Dream Life Volume 1 Chapter 1 Part3

As I left the bedroom of my parents, I was still surprised by my reincarnation.

After going through a wide hallway that had a high ceiling, I arrived at a large room that seemed to be the dining room. Since I still hadn't adapted to my new body yet, I was confused by the gap in size with my adult body.

Although the room seems wide, that might just be because of the size of my body. It's probably because the s.p.a.ce between my eyes has become narrower.

There was a large table that could fit ten people inside the room. A very nice smell was also drifting about, probably since breakfast was being prepared. A burly lady who seemed to be forty years old or so was preparing meals in the kitchen, which was located at the back of dining room.

"Good morning, Molly."

My Mother greeted the lady. I desperately digged through my memories as I looked at them.

Molly . . . maybe she's some kind of maid. She's also the wife of someone named Walt.

After my Father gave his greetings, I followed suit.

"Good morning, Molly."

"Good morning everyone. ××○△○, please wait a little bit longer."

While wiping her hands on an ap.r.o.n, she smiled and returned a greeting. Her figure reminds me of a dorm mother.

She feels like a kind lady. There were some words I couldn't catch though . . .

Molly laughed and then headed back to the kitchen counter.

Wooden plates and spoons had been placed on the table, together with round loaves of bread. They seemed like a rustic type of bread that came from the countryside. The fragrant scent of the freshly baked loaves wrapped itself around the table.

A few minutes later, a boy who seemed to be around the age of a first or second grader appeared. He sat down next to Mother as gave his greetings.

He's my older brother, Rod. I called him "Nii-sama" before I think.

I try to sound as childish as possible as I say "Good morning, Nii-sama" while smiling.

He looks at me with slight surprise on his face but then immediately returns the greeting.

Did I do something wrong? Since the memories of my usual behavior are somewhat ambiguous, I have to make sure they don't find any discrepancies . . .

A short time later, Molly came out of the kitchen clutching a large pot. She distributed something that seemed like soup into each of the wooden plates. The soup didn't have many ingredients. Only pieces of meat and green leaves that seemed to be cabbage leaves floated in the soup.

After Molly finished dishing out the soup, my family picked up their bread and began eating.

The food is so coa.r.s.e. I know they're currently declining but still, this is a knight house right? This seems to be what they usually eat. Even when I search through my memories the food doesn't get much better . . .

My Mother helps me eat by tearing the bread into a smaller piece and dipping it in the soup.

Since the bread was still too hard for my childish mouth, she then squashes the bread with a spoon in the soup until it becomes soft enough for me to eat.

The flavor is quite strong but overall, it's not bad. The seasoning . . . seems to only be salt. It doesn't look like they use spices or anything.

I felt full after eating two pieces of bread the size of an adult's fist.

As the other three ate their meal, I began to think about what I was going to do today.

Alright, I'm going to have to gather information after this. It seems like I played with a girl named Mel yesterday because the weather was nice. I was planning to explore the house or maybe pa.s.s time with my parents . . . I still don't have enough information. Let's figure out what to do after looking at the situation a bit more.

After we finished breakfast, my Mother brings me outside. We seemed to be heading towards a well at the back of the house.

Our house seemed to be located at the top of a hill. Gentle downward slopes surrounded it. Further down, the slopes of the hill turned into meadows. Far beyond those meadows were fields that spread out in a patchwork-like pattern upon a series of hills.

We seem to be at the top of a hill . . . although the patchwork pattern is slightly distorted, the fields remind of Biei Hokkaido. My eyesight is quite good though, I can see clearly see far into the distance . . .

My Mother urges me on as I gaze at the landscape with a childish expression.

"Do you see something interesting? You can look at it later, let's go wash your face first."

When we arrived at the back of the house, the northern side, a man who had the body of a strong bear was drawing water from the well. He seemed to be in his mid-forties.

"Good morning milady, good morning Zack-sama."

"Good morning, Walt"

When I searched my memory for the man named Walt, I learned that he was a servant of our house who worked from morning to evening. When I greet him with a "Good morning, Walt." he faithfully returns a "Good morning, Zack-sama." However, he immediately goes back to silently drawing water.

The well seems to be quite deep. Even though Walt has a large body, throwing in the bucket and then pulling it back up takes a considerable amount of time.

