Elf Tensei Kara no Cheat Kenkoku-ki Vol 1 Prologue

Prologue: Reincarnation of the Magician

I was at my wits end in the magic workshop that I set up at the mansion.
Born in j.a.pan 60 years ago on the year 1912. At last, I notice that I am standing just moments away from death.
To master magic, the human life span is just too short.

Although I have devoted the entirety of my life to magic, I have barely set a foot at the entrance. But I still want to do more and I am not satisfied yet.
With the technology we have today, I could still extend my life by 10 to maybe 20 more years.

「However if I do that, What happens then?」

Such a small deception against death is hardly sufficient.
At the very least, I want to have ten times that.
However, such a power does not exist for oneself. This body is growing old and decaying. Thoughts will become duller. Being bound to this body of dying flesh, I can feel nothing but reproach and bitterness.

Well, Do I give up?
No! Absolutely Not! I searched through my mind for magic with all of my effort.
And a route almost opens. That is the kind of conviction that I have.

「Is that so!? If it is not possible to continue living with this body, then I will discard this container of flesh.」

Perhaps this answer has only been reached by a few hundred other sorcerers until now.
The idea of transferring one’s own soul into another body.
However, no one has ever been able to achieve it.
It is especially difficult to take over the body of another person. Magic is the power of one’s will. A force from one’s self is the strongest. The Subconscious desire to keep one’s self, that alone is a tremendous force.

Furthermore, there may be compatibility issues that arise from the soul and body. A person’s body grows up according to the soul. Even at the baby stage it is slow. Because the moment it is created in this world, the flesh is already a container for the soul.
It is okay to aim for that moment, when the life at that stage is fragile. It would not be laughable, if I were to die the very instant I take over the body.

Isn’t there a more safe and reliable way?
Does this genius stop with the same thoughts had by an ordinary man?
Magic is the study of the soul. Therefore, I should know more about the soul than anyone else.
Then the answer came.

「Reincarnation」

So, the soul cycles around.
When the soul dies and it rises to the Heavens, eventually it will fall back down to the Earth to dwell in the flesh once more. My conjecture is that once my soul goes to heaven, it will be cleansed before going back to Earth and all of my memories will be removed in its entirety.

However, there are exceptions. Strong feelings are sometimes cling to the soul and continue on after the soul is reborn. That is why humans appear with rare memories of a previous life.

Then, I should be able to do it.
Intentionally, in order for my memories to not spill from my soul, I engrave my memories into my soul as deeply as I can.
That way, when I go through the cycle of reincarnation again, I would be reborn as myself.

Perhaps, it is now or never. Before old age robs me of my mind and magic techniques.
If it fails, the soul will break and I will end up as a living doll. An empty sh.e.l.l.
Even if it is successful, there isn’t any conclusive evidence that reincarnation even exists.
The risk of this wager is too adverse.
But,

「It is not like I have any other choice, but to do it.」

Those are the only choices I have left.
There is a bright future over the horizon on the road I wish to take. Nevertheless, I guess there is always be a little hesitation.
If I abandon this road, I will die as a magician.

「Release, my soul」

With my ritual chant, I recite the arts to manipulate the soul.

「By the memories that dwell in this body, all of my thoughts and emotions! I carve into the soul with this shout. Jutsu Shiki Kaishi!」 [TLN: Spirit Surgery Spell]

The chant originally has no real purpose or meaning.
Magic is activated with a magic formula in the soul and mind to rewrite the rules of the world.

However, more power can be directly brought out from emotions by chanting.
A burning sensation comes from the depths of my chest. Information that previously only existed in my brain was carved in more deeply. When the brain cells die, information inside the brain will vanish. Although, if it were carved into the soul, it will not disappear for an eternity.

However, this process causes great damage to the soul. If I make a mistake, the soul will become broken and I will disappear.
A complete destruction, such that even reincarnation will no longer be possible and I will be completely annihilated.
Thousands, upon tens of thousands. Many orders of command types are made in the ritual. Blue…The image of some character string…My image starts to gain shape, it begins to form. It spins round and round. It revolves and whirls around.
Blood has spilled from the mouth and starts to curdle. Wounds from the soul seems to have fed back on to the body.
It’s Hot. Just Hot. This existence feels it swell with this bitter sensation.
Why was I concerned with this body of flesh up until now?

From the bottom of my heart, I genuinely feel that I can grasp at my soul.
This is the true and rightful form of a Magician.
Blood spews out from the pores. For the first time, I no longer understand my condition. Still, it does not seem like I have failed and I continue to exist after carving into myself.

Then, finally my body reaches its limits.
It is unavoidable and I reached my physical limit.
I made a foppish smile as I sank into a sea of my own blood.
I succeeded. It is a bit wounded, but the soul is safe. I have certainly engraved myself.
In this situation, I will now greet death.
But it no longer matters. Because of this, I know that my thoughts were not wrong and all doubt has been removed.

Judging from the results, it seems as though the reincarnation was successful.
The First Reincarnation, the United States, 1972 AD.
I was born as the second son of a modest middle-cla.s.s family.
It is on the 13th birthday that I remembered my previous life. Apparently, the brain seemed to not be able to accept the information from the soul until the body grew enough.

