as sweet drops of water tumbling into fluffy white clouds, enough to make anyone’s heart melt.

Garlan himself was taken aback at the sound of his own voice.
His voice was cute and soft, as tender as a little girl’s.

Oh, that’s right.
A gloomy realization struck Garlan’s mind.
An eight or nine year old child hadn’t yet reached the period of puberty where their voice changed, so their voice would naturally be this tender and delicate…

…………

Alright, he could ignore this issue of voice changes, since he just had to endure this for a few years. The highest priority item right now was to solve the underwear problem. He absolutely couldn’t endure not being able to wear underwear for a few years.

“Come with me, I’ll take you back.”
Heimos’s voice was exactly the opposite of Garlan’s, unstable and hoarse. After all, at thirteen years old, he was currently right in the middle of puberty’s voice changes, so his voice was rather unpleasant to the ear.
He extended his hand to Garlan, who hesitated for a moment. Finally, with no small amount of discomfort and unfamiliarity, Garlan grasped the same hand that had stabbed him to death not long ago.

He couldn’t figure out the current situation, so the best course of action would be to go with the flow of the other party first.

Probably because of his constantly cracking and breaking voice, the youth preferred not to talk. Holding Garlan’s little hand, he led the child out of the garden. Although he was only three or four years older than Garlan, he was in the middle of his growth spurt so his legs were longer, making his strides wide and fast. The unfortunately still short-legged Garlan had to jog to keep up with him.

Only a few steps in, a sudden sharp pain came from his left ankle, and Garlan tripped forward. If it weren’t for Heimos holding his hand, he would have crashed head-first into the ground.

Heimos stopped and looked back at him.

It seemed he had twisted his ankle during his stumble.
Looking up, Garlan met a certain someone’s questioning eyes, and hurriedly shook his head.
“I’m okay, I wasn’t paying attention just now and tripped.”

Before he even finished his sentence, a pair of hands reached over, grabbing under his armpits and lifting up his small body. Then he was placed back down onto a nearby flat white stone.
The youth squatted down in front of him, holding his left foot with one hand and lifting it up.

Garlan reacted very quickly: the instant his foot was lifted up, he abruptly slammed the hem of his clothes down to firmly cover a certain key part——now he understood the suffering of short skirt-wearing girls, having to constantly watch out for accidental exposures.
He angrily thought, right now he was basically wearing a short skirt himself, one with nothing underneath——nothing, absolutely nothing!!

This damn custom!
He huffily shot a glance at Heimos.
Unlike him, Heimos was wearing slightly tight cloth trousers and long black boots that reached up his calf. This was the benefit of being older——little children typically did not wear underwear, but older children would wear long pants.

In fact, the people of this dynasty didn’t wear underwear even as adults, because no such thing as underwear existed during this period. Upon growing up, they would put on something similar to a loincloth and then wear trousers directly over that. Children would generally start wearing trousers around the age of twelve because at that age, boys would learn horse riding and begin training to fight on horseback.

Seeing Garlan move to hold down his clothes, the half-kneeling Heimos was briefly startled. When he understood what Garlan was doing, the corner of his lips couldn’t help but turn up. He then continued examining Garlan’s ankle.
The child’s foot was so small that he could hold the entirety of it in his hand. He checked over the slightly red and swollen area, and tried giving it a gentle squeeze.

The tingling pain in his ankle made Garlan refocus his attention.
He looked down.

……

First ignoring the injury to his foot and the whole underwear business.. at this very moment, Garlan noticed something very significant.
Something that made him incomparably elated and overjoyed.
Less than an hour after his fifth rebirth, he had already successfully realized the dream that only existed in his fantasies, the dream he had previously utterly failed to fulfill despite those four desperate struggles.

Look! He successfully made his nemesis kneel before him——

What a promising and successful start!