It can't be helped since we're on a hill, but nevertheless, this is a lot of work.

When I look at my mother, I see her put white powder on her finger and start using it to brush her teeth.

I try to imitate her by putting the white powder on my fingers and using it to brush my teeth.

Is this salt? It looks like rock salt that's been crushed. Is there no toothbrush?

I continue brushing my teeth with my powdered fingers.

The powder had a salty and chalky taste. It wasn't refreshing at all.

Is this made of salt and limestone? I hope it isn't bad for my body . . . it looks like all of my teeth have grown out though. Since I don't have any cavities, I think I'm healthy . . .

I imitated my Mother as she ladles out some water from a wooden bowl and uses it to rinse her mouth. We then wash our face with the water from the bucket. The water was so cold that my drowsiness was completely blown away.

I feels like the level of civilization her is the same as around the medieval period or maybe even before that. If the information from when I was making my character is correct, then there should be magic. I haven't seen any indications of magic so far though . . . Maybe magic isn't as common as I thought. Is magic something that's specialized towards combat in this world? I will have to gather information on this as well . . .

When we came back inside the house I suddenly felt the need to p.o.o.p. Maybe it was evidence of how healthy I was.

I headed towards the restroom within my memory. My Mother shouted something but I mostly ignored it and continued going inside the house as quickly as I could.

It doesn't seem like a child's body can endure much. I'm afraid I'm already about to leak myself . . .

I arrive at the restroom and then without having any time to be relieved, immediately take care of my business.

The toilet was different from the one in my former world and didn't have have a toilet bowl. It was just a hole in the floor. The bottom of the hole had a terrible stench.

This is the first time I've seen a toilet this dirty. Since there's no toilet paper, I have to wipe myself with the cloth that's placed here. The hygiene here is the worst.

I thought about washing my hands but since the restroom didn't have a bucket, I couldn't do that.

Won't children become sick like this? If I don't improve this my life won't be very comfortable . . .

As I headed out into the hallway once again, I swore to myself that the first thing I would improve in this world was going to be the toilet.

After I washed my hands and came back inside the house, my mother approached me with a face that looked worried for some reason.

"Did you get dirty? Do you need to change your clothes?"

It seems like when I went to wash my hands, she thought that I had gone to wash myself after soiling my pants.

"I'm okay. I was just washing my hands."

She checks my clothes and then after she understood that there wasn't a problem, she looks at me with a strange face.

Was my behavior strange? If I don't wash my hands I can't calm down though. I'll have to be more cautious from now on . . .

As the morning commotion ended, I calmed down a little bit and then looked around. My father and older brother had disappeared and it had become just me, my mother and Molly.

Okay, it seems like yesterday I was playing with three people. There was a child named Mel and also a pair of siblings named Dan and Sharon. As far as I can remember, I usually played with these three people or chased after my older brother's back. What am I going to do today . . .

I decided to first check if my memories of the boy named Zack actually matched with reality.

The memories of children aren't too reliable after all. Since there are probably a lot of misunderstandings, we'll have to confirm these memories . . .  The weather today seems to be quite good so let's also go and check his memories of the garden, Mel's house and also Dan and Sharon's house.

I tell my mother that I'm going to Mel's house and then try to act like I usually do by running straight outside.

I pa.s.s through a pair of crude wooden doors and then arrive outside the mansion. Since Mel's house is halfway down the hill, I have to go down a downward sloping road. When turn back to look at our house, I realize that it was larger than I thought. The wooden building had black pillars, white plaster walls and a slate roof. A chimney protruded from the roof as thin smoke rose from it. Maybe it was being used for cooking.

I made sure that no one was watching me and then stopped running. While walking, I thought about my body.

Running is difficult. Maybe it's because my head is too heavy or I can't control my body properly yet. If I'm going to live in this world, the strength of my body is going to be important. Especially since I belong to a knight house. And speaking of strength in this world . . . if I train my body from around the age of three, I'll gain a considerable advantage over others of the same age . . .

Although I thought that there would only be meadows outside in the area near the house, there were still fields here and there.

I continued descending down the path while feeling the fresh morning wind on my face. The path was made by many people who had treaded down the same route. While treading on such a path, I continued thinking.