The first reincarnation, I devoted my life to research, mirroring the original life.
However, I remembered the hopeless loneliness of that life. The world has abandoned magic.
The world of darkness is illuminated by science, no longer place of lurking mystery. The ability to use magic, it has faded away because of chemistry.
For Instance, a magician using his entire life and also a variety of magic tools could at most burn a radius of 50 meters. However, with chemistry it could yield a hundred times, no a Thousand times that, and anyone could implement the tools.

At this point, I discarded the potential of magic and its physical phenomenon, and began to focus entirely on the mind and soul. Because I believe that to be the sacred part of magic.
And then… After living fifty years, I ended my life and acquired a new one after carving my soul.

Second time, The world was like a joke.
Civilization from the Middle Ages to Modern times came about.
Monsters from goblins to Orcs, Knights wearing armor parade the streets, Magic was so commonplace in the world that even the general public used it.

Rather than time, the world itself is different.
I was born the fourth son of a Knight in service to the Royal Family and as such I was free to live a wealthy life.
Here, my memories from my past lives returned to me when I was 14.

Therefore I have noticed.
On Earth, magic was restricted by some influence.
Magic that should have disappeared the moment it leaves the body on Earth, retains its shape after a very long time. No forthcoming noise comes when I had a magic formula in my head.

This world was quite enjoyable. Sorcery had been developed much further, and there was plenty that I did not know. Above all else, I was able to use magic in combat.
In this world, I shined. Magic dwells in the soul. My ability that I kept training in the environment of the inferior Earth was high. I rose high in position and was taken up to the castle, where I became the Royal Court Mage.

In this world, I discovered that there is an inherent special magic that depends on the individual, and anyone can use General Magic. Unique magic is given by the G.o.ddess. This is a Fantasy world and everything.

General purpose magic there is theory, but not for unique magic. It could not be understood even if I can use Unique Magic. According to the G.o.ddess, Each person is apparently born with a magic circuit that specializes in a Unique Magic. General Purpose Magic just uses up the remaining s.p.a.ce.

The real nature of my Unique Magic is to recall my past lives when I want. I call upon my previous life and I could fight in the flesh even in my old age with this power.
In my last moments in this world, I died on the battlefield.
With the last of my willpower, I carved my memories into my soul.

Then I have reincarnated several times. Heisei Era j.a.pan, a Fantasy world, a Steam-punk world, France in the year 2210 AD. [TLN: We are in the Heisei Era, 1989 – present.] Various worlds, A world where magic only acts within oneself, a world that can only be thought of as inside a game, no matter how it varied, I repeated this process 15 times in total. And I regain my memories each time when I was around 13-15 years old.

Magic was reaching its limits, and I was forced to in the first time in all of my reincarnations to rely on a non-magical form of entertainment.
It was particularly interesting in France 2210 AD. Here things called VRMMO became really popular.
In addition to this world using VR technology, there is a technology that extends the sensation of time.
If you dive into the world of VR for one second, it becomes 1000 seconds.
In this world, I earnestly enjoyed retro j.a.panese anime and games. I was originally of j.a.panese Birth, and I was born in the Heisei Era j.a.pan once, and I briefly played those games once, so it was filled with nostalgia. I was able to enjoy it as much as I desired for nearly an eternity.
In that world, After having coveted entertainment earnestly and not from what I got from magic, I died of old age.

When I have reincarnated over 20 times, suddenly everything starts to pa.s.s by. An impression of disappearing enthusiasm.
I thought I might be over soon. By now, research ended up in a deadlock and time could not make me get over it.
After 21 reincarnations, I decided to end it, but then I met a girl.

I met the girl in a world ruled by a Demon King and civilization has been devastated.
The girl was a beautiful High Elf. Beautiful Blonde hair and a Black Robe that fluttered, she decided to face an existence in a ruined world with a bow made from the World Tree in one hand.

No matter how much she was hurt, even when she fell down, She continued rise up again many times to fight.
And then came the final decisive battle. The last city where humans could live had been attacked by the Demon King.
The Girl, with some surviving companions along, went forth and challenged a desperate battle. Rather than desperate, they believed in their victory no matter how small their chances and did their best and struggled hard. One person, then two people, The companions fall, they continued to fight even to the last man. Finally, it came down to the last attack on the Demon King.

After the battle was over, she turned around and looked back at the people who also fought, she then smiled and laughed, saying everything was alright.
Even I suffered a wound that wouldn’t find funny if I died from as I bled out, while enduring the sadness of lost companions.
As I watched the girl, my heart throbbed after a long absence.
Well, I knew it. With an eternity, my soul was worn out, and it doesn’t shine. However, as I saw such a bright and shining person, I myself started to glow from being shined upon.
Then, the High Elf girl went on a journey to ensure that the Demon King never revives again. I had traveled along with the girl and eventually I died after a long life.

I had changed during this reincarnation. Rather than engorging myself in entertainment and researching the Truth of Magic, I began searching for people that emitted brightness and to watch their story unfold while walking besides them.
And , I stopped interfering with the me of that time more than necessary.

The soul is reborn again, for the 31st time. The fated reincarnation begins.