If we go by the setting then this has to be the frontier. However, what kind of climate does this land have? What is winter and summer like? How far from the equator are we and also, how high up are we . . . no, wait – first of all, I don't even know what day it is. Not just that, I don't even know how many months or days are in a year! It's pitiable how much I don't know . . .

I felt depressed by my lack of information.

Having come from a world in which the internet was an ordinary thing, where you can obtain information anywhere and at any time, I felt an emotion similar to irritation well up within me as I faced a situation of not even knowing how to obtain information.

However, if I'm going to be reincarnated then at the very least, I deserve a short explanation! . . . I didn't think I would be this irritated about not having any information . . .

Mel's house was located around 50 meters down from my house. It was a small one-story house that was surrounded by a forest which protected it from the wind.

Mel's father was named Hector and he usually carried around a bow. Her mother was named Polly and she often came by our house to help out. Her older brother Shim is around the same age as Rod, my older brother . . . I'm not sure if they have a family name or not but for a three year old, this is quite a bit of information. Maybe my memories have finally been fully restored. The information has been organized in a way that allows me to understand it . . .

Instead of knocking on the door like a normal person, I abruptly opened the door and shouted "Is Mel there!?".

It's excusable since I'm the son of a feudal lord but did the previous Zack have no manners? Oh well, I'll slowly improve myself from now on . . .

From inside, a charming girl with shortly cut light brown hair and large brown eyes immediately appeared. She seemed to only be older than me by one year.

"What are we going to do today Zack-sama?"

I hadn't thought about it much and was hard pressed for an answer. I tried thinking about what a three year old child might say and then replied, "Taking a walk?" However, no matter how hard I try, inside, I reek of a middle aged man.

For a middle aged man who's over forty to try to act like a child . . . I feel so embarra.s.sed.

Mel charmingly smiles at me and then nods. She shouts "I'm going to play with Zack-sama!" and then rushes over to me.

A lovely woman who seemed to be in her mid twenties, Mel's mother, Polly, appears from inside while wiping her hands on her ap.r.o.n.

"Mel! Properly watch over Zack-sama so he won't get injured! You should also be careful Zack-sama!"

I nodded with a big smile and then take Mel's hand. After that, I use my "Reference" ability secretly.

Melissa Marlon. Four years old. Oh . . . so that's why she's called Mel? Also, it looks like family names are pretty common here. Maybe they have a family name because they serve the knight house . . . nevertheless, it looks like she really was one year older than me . . .

With my hand joined with Mel, we head towards Dan and Sharon's house. Their house was about 20 meters from the Marlon house and also had trees growing around it.

If I look carefully, those sh.e.l.ls falling from the trees seem like walnuts don't they? I wonder if we can we eat the nuts on these trees?

After we went through the trees, we saw a field planted with various vegetables. Sheep were grazing in the meadow on the other side of the field.

Dan and Sharon are around my age I think. Their father is a man named Guy and their mother is named Claire. I feel like Guy also often carried a bow. He's kind of like an English longbowman? If I remember correctly, Claire is like a second-mother to me. She often took care of me . . . I thought that they were servants of the Lockhart house but they also seem to be hunters and farmers. There's a lot of things I don't know . . .

I abruptly open their door in the same way I opened Mel's and shout, "Dan! Sharon! Let's play!"

It was so embarra.s.sing that I felt my face getting hot. However, for the sake of not making them suspicious, I desperately continued my act.

From inside, a boy around the same age as me quickly appears. He had blonde hair that was the color of faded wheat.

"Good morning Zack-sama!"

Although slightly bewildered by Dan's excessive energy, I greet him back by saying, "Good morning Dan!" A quiet looking girl, Sharon, slowly approached from behind his back.

Her hair was a wispy silverish blonde color that was similar to Dan's. Coupled with her light blue eyes, she was a beautiful girl who looked like a doll.

When I call out to her by saying, "Good morning Sharon", she returns my greeting with a slightly embarra.s.sed expression.

Their mother, Claire, soon appears. Claire seemed to be in her early twenties, which was around my mother's age. She was a beautiful woman who had smooth blonde hair.

After greeting us with a smile, she asked, "What are you going to do today?" Claire was the one who usually looked after us. It looks like she was also going to take care of us today.

"We're going to take a walk."

Claire tilts her head towards my words and asks, "Take a walk?"

Did I say something weird again? It's possible that taking a walk isn't very child-like but it can't be helped. I've never had the chance to raise any children and rarely interacted with them. Let's see what kind of things Zack liked to do . . . horses? . . . no, I can't say that. There's no way she'll let us get close to one.

As I remained silent, she seemed to think that I didn't understand her question. She changed her question and asked again, "Where are you going to walk?"

Oh right. She asked for where I was going . . . I'm only going to explore the areas close to my house though. How should I answer . .

"Umm . . . we're going to go see the sheep near my house."

While laughing, she says, "Don't go too far now. Also, remember to not go too close to the sheep. It's dangerous."

She's a person who gives off a kind feeling. She really does feel like a second-mother for the four of us . . .

I give a large nod and then take Sharon's hand.

Even if they're children, it's probably better for me to grab the hands of girls rather than boys. Anyway, let's try using Reference . . .

When I use my Reference skill on Sharon, the following information enters my mind: "Sharon Jakes, 3 years old, Human, Female"

We're the same age. Dan seems to be a little older than me so maybe he's four years old. This area seems to have quite a few children who are the same age as me. Could it be that the population here is unexpectedly high?

I had various questions but decided to push them to a corner of my mind for later. Taking Sharon and Mel's hands, I pull them with me as I rush out of the Jakes family's house. Dan happily chases after my back.

Once we were outside, I stopped running and started walking west towards the meadows.

I unhurriedly gazed at my surroundings as we walked. There was a wooden wall that was a few meters high at the bottom of the hill my house was on. It encircled the bottom of the hill from its surroundings. In addition to the wall, there was also a log structure that looked like a watchtower.

The whole hill seems to be fortified for something like a castle rather than a house. Since the wall encircles the whole hill, there's bound to be some enemies. Nevertheless, I can't see the figures of soldiers anywhere . . .

I decided to take a closer look at the hill.

The diameter of the hill appears to be around 200 to 300 meters. Since the diameter is 300 meters, the length of the wall is probably around 1 kilometer or so. Protecting the hill would require at least several hundred people. Even the watchtower is completely devoid of people. I can't understand this situation at all.

Mel and Sharon's houses were on the southern side of the hill. Several houses close to the hill were also visible in that direction.

Those aren't barracks, they're the houses of the townspeople. Although they're small, they still have fields . . . everything is on the hill and surrounded by the wall . . . maybe so the livestock will be protected from wild animals . . .

We continued going towards the meadow as I thought such things.

There were fluffy sheep grazing on the meadow here and there but it seemed like the children were used to it. They completely ignored the sheep.

Dan tried meddling with the sheep but I ignored it and continued walking through the meadow. When we got near the western slope, I slowly swept my gaze over the landscape of the western side.

There was a river at the end of the hill in which water mill wheels slowly turned.

Further ahead, I could see a dark green forest, followed by a wide mountain that appeared to be almost black.

The south side seems to have a bunch of hills linked together with some fields spread out on them. I can also see a mountain range far off in the distance. A river is flowing on the west side and beyond it is a dense forest . . . I wonder what the northern and eastern sides are like? From my memories, I have a feeling that the forest extends towards both sides. At any rate, since my family's house seems to be located at the northernmost tip of this territory, the village probably extends south . . .

By the time we had walked around a hundred meters through the meadow, I hear Dan's voice call out to me from behind my back.

"Walking isn't fun at all. Why don't we play knight!"

I try to soothe the grumbling Dan by saying, "Let's play knight after walking a bit more" and then headed back towards our houses.

As we got closer to our homes, shouts and yells could be heard.

Several men wearing leather armor were swinging swords and spears on west side.

The figure of my grandfather, Govan Lockhart, could be seen among them.

He wore metal plate armor over his slender trained body and wielded a longsword. His face had deep wrinkles, as if they had etched into his face by long years of hardship. However, I felt that he was younger than the previous Zack thought.

My memories make him seem quite old but when I look closely, Govan is in his mid-forties, about the same age as me before I came here.

At the moment, I'm 3 years old and my mother is 23 years old. I'm not sure how old my father is but if I a.s.sume he's also in his twenties then it wouldn't be strange for Govan to be in his mid-forties. The Zack in my memories seems to have been quite fearful of his grandfather, so it doesn't exactly leave a good impression.

I could see a soldier who was around the same as my grandfather holding a spear as he trained several young men.

He was Walt, the man who drew water from the well this morning.

Grandfather moved his sword in a way that seemed to flow and Walt released sharp stabs into the air multiple times.

I don't know much about martial arts but I can still understand that grandfather's sword skills are amazing. Walt's spear strikes are simple but strong.

Mixed among the young soldiers was a boy around the same age as my brother, Rod. The boy was currently swinging a sword.

The waists of Rod and the boy trembled as they supported the weight of their wooden poles

Although it can't be helped, it's still seems quite harsh, since Rod's roughly the age of a second or third grader. The other boy is . . . Shim, right? Mel's older brother.

We gazed at their training for a few minutes and then headed towards the garden. Well, to be honest, it was only a open s.p.a.ce that had bare soil.

Since Dan had complained about it, I amused myself with playing knight. However, my mental state was in tatters after being forced to act like a child again.

There something sad about having to seriously behave like a child. Compared to this, partic.i.p.ating in training seems a lot more enjoyable.

That's what I thought, but I also understood that it was too early for my immature body to be able to endure training.

While swinging a wooden stick against Dan and Mel, I decided to work out a training program

Training my body while playing is definitely the most natural way. Maybe I should start with some kind of physical exercise so that I can freely move my body. Since the meadow is soft, starting with basic exercises like forward and backward rolls seems like a good idea. I could also train with playground equipment like ropes by using them to climb trees . . .

I don't need to say anything about Dan, but Mel was quite an energetic child. They seemed to find swinging wooden sticks interesting. However, Sharon was a quiet child, just as her appearance suggested. She wasn't able to fit in.

Looking at the bored-looking girl, I say,

"What does Sharon want to do?"

She shakes her head and mumbles,

"I'm okay with anything."

The Sharon in my memories . . . seems to enjoy things like playing house and listening to Claire tell stories . . .

I sat beside her and then said, "Alright, I'll tell you a story." And then I began to tell stories I knew, like Aesop’s fables

I told The North Wind and the Sun and then the fables about the cunning fox. But there were spots that I couldn't portray well due to my limited vocabulary. Nevertheless, I think it was interesting for Sharon since she listened to me with a joyful face. At some point, Dan and Mel also came to listen, their faces full of interest.

Sharon hugged me as she said, "Zack-sama is amazing!". For some reason, Mel also came over to hug me.

Do these two like Zack? Is such a thing even possible for three and four year olds? I have no idea."

I continued telling stories until it was time for lunch.

We ate lunch, took an afternoon nap together and then went for another walk around the hill. During the walk, I confirmed that there was a small forest on the eastern side of the hill and that there were horses and cows located on the northern side. Villagers also occasionally came over to give their greetings.

As the sun began to set, the three of us decided to return home. At that moment, I finally felt the fatigue that came from the long day.

It's terribly exhausting even though I didn't even move my body that much. My stomach tells me it's hungry but I don't have the energy to eat. I can understand the children who complain from tiredness now.

Spurring on my tired body, I washed my hands and face at the well and then headed towards the dining room.

As I rested my aching body in the dining room, my grandfather came in first, and then the rest of my entire family also gathered inside. I arrived at the dining table in the same way I did in the morning. However, this time, there were two young women around the age of 20 helping Molly the maid.

Molly's daughter, Tricia, was one of them. She was just like her mother in that she always smiled. The other person was Gene, a quiet young woman with beautiful black hair.

Similar to this morning, soup was dished out into each of our wooden plates and pieces of roasted meat were cut out.

We had the same country bread placed in front of us and the grandfathers also got a wooden mug placed in front of them. Today's dinner seems to be exactly the same as what we ate this morning.

Proteins and carbohydrates are more or less there. As for vitamins . . . they are only being provided by the vegetables in the soup. Since the vitamins are easily destroyed by heat, they're probably all gone . . . well, even though I say all of this, it's not like I'm an expert on nutrition . . .

We began dinner without any prayers. The wooden tableware only consisted of spoons and knives, no forks. With exception to the soup, everything was eaten with our bare hands.

It's necessary to improve our meals and also the way we eat. Not washing our hands and then grabbing our food with those same hands is obviously a big hygiene problem . . .

In my mind, I noted down my feelings about the entire day and swore that I would definitely improve these things in the near